cpsro

I knew the connector was dead when I saw it--at least dead to me. (1) Apple's iOS keyboards suck. (2) The Logitech keyboardS I have for previous iPads won't work. (3) It will be a long time before an attractive add-on arrives that uses the new connector, and it will be pricey.
Being a dead connector, I just completely removed it from further consideration.
It doesn't exist.

Who uses a mouse anymore? Yech!

The difference doesn't look like much in the video, but with raise to wake being my normal prelude to using the phone, the XS is almost always unlocked before I've finished swiping--if not before I've even begun to swipe--whereas Face ID was usually a hindrance with the X. The XS also seems to unlock much more reliably. Unlocking occurs so fluidly, I'm often careful not to look at the phone to avoid unintentional unlocks. I also frequently press the sleep/wake button intentionally to make sure the phone is locked before putting it away, e.g. to avoid "pocket calls". While those are downsides, I appreciate the fast unlocking more.

Initially the battery life of my Max seemed dramatically worse than the old X (which was fantastic), but after ~ a couple weeks, the Max seemed to be doing as well as the X.  (This is all very scientific, mind you.) I was wondering if, for example, the Bionic side of things runs in the background, until it learns about you or your photos or your ____, and then things settle down to a more copasetic rate of battery consumption.
Basically, every tester could be right, including Consumer Reports, just depending on when they tested.

svanstrom said:

Do you really want all instances of Siri in a room to individually respond to every command?

With apologies, I don't believe that's what "rare" was suggesting. They were pointing out that "Hey, Siri" was spoken clearly enough but the HomePod didn't recognize it. When i-Devices respond to "Hey, Siri", Apple has programmed the HomePod to handle requests preferentially.