iPhones are the coolest things since Diet Coke!

[mrpinter]

Just got a 5C. It's my first smartphone, and it joins my happy little family of Apple products (iPod Classic, iPad, iMac). Even though it's my first smartphone, I'm finding it quite easy to learn and intuitive, like all of my other Apples. It's a major big deal for me to talk into the thing and have a text appear ready to send with a single click. Siri understands my speech remarkably well too. And the camera is amazing. Here is one of the first photos I've taken with it (hand held under room light, then sent to my computer and sharpened a touch in Photoshop):

 

[Jumble Jumble]

Yep, I've had the latest one every year since the 3GS, my 5S is on order at the moment. They might not be the "best" smartphone around, because surely that would depend on your priorities - but for me they sure as hell are the easiest.

 

[Dan025]

siri doesn't hold a candle to google now but many android phones don't get updates past a year so... there is that.. but the iphone has come a long way from the 3g i had which was the most frustrating product i ever owned... but not getting into that. people love iphones because as it turns out people aren't acutally pleased by choices. sometimes it is infact better to have choices made in advance. having a single way to navigate the interface makes people happier than a flexible interface. still i don't know how anyone can say osx on there computers is easy... you have to navigate menus or use keyboard shortcuts to get more than one window of the same program... that's not easy. keyboard shortcuts or jestures are essential not optional.. that's not easy. it may be physically easy and fast but how on earth am i supposed to know to do that? i use linux and have used probably 5 different window managers within linux. the only interface that ever actually had me googling to figure out how to do simple things was osx (unless you count windows 8 but i can actually navigate that with the keyboard after so many years of using windows.) on the other hand things like burning cds from images or just adding files couldn't be easier. somehow windows manages to make that and some other things hard.

the android market is frustrating. i will finally get me a nexus since google finally started subsidizing them last year. that way i'll get about 3 years of updates. people like htc phones and samsung has built a reputation after advancing the hardware faster than any other but i can't recommend anything that's not a nexus. it's too bad they are so rare. i can see what people like with the iphone but will never own another apple product. ipods were amazing in their time but i'm not thrilled with anything else. osx is just bsd with a crappy interface.

 

[Cagey]

I love those old-fashioned wind-up guitar pickups. The sound is so organic!

 

[Jumble Jumble]

I use iPhone and Windows (because I'm not keen on OSX either). Doesn't cause me any trouble.

 

[mrpinter]

I love those old-fashioned wind-up guitar pickups. The sound is so organic!

LOL, yeah and they turn up to 12!

 

[alterbridgefan]

The iphone camera isn't bad, and it's way easier than most cameras to use. The lighting can get weird though... I took these recently:

But the hardest for me has always been positioning the subject in the right place so that it actually becomes the subject of the photo.

 

[Jumble Jumble]

That's noise caused by the unbelievable tininess of the pixels in the 8MP sensor. In bright light it does well because there are loads of photons hitting exach pixel of the sensor, but in low light, the gain needs to be turned up because there are fewer photons. So, as with all high-gain scenarios, noise is increased.

With the iPhone 5S, instead of increasing to 10MP just so they'd have a bigger number, Apple increased the size of each pixel instead, as well as opening up the aperture a little. This should mean more light falling on each pixel and thus lower gain needed and lower noise. I was surprised they did this, I totally thought they'd do megapixel-chasing.

If you have a minute, take a look at the new camera on this page here:
http://www.apple.com/iphone-5s/camera/

I'm really impressed.

Having said all that, when I really want a photo to come out properly, I have a Canon 5D MkII and a 7D in the house, with top-quality lenses, so I'll always use those. A phone camera can't (and shouldn't try) to compete.

 

[Dan025]

That's noise caused by the unbelievable tininess of the pixels in the 8MP sensor. In bright light it does well because there are loads of photons hitting exach pixel of the sensor, but in low light, the gain needs to be turned up because there are fewer photons. So, as with all high-gain scenarios, noise is increased.

With the iPhone 5S, instead of increasing to 10MP just so they'd have a bigger number, Apple increased the size of each pixel instead, as well as opening up the aperture a little. This should mean more light falling on each pixel and thus lower gain needed and lower noise. I was surprised they did this, I totally thought they'd do megapixel-chasing.

If you have a minute, take a look at the new camera on this page here:
http://www.apple.com/iphone-5s/camera/

I'm really impressed.

Having said all that, when I really want a photo to come out properly, I have a Canon 5D MkII and a 7D in the house, with top-quality lenses, so I'll always use those. A phone camera can't (and shouldn't try) to compete.

same reason htc went backwards to 4mp..

