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Apple's next iPhone

I will say that the iPhone5 does offer some nice, if not groundbreaking, features. I think Apple's biggest problem is the pricing of their products in general (all products, not just the iPhone).

From the time Apple first brought us the Macintosh (most don't know about the Apple Lisa), their product line was being geared to the average user who was not quite comfortable with the tech stuff that most of us here are. With that in mind, Apple has built a loyal consumer base, and hopefully they will continue to bring them the products and services they want to see.
 
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Link: After its disastrous Exynos 5 Octa, Samsung may have lost Apple's A7 contract to TSMC

This is a bias article in favor of Apple. But, it does bring up some interesting stuff:

"Imagine the field day tech punditry would have if Apple built even a low end phone with a Qualcomm Snapdragon. Now imagine if Apple floated out its iPhone 5s in some markets with something other than the A7 due to cost constraints. Yet when Samsung, a chip fabricator, did this, it was seriously praised for seeking out new sources of components, and nobody cried foul over the marketing blitz for a chip that was left out of the device in the country where it was launched.

Outside of backwards land, the Exynos 5 Octa was such an expensive failure that Samsung couldn't handle eating its own dog food within the most competitive market of Apple's home continent. It's not just big and inefficient, but appears to represent a dead end direction in mobile technology. It's also failing to deliver any appreciable difference in performance to the extent that Samsung felt comfortable swapping it out with a more pedestrian Snapdragon in order to make the Galaxy S4 price more approachable. And sales were less than impressive despite this marketing bait and switcheroo.

... there was Samsung's immediate reaction to Apple's A7 unveiling, where its co-CEO jumped to assure the media that it too is working on a 64-bit chip and will have one in its next smartphone at some future date, without really explaining why, apart from the obvious reason.

"Not in the shortest time," Samsung's co-CEO Shin Jong-kyun said, "but yes, our next smartphones will have 64-bit processing functionality."

Incredibly, this announcement garnered none of the frothy "64-bit is a hoax!" reactions from the media. When Samsung promises vaporware, it's serious stuff. When Apple delivers technology, pay no never mind! It's witchcraft after your soul!"
 
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The 5C is gonna end up costing over 1k here if bought outright, considering a lot of people buy their phones outright Apple really shot themselves in the foot with this stupid move. Then again they have always charged Australian customers more for their products, the same can be said for Adobe.

Not just Australian customers, Apple charges a lot for their products. Only getting them subsidized by a mobile service provider, involving a 2 year contract, makes the phone more affordable.

This can be said of the newest stuff from other manufactures too. A Samsung Galaxy S4 isn't exactly an inexpensive thing to buy outright..
 
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Not just Australian customers, Apple charges a lot for their products. Only getting them subsidized by a mobile service provider, involving a 2 year contract, makes the phone more affordable.

This can be said of the newest stuff from other manufactures too. A Samsung Galaxy S4 isn't exactly an inexpensive thing to buy outright..

That is true but at least the S4 is a flagship, still doesn't cost over $1000 though. They claimed the 5C would be a more affordable handset but it costs more then the previous iPhone 5 (over here anyway) :thinking: Yeah we're used to paying more for things considering nearly everything is expensive here but this sh*t just isn't gonna fly this time around.

People aren't that stupid, they have been more vocal with this issue and even the ACCC (Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) realises this and has urged more consumers to file complaints so they can try and do something to regulate this. Android is beating them to the punch in the smartphone market and in terms of laptops and tablets, a majority of those users are just university students and only because they get student discounts.
 
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Heres the link that one guy was talking about.

AnandTech | Hands on with the new iPhone 5S

It's a fairly decent phone, I'll give them that. But will I give them credit as pioneers of ingenuity and utter genius? Absolutely not.

Is it worth enough to be a worthy competitor? Of course. But they fail to add as many features as the S3 or S4, and like many have said fingerprint scanning is old news and proven not so effective.

The camera on the other hand is outstanding. Very well implemented.
That's the only really good thing IMO, but this is suppose to be a smartphone, not a camera. (Although the camera is rather important!!)

I still think the Nokia 1020's camera outshines all the cameras, including the 5S.

For me a phone's most important aspects are features. A beast camera is not important to me, so naturally I wouldn't be sold on it.


Has anyone heard how the general public in China has viewed the 5C coming to their country? I figured they wouldn't be to excited about it.
 
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How many of s4 or s3 features are useful? I personally turn all of them off.

The ones I can think of are Air Gestures (Air View etc.), although the smartscroll is hit or miss it's still decentish. Smart Pause is pretty cool, and the remote control option is pretty cool. I also think the NFC and NFC tags are rather interesting too.

I would say Siri has one against Samsung, but there's better alternatives than Siri on the playstore. Although Siri is pretty advanced.

