iPhone 6: A Week In Review

iPhone 6: A Week In Review

On Friday, September 29, Apple started selling the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. I was lucky enough to get one (64GB, Space Gray) and, after an entire week, have realized it is an amazing device. Although I will not go into great depth, I will hit on what matters most to the majority of users. Here is my review.

Design

To start, the design is flawless. The rounded sides, the sleek screen and front glass, and button shape and placement all come together to create a beautiful piece of art. It feels good in your hand and is easy to handle. The camera sticks out of the back just a little bit, but does not interfere with any use or storage of the phone.

Function

Fast. The iPhone 6 is stupid fast. Everything seems to have pep when you click it, move it, or just plain use the phone. It is amazing how much better the new processor is.  If you’re like me and have way too many email accounts or emails in general, the speed is a great thing when searching or scrolling through 100s of emails. It also comes in handy while trying to get through all of your photos or videos. There are no ‘burps’ when scrolling through anything.

Speaking of videos and photos, the camera is awesome. Yes, I know there are bigger cameras on phones and that there have been bigger cameras for years. However, Apple excels in internal components and doesn’t disappoint when it comes to photo and video processing. The photos are crisp and clean and the auto focus is just plain fast. The slo-mo feature works well and is fun to mess around with, although I haven’t found a real-world application for it yet.

iOS 8 is fast, blazing fast. Are you convinced on how fast this thing is yet? If not, let me assure you that it is fast. I like being able to use different keyboards and having a little more control over the entire experience as a whole. Messaging has changed significantly using the new fill-in feature, where the iPhone tries to figure out what you’re trying to say. The first few days of this feature where rough, but after a week, it’s starting to learn who I am and how I talk and is becoming more useful.

Another great feature of iOS 8 is the family sharing. With my wife and I using different devices at different times, it’s nice to be able to share purchases across devices, as well as calendars, photos, and videos.

The biggest feature of iOS 8 that I will use is Handoff, which won’t be fully available until OS X Yosemite gets released in October. This feature will allow you to push items from one iDevice to another, as well as from iDevice to computer. All of this will happen through iCloud, which I’m becoming a big fan of.

Tip of the Hat,

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iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus? It’s an Easy Decision.

Courtesy of The Verge

iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus? It’s an Easy Decision.

The day is upon in which you can pre-order the iPhone 6, hoping for delivery next week. As someone who will be ordering the phone either today, or in the very near future, I have spent countless hours over the past few days trying to decide which one to buy, and all of the options can be more confusing than a homeless man on house arrest. I am not a big fan of big phones, but the iPhone 6 Plus may be an option.

First, the basics. The iPhone 6 has a 4.7”, 1334x750 pixel Retina HD display, while the iPhone 6 Plus has a 1920x1080 pixel Retina HD display. iPhone 6 Plus comes with optical image stabilization in the camera, while the iPhone 6 does not. The iPhone 6 Plus also has a bigger battery and some software tweaks to help iOS handle the bigger screen. The iPhone 6 measures 5.44” tall, 2.64” wide, and is .27” thick. The iPhone 6 Plus measures 6.22” tall, 3.06” wide, and .28” thick. So beyond screen, camera, battery, and physical size, they are the same phone. I’ll come back to this later.

With the advent of massive data consumption, and our phones becoming more and more of an all-in-one device, you should start at 64GB. This will be the base for 99% of users. 32GB fills so fast, and 128GB is probably unnecessary. Moreover, to go to 64GB is only $100 more and I’d hate to see someone get three months into a two year contract and run out of space. Also, if you have AT&T, skip the AT&T Next plan. It’s expensive over the life of the phone, over double to cost to be exact, and the savings isn’t enough to make up for the extra cost.

So we know that 64GB is the way to go for everyone, so let’s get back to basics. Most of us don’t need optical image stabilization (OIS), as it helps with camera shake, but doesn’t help with making the subject look still, even if it’s moving. If most of your photos are low-light with a still subject, OIS would be a consideration for you, but I don’t know many people who do this. Next, a bigger battery may be nice for power users, but, again, for most of us the battery life in iPhone 6 would be just fine, as most of us charge the phone at night.

