The new products from Apple

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Loppan Torkel

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Feb 21, 2004
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I understand there are many Apple fans here. What's your impression of these new products?
They seem to be pretty nice quality pieces. Not sure if I'd use the watch, but it seems like something that could become a very useful piece of equipment within a few years. I expect there'll be a lot of innovations in this area.

Apple Watch

Link to video.

Iphone 6

Link to video.
 
Apple Watch - Don't care, not interested. Too many issues (single-day battery life, Apple lock-in) without any real upside.

iPhone 6 - First iPhone I'd actually consider for myself due to not being comically small. No longer has painful edges. Would go for the ip6- rather than the ip6+. Still no wireless charging. Bump in Storage capacity is nice to everything other than the 16GB model, but that's essentially uselessly small for a modern smartphone, so prices are still hellishly high compared to anything comparable on the market, at $850 for the cheapest useful model. Pretty sure the iPhone is Apple's most marked-up product, which they're probably able to maintain because of carrier subsidies in America and people who can't math.

Apple Pay - Could be awesome if Apple would open it up like they said they'd do with iMessage. Otherwise will remain a niche product due to Apple's limited install base.

U2 album into the account of everyone with an Apple account. This is awful, like itunes, music support on your devices, your bundled earbuds and everything about beats. Please stop.
 
Who really believes there is universal love for U2, how about instead Apple just give everyone a free album of their choosing?

Oh yes, that's right; because Apple knows best.
 
I don't get the appeal of a watch with 1-day battery life. I don't actually wear a watch myself, but my dad's watch has a battery life of months - probably more than 12 months. 1-day battery life for a watch is comically low. Some laptops have better battery life than that. If I wanted to wear a watch for fashion or timekeeping reasons, I'd buy a real watch.

I will say that Motorola's 360 watch is decent in the styling department, better than Apple's, though not as good as a nice metal real watch. But it has even worse battery life. So I'm not that sold on the smart watch concept. Microsoft's SPOT smart watches from 2004 achieved five days of battery life, which is still pretty poor compared to real watches, but at least enough that it isn't depleted if you forget to charge it one night.

I'm not really interested in iPhones as I share Zelig's opinion that they're overpriced. I'd rather take a more modestly priced phone with more of a focus on camera quality for pictures on the road when I don't remember to bring my real camera (which is all too often). Or perhaps more realistically, a lower-end model that strikes a nice balance between cost, camera, and build quality. It's amazing what you can get in a new Windows Phone for $80 when iPhones go for $500+ when unlocked. And there's some pretty decent Android models in the $100 - $200 price range, too. Even BlackBerry's a bargain in comparison if you're looking at it as primarily a functional device.

The iWatch will be interesting to follow, as well as its competitors. We've kind of gone full circle from pocket watch --> wrist watch --> cell phone in pocket over the past century when it comes to timekeeping devices, and Apple seems to think it's already time to at least partially go back to the wrist. But I'm skeptical that those who already have smartphones in their pockets will want another device to keep track of on their wrist. Why bother if you can just take your phone out of your pocket and do ten times as much with it? And as for the other potential reason for success... being a fashion statement/status statement. The iPhone has had perhaps its greatest success in that area. But I'm having a hard time seeing the iWatch succeed there. It just doesn't look that great, and even less so when you compare it to a quality actual watch.
 
I didn't know about the one day battery time.. That's pretty bad. Otoh, many people use mechanic winders, kinetic chargers etc for common watches. They don't last much longer.

And the build quality for the Apple watch is supposedly quite high.

I'm not getting one, but I probably wouldn't mind one if I could use it more.
 
I don't know that Apple can really do much about their high prices - they've got a core set of people who buy iPhones regardless of pricing, so if they were to slash their profit margin on minimal storage devices in half (so from $750 to $525), I doubt they're able to double sales to even maintain profits, since you could still get a comparable Android device for 20% less.

Really, it might be in the best interest of Apple's shareholders for Apple to increase prices to take further advantage of the lack of thriftiness of Apple-purchasers. If they raise the starting cost of an iPhone to $1k, Americans with phone subsidies just see an extra $10/m on their already grossly inflated monthly bill, and Apple sees nearly an extra $40 billion in profit over the next year.
 
Yeah even the fitness thingies like the Fitbit which require charging every 5 days are a pain. A watch I have to charge every day? What's the point? I already have a power hungry electronic device that requires seemingly endless recharges that I take everywhere. (My Note 2.)
 
I really don't get how these e-watches will ever take off in a big way. They may make successful niche products, but I don't see them replacing real watches.

I've been wearing a Timex Expedition since 2001. Actually, I have two because I lost my first one and had to buy a second one ( same item ) but then found the first one when my brother was moving and it turned up in one of his packed boxes... Anyhoo, the battery in the first one has had to be replaced once, and the battery in the second one, which I got in November 2007, is still going strong.

I just don't see the point in replacing a perfectly reliable timepiece with one that will be worthless if I forget to recharge it every night.
 
bhsup said:
I really don't get how these e-watches will ever take off in a big way. They may make successful niche products, but I don't see them replacing real watches.

I've been wearing a Timex Expedition since 2001. Actually, I have two because I lost my first one and had to buy a second one ( same item ) but then found the first one when my brother was moving and it turned up in one of his packed boxes... Anyhoo, the battery in the first one has had to be replaced once, and the battery in the second one, which I got in November 2007, is still going strong.

I just don't see the point in replacing a perfectly reliable timepiece with one that will be worthless if I forget to recharge it every night.
Click to expand...

It has an Apple logo, therefore it will sell millions.
 
bhsup said:
I really don't get how these e-watches will ever take off in a big way. They may make successful niche products, but I don't see them replacing real watches.
Click to expand...
Watches have already been replaced by other products to some degree. They're more a fashion thing now, a niche product. I still own a couple of watches, but only wear one on few occasions. These new e-watches will probably take over even more.


Regarding Apple products - They're pricey, but you often get a more care-free, high-quality product. It's worth a lot to some. Depends on what you value.
 
I could not keep watching the watch video after a couple of seconds.
There is only so much marketing speech bs I can take at a time before I may find myself drooling on the floor while suffocating from my own vomit.
More seriously, the first seconds sounded so so bad, but not even in an original way. Like the typical stuff marketing departments think of - the only unusual thing only being the immense BS dense. Like 10 big macs on top of each other. Since when does Apple marketing amount to just piling big macs? It seemed like Microsoft is more hip these days.

Anyway, since I just got into the rant flow.
I did like their mp3 players. I mean iTunes is an abomination. But the players themselves were nice. And I managed to find a way to comfortably deal with iTunes.
However, they are not wash machine safe. I repeat: do not wash them in a wash machine.
Anyway, after making sure that you do not do that I looked into getting a new iPod.
And was just baffled with their current terrible product line.
The only choice between a clunky and easy to damage one, a practical iphone, a practical iphone light, and a useless mini ipod you can pin on your arm.

WTH apple? You have lost your reason to exist.
 
I previously had the 3rd generation ipod nano and I think that was the best of them (except the big clunky ones with huge storage, but their use just lies somewhere completely else)
images
 
Terxpahseyton said:
The current one?
The touch display. Besides the price I think that this makes it less robust (and more battery hungry) and more delicate to use.
Click to expand...

That's not really supported... displays with touch have pretty much no reliability penalty compared to the equivalent touch-free displays, and the 7th gen Nano has better battery life than any prior Nano.

And iPods have never been particularly rugged, if that's what you're looking for, get a case.
 
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