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maybe these will offset some of the powerdraw of the retina screen on the new macbook air? it'll be awesome to have a 12" MBA with a 12 hour battery life :)
 
Longer life

iPhone battery size has increased with nearly every iteration of the phone. If they do indeed got a 4.7" or larger device, you can bet that the battery will see a significant jump.

I agree, but that's not what I was trying to say.

I'm saying IF the new phone consumes 20% more power, I don't want a 20% more powerful battery, I'd want a 40% more powerful battery so that it lasts longer.

I don't see a lot of complaints from people that the phone isn't thin enough, I hear complaints that the battery doesn't last long enough. Which is why I gave the analogy of the AAA battery flashlight, get a flashlight with D batteries and it'll last longer. (Which I know you saw, I'm reiterating for others)

Gary
 
LPDDR4 comes along fast considering LPDDR3 was only just adopted by Apple in last year's models. I believe LPDDR was in Apple's 1st 4 generations of iDevices, LPDDR2 was in the subsequent 2, so if LPDDR3 only lasts 1 generation, things are definitely accelerating. At the same time, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple stuck to something more evolutionary like LPDDR3-2133 in the upcoming 2014 models up from the current LPDDR3-1600.
 
5% improvement in performance is not "lightning"

I mean over the years every new RAM technology promises lightning quick performance improvement, which usually ends up in actual low single digit percentage improvements. RAM has never been the source of significant improvement in over-all performance from generation to generation.

Simply put, RAM is not the bottleneck of today's electronics.

Also when Apple says that the A7 CPU is not fully utilized or taxed by apps on all their iDevices, really what should we expect from faster RAM? Speeding up an engine when you can only drive 40 km/h isn't and impressive feet.

Anything that can save power is great, but Apple is in an "arms" race for performance but at the same time claiming nothing is using the performance they are already throwing at their customers.

This is nothing more then using newer and more expensive technology to justify the high price of their devices. Heaven forbid that Apple should reduce their price of iDevices by a third or even by half and perhaps actually win over more customers by bringing more value to the platform.
 
I think I have come around to Apple's continued pursuit of thinness while maintaining battery life rather than increasing. I would like the iPhone and iPad to get even thinner and lighter even if that means obsoleting the headphone jack in a couple of years. Before throwing rocks hear me out- maybe the components like RAM and display will decrease battery dependency and Apple can have a slightly less dense battery in the future. And maybe then the device can be given a quick 15 minute booster shot on a rapid charger mid-day rather than an hour. I could live with that. Apple might be free to try different form factors or even have an iPhone mutating into a wearable instead of boxed in by stagnating energy technology.
(caveat: I do understand there are physics limitations to cameras).
 
Removable batteries.

I love my devices with removable batteries. I have spares for my cameras and flashlights.

I used to have spares for my MacBooks. Now I have to carry chargers with me.

I used to have spares for my cell phones, one of my old Samsung Palm OS phone had a regular and and extended battery pack that lasted longer if you didn't mind the bulk. Now I have chargers everywhere.

Now when flying (or taking the train) instead of a spare battery for my MacBook, I just carry my iPad and use it for functions that I don't need the MacBook to do. I feel like we're going backwards in terms of powering our devices.

(Yeah, I've got some external batteries that'll charge my USB devices, but they can't be as efficient as changing the battery.)

Gary
 
LPDDR4 comes along fast considering LPDDR3 was only just adopted by Apple in last year's models. I believe LPDDR was in Apple's 1st 4 generations of iDevices, LPDDR2 was in the subsequent 2, so if LPDDR3 only lasts 1 generation, things are definitely accelerating. At the same time, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple stuck to something more evolutionary like LPDDR3-2133 in the upcoming 2014 models up from the current LPDDR3-1600.

Important to note that they weren't using a custom memory controller for most of those, so they were stuck with whatever vanilla solution ARM had. Although, they were still pretty lock-step with what version of LPDDR was on the market.

I mean over the years every new RAM technology promises lightning quick performance improvement, which usually ends up in actual low single digit percentage improvements. RAM has never been the source of significant improvement in over-all performance from generation to generation.

Simply put, RAM is not the bottleneck of today's electronics.

Also when Apple says that the A7 CPU is not fully utilized or taxed by apps on all their iDevices, really what should we expect from faster RAM? Speeding up an engine when you can only drive 40 km/h isn't and impressive feet.

Anything that can save power is great, but Apple is in an "arms" race for performance but at the same time claiming nothing is using the performance they are already throwing at their customers.

This is nothing more then using newer and more expensive technology to justify the high price of their devices. Heaven forbid that Apple should reduce their price of iDevices by a third or even by half and perhaps actually win over more customers by bringing more value to the platform.

RAM bandwidth is important to GPU performance, especially when you're driving high resolution, high density displays. That's why the memory interface double to 128 bits in the A5X when the iPad went retina.

I love my devices with removable batteries. I have spares for my cameras and flashlights.

I used to have spares for my MacBooks. Now I have to carry chargers with me.

I used to have spares for my cell phones, one of my old Samsung Palm OS phone had a regular and and extended battery pack that lasted longer if you didn't mind the bulk. Now I have chargers everywhere.

Now when flying (or taking the train) instead of a spare battery for my MacBook, I just carry my iPad and use it for functions that I don't need the MacBook to do. I feel like we're going backwards in terms of powering our devices.

