AmberNeely

darbus69 said:

Really, you complain about $100 for a device which you can literally manage your entire life with??? Maybe you should write for AndroidInsider instead

Oh, you. You're very silly if you think 

1. I manage my life in any aspect at all, regardless of whether or not I have a smartphone.
2. The point of my article was about the $100 price discrepancy  
3. I think Android phones are worth anymore than the rocks they make them out of

AppleAndy said:

 It creates confusion as to which of the three to get. 

Apple, make a lineup of similarly named products incredibly confusing for the average person? Perish the thought. 

lowededwookie said:

The “e” clearly means “Entry” 

Ohhhh, I thought it stood for Apple Entelligence 

AppleZulu said:

So the complaint here is that the entry level model lacks some of the features of the regular and premium models. Interesting. 

It's not that it's missing features between regular and premium. It's that it's missing features between last generation and the generation that came out five months ago. And my issue is that the features that exist are perplexing, not that it's missing them. 

I get what Apple's doing. I've been doing tech journalism for nearly a decade at this point. I know that AI is the next big thing. I would prefer if it wasn't, but I do get it.

That being said, I don't think Apple needs to include Apple Intelligence in every single phone. Or at least not to the extent that it's powering more features than it isn't. 

In 2013, my dad got his first iPhone. He's not a dumb guy by any means, but he's a dude who hasn't had to interface with technology the way that I have. It's always a joke that everyone says their parents and grandparents are bad about using their phones, but my dad was a god-honest adult, probably in his early 20s, by the time color TV became like, a thing that the average person interfaced with. When I was 21, the first iPhone was out. 

We have different experiences.

I honestly applaud anyone over the age of 60 right now who uses any smartphone with any degree of success. And, for the most part, dad's actually REALLY good with his iPhone now. He can often troubleshoot most of his phone-related issues by himself, he texts me all the time, he knows how to check his email, and even pay some bills online from his phone. 

But his iPhone experience has been pretty consistent. Thankfully. Blessedly. Apple has done a great job of making the transition between most generations of iPhone and most major OS updates. The baby steps method is good. Yes, there was a bit of an adjustment period between iOS 12 and iOS 13, that one was a little rough, but we got through it just the same.

The man has had an iPhone 6, and every one of the iPhone SE models (partly because he keeps breaking them in a series of comedic accidents.) 

He's comfortable with it, and I honestly feel so much better knowing he has a phone. He's my dad, y'know? I want him to be able to contact me -- or anyone else -- if he needs to.

That being said, the idea of trying to help my 72 year old father navigate around Apple Intelligence features is, frankly, a nightmare. I love him so much but the man panic-called me one day to let me know that "the bell" and I quote "had a one on it." The bell had a one on it? What does that mean? What bell? What do you mean it has a one on it? I am 62 miles away and my father is telling me the bell has a one on it in a voice that suggests he is distressed. 

Turns out it just meant that someone he subscribed to on YouTube had uploaded a video. The little alert bell in the top right of the screen said (1). The bell did, in fact, have a one on it. But something that I, a 29-at-the-time-year-old barely recognizes as a data blip in my day-to-day, was not as easily understood by a 62-at-the-time-year-old whose primary interaction with a web browser is to go to the Home Depot and price compare home appliances. 

He's going to see the new full-sentence AI generated response and he's going to furrow his brow, stare at his phone, wonder who said it, and then call me to tell me that the phone screen is messed up or something.

And I assure you, Apple isn't going to let you disable the feature after a while, or even if they do, it's on by default and there are going to be people who give less tech savvy people an iPhone and not disable it. It'd be nice to have a model that is, y'know, just a phone.

This isn't just about me and my dad, though I bet if you go on the internet right now, there are hundreds of people worrying about the exact things I'm saying here. My dad is a smart guy, and I'm sure he'll get the hang of the iPhone 16e, and probably the 18e when he somehow destroys his 16e in a chainsaw accident or something. My gripes about my dad are, more or less, meant to illustrate that there are a significant number of people who are going to have to deal with teaching less tech savvy people how to use the over-engineered pocket rectangle. 

The argument was never that the iPhone 16e lacked features.... well, save for MagsSafe. It is actually about that a little.

It's about Apple creating a new mainline entry to replace what was never meant to be a mainline entry in the first place. It's about the 16e being stuck somewhere between an iPhone 15 and an iPhone 16, but somehow lacking capabilities that have been around since the iPhone 12. It's about alienating a smaller, yet significant market of people who don't need -- and in a lot of cases don't even want -- a phone that is geared toward the middle class office worker. 

Apple used to provide that in a market that everyone else seems very eager to forget exists. There's a reason a lot of people, even womb-to-tomb Android users, suggest them for seniors. Or for people who may need a really pared down, simple phone. You can really strip an iPhone down if you need to, which makes them great for younger users, users with mental disabilities, hell, even physical disabilities. 

At what point does Apple Intelligence start hindering people the iPhone was helping?

If I was a betting man, I'd probably say in about eight days, but it'll really become a thing around Christmas.