Is $285 for a good condition iPhone 7 Plus worth it from Apple? Can you get a lot more from other places?
I feel like mine is pretty decent, has a few small scuffs and discoloring in the back I'm not even sure if it should trade that in as good and take a chance for the loss, or if I should just skip the trade in and try and sell that elsewhere like swappa.
Is $285 for a good condition iPhone 7 Plus worth it from Apple? Can you get a lot more from other places?
I would argue that the landmark iPhone models were the original, the iPhone 4, the iPhone 6, and the iPhone X. It's kind of interesting to me how the Apple Watch's evolution has paralleled the iPhone's. A first-generation model that was like nothing seen before, good enough to change an entire industry but deeply flawed in certain obvious ways. Second and third generation models that simply address those obvious flaws. And then a fourth generation model that takes things to an altogether new level, particularly pertaining to the display and the physical case of the device.
AIRPOWER: I wrote about AirPower's absence earlier this week. What I've heard, third-hand but from multiple little birdies, is that AirPower really is well and truly fucked. Something about the multi-coil design getting too hot — way too hot. There are engineers who looked at AirPower's design and said it could never work, thermally, and now those same engineers have that "told you so" smug look on their faces. Last year Apple was apparently swayed by arguments that they could figure out a way to make it not get hot. They were, clearly, wrong. I think they've either had to go completely back to the drawing board and start over with an entirely different design, or they've decided to give up and they just don't want to say so.
Oh man, that AirPower comment... I guess that makes sense? Why else would they take this long? It's too bad that it's also held back the airpods wireless charging case.
How does the Xr portrait mode work? If it doesn't need that second lens why include it on the Xs.
Stolen from Asymco:
I didn't realise this, but it seems like the 128GB Xr is going to be cheaper than my 128GB 6s was when I got that at launch. I'm actually surprised that Apple is "only" charging 50 bucks there on the upsell. I'd really love to see their internal data and how much of a psychological barrier the price points are that made them green light that.
I read somewhere the other day that the 6s (and another model I can't remember right now) was the phone still in use the most, so it wouldn't surprise me for them to strategically price their Xr to people in the same price range they paid for that.
It's bigger and has a less power hungry screen. Not that complicated.
Don't OLEDs use less power on average?It's bigger and has a less power hungry screen. Not that complicated.
That's weird, doesn't it scan for AirPlay targets? Mine doesn't even show up when my TV area is off. Tried rebooting your phone/router and have checked if there a ghost entries in your router for any AppleTV devices?How do I remove these extra Apple TVs from my Airplay list?
The first "Living Room" is my 4K one. The "Apple TV" entry is my older gen that I had disabled, reset, and sold off. And then the last one, I don't know why it's there.
It's been like this for months actually... so it's gone through reboots, iOS upgrades, etc.That's weird, doesn't it scan for AirPlay targets? Mine doesn't even show up when my TV area is off. Tried rebooting your phone/router and have checked if there a ghost entries in your router for any AppleTV devices?
Best 3rd party Apple watch bands? Looking for a leather band that doesn't cost $150.
This is a fascinating article, thanks for posting it!I don't know if this article has been posted or not, but Steven Levy has published a great article containing quotes from people who are working at Apple or ex-Apple employees on their experiences at working at Infinite Loop.
Here is the link: https://www.wired.com/story/apple-infinite-loop-oral-history/
There's actually been significant progress made by Samsung to get power consumption down to better-than-LCD levels. DisplayMate has this to say about modern OLED panels:Only when displaying a lot of pitch black pixels (not just dark colors), so it really depends on the use case.
As the result of their very versatile power management capabilities, OLEDs are not only more power efficient than LCDs for most image content, but they now deliver much higher peak Brightness than LCDs because the maximum power can be delivered to just the sub-pixels that are needed for producing the current image. However, for mostly all white screen content LCDs are likely to remain brighter and more power efficient for a while.
This is a fascinating article, thanks for posting it!
There's actually been significant progress made by Samsung to get power consumption down to better-than-LCD levels. DisplayMate has this to say about modern OLED panels:
http://www.displaymate.com/iPhoneX_ShootOut_1a.htm
So do we have any idea of what's coming with this year's iMacs, assuming they get a 2018 refresh?
I've mentioned this a few times in this thread, but I'd really like to move my parents off their almost decade-old Acer PC and onto a 21.5" iMac. I went back and forth on whether I was gonna go for a Fusion drive or go whole-hog on a SSD and I figured I'd just splurge on the SSD, as it would likely lengthen the life of the computer in the end anyway.
