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iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

steelframe
50 replies
18h58m

I used to care about my photos a lot. After accumulating a few decades worth of photos I've gotten to the point where I don't care about my photos at all.

I used to obsess over megapixel count, portrait mode, FPS, lighting, and so forth, because I used to think that these amazing images would be priceless in the future. Well, the future came and went, and to me they actually ended up being worthless.

At one time I cared about other people on the Internet seeing pictures of me and my friends and family doing things and being places. Now I don't want anyone on the Internet seeing pictures like that. I especially don't want bots to scrape the photos to build a dossier on my activities that data brokers can add to my profile that they then turn around and sell to whoever's buying.

So these days I don't ever bother even taking photos of anything any more. Instead what I do is try to be 100% "in the moment." I try to notice the small details, feel the emotions, immerse myself in the experience. I look for the things that make an impression. I find that a camera will always -- I mean, always -- detract from that.

I suppose that's my way of saying that there hasn't been a camera feature for a phone that I've cared about for many years now. For me the 2017 Pixel 2 was the point where phone camera technology got "good enough" for anything I ever wanted to use it for. Which, these days, is almost nothing.

1123581321
29 replies
14h33m

When you get older, the photos aren’t for you, they’re for the descendants of you and your siblings, and their communities during funerals etc.

It sounds like you needed a healthy correction from too much sharing and organizing, but just a few shots will be treasured.

flakeoil
13 replies
10h30m

I doubt that the descendants will be that interested to be honest. It's not like we today pour over the images that exist of our parents and grandparents.

Having thousands upon thousands of images to look at does not make it better.

It's nice to have a couple from each year maybe, but the huge amount of pics we have today is just ruining the experience and value of the pics somehow.

As they are stored somewhere digital on a device or cloud makes them also somehow less accessible even though technically they are more accessible. If they lay around in an album on a coffee table or a book shelf makes them more visible. It makes it also a nice way of talking about the pictures with friends or relatives when someone pics up the album.

prepend
10 replies
6h52m

It's not like we today pour over the images that exist of our parents and grandparents.

I do this. And I look over these pictures to get a sense of what their life was like. And where they lived. I found a small book of photos of my great grandfather and his family and they really made me happy to see.

We might not want to look at photos right now. But photos aren’t everyday items, they are long tail items. They are used infrequently, but when they are used, their impact is great.

Just because I don’t want something right now doesn’t mean I’ll never want it. Or that someone important to me won’t want it.

chongli
5 replies
4h50m

Suppose instead your great grandfather had an iPhone back then and you now had access to his library of 10s of thousands of food pics and random selfies in bars, on vacation, etc. Would you still be as excited?

jvidalv
1 replies
1h47m

I never thought about that, but honestly that sounds super cool, imagine our grand grand children 300 hundred years from now, if somehow they have access to our cloud images they can basically check out how their ancestor fully lived their lives, a true door to the past.

Sounds super cool for them, of course, we have been born to early for this, so from our perspective we still shouldn't give a dam. As probably we won't be ghost behind checking how they enjoy that portal to the past.

troebr
0 replies
3m

It's cool conceptually, but I think for family I haven't known, for family I have known and is aging/deceased that would make me pretty sad so I probably wouldn't use it.

prepend
0 replies
1h22m

Me? Even more so. I’d feed them into iPhoto and separate out photos of people and common things.

Then I would look at the metadata to see what geolocations and dates reveal hai vacation patterns.

Finally, I’d just randomly browse through to see what he was up to.

I wouldn’t do it all the time, but I’d definitely spend a few hours over the course of my life looking through them.

I’d love to see what random life was like from 1910-1950.

belval
0 replies
3h8m

I'd go through them faster for sure but absolutely. Things changed so much in the last 100 years, even just the car pictures would be super cool to see.

Might be cultural or even a me thing though, I grew up with a grand-aunt that loved talking about how they survived the winter every year.

adregan
0 replies
3h20m

Oh my god, yes! I would love to not only understand my great grandfather as a real life person but also to have context of the world in which he lived.

Hell, I wish I had home movies of myself with my parents as a toddler/child that included audio. All our home movies were on soundless 8mm film.

noisy_boy
3 replies
4h50m

I found a small book of photos

Thats the key. You would be tired in a while if there was tens of thousands of photos of your grandparents.

supplied_demand
0 replies
1h49m

Then you can go to sleep and keep looking when you aren't tired.

Couldn't we alternatively just use AI to identify the most interesting ones or ones with specific people we want to see?

prepend
0 replies
1h21m

It’s not like I have to look at them all at once. I wish there were 10,000 photos.

I’d go through them an hour at a time.

m4rtink
0 replies
3h26m

If there was more material, you could do more with it - create a model of their house using photogrammetry. Create panoramic images if the pictures intersect. Try to spot interesting historical details that might not have seemed significant back then, etc. :)

You never know - I had some contact with people gathering old photos and post cards or people trying to piece together what a particular part of the town or their home village looked like say 100 years ago and surprisingly little information is sometimes available.

krzyk
0 replies
5h29m

It's not like we today pour over the images that exist of our parents and grandparents.

We do, I really would like to have waaaay more photos of my parents, grandparents and of myself when I was younger.