So, when it comes down to it, the only question you need to answer is: Can I deal with a bigger phone and all of the compromises that come with it? This is because the massive size of the iPhone 6 Plus will put you in a spot where it’s more of a phablet (phone and tablet combined, think Galaxy Note). I’ve had a Galaxy Note in hand and it’s pretty huge for my hands. It also doesn’t fit well in my pocket, so that is a big consideration. Moreover, many of us won’t find the larger size any more usable compared to the big phone. Believe it or not, the vast majority of people don’t watch movies or TV on our phones, which would be a big reason to have a big screen.

To recap: except for power users or users who just want the biggest and best, a 64GB iPhone 6 for $299 will be perfect for you.

Tip of the Hat,

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Apple Event Recap: September 9, 2014

Apple Event Recap: September 9, 2014

Disclaimer: I’m an Apple Fan Boy. I was born in 1985. My father opened the first Apple Specialist in Michigan in 1984. I’m more Apple than most. Any sensed biased is not on purpose. It just seems to happen. I firmly believe that Steve Jobs was one of the greatest people in history and that there is not a better tech company on this planet than Apple.

It’s here. The day we’ve (I’ve) been waiting for. It’s Apple Day. So let’s get started.

iPhones

Courtesy of Gizmodo

Tim Cook says this is the biggest advancement in iPhones since the debut.  They showed a really cool video. It was sexy and amazing. The new phones are called iPhone 6 and iPhone 6+. They have Retina HD Displays. They are stunning. The iPhone 6 will come in 4.7” and 6.9mm thick., while the iPhone 6+ will come in 5.5” and be 7.1mm thick. Both are HD.  There are two up displays for email and text, and when in landscape mode, you can have the dock on the right side of screen instead of the bottom.  There are also new gestures, which help with dealing with the new real estate. There is now a great scaler built in for apps to use all of the real estate of the screen without sacrificing quality.

A8 Chips have 64-bits of amazingness. It is also more efficient, by 50%, than the A7 chips in the iPhone 5s. The graphics are also beautiful. They are 84% better than the original iPhone. The demonstration by Big Evil Megacorp was very cool to watch.

Now battery life. It’s incredible compared to the iPhone 5s.  Up to 16 days of standby time, 80 hours of audio, 14 hours of video, and 24 hours of talk time (iPhone 6+). All of this is so much better than any other iPhone. The motion chip is great. It can keep track of what activities your doing and can even measure elevation changes, heart rate, and works with new apps to be more accurate. The iPhone 6 will also feature VoLTE (Voice Over LTE), WIFI calling, and a few other features that will be dependent on carriers. The WiFi calling switches seamlessly to LTE when you move away from the WiFi. That is slick.

Camera

The camera will feature an 8MP, 2.2 aperture lens with true tone flash and a new sensor. One cool feature is Focus Pixels, which is phase detection autofocus, which means a faster autofocus. Great news for the panoramic junky - up to 43MP panoramic photos and stitching is near seamless. The 6+ will have optical image stabilization and both will have 1080p at 60FPS with slo-mo up to 240FPS.

Order Details

Starts at $199 (6) and $299 (6+)

Available on September 19

Pre-order on September 12

iOS 8 on September 17^th

iPay

Apple wants to replace your wallet, one step at a time, and it’s called iPay. And it’s pretty cool. Cards are stored on the iPhone, the device uses a one time number to pay, and it’s that easy. Apple stated they were not in the business of collecting data, which means Apple has no idea what you’re paying for, which might be a good thing.  Most places that accept contactless payments will accept iPay. Many vendors and developers have already signed on. I believe this will be big very quickly. This feature is only compatible with the iPhone 6, 6+, and…iWatch

One more thing…

Courtesy of Engadget

The next chapter in Apple is…iWatch. It is a precise customizable time piece. It creastes new, intimate ways to connect and communicate. It is a health and fitness device. It a fully functional traditional crown, with a twist. It is digital. It senses your finger rotating around and reacts just as you’d suspect something from apple to react. It is amazing. The design is wonderful. The user experience seems great. As far as design goes, only this video will show you what it all really means. All I can say is flexible Retina display that can tell a touch from a press and wonderful interactions throughout.