 

[Torment Leaves Scars]

I've only owned two smartphones; an HTC Evo 4G (first generation) and my current iPhone 4S, which I've owned since March 2012.

I hated the Evo.  The touch screen was far too touchy, the internet connection was terribly slow, and basically, I just don't miss that phone at all.  Unfortunately (for my wallet...), it was lost, and that's when I got my iPhone 4S.

Ah, yes, the iPhone 4S.  I simply just don't like it.  Yes, it's fairly easy to use, the sound quality/picture quality is okay, etc., but I really just don't like it.  I find it's really nothing more than an iPod with phone capabilities. 

- I don't like the touch-screen keyboard at all.  It was okay at first, but it seems to have a mind of its own.  It types words that aren't even words, wrong words, and "misses" letters I know I tapped. 

- This "other" data bs is just that.  Every month I'm clearing out "other" data, which can sometimes use up to TWO gigs of memory.  I don't even know what the hell this "other" data is, but it's complete bs.

- I sync it to my MacBook Pro and half the time the apps I delete off my phone aren't saved on the computer, and when they are, I have to reset everything when I reinstall them on my phone.  I even lose data when I do this.  When the phone backs up, shouldn't this data be saved?  Well...it isn't saved.

The ONLY thing I like about this phone is that it syncs up to the computer and it's easy to get music on and off of.  As for everything else, I can't fart loud enough to express my opinion when it comes to an iPhone.  I will probably not own another one.

 

[mrpinter]

The 5's are not at all the same as the 4S. For instance, I haven't noticed it re-spelling words when texting, while I have seen that on my wife's Droid 4. In fact, I don't use the keypad much at all when texting. The voice recognition is so good that it's pretty much all I use for texting. I just have to occasionally correct a complicated (or foreign) name here or there. I'm sorry to hear you're so unhappy with your phone. My daughter has a 4S and doesn't have any issues with it, and she uses it all the time.

 

[Torment Leaves Scars]

The 5's are not at all the same as the 4S. For instance, I haven't noticed it re-spelling words when texting, while I have seen that on my wife's Droid 4. In fact, I don't use the keypad much at all when texting. The voice recognition is so good that it's pretty much all I use for texting. I just have to occasionally correct a complicated (or foreign) name here or there. I'm sorry to hear you're so unhappy with your phone. My daughter has a 4S and doesn't have any issues with it, and she uses it all the time.

My next phone will definitely have a slide-out keyboard with actual buttons.  Unfortunately, with features like that, usually the quality of the camera suffers, resulting in fewer pixels and such.

 

[Dan025]

The 5's are not at all the same as the 4S. For instance, I haven't noticed it re-spelling words when texting, while I have seen that on my wife's Droid 4.

androids current voice rec in jellybean (android 4.1 and higher with google now) is superior and the keyboard has settings for word replacement being automatic, suggestive, or off. not to mention it gives many probable suggestions above the keyboard not just one you have no control over. still i feel silly talking to my phone and touch screen keyboards are faster to type on IMHO..

if you haven't used android since the "EVO" you might want to give a nexus branded android phone a try. 

 

[DangerousR6]

Diet Coke isn't a great invention or even cool, nothing in it any better for you than regular Coke. It's just a false sense of hope for obese people..

 

[mrpinter]

Diet Coke isn't a great invention or even cool, nothing in it any better for you than regular Coke. It's just a false sense of hope for obese people..

Thank you so much for correcting me on this subject. I was so much trying to avoid saying "...since sliced bread".

 

[-CB-]

They're all cool... but I'm an Android geek.

Here's my case - greater variety of hardware on the software platform.  I can get many types of phone, small or full size tablets, not just a choice of one or two from each class of hardware.

Granted Apple's harware is usually very good, but... I like the choice.

Next thing - geek here - is Android is the front end of Linux, and I know Linux decently well.  You can still root an Android device easily, and then you have full command line control over things.  Things like how your apps behave and what information they send to their publishers.  Things like advertising control, things like screen properties.  Its all just Linux.  I can even control my startup boot/post screen animation.

Third  is that I like the way that Google integrates data between my phone and non-phone devices.  All the contacts, all the information, all the apps, all the bookmarks and mail... totally seamlessly.

Yes, music is important, but I don't use my devices for that....for me its phone, text, web, document publication, and a few specialized apps.  Music is on my TV, and on my computer, and I'm happy to have it there.

Apple's not bad.  Its very good.  So is the Android platform.... just choose one and be happy.  I'm on my 4th smart phone.  #2 was stolen.  #3 was accidentally left at a checkout counter... my fault.  But... even with losses, all my data is retained, and back compatable from the other harware platforms.

