Apple Announces iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus
macrumors.com
macrumors.com
Just shows you how companies are different in focus, quality control and attention to detail.
I'm not saying they do have those issues, but how do you know they don't? You can't compare a released product to a marketing ad.
Apple released fall detection in Apple Watch few years ago, there are already stories of lives it saved.
I'm pretty sure if Apple had an outstanding software bug of not being able to call emergency services for over a year now, I'm pretty sure we (HN crowd) would know it by now.
Android/Pixel safety features: https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/7055029?hl=en
I loved my Nexus 5 phone. It’s still my favorite phone as far as aesthetics goes. It was a great value and much cheaper than comparable phones at the time. It bricked itself with a boot loop issue 2 weeks out of warranty. Google was nice enough to replace it with another one that promptly ended up boot looping as well.
I also loved my Nexus 7 tablet. Beautiful device that was so far ahead of its time in terms of looks. It had an issue with absolutely terrible storage that made it so sluggish past its initial release (I believe the issue was the chip itself was degrading and it was a widespread issue). Updating to a higher version of Android made it completely unusable.
I’ve not owned any, but I keep hearing about issues of reliability in both software and hardware with Pixel phones as well.
My best phone for Android has been the Samsung Galaxy S6. Every iPhone i’ve had has been almost entirely problem-free. At this point, I don’t see any reason to buy Google anything.
The Nexus 7 was a nice form factor for reading web pages because it was long and thin in portrait mode. The combination of hardware issues reported by other people and again lack of supported upgrades led me to eBay it.
The thing about Apple is, and has been since its inception, that makes devices that actually work in a way people can benefit from it instead of ticking items on checklists.
Mind you, Apple makes bluetooth earphones that reached business since larger than some of the most sexy and famous businesses out there. These bluetooth earphones have just one feature that is outstanding: They work as expected, most of the time.
I'm sure people have found androids useful in a way they actually benefit from it.
I don't have anything against Android, I'm happy it exists but I'm annoyed with the lack of polish of the products running it or the fragmentation they created.
Better hope you don't listen to Apple Music in Lossless, though, because the newly announced Airpods... don't support it.
PS: It actually does play whatever sound you play but it wouldn't transfer it as a lossless since bluetooth can't handle those bandwidths.
Again, just because Google doesn't open their presentation with a dramatized video of people sending them fan letters about how their product saved their life doesn't mean their product aren't useful or not saving lives.
Another thing Google has had for some time is early Earthquake warning, which also has saved lives, maybe that's another feature you'll see show up on iPhones in a few years, and people like you will claim Apple invented it and praise Apple for it.
iOS has supported early earthquake warnings in Japan since iOS5. (see https://9to5mac.com/2011/08/21/ios-5-includes-early-earthqua...)
For other regions, like California, you can download a supported app to receive alerts, like MyShake (https://myshake.berkeley.edu).
Not so - just checked and it auto-corrects that to Pixel 5 Car Crash detection. Even the strawman argument is proven false.
https://9to5google.com/2021/02/23/pixel-car-crash-detection-...
Doesn’t look like Apple’s feature is country-restricted.
1. Different companies have different focus and strategies. I would say Google likes to experiment, but sometimes has poor follow-through. Apple often waits a few generations before committing to new technology, so they often are not innovation leaders, but they execute well.
2. Roll-outs often do not occur all at once. There might be blockers which are not immediately visible, such as regulational, financial, cultural. A regulational example would be how Apple Watch's ECG was not rolled out world-wide at first, and was spread slowly as various countries gave approval for this feature.
Whereas Google just sticks to the same 10-or-so countries for rollout.
(I had Nexus/Pixel phones for a decade up until recently)
Since Pixel 3, so 4 years ago.
I'm wary of the actual math on these things.
I think it's an honest attempt either way, but aside from a few anecdotes of 'it working as intended' I really do wonder if the math works out on this stuff i.e. cost/benefit is really there.
Without seeming too apathetic, if 2 or 3 people are able to make life saving calls due to this every year because they were 'out in the wilderness' ... then it may not be worth a massive global technical deployment. It might be more rational for people to buy/rent proper off-trail gear, or, for cars to have these things built in or something along those lines - where the cost efficiencies are much greater.
I'd expect Reachability will allow for one-handed operation: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/reachability-iph145eb...
edit: forgot to add ... if you change countries or have to make an additional unplanned hop, VZ does not work in that scenario either.
