Why doesn't Apple have to post all the Specs (specifically RAM)?

[I7guy]

You must have edited as I was quoting you. You said something about us going off to cry until Apple give us 2GB. Agreed that it is what it is, the products have been designed and manufactured. All I wanted was a bigger screen and more RAM, they could have kept everything else as it was for me.

And what happens if you have the same issues with more ram? Maybe the way you use IOS will always produce tab reloading because that us the way IOS was designed. I can see a certain logic to apple not focusing on ram, while android phones kill themselves as they strive to produce laptops that can make calls.

 

[0000757]

Can we leave the fanboy trashtalk out of the thread?
I didn't want to bash Apple in favor of some other company. I want to buy an IPhone 6, but only if it is gonna have 2GB of RAM because the lack thereof is currently my major problem with the IPhone 5.

Maybe in the end it will actually have 2GB and just no one knew. But I could have already ordered instead of waiting for the first analysis from some third-party website.

The performance difference between 1GB and 2GB, especially on a device like the iPhone will be so unnoticable.

 

[l3uddz]

And exactly what would you want to run faster on the 5s? The thing is already a speed king, near instant response on every key press.

I dont have a 5s so cant comment there. I dont have a problem with the speed of my iPad mini either, does things perfectly fine in that aspect.. what does get on my nerves is the browser tabs constantly being unloaded from memory just because I have swiched to another tab. If iOS simply waited for any tab to be inactive for say 5 minutes before freeing it from memory then that would solve that issue for me.

Anyway, on topic I believe Apple have made a solid phone and especially a solid OS, just few tiny things here and there that need tweaking (the OS). I believe the iPhone 6 4.7" would have benefited from increased battery capacity too, I think that will be its weak link.

 

[I7guy]

I dont have a 5s so cant comment there. I dont have a problem with the speed of my iPad mini either, does things perfectly fine in that aspect.. what does get on my nerves is the browser tabs constantly being unloaded from memory just because I have swiched to another tab. If iOS simply waited for any tab to be inactive for say 5 minutes before freeing it from memory then that would solve that issue for me.

Anyway, on topic I believe Apple have made a solid phone and especially a solid OS, just few tiny things here and there that need tweaking (the OS). I believe the iPhone 6 4.7" would have benefited from increased battery capacity too, I think that will be its weak link.

Could be a design issue with safari that programming at some point will address rather than more memory actually solving the issue.

 

[sunking101]

Could be a design issue with safari that programming at some point will address rather than more memory actually solving the issue.

It has been going on for years now, so I'm not too confident in their programming skills if that is indeed the problem. Whichever way we look at this and however we try and believe that 1GB is enough, it just seems awfully inadequate in late 2014. If iPhones two years ago had 1GB and since then the processors have got faster, the screens bigger, the apps more demanding and modern internet life more absorbing - not to mention folk such as myself complaining about browser and app refreshes - then why hasn't a bigger RAM module been put into the iPhone 6? RAM is dirt cheap and nobody would mind paying an extra $20 for their iPhone.

The top Android phones are now at 3GB RAM and nobody can seriously tell me that manufacturers spend money on larger RAM modules just for a laugh. Or all this talk of Android needing more RAM and iOS needing practically none. Older Android devices didn't have 3GB of RAM so they obviously didn't 'need' it two or three years ago. Times change but Apple seems determined to stick with older tech patterns.

 

[cynics]

Apple advertised and brags about specs. They will go on for days about 64 bit processing and the M7/8 coprocessor.

They just don't advertise specs they are behind the curve with. Why would they? That would just make them look bad.

They are under no requirement to post specs.

 

[nostresshere]

I am just curious why they are allowed to sell a technical product without outlining the most basic technological specifications like RAM or CPU speed?...

Really?

Did your TV quote how much memory or processor it had?

How about your recent refrigerator. Or the little computers under the hood of your car?


Other than food type content, nobody is required to tell us anything. Their choice.

 

[cynics]

Really?



Did your TV quote how much memory or processor it had?



How about your recent refrigerator. Or the little computers under the hood of your car?





Other than food type content, nobody is required to tell us anything. Their choice.

You can typically find those specs though from the manufacturer. I think that's the point of the OP. I can find the compressor model, refrigerant type and refrigerant metering device used on a refrigerator but not the RAM in an iPhone.

But I agree they are under no obligation to do so.

 

[sunking101]

Really?

Did your TV quote how much memory or processor it had?

How about your recent refrigerator. Or the little computers under the hood of your car?


Other than food type content, nobody is required to tell us anything. Their choice.

