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What's Coming From Apple in 2016: Apple Watch 2, iPhone 6c, iPhone 7, Skylake MacBooks, and More

cableguy84 said:
I prefer my 6s plus over the 5s..

It seems Apple's current strategy is to flood the market with different versions of the same devices and hope for the best. it will all end in tears
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Quite true actually.
Build all sizes iPhones and no-one can claim the iPhone is too big or too small. Though it does mean you don't follow your own principles but simply "cover all areas".

It happens a lot when companies are doing very well, and try to stay on top: "cover all areas".
Look at BMW: the amount of different cars you can now buy from BMW is huge. Next to the classic fast saloons, you can buy small hatchbacks, huge SUVs.. even front-wheel driven MPV's...

But when once it goes downhill, and it will happen some day, the company goes back to basics.
 
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MacsRgr8 said:
Quite true actually.
Build all sizes iPhones and no-one can claim the iPhone is too big or too small. Though it does mean you don't follow your own principles but simply "cover all areas".

It happens a lot when companies are doing very well, and try to stay on top: "cover all areas".
Look at BMW: the amount of different cars you can now buy from BMW is huge. Next to the classic fast saloons, you can buy small hatchbacks, huge SUVs.. even front-wheel driven MPV's...

But when once it goes downhill, and it will happen some day, the company goes back to basics.
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This is actually the best rebuttals to this particular debate I've seen.

Car manufacturers have been doing this for years ... In a nation full of full-sized sedans, station wagons and trucks, Ford bucked the trend and released the Mustang which set off a trend for sporty coupes thepat ended in a misguided quest for the most powerful muscle car, until the oil crisis brought it to an end. Convertibles were in vogue, until they weren't, and now they're back, despite not being a major segment of sales.

Where Apple improves upon the auto manufacturer is its control of the supply chain and cross-sourcing parts. So it's easy to offer choice, and if they should misstep merely reduce volume, and shift resources to other products. Moreover, Apple most likely built working prototypes of a 4" iPhone 6 when they were researching and developing the next iPhone. So much like an automobile prototype, the designs are already there, except in Apple's case little likely needs to be changed to put it into production thanks to the larger models already in production.

So why not offer as many options to consumers as makes financial sense.
 
DanGoh said:
??? What do you want exactly???
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Yeah. Waiting...

felix.gif
 
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I am really interested in Apple watch 2 and Apple TV 2016, if the watch can be non-iPhone dependant with GPS and official water proofing I might take the plunge.

I've gone over to the Surface line after my 2011 MacBook Pro and don't intend on switching back to Mac but the retina MacBook and Macbook air 2016 upgrade will be interesting to see.
 
springsup said:
The biggest thing the watch needs is a compass.

GPS doesn't matter so much IMO - yeah, it's nice for runners, but without a compass even using the linked-iPhone's GPS is basically useless.

Let's say you open Maps and get this. Not very helpful. Unless I get my phone out, I've got to just start walking and keep checking to discover which direction I'm going in.
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Orienting the map view with compass position would be very useful. I have worked with solid state compass devices and they are getting quite small these days. They are even smaller doing a hybrid module such as the guts of an Apple Watch.

Continuing the Apple Watch sensor wish list, love to see the following: barometer, wide spectrum optical ambient light (both infrared and ultraviolet) read as a spectrum array, humidity sensor, gyroscope, magnetometer and motion sensor.
 
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Alex Moran said:
Not my fault you're a fan boy if I praised Jobs you wouldn't have had any issues with what I'm saying. The guy was a horrible person. You should have the decency to accept that. But of course you don't. Other wise you wouldn't have posted it. Enjoy being you
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It depends how you rate him.
Most people who like the Apple products rate Jobs on his business-achievements, not how he was in private.

BTW, most "huge winners" are not very nice people to get along with...
The nicer you are, the more likely you lose out on massive deals, or the less pressure you can force upon co-workers, higher chance you are convinced by others instead of you convincing the others, etc.

Apple need an absolute ****** to get out of danger and into innovating.
 
First iPhone. No reason Apple couldn't offer current internals in three screen sizes, 4", 4.7", and 5.5. Everyone goes home happy.

