iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Equipped With Two Accelerometers for Power Management, Improved User Experience

[Crosscreek]

I wondered why I felt like I am going faster down the road.

 

[rsocal]

My problem is not with the supposed bending issue. My problem is with the fact that the camera lens sticks out the back. And if they'd have increased the thickness to accommodate a flush lens they would have been able to put that much more battery in the phone.

But I am really enjoying the phone, nonetheless...

Me too!!!

 

[CFreymarc]

One word ...

Awesome

This is what happens when you don't have manufacturing accountants rule the hardware engineering decisions. I have been around way too many mass market builds where cheaper parts of eliminated parts kept up the margin but also compromised the design and product quality.

 

[H2SO4]

Okay, I'll explain.
1) Modern web sites are memory hogs due to huge images and (to an lesser extent) huge HTML5 scripts.

2) Most apps are written badly. They consume vastly more amounts of RAM than they should because the devs were too lazy to cache things effectively. Apple has an energy meter in iOS 8 for power-hungry apps, but they should also put a RAM usage meter in there to shame these developers.

So, if developers did their jobs properly and conformed to Apple's best practices, 1GB would be adequate. But they're lazy and are often given short deadlines to launch products/features. And if Apple gives us 2GB devices, the developers will just be more lazy. Developer laziness expands proportionally to the amount of slack given to them. So then soon you'll be clamoring for 4GB.

I'm not arguing we don't need 2GB of RAM, but what we also need is more efficiency.

This is RI. DI. CU LOUS.
If developers did their job properly…………THE DEVELOPER IN THIS CASE IS APPLE!!!
They could code Safari to use less RAM. Or……..
They could code the OS to use less RAM and thereby less power when necessary.
They get put on a pedestal because they are awesome when they let you get the best of both worlds because their designs are using using clever engineering and therefore do amazing things to move technology forward.
Yet they can’t code……?

 

[gijoeinla]

My note3 has 3gb ram and it has great battery life. To those who said having more ram may not be better, that a pretty lame excuse. The extra battery used by ram is so miniscule compared to other factors.

Funny I held up my iPhone 6+ against a Note 3.....

Wild guess which display BLEW the other out of the water... Hint. It starts with an "i"...

And photos... I can't even say how AWESOME the 6+ is compared to the old Note 3..... #

 

[s15119]

All I know is I'm really impressed with the 6+ battery.

What a huge upgrade from the iPhone 5 I had previously.

Now that's the type of info I'm really wanting to hear. I'm about ready to pull the trigger on that bad boy and hearing people impressed with the battery is just what I need to push me over the edge

 

[Bancherd]

Elegant engineering would be a single accelerometer that can scale its consumption.

True...but Apple does not make accelerometers.

However, look at what Apple is doing to the component that it totally controls, the A8.

About memory issues, this reminds me of the old saying way back when most people were messing around with assembly language and 64K was a HUGE amount of memory. The saying for programmers were that "programs will expand to fill available memory". :~) My guess is that Apple weighs the impacts of obsoleting their previous products such as Ipad2(which still has a substantial user base) by allowing less stringent RAM-usage against heavy RAM-users(which are relatively small in numbers). When these older products become less common, I believe Apple will increase RAM.

 

[rsocal]

Now that's the type of info I'm really wanting to hear. I'm about ready to pull the trigger on that bad boy and hearing people impressed with the battery is just what I need to push me over the edge

It is, pull the trigger, you'll love it!!!

 

[BornAgainApple]

I agree with others that it's great engineering, but it doesn't appear to have done much for battery life if the many reviews out there seem to indicate.

 

[preeman80]

I thought that the Nokia's had two starting from the 920? That was for the OIS?

That was in September 2012?

 

[TommyA6]

He's not talking about virtual memory but simply about an application persisting data structures to disk when it does not need them. This has nothing to do with swap file, it's just about being a good citizen on a device with limited resources...
The problem with Safari is not that it unloads the data structures linked to the tabs from memory - that's actually a good thing. It that it just throws them away without persisting them first.