My parents are both in their 70s so I'm thinking a retina display would make reading things easier on their eyes, so I'm probably going with that as well over the standard 1080p model unless I can find a crazy deal on the 1080p model.
I went over the various resellers and this is what I came up with:
21.5-inch iMac / 3.0Ghz i5 / 256GB SSD / 8GB RAM
Apple (Refurb) $1269.00 ($1385.75 after tax)
B&H $1399.00 (No tax)
Adorama (New) $1479.00 (No tax)
Macmall $1499.00 (No tax)
Apple (New) $1499.00 ($1646.91 after tax)
Best Buy [Not Available]
It's looking like Apple's refurbished price is my best bet. It's not in-stock as of this post but it was definitely there on Friday afternoon, so it's something that comes in and out of stock. So this prompts four questions:
1) Does anyone think that that a hypothetical 2018 iMac would introduce any major changes or revisions that's worth waiting it out and paying full MSRP for?
2) I can answer this one myself, but does anyone think that the cost of SSD upgrades for the iMac are going to come down in price? Alternatively, does anyone think that by some minor miracle that the SSD drive will become standard across the line?
3) Do the prices on previous model refurbished units drop when new computers are released? I noticed that the Series 1 refurbished Apple Watch went down from $209 to $169, so I assume the iMac models would do the same. If so, I can just wait for the 2018 announcements and hopefully grab the 2017 model for a bit cheaper than its current $1269 price, but I risk missing out on it completely if it sells out and doesn't get replenished.
4) What's Apple price policy and does it apply to refurbished hardware? If I grab the refurb 2017 model at $1269 and it goes down in price, would Apple refund me the difference?
Just thought I'd pick a few brains before I made any decisions on the matter. Thanks.
Has Apple given any indication or is anyone familiar with how these things usually work as to when the new lineup will be in store to demo? The XR is the closest thing to my desired specs and price, but I really want to try it in-hand before making any decisions because I really haven't liked huge phones in the past. I've had a Nexus 6P before and while I liked the phone I really grew to dislike the form factor. I'm hoping it won't be as annoying with the XR though, because it is a little smaller and the 6P felt really top heavy, where as the Plus iPhones have traditionally felt much more distributed with the weight. And of course iOS in general has favored UI and navigation elements on the bottom or with gestures rather than in the top corners, along with the reachability feature.
Correct, identical body sizeI might buy a Peel case soon, they're cheaper than Silicone cases I think and I like them. However, mine went to shit after one little drop so I have to think about it.
XS is exactly the same size as X right?
Is $285 for a good condition iPhone 7 Plus worth it from Apple? Can you get a lot more from other places?
Here is how focos works - helps you to see how iPhone X takes depth photos and the depth information is stored in the picture for later editing
It's hard to say exactly what will happen with the new iMacs, but similarly to the MBP I imagine a lot of models are going to get core bumps. Probably doesn't matter for your parents though, and any GPU gains likewise won't compare to the dGPU in that model anyhow. Since the screens are already P3 I can't imagine the next one will be substantially better.
Unless Apple goes with SATAIII SSDs, I don't see them doing the right thing and just making flash standard, let alone fusion. This is something they should have done three years ago by now, but c'est la vie.
Old models do get a markdown when the new ones come out (I picked up my 2014 MBP after the 2015 models to save a bit more) but the window is small and as always constrained by whatever is available in the refurb section.
No idea about the price saving; gut reaction is that they wouldn't but who knows.
The app won't be available.For Apple Watch Series 4 - will EKG be disabled outside of the US, or it'll let you do them but they aren't certified for doctor use?
Half of my brain is just telling me to pick up the 256GB SSD model (when it pops back up in the refurb store) and be done with it, but the other half of my brain is telling me to wait it out in case that same model's refurb offering gets a small price cut.
I'm not quite as concerned about the 2018 model at this point. I doubt there's much they could add to make paying full price worth it, and refurbs for the 2018 models wouldn't pop up into well into 2019.
Now that there is a podcasts complication, I gave it a spin.
So... Apple podcasts app is really not very good. Somehow I have over 100 episodes of the Bombcast in my list, and there's no apparent way to delete a bunch of them at once. Plus, for some reason they appear in a list with the oldest at the top on the watch. The app doesn't offer a way to, say, just keep the most recent 5 podcasts at all times.
I guess I'm sticking with overcast. My only real issue with overcast is it doesn't let you adjust the volume from the watch.