Here is a link to the 5S vs the S4

iPhone 5s vs Galaxy S4: What Should You Buy? : Discovery News

The battery life thing is a plus I'll admit from the link, but the cool thing about Android is that you can root and undervolt and set cpu limitations, or for those who don't like root or aren't small time risk takers, just get an extended battery that can last up to 3 days. So that one is up to said person's perspective.

Of course all devices are solely based on the needs of the user.
 
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That's the problem with the rumor mill and the blogosphere. Someone got it in their head that Apple needed to reset and produce a budget iPhone and then decided that they probably would.

I don't recall Apple ever saying that prior to the release. If it happened, I missed it.

Nonetheless, the expectation was set.
 
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Ok, tell me if media and bloggers are not bias.

When Samsung came out with Exynos 5 OCTA, everyone was excited. When OCTA proved to be underperforming, no one said anything. When OCTA had technical issue (as pointed by Anandtech), no one said a word. And now that we know that OCTA is a horrid failed experiment by Samsung, no one say anything. I believe that we are now on a 3rd version of OCTA in less than one year! Yes, the 3rd version of a defective chip design. Not a single negative press.

Is it any wonder why Apple and Qualcomm do not use A15-Cortex!

This is Samsung, the premier chip designer and manufacturer failing miserably. They now use only OCTA in their GS4 heading to lesser markets!!

Did anyone complain or b!tch that Samsung put Qualcomm S600 chip into their flagship GS4? Did anyone notice that Samsung had to use its MAIN competitor in chip design in their own phone?? S600 is considered a 2nd tier chip from Qualcomm...and this is in Samsung' flagship. I know...when GS4 came out, S800 (top end chip) was not ready...but did Samsung care? No, they wanted to beat Apple and match HTC to market. (Interestingly, S600 easily matches Exynos 5 OCTA performance, which is pure fail in Samsung's face...a competitor's 2nd rate chip matching [sometimes beating] its own chip.) Did ANY blogger or media complain? Nope.

Apple puts their top chip into ALL their flagship iPhones. All 5S will have A7. No exception anywhere in the world. Apple designed this chip on their own. It is also a 64 bit chip. Everyone cried foul. There were rare exceptions of people-in-the-know to put the brake on all the negative/hate press.

And when Samsung a day later announced that they will do a 64 bit chip sometime in the future (but not too soon!), everyone in Android rejoice! Yet, maybe i missed it, but i did not see ONE mention that Android itself is far far from making that 64-bit conversion. (This is one benefit of Apple controlling both software and hardware.) So, yeah, Samsung 64-bit Exynos 6 may be ready in 2014-2015, but it will be hampered by a 32-bit OS. Did anyone ever thought of that? Why no criticism?

Did anyone mention that Samsung "statement" of 64 bit chip (not even reality) was pure marketing??? I don't see that any of you say that. Why not?
 
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Siri can be beat on any device. Google Now is close, Sher.Pa is even better. then there is Alice, which imitates Siri and also uses Wolfram Alpha--the thing with Alice and Android, however, you can change the voice it uses, while Apple users are stuck with only one. i quite enjoy using a UK accent or Aussie accented voice.

The Galaxy S3 is a great device without the Touchwiz bloat, in fact, with an otter box and white model it easily passes for an iPhone and works well for a former Apple user such as myself. and in Android, i can incorporate any feature i miss from iOS, while preserving the customizations of Android. what more could i ask for? my iPhone never really crashed but i did have issues with gameplay lag and stutter in my Pinball apps, that is not a problem with the GS3. other times, i'd open an app, get a loading screen, then the home screen. a second tap worked fine. a bit annoying. third, although the camera is the least used feature, when i feel the need to use it, such as to take a reference shot of a project i'm working on so i know what goes where when i put it back together, it helps that the camera is a good one. the 'iSight' camera built into my iPhone 4 was horrible. Very low quality shots. my flip phone from 2009 could do better.

My Nexus 10 though, it absolutely blows the iPad away on so many grounds it isn't even a contest. Also, with more and more formerly iOS-exclusives now being ported over to Android, i find myself picking up my past iOS products less and less lately.
 
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I also think the NFC and NFC tags are rather interesting too.

I would say Siri has one against Samsung, but there's better alternatives than Siri on the playstore. Although Siri is pretty advanced.

just get an extended battery that can last up to 3 days. So that one is up to said person's perspective.

NFC and Google Wallet are dead. It is a slow death. No one is adopting it...and when Verizon blocked GW, it was the beginning of the end, esp. now ATT is also working on a substitute i believe. My carrier (Sprint) is the only one that is really supporting it.

