Samsung benefits even more off the Iphone X

[Poke]

Nothing new but everyone try's to keep up with Samsung when it comes to phones Apple finally comes out with a phone that does things that many other devices have been doing for the last couple of years. Either way its the best looking phone they have came out with so far.But even Apple is in the race to keep up with Samsung and Samsung is the only between the two that makes money even off their competition.

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After Apple, Samsung will be the biggest beneficiary of the iPhone X

After Apple, Samsung will be the biggest beneficiary of the iPhone X

 

[navychop]

Well, the Samsungs double as campfire starters...

 

[harshness]

Some Apple zealots will surely claim that the inclusion of Qi charging and wall-to-wall OLED displays weren't legitimate (or perhaps didn't exist) until they appeared on the X (a term used by Motorola in 2010 with their Droid X product line -- it seems likely that this is why Apple specified that it be pronounced "ten").

I can see a time when Apple reintroduces a headphone jack as a marvelous innovation. I'm not sure I could survive an Apple introduction of a USB port or a uSD card slot.

 

[Juan]

I think the elimination of the fingerprint scanner is a mistake

 

[Foxbat]

Both Samsung 8, Note 8, and the iPhone 8 & X are all missing the new T-Mobile LTE Band 71 (600 MHz) which would increase signal reach inside buildings. Hopefully that will be corrected with the next generation of "flagship" phones.

 

[navychop]

That's what's keeping me from jumping on this bandwagon.

 

[Juan]

Both Samsung 8, Note 8, and the iPhone 8 & X are all missing the new T-Mobile LTE Band 71 (600 MHz) which would increase signal reach inside buildings. Hopefully that will be corrected with the next generation of "flagship" phones.

That s a T-Mobile issue that should be addressed when they buy the phone to sell

 

[harshness]

That's what's keeping me from jumping on this bandwagon.

Band 71 and Band 12 may be thinking too far ahead of the game. Both will likely take a while to reach the tipping point of being widespread enough to worry about.

 

[harshness]

That s a T-Mobile issue that should be addressed when they buy the phone to sell

Alas, given the constraints on size, the antennas and tuner sections aren't all that flexible and probably not modular. Lower frequencies means a "longer" antenna and with that, less optimal performance at higher frequencies. We see this in the mud flap TV antennas that don't work all that well for VHF. The mud flaps and many of the wireless phones use fractal antennas. We have to be careful not to confuse "multi-band" with "broadband".

I expect that the new bands will be used for a particular class of device; one other than phones.

 

[Foxbat]

That s a T-Mobile issue that should be addressed when they buy the phone to sell

It's not like "Mission: Impossible" where Barney clips a wire inside the transistor radio and says, "Okay, Jim, now it will transmit on any frequency." The iPhones don't have the chip that would allow that frequency to be utilized, and like harshness said, the antennas need to be designed to work with the lower frequencies as well. That's not a firmware update.

 

[TheForce]

I can see a time when Apple reintroduces a headphone jack as a marvelous innovation.

This is not true, all iphones have a headphone jack for wired headphones. They just combined the Lightning jack and the 3.5mm audio jack and now you have to attach an adapter that comes with the newer phones to your 3.5mm cord. Anyone used to using headphones this is not a big deal. I'm certain you are smart enough to figure out which end goes where. Even my 5 yr old grandson figured it out on dad's iphone 7s.

The only thing that Apple has that no other phone maker has is infrastructure and a community. Once you learn the Apple language, it is so much easier to connect to family and friends with Apple stuff. Plus the stuff just works, as long as you don't try to do something unique or creative. For that, the PC is much better.

Anyway, having said that, I just bought a Sony Android phone for non critical communications and mostly for it's superior camera and screen. IMO, all the Apple innovation they brag on is not new to the world, but rather it is new to the Apple community and that is what is important to Apple. I had one of the first smart phones with internet on the market and it was a T-Mobile Hewlett Packard IPAQ. Even the name iphone was not original to Apple. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that these new innovations by Samsung and others may be the latest thing, beating Apple by 2 years, too many innovations are loaded with bugs, flaws, and even at times dangerous. By the time Apple adopts 99% of this stuff, it has been debugged and just works like an appliance. And that's why Apple fans love their products.

People like me who are into tech, like the simplicity of Apple for an appliance, but when it comes to creative work, use non Apple stuff because it is flexible and customizable.

 

[TheForce]

Both Samsung 8, Note 8, and the iPhone 8 & X are all missing the new T-Mobile LTE Band 71 (600 MHz) which would increase signal reach inside buildings. Hopefully that will be corrected with the next generation of "flagship" phones.