> if you change countries or have to make an additional unplanned hop, VZ does not work in that scenario either
Just so I understand you, Verizon has an international plan where you have to touch base back in the States every time you go to some other country, before it will work in the next country? I must have misunderstood what you were saying.
A rep once explained this to me as "innovation". Cool.
I for reasons kept physical sim as US domestic, and used the eSIM internationally for years, popping into any random local phone store and getting dirt cheap local numbers with a QR code.
As a backup, a half dozen apps like GigSky or Nomad that manage eSIMs for countries or regions in case you just can’t find anything (search eSIM in app store). Haven’t paid more than 30USD for unlimited data for a month (or a couple bucks a GB metered) anywhere since they introduced the first eSIMs in EU and Asia.
First, check if any of the big few domestic carriers have a temporary or contract free esim. In Japan, for example, NTT Docomo does.
When you get to Japan you are going to find an operator NTT Docomo physical store, the second most popular. The virtual SIM cards of this company have the following characteristics:
- Data plans of 1 to 7 GB.
- 4G LTE connection.
- No minimum clause or contracts.
- Exclusive virtual SIM cards for 5G devices.
Same approach anywhere, in my experience.
They are supporting dual eSIMs. https://www.apple.com/iphone-14-pro/specs/
International travel usually involves stopping by a kiosk or store at the airport to pick up a SIM. They’re absolutely universal.
Perhaps Google is uniquely incompetent, but I would be very wary about assuming that an eSIM-only phone will work with a given provider.
Existing members, even those using esim on Android phones, have to get a physical sim first.
Obviously this will have to change at some point since physical sim is going away but I am unsure how long it will take Google to make the change.
Technically, iOS support on Fi is still in beta even though it works quite well.
Grabbing a local sim card is a must for me since I rely on the data plan for work. It also tends to be much cheaper to get 20 or 30 gigs of 5g data. eSim is making this much more convenient to pick up a secondary plan, but sometimes your best option is a SIM card.
Not my experience. AT&T international day pass works in many countries I’ve been to, and I stayed online all day, phone or internet. Never once got booted. Not sure what you mean by pinging home either. It works just as well as local SIM card. It better does, as it costs $10 a day
Also, not like I couldn’t pay it, but $300 a month is pretty steep when my current in-country plan is $10 a month for 40 gigs of 5g and I know I am getting first priority and have the lowest ping.
I was in Switzerland for a single day recently, which is a situation where I can see a $10 a day roaming plan make sense, but then I just switched to my secondary sim’s data which included Switzerland in the coverage area.
Spent multiple years on roaming data permanently & was fine (UK vodafone)
I use Google Fi when I roam abroad now for the most part, especially in South America where getting and activating local SIM cards is often especially difficult.
If you lose the sim tray, you are at a disadvantage in places where local sims are the best option, which are many.
Sure you can often get esims “sorted out”, but… why? What’s the upside? Having the physical one “just works”, and you can swap them or put them to different phone or whatever. No need to “download app” or do some registration dance.
Seems like just another vendor lock-in?
So no, not “literally no one”. Things are changing, eSIM is increasingly common. Apple’s being Apple and just propels that change.
When I crossed the border from Rwanda to Uganda, I bought a sim at a local shop, and a boy from the village cut it down to size by hand with a pair of scissors. They are not going to have ESIM anywhere soon.
ESIM requires carriers around the world to have the technical competency to make the activation and management process work smoothly and that is not something I would count on.
Found this for Uganda.
This is exactly what I'm talking about: if you have this phone you will be paying exorbitant prices for connectivity all over the world.
edit: it looks like the average in Uganda is $1.56/GB and you can get data as low as $0.45/GB USD
https://techjaja.com/the-cost-of-1gb-of-data-in-uganda-vs-th...
Airtel, for example, said it was work in progress, as of March this year.
Seriously, when it comes to application of new technology, the world isn't as behind the US as US might think. Often times, they actually get years ahead. I think you overestimate how long it's gonna take Africa or Asia to get eSIM up and running. They have a clear incentive now, as it's only a matter of time before Android manufacturers start to copy Apple in that regard, too.
It remains to be seen if Android will copy this move, as Apple is even hesitant to roll it out anywhere besides the US. I almost wonder if there is something else motivating it, like pressures to prevent iPhones intended for the US market from being sold overseas.
That's a bold statement to make. You realize that merely 15 years we didn't even have smartphones? How many random prophetic it-won't-happens happened in that time?
