Nice Camera and Waterproofing - iPhone 7, oh and Apple Watch 2

Ok. iPhone 7 is pretty much what was rumored. The headphone jack is gone. Typical Apple minimalism and getting rid of standard interconnectivity functionality far faster than most would want, but it is the way it has to go, sooner or later anyway. I don't like it but I'm not an iPhone owner so who cares.

 

The Camera gimmick idea is pretty cool for the flagship 7+. It now has dual cameras. Both 12mp cameras but you can select a wide angle mode (same as iPhones before) which is about a 28mm equivalent for 35mm DSLR users. And now a 2x telephoto option which brings it to a 60mm equivalent on DSLR cameras. Here the optical aspects come to play and 2x might not seem like much, but it actually is quite a lot. So I made a quick mock-up to illustrate what it means:

 

 

So yes, if you wanted to do this with just digital cropping and not lose resolution ie get pixelation, you'd need a massive 48mp sensor, to magnify the image to equilvalent of 2x telephoto, and maintain 12mp image size. (Above is not by an iPhone 7+, its just a mock-up of what 2x telephoto means)

 

Its nice. Its not binoculars (like on my 10x optical zoom on my Samsung Galaxy K Zoom) but it is a 'standard' lens. Its not what is considered a modest telephoto lens, they start at about 70mm equivalent focal length, but its significantly closer to the action than the normal wide angle lens. So no, this will not replace any DSLR camera haha, but it is a nice step and we'll no doubt see other smartphone makers also introduce dual (even triple) lens arrangemets

 

Waterproofing. Yeah, about time too. I said long ago Apple has to do this and many said Apple never would haha.. Oh, and just to be clear. The waterproof phone, thats not Samsung's invention (and Samsung stupidly moved away from waterproofing a year ago, but now fast returned this year). No, like almost everything in mobile, and almost all items added to an iPhone since the original in 2007, also waterproofing was done in Japan first. Yes, a decade ago already. But yes, nice feature. Apple is following Samsung again on this.

 

What else? The memory is increased. There are some new colors. There are some silly earphones that are outrageously expensive and very droppable. Did I forget anything? I think thats about it. And there is a second edition of the Apple Watch. It will not set the world on fire either. Its an iBracelet for iFools and to that I just say: iMoo !!  No, the Apple Watch will not become something that is seen as a success. I think this is the last edition they'll bother to make Apple Watches before quietly shutting down that business. 

 

So my dear iFanatics... go crazy in the comments..

Comments

[John A]

I think the iPhone 7 upgrade was alright. Little more than I have expected. Since the rumours was that it would be basicly same as iPhone 6s.
Optical image stabilisation, IP67 classified and a fast A10 processor.

I using Android but I think they might sell fine overall. Especially when Samsung maybe was to early to put out out the Note 7 modell with the battery issues.

[ByeSamsung]

Soo now Apple is Cool and Samsung HOT!

[AtTheBottomOfTheHilton]

iPhone killed the 3.5mm jack, which is the same as shooting yourself in the foot. Since the 3.5 mm is "too big" why don't they adopt the 2.5mm instead which is smaller but still has the amplifier in the phone?

[Wayne Borean]

I too, like the camera. I won't buy one though, since I rarely if ever leave the house, and it wouldn't make economic sense. I'm more likely to buy a new iPad.

[John A]

For removing of the headphone jack. Saw some statistics that most of the phone users only will use the headphones that are included in the box and probably will never upgrade anyway. And for the few who do, they included the adapter.

Apple probably know did by their research. So that issue are maybe not a big deal after all.

[ch]

Headphones are mostly used by people who use their phone as a walkman/video screen. There are many people who use it as a walkman but my guess is that it is only a (large) minority of smartphone users so statistics that say most people don't upgrade their headphones are IMHO not surprising.

PS. How well does those wireless earbuds handle a 737 filled with those earbuds? Because it is the only time i use headphones with my mobile.

[E.Casais]

It is interesting that iPhone fans are now touting the camera as the USP that compels them to upgrade to the 7 series.

Merely a couple of years ago, their systematic response to other people putting forth the superior camera capabilities of Nokia/Samsung as a major distinctive factor was:

"Cameras are not a major differentiating factor. People do not buy smartphones for their camera. If that were the case, Nokia would make a killing in the market. Current iPhone cameras are good, and good enough. People do not care about zooming à la PureView or Samsung Zoom. There is no real need for Xenon or gimmicky LED flashes. All these advanced capabilities only make sense for a tiny minority of photo geeks."

And now? Everything they were so dismissive about in the past, and which had been implemented (in various ways) years ago by other manufacturers is now the greatest novelty that justifies ditching a one-year old device for an iPhone 7.

But recognizing that other manufacturers were at the forefront, that their innovations made sense and were worth emulating, and that Apple is only catching up? No way.

[Huber]

@E.Casais: "Everything they were so dismissive about in the past, and which had been implemented (in various ways) years ago by other manufacturers is now the greatest novelty that justifies ditching a one-year old device for an iPhone 7."