Apple is going in a totally different (innovative?) direction: iBeacon. Link: With iBeacon, Apple is going to dump on NFC and embrace the internet of things — Tech News and Analysis

This may be why Apple never adopted NFC (despite media and blogger's criticisms)...they saw something better and worked on it behind the scenes.
 
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Siri can be beat on any device. Google Now is close, Sher.Pa is even better. then there is Alice, which imitates Siri and also uses Wolfram Alpha--the thing with Alice and Android, however, you can change the voice it uses, while Apple users are stuck with only one. i quite enjoy using a UK accent or Aussie accented voice.

Google Now is very nice. But, it is basically a voice-search engine. It doesn't really answer a question, but rather searches for it. For example, you can ask GN to set alarm clock, but you cannot ask it to cancel that alarm. You also cannot ask GN to turn on/off Bluetooth.

S-Voice (Samsung) can do all that. But, S-Voice is very limited in scope and takes longer to process...and does not always understand you.

Siri is ahead here of the two i mentioned...not by much though. I have not tried the others you mentioned.
 
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Google Now is very nice. But, it is basically a voice-search engine. It doesn't really answer a question, but rather searches for it. For example, you can ask GN to set alarm clock, but you cannot ask it to cancel that alarm. You also cannot ask GN to turn on/off Bluetooth.

S-Voice (Samsung) can do all that. But, S-Voice is very limited in scope and takes longer to process...and does not always understand you.

Siri is ahead here of the two i mentioned...not by much though. I have not tried the others you mentioned.

S-Voice may be a little behind, but Alice and others from the play store, as far as I have noticed, not only are more efficient, but have more personality than Siri ever has.
I could so far as to say Siri was a breakthrough for smartphones. But Android devs have made Siri laughable in some cases.

Alice is one of the many Siri clones. Really really nice IMO.

And changing the voice is awesome to me.

Although it is in Beta, you should check out Utter. Really nice voice assistant.
 
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to tigmd...

Well, the difference between designing and actual manufacturing something is huge. Have you ever heard that Apple have made something itself? Well, me neither... But Samsung do and make.

But such a so long post, so my answer will be shorter :D No one is complaining about Samsung because of the one simple fact: samsung phones are "this day phones". They offer quality and functionality for less money and practically they can be connected to any other devices easily.
 
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samsung phones are "this day phones". They offer quality and functionality for less money and practically they can be connected to any other devices easily.

"This day phones"? Ok.........

My Note 2 often times get a "device not recognized" "driver is bad" "device is bad, need to disconnect" from my Sony VAIO laptop...etc. Note 2 is not recognized in my car thru USB port. All aftermarket wired headphones/earphones have extremely limited AND unreliable functionality.

What device are you talking about? I don't share that view!
 
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Well, the difference between designing and actual manufacturing something is huge. Have you ever heard that Apple have made something itself? Well, me neither... But Samsung do and make.

Yet, Samsung designed & produced a subpar failure of a chip. Yet, you're proud of that? I would not be. At least, my Exynos 4 in Note 2 was very competitive in its day, hampered only by an average GPU (Mali).

Frankly, i don't care who makes what...i just care about the END RESULT. Isn't that what we all should look for?

So, you are proud that Samsung has to rely on its competitor for chips in GS4? You are proud that Samsung is now on its 3rd version of OCTA as they try to scavenge what is left of a failed design? You prefer that over Qualcomm S800 or Apple A7?
 
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"This day phones"? Ok.........

My Note 2 often times get a "device not recognized" "driver is bad" "device is bad, need to disconnect" from my Sony VAIO laptop...etc. Note 2 is not recognized in my car thru USB port. All aftermarket wired headphones/earphones have extremely limited AND unreliable functionality.

What device are you talking about? I don't share that view!

Well that's strange, because I am using a Premia. Talk about WAAAY unnoticed. But my practically nameless phone has always been a recognized device no matter where I plug it in..
(Ubuntu machine, 2005 Dell, 2013 gateway windows 7 laptop, 2001 Ford focus alpine radio, rooms radio, my car radio, my step dad's car radio, etc. Etc.)

I find that rather shocking that a Note 2 would have errors like that.
 
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I don't know. Honestly. I have no idea what is going on. It is not my USB port because my wife's iP5 connects just fine to iTunes via USB. Honestly, i was very much Android...going to get N5 or G2, but these connectivity issues are nailing me!

You probably need to download GN2 drivers onto your laptop.

Back to the iPhone topic though, the camera really is pretty smooth.

I liked the idea of holding the button down and it taking so many pictures. But wouldn't run up space?

Oh and to share an experience of mine with the iPhone 4, that was actually the only phone I ever had do what your GN2 is doing.

Even using aftermarket cables would do it.. After the jailbreak it didn't mess up though.
 
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