All important car specs are easily sourced.
Refrigerators have reviews and either work or they don't.
RAM is a very important component in computers and greatly affects usability. A manufacturer of computing devices should state the RAM.
Sure they don't have to but nobody is calling Apple out on a point of law here.

 

[juice3250]

I have a 5s and hate that when I'm uploading a video to YouTube or syncing files to Dropbox or iCloud and exit the app, it pauses the upload or sync. This is not true multitasking. Therefore, Apple would need to have more ram in order to accomplish this. This is my one annoyance with iOS and wish they would've changed with the 6 or at least iOS 8.

 

[cynics]

I have a 5s and hate that when I'm uploading a video to YouTube or syncing files to Dropbox or iCloud and exit the app, it pauses the upload or sync. This is not true multitasking. Therefore, Apple would need to have more ram in order to accomplish this. This is my one annoyance with iOS and wish they would've changed with the 6 or at least iOS 8.

If you enable background refresh apps like Dropbox will continue to upload pictures in the background (I do this very often).

This is very developer dependent though so just because YouTube has the background refresh API mean it will continue to upload in the background. This is something you'll have to test yourself (I don't upload many vids to YouTube).

 

[Chronus]

It's just not important. The geeks in us all may like to know but the majority (vast majority) don't care, most of is just psychosomatic.

Just like the old PC days with spec wars and lazy developers that can't be bothered to streamline and improve their code.

If you care about what's on paper rather than how it actually performs maybe you should support England's national football side, you'll have a ball with the possibilities of stats and what ifs.

 

[I7guy]

It has been going on for years now, so I'm not too confident in their programming skills if that is indeed the problem. Whichever way we look at this and however we try and believe that 1GB is enough, it just seems awfully inadequate in late 2014. If iPhones two years ago had 1GB and since then the processors have got faster, the screens bigger, the apps more demanding and modern internet life more absorbing - not to mention folk such as myself complaining about browser and app refreshes - then why hasn't a bigger RAM module been put into the iPhone 6? RAM is dirt cheap and nobody would mind paying an extra $20 for their iPhone.

The top Android phones are now at 3GB RAM and nobody can seriously tell me that manufacturers spend money on larger RAM modules just for a laugh. Or all this talk of Android needing more RAM and iOS needing practically none. Older Android devices didn't have 3GB of RAM so they obviously didn't 'need' it two or three years ago. Times change but Apple seems determined to stick with older tech patterns.

While I said previously I don't think anybody really knows how much memory is on the i6, android due to it's architecture needs more memory and more horsepower to keep even with IOS. Apples to orange comparison, so to speak.

 

[Q-Dog]

Can we leave the fanboy trashtalk out of the thread?
I didn't want to bash Apple in favor of some other company. I want to buy an IPhone 6, but only if it is gonna have 2GB of RAM because the lack thereof is currently my major problem with the IPhone 5.

Maybe in the end it will actually have 2GB and just no one knew. But I could have already ordered instead of waiting for the first analysis from some third-party website.

That is your choice. Just realize there are MILLIONS of folks who have bought iphones and millions more will buy the iphone 6 with absolutely no idea how much RAM the device has. And they don't care about it either.

 

[I7guy]

All important car specs are easily sourced.
Refrigerators have reviews and either work or they don't.
RAM is a very important component in computers and greatly affects usability. A manufacturer of computing devices should state the RAM.
Sure they don't have to but nobody is calling Apple out on a point of law here.

This is to a point only. Most manufacturers design to the law of diminishing returns.

 

[sunking101]

It's just not important. The geeks in us all may like to know but the majority (vast majority) don't care, most of is just psychosomatic.

Just like the old PC days with spec wars and lazy developers that can't be bothered to streamline and improve their code.

If you care about what's on paper rather than how it actually performs maybe you should support England's national football side, you'll have a ball with the possibilities of stats and what ifs.

You're wrong.

 

[ohio.emt]

As you see iPhones SINGLE core performance beats the S5's single core performance but when it comes to multicore performance it doesnt. If our phones were using just the one core then yeah what you said would be true. Im looking forward to seeing the Exynos 5433 octacore (8 cores) benchmarks.

Considering the S5 has only been out for 4 months this is kind of expected.

 

[sunking101]

That is your choice. Just realize there are MILLIONS of folks who have bought iphones and millions more will buy the iphone 6 with absolutely no idea how much RAM the device has. And they don't care about it either.

It's hard to care about something you're oblivious to. If an app or webpage refreshes they'll think it's either something they did wrong, that all mobile phones do it, or that it's meant to do that.

 

[Razeus]

All I want is for Safari to stop reloading the doggone page when I come back into the app. This has been going on since iPhone 2007 for Pete's sake. Stay put Safari!