Second, Mac Pro and Thunderbolt display. The two saddest "pro" hardware products in Apple's lineup. Either give them major pro-level upgrades NOW, or quit embarrassing everyone. Ditch the can and go back to the tower.

Third, Mac altogether. Decide what you want it to be. Hopefully it's not iOS, as there's still use for full-featured non-sandboxed desktop computers. If the only reason Mac OS lives is to develop mobile apps, at least tell us.

Penny for the thoughts and Happy New Years!
 
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Steve121178 said:
Finally give us a modern Mac OS this year! I'm getting tired of incremental updates to the incredibly stale OS X.
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OS X needs a big shake up in terms of both design and functionality. It does appear dated next to Win 10.

And fixes for all of the USB issues, Thunderbolt issues, Display issues etc. The extremely expensive Mac Pros we had purchased here are used less and less because of trivial issues like the USB attached speakers cutting off all of the time in El Cap.

And less grey on white, terrible blurry font smoothing, and teeny tiny windows resize buttons. There is an almost endless list of things to be fixed with OS X it seems.
 
DanGoh said:
??? What do you want exactly???
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OS X as it is today is not really any different to 7 or 8 years ago, just with more stuff bolted on or thrown in and not really disguising that's it's a badly implemented afterthought. I'd like to see something more modern. I'd like to see a file explorer/file management UI that doesn't look like something from the 90's. The dock is effectively useless so I'd like to see Apple steal some of Microsoft's taskbar ideas (drop down lists, pinning items etc) and make the damn thing useful and not just a place to launch stuff.

I'd also like to see Apple implement Siri the same way Microsoft have cleverly integrated Cortana into the OS. Perhaps do the same with iCloud and tie all my synced data & settings together the same way Microsoft have done with Windows since Windows 8.

Microsoft have made huge advancements with the desktop & UI over the last 3 years - all for the better, particularly with Windows 10. I'd like to see Apple make OS X (or whatever they call the next generation Mac OS) look and feel like it's from 2016. What's the point having cutting edge hardware if you are just going to load a creaking OS on it? With the hardware, how about baking Touch ID in to all hardware products while we're at it? Passwords are a stupid way to secure a system.
 
Steve121178 said:
OS X as it is today is not really any different to 7 or 8 years ago, just with more stuff bolted on or thrown in and not really disguising that's it's a badly implemented afterthought. I'd like to see something more modern. I'd like to see a file explorer/file management UI that doesn't look like something from the 90's. The dock is effectively useless so I'd like to see Apple steal some of Microsoft's taskbar ideas (drop down lists, pinning items etc) and make the damn thing useful and not just a place to launch stuff.

I'd also like to see Apple implement Siri the same way Microsoft have cleverly integrated Cortana into the OS. Perhaps do the same with iCloud and tie all my synced data & settings together the same way Microsoft have done with Windows since Windows 8.

Microsoft have made huge advancements with the desktop & UI over the last 3 years - all for the better, particularly with Windows 10. I'd like to see Apple make OS X (or whatever they call the next generation Mac OS) look and feel like it's from 2016. What's the point having cutting edge hardware if you are just going to load a creaking OS on it? With the hardware, how about baking Touch ID in to all hardware products while we're at it? Passwords are a stupid way to secure a system.
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So you want them to adapt all the MS stuff. OK.
 
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dmonder said:
Second, Mac Pro and Thunderbolt display. The two saddest "pro" hardware products in Apple's lineup. Either give them major pro-level upgrades NOW, or quit embarrassing everyone. Ditch the can and go back to the tower.
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The Pro is arguably a niche product, but the display is even more embarrassing since it would be useful for every single Mac, but especially the MacBooks, as well as 2nd retina displays for the iMac. Add an HDMI port, or enable the TV 4 USB-C port to send video to the display, and there's a whole new use for it. It could in fact become a hub for an iOS-centric system which doesn't even include a Mac.