On the other hand, Smartphones were better positioned to drive adoption that eSIMs are. Smartphones create immediate utility for the user over feature phones. eSIM is arguably better than a physical sim, but at the end of the day you are only saving maybe a tiny inconvenience every time you have to swap out the sim. So there's not going to be a large push to switch from the user side.
A good comparison might be USB-C. People were writing in 2015 that the writing was on the wall for USB-A[1], and even though USB-C is basically better in every way, it's still not fully adopted 7 years later. It's not even the standard for desktop peripherals.
Also Smartphones are a highly competitive market with multiple vendors vying for users. Telecoms are mostly monopolies, and have little incentive to improve in most cases.
The only real driver I see for this is if eSIM-only devices get widespread popularity. I don't see it happening any time soon with low-end Android phones. Maybe wearables, but I feel like the idea of people in the developing world getting a second data plan for a wearable is a long way off.
But I could be wrong.
[1]: https://www.theverge.com/2015/6/2/8704551/usb-type-c-is-the-...
I'm a dual physical SIM user today but I'm not worried about going eSIM, especially if that was the state of things prior to the iPhone going eSIM only.
T-Mobile definitely will (I mean, you pay for x GB and minutes and it lasts a month, just like most prepaid setups). Just requires a download of their app -- I use it when I'm traveling to the states (my carrier in NZ uses a physical SIM).
that said, all of the US carriers have extensive international roaming agreements and international data/voice is much cheaper these days.
also, if you're like me and get in at 0200, no stalls for you
I can access my full dataplan for £2 a day if I am travelling in Europe, or £6 a day if travelling outside Europe. This usually means that it's not worth getting a sim now if I go abroad (which maybe is a bit cheaper, but a lot more hassle and I can't keep my number).
Plus if you are travelling through a few countries, you don't have to buy several sims, and if travelling for work then a few days roaming is cheaper than buying the sim anyway.
https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/06/07/eu-agrees-all-mobil...
MagSafe would need an update to support high bandwidth data transfer but that seems feasible.
Even if i would be more than happy to hear that the phone requires it as well. The transformer is the biggest source of e-waste and the biggest nuisance to carry around while traveling. Cables are smaller factors in both aspects.
Worst case is you add another dongle to your collection.
also deeply weird and annoying that the Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse use lightning for charging, that was a dumb call out of the gate
This argument is bollocks.
People won't throw lightning cables if the iPhone 14 had USB-C because their current phones STILL use Lightning.
Current phones' ports wouldn't magically become USB-C overnight.
What do you mean? Macbook is USB-C, iPad is USB-C etc. It's a pain in the ass to have the iPhone still lighting
I don't hate USB-C but it's far from perfect for every use case.
I wouldn't trust USB-C to hold up to the same abuse I deal to my lightning connectors.
https://blog.telestial.com/2017/11/countries-where-satellite...
If people want it now in the US, they can just sign up for the beta. I know several people who did that and got it. It isn't a high bar.
In heavily tested locations (West Coast), it has gotten to the point that it seems to pretty much work.
Also SpaceX is not Tesla in the first place anyway.
The only thing is battery life. Especially in the cold, but that’s not an Apple thing, that’s an electronics thing. But you keep it in an internal pocket where body heat can keep it warm and turn off all the radios, or even the phone itself while not in use, and it can last a long time. I can now trade out my garmin inreach for a portable battery (which I already carry every trip yet never needed so far).
Here's a possible scenario. I'm sure it's wildly off from reality, but maybe reality has the same properties. Each month, 1 in 10,000 users call in [1]. For the same revenue you can charge:
$1 per user per month
$10,000 per use
One of those, people will hate you for. Charging $100 per use would slash your revenue by 99%. May as well make it free. I actually think that would be the way to go and maybe they'll do it some day.
[1] If that seems wildly low, remember it's per month and getting lost in the wilderness is pretty rare for the average person.
$1,449 -> $1,399 for the 256 GB model.
You can see this in the new pricing too. The iPhone 13 was £779, but the iPhone 14 is £849. That's an increase of £70 (9%) in pounds, but a drop of $99 (9%) in dollars. Presumably, Apple is willing to eat a bit of exchange-rate fluctuations. Likewise, the iPhone 13 Pro was £949, but the iPhone 14 Pro is £1,099 - an increase of £150 (16%), but a decrease of $46 (3%) in dollars.
