Of course Steve was not always right....
I mean he is the one who hired the one who would fire him ....
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Andy Rubin's Essential Products Announces Modular Smartphone and Amazon Echo Rival
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I mean he is the one who hired the one who would fire him ....
8 GB would allow true desktop on a phone. Of course it would need a serious desktop OS. Now, if the new Mac mini was just an over spec'd iPhone... drool.
it's not embarrassing, nobody cares except tech blogs looking to slam apple and a few phone nerd purists. normal people simply don't care, and neither do i. the pictures it delivers are what i care about.
Many similarities to the next iPhone including a noticeable space for the camera and sensors on top of the phone. I am also suspecting that the next iPhone will likely have a fingerprint sensor on the back. Mark my words, but this phone announcement beat Apple to the punch in terms of the overall design.
I've played around with one at retail. The issue I have with the fingerprint reader on the back, center, is that you have to re-adjust and bend your fingers (either your index or middle finger) in a strange way to accurately press on the button. I think it would work better if it wasn't placed in the center / middle of the phone, but rather to either side, so that your index finger could just slide over from the edge of the phone to the sensor - in the exact same way you use your thumb on the iPhone home button.
The fingerprint sensor location is fine. They only blew it if the camera is not in the top 5, or if it has some unknown serious weakness.
The fingerprint sensor on the back is optimal positioning, short of having it in the screen. It allows the user to pick up the phone and unlock it in the same motion with one hand. If the fingerprint sensor is on the front and below the screen, this is much more awkward to do. I wouldn't buy another phone with the fingerprint reader under the screen.
No camera bump? #doomed
Their flush camera is actually THE thing this device has most in its favor. With all the attention to aesthetic and cleanliness, I'm still astonished Apple looks to retain the camera bump. Gah! Does the couple of millimeters thicker device truly justify the bump? Again, gah!
Their flush camera is actually THE thing this device has most in its favor. With all the attention to aesthetic and cleanliness, I'm still astonished Apple looks to retain the camera bump. Gah! Does the couple of millimeters thicker device truly justify the bump? Again, gah!
In my eyes, once we have just a screen, most phones will begin to resemble the exact same thing. It will all come down to software, core technologies (touch ID, 3D touch, chip development, AI, etc.), service, and support. I think Apple is in a great position here.
similar story when i went from iphone 6 to nexus 6p with rear fingerprint sensor.
the thing is ultra fast and responsive. and due to this, its overall better than the iphone implementation. i imagined the placement would be weird but dont give it even a second thought. like apple products....... the rear sensor "just works".
just like when i imagined i'd be annoyed going from android to iphone with only a single main navigation button.... as long as its designed and implemented correctly, its a non issue
This seems like a better approach to a modular phone because you're not replacing major components. That being said, that kind of defeats the purpose of having a modular phone. I'm not really sure who this phone is for? It kind of looks like a fugly version of the jet black iPhone 7 on the back, and the S8 on the front, but with the weird camera cutout in the display. Based on that photo, it looks like it has a large bezel along the bottom, so I'm not sure why they couldn't include the camera or fingerprint scanner there instead?
I will say that the render for their smart speaker looks slick. Reminds me of the Nest, but somehow sleeker.
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As for benchmarks, try running something in the browser like http://browserbench.org/JetStream/. My iPhone 7 kicked the crap out of my late 2012 27" iMac that has a 3.4GHz quad-core i7. And that was after a reboot where I had closed out of many non-essential background processes! I used Safari for both tests and I still can't figure out exactly what was going on. Some kind of throttling? Doesn't make sense. I'll need to try it again sometime, but the A10 chip is fast as hell. I can't wait to see what an A11X can do in the next iPad Pro.
I will say that the render for their smart speaker looks slick. Reminds me of the Nest, but somehow sleeker.
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I've thought this for a long time, but I think it will still be a long time. Why? Because they make more money selling different devices for similar needs. Eventually competition will catch up and force a true do-everything device, but it will be a long road. Also, for the time being, desktops and laptops always come in a version faster than a mobile device. People who need ultimate productivity will continue to buy the fastest available thing. Maybe when Moore's law hits the wall (not too far off) we'll see this happen as all devices will be a similar speed. But then you have potential advances in graphene and quantum computing that will pick up where silicon left off. And those early devices will likely be desktops and laptops and trickle down to mobile at some point when it becomes more feasible for whatever power requirements and price points need to be met for that to happen.
As for benchmarks, try running something in the browser like http://browserbench.org/JetStream/. My iPhone 7 kicked the crap out of my late 2012 27" iMac that has a 3.4GHz quad-core i7. And that was after a reboot where I had closed out of many non-essential background processes! I used Safari for both tests and I still can't figure out exactly what was going on. Some kind of throttling? Doesn't make sense. I'll need to try it again sometime, but the A10 chip is fast as hell. I can't wait to see what an A11X can do in the next iPad Pro.
No, Apple did not blow the iPhone, by every metric you'd want to pick. Bezels, September can't come soon enough.
And you can't be serious about a fingerprint sensor on the back being somehow better than in the front.
One version or another of this vision has existed since the 60s. I think the issue all along has been standards and interoperability. The issue has morphed of course, but in essence it is always the same.
As a consumer of this superconverged device, how do you shop for which system is best for you if not all "stations" will be compatible with your device? As a purchaser or operator of these "stations," how do you select which devices to support and in which categories.
We can't even get all the companies to agree on a which plug to use to supply basic power - let alone all the interfaces required for the type of "station" you're describing. It's not a unique issue, we can't agree on a charging standard for EVs either. Heck, most countries can't even agree on what type of fuel to use for cars or which type of plug to use for AC electricity.
And before someone chimes in the "USB," as the answer - it's not. Among many problems, USB as a standard setting organization has done a pretty poor job of it and is constantly fiddling with the standard to the point of where they can't get out of their own way. Further, how comfortable are you with letting the huge corporations in charge of the USB consortium own such an important standard?
The argument might also go that this reluctance to standardize is a good thing. Standards hinder innovation and discourage feature differentiation. It is a 100 times more difficult to disrupt an industry which has been standardized because there is almost no room through which to drive a wedge - if you're standard compliant then you can't stand out, if you stand out then people will be unwilling to stray from the standard.
So I think this vision for a "station" anyone can use and have all their files and apps on will continue to elude us until computation and computational power become a commodity like potatoes and we don't really care anymore. Probably not in our lifetimes.
Yes, but also puts a lot of pressure on Apple. Seems Essential released details now ahead of WWDC to grab attention. Also cute how they didn't announce a price. What do you bet that comes out soon after WWDC and is significantly less expensive than Apple's (assume they announce as rumored). Of course it also has to actually work, no matter what price point, so there is that small detail.
Lol... Why do you say so? May be there are other people who dont mind having the sensor on the back... For them, Essential did not blow it...
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So? Millions of people around the world use Android without any problem. Maybe there was a big gap few years ago. Android has gotten pretty good since.
As we all know, you're a better designed than Jony Ive if you manage to make the bezels thinner.
Doesn't even matter if you have to put the FP reader on the back, or the front camera on the bottom, dual speakers, symmetry, etc...