

Thoughts and Observations Regarding This Week’s iPhone 4S Event - technoslut
http://daringfireball.net/2011/10/thoughts_and_observations_iphone_4s

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jsz0
_Bigger is better, period, they say, and anyone who says otherwise is in
denial_

Does anyone really say that? My feeling is the 3.5" display is a very good
size but so is 4-4.3" especially if you have poor eyesight, big hands, or fat
American fingers. We have 4 different sizes of MacBook and no one is going to
argue 3 of them should be discontinued because it's just too hard to choose or
13" is perfect for everyone. Two iPhone sizes (big and small) is going to
happen eventually. There are too many 4-4.3" phones being sold to ignore that
market forever. My guess is Apple is waiting until they can bump the
resolution of the 3.5" display to the point where it can scale up to 4-4.3"
and still maintain 300+ DPI. One resolution for both models.

 _I can’t help but see Siri as Apple’s first attack in the direction of
Google’s crown jewels: search._

I couldn't agree more with this. Someday Apple will make a deal with FaceBook
and things will get very interesting.

Siri, What movies have my friends recommended lately?

Siri, What is the name of that book Tom recommended to me last month? Great.
Can you buy that for me?

Siri, Do you know Paul's wife's name?

Siri, Where did Paul and Linda go on vacation last year? How much would a
weeks stay cost? Great. Book it for the 2nd week of August and send Paul a
message asking for suggestions of good restaurants.

Based on the demos this is all very possible if Apple can get its hands on the
data.

~~~
macrael
The most important question involved with increasing the screen size is what
the story for developers is. Increasing the screen size from 3.5" to 4+ inches
would cause many many apps to be rewritten. Yes, you could just scale apps up
and they would work a lot better than they do scaled up on the iPad, but even
scaling them a little would change the physical size of buttons and text etc.
that were all designed to be a different physical size. That means definitely
doing new artwork for this third physical size, but in some cases, it probably
means doing a slightly different design! With a bigger screen, maybe you could
squeeze an extra button on your toolbar. That means that an app developer has
to manage three different versions of their app (iPhone, iPhone+, iPad) with
two of them being very similar. That adds complexity and the possibility for
bugs.

Why would Apple want to impose that extra workload on itself and its
developers?

~~~
MatthewPhillips
How is it different than on various sized Mac products?

~~~
shaunkoh
That's because OS X apps don't run full screen by default.

The bigger screen doesn't meant that the app looks bigger – it just means that
you can accommodate more things on screen at once.

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jinushaun
_"As for the argument that Apple has failed because the iPhone 4S, however
nice an improvement overall, is not enough to entice iPhone 4 users to upgrade
— so what? Normal people don’t buy brand-new $700 smartphones each and every
year. In the U.S. they buy them on two-year contracts, and they don’t shop for
new ones until their old contracts are over. So the iPhone that the 4S needs
to present a compelling upgrade for is the 3GS, not the 4. And the iPhone 4S
absolutely smokes the 3GS. It’s crazy better than the 3GS. 2009 3GS buyers who
skipped the iPhone 4 — which I’m guessing are most of them — ought to be
delighted by the iPhone 4S."_

I normally disagree with Gruber on pretty much everything, but here, we both
agree that it's insane to assume the next iPhone (4S or 5) was supposed to
entice regular people to break their contracts just to get the latest and
greatest. Seriously, who does that besides gadget snobs? For people waiting on
the Nexus Prime, what phone are you currently using where you can just switch
like that? Normal people buy phones on 18-24 month schedules, not 12. I still
remember the outrage and sense of entitlement from original iPhone owners when
the 3G came out. Surprisingly, AT&T conceded and allowed them to update after
18 months instead of 24.

You know what, I'm disappointed it wasn't a 5 with LTE and NFC as well, but
I'm upgrading from the 3GS so the 4S is a great phone for me. When iPhone 4
owners' contracts expire, then they can get a 5 if they want.

Seriously, first world problems.

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6ren
> I made several queries that Siri couldn’t answer.

This is very impressive: the problems weren't _voice recognition_ problems.

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Steko
I'm shocked that no one else (Gruber included) has picked up on the internal
logic that the next iphone should be _6_ not 5.

(1) iPhone

(2) iPhone 3G

(3) iPhone 3GS

(4) iPhone 4

(5) iPhone 4S

(6) iPhone 6

It's gonna be 6.

