iPhone X vs iPhone 8 vs iPhone 7: Should We Upgrade?

Upgraded iPhones – iPhone X/iPhone 8/iPhone 8 Plus

 
The three updated iPhones this year are the slick all-screen iPhone X, the latest iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, made available with wireless charging.

 

How does the latest iPhone tend to differ?

 
The iPhone X has a different appearance in comparison to the other iPhones. It’s more like the Essential Phone and the Samsung Galaxy S8 though with an increase in screen-to-body ratio. On slimming down the bezels and eliminating the home button, Apple seems to have packed a 5.8-inch OLED display in a reduced body than the iPhone 7 Plus together with the iPhone 8 Plus. Towards the top of the display is included an IR camera, for the front facing camera together with an array of sensors - `Dot Projector’ and 1Flood Illumination’.

Moreover, Apple has also switched the aluminium frame utilised from the time of iPhone 6 with a glass back though has maintained the comfortable curved edges that are now of `medical grade’ stainless steel on the iPhone X. Regardless of the claim of Apple that the glass tends to be most durable in a smartphone, glass tends to be a fragile material which would mean that the user would not only have to cope with the likelihood of cracking the display when the phone tends to fall but the rear as well.

At first glance, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus tends to look similar to the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus which seems to appear like the iPhone 6, with chunky bezels together with home button/fingerprint reader. Apple has also included a glass back to the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus which tends to make it more delicate than its precursors.
 

What is the size of the iPhone X in comparison to other phones?

 
Some users have the penchant to the tiny, easy to use one hand dimensions. The amazing news is the `no bezel’ design which shows that the iPhone X is somewhat the same to the iPhone 8 than the Plus irrespective of its big screen. With regards to statistics, the iPhone X is said to be about 5.2mm taller than an iPhone 8 though the iPhone 8 Plus tends to be a substantial 14.8mm taller than the iPhone X. Moreover the iPhone X also tends ot be the same size as the Samsung Galaxy S8.
 

How does the iPhone X tends to work without a home button?

 
In order to get to the Control Centre, user could swipe down from the top of the screen towards the left, swiping down from the right side opens the notifications. These are small changes and not too complex. TouchID that are in-built in the home button have been replaced by FaceID on iPhone X tough TouchID tends to remain on the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus.
 

What is Face ID?

 
Since the home button has been eliminated from the iPhone X together with the fingerprint sensor by Apple, it has come up with a standby in the form of Face ID which is a facial-recognition security process enabling the user to unlock their phone with their face. Face ID, unlike Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7, utilises the new depth sensing camera of iPhone X for verifying the features which means that it is unable to be fooled with an image, the way the system of Samsung tends to do. It functions by utilising a `Flood Illuminator’, which provides adequate light for infrared camera as well as `Dot Projector’ for firing `30,000 invisible IR dots’ at one’s face. Thereafter the IR image together with the dot pattern is moved through neural networks for the creation of mathematical model of the face and is then matched to a stored 3D model. The information related to facial is protected by same `secure enclave’ utilised by TouchID while at the same time the data processing is carried on-device rather than of the cloud. Apple has stated that its tech is good enough for FaceID to function in the dark and also if one intends to improve on their looks like grow a beard, wear glasses etc. It’s left to be seen if FaceID would be living up to the promises made by Apple.
 

Should we care if iPhone X has OLED screen?

 
The iPhone X is said to be the first phone of Apple to have OLED display though Samsung had been utilising the same in its devices for several years. Apple’s IPS LED displays utilised tend to be good though OLED technology enables richer colours together with deeper blacks which is owing to the ability of turning each single pixel on or off whenever required. Considering stability, OLED seems to be a good upgrade due to its fantastic contrast of OLED screens which seems excellent for videos as well as photos and this is the reason people prefer an OLED TV. Hence it is good news that Apple has made the switch even though it has come up with this idea a bit late.
 

Are the latest iPhones faster?

 
The iPhone X and iPhone 8 features a new six-core A11 system-on-a-chip –SoC, comprising of four low-power core together with two performances cores which tend to build on 10nm FinFET manufacturing system rather than the 16nm process of A10 Fusion in the iPhone 7. Apple, on decreasing the process, has filled more transistors in a smaller space enhancing the performance as well as the battery life. Apple has claimed that the iPhone X has the potential of lasting for two hours longer on a charge than the iPhone 7 as well as it is 25% faster on performance cores and 75% faster on the energy efficient cores. In the meanwhile Apple has created its own Graphics Processing Unit – GPU for the A11 SoC breaking off with Imagination Technologies. Both the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus tends to have the same A11 SoC like the iPhone X. But the A11 seems to be a tough sell if one is a user of iPhone 7 and are also new to the features.