Just keeping data in RAM because you can rather than freeing RAM for the foreground application would be plain lazy.



The problem is that the day you put 2GB in a phone, the whole line before becomes obsolete in a few weeks... Obsolete as in most of the newer games will need more than 1 GB or RAM.

I guess they can never put 2 gigs of RAM then

 

[FieldingMellish]

I don't think that the military's Hellfire missiles come with two accelerometers.

 

[Arndroid]

One word ...

Awesome

This really does point to a desire to go beyond merely being functional and trying to eke out the most performance possible.

It is highly unlikely any other phone manufacturer would have considered doing that.

----------

$0.05 more of extra RAM in a phone never hurt anybody, except Apple's bottom line, which is why they don't simply put 8gb of RAM in their phones by now.

I mean why did Apple go to 64bit mobile processing? It certainly is NOT necessary for MOST mobile applications, and there is many that have suggested even the iPhone's 5s A7 CPU is woefully underutilized, so why did Apple have to rush out a phone with an overpowered A8 CPU this time around? Certainly it looks much better on paper to see a CPU version bump and to boast about how many more times powerful the new iPhone 6 is over the previous generations.

So if you are going to suggest to me that Apple is not bumping up the RAM because they don't believe it's technically necessary and that Android phones are just doing so for prestige or necessity, bull-****. Apple started the whole "my specs are better then your specs" game a LONG time ago.

Apple most likely hasn't found a financial reason to spend more money on their phones to add the extra RAM, but you can be sure the moment Apple decides that a phone needs 32gb of RAM, then Tim Cook will be on stage proudly boasting about how the new iPhone X is so much better than all those phones with only a paltry 4gb of RAM.

No they didn't.

Unlike android, iPhones are designed to be used for 4-5 years seeing four os upgrades in the process. While 64-bit has only marginal benefits now it will be much more important down the road and the 5s onward will benefit.

 

[Arndroid]

Some people seem to know for certain that Android is just as efficient with RAM as iOS. They also seem to know for certain that RAM does not affect battery life. Thus, they are certain that more RAM is ALWAYS better, and that there is NO compromise involved, and NO benefit to less-than-2-GB RAM beyond greed.

What are the sources for these details? Or are they really just making assumptions? (Like assuming a 4-core Android phone performs tasks faster than a 2-core A8, when the reality is the reverse?)

I love a bullet-point marketing spec number as much as the next nerd, and would LOVE to hear an iPhone had 2GB, or 200 GB... but I love real-world functionality so much more. If one spec number has to go down for another to go up, that's just reality. 90s-style spec wars help nobody if we don't look at the big picture of what the device delivers for the user. Software plus hardware in the real world, targeting the most common uses over less common ones. Very complex--although we humans don't tend to like complexity! We wish the world were black and white, and no decision were ever a trade-off.

You make good points, but I am not sure anyone argues android devices are as efficient with ram as an iPhone. Everyone would laugh at them.

----------

He's not talking about virtual memory but simply about an application persisting data structures to disk when it does not need them. This has nothing to do with swap file, it's just about being a good citizen on a device with limited resources...
The problem with Safari is not that it unloads the data structures linked to the tabs from memory - that's actually a good thing. It that it just throws them away without persisting them first.

Just keeping data in RAM because you can rather than freeing RAM for the foreground application would be plain lazy.



The problem is that the day you put 2GB in a phone, the whole line before becomes obsolete in a few weeks... Obsolete as in most of the newer games will need more than 1 GB or RAM.

Well stated. People think adding more ram is going to deal with background refreshes, when in reality apps will just use more ram.

My first computer had 16k of ram. Software developers will always manage to expand their software to fill whatever memory is available. I agree the persistence issue with things like safari tabs are resolvable without more ram. If they put 2 gigs of ram in and apps start taking up 1.6 gigs of ram, tabs will start refreshing all over again.

The mistake some make is believing software developers are vigilantly concerned about efficient use of memory when they get a lot more of it to use. I have never seen it in all the steps from my 16k computer to 16 gig computers today.