Thats my 2c

 

[mrpinter]

My wife and daughter have android phones, and they're reasonably happy with them (actually, my wife is thinking about losing her Droid 4 for a 5C or 5S). I know that the latest of this family is very good. I just happen to be an Apple guy (iMac, iPad, iPod, etc) and so the learning curve is easy for me. And I think I can back my phone and other devices up in the cloud and restore from there if need be. But thanks for all the information, I learned a few things.

 

[Jumble Jumble]

While Diet Coke might not be "better" for you than Coke, it's definitely not "as bad", simply because of all the sugar in Coke.

And yes I'm well aware of all the completely wacko conspiracy theories about aspartame.

 

[Dan025]

While Diet Coke might not be "better" for you than Coke, it's definitely not "as bad", simply because of all the sugar in Coke.

And yes I'm well aware of all the completely wacko conspiracy theories about aspartame.

it's not conspiracy. well maybe it is, i dont know... but it aint good for you. diet soda makes me light headed and it does effect some people vision. all i know is a substance that beaks down into methanol an formaldehyde probably could be avoided. what's wrong with eating some fruit when you want something sweet?

i'm also with CB. i'm not a linux expert but i do enjoy having the extra control. i've also been able to get a fair amount of extra battery life from my old captivate (up to 4 days on a charge!! seriously i'd like to see an iphone do that) with kernel optimizations. i don't recomend custom roms to everyone because a lot gets broken when you removing the odex files to decompile all the apps for further mods. factory roms tend to have a lot more stability but selective modifications can have great results.

i do like that apple has music controls on the headphones. i don't like that others would not be able to do this without fear of apple taking legal actions. android has music applications without the annoying need to "sync" and apple deciding what to delete on you because it's not a part ofthe library you are syncing from today. what was with that media transfer protocol stuff anyway? seems like it should have been obsolete when devices got real interfaces.

my iphone was great when t-mobile was the only company that carried android. back then linux could interface with the iphone filesystem natively and even control the springboard. but apple of coarse changes all that and some of the linux packages got depricated. but my iphone had a tendency to fail in cold weather. it would just shut down on a full battery because it was cold. it almost got me killed.... literally. the iphone is a lot less disappointing now than it was then. although the linux compatibility is not as good as it used to be it's not lacking common features these days. still android ohs a lot of it's success to apple and i don't mean that the way you'd think.... although apple made smartphones cool and not geeky android never took off outside the geek comunity untill verizon needed something to compete and pushed the motorola "Droid." if apple didn't hold back features like MMS (seriously a phone with a camera that can't send pidture texts for the first couple years it was on the market) video capture (again, seriously) and turn by turn navigation, and make the phone exclusive to ATT then frustrated apple users or loyal verizon customers wouldn't have been as eager to try android.

 

[Jumble Jumble]

Because fruit is full of sugar! You can't just eat fruit whenever you want and decide it's healthy because it's "natural". Apple pips contain cyanide; should we avoid apples? Not only that, but in some fruit juices, higher concentrations of methanol can be found than the amount produced from aspartame in diet soda.

Of course the best thing is just to have some self-discipline and just not have sweet things whenever you fancy it. The desire for sweet foods evolved at a time when it would be a good thing to binge on sugar whenever it became available - not when you could eat as much sugar as you want within 2 minutes of having the idea. Sometimes your body simply doesn't know what's best for it.

As for aspartame, it's the most tested food additive of all time and it's still declared safe. If you don't trust the FDA on this one thing then surely you must assume that some completely unknown percentage of all the other things they've declared safe are unsafe too.

"Conspiracy theory" doesn't mean "a false theory", it means "a theory that several parties have colluded in some way to achieve some kind of result". The original fears over aspartame were fuelled by a perceived conflict of interest, and it's spiralled from there. It would have to be a hell of a conspiracy by now; the additive has been declared safe by 90-something countries worldwide and the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence shows it to be safe. For not one scientist to have spoken out about it by now... well, it's moon-landing-conspiracy level stuff really.

Because of the constant insistence of people that there must be something wrong with it, the most recent big study into it was this year (over thirty years since the original conclusion that it was safe was reached). It found that aspartame and its metabolites "pose no toxicity concern for consumers at current levels of exposure".

You have to wonder when people will give it up. This research money could be spent on actually finding out new stuff, instead of just finding out the same thing over and over again.


Anyway, my iPhone 5S is out for delivery today. I can't wait to buy something on iTunes with my fingerprint.