That's why I take pictures of my children frequently so they will have that what I do not.

abluecloud
0 replies
6h51m

i think the difference from when i grew up is that there were many baby photos of me but they were hard to find and view, you needed to go to the persons house and look through all their photos to find them.

if i look at my brothers kids, their phones will be full to the brim with 1000's of photos of them. we have whatsapp groups filled with their photos.

i wonder how interested they'll be when they're 40 to see these photos. perhaps a few, but all of them?

rolisz
6 replies
13h24m

Come on, my grandkids won't sift through 200GB of photos. They'll look at 10-100 at most and then get bored.

kshacker
3 replies
12h54m

AI will do it for them.

cstrat
2 replies
11h48m

You can already see this in action - I love when my iPhone brings up those little curated albums from events or people. I can only imagine how much better those will become with more and more photos and better intelligence.

dleink
1 replies
10h42m

Here's what grandpa and your uncle did 60 years today!

joshstrange
0 replies
7h51m

I don’t know if you’re joking or being serious but I think that would be really cool.

tuatoru
0 replies
10h38m

future historians would like to, though.

That's why it's important to document your house and your town (all of it, not just the glamorous bits), rather than travelling to exotic locations to take photos like some lame "influencer".

disiplus
0 replies
11h0m

the thing that changes is when you get kids. I take a lot of photos of them and love it when google photos reminds me daily about them. but even that changes as they get older, the frequency goes down.

lm28469
4 replies
10h23m

That was fun and interesting when your entire grandparents history fitted in a 100 pages album

Now that you have 40000 selfies with silly faces and 25000 pictures of burgers it's going to be way less interesting

leokennis
3 replies
9h54m

I take photos liberally.

Then on a weekly basis I delete all the duplicates/failed shots/boring photos.

And then on a yearly basis I select the ones 10-50 photos that evoke the best memories and emotions.

Those 10-50 are the ones that I print and put in a separate album in the photos app to look at regularly. The rest I store “just in case”.

throw0101b
0 replies
4h30m

And then on a yearly basis I select the ones 10-50 photos that evoke the best memories and emotions.

Picking 1 photo per week could be a good base to aim for. A slice of daily/weekly life.

Then perhaps a few more photos for each special event where lots of folks get together: birthdays, holidays, births/deaths, weddings, graduations, etc.

Probably end up with <100 photos, and if you print US 4x6/EU A6, probably fit in one album.

jonasdegendt
0 replies
5h57m

We do this with the family, come Christmas time when everyone's together, everyone gets to pick 50 to 100 pictures to cast to the Apple TV and go over each picture. It's a lot of fun seeing people's highlight of the year.

We may need to revise the 100 picture limit because as the family grows it's getting a bit long for one sitting :^)

figassis
0 replies
8h9m

This is probably a great use case for apple intelligence. There are many apps that try to organize your photos. But iOS itself could do that curating, removing duplicate, finding the timeless shots and organizing them into events. It already does something close to this, with Memories. Now we just need it to cleanup. But this might not be an incentive they have bc it will reduce storage needs.

futureshock
1 replies
8h37m

I think that for every deceased family member there’s one random photo in a frame somewhere in the house. We have piles and piles of old photo albums from family that has passed. Those will never get looked at again.

Photos are incredibly devalued now.

supplied_demand
0 replies
1h47m

I go through a large box of photos of my dead mother at least once a year. It helps keep her alive in the minds of my young sons who never got to meet her.

alecco
0 replies
10h34m

Grandkids will probably be able to make a VR reconstruction from a couple of bad photos.

benoau
8 replies
18h37m

Really interesting observation, but I would say there are still moments that can delight like we restored an old iPhone of my partner's and came across videos and live photos of our oldest when they were a toddler.

Whether this is actually worth the many, many thousands we have spent on our smartphones to preserve rare moments that matter amongst many that really don't is another question. If smartphones never had cameras at all we'd almost certainly preference our own "lower resolution" memories over carrying a small, cheap, lightweight digital camera everywhere in case of something special.

hug
3 replies
15h32m

This comment seems completely at odds with history and how people actually acted prior to the smartphone revolution.

Film camera sales proceeded on a steady incline from their invention until the introduction of the digital camera.

Digital camera sales increased year on year for every year of their existence prior to the introduction of the smartphone.

Approximately everybody wants to have photos of their precious memories, and the idea that people wouldn't have kept buying digital cameras if smartphones didn't incorporate them is, to be frank, a little bit silly.

The primary difference between digital cameras and smartphones was that every family I knew had a digital camera, where every person I know has a smartphone. And every single person I know uses the camera on their smartphone very regularly.

benoau
1 replies
15h6m

Approximately everybody wants to have photos of their precious memories

I guess the idea is all your memories are precious. What the parent poster said certainly resonated with me: most of them are not.

Writing is also a big part of history, which also gave us the ability to preserve our most special events since over 6,000+ years ago. This is the first century that isn't permeated with unknowns because few made any deliberate attempt to record things - and we had the option to paint on a cave wall for 10,000s of years before that too.

hug
0 replies
13h50m

That's not my point at all. My point is rather more mundane than that: People like cameras and taking photos. That's why they kept buying them as standalone devices until smartphones were good enough to replace having a standalone camera.

If the king of the universe suddenly decreed cameras on phones verboten, people would go back to buying standalone cameras, not back to floral written descriptions, commissioning a portrait on canvas, or cave paintings.

swiftcoder
0 replies
11h12m

The primary difference between digital cameras and smartphones was that every family I knew had a digital camera, where every person I know has a smartphone

The real difference is the rise of social media. Digital camera photos were taken for you, for your family and close friends.

In the post-facebook world we live in now, smartphone photos are taken for other people - a curated snapshot of your life to show off to acquaintences and strangers. Something of the intimacy of photography has been lost.

