jingo

Rayz2016 said:

My only question is how would you prevent fraud? I hate to be the “Hey You” guy, but what if someone replaces the QR code with one that diverts payments to another account?  

Agreed - there needs to be a very robust mechanism in place that enables the payer to ensure that how much they pay, and to whom, is in line with what they are expecting. For example, let's say that a busker has a QR code that he says will give him £1, €1 or $1, but in fact it transfers 100 times that amount.

It is possible that the implementation can address this, with a large display on the screen of the amount and the person's (or organisation's) name, and the need to ID (touch or face) before the transaction goes through, but people will need to be on their guard...

I’m with Mike1. This is a great day for me - I have an order for three of these ready to go on Friday to replace our family’s three 6S models that have been great until now. This is the first phone that we find a compelling replacement - not too big for a pocket and a great price! It should do us very well for the next few years.

One way of using a mapping app that is totally rubbish on Apple Maps is “co-driver” mode. It’s almost as if it never occurred to them that someone sitting in the passenger seat might want to use an iPad as an illuminated map that shows you exactly where you are and the choice of routes to your destination.

in Apple Maps when you ask it to show a route you end up with a vast “sidebar” that obscures a large proportion of the map that can’t be hidden except by closing it when you lose the routes. If you choose to start the route you are thrown into sat-nav mode with spoken directions and the map keeps scrolling to show you where you are which is useless for giving directions to a driver.

Google Maps is much better for this and as a result is my total go-to for this use. I try Apple Maps every now and then to see if they have fixed this but am always disappointed. Why don’t developers think about the different ways people might want or need to use their products rather than just trying to force everyone down the same path?

One other point is that some of the really useful information like road numbers or junction numbers is rendered much too small to be able to read easily. Why isn’t there at least an option to make this vital information larger and easier to read.

Great that Apple Maps is getting better, but without these enhancements it’s still a failure to me.

Apple should come out and say “We really don’t see the point of a product like this, but IF it is a success we will, of course, release one. We don’t expect that to happen, though”.

They look fine to me, and will work well as lamps on bedside tables.

The criticism of the E12 base is very odd - there's no end of E12 lamps available at a good range of power ratings. For example Philips do a 6W lamp with 470 lumen output which would be very bright in a light like this.

As far as the inability to pair this with a shelf speaker - I would imagine this is because the sound characteristics will be unavoidably different given the difference in the form factor.

I would give these more than 3.5 out of 5 myself, and it is great to see the broadening of the range of this type of product.