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darkpaw said:

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Apple did the right thing here. Tumblr did the right thing here.

I agree. There are often shades of grey around "unacceptable" content and it's not ideal for Apple to be the one doing the policing but this case is clear: there's nothing grey about the unacceptability of this type of content. Apple's action is positive: it has not only caused the removal of the material, it has publicised the whole issue and contributed to the debate about how best to police it. It also seems that Tumblr is trying hard to get it right.

For many reasons, I hope Apple doesn't have to do this again.

Firstly, thanks for a fun article.

My scoring was 7 to the iPhone and 4 to the Pixel, with a draw on the car park photo (I actually thought they were both pretty poor but the article suggests that's what the conditions were).

I was left wanting to be sure if the girl in the coat swapped coats and, presuming not, was the coat black or blue? The iPhone looks black (though the colour picker reports RGB as 85/85/102 which has a blue cast) whilst the Pixel gets 45/48/107 which is a definite blue. I presume that the Pixel blew the colour balance to an extent that I'd find the photo to be faulty; the subject might or might not like the pale look of her skin tone but, in isolation, I would have seen that as a 'style' (but she's not going to be happy if that's a new black coat!).

gutengel said:

Lightning is a better design, smaller and more resilient compared to USB-C. If this is true, I wonder what would be the strategy to switch all their line of accessories, keyboards, mice, Beats, etc.

That's certainly my experience, having lived with just USB-C on my MBP for two years now. I often connect to projectors and external drives and am very careful with the connectors but it doesn't do to move the computer whilst using peripherals. It's most noticeable with projectors as you tend to be in less than ideal circumstances, move the computer, lose the projected image and go into a very un-Apple-like connector-wobbling session to retrieve it. Lightning has a much more positive click-in and I don't think I've ever had one drop out (though that's obviously not used with a projector).

I admit bias towards Lightning but I'm still surprised Apple is going this way. Having the same connector on all its small devices makes sense and there seems little benefit in changing - I remain convinced that Lightning could support USB 3 speeds, which covers most bases. Dare I hope that this is just an iPad Pro look-I'm-a-real-computer thing? And if not, how come, two years down the road from buying the MBP with its all-in USB-C is the future design, my iPhone Xs didn't come with a cable that can connect to it?

mjtomlin said:

Both of these are based on assumptions that Apple is incapable of updating Lightning to support USB 3.x (Lightning currently supports USB 2.x), which his much more important than supporting USB-C. USB-C is just a physical port.

Apple could reveal Lightning 2.0 that splits the 8 contacts into 16 (allowing for more data lanes, i.e. higher bandwidth), but also make it backwards compatible with Lightning 1.0. (similar physical connector and port). Anyone who needed USB-C would simply buy an adapter. iPad is the best selling tablet on the market, Apple is not going to give up Lightning licensing revenue - 3rd parties will support and pay for it just as they always have.

I think you're correct about USB-C being on the charger end of the cable and Lightning being enhanced on the device.

I expect Lightning to be able to carry USB 3 speeds and that to be supported by Apple's custom chips in new devices (the hardware in this year's iPhones might already be capable of this?). Remember that the Lightning connector is "soft" in that it configures its pins once it has identified the currently connected device (so it doesn't need to remain reversible once it's connected); it already supports the power protocol usually used over USB-C so it can exploit higher-power chargers.

Great comparison, thanks.

I have only been shooting stills but your pair of reviews (video/still) has shown the Xs struggling in some low light scenarios (with flash in the case of stills). I have seen this too on what is otherwise a game-changing camera system. I am suspending judgement until iOS 12.1 because it seems like there may be a bug in there: the camera hardware feels as though it should be able to do better. Here's hoping!