Shawnj2
1 replies
11h13m

Honestly I just have an RX100, physics means that it will always be able to take optically better photos than an iPhone even though the post processing is definitely “worse”. It fits in my pocket just as easily as a phone and I can take both normal photos and selfies pretty easily. It’s not the cheapest option but I appreciate having better image quality in a form factor I can easily shove in my pocket.

vladvasiliu
0 replies
3h34m

It fits in my pocket just as easily as a phone

What kind of pants do you wear? Or are you in one of those locales where you have a coat on year-round?

Asking because my iphone barely fits in my jeans pockets. I'm a dude, so I still have somewhat usable pockets.

lobochrome
0 replies
14h43m

Yeah agreed kids are the difference. Everything else is either dabbling in being an artist - which most people are not - or noise.

ip26
0 replies
15h58m

It’s not even about terribly special moments. Stitched together, those videos and Live Photos of even small moments help me remember what they were like then.

lm28469
1 replies
10h20m

Ironically the only photos I connect with are the ones I took (and I'm still taking) with my dad's 35mm slr from the 80s. It's the one he used to take all my childhood pictures and I'm confident I will be able to take pics of my kid(s) with it.

I shoot maybe one roll of film a month on average, so about 400 pics a year, 1/10th are keepers, that's 40 good pics per year and I remember where I took every single one of them since I started this in 2018.

uneoneuno
0 replies
7h20m

I got a crappy 25 year old Kodak that takes 110 cartridge film at a thrift store for $5. Those 24 pictures seem more real than the 1000's on my phone. Remembering where you take them is cool

technojunkie
0 replies
14h56m

I could have written all of this myself. It exactly mirrors how I progressed to the same conclusions. Very well said!

nemo1618
0 replies
13h36m

These days, most of the photos I take are with disposable cameras that I buy whenever I go on a trip. Despite the name, the high cost of the camera makes each shot more precious, and I much prefer the low-fi film grain style to whatever black magic is going on in my smartphone sensor. Also, the novelty/nostalgia makes people smile when you ask them to take a picture of you. And then there's the anticipation of sending the film off for development, not knowing what will turn out well and what will be an underexposed mess. Highly recommended.

jajko
0 replies
8h55m

You don't have kids then, at least no in kids age.

I did first part of the curve like you - full frame nikon, amazing photos, milky way in the night camping etc. Now I just carry around phone (Samsung in my case, use that 10x physical zoom quite a bit).

The stuff I can snap or record, most of it would be uncatchable with camera - I would have to run around with it constantly like an idiot and shove it in everybody's face, missing much more from those unique moments. Its not so much for me but for everybody else not being there, ie grandparents, so the question is - do you care more about you being in the moment, or sharing the moment with your closest ones. Its amazing how better connected they are with whats happening to their grandchildren living not so close to them, compared to a generation ago.

Also, how much of these memories our kids will have once adults - 'you know, daddy wanted to be in the moment so sorry not many photos or videos from important moments of your childhood' is pretty lame to me, but thats me. I still see purpose of photography as service to others rather than me, me and me all the way down.

Since kids are so active, there are some cool things like very slow mo videos that give completely new perspective - process it in 30s if needed at all and share. Completely unavailable even in current 5000$+ cameras. And yes on big screen you see various errors and less quality, but nobody I know watches it on big screens anymore.

j_crick
0 replies
17h6m

For that reason, I bought some Fuji X100 and just take pictures with it if I need, for at least it's a fun exercise for actually thinking about what exactly do I really want to capture and why.

hu3
0 replies
14h36m

I went the opposite way.

I used to not take photos because I never went back to see them. And even if I did, one the best moments to review THAT photo is when I am talking to someone else about a related memory.

Now with Google photos, if we are talking about that one time when I was a kid driving a tractor, I search for tractor in photos app and presto, like magic the conversation about that memory has a nostalgic photo to boost the moment.

Family loves it!

dleink
0 replies
10h31m

I don't take pictures for the internet, I take them for the memories and to try to add a little artistry to the things in my life.

I also think cameras can be a positive part of "the moment" wherever that is. Photography and dealing with a camera can be a meditative way to see reality.

csomar
0 replies
13h56m

This has nothing to do with the iPhone and more with your social life. You went from a pro social network stance to a pro privacy one. That change meant you are taking less photos.

This is not happening in the real world, though. Everyone is on tiktok today and they need these powerful cameras more than ever.

chongli
0 replies
2h47m

Honestly, the more photos I take with my phone, the more I find myself craving a film camera.

It's not just the look of film which I find more appealing than digital photos, the physicality of the whole thing. Operating a film camera (especially older ones like Leica rangefinders or large format view cameras) is a very hands-on and deliberate process. You don't take a photo with an old camera, you make a photo.

This means you need to spend a lot more time composing the shot, focusing on the subject, metering the light (or using the zone system [1] if you want to go really old-school), setting the lens aperture and shutter speed, and finally taking the picture. In the case of a large format camera, you find yourself ducking under a dark cloth and focusing the (upside-down) image on a piece of ground glass, even using a magnifying glass for critical focusing!

The deliberate process doesn't stop with exposing the image. It continues into the dark room with creative control over the development and printing processes. From a single negative you can spend hours making test prints and playing with the exposure of the final print, using techniques such as dodging, burning, and masking. You can also do some crazy things with an enlarger; even producing wall-sized prints at home!

Mistletoe
0 replies
13h35m

I feel this but I also just google photos and it will show me slideshows from trips or moments in my life in the past and I'm like wow I forgot about that wonderful moment. Please keep photographing.