The watch contains a Taptic engine, which does a lot. Mainly it will tap you on the wrist without anyone else knowing. It does this for anything that requires a response or anything that is an alert. The heartbeat sensor is on the underside of the watch and consists of LEDs and photodiodes. This, along with wifi, gps, and an accelerometer in your iPhone create a wonderful fitness tool. The S1 chip is a fully integrated computer chip and completely encapsulated to protect it. Charging it is simple with induction charger through magnets. This allows you to easily charge it overnight with no worries about open ports or misalignments.  They come in two sizes and 3 different models.  First you choose from either 38mm or 42mm case, then you can choose from iWatch, iWatch Sport, or iWatch Edition. The iWatch is stainless steel with ceramic back and sapphire crystal display, the iWatch Sport is aluminum with Ion-X glass and a composite back, and the iWatch Edition is 18kt Rose Gold with a ceramic back and sapphire crystal display. You can have custom watch faces, move things all over, and customize just about everything. The swipe might be crazy if you have big fingers, but the demonstration looked like it was flawless. Notifications are supposed to work without anyone knowing except you. That is cool. Siri is built in. iPhone is required to use.  All in all the iWatch seems very responsive and looks just like any Apple product should.

The Watch works with iPhone 5 and newer. It starts at $349 and will be released in early 2015. Apple Pay will work with iWatch.

Also to be noted, U2’s new album is free for all iTune subscribers until mid-October, so go and download it now. You can see the ad here.

So who will be upgrading and what watch will you buy?

Tipping the Hat,

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Will iPhone 6 Be The Only Device Released? No.

Courtesy of MacRumors

Will iPhone 6 Be The Only Device Released? No.

With Apple’s next event on the horizon, the rumors are flying. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about the iPhone 6 rumors and so far I still stick by those. However, this week new information was released. The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal both published articles about what to expect on September 9, and, much to most people’s surprise, the articles were almost identical. The big reveal in both articles: the iWatch.

Apple is a very secretive company, and there have been no iWatch leaks. However, Apple only does events at the Flint Center For Performing Arts when they want to make a splash. It’s the site of the original release of the Macintosh. The iMac was announced there in 1996. There is a giant building behind it that Apple built specifically for this event. All of this makes me believe that history is about to be made. Again. And by Apple. Again. This is also the first time that Tim Cook will be presenting a new product since Jobs passed away three years ago.

The iWatch will either bring wearable technology to the forefront with great design, great software, and great experience, or it will kill it. Many believe that if Apple can’t do it, no one can. If Apple can do it, a lot of knockoffs will appear. Think of the iPod, iPad, and iPhone. They all started complete electronics revolutions. With the iWatch, they won’t be creating a new market, but they will be changing it significantly.

Some features may include time, health tracking, different sizes, a lot of wireless capability, including payments, and a curved, sapphire glass screen. All of theses things will be awesome, if Apple can pull it off.

The only thing we can say for sure is that Apple has an event on September 9^th, new products are on the horizon for Apple, and New Geek Protocol will have a complete write up.

Will you be buying the new iPhone or iWatch when they are released?

You stay classy, interwebs.

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iPhone 6 and Apple Rundown: Read at Your Own Discretion

Photo Credit: Mashable.com

iPhone 6 and Apple Rundown: Read at Your Own Discretion

For almost 30 years, I’ve been an Apple fanboy. Born into an Apple family just after the release of the first Macintosh, having a father that started one of the first Apple Specialist Dealers in Michigan, and being all about Apple since before Apple was cool gives me some major clout when it comes to Apple (in my opinion). We’ve now entered into one of my favorite times of year. I love fall in Michigan: the apples, orchards, hay rides and, most importantly, new Apple products.

It’s that time where speculation happens all day, every day, and no one really knows what going to happen. Years ago, when Steve Jobs was at the reigns, any leaks of any kind where grounds for death. Now, with Tim Cook running things, leaks happen all of the time and with little more than a nod from Cook saying that the leaks are ‘wrong’. Cook, in fact, keeps insisting that 2014 will be a great year of new products for Apple. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve seen nothing that says ‘Go Apple! Way to be back on top.’ Yes, I said that. Apple is no longer on top. They may never be again. They’ve had a good run. Steve Jobs took over in 1996 and ran a tight ship, firing people for being human and having no remorse, pushing people to great things, and, more than anything else, leading the way for what is now the smart phone. Without the iPhone, I believe that the smartphone would be completely different than it is today, but I digress. It’s almost fall and that means a new iPhone.