Apple TV 4K arrives, now Apple's finally ready to play the Ultra HD game

Apple TV 4K – Streaming Video-Player
 
The long-awaited streaming video-player of apple tv 4K is getting a renovation as the iTunes store squeezes Hollywood for an improved deal on Ultra HD movies. Since the prices of Ultra HD television has dropped they have been replaced by full HD as the default choice while shopping for big screen for the living room. Australians could overlook the Ultra HD broadcasting for the predictable future.

 In the meantime Ultra HD Blu-ray disc players have been gradually taking off though the easiest method of getting Ultra HD movies to your living room is through the internet where one would be having your home broadband connection. Bandwidth is obviously less scarce in US and so Apple watchers had been amazed two years back when the Apple TV 4th gen did not make the leap to Ultra HD.

 American at that point of time already had access to a range of Ultra HD capable streaming services comprising of Netflix, YouTube and Amazon though not the iTunes stores of Apple. If Steve Jobs had been around, he would have described Ultra HD as a `bag of hurt’, which is Apple-speak for `it doesn’t suit the business model at least not yet’ Ultra HD support back then would have benefitted Netflix more than Apple when Apple had been working on its own streaming video goals.
 
Ultra HD Trend
 
Two years thereafter, Cupertino is eventually taking on the Ultra HD trend so that apple tv 4K will show up on sign. The latest apple tv 4K had been put on sale in Australia on September 22 with pre-orders on September 15 priced at $249 for 32GB of storage for $279 for 64GB model.

The old Full HD apple tv 4K will fall to $209. Apple does not sell the earlier apple tv 4K models anymore which had not permitted the user to install third-party apps. In the meantime, Ultra HD movies will be coming to iTunes stores mainly for sale instead of rental. The most amazing thing is that the user will pay the same price as HD movies with a cost free upgrade for any of the HD movies one may have purchased earlier if they are made available in Ultra HD.

Apple is not taking a risk here. On the contrary it played hardball with the movie studio in making a better pricing deal rather than other video services which is a part of the continuing power struggle of Apple with content providers.
 
Support High Dynamic Range – Standard HDR10/Dolby Vision
 
Competitors such as Google Play in the meanwhile have been compelled to charge additional for Ultra HD movies not that there is much Ultra HD content in Australian store in spite of the launch of the Chromecast Ultra player. The apple tv 4K would be obtaining the support for Ultra HD Netflix shortly.

 The good news is that the player is said to support the High Dynamic Range for standard HDR10 as well as the advanced Dolby Vision chosen by Netflix HDR provides more vivid colours together with additional detail in the brightest highlight and deepest shadows. Amazingly Dolby Atmos audio support has not been mentioned.

Why Apple Won't Move the Mac to ARM

Why MacBooks won’t run on an ARM Processor

 
While there is certainly talk of Apple gaining independence and making its own ARM based processor for MAC, this is not really a good move for the company. Recently there were reports about Apple moving away from Intel processors for its Macbook and instead installing macbooks on ARM based processors.

ARM based processors have their own advantages. Apple will be able to integrate fingerprint, display and touch functions with the ARM based processor. They are power efficient, fast, will make computers lighter and thinner while at the same time running on a processing power equivalent to other processors.

ARM based processors are being thought of for only macbooks at present. All other devices such as mac pro, mac mini or Imacs will run on intel processors.

All this said and done, having an ARM based processor is not an ideal situation for Apple as then macbooks would not run on current versions of macOS.

This means that one of three things could happen. Either Apple does away with its desktop line of business or has macbooks made that are actually a little bigger than an Ipad or alternatively make new versions of macOS for various of its products.

Macbook as a Giant iPad- If Apple is really considering taking up to making Macbooks with ARM based processors then their macbooks are going to start looking like oversized ipads.

This is not altogether bad since Apple knows that inspite of an iPad coming with multiple apps and quality processors it is still unable to match up with the functioning of a notebook.

However if Apple does proceed with this step it will need to adapt its MacOS to the new processor. Basically the ARM based processor will require new architecture in which to function.

This processor would require professional software to run, this may not be a very cost effective way to implement the processor and sales of macbooks installed with such a processor would not do well.
Maintaining two processors- If Apple goes ahead with this move, it is going to have to create two macOS, one for ARM based processors and one for intel processors. As mentioned earlier only macbooks would run on ARM processors while all the rest would run on intel processors.

Having different processors means that the macOS would have to be configured to meet both processors different needs and architecture. This is a difficult process not to mention the fact that both these different operating systems would have to be maintained, what with all the updates and such.

No desktop line of business- Instead of all the hulabaloo of adjusting and maintaining different macOS for different processors, Apple can consider getting rid of its desktop line of business.