This is a very sore subject with me. The 600Mhz band was once a license free, squatter's rights band that was primarily used for wireless microphones in the broadcast industry. I had ~$25,000 worth of audio equipment in my production business that the FCC just outlawed and said to everyone tough sh!t, go buy all new stuff. The reason was that they auctioned off the spectrum to generate revenue for the agency. NAB tried to help but as a mfg supported association, they just gave into the big mfg money. Many small production companies were hard hit by this and with no backing by our agency, dropped our membership. Next after the kill date, the FCC began fining you if you were caught using the 600Mhz band. I finally decided to close my business and retire. I was ready and this was just one of several reasons to get out. Technically, they should have gone higher and hit the UHF ham band as nobody was using it anyway. But back then the 600Mhz was just easier. Funny, it's been almost 10 years and the cell phone winners still haven't utilized these frequencies. Thanks for early retirement and the layoff of my two employees.

 

[harshness]

This is not true, all iphones have a headphone jack for wired headphones.

Having to adapt conventional gear to work with Apple has long be a down-side to the Apple ecosystem (starting in a grand way with the funky adapters required to adapt the Apple ][ to a conventional printer and their avoidance of RS-232C serial for the many uses it had. Joysticks were another sore spot. What Apple chose to use is frequently a PITA and as you've pointed out, it didn't always interoperate (your charger/data cable issue is a classic example).

The only thing that Apple has that no other phone maker has is infrastructure and a community.

What Apple offers isn't so much a community as an oligarchy. It's Apple's way or the highway.

Plus the stuff just works, as long as you don't try to do something unique or creative.

As long as you can find (and never have to replace) the right adapter. Sometimes the adapter was multiple parts and included some really awful extensions to their music library software (iTunes).

Apple grew their brand on catering to the unique and creative but they've demonstrated a decided trend towards planned obsolescence and toeing the line in the last 15 years or so.

 

[Juan]

This is not true, all iphones have a headphone jack for wired headphones. They just combined the Lightning jack and the 3.5mm audio jack and now you have to attach an adapter that comes with the newer phones to your 3.5mm cord. Anyone used to using headphones this is not a big deal. I'm certain you are smart enough to figure out which end goes where. Even my 5 yr old grandson figured it out on dad's iphone 7s.

The only thing that Apple has that no other phone maker has is infrastructure and a community. Once you learn the Apple language, it is so much easier to connect to family and friends with Apple stuff. Plus the stuff just works, as long as you don't try to do something unique or creative. For that, the PC is much better.

Anyway, having said that, I just bought a Sony Android phone for non critical communications and mostly for it's superior camera and screen. IMO, all the Apple innovation they brag on is not new to the world, but rather it is new to the Apple community and that is what is important to Apple. I had one of the first smart phones with internet on the market and it was a T-Mobile Hewlett Packard IPAQ. Even the name iphone was not original to Apple. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that these new innovations by Samsung and others may be the latest thing, beating Apple by 2 years, too many innovations are loaded with bugs, flaws, and even at times dangerous. By the time Apple adopts 99% of this stuff, it has been debugged and just works like an appliance. And that's why Apple fans love their products.

People like me who are into tech, like the simplicity of Apple for an appliance, but when it comes to creative work, use non Apple stuff because it is flexible and customizable.

Do you think removing the home button/fingerprint scanner will cause any issues?

 

[TheForce]

Do you think removing the home button/fingerprint scanner will cause any issues?

They may bring back the fingerprint scanner, but if the face recognition works well, who needs it. I only started to use the finger print scanner in January. It works 75% of the time. But I like it for my stock trading account since it is much faster than my 15 digit password with symbols and numbers upper and lower case. That required 3 keyboards to run through the entry. When the bank switched to that rules based PW it became a real chore. So the only issue I see is the 3rd party apps like that one which won't be ready for Facial recognition.

Apple grew their brand on catering to the unique and creative but they've demonstrated a decided trend towards planned obsolescence and toeing the line in the last 15 years or so.

Very true but you had to conform to their way on that stuff or they show you the door. I did the training class on Final Cut Pro and the 3rd session I had 3 trainers scratching their heads on how to do something very basic with Vegas Pro, Adobe Premiere, and Fast Video Machine. When the lead instructor told me I needed to re-educate my client as to what is possible ( in FCP) I got up and walked out. No doubt there were artists doing some very nice work on Apples, but unless you had a huge budget for something like AVID work center, you were stuck with a POS editing system. At the time I was running a windows 95 Pentium machine controlling 7 broadcast VCR's plus 16 scsi drives for a hybrid Tape/nonlinear editor. Avid could do the same for $300,000. I built my system not counting tale machines for $29,000. Plus my video was 4:4:4 YUV quality. That was back in the 90's.
But no doubt, our imac for my wife's kitchen computer is as trouble free now for 4 years as her microwave oven. I can't say the same for my PC's. Always something needing changed or updated.