KoolKat23
18 replies
20h25m

They mention battery life in this release 11 times without saying how long the battery will last. Please Apple, even just a typical usage number would be great.

It's been many generations since I've had an Apple device, and each year they release a new one I try figure out how long the battery lasts, to no avail. Nobody I know has bought a Max Pro either.

With Apple, you never know, it could still be 10 hours battery life. I mean they just released "ground-breaking" features like moveable icons, something I think Android had since Android 1. My point is one never knows.

callalex
7 replies
20h19m

Still no user-replaceable battery even though they claim to care about the environment.

lurking_swe
6 replies
19h11m

You can never please everyone. Not sure if you realize, it’s trivial to get a new battery replaced once every 3 or 4 years. Apple store can do it, as well 3rd party repair shops in most cities. Takes 15-45 minutes, depends how busy the shop is.

Perhaps you’re more annoyed about right to repair in general? That’s a different story…

callalex
3 replies
19h7m

I just went through that process at an Apple Store less than 50 miles from Apple HQ. It took 4 and a half hours from my appointment time to having my repaired phone back. (And of course I couldn’t get work done because I didn’t have my phone, and I couldn’t warn the people who were expecting me of my delay, because I didn’t have my phone.) That’s completely unacceptable when it should only take 5-10 seconds.

Edit: To head off any doubt, no my phone was not damaged, and the repair went smoothly. They were having an inventory tracking system outage with absolutely zero fallback/continuity plan and absolutely refused to give me my phone back, repaired or not.

sam29681749
2 replies
15h59m

So your scenario sounds like an exception to the rule.

callalex
1 replies
15h56m

Even in the best case scenario is objectively worse in every way than a 10s at-home battery swap. Especially for the vast majority of human beings that don’t live within a reasonable distance of an Apple Store. Keep in mind that most older phones end up on secondary markets in less wealthy countries. They could live for years there except for the failed batteries.

nefasti
0 replies
8h32m

And those countries have stores every corner that will replace it. I live in one.

eviks
0 replies
14h26m

You forgot the time to get to the shop, and the alternative of <1 min which puts your 45min to shame

dt3ft
0 replies
13h30m

It is not as trivial in Sweden. You have to book an appointment first available beeing 2 weeks or months away in a shady shop with bad google reviews.

jacobn
6 replies
20h20m

The only number I could find was 22/27 hours of video playback for 16/16 Pro, you can compare that to older models on https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/ that might give some indication?

nashashmi
3 replies
19h35m

is there anything that says why they were able to reach this feat?

metadaemon
2 replies
16h25m

I was reading and thought this was about as concrete as they got:

"The new mechanical architecture improves heat dissipation and efficiency for up to 20 percent better sustained performance. Along with the new internal design and advanced power management of iOS 18, larger batteries are optimized to offer a huge leap in battery life."

whamlastxmas
0 replies
12h43m

The vast majority of energy use when watching videos is the screen, so my guess is that most of the improvement is from lower screen energy use when at its lowest brightness.

alt227
0 replies
10h26m

advanced power management

larger batteries

optimized

a huge leap in battery life

This is still all just marketing puff and air though.

Also 20% better than what?

This is designed so that when you try to nail them down, they can change what it is 20% better than.

KoolKat23
1 replies
20h16m

Thanks this is perfect. That's really decent battery life.

saagarjha
0 replies
9h17m

Note that video playback is not very indicative of typical usage. You will probably get less than half that when using apps.

ksec
1 replies
9h20m

They said 16 Pro Max having the best battery life ever without actually comparing to 15 Plus which was the previous battery king.

system2
0 replies
2h7m

+%0.1 is +%0.1 legally. Shady marketing tactics from Apple as usual.

relaxing
0 replies
16h1m

moveable icons

what’s this?

thom
14 replies
20h30m

Does the new camera button thingy happen to be a fingerprint scanner as well? I live in a constant state of rage with Face ID, longing for my iPhone 8 Plus with its Home button and the ability to pay for things in one fluid motion.

usaphp
8 replies
20h12m

How is using face id for payments not a fluid motion? Double click on the side button and it’s ON to make payments, no need to do anything else. While on Touch ID you have to first initiate the payment and then unlock with a finger (2 steps)?

renewiltord
2 replies
20h10m

Touch ID works faster for me. I have it on the iPad and Mac and it's good. Face ID frequently fails, especially if I'm in bed.

wingworks
1 replies
19h26m

I must have bad fingers cos Touch ID is more miss than hit. More often than not, I'll just type in my password on the Mac. The Touch ID rarely works faster. As for iPhone, the Face ID works (for me) soooo much faster and reliable than my finger ever did. I don't miss Touch ID for a second.

renewiltord
0 replies
18h55m

Fascinating. I guess we must fall on the outside of each tool's distribution. Ah well.

bombcar
2 replies
17h53m

Too many payment terminals are at weird angles where it’s hard to be in NFC range AND angled at my face.

usaphp
1 replies
12h33m

That's what I thought too, but you actually don't have to do the face ID when it's next to NFC reader. You double click the side button, while looking at the phone - it lets you choose which card you want to use for the payment, ONLY THEN you tap the phone to the NFC range, you don't need to look at the phone anymore after you unlocked it with a double click.

whywhywhywhy
0 replies
9h5m

Yeah you don't need to do them at once, but with Touch ID you could authenticate in one smooth motion to the NFC machine rather than having to go up to your face first.

thom
1 replies
20h1m

With Face ID you have to take your phone out, double click, then hold it up to your face and wait for it to work, then hold it out to do a contactless payment. With Touch ID you just take your phone out of your pocket with your thumb on the home button and pay instantly (you don’t have to initiate anything).

thom
0 replies
19h58m

Even if you’re just paying on the phone, the double side click plus wait is a wacky gesture to make compared to just moving your thumb down a bit.

winstonp
2 replies
20h17m

It's not. Your problems with Face ID seem to be of a super minority of users -- 99% of people I know have no problems with it.

thom
0 replies
20h4m

It’s not a blocker, just that it’s strictly more work, every single time.

makeitdouble
0 replies
19h36m

If Face ID constantly fails for someone they'll get another phone, so even if 95% of current users are happy it's hard to tell how well it works.

