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  • Apple confirms 'beautygate' fix for iPhone XS camera arriving in iOS 12.1

    Well done Apple.

    Hopefully there'll be a bunch of similar tuning/bug fixing changes to improve an already excellent camera system.
    Apple Exposedwatto_cobra
  • New iPad Pro again rumored to ditch Lightning for USB-C

    Bit of a muddled start to this article: "Rumors ... suggest Apple intends to swap out its proprietary Lightning connector for the faster, more robust USB-C protocol". Both Lightning and USB-C are connectors, each can carry several protocols.

    Looking at the connectors and comparing my MBP with 
    iPad and iPhone, I see the Lightning, not USB-C, connector as significantly more robust. I have had issues on several occasions with 'connector wobble' upsetting communication over USB-C, I haven't experienced the same problems with Lightning and the latter has a much more positive plug-in/out feel to it. Lightning is a nice design.

    Looking at protocols, Lightning can carry (faster) USB 3 data assuming that the host device supports it (I think we all wish that more iOS devices would), USB 3 can also give higher charging powers. USB-C connectors can (and do in Macs) also carry Thunderbolt but, IMHO, USB 3 is the obvious place for iOS devices to go next in terms of cost v performance.

    So I would expect a Lightning connector capable of USB 3, not a USB-C connector, on the new devices. [I see that Ars Technica says that 2015 iPad Pro is already exactly this].

    At the other end of the cable? I bought my MBP 2 years ago in the belief that its USB-C ports, almost totally incompatible as they were at that time, were the future. Last month, I bought an iPhone Xs and it continues to use a USB-A connector. I'm disappointed that Apple has yet to make a "courageous" decision to move from USB-A to USB-C or even an easier one to use backwards-compatible USB-A Superspeed connectors so that the USB 3 ports on modern iMacs (and MBPs with adaptors) can supply more charging power and /or higher speed data. My MBP has a USB-C connector on its charger so I guess there's a hint there.
    watto_cobra
  • One month later: iPhone XS versus the iPhone XS Max

    PhillyJim said:
    So that was a little confusing. There is landscape mode in the iPhone XS max or not? I’ve been told there isn’t, and when I went to look at it at the Apple store I couldn’t get it to go into landscape mode.
    I think the author was referring to the home screen working in landscape. Safari, Mail etc all work happily in either orientation on the Xs.

    I was a small-iPhone hold-out, buying the SE at launch for its size and holding on until earlier this year for an SE Mk2 ...but it never came. So I replaced my SE with Apple's smallest iPhone: the Xs. It's a great piece of kit and much of the time I can convince myself that the bigger phone is fine. But it's still bulkier and, what I notice most, heavier than the SE. However, I think the extra usability is a fair trade: the bigger display obviously but also the camera: the dual cameras give a big increase in the types of photo you can take and their picture quality is getting really quite good.
    netroxwatto_cobra
  • Google is downplaying Android to focus its future on Chrome OS

    Thoughtful article, thank you.

    Google's appropriation of Java does seem to me to be morally, even if not legally, wrong and I respect Oracle for pursuing the case. That said, I'm not sure that (hypothetically) abandoning Android would be an adequate strategy for avoiding any ultimate verdict in Oracle's favour. Any such settlement would likely allow for continuing use of Android through licensing (or whatever) for huge numbers of existing and updatable devices. Unless Google just abandoned the entire user base, which seems unlikely.
    jbdragonwatto_cobrajony0
  • Apple build costs for 256GB iPhone XS Max estimated at $453 [u]

    jbdragon said:
    There still the cost of the parts.  There are also costs in licensing fees for each phone.  There are labor costs.  Packaging costs. Production line costs. R&D costs.  Whatever else!!!  One thing is for sure,  Apple is at least getting their 30% plus any added taxes they have to pay out gets passed to you.  
    Absolutely, it can be misleading. To add to the cost list there's the cost of figuring out the right order for all those bits/bytes that make up iOS. And the next several versions of it. And all the iCloud services that come bundled. And distribution (I didn't collect my Xs from China).

    You also mentioned R&D but it bears repeating. One of the extreme things about modern technology is that it costs huge amounts of money to design something like a processor or a Face ID sensor system but relatively little to reproduce that design in many production units. Apple has to recover that cost and be able to afford the next 'big thing'.

    And then they make a big profit, one of the best in the industry but, in my book, he who makes the best is entitled to a bigger reward.
    GeorgeBMac