~~~
arn
I don't see how that's proof.

If you throw out the original iPhone since it had no number designation, then
there are two models that follow the generation number and two that don't. It
seems obvious to me the next one will be the iPhone 5 (if not another iPhone 4
variant).

What generation model it actually is means nothing. If anything the number is
a form factor designation.

~~~
Steko
"If anything the number is a form factor designation."

False, 3G and 3GS had the same form factor. When Steve introduced the iPhone 4
he used reasoning similar to mine above - the "4" was the 4th iPhone
(literally). The next iPhone will be (literally) the 6th and calling it the
"5" would not follow this logic.

~~~
arn
1\. It's not false. 3G and 3GS having the same form factor proves/shows it.

2\. Can you cite where Jobs said it was a generation number? I don't believe
that to be true.

~~~
Steko
(1) You and grandparent are correct the only incongruence between factor and
number are between the original and the 3g.

(2) iphone 4 keynote, right at the 30 min mark:
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1edQuxclUs>

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asifjamil
_People who claim to be disappointed that Apple’s 2011 new iPhone doesn’t have
a bigger display or LTE are effectively arguing that the iPhone should be more
like Android._

Why is the iPhone being compared to Android? Android is just the operating
system running the various devices manufactured by different companies..

~~~
splish
The comparison here is not literal. It is an implied comparison of the iPhone
to 'Android phones' made by your different companies.

In general, most of the latest and greatest Android phones sport larger
displays and claim "4G" speeds, whatever that means for a given carrier.
(Nexus One, Evo, Droid, Galaxy S, etc.)

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recoiledsnake
Did he post the same thoughts before the launch when there were strong rumors
about an iPhone 5 with a bigger screen and tapered form factor? Anyone can
post such a article now, I am not impressed. If Apple announced an iPhone 5 he
would be singing a different tune now. The truth is that not even Gruber can
know what Apple engineering can accomplish. Is it impossible that they are
able to reduce the thickness of the 4G chip or make a higher density battery?
Acting as if he always knew about what would come out makes him come across as
dishonest for scoring brownie points. I am sure even he was hoping a little
and was dissappointed when the new iPhone didn't look like this
<http://i.imgur.com/UC55l.jpg>

I feel that Apple failed on controlling the hype for this event. This wouldn't
have happened if Steve was in charge. Apple would've leaked some of the
features to kill the expectations. And don't tell me Apple doesn't do leaks,
the WSJ was informed by Apple before the iPad launch so that people were
primed for the launch. The NYTimes article the day of the launch still talked
about an iPhone 5.

On top of that, the Apple event just felt too long. One hour and forty minutes
to announce iPods in new colors and the iPhone 4s? There was also too much of
rehashing of things demoed during WWDC. All of this exacerbated by the lack of
Jobs. I'll have second thoughts next time about following an Apple event live.

~~~
dsantiago
Actually, he did post his thoughts before the launch:
<http://daringfireball.net/2011/09/teardrop_skepticism>

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55pts
I would've been much more impressed had it not been post hoc rationalization.
Of course it's obvious after the fact.

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sthatipamala
> If they thought 4-inches was better, overall, as the one true size for the
> iPhone display, then the original iPhone would have had a 4-inch display.

This type of reverse justification irritates me. Apple's decisions have
largely been successful, but just because something has worked for Apple
doesn't mean that it is the global optimum or The Right Way.