Given the numbers the SE is selling, it might totally be a factor, on top of the price.

jacobn
1 replies
20h17m

The fact that they have touch id on some of the ipad side power buttons, but not on the iphone, is so annoying. Face id is both great and terrible, and complementing it with touch id to cover the >5% of cases where face id fails would be such an improvement.

sswezey
0 replies
16h56m

I really want the touch id from iPad. It's so much faster and reliable that face id. I think together would be a winning combo, but given the option, I'd take the ipad touch id over face id.

raydev
11 replies
20h45m

For fun, revisit the iPhone 6 announcement thread on HN[1], coincidentally posted 10 years ago today. I love going back to these to see how people responded.

The more things change...

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8292029

beretguy
6 replies
16h49m

A lot of people complaining how big the iPhone 6 generation is.

I’ll continue using my SE 1st Gen with 4 inch screen for as long as I can.

Tade0
3 replies
10h12m

My SO was using one until it started behaving erratically.

It's the little iPhone that could and it's such a shame that its most recent replacement - the iPhone 13 Mini is both such a brick in comparison and did not have a successor.

What's worse there's hardly any choice nowadays in the sub 70mm width, sub 150g weight category. I guess people collectively resigned themselves to holding their devices with both hands.

marliechiller
1 replies
8h37m

I love my iphone 13 mini and am planning to run it into the ground. The form factor alone (despite numerous ribbings from friends), is enough to keep me from picking anything else up

tim333
0 replies
3h7m

They are very good. I reluctantly moved from a 2016 SE to the 13 mini but it's better in many ways.

nailuj
0 replies
4h19m

The new Android foldables with edge-to-edge outer front screen are bearable, but then again you're paying flagship prices just so your phone fits into your pocket.

thr0w
1 replies
3h39m

I’ll continue using my SE 1st Gen with 4 inch screen for as long as I can.

I held on for so long, but even with a healthy battery, modern apps just crush it. I'd open Uber and go from 100% to 60% by the time my ride arrived. Caved and bought the new SE and mostly hate it in all its giant rounded slipperiness.

slaw
0 replies
1h31m

SE is not glued inside like newer models and it is easy to work on. New battery set with tools is only $9 on Ali.

just_tubes
1 replies
20h8m

What a wonderful perspective. Feels like we're talking about the same topics.

raydev
0 replies
19h32m

The 16GB complaints brought back some traumas as an iOS dev. So many support issues arising from that. It was actually criminal Apple was still selling that as the base at the time, and iOS wasn't able to deal with restricted disk space very well either.

brcmthrowaway
1 replies
19h49m

What an archive. I wonder if who is still posting from 10 years ago

ksec
0 replies
9h39m

Plenty.

vertical91
3 replies
4h40m

To be honest, I think that after years of incremental updates apple has maxed out the number of "value" features. I don't see a strong reason why Apple has to come out with new features every year.

Expecting ground-breaking new features every year is a bit crazy, unless there is a new breakthrough like solid state batteries. Like what's going to be there next year? Flush side buttons to make the phone thinner? Why not apply all those additions in a single iteration and wait 3-4 years to come up with a next major upgrade? Consumers are not dumb anymore and can see through their marketing gimmicks

Terretta
2 replies
4h3m

groundbreaking

They need to put two Spatial Video cameras on the top right and top left of the phone in landscape, to record 3d video at or a bit wider than pupillary distance.

Given a way to watch them, Spatial Video memories "sell" the AVP and/or (if zoomed in) 3D TVs, and the perspective also gives fantastic clues to photo processing algos, 3D model generation, more.

walterbell
1 replies
3h59m

Can footage from two iPhones be combined?

GarnetFloride
0 replies
3h35m

I remember a project that used two iPod minis to create 3D (red/blue) videos, so it is possible.

STELLANOVA
3 replies
17h29m

It's really bad even for Apple. I really expected something more than a button and riding the wave of AI introduced months ago. We can see that technologically (mostly in hardware part) Apple is slowing down and can't innovate at the speed it was before. They still had a chance to add new stuff but for some reason skipped it - Wifi 7, support for JPEG XL, more base memory/RAM... Profit margins are going down and they really struggle to make it high as before. The fact that AI will not be available in most of the markets Apple is getting money from is really concerning and will probably hurt in the long term. The best part of this event is that AI actually pushed Apple to make really significant upgrade on base models.

enraged_camel
1 replies
16h56m

This comment and its infinite variations get posted literally with every Apple product announcement. So exhaustingly unoriginal at this point.

