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Finally 1920x1080p screens.
- Thread starter VinegarTasters
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Enlighten us. Is Apple innovating in the smartphone world? And if they are, what with?
Software wise? Nope, not really. Crossing fingers for iOS 7! Hardware wise I think they definitely are.
Aren't you on time-out?
Elaborate. I can think only of using aluminum (and even that I'm not sure they're the first) and in-cell screen tech (LG has "zerogap" screens, which they must've been developing alongside Apple, timeline wise). But fair is fair. Is that all?
I forgot about the Lightning dock connector. I'll give you that, though it doesn't bring anything really new to the table, other than you can insert it either side. I guess you can label that innovative, but that's debatable. I don't see anyone following suit, really.
Sapphire for camera lens. They engineered everything to be smaller and thinner. The camera, for example, doesn't protrude like it does on almost every other phone. They're making their own killer chips now, and they integrated an LTE chipset with a much faster chip all while achieving better battery. The hardware is made of aluminum, and it's kind of mind-boggingly thin and light. The polished chamfers are pretty striking, too.
Sapphire lens. That is very cool.
Everything else, you seem to be lowering the bar for innovation for Apple. Not sure I'd constitute "smaller and thinner" as innovation. If it is, wasn't Samsung and others innovating when they introduced thinner devices than the iPhone 4/4S? The iPhone 5 still isn't the thinnest phone. As for lightness, again, lowering the bar a bit? I mean, it's a 4" phone. It really shouldn't be heavy in the first place. What happens when the competition offers thinner, lighter, smaller parts? Will you say they are innovating?
It just seems to me like Apple can innovate very easily by basically improving things. But you don't often afford others the same title when they improve their things.
Don't think you're playing fair.
Yeah, I'll say others are innovating when they beat apple at design and engineering (ie. thinness and lightness). I doubt they will soon though. I don't think 1080p smartphone screens are very innovative, unless they can be proven to be substantially better than the ones we have now. It seems that the DNA sacrifices brightness and color saturation for a hardly discernible gain in sharpness. And the performance/battery hits don't seem very worth it.
I'd be all for 440 PPI, but I don't want any compromises. That's why I didn't buy the iPad 3, the tech just didn't seem ready yet.
I just wanna say that the term "innovation" is tossed around way too much. It's such a subjective thing, and difficult to argue. Is Android 4.2 innovative? They added PhotoSphere (basically just Photosynth), lockscreen widgets (OEMs have had this), Quick Settings (ROM community and OEMs have had this), Gesture Typing (Swype), and that's about it. Is the Nexus 4 innovative? No...unless you believe taking less profit is innovative.
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I cannot recall a single post of yours touting the innovation of thinner and lighter non-Apple devices when they came out during the 4 and 4S era. You seem to qualify "innovation" as something that's improved that has practical purposes. By that rationale, there are tons of innovation with the competition. Just to use one example: you often berate plastic, but plastic has very many functions (allows SD expansion, battery expansion/replacement, allows for NFC, allows for customized backs). How come you don't tout it as innovative?
As I said, moving the goal posts; lowering and raising the bar for innovation as you see fit. Hard to argue against that. So be it.
EDIT:
If 4.2 isn't innovating (fair assessment) than iOS must be... whatever is less-than innovating! Keep in mind, Apple's core philosophy is innovation.
So if Google adds things that others have, you wouldn't call that innovating. But if Apple does that (like making a device thinner or lighter; things that were done many times before by others), you call that innovation.
No words. I'll take Google's "innovation" over Apple's "innovation."
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I will reserve judgement until I actually see the device, but I really don't see a reason to keep going up in resolution. Most people can hardly tell the difference between 1080p and 720p, on a big screen, I doubt it is going to make much of a difference in the palm of your hand. Meanwhile cpu cycles go up up up and battery life goes down down down. Oh, and preloaded media takes up more space too.
Don't get me wrong, I am all about progress, but this just seems overkill. Again, will have to see it before I can give my definitive opinion.
And by the way, the thread title is funny, only because as soon as the little screens caught up, 4K is just around the corner.
Don't get me wrong, I am all about progress, but this just seems overkill. Again, will have to see it before I can give my definitive opinion.
And by the way, the thread title is funny, only because as soon as the little screens caught up, 4K is just around the corner.
What I see as innovative you don't. And what you see as innovative I probably don't. Innovation is such a subjective term, I really don't like using it. I prefer "novel" or something like that. Software-wise, I think it's clear Apple didn't innovate with iOS 6. But I don't think Google did with 4.2, either.
Hardware-wise, it's clearly debatable.
I updated my post above.
The issue isn't a difference of definition of innovation (not entirely anyway), the difference is you change your opinion on what constitutes innovation depending on who's doing it.
Anyway, I'll drop it.
I rather have long battery life on a cell phone than pushing more and more pixels. There's diminishing returns after a certain pixel density. Going from 326ppi to 440ppi is going to mean very little. Close to none really.
Really not sure why Android users are happy with 2-3 hrs of screen time.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/11/htcs-droid-dna-makes-big-sacrifices-to-reach-1080p/
"That said, bumping the screen's resolution from near-720p to 1080p doesn't have the same return as going from, say, the screen on the iPhone 3GS to the screen on the iPhone 4. You'll notice some differences in the rendering of very, very small text—small print that is pixelated-but-legible on the Optimus G looks crystal clear on the Droid DNA—but most things don't look that different to the naked eye, especially at a normal viewing distance"
Galaxy S3: 3 hrs 4 mins
Optimus G: 2 hrs 50 mins
Droid DNA: 2 hrs 24 mins
Really not sure why Android users are happy with 2-3 hrs of screen time.
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2012/11/htcs-droid-dna-makes-big-sacrifices-to-reach-1080p/
"That said, bumping the screen's resolution from near-720p to 1080p doesn't have the same return as going from, say, the screen on the iPhone 3GS to the screen on the iPhone 4. You'll notice some differences in the rendering of very, very small text—small print that is pixelated-but-legible on the Optimus G looks crystal clear on the Droid DNA—but most things don't look that different to the naked eye, especially at a normal viewing distance"
Galaxy S3: 3 hrs 4 mins
Optimus G: 2 hrs 50 mins
Droid DNA: 2 hrs 24 mins
It's really tricky to define innovation. My dictionary says it's a "new process, method, or idea," but hardly anything is truly "new." Google Now I think satisfied that.
Why not diamond?
...based on Intellectual Property (IP) by ARM Holdings plc, England. And the GPU comes from Imagination Technologies Group plc, England. Now where is Apples innovation?
The newer, more energy efficient LTE chipset comes from Qualcomm, and is available in many non-Apple phones. So it is not Apples innovation.
Sony engineered and made the camera components in the iPhone 5, not Apple. Except for the CPU, the rest of the chips in the iPhone 5 is stock components from other vendors.
If this is your outlook on "innovation" then no hardware could really be considered innovative, now could it?
I think the only new feature they added in 4.2 was support for multiple users. Although I won't be using it, I can certainly see that it's very useful for others.
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I'm not happy at all. I wish all phones had a battery equivalent to the ones in Galaxy Note 2 and Razr Maxx HD.