A few thoughts on the Apple keynote

by Volker Weber

steve

This has been a very enjoyable event. Tim started with a beautiful nod to Steve Jobs. He also addressed the American soul with mentioning an effort to help the victims of hurricanes Harvey and Irma. He was followed by a rather uninspiring segment on Apple retail by Angela Ahrendts before kicking it off for real. Here are my thoughts, not in chronological order:

I am upgrading my devices to iOS 11, watch OS 3 and tvOS 11 golden masters before they become available. A week from now all Apple customers with iPhone 5S and newer, with all Watch models and Apple TV 4 will get software upgrades, on the same day for everyone. This week is meant for app developers to check their software for last minute bugs, but I am taking the risk now. We test stuff so you don't have to.

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PS: My prediction regarding iPhone branding was complete nonsense. Apple is keeping the number scheme. X is pronounced 10. Which makes next year even more interesting.

Comments

Thanks for sharing your thoughts! I’m coming along for the iOS 11 GM. Updating right now. An exciting and expensive fall. But that was expected :-)

Markus Dierker, 2017-09-12

(Somewhat) dissapointed with Apple Watch 3. Usually this would have been an instant buy for me ... up to the moment when they announced the Telecom providers.
Unfortunately at the moment it requires a Telekom SIM-Card in your iPhone too to make the Cellular work ... so I will wait here for more providers to come (hopefully).

Regarding iPhone X ... yes, definately FOMO for me too ;-) Currently on iPhone 7 plus but yes, I "need" the X.

Harald Gärttner, 2017-09-12

Telekom is the best carrier, except that they have no coverage in my house here in the middle of Frankfurt. Which is why I’m on O2, the cheapest carrier and also the worst, except that it actually works where I spend 90% of my time.
I’d switch to Telekom if I could. I’m pretty sure O2 is aware of this.

Chris Ferebee, 2017-09-12

They are aware but that doesn't help them. I'm sure they want it but (at the moment) the don't get it ... like in the early times with the iPhone. Exclusivity has a price tag, but obviously Telekom is willing to pay it.

Harald Gärttner, 2017-09-12

Why do you need mobile coverage in your house? If you do not want to use landline, you could use wifi calling (standard now on all three networks with the iPhone).

Christian Just, 2017-09-13

Chris, I am in the same situation with Telekom at my home office, but there is a simple solution: Just enable WLAN calls. This works perfect for me.

Peter Meuser, 2017-09-13

Except when the customer‘s WLAN is bad, you get a call and want to go outside to improve the connection quality and the whole calls ends because you loose the WLAN connection :-)
They cannot hand over a WLAN calls to 3G yet.

I am on iOS 11 now on the iPhone. First thing that did not work this morning was playing music via USB to a 3 series BMW without CarPlay (no artist/song name and crashed when picking a song from a playlist). Fortunately this car goes back in Nov/Dec to get a new one :-).

Karsten Lehmann, 2017-09-13

And the best news from the Apple TV 4K presentation: all HD movies you bought are upgraded to 4K for free (when available).

This won't happen with your HD Blurays that you bought.

Manfred Wiktorin, 2017-09-13

@Karsten WLAN calls are supposed to handover just fine to VoLTE. Not to mention that with WiFi calling there is no reason to go outside to improve call quality... just get better WiFi ;-)

Gerhard Poul, 2017-09-13

Karsten, did you try updating the software in your BMW? ;-)

Volker Weber, 2017-09-13

I need a vowe recommendation please :)

I am on an iPhone 6 64gb with broken display and a nearly dead battery. iPhone X though awesome is way too expensive for my taste. So I am now debating between

a) repairing the 6 and hold on to it another year
b) get the 8 with 64gb
c) get the 7 with 128gb
d) get the 6s with 128 gb

- 64gb is the minimum needed, budget is 800€ max. looking forward to some opinions!

Axel Borschbach, 2017-09-13

35 Euro mehr ausgeben. 7 Plus mit 128 GB:

https://www.comtech.de/apple-iphone-7-plus-128-gb-schwarz-mn4m2zd-a-de-ware-mn4m2zd-a

Volker Weber, 2017-09-13

@Axel, no "vowe" rec. from me but:

Repairing the Iphone6 costs 100€. This is what i would do first. Then, there is enough time to wait for a decisison. Prices will drop until then.

After years with the "plus" Version, i now prefer the "8" in small. It has the dual cam and stabilization from the "+" version and size doesnt matter anymore since my eyes needs reading glasses anyway.

Roland Dressler, 2017-09-13

I reale like the Look of the new x, but I realy want to have a Home Button. I don't understand why the IPhone 8 do not get the dual cam on the backside, not everyone wants the big plus Models. I hoped a little Bit that they show a new SE with NFC, Wireless charing and 3DTouch but nope.
At least I realy miss news about ApplePay.

Christian Ott, 2017-09-13

Roland, as Christian says there is no dual camera on the 4.7 inch iPhone 8. It also has the smaller battery.

Volker Weber, 2017-09-13

@Roland: a certified repair (e.g. at Gravis) for display and battery would actually be 250€ which I find quite steep for a three year old phone, no?

@vowe: the plus is a too big for my taste, plus does the dualcamera of the 7plus outweigh the improvements of the 8 in your opinion?

Axel Borschbach, 2017-09-13

Reasons to not get a Plus: it's too big.
Reasons to get a Plus: larger battery, much better camera.

I would expect the 7 Plus to be better than 8 in the camera department because you don't get a zoom lens nor portrait mode.

Volker Weber, 2017-09-13

@vowe, Christian: Thanks for the info. Too bad that it doesnt have the dual camera which works better as i had expected.

@Axel: a "refurbished" iphone 6 with 64GB RAM costs around 330€.
I repaired some Iphone 6 Displays and, in my eyes, the extra price for the "certified" logo isnt it worth. Same for the battery.

Roland Dressler, 2017-09-13

I want X.
:-)
And I definitely prefer the "plus" size, after abt. 18 months of experience and comparation, with or without reading glasses.

Stephan Perthes, 2017-09-13

For me the phones are all nice and everything, and I'll definitely be waiting and hoping to get an X - but at the end of the day I have a definite "Meh" feeling about the phones.

I'm not understanding the negative comments regarding Watch #3. I have a Watch #0 and I love it. Unfortunately it now looks it's age. It's scratched and even lost some of it's coating in places (tip: do not use caustic soda while whearing an aluminium watch).

Right now I'm actually really excited thinking about getting a new watch. In Silver this time.

Ian Bradbury, 2017-09-13

I'm waiting for eleven next year.

Karl Heindel, 2017-09-13

@Chris Ferebee

>>Telekom is the best carrier,
>>except that they have no
>>coverage in my house here
>>in the middle of Frankfurt.

Just activate WiFi Calling

Felix Binsack, 2017-09-13

I want the X. Finally an iPhone with the right size. Actually almost exactly the same as my BlackBerry Z30. And Apple even learned from BB10 how insanely simple and intuitive it is to swipe up from the bottom to get to the home screen. Who needs a home button? Nobody needs a home button!

Jochen Kattoll, 2017-09-13

Best text I have read so far about the event. I felt the same way - about the presentation and the urge to have the X.

Holger Kempke, 2017-09-13

Vowe, it‘s on my todo list :-)

Karsten Lehmann, 2017-09-13

Updating the BMW media/phone software helped, Music playback via USB is working again with iOS11. :-)
I have an iPhone 7. The last provided BMW update that added support for iPhone devices was for the 5S and iOS7. Have never had issues with my previous devices and iOS versions.

Karsten Lehmann, 2017-09-13

Old vowe.net archive pages

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