So many reasons to immediately uodate this, maybe in a 27" and 32" model. The latter could easily double for a TV display. I use my 32" TV at work as an extended AirPlay monitor, and could easily use a 40" TV as well.
 
djgamble said:
So that the watch is bigger and ha less space for battery?
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Yes just like the iPhone 6S has a smaller battery, is neglibly larger, and has better battery life. I'm always amazed by what Apple is able to do, so second guessing the watch will somehow be compromised by adding extra features you may not personally use, goes against Apple's proven track record. But you're right, there's a first for everything.
 
I bet that Apple has bucket loads of new ideas and technologies hidden in the cupboard but they are only trickling out innovative products and upgrades to us because they don't have to do any more than that. They are the biggest company in the world and whilst sales are so high they don't have to do any more than is actually necessary. I think if sales dropped dramatically and they lost market share then they would bring products with a lot more technology and functionality but for the time being they will just control the rollout of new technology out because we keep buying year in year out
 
Mac 128 said:
Again these are all opinions, but given Apple's focus on fashion with this product, I doubt Apple will not make any physical changes. And keep in mind, this is NOT an "S" generation product. This is a Second generation product, and Apple has shown us that they are always substantially different, having learned ways to improve the product while developing the original, but lacking the time to make the changes in time to lock the product design for mass production. The original iPhone to the 3G, major changes in appearance and features. The original iPad to iPad 2, major changes in appearance and features. And so on ... The 2nd gen watch was presumably already in the planning stages as they developed the 1st gen watch (as with all products). By the time it was in production, the R&D was already in full swing on watch 2. Add to that an alleged unplanned delay in launch time of the original watch by up to 6 months and you have even more time to make changes to the watch 2 in a yearly update cycle, as well as a unique opportunity to gauge reaction and get feedback on the original product. The original iPhone had that as well since they were forced to announce 6 months before release due to FCC filing requirements.

All of this suggests it's far more likely that Apple will change the case design in some respects, rather than change nothing about it.
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Well there are limitations on how much the form factor can change. Certainly the screen size can't easily change. Developers need to develop toward a certain screen size for the limited UI pieces. Second, I think the bands have to fit from one generation to another or folks will feel a bit ripped off. Also the current band would seem to work fine with a thinner watch of the same size, so no need to force a change here. The crown has to remain as an input and so does the side button, I think. So there isn't too much that can change.

Watch could get thinner. But it already has only so so battery life and it needs to become more powerful so that programs load faster to make it nicer to use. So can it get much thinner? I guess so, but we shall see. Making it slightly thinner won't be much of a form factor change.

I don't think there will be a camera on it. That camera would be too small to take as good a picture as an iPhone. And FaceTime video chat doesn't seem to be used very often. Though wrist video chat is probably presumed to be a selling point due to Dick Tracy comics or something like that.
 
mikefla said:
I found the following to be a rather interesting article and I certainly agree with most of it:

http://www.theverge.com/2015/12/28/10676272/2015-apples-year-in-beta

The iphone6S even with the latest iOS developer build still doesn't run right, still feels slow, animations lag sometimes, etc. The Apple watch after all the excitement about getting the device I put it on my wrist everyday now because I find it a comfortable watch but I don't even use it per say, can't remember even the last time I unlocked the screen! I think the OS got very little attention and been mostly forgotten! The MacBook Pro, I bought one 13" earlier this year, got stuck with the older generation processor they released a new model with next generation processor a few months later. And just got a new 15" this month, come early next year likely they will finally release an updated 15" with newer processors worth the wait and perhaps get rid of the so called crappy AMD discrete graphics on this one and put on a NVIDIA high end work horse in there. You just can't win this year....

-Mike
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You don't recall unlocking the screen of your Apple Watch? Are you aware you can set your iPhone to unlock your Apple watch once it's on your wrist? Simply unlocking your iPhone unlocks your Apple Watch. And once unlocked, it remains unlocked until you remove it.

Really cool, you should check it out.
 
TallManNY said:
Well there are limitations on how much the form factor can change. Certainly the screen size can't easily change. Developers need to develop toward a certain screen size for the limited UI pieces. Second, I think the bands have to fit from one generation to another or folks will feel a bit ripped off. Also the current band would seem to work fine with a thinner watch of the same size, so no need to force a change here. The crown has to remain as an input and so does the side button, I think. So there isn't too much that can change.