STELLANOVA
0 replies
14h14m

Not really. This is the first time Apple is betting on something that will not be available in huge portion of the market they are selling iPhone. This never happened before and Apple never directly connected almost all features of the hardware launch with geographically limited area. AI is the only reason why someone should upgrade from iPhone 14 and lower and yet it's only going to work in limited part of the world (China and EU are not going to have AI).

canucker2016
0 replies
5h23m

Wi-Fi 7 support is confirmed - during the Apple announcement, the summary card of new features showed a "Wi-Fi 7" in the lower right hand corner.

see https://www.pcmag.com/news/iphone-16-and-16-pro-get-wi-fi-7-...

No idea why they didn't announce it.

Maybe they had a rule, "discuss camera and ai features only"?

wkirby
2 replies
19h38m

Give me a new mini. I’m begging you.

vvladymyrov
1 replies
18h56m

+1 . I have nothing to upgrade to from my iPhone 12 mini. Probably will replace battery and keep it running for couple more years.

wkirby
0 replies
17h45m

Same boat. My storage is getting full (had a baby this year), so I’ll likely go refurb 13 mini with the biggest drive.

steve_adams_86
2 replies
14h50m

I really hope next year they bring back Touch ID and throw it on the action or camera button.

I’m using my action button, I like being able to assign it to ProCamera, but it’s not as useful as it could be. I miss Touch ID.

I’m not sure why but Face ID fails for me quite often. Maybe 25% of the time. I have to make a real effort to ensure it works. Straighten out my glasses, hold the phone up and look straight into the camera, ensure good lighting, etc.

Though sometimes it will randomly work in nearly pitch black conditions. How the hell? I miss Touch ID.

sharpshadow
0 replies
3h39m

I don’t know how it is now but when I was holding the locked iPhone 12 or so of a friend infront of my face I got a tingle feeling inside my forehead. Did anyone experience that?

Klonoar
0 replies
7h13m

TouchID is what’s kept me on an SE all these years.

redbell
2 replies
19h52m

You know what really caught my attention with the 16 Pro Max? The 6.9-inch display, with a resolution of 1320x2868 pixels [1]! However, I’m a bit skeptical about this choice. A 6.9-inch screen size is quite rare in the smartphone world [2]. Samsung tried something similar back in 2020 with its S20 Ultra (and Note 20 Ultra), only to revert to 6.8 inches with the S21 Ultra the following year—and they haven’t looked back since. Why? I’m not entirely sure, but I’ve heard some say the size was just too big.

So, will Apple be the one to make this a new industry standard for flagship devices, like they did with the removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack or excluding the charger from the box? Perhaps, but for now, I remain cautiously skeptical.

_____________________________

1. Apple hasn’t officially listed the display resolution on the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s product page, but thankfully, GSMArena has all the technical details available: https://www.gsmarena.com/apple_iphone_16_pro_max-13123.php.

2. AFAIK, aside from Samsung, only two other major brands have experimented with this display size: Motorola, with its Razr 50 Ultra (2024), and Huawei, with the Pocket (2022).

odux
0 replies
18h37m

Famously iPhones and especially iPads have weird dimensions and they are primarily for up/downscaling[1] from the other iPhone sizes so that apps still look the”same”. While 16 pro max is 6.9 inch and 13 pro max for instance is 6.7 inch, both have a resolution ratio of 19.5:9.

[1]: https://iosref.com/res

peterweyand38
2 replies
20h4m

And I would pay a thousand dollars for this as opposed to finding a used earlier generation model for fifty bucks why? It's hard to tell if this is supposed to be satire or not.

NotYourLawyer
1 replies
19h57m

You probably can’t even find an original iPhone for $50.

internetter
0 replies
17h42m

iPhone 6 is around $50 on eBay

lofaszvanitt
2 replies
19h50m

The faster new 6-core GPU in A18 Pro delivers stunning visuals for next-level gaming, benefitting games like Death Stranding.

----

Hm, Death Stranding in the official article? :DDDDDDD

KronisLV
1 replies
5h21m

I don't quite know how the developers would fit a game like that in a mobile device. I still recall my PC GPU struggling without upscaling. It's not even available on something like Nintendo Switch either, yet here it is for Apple devices: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/death-stranding-directors-cut/...

Guess it's a testament to how far hardware, modern game engines and competent developers can all go.

lofaszvanitt
0 replies
3h14m

Me neither, but do you know what the game is about? :D

eigenvalue
2 replies
20h39m

I get so much utility from my iPhone that it’s worth many times what it costs to me. So I’ve been on the upgrade program since it came out and get the new model every year. I always look forward to getting the new phone, even though at this point the improvements are incremental. But it’s very much worth it to me just to get better looking videos and photos of my small children. And stuff like better battery life has obvious utility. I’m just on my phone so much of the day and use it for so many different things that having it be a few percent better in a bunch of categories is a no brainer. And it’s often more than just a few percent!

stephenitis
1 replies
12h5m

I prefer having my old phone as an emergency backup.

eigenvalue
0 replies
3h46m

Yeah, but I have my old iPhone X for that which is good enough for a backup.

baby
2 replies
17h45m

I just made the switch to Android last week following the release of the pixel fold 9 pro. I couldn't wait for Apple to release a fold, they took too much time, and every new iPhone just looks like the one from 5 years ago.

I haven't had an Android phone in something like 10 years and I really think that Apple is about to start losing its monopoly due to the folding phones. They're the main (only?) reason to move to Android and leave the Apple ecosystem now.

The folding phone has now basically replaced my tablet, my phone, and my e-reader. It's just such a huge technological leap to just be able to open it up in the subway or in bed and get access to the massive screen on demand. It's actually much more comfortable to hold and type on this way that I'm writing this comment sitting on my couch with the phone unfolded in my hands.

eightysixfour
1 replies
14h25m

The rumors point to next year.