----------

Elegant engineering would be a single accelerometer that can scale its consumption.

Apple doesn't make accelerometers.

 

[petsounds]

This is RI. DI. CU LOUS.
If developers did their job properly…………THE DEVELOPER IN THIS CASE IS APPLE!!!
They could code Safari to use less RAM. Or……..
They could code the OS to use less RAM and thereby less power when necessary.
They get put on a pedestal because they are awesome when they let you get the best of both worlds because their designs are using using clever engineering and therefore do amazing things to move technology forward.
Yet they can’t code……?

This has little to do with Safari needing to use less RAM. Sure, it can always be improved. The real problem is how much RAM modern web pages take up. All those JPEGs and PNGs have to be loaded into RAM uncompressed. At a certain point you just run out of RAM. At that point, it has to unload a background tab, and hopefully it saves state. But it doesn't seem to "store" the state locally like Firefox on the desktop does, it has to go and fetch it again. So that part, yes, could be improved.

 

[Jimmy James]

It is exactly this type of clever engineering which is why Apple don't need to include 2Gb of ram just to look good in the specs race.

Aside from ram how else do you propose they improve the poor reloading performance. Of course more ram would be hugely beneficial for a significant percentage of users.

 

[rGiskard]

There is only so much you can get out of 1GB of RAM.

Glassed Silver:mac

Not if it's Magic Apple RAM!

I just wish my Mac Pro had that Magic Apple RAM. I can fill all 24 Gigs with Safari tabs, lol.

----------

This has little to do with Safari needing to use less RAM. Sure, it can always be improved. The real problem is how much RAM modern web pages take up. All those JPEGs and PNGs have to be loaded into RAM uncompressed. At a certain point you just run out of RAM. At that point, it has to unload a background tab, and hopefully it saves state. But it doesn't seem to "store" the state locally like Firefox on the desktop does, it has to go and fetch it again. So that part, yes, could be improved.

Perhaps Apple don't want to use too large a NAND cache since base iPhones have only 16GB?

 

[Tech198]

Use two .....
...... when one isn't enough

 

[inscrewtable]

HAVE.. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD... HAVE...

You have more than a full time 24/7 job on the interweb all ready for you.

 

[alphaod]

All Android devices from here on will have at least 3 accelerometers as a result.

No just Samsung devices.

 

[Soulweaponry]

Hmm, well then explain the very frequent reloading of Safari tabs, apps losing their state when multitasking between more than just 2-3 apps, don't dare to use background tasks like music players or something...

There is only so much you can get out of 1GB of RAM.

Glassed Silver:mac

Amen to that brother. I didn't really notice reloading that much on my iPhone 5. Usually on my iPad air I can't even keep 2 tabs open without reloading. But now on my iPhone 6 if I leave an app, do something else real quick and come back, it's refreshing the whole damn thing like i just restarted my phone! This is turning into such a usability issue that I can't believe apple isn't addressing this. After this, I'm officially not upgrading to a new iPhone or iPad until more ram is offered. I don't care about any other feature they could come up with. I want ram!

 

[StyxMaker]

$0.05 more of extra RAM in a phone never hurt anybody, ….

What does this have to do with the accelerometers?

 

[Neebee]

they dont need more ram
but they will
ie. 2 or three years from now
the iphone 5 is still very much future proof, 2 years after launch.
probably will still work fine on ios 9 too.

has a lot to do with the fact it has the same 1gb ram as the iphone 6.

That's false. Just wait and see next year.

If you are a poweruser, if you multi-task, if you like to have multiple apps open at the same time, and if you have resource hungry apps, you NEED more RAM. However, it seems that Apple's demographics from what I have seen and the media has shown, most people only want an iPhone because it's trendy. They only do a few things with the device: check email, iMessage, text, take pics,and post to facebook or instagram and play the occasional game when their other apps have closed. They also probably dont' care when their apps crash. It's Apple afterall, and they can't stay mad at them, can they?

