charlesn

"There may not be a compelling reason for Apple to switch up Dynamic Island just yet."

Ummm... hello? How about it would free up a nice chunk of new screen real estate and give us the first uninterrupted full-screen iPhone? Considering how much effort Apple puts into narrowing the bezels by 4 molecules with each new iPhone release to give us more screen, ditching Dynamic Island would be a much more effective way of doing that and would yield A LOT more screen. Or, If Apple wants to keep both lovers and haters of Dynamic Island happy, then make it a feature that can be toggled on or off. 

Sorry, Andrew, I've gotta call BS on an important part of this review. You've misrepresented the price difference between the two watches. More an error of omission rather than commission, as they say. Some important context here: in an apples to apples comparison, meaning titanium body, sapphire crystal with cellular, and the larger watch face, the Watch 10 is priced at $749, the Ultra 2 at $799. And the Ultra 2 comes standard with a band for which Apple charges $50 more than the band that comes standard with the Watch 10. (Admittedly, the $99 list price for standard Ultra bands is nuts.) What the Watch 10 offers is a much cheaper "standard" model, which is lacking in the Ultra lineup, BUT... for that $399 price you quote, you have to accept the smaller of the two Watch 10 watch faces, NO cellular, aluminum instead of titanium body and what Apple calls an Ion-X glass crystal instead of sapphire. That's not nothing, my friend! In a more legit price comparison, the larger Watch 10 face with cellular is priced at $549, but that's with aluminum and glass instead of titanium and sapphire, and 18 hour battery life vs 36-48 hours or more. No doubt, that's still a very big price difference and, for most people -- even if the design of each watch weren't a consideration -- the aluminum and glass choice will be well worth the $250 savings. Prior to buying an Ultra 1 -- for me, the design and battery life were everything -- I wore various models of aluminum and glass Apple Watches and they all held up cosmetically through the knocks and bumps of watch-wearing extremely well, So for anyone considering these much cheaper models, I would have no concern about durability of the materials. And that new jet black finish for aluminum models is a game changer. 

godofbiscuitssf said:

DAalseth said:

I wonder if Trump knows it won’t change. He made all sorts of really stupid promises to his supporters. These Executive Orders let him say he followed through, but like his promise in 2016 to ‘bring back coal’ none of them stand a chance in hell of happening. He knows that but he’s just going through the motions. It’s also good misdirection so people talk about this, while he and his crew are doing real damage behind the scenes. 

Trying to sanewash Trump only hurts everyone else.

Sanewash? This post only points to how deeply cynical Trump is of his own magamoron supporters, that he lies to them about stupid promises that can't be kept, but then goes through the motions of a big reality show signing of XL-sized but largely ineffectual Executive Orders that will keep his dumb-minions sure that he's "doing something." By the way, can someone point me to the wall that Mexico paid for? I'd love to see it. Or all the infrastructure he rebuilt. And I keep inquiring about that "way better and much cheaper" replacement for Obamacare health insurance he promised 8 years ago, but apparently it's lost in the "concept" stage of development. 

Appleish said:

I hope his sheep realize that Executive Orders are weak and temporary edicts. The moment his second and final term is over, the Democrat elected to clean up his mess AGAIN will reverse all of this petty BS.

Yeah, but... the wild card this time around is SCOTUS. You know--same court that anointed him King above the law that rules mere mortal men. Seriously though--I expect he'll lose A LOT at the district and appeals court levels, but Trump is going to take everything to SCOTUS, and we've seen how willing his employees of the Trump Organization who hold a 6-3 majority there are willing to take on at a moment's notice whatever bag of legal shite he wants to dump at their doorstep. 

Here's my prediction which you can take to the bank: in any year following the major redesign of a product, Apple will offer no more than a speedbump spec update. Wow, I must be psychic. 

chasm said:

charlesn said:

EXACTLY. That difference would matter A LOT to many, many people in the SE target demo for all the reasons you mention and more. Which is why I don't think we're going to see a 17% price increase to $499 and NFW a whopping 40% increase to $599. Think of all the improvements Apple has made to iPhone and iPhone Pro since the X and 8 were released, improvements for which the costs to design, develop, test and retool have to be amortized over time, and yet it has done this without raising prices (in the U.S., at least) on even its priciest and therefore least price-sensitive model. In fact, when inflation is considered, the price of iPhones has dropped significantly over time. So why would there be a need to slap a 17% increase on the new SE, which will essentially be the fully amortized iPhone 14 tech with a better chip and (if rumors are true) an Apple modem, which should theoretically cut costs over licensing from Qualcomm. It just makes no sense. But we shall see. Maybe Apple will slap its biggest iPhone price increase ever on its most budget-minded buyers. 

Agreed. But then why would anyone buy the iPhone 15 for $699, when the iPhone SE will (probably) Apple Intelligence, and the base iPhone 15 does not?

Honestly, I'm not sure why anyone buys the iPhone 15 now. Yes, you save $100 vs the 16, but at a cost of 1) No Apple Intelligence ever 2) A chip that's 2 generations ahead in the 16 3) No Action Button 4) No Camera Control 5) No macro photography 6) Reduced resale or trade-in value vs the 16 7) Subjectively, I think the 16 has a beautifully updated design that makes it a much better and more modern looking phone. Considering the rumored feature set for the new SE, I don't know how it makes sense for Apple to keep the iPhone 14 and 15 in the current lineup and I have to think they'll be dropped.