 

[l3uddz]

It's hard to care about something you're oblivious to. If an app or webpage refreshes they'll think it's either something they did wrong, that all mobile phones do it, or that it's meant to do that.

So true... I wonder how much money this has costed all of the users in total over the years, when they are out and about with their limited data plans due to Safari reloading pages to keep the RAM usage low.

 

[juice3250]

If you enable background refresh apps like Dropbox will continue to upload pictures in the background (I do this very often).

This is very developer dependent though so just because YouTube has the background refresh API mean it will continue to upload in the background. This is something you'll have to test yourself (I don't upload many vids to YouTube).

Thanks. I will try this.

 

[sunking101]

thanks. I will try this.

You have to go into Dropbox settings and allow background updating. It uses GPS for some bizarre reason...

 

[bmt134]

Let's face it, the iPhone doesn't need more RAM until Apple tells everyone that more RAM is better.



1gb of RAM is the perfect amount. Sounds a lot like when everyone was saying 3.5" screen is the perfect size. What now?

 

[justin216]

There's no specific law that states they have to disclose every single technical aspect of a product -- it's just common practice in computers and phones since people like to compare and play spec wars.

In Apple's case, listing the RAM, number of cores, core frequency, etc, would make it appear that the device is inferior on paper, even though you're comparing Apples to Oranges due to the software and hardware combination. Apps on iOS run much closer to the metal than apps on Android, so they need less resources to get the same job done. Short of "Safari Tab refreshing" that people toss out as a reason to get more RAM, I've yet to run upon a situation where I couldn't get a task done on my 5S with its 1GB of RAM. Developers will develop for the resources they know they'll have.

Apple's spec sheets are interesting at any rate -- for example, they do go into more detail about their cameras in their spec sheets than most other manufacturers. Why? They lead there in some of the technologies used. Any time Apple has a lead or a notable, positive differentiating feature, it's on the spec sheets. RAM, number of cores, core frequency, etc isn't leading by way of plain numbers, so they're not listed.

Should the iPhone 6/Plus have 2GB of RAM? Probably, we're not talking about a lot of money or additional power draw, but it's also not a reason to not buy. As I said above, developers will develop for what resources they have. The phone is no less useful unless you spend all of your time in Safari with several tabs open that you need to switch between constantly, where it's been shown extra memory helps.

 

[sunking101]

Let's face it, the iPhone doesn't need more RAM until Apple tells everyone that more RAM is better.



1gb of RAM is the perfect amount. Sounds a lot like when everyone was saying 3.5" screen is the perfect size. What now?

Exactly. Way too many people blindly accept what Apple tell them is good, and ignore any plausible arguments to the contrary. Hey, if they're happy then that's all well and good. Some of us are a little bit more discerning though, or perhaps demanding.
In my opinion Apple crippled the i5 and 5S by only putting 1GB of RAM in them. I won't be so accepting this time because I've had my fill of browser and app reloads.
I am still waiting for confirmation that 1GB is all we're getting, but the signs aren't good at all. If the 1GB is confirmed, it will be an exceptionally poor show from Apple and those in the know, admittedly in the minority, will shun the iPhone 6. A sad day indeed.

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There's no specific law that states they have to disclose every single technical aspect of a product -- it's just common practice in computers and phones since people like to compare and play spec wars.

In Apple's case, listing the RAM, number of cores, core frequency, etc, would make it appear that the device is inferior on paper, even though you're comparing Apples to Oranges due to the software and hardware combination. Apps on iOS run much closer to the metal than apps on Android, so they need less resources to get the same job done. Short of "Safari Tab refreshing" that people toss out as a reason to get more RAM, I've yet to run upon a situation where I couldn't get a task done on my 5S with its 1GB of RAM. Developers will develop for the resources they know they'll have.

Apple's spec sheets are interesting at any rate -- for example, they do go into more detail about their cameras in their spec sheets than most other manufacturers. Why? They lead there in some of the technologies used. Any time Apple has a lead or a notable, positive differentiating feature, it's on the spec sheets. RAM, number of cores, core frequency, etc isn't leading by way of plain numbers, so they're not listed.

Should the iPhone 6/Plus have 2GB of RAM? Probably, we're not talking about a lot of money or additional power draw, but it's also not a reason to not buy. As I said above, developers will develop for what resources they have. The phone is no less useful unless you spend all of your time in Safari with several tabs open that you need to switch between constantly, where it's been shown extra memory helps.

Assuming that all you say is correct, if Apple are embarrassed by spec sheet comparisons, why not just bung more RAM in anyway and have done with it? RAM is cheap and you can never have 'too much' of it, so it would be win/win. If necessary charge an extra $20 for the phone, nobody would baulk at that.