Before someone says "Apple is always overcharging UK customers - $1075 for an iPhone 13 compared to $800 in the US," it's important to note that different countries have very different regulations, fees, import tariffs, and taxes. I believe VAT in the UK is 20%.
Yes, they have dropped the price. It doesn't seem like much of a drop because most of the price decrease is in the fact that the pound has lost so much value. It's £100 cheaper than the iPhone 14 (which is what you were expecting), but it's only £30 cheaper than the iPhone 13 was a day ago (presumably in large part due to the fact that the pound is worth so much less now than a year ago).
I think that bit along with SIM slot removal is just a push towards eSIM.
Where I'm residing everything is backwards and difficult, I'm not sure eSIMs are going to be easy for me?
Regardless, you need your carrier to support phone eSIMs and one of several registration methods: app, QR code, or manual parameters. (because some carriers support data-only eSIM for smartwatches)
But given this new eSIM push (and that non-US iPhone 14 models will keep the SIM slot) I think a lot more carriers are going to work towards this now. One of the 30 shown in Apple’s event is an Israeli carrier and they’ve been dragging their feet on eSIM for years, only doing the bare minimum for Apple Watch and Galaxy Watch.
By the way, if anyone know any video stabilizing software, please let me know. Tracking feature on video editors seem complicated to me.
Stabilizing is usually a separate feature from tracking, at least it’s a separate plugin on Premiere. Sadly I’m not well versed in the field.
- have the latest and greatest iPhone
- crash only in apple approved countries, because apparently car crashes are specific to countries.
- improve your crash experience by buying an Apple Watch ultra for better detection.
— pray to Tim Apple that the algorithm detects your crash.
Plus it comes in purple.
The iPhone 13 and 13 mini have 2.93ghz high power cores and 2.02ghz low power cores.
The iPad Mini 6 has the same 2.93ghz high power cores and underclocked 1.82ghz low power cores, I believe because of the extra heat from the larger screen.
The iPhone 13 Pro and Pro Max have higher clocked 3.23ghz high power cores and the same 2.02ghz low power cores as the regular iPhone 13.
The iPhone Pro's also have the extra 2GB of ram compares to the others and the iPhone 13/13 Mini are the only ones with the 4 core GPU rather than the 5 core GPU.
All we know now for sure about the iPhone 14 and 14 Plus are that they will have the 5 core GPU. We will have to wait for a hands on to know more about the specifics of the A15 they are using.
That said, I doubt that they will have the underclocked low power cores that they iPad Mini 6 has so I think the path of least resistance is for them to take the same A15 from the 13 Pro, with more RAM and overclocked high power cores, and just keep using it in the iPhone 14.
Otherwise they have to introduce a fourth A15 variant which seems like more work than using one they already are manufacturing.
I don't know shit about CPU manufacturing though so I am mostly just talking out of my ass.
Comparing the base 13 and 14 the only real hardware difference is that the selfie camera picked up autofocus and has an aperture change. There's a very minor aperture change to the main camera lens, but I'm not sure whether it's significant.
Again with the 14 Pro, the always on display is a definite change. Probably depends on your own usage patterns whether it'd actually make a practical difference for you.
Apple's comparison tool is actually pretty useful for this stuff: https://www.apple.com/iphone/compare/?modelList=iphone13,iph...
(true, it is not an apple to apple comparison)
1. background is always black (since it's what the notch used to be) for things like FaceID the animation looks worse and more intrusive 2. it's interactive that means you're gonna be touching it a lot and getting smudge on the camera
Thanks for the replies, I see now that they're talking about pixel binning.
But doesn't the iPhone 13 sensor also have sensor "sub-pixels" that it's grouping into effective pixels to get a 12 MP camera?
i.e. does the iPhone 14 do something different with the data coming from the sensor, or is the sensor different (for example, it allows some sub-pixel control that the iPhone 13 sensor does not)? Apple says the sensor (area I suppose) is 65% larger, but that's not enough to account for this 4x'ing.
Thanks!
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I might be totally wrong, but could the 48 MP not be... real megapixels of any one camera or sensor, but a software fusion of the 3 cameras' sensors? Is that possible?
There's language on the iPhone page that makes me think this -- "So the new sensor groups four pixels together into one large quad pixel, gathering 4x more light and producing spectacularly better photos at the practical 12MP size"
What does "at the practical 12MP size" mean? Which "four pixels"? Where are the pixels captured/coming from?
There's also "For the ultimate combination of detail and flexibility, shoot in ProRAW at 48MP resolution. A new machine learning model delivers sharper images and less noise for unprecedented detail."