 

[harshness]

So the only issue I see is the 3rd party apps like that one which won't be ready for Facial recognition.

I'd imagine the only thing the app needs is a yay or nay from the authentication feature of the phone. It may work already. I can't imagine that Apple would expect the app writers to use a complex API when a true or false answer is all that you want.

When the lead instructor told me I needed to re-educate my client as to what is possible ( in FCP) I got up and walked out.

I've heard similar stories about tasks that were easy in Final Cut that were made quite a bit more difficult in FCP.

But no doubt, our imac for my wife's kitchen computer is as trouble free now for 4 years as her microwave oven. I can't say the same for my PC's. Always something needing changed or updated.

The only real difference is that Apple avoids letting users know that there are problems. The software has its share of bugs but Apple doesn't want to rock the boat. Like Microsoft, they deny that bugs exist until they've got a patch for them.

Hardware-wise, as long as the needs don't change (at all), they keep going, but expanding Apple hardware to take on new tasks simply isn't done. If you use your computer as you might use a Chromebook why spend 5 times the money? Nobody appreciates getting a Pages or Sheets document as an attachment.

 

[EarDemon]

I’ve never been a fan of Apple, their over hyped products, and their snobbish elitist fanbase. Apple doesn’t bring much to the table in terms of innovation, but with the help of Foxconn they know how to make it shiny, package it and market it. I had some of the early model iPhones, had a few iPods, almost bought an iPad and have to deal with more modern iPhones and iPads at work. None of their stuff remotely impresses me, I don’t think of them as some premium company. I find iOS limited, extremely annoying and not user friendly. When I had the iPhones, I was always jailbroken, that was the only way I could deal with iOS.

It’s amazing to me that people think of Apple as innovators. When I had the iPhone MMS was not supported, you could not record video, unless you were like me and downloaded Cycorder from Cydia after being jailbroken, no app switching, hell the trendiest, most stupidest thing that smart phones are capable of doing was available on other phones before the iPhone. Selfies. My HTC Evo was one of the first, if not the first smart phone to have a front facing camera. My Windows Mobile pocket PC from 2002 had a fingerprint scanner. I owned three smart watches before the Apple Watch came out.

I am not making a blanket statement, I am not saying words like ALL or EVERYBODY, but it is my experience and general observation with family, friends and co-workers, those who are tech savvy, and technologically literate tend to go with Android phones and tablets, decent Windows based computers or 2 in 1s. Those who don’t know the difference between the mice in their attic and the mouse on their computer are the ones in the Apple walled garden ecosystem. And then you have the ones who have more money than brains and think of the shiny fruit logo as some sort of status symbol. These people are generally real easy to identify. They are the ones that don’t use generic terms like computer, phone and tablet, but always say MacBook Air, iPhone or iPad and usually have cases with the Apple logo exposed, so the whole world can see how kewl and fashionable they think they are.

I find it really annoying that because I’m into technology people assume that I’m interested in Apple or think that the iPhone is the only phone in existence or ask me if I’m going to stand in line for the latest iThing. People will often say to me ‘what do you think of the new phone coming out’ or ‘when is the new phone coming out’. I know that they’re talking about the iPhone, but I always do a little mini run down mentioning the latest Galaxy, Note, HTC One Series and maybe some others and then when they specify they’re talking about the iPhone, I just say I have no idea, I don’t pay attention to the world of Apple, their stuff is useless to me.

Apples removal of the headphone jack, while an annoyance to some, wouldn’t bother me personally. I don’t wear headphones or earbuds. I cannot stand anything in or covering my ears, no matter how comfortable the manufacture claims they are. The new Pixel XL is rumored to have the headphone jack removed, which is fine by me. I can’t remember the last time I ever plugged it in to anything.