(Yeah, I've got some external batteries that'll charge my USB devices, but they can't be as efficient as changing the battery.)

Gary

Give it a few decades. With super capacitors (rapid charging) and wireless power, most people will be satisfied with integrated batteries.
 
I love my devices with removable batteries. I have spares for my cameras and flashlights.

I used to have spares for my MacBooks. Now I have to carry chargers with me.

I used to have spares for my cell phones, one of my old Samsung Palm OS phone had a regular and and extended battery pack that lasted longer if you didn't mind the bulk. Now I have chargers everywhere.

Now when flying (or taking the train) instead of a spare battery for my MacBook, I just carry my iPad and use it for functions that I don't need the MacBook to do. I feel like we're going backwards in terms of powering our devices.

(Yeah, I've got some external batteries that'll charge my USB devices, but they can't be as efficient as changing the battery.)

Gary

a) Carry batteries
b) Carry chargers.
 
No one's complained about 1 GB of RAM in the current iDevices yet? I'm surprised.

Considering its more than adequate for 95% of what the devices do and likewise preserves battery life by not having excessive RAM? Yea, no one is complaining.

I will note that from the beginning of iOS 7...it seemed like perhaps this new OS could do with some more RAM. But they've since proved with iOS 7.1 thats mostly software related and how memory is actually handled, and it no longer seems that way.

The time will come where more than 1 GB of RAM is needed. (Perhaps that time is NOW, but Apple has opted not to degrade battery life by simply adding more RAM to fix memory management issues than can be fixed by better programming)
 
I love my devices with removable batteries. I have spares for my cameras and flashlights.

I used to have spares for my MacBooks. Now I have to carry chargers with me.

I used to have spares for my cell phones, one of my old Samsung Palm OS phone had a regular and and extended battery pack that lasted longer if you didn't mind the bulk. Now I have chargers everywhere.

Now when flying (or taking the train) instead of a spare battery for my MacBook, I just carry my iPad and use it for functions that I don't need the MacBook to do. I feel like we're going backwards in terms of powering our devices.

(Yeah, I've got some external batteries that'll charge my USB devices, but they can't be as efficient as changing the battery.)

Gary

The removable battery argument was lost long ago. There simply aren't enough people in your usage scenario to make it worth it in terms of product design/thickness. More people would rather have it thinner.
 
Still the first thing I thought of when I read the headline
 

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There's a slight problem. Intel's first processors supporting DDR4 aren't going to be released until late 2014, and only in the high-end socket 2011. Broadwell doesn't support DDR4. So, this won't impact Macs very quickly. In terms of iPads and iPhones, the new A8 is unlikely to have a DDR4 controller, especially when the production of DDR4 is JUST starting to ramp up. There isn't any supply. Sounds nice in theory, but isn't in any way possible until next year.
 
I agree, but that's not what I was trying to say.

I'm saying IF the new phone consumes 20% more power, I don't want a 20% more powerful battery, I'd want a 40% more powerful battery so that it lasts longer.

I don't see a lot of complaints from people that the phone isn't thin enough, I hear complaints that the battery doesn't last long enough. Which is why I gave the analogy of the AAA battery flashlight, get a flashlight with D batteries and it'll last longer. (Which I know you saw, I'm reiterating for others)

Gary

Except you can get battery life improvements in many other ways other than making the battery bigger.
 
Better efficiency is always good, but not if thinner is the goal.

I'm happy with the package size of my 4s. I want 2x battery capacity and the ability to sit on my phone without damaging it.
 
power

Except you can get battery life improvements in many other ways other than making the battery bigger.

That's why I specifically said "more power" and not "larger volume". I don't care if they make the battery larger or smaller, I just want more power.

And not just me, I see a lot more people complain about how long the battery lasts vs. the size of it.

Gary
 
That's why I specifically said "more power" and not "larger volume". I don't care if they make the battery larger or smaller, I just want more power.

And not just me, I see a lot more people complain about how long the battery lasts vs. the size of it.

Gary

What I mean is if you make the other parts of the phone more energy efficient then you can keep the "power" the same yet last longer.
 
Reminiscing about the good ol' days of technology....

The removable battery argument was lost long ago. There simply aren't enough people in your usage scenario to make it worth it in terms of product design/thickness. More people would rather have it thinner.

I was just reminiscing.

I'm a compulsive charger so it's pretty rare my battery gets that low. But if I had a spare, I might be less compulsive.

But since you brought it up. I see very few people gushing that it's so thin when listing positives about the iPhone. But when talking about negatives, I hear the battery life issue quite often.

Gary
 
That's primarily because the limiting factor of battery is currently chemistry, where other parts are limited only by manufacturing processes, better tooling yields improvements in CPU, memory, GPU, even display, but batteries don't benefit from small er transistors.

True, but that is not to ignore some of the innovation coming around the corner, Tesla is pushing the envelope, and I saw a press release for this external laptop charger brick that claimed to keep 90% capacity after 4 years or something like that. But you are correct Moore's law definitely does not apply to batteries!
 
Not gonna make a difference.

They're just gonna make the next product thinner, thus giving us a thinner battery and the same battery life!!!!!!!! HUR F'n RAY!!
 
Purely guessing, I doubt they will make it much thinner. As you point out, they're going to start limiting things like the optics they can use for the camera.

Case in point, the iPod touch camera sticks out farther than the housing. I'm sure they'd prefer it be flush.
 
Another power savings possibility to debut with the new 12" retina MBA???
 
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