Havoc
2 replies
19h56m

6.3 inches on iPhone 16 Pro and 6.9 inches on iPhone 16 Pro Max — the largest iPhone display ever.

People want this? My current 6.7 14promax is already in hindsight too big for single hand operation.

Realistically I'm probably skipping 16 anyway. Top end 14 is still adequate for everything I need

jjcm
1 replies
15h51m

Are they actually changing the physical dimensions of the phone? My understanding was it was just a reduction in the bezels

hbs18
0 replies
9h15m

The 16 Pros are slightly taller

numbers
1 replies
18h44m

Usually when the Apple event is going on, my iMessages is pretty active with different sets of friends talking about it.

The non-techy group of friends only commented on the colors, size of the phone, and how there's nothing interesting to convince them to upgrade from the 13/14/15 models.

The nerdy group really got hyped on the Apple Intelligence part, only qualm being that it's not going to be released on day one. They also had screenshots to share of previous chips like the A16 and A17 to compare. The video specs were all followed by positive emojis because almost everyone has kids, pets, or things they like recording. And at the end, some even lamented the fact that the default storage is only 128GB on the smaller Pro model.

As someone who's very interested in smartphones, I found it kinda interesting how Apple seems to be sharing more data points on performance and specs instead of "useful features" that most people would notice.

evulhotdog
0 replies
17h43m

I suspect it’s because they don’t have a lot to brag about this year feature wise.

It feels like a “off” or “s” year. Some minor improvements and technically a new phone but nothing to write home about.

jFriedensreich
1 replies
9h36m

I wonder if i will ever be able to replace my 13 mini.

ibash
0 replies
9h26m

Though mine has been pretty indestructible. No case only mine, have dropped it a bunch and has a few dents, but the screen is perfect and I still get great battery life.

zdw
0 replies
20h10m

Finally, they've matched the Zune in excellent color choices.

xhruso00
0 replies
14h30m

The iPhone 16 is only USB2? Embarrassing.

wslh
0 replies
8h29m

I think the issue with the critical comments on Apple's new releases is that Apple is like Coke, no matter what they do, except for obvious glitches [1], it doesn't significantly impact their success. Apple is incredibly smart in capitalizing on opportunities, like designing and producing their own chips (TSMC's Apple Silicon), privacy advantages, and more. Additionally, there's a 'Hollywood-esque' aspect to the company that adds to its appeal.

[1] https://archive.is/uQszo

ungreased0675
0 replies
16h6m

I wish there was a 16 Mini being released as well. I prefer smaller phones.

tehnub
0 replies
16h21m

Anyone know why there's a 1 nit minimum brightness that apparently wasn't on the previous models?

teaearlgraycold
0 replies
19h34m

Anyone else disappointed they increased the size again? I feel like my 15 Pro would be better a little smaller as is.

system2
0 replies
2h18m

Everytime when they say "stunning" I want to punch an apple employee.

switch007
0 replies
14h8m

Still hackable by Cellebrite right?

They want you to put even more of your life on your phone but the security is just smoke and mirrors.

sosuke
0 replies
1h15m

I’d like a small phone with the newest screen and camera features. The phones with the features keep growing in size,

smellybigbelly
0 replies
13h25m

I wish they’d add a terminal app.

sam29681749
0 replies
15h37m

The concern I have with all the features and options being added to phones in general is the complexity it adds to using them.

russellbeattie
0 replies
18h42m

Only 8 GB of RAM across the phones. Still.

This is pretty insane to me. For a $1,000 device to limit itself like that seems crazy. iPads have up to 16 GB, so it's obviously useful. From games to the browser - and especially on-device AI and ML - they all could use way more RAM.

Apple's tech decisions are always an enigma.

nojvek
0 replies
7h2m

After seeing the Diamond article, I kinda want Apple to make a diamond glass indestructible scratch-proof shell.

That would be a flex.

napolux
0 replies
4h33m

My iPhone 14 Pro would be enough until the new Siri will come out in my language. So probably around iPhone 18.

My language was not even mentioned yesterday (italian)

mixmix
0 replies
15h47m

The iPhone SE 2016 remains to be the best smartphone Apple has ever released. This year, my wife made me replace it with a 13 mini, and it feels nothing but a downgrade: too large, too heavy, camera bumps, no headphone jack, no touch ID, atrocious PWM, etc.

Sure, I understand people have different needs from mine and appreciate they have a choice, but it saddens me that I don't anymore, and all I want is a modern (read: not discontinued), compact device that can do what a 10-year-old smartphone could do and gets out the way.

m3kw9
0 replies
13h30m

You get the phone for speed for their killer apps, previously it was stuff like instagram, camera, chat, games, now it’s AI and how it will enhance all apps. The slow roll out isn’t great, but Apple is gonna real bake it in. “Show me all my unread messages from the group chat”

kraig911
0 replies
15h53m

I wonder when the iphone 21+ comes out what are we going to call these things? And will they still use software services like AI to differentiate? I mean let's be real they could totally offload AI stuff to the cloud and keep it somewhat 'private' I fear apple is using AI as a way to sell hardware when really it's the same thing with a little more RAM.

kalium-xyz
0 replies
18h6m

If its 95% recycled. Where did apple recycle that titanium from?

jacobn
0 replies
20h6m

So a lot of Apple Intelligence is still vaporware then?