Here is what I think. The new iPhone will have a bigger screen. I received an email from a supplier last week already offering new iPhone covers. This is a supplier that I have ordered from in the past and trust. This means that I believe they have seen the new iPhone, or the specs, and are getting ahead of the game.  Apple will most likely release and iPhone that has a 4.7” and 5.5” screen. They will be big, amazing, preposterous displays. I love the current display size and think that getting larger is really a very dumb idea. If Jobs were still alive, this wouldn’t be happening. If Jobs were alive, the screen MIGHT get bigger, but not without the phone getting wider. Why? Because Jobs loved the Golden Ratio of 1.618. He believed that this was the perfect thing for all things Apple, whether it was MacBooks, iPhones, or iPads. If the screen gets bigger on the iPhone, the width better be there to. If not, the phone won’t feel right in your hand. I

personally hate large phones. I have friends and family with large Android phones, and I do not like how they feel. I have average size hands, and the phones feel so uncomfortable that the times I’ve used them, I would much rather throw them in the trash than actually put it up to my ear. They suck. Don’t belive me? Read about the Golden Ratio, then try a Samsung Note or Droid MAXX and tell me you like it. If you still do, you’re lying to yourself.

Photo Credit: cultofmac.com

Now, let’s move into the inside of the iPhone. I am expecting that the larger iPhone will have more power and more storage space, but with the same size battery. Well, maybe the same size battery. We’ll have to wait and see. Anyway, the larger one will probably be the only one that comes with 128GB of storage capacity. This will probably be the only one that comes with 2GB of RAM. The 4.7” model will only be available with 64GB of storage capacity and 1GB of RAM. If you need 128GB of storage space and 2GB of RAM, you should probably buy an iPad Air or a MacBook Air. Why the hell would any need that in a smartphone? They don’t. If you think you do, you're probably not thinking straight and have Apple Fever. More than likely, Apple will round the corners, much like the iPod Touch, which will probably be gone in 18 months anyway. Also, for the record, Apple will not do away with the headphones port quite yet, but with the acquisition of Beats and the new patents on sound ports, there is a possibility that Apple incorporates sound into the lightning (or other) port. We’ll have to wait and see.

The iPhone 6 will have a new A8 processor, which is expected to increase performance by 30%. We’ll have to wait and see about that. I believe that the phone will be faster and more efficient, but 30% is a big number and I believe it’ll be hard to hit that. Now, to contradict my former statement, there is a chance that this processor can only handle 1GB of RAM, but that seems crazy to me. Why increase the processor so much, but not be able to increase the RAM? It just doesn’t make sense.

The rest is pretty easy to figure out. Screen size and processor speed/RAM are the big ones, but there are just a few other things. For one, the camera will be either and 8 or 10 megapixel camera that will be phenomenal in low light and will have OIS (Optical Image Stabilization). The fingerprint security scanner will still be there and there will be an upgrade to the wireless, allowing 1 Gigabit transfer speeds over the 802.11ac protocol. I doubt NFC will be part of the phone, but the technology is gaining steam, and that means that Apple might debut NFC in the newest phone. However, Apple likes to solve problems and NFC doesn’t solve any problems, it only gives some convenience.

Last, and probably least, there will be an iPhone 6C, which is dumb. Steve Jobs probably hates you for having a colored iPhone. I’m not kidding. I’ve met him a few times before and after the iPhone release and he really liked the cleanliness of white and black, not gold, blue, red, or whatever else. If you want a colored iPhone, just buy a case or cover.

Anyway, that is my take on the new iPhone. It all may be a lie, but it all may be true. On September 9th Apple has an iPhone event, and you can bet your ass that there will a nice long post about the new phone, how amazing it is, and none of what is referenced here will be referenced in the rundown report.

I’m heading to get a new hat because this post has me sweating.

You stay classy, interwebs,

Blackhat.

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