Dealing with iPhones and iPads in a corporate environment is a massive PITA, and I say that as someone who is not directly responsible for them. Supporting them is also a PITA. If someone has in issue with an Apple phone or tablet, I take 5 – 10 minutes to research the problem and offer solutions. If that doesn’t solve the problem, I tell our employees to find the nearest Apple Store and they can help you better than I can. The thing that completely floored me was how convoluted it is to load a PDF, Word DOC or PPT file to an iPad with no internet connectivity. Contrary to what city dwellers tend to believe, most of the country does not live in NYC, LA or San Fran. Our sales team is often in rural or remote areas with limited access to public wifi, and limited cellular coverage to use their phone as a hotspot. It’s such a nightmare to help these people transfer their sales presentations and brochures from their laptops to the iPad when away from the office, because you can’t mount an iThing as a removable drive. Our new Sales Manager wanted me to look into 2 in 1s, instead of giving all of the sales reps both laptops and tablets. Problem solved. Half of the 18 member sales team are now on Surface Books, the second half will get them in 2018 and all new hires will get them. No more, iPads, halfway there to an Apple free work environment!

And on the topic of the iPhone X, I think the all screen design is stupid. That notch thing is just dumb. Because of how anal retentive Apple is about this stuff, I’ll be sure to pronounce it iPhone Ex as in ecks and as in the letter X. Not Ten. Just like I call OS X, OS Ex as in ecks and as in the letter X. In what ever way I can ‘disrespect’ the brand I will. I did the big no-no and jailbroke their devices. I currently do the big no-no and run a Hackintosh VM in VMWare and I refuse to pronounce the name of their products the way they want to too. I’m not just like that with Apple. I have an extended family member that used to work for Xerox in their heyday in some white collar cushy corporate gig with a fancy title. He got let go, and It was kind of ugly from what I understand, but even after that, and after all of this time, it still infuriates him when someone uses Xerox as a verb. So I try to work it in at least once every time I see him. I can’t believe people get so riled up about such stupidness.

 

[navychop]

When I ran two servers for my previous employer, I found supporting iPhones with MS Exchange trivial. MS phones- "too hard." Bizarre.

Not innovators? Have you no idea the impact the Apple II had? The original iPhone created an entirely new product. PDAs did not cut it. I had one. Yuck!

iPods? Another trailblazer!

Today they may go more for stability and reliability, but they invented and popularized our modern life, to a great degree.

You think Microsoft would EVER have invented an iPhone? Not even with their 50,000 monkeys in a room approach.

I've dealt with Androids, and they were certainly pretty easy to set up with MS Exchange. WAY more so than any MS phone. But the Android tablet I gave my MiL- dear lord!

But Apple has had a strong hand in molding our tech oriented society today. Others copy and push the boundaries faster, but I believe at a cost. Security, reliability and often, ease of use.

Give them their due.

 

[EarDemon]

There were smartphones before the iPhone, there were MP3 players before the iPod. Neither were revolutionary and trailblazer is a laughable term when talking about Apple. They just could market the products Foxconn built for them better then other companies. Just like Google is an advertising and data mining company first, Apple is a marketing company first.

By support, I mean more then just adding an employees Exchange account to their device. I mean dealing with the iCloud garbage, running out of room because no one exports their pictures and videos off, trying to get documents on to and off of the device without resorting to having to email them to yourself, having to find a stupid lightning cable when someone loses their, because Apple doesn't believe in standards that they don't create, no native way to centrally manage these things. When I had my HP Elite Windows Phone, I had no problem connecting to the two Exchange accounts I need access to with the MS Outlook app. That was probably one of the best phones I've ever used for the few weeks I've had it. Windows Mobile is an awesome platform for real work, so long as you don't desire teenage girl type apps.

The best part about putting up with the misery of being an iPhone user was jailbreaking and loading Cydia and Rock and showing the true potential for the platform and being able to do things stock users couldn't do for years. When I inquired about an iPad, you should have seen the look on the face of the dipstick at the Apple Store when I laid my phone down on the fancy white table to play with a demo unit and he saw my iPhone had a Tap To Unlock button instead of Slide To Unlock. You'd think he just witnessed the murdering a new born and made a comment on how I shouldn't jailbreak my phone. It was that attitude that completely turned me off of Apple products. I buy a device, I do whatever I want with them, nobody and I mean nobody, especially some retail dork tells me what I can and can't do with what I chose to spend my paychecks on.

 

[navychop]

APPLE made the iPhone and iPod and clones market. The earlier ones had no traction.

Microsoft made the mouse popular, along with Apple (who stupidly made single button "standard") from Xerox PARC.

Often, inventors can't make the transition to mass market appeal.

I own no Mac. Not too fond of Apple. But my iPhone and wife's iPad serve us well.

Apple appeals to a market. Android appeals (less every day) to budget buyers. And folks that want to twiddle.

I'm damned happy both are out there.

PS- I'm moving toward Gmail over Outlook and once I retire, I doubt I'll ever need MS Office ever again. Now THERE'S an example of slitting your own throat!