damonf

My guess is that Apple will go with the new $150 pricing difference between storage tiers as they've been doing with the iPad Pros, so that the 4.7" iPhone 7 pricing would look like this:

• 32 GB with Lightning EarPods and Lightning-to-headphone-jack dongle: $649

• 128 GB with Lightning EarPods and Lightning-to-headphone-jack dongle: $799 ($50 increase for prior year, 64 GB middle-tier buyers / $50 decrease for prior year 128 GB buyers)

• 256 GB with AirPods: $949 or possibly even $999

Add $100 to each for the 7 Plus. I think the Lighning EarPods will be exclusive to the 32 and 128 GB models, the AirPods exclusive to the top-of-the-line 256 GB model as an "added incentive" to buy it. 

tryd said:

SpamSandwich said:

OMG. Please...no more adapters. I'm drowning in a pile of them now.

How is technology going to move forwards if you never can change anything because of old standards? The adaptors are there so you can use your old externals after alternatives are introduced. I expect that most users will use bluetooth headphones soon, so why not get rid of the old analogue plug, and include an adapter for those that insists on using their old headphones? A win-win situation in my book.

The problem is that Lightning is proprietary.  It's proprietary for charging, now it'll be proprietary for listening to music.  USB-C is going to eventually be the standard across Android for both, and Apple is going to have yet another FireWire on its hands. Beats may be the only one left in the end selling headphones/earphones with Lightning, all the others will go USB-C.  And even Beats will have to make USB-C versions if they want to sell to anyone other than Apple customers.

TurboPGT said:

chazbcn said:

I'm OK with the audio jack removal as a departure from old tech and so. However, using EarPods while charging seems like it'll be not possible at all. That's an important compromise in my use case: charging my phone while I listen to music/podcasts at the office. I really doubt the bundled adapter will allow simultaneous charge and using the headphones, so I guess I'll have to wait for the phone to charge before I can listen to music at work. It's a rather small annoyance, but we use to resist change until we're 'forced' to. I guess this shake in use habits will be worth it, with improvements such as better water resistance and sound quality (though I doubt the latter will be quite noticeable with Apple's earbuds).

I just don't buy this argument at all.
There is no reason to charge and listen to music via wired earbuds at the same time. None.
iPhone is rated for 24 hours of music playback.

Why are you not charging your phone at night and arriving to work with a fully charged phone?

When you're iPhone is 1 1/2 years old and its battery won't hold a charge for longer than 30 minutes, you'll understand.

Undecided2 said:

I need to get a laptop for my son (high school). I'm having a hard time choosing between macbook air and the surface pro 4. Of course we want it to last through high school and beyond. I know this is pro Apple comments but some good advice would be appreciated.

As someone already posted, if your son is an avid iPhone user, there are many benefits of staying within the Apple ecosystem: Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Safari bookmarks, etc. can all sync through iCloud. Photos can be synced via iCloud between them both as well, provided you have enough iCloud storage space for all of those photos (but it's only 99 cents per month to have 50GB of iCloud storage, and that should be plenty. FaceTime, Handoff, and making phone calls over WiFi through one's cellular carrier are also cool. 

If you want the laptop to last though college, then if he's already eyeing certain colleges you should check with them to see what platform they prefer.  Liberal arts colleges tend to prefer Macs, engineering ones tend to prefer Windows (there are always exceptions, of course).  Macs *can* run Windows, either by exiting OS X and booting into Windows, or by running Windows in a virtual machine running while logged into OS X (it's how I run Windows 10 to run a very old personal finance program I like). 

Macs are perceived as being more user-friendly and less prone to security vulnerabilities than Windows, and I find that perception to be reality for me. You'll always have a monthly update of Windows to keep it secure, and have to run antivirus on it.  Apple updates OS X as needed (but less often than monthly, for sure), and as long as one is careful, antivirus isn't a "must have" on Macs. 

As for the Surface Pro 4, as others have said its not really all that great as a tablet. There aren't many touch-friendly apps besides Microsoft Office, so a keyboard and mouse / trackpad are generally needed for all the other apps that are more likely to have the traditional menu bars and small icons (i.e., not optimized for touch).

I hope this helps. 

Soli said:

Anecdote Warning:
I recently tested my Apple Watch to see how well it does in a wilderness situation where my iPhone was disconnected (and off since there was no cell reception in the mountains), and I was able to get over 3 days of use with the Watch in Airplane Mode. If I turned it off once I got to camp for the evening I figure I could have gotten at least a couple more days out of a single charge.

If I turn my Watch off completely and then back on (mainly to reset some odd issue), I lose at least 20% of the battery charge in the process, just with a single restart.  I wouldn't recommend turning it off overnight if you're goal is to conserve battery.