----------

According to Chipworks, Apple may have decided to incorporate two accelerometers into the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus to both minimize power consumption and "improve the overall user experience."

This is bizarre. How could two sensors have better power management than one especially if both run at the same time in certain conditions?

 

[Analog Kid]

intressting how apple lets you to get the best of both worlds

The chip works page isn't loading for me right now, so I can't see if they comment on it, but I'm curious why Apple chose to put both sets of accels right next to each other... If they'd used a longer lever arm between them, they could have used the accel pairs as a low power gyro (or to help correct it).

Given the start up times, the Bosch is clearly there for HealthKit use.

Thus, they are certain that more RAM is ALWAYS better, and that there is NO compromise involved, and NO benefit to less-than-2-GB RAM beyond greed.

My favorite part of the greed argument is that it completely mirrors the "nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded" argument.

Greed implies profit maximizing. If the argument is that RAM is cheap, and they'd sell a lot more phones if they just shelled out the nickel, then the greedy response would be to put more useless RAM in the device to sell more $800 phones on a nickel higher COGS.

If we assume Apple is greedy, and the shareholders who've made it the most valuable company on the planet think it should be, then that implies most users don't care about more RAM.

I remember back in the day electronics were large enough that people could piggyback solder extra ram right on motherboards. It would be interesting to do that to an iPhone and see what happens.

You'll need a very tiny soldering iron... The RAM is stacked inside the A8 package...

The saying for programmers were that "programs will expand to fill available memory". :~)

This.

Part of the problem is that Safari isn't caching pages out to Flash (and maybe it makes sense not to for something as ephemeral as a web page), but the other part of the problem is that some gorilla came in and used 1GB of RAM.

Put 2GB of RAM in the phone and that gorilla will use 2GB of RAM and Safari will still need to refresh.

Put 2GB of RAM and limit an application so it can only access 1GB, and you'll be wasting half your resources to please the people who insist they want to have a second application resident in RAM but still pissing off the people who insist they want three applications resident.

It is highly unlikely any other phone manufacturer would have considered doing that.

I hate when people do this, but:
https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Project+Tango+Teardown/23835

Same manufacturers, but different parts...

Not trying to start a who-copied-who slap-fest. This is a well known tradeoff-- and I'm glad Apple made it.

I think the real innovation though may be the M-series motion coprocessors (until someone else posts a link to educate me...)

The real problem is how much RAM modern web pages take up. All those JPEGs and PNGs have to be loaded into RAM uncompressed.

I'd once heard someone make the point that the entire 128k Mac OS takes less space than the OS X logo.

That really snapped the modern world into perspective for me. Pictures are fat.

 

[Analog Kid]

That's false. Just wait and see next year.

If you are a poweruser, if you multi-task, if you like to have multiple apps open at the same time, and if you have resource hungry apps, you NEED more RAM. However, it seems that Apple's demographics from what I have seen and the media has shown, most people only want an iPhone because it's trendy. They only do a few things with the device: check email, iMessage, text, take pics,and post to facebook or instagram and play the occasional game when their other apps have closed. They also probably dont' care when their apps crash. It's Apple afterall, and they can't stay mad at them, can they?

How does more RAM enable better multitasking? You'd have to swamp the system with so much RAM that it overcomes a developers self interest in never freeing memory.

If you have the focus, you have the RAM. A developer won't improve memory management until it affects the performance of their app-- they don't pay attention to how it affects other apps and they assume other devs don't care about affecting them.

This is particularly true on iPhone where so many developers are amateurs-- that's the blessing and curse of the platform.

Apple has been moving against this selfish tendency by exposing certain metrics to the user. As someone said above, exposing app memory use would go further towards improving multitasking performance than more memory.

This is bizarre. How could two sensors have better power management than one especially if both run at the same time in certain conditions?

For the same reason they put an ARM in rather than a Xeon. Optimized for different things. More ADC resolution, more bandwidth-- these things take more power.

Obviously it won't be lower power to run them both than just one. I'm guessing the Bosch is there for HealthKit apps and other things when the screen is off.