From [1] "Additional Apple Intelligence features will roll out later this year and in the months following", i.e. later in 2024 and then in 2025, and the not-available-at-launch features appear to be the stronger ones, e.g. ChatGPT integration?

Any word on improving the dictate-to-text keyboard feature? I could only find "In the Notes and Phone apps, users can also record, transcribe, and summarize audio", but that's different.

[1] https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/09/apple-debuts-iphone-1...

j_crick
0 replies
17h4m

Hopefully they'll also bump up the SE next spring and keep the button on it.

indianmouse
0 replies
15h48m

Really boring. Phones,,, apart from the actual functionality, Apple devices have started to become really really boring...

One is addiction (deaddiction mindset is becoming a thing) and the next is the fanboism (understandable and unstandable) which actually creates more aversion than anything!

While there is nothing wrong, the price to value justification is a like vampirism and surrounding ecosystem and hardware and specs are fine, but the real value of everything that is present is not realised by everyone.

Honestly people, how many of the actual iphone users even look at the photos taken in the phone after a day or two? probably 0.0001% (who may be pros who wants to make a statement and probably help fuel the hype for the company!) or some professionals who are stuck (sucked into) the ecosystem (for whatever non-debatable and (some good) reasons!). For the rest, it's a pride to own something costly! That's it. There you go... I said it.

It's like I'm owning a device which most people can't afford and I think I'm super and standout,but in reality, it's such a self obsessed and narcissistic feeling and nothing else!

It's their marketing and product placement and business tactics.

I just need a compact phone for making calls and don't want a device which I will proudly show in front of my face wherever and whenever possible... That's really annoying.

Good that I moved away from Apple ecosystem completely and I'm still alive.

Just too much hyped year after year...

That's the case with most manufacturers and just not these guys!

iansinnott
0 replies
15h55m

Curious to see if the apple LLM can interact with any messaging apps other than iMessage. Even amongst my American friends i only have a lone contact that I keep in touch with using iMessage.

graublau
0 replies
3h25m

steves keynotes were better than DEI lineup + campus drone porn

gigatexal
0 replies
16h19m

I think if I were in the market for a new iPhone the non-pro ones are more than enough for me. I’ve a 14 pro max and I don’t use all of it or its pro features.

What’s even crazier is I am tempted by the pixel fold — that looks amazing for content consumption which is what I use my phone for the most.

gerdesj
0 replies
17h38m

Would all Apple employees and 'fluencers here, please hold their hands up.

... gosh.

fionaellie
0 replies
13h27m

It's so stunning the word appears 13 times on this page.

evilfred
0 replies
12h42m

why is Pro have a massive 6.7" minimum? ugh.

datahack
0 replies
3h36m

I haven’t seen more people less impressed by an Apple product release since before the iMac came out.

For all the discussion, this was so mid it hurts.

I feel like people are poking the product release with a stick. C’mon. Do something.

crowcroft
0 replies
3h34m

My hot take – we've gone past peak camera for most people.

Yes, there is an audience that want more and more camera, and the pro caters to that. For a lot of people they just want a pretty good camera that they can quickly capture their memories with, they don't really care for the phone to be wrapped in a camera with a dedicated button etc. I also think in terms of all the AI image processing vs. just giving a natural image the quality peaked at the iPhone 13.

I think the camera button is neat, and of course no one is going to avoid an iPhone because of it, but I don't know if it's really going to drive sales more any other small iteration would. Again, the innovation continues to comes from software features.

consf
0 replies
47m

Genmoji... That's what i'm talking about

calini
0 replies
8h1m

So happy I got a 15 Pro, I couldn't care less about that button.

beretguy
0 replies
16h32m

No 4 inch device. I’m disappointed. I’ll have to continue using my 1st gen SE.

alasdair_
0 replies
18h59m

The satellite stuff is the reason why I'd buy it. I only need to use it once to be worth the money.

airstrike
0 replies
19h3m

Looks pretty cool, but honestly I don't even know what model I own. They all feel the same ever since X

_ph_
0 replies
20h26m

May be not an earth-shattering update vs. the 15, but overall a lot of improvements. Probably more so for the plain iPhone 16, as it gets the A18 SOC, the Pro seems to have mainly one CPU core more.

As I am on an iPhone 13 Pro Max, still in total absolutely a worthy upgrade for me. I certainly look forward to it. The advantages vs the 15 I can see so far:

- updated SOC, somewhat faster, but up to 30% more power-efficient which turns into

- larger battery life. Thats something everyone will welcome, I guess.

- better camera: 48mp wide angle, 120mm tele lens, 4k 120 Hz.

- a bit larger screen, too bad they at least didn't name any other screen enhancements

- the shutter button. A ton of functionality built into one single button. Pressure/touch sensitivity, haptical feedback. That should greatly improve its usage as a camera.

- all the AI stuff. We need to wait how it delivers, when it arrives (especially, if you are outside the US), but that could get interesting when it delivers.

While there wasn't any big surprise or outstanding change, for a year over year update a lot of things and definitely very nice for everyone with an older phone than the 15.

Refusing23
0 replies
6h40m

i feel like android phones have become boring too

there's just not much new going on. small improvements here and there..

i have a ton of options for my phone, special settings, options to download other apps, to further add new features

and i will probably never bother. i wanna use my phone as little as possible

BigParm
0 replies
1h45m

I'm not a fan of their website's aesthetic. Looks like they let the devs do it without hiring an artist.

0points
0 replies
18h48m

larger display sizes

LOL. Glad I grabbed a Mini before they was discontinued.