Nothing to see here, this has always been this way in Apple land. Remember the 1GB of RAM for the iPhone 6 where I laughed about? This was good enough, you didn't need more RAM! Reason: iOS is so good that 1GB is enough. Needless to say that the perception changed after the 6S had 2GB :-)

Now I'm looking forward to the reviews which tout the wide angle camera as a huge innovation. Then I will look what the same site said when LG released this feature with the G5. I'm sure I'll find some sites which changed their opinion drastically, now that Apple has copied this feature.

[Johnnie]

OH NO!!! The audio jack is gone!!! The horror!!! What next?! Removing optical drives from laptops?! Imagine the horror!!!

[E.Casais]

@Johnnie

With ever more powerful buses and processors, and _more compact_ electronics there is no technical problem to keep a variety of well-established, cheap, useful connectors and peripherals.

In the present case, ditching the jack is a pretty blatant move by Apple to upsell its own $159 ear-buds accessory.

[virgil]

Tomi, you're not being fair... the performance bump in A10 & the touted battery life improvement (if true) are improvements to the iPhone. It's actually better than I expected it to be, the dual-camera trick is nice and I don't think I've seen someone else do it before with a smartphone, so kudos to them for thinking about it.
(I've also heard this might enable some tricks like "refocusing your photo after the shot" a la lytro, is there any truth to that? I suppose no because it would've been more widely publicised)

Overall, I'd say the phones are good enough to keep Apple steady - probably not good enough to get them growing their market share.

[E.Casais]

Interestingly, Apple has now eliminated its luxury range of smartwatches (those costing $10K and above, for whose appraisal potential buyers could book a personal advisor appointment in Apple stores).

When the Apple Watch was launched, there was much trepidation about Apple confronting luxury Swiss watchmakers head-on and eating their lunch. Apple has now fully retreated on that front.

The new crop of Apple Watch includes some expensive models, but this is in the "premium" range, just like the iPhone is a premium phone, not a luxury one (like the Vertu).

It seems that Apple overshot in this very specific segment. I was always a bit puzzled by the idea that any significant market could exist for the golden version of a gadget whose exact capabilities and quality could be obtained for an order of magnitude less money.

[MalcolmX]

One unfortunate side effect of the discontinued headphone jack is that some phone owners use it to connect their phone to their car audio system (when a USB connector isn't available, like on older cars).

[E.Casais]

@Wayne Brady

On the headphone jack:

The minimization of connectors has an important consequence: the device is basically single-peripheral/external unit capable. Thus, it is _either_ headphones, _or_ charging; _either_ headphones, _or_ connecting to a display.

Want more simultaneous connections? You need a bulky port replicator. The dongle is a backwards-compatibility workaround, the iPhone 7 could just have the provided the 3.5 jack, like the iPhone 6.

The move towards wireless headphones/earbuds has another hidden implication (which is not apparent to iPhone users): it definitely precludes FM-radio capability. The move towards wireless would look more compelling if Apple had implemented wireless charging too -- but no; here again, Apple is behind the curve...

The iPhone 7 itself, could host all the miniaturized electronics to provide for several connectors directly, and maintain existing functionality. Dongles and possibly replicators are a kludge in such a modern device.

On the Apple Watch:

The jury is still out on whether it will bring a renewal of Apple product portfolio at the same scale as the iPhone. I personally do not believe it. The current sales, while impressive in absolute terms, still make smartwatches a side business for Apple.

As for entering the luxury market: we agree. Overpaying for devices that Apple itself wants customers to look upon as disposable, frequently replaced, used for a handful of years objects -- while comparable models from Apple are on sale for far cheaper -- is a most curious proposition.

Regarding Samsung Note 7:

Does anybody know whether the affected devices are region-specific? Today I noticed that Swiss telecom operators were making promotions for the Note 7 in their shops downtown...

[E.Casais]

"And how we used to have RS232 ports, parallel ports, floppy discs and CD burners/dvd burners and on and on and on."

Computers have replaced those legacy connections with _multiple_ USB ports (the one I use right now has 4).

Apple is not replacing ports; it is eliminating them -- leading to the necessity of kludges like dongles, adapters and replicators.

Imagine an iPhone with _two_ lightning ports and the capabilities this would imply. The mind boggles!

[ch]

@ Wayne:

"more than enough to overcome that Apple didn't change the body style and removed the headphone jack."

In other words this is Apple's S6

[ch]

Apple wont say how much they will sell during launch of the 7. I wonder why?

[ch]

100 billion sounds big but image is highly parallel. Modern chips in smartphones run at Gigahertz so it is something like 400 operation per tick. That doesn't sound to me like a particular big chip

[Abdul Muis]

"I can already see it now. Within months there will be an Android smartphone with THREE cameras. Because that's innovation lol! Three is better than two after all"

Welcome to the LENOVO PHAB 2 PRO (Project Tango).
http://www.gsmarena.com/lenovo_phab2_pro-8145.php

3 Camera.... actually... 2 Camera + 1 'radar' / depth sensor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe10ExwzCqk --- What is project Tango (1st Gen - Tablet)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjlPbqgBSuc --- First Phone with Tango (Lenovo Phab 2 Pro)

[Abdul Muis]

"Apple wont say how much they will sell during launch of the 7. I wonder why?"

My bet is because Apple don't expect it to break last year number, and it would be catastrophic for their Stock to publish the number. The number that really don't mean anything... the real question is, why last year, and the year before, and the year before that, and the year before that, would apple publish this number....