Watch could get thinner. But it already has only so so battery life and it needs to become more powerful so that programs load faster to make it nicer to use. So can it get much thinner? I guess so, but we shall see. Making it slightly thinner won't be much of a form factor change.

I don't think there will be a camera on it. That camera would be too small to take as good a picture as an iPhone. And FaceTime video chat doesn't seem to be used very often. Though wrist video chat is probably presumed to be a selling point due to Dick Tracy comics or something like that.
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1) well the screen size has a significant bezel around it. So Apple could shrink that substantially without altering the display dimensions. Moreover, the display size is automatically adjusted by the OS which is why the 38mm and 42mm essentially have the same display information despite one being slightly smaller than the other. But I can see an edge to edge display on the gen 2 watch, and perhaps a flush mounted crystal which would allow them to make the watch slightly thicker to cram more stuff in.

2) well this may or may not be true, certainly some may be upset if Apple changes the band connectors. However, if they offer more versatility by offering "smart bands" which necessitate the use of a different connector, then customers are likely to be forgiving. But I more or less agree the size of the case could otherwise change without the bands changing, unless Apple changes the contours of the corners, or overall shape of the watch, which is not impossible either.

3) the crown can easily move to the center of the watch, or Apple could move the contacts button, or eliminate it completely, as it seems unpopular with many.

4) As for the camera, I'm not up on the latest camera tech, but the camera doesn't have to take as good a picture as the iPhone. The front facing camera of the iPhone has never taken as good of pictures as the back, yet that doesn't stop people from taking selfies with the front camera. The point of the camera is convenience, not necessarily quality.

At the end of the day, Apple has to add new features, and for some customers they have to add new looks, in order to sell more units. There also seems to be a segment of Apple's customers for whom it's important they distinguish for others that they have bought this year's model rather than last year's, which I assume is why the Rose Gold 6S was so popular. New band offerings aren't going to likely substitute for this. Also Apple indicated that the Edition was going to be sold in very limited quantities. I'm still waiting to see when they sell out after 7 months ... But, next year's Edition can't look identical to this years, who would buy it for $17,000 if this year's Edition hasn't sold out yet? I would guess, they have to offer a new design. More importantly, I fully expect them to continue to offer the 1st gen watch at a reduced price, just like the iPhone, and offering an identical watch at two different price points is going to cause confusion.
 
First, I would expect the real push in cars (CarPlay) even in more cars than now. More aftermarket units supporting it.
Second, the homecoming of HomeKit ( :)). If there are any bottlenecks to its widespread? Can it fully replace the expensive Google thermostat? Make it truly industrial strength protected. Make it manageable through AppleTV.
Third, improvement of AppleMusic and iCloud. iCloud syncs now very well and fast, my impression, almost like Dropbox.
Fourth, further IBM collaboration to see more Macs in the business.
Fifth, further move into education. Maybe, revival of plastic iBooks? I mean, iBooks were retired in 2009 to make place for more expensive MBAs. But now Macs are not a main business. So, lowering a bit margins in notebooks for market share in OS X is permissible. Bring in black slim iBook, i3, 4GB of RAM, 12 inch (non-retina) for 899 dollars.
Sixth, desktop Macs. The video Pro Mac is fine, but desktop it ain't. Bring in El Capitan modern case, i7, 16GB of RAM, GTX950. 999 dollars. Will sell like hot cakes.
Seventh. Apple-sim (or non-sim) AppleWatch2 with 3G capability and sensors discussed above.
Eight. Bring in rugged AppleWatch2 with solar battery, barometer, altimeter, thermometer, 3G, large size and battery - a travel watch, a rival to Casio ProTrek and G-shock.
Nine.Further improve AirDrop.
Ten.Make Foxconn produce iPhones in Brazil, Argentine and India.
Eleven. Further improve security and corporate networking, make FaceTime a true rival to Skype.
Twelve.Make Apple's Connect more visible.
Thirteen. Make Apple Pencil work with Macbooks (certainly with trackpads).
Fourteen. Make more innovative products and don't be afraid to dare. Remember, while you are the most expensive company in the world, you have a soul of underdog :)
 
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