How much is the 48 MP a mix of sensor fusion (which could be purely software, or running on a chip, but still, post-sensor) and AI versus an actual 48 MP sensor?
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I have similar feelings about the crash detection (accelerometer-based) and even the satellite (5G-based?) capability. Are these features just... rebranded existing things // new software features?
So what's different here? Are there truly 4 times more sub-pixels? Or is this a new algorithm to interpret the sub-pixels data...? But the sensor is the same as the previous generation?
Each pixel is grouped together with three others for most applications (taking photos etc) but they can also be used individually (It said it could do 48MP videos)
But... what's the difference between the iPhone 14 and 13 then? The iPhone 13 presumably also has a Bayer sub-pixel arrangement on its sensor?
What difference/innovation is happening with the iPhone 14 sensor? That the sub-pixel data can be processed, where in the case of the iPhone 13 it was inaccessible? Thanks!
I've never really seen a good explanation for why this is anything special vs just making the image smaller post capture in a non-naive way (like when they are already running it through the AI offload engine) considering all the hype it gets.
It's sort of backwards. You can get access to sub pixels to get '4 times' more data, but pixel binning is actually the other direction -> grouping pixels together.
A lot of camera performance is related to photosite size - larger photosites for light to hit, better performance/more sensitivity. The problem is that if you have a camera sensor in a DSLR, you have room for big pixels, but when you have the small sensors in phones you don't have the room for large pixels and giant MP count for marketing.
So pixel binning treats groups of pixels like one large pixel to try and improve sensor performance while still maintaining large megapixel counts for marketing.
In terms of innovation we haven't heard anything. There are already smartphones with pixel binning on the market. This is apple just saying Us Too unless they've released information on a new unique binning technique I haven't seen.
They say that literally every year and I never notice.
For example, this YouTube video from a quick YouTube search shows fairly insignificant differences between the iPhone 11 and 13 non-Pro models: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjosGytrIJI
As an example, I looked at this low-light photo comparison of the basic 11 and the 13 pro max:
https://www.gsmarena.com/piccmp.php3?idType=5&idPhone1=11089...
Sometimes the later model's image looks a bit better, sometimes it's indistinguishable. Meanwhile the 13 pro max costs more than twice as much in my country.
I think often a single year's improvements are negligible but real, so any given two year's improvements are much more noticeable.
physical crash, not the kind that can be caught
I really wish they kept on offering a Mini. Maybe I'll just go for a 13 mini, but the camera does look substantially improved, and satellite communication would be very nice to have (I do lots of hiking away from cell reception).
You can still take photos as close as the camera can focus otherwise on other models, I suspect your S8 is doing this but the macro mode locks it to minimum focal length. Macro mode (or anything focal) isn’t something explicitly exposed in the iOS camera app so it would actually be weird to have it there - you take macro photos with the Pro by just moving the phone really close to something, there’s no way to force it.
You may like to check out the app Halide, which can force macro focus and will even do its best on non-Pro iPhones (but the results won’t compare without a lens that can focus really close)
Starting with the iPhone 13 series (actually already the iPhone 12 Pro Max) Apple somewhat crippled the standard camera regarding close-range photos. Closest focus is now around 14cm. All previous models, and most main cameras from all other brands, typically have a closest focus at around 7-10cm. Means the best resolution with the main cam is now about half what it was before...
If you regularly need close-range photos with decent resolution, the iPhoneSE 22 will give you far better results than the iPhone 13.
Halide will not help you, it seems that it is a hardware limitation. Probably a marketing decision by Apple to promote the UW macro mode of the Pro model.
AFAIK, the only app that works in this configuration is Facetime. For all other apps such as AppleTV, Apple Music, youtube, zoom, etc. the iPhone doesn't output audio at all.
I hope this bug gets fixed in the new iPhones.
https://support.switcherstudio.com/en/articles/5009024-check...
Wouldn't surprise me if Apple currently feels that they're so widely perceived as being the performance winners that they don't need to hammer down on it. They had that one slide comparing their competition to the A13, after all.
I upgraded through AT&T, who gave me a $700 trade-in on my iPhone X. I also snagged an additional discount on my new iPhone 13 Pro Max because I was OK with an unpopular color ("bamboo"), so my total cost ended up being around $200.
Apple's offering $150 for an iPhone X, and $430 for an iPhone 12 Pro.
We, as Hacker community, need to speak up - these practices must be stopped.