As most of you may have noticed Apple presented its newest creations the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus as well as the Apple Watch more than two weeks ago. Currently the iPhones are being launched around the world while the Apple Watch still has to wait until next year. Like every year there is a lot of discussion around these new products and with this post I want to give you my personal opinion on the subject. Before we start it is important to note that I myself use an iPhone as well as a MacBook Pro and an iPod so yes I like Apple products but I will still try to be objective. Since there is a lot to discuss I’ll go through some of the more important points of the new products to simplify your reading experience.
The new iPhones are bigger
Obviously the biggest difference between the new iPhones and their predecessors is the bigger screen. The iPhone 6 (4,7″) and the iPhone 6 Plus (5,5″) are both significantly larger than the iPhone 5S (4″). This is praised by Apple as “the biggest advancement in the history of iPhone” but I think it is a big let down. After all these years why did Apple now decide to give the iPhone a bigger screen? Because they had to. Every other Smartphone developer creates bigger and bigger screens for their phones every year and so Apple was forced to do the same. But I have to admit that I don’t really understand the wish for bigger and bigger phone screens. Didn’t we work all those past years to make our mobile phones smaller and therefore more mobile? When I look for a mobile phone I want to carry it in my pocket and not in my backpack. The reason why I stayed for so long with Apple is because I loved the 4″ screen. I think it was the perfect size for a Smartphone. It fitted without any problem in my pocket but was still not too small to read some newspaper articles or to check my mails or Facebook. Of course it is too small if you want to play games on it all the time or watch YouTube videos for hours but guess what for games I use my console at home or my 3DS system when I’m on the road and for YouTube videos I have a PC or an iPad. I want to carry a phone when I’m going out and not a brick. I understand why Apple did this step and I am grateful that they created 2 models so you’re at least not forced to buy the 5,5″ version if you want the new iPhone.
The camera was improved
Apple also improved their iSight camera with a new sensor which uses Focus Pixels and new video features like 1080p HD at 60 fps (frames per second) slo-mo at 240 fps as well as time lapse video mode. I personally like the improvements and I think it is very useful that instead of bringing a camera or a camcorder you can nowadays just use your phone to take great pictures and videos. With my iPhone 5 I had in the last few months the problem that I didn’t have enough storage capacity to take any more photos since I purchased the 16 GB (GigaByte) version but with the new iPhone I decided to buy the 64 GB version so I’m looking forward to taking more pictures than before. I’d further like to add that I think the Apple iSight camera satisfies my expectations I have for a camera more than enough since I often hear other Smartphone users brag with their additional mega pixels or other features. If you really need to see every dust particle on a photo than ok go buy the phone with the better camera but I’m doing more than fine with my iSight.
Your iPhone is now also your wallet
Oh Apple Pay. I have to talk about it don’t I? For those of you who don’t know Apple presented a service which allows you to pay your bills with a single touch on the screen of your iPhone. While this service is not new it seems like Apple Pay could become the first service to actually “work” well enough to become a popular thing. But how does it work exactly? To add a new credit or debit card to Apple Pay you simply take a picture with the iSight camera to scan all the necessary information or you can type it in manually. The card information is then verified and a unique device account number is then assigned to the card which will then be encrypted and securely stored not on Apple servers but in the Secure Element a dedicated chip in your iPhone. So every time you use Apple Pay instead of sharing your card information with the merchant this number as well as a transaction-specific dynamic security code (imagine it like a security code that changes with every payment) is used to make the purchase. Using Apple Pay allows you therefore to make purchases without sharing your card information or your name with the merchant. But what happens if you lose your iPhone or it gets stolen? Using the “Find my iPhone App” on your PC or Mac you can simply disable Apple Pay on your iPhone so it becomes impossible to make purchases with it. And since your credit card information was never used you don’t even have to cancel your credit card. You can be as skeptical as you want and you can hate Apple as much as you want but to me it seems like a pretty solid service. Surely it still has to prove itself but for that reason it is first launched only in the US in October. I myself am excited for this service and I believe Apple did a good job creating it.
The Apple Watch
Everyone knew it was coming so no one was really surprised when Tim Cook announced the first Apple smart watch. While it looks pretty nice and has some cool features I have to admit at this place that I don’t really am a fan of smart watches. I just don’t see the purpose of buying a device which does exactly what my Smartphone already does just because I can strip it around my wrist. For this reason I’m not going into detail with this product but if you want to learn more about it just visit Apple’s homepage.
So here you have my opinions on the new Apple products. I like the new iPhone as a whole and I already preordered mine (iPhone 6 with 64 GB). While I don’t care about the Apple Watch I am looking forward to see Apple Pay in action. While I agree that Apple products are overpriced I think it is wrong to say that they are inferior to other Smartphones or smart watches. I like the way Apple products work and I can easily and comfortably work with them. I think iOS is a great system but if you do better with Android than good for you. I am not here to make advertising for Apple I only give you my opinion and view on the new products. I think instead of fighting each other over which is better we should see that there is not THE phone for everyone but that there are a lot of phones which are great in their particular ways and which appeal to different clusters of people. In the end it is important to acknowledge that they’re just phones and we have bigger problems right now than fighting over electronic devices.
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Thanks a lot for reading this week’s post! I really appreciate every single reader and if you’re interested you can read some of my other articles as well. If you want you can share my posts with others I’d really appreciate it. You can also find me on Facebook as well as twitter (@VitoVolpe9). I hope you have a great week and I see you next sunday for an all new post in German or in two weeks for a new post in English!
just thoughts 