But would you get rid of something that may not be a major profit earner but still giving you good returns, well no and with apple recently unveiling a new mac pro and imac this even more does not seem to be the case.

With the new ARM processor apple would be able to take a step away from intel at present but it would also have to contend with the added workload of having to maintain two varieties of macOS while the macbooks with newly installed ARM processors might not even do well in sales. Basically the move to ARM processors does not make any real sense.

Apple to fix iOS 11 Reachability Bug that Restricts Cover Sheet Pulldown

Apple’s Reachability Bug

 
User’s of Apple’s iOS 11 are now encountering a Reachability Bug problem in using the reachability feature. The reachability feature allows the user to reach the top screen and its apps by double tapping the home button, thereby allowing ease of access to any user. Right now users are encountering Reachability Bug problems when coversheets clashes with reachability.

The notification feature in Apple is now called as cover sheets. Cover sheets is used to combine your lock screen with your notifications. Now a user can get their notifications on their lock screens with all the other lock screen features such as the time and other lock screen info. The notifications are shown in chronological order and are not grouped according to app. Although it is very similar to the old notification center there appear to be differences in the notification options.

The Reachability Bug has only arisen with the iOS11 edition when the reachability feature and cover sheet features have been introduced together. At present it is not known if the bug is a software glitch or otherwise. Apple’s chief software engineer says that they are working to remedy the situation. This has led to hopes that the company intends fixing the bug in future revisions to iOS 11.

Apparently, In iOS 11 the user could access reachability by double tapping the home button and getting all their apps which were on the top of the screen closer to their finger tips. This could be done for easier one-handed access. After this they could swipe down just below the app line instead of all the way up to access all their notifications. But it seems this feature is not present or has been overlooked by the Apple team in iOS 11. Therefore the user would have to reach all the way up to access those notifications. This has severely hampered user’s utility. Such a Reachability Bug has not been seen in previous IOS versions.

The recently launched iphone X does not come with the reachability feature. But an Apple developer has seen the code work for reachability support, thereby hinting at the new iphone X coming with the reachability feature in the near future.

Recently Apple has released iOS 11.1 beta version for developers and individuals alike for testing. Apparently the reachability and coversheet glitch namely Reachability Bug has not yet been addressed in this newer version. The 3d touch multitasking app has been brought back in the beta 2 version of iOS 11.1

Apple is now working to remedy the Reachability Bug which will come in the near future.

Apple Patents Self-Adjusting Apple Watch Bands

 Apple has quietly filled the patent for the self-adjusting Apple Watch bands

Apple has again taken every major player in the wearable gadgets market by surprise successfully securing patent for wide range of self-adjusting Apple Watch bands. As the name suggest this patent will allow the bands to tighten and loosen automatically in order to provide a perfect fit. This patent is formally called US Patent No. 9,781,984 which brings dynamic fit adjustment for wearable electronic devices and band s in question is made of leather or simple rubber materials. This patent showcase that Apple is actively looking for a new technology which allows it provides a more innovative product to the users.

Apple Watch going through the best phase

 

Just a month ago Apple has launched the Apple Watch Series 3 which brings the LTE support on the smartwatch for the first time. At the launch event it was announced that Apple Watch had grown by a massive 50% on year-on-year basis. This is remarkable feat for the Apple Watch as the market for wearable never really took off and for quite sometimes the sales in their area were slowing down. It would also come as a surprise that Apple Watch Series has the Apple Watch the number one watch in the world by taking the crown from Rolex which has almost surprised every critic and fan.

After the success of the iPhone, Macbook and Apple Watch, Apple has become quite repetitive in terms of design and innovation for some time which started questioning its ability to bring better design or new innovative product. This year Apple has put on the innovation hat by bringing the whole new mix of design and innovation with iPhone X leaving everyone spell bounded by its stunning design, form factor and impressive performance.

With Apple Watch Series 3 Apple brought the LTE support allowing using to take and make calls using their smartwatch. The best thing about the LTE support is that users wouldn’t have to manage a second SIM card or phone number rather Apple Watch Series will make use of the same number used by the iPhone. Now it seems Apple is innovating at a break-neck speed with the news of patent filling for the self-adjusting Apple watch bands.

 

New exciting way of using Apple Watch

The proposed patent has shown some new ways in which users will be able to use the Apple Watch in future. The self-adjusting Apple Watch bands when this patent is implemented on it then the band will be able to expand or contract with electric signals. This band will come with a shape memory wire running through it allowing it to know when to expand and contract. It will also feature a fluid or gad filled bladder as well as lags which are most likely to retract right back into the watch body.

Apple has made no comments about the patents and of this information has been taken from the patent filing itself. As in the past this self-adjusting Apple Watch bands patent doesn’t mean that we will get to see the in the actual product next year.