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  • osxandwindows - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Can't wait.
  • dsumanik - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Meh, they lost me at the camera bump again. Make the device thicker with more battery, or cram it in there properly.

    For any other camera junkies out there:

    The new "zoom" lens is a 50mm f1.8, however 50mm is very close approximating to what you see naturally out your eyes, so while it is indeed 2x zoom over the wide angle, it is in effect providing just a standard FOV. The "portrait" mode applies a false gaussian blur using facial recognition technology which is definitely a gimmick, even if it winds up being well executed it is still 'faking it' and the same results can be achieved using almost any std editing software (in essence, it just saves you time trying to fake bokeh in an iPhone photo, which is a dubious endeavour at best)

    To sum it up:

    -faster aperture (great!)
    -built in IS an all models (great!)
    -native RAW shooting(UBER GREAT)
    -optical zoom, meh
    -portrait mode bokeh, double meh
    -camera bump, no ty
  • lilmoe - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Honestly?? If this phone had sd card expansion and iOS had an open/workable file system, I'd be all over it (I can't actually believe I'm saying this!).
    BUT, too bad, that and the fact that the GS7 exists (a better phone in all aspects :) )
  • Cheesetogo - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Actually, the depth of field is made possible by the dual cameras. Having two of them spaced apart from each other means that they can determine the distance everything in the scene is from the phone (that's how they're generating the "depth map" they mentioned). This means that the effect should actually be very comparable to the "real" thing.
  • dsumanik - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    No cheese, he clearly explained it is done in software and will be released as a software update in about 2 months. The camera captures images from either sensor, not both simultaneously as previously suspected.

    Each camera has a lens of different focal length, meshing the images together would be impossible....the captured images look completely different.
  • Cheesetogo - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link

    I think it's a mix of both actually (he's not super clear, but he does state "..from the two cameras and the software..."). The images don't need to be meshed together to create this effect. The final image would be a modification of the image captured by the longer lens. Having a second lens is what allows you to accurately create the "depth map."

    You can see what I'm talking about here: http://dsc.ijs.si/files/papers/S101%20Mrovlje.pdf
  • Lciafe31 - Tuesday, October 4, 2016 - link

    Selon la décision, la loi stipule que «[n] o est interdit d'utiliser un combiné sans fil ou d'un dispositif de communication sans fil personnelle pour composer, lire ou envoyer des messages texte tout en conduisant un véhicule automobile sur une voie publique ou voie publique dans l'état de Rhode Island."
    https://localiseruntelephonegratuitement.wordpress...
  • Ranger1065 - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link

    "Can't wait" pretty much sums up how many people feel about this site.

    Anandtech pulls the trigger in record time whenever Apple products or events materialise.

    Conversely articles of real interest appear to reside in sleepy hollow and are lucky if
    they ever see the light of day.

    Back to bed now Appletech...this site is broken beyond
    repair.
  • jeffbui - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Wonder if Anand is there
  • dsumanik - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Yup, probably wondering why in teh fuck apple ditched the headphone jack and shedding a tear because his $800 dollar sennheisers just became useless lol
  • beepboopbop - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link

    Who would use those headphones with a phone? Most people don't want to carry around dedicated amp with them.
  • Sushisamurai - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Oh I'm excited. I'd like to see some on the fly thoughts on their hardware and camera if u guys have the time
  • Sushisamurai - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Also disappointed in the lack of user upgradability for the sake of design :(

    Hopefully we'll get a new refresh on the 15"
  • BedfordTim - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    If the patent is anything to go by the camera is quite innovative and it will be interesting to see how good it is.
  • fanofanand - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Joshua using an Android device? This should be interesting. I'm guessing half of the commentary will be about how crappy this stupid Android piece of $#@#% is. :)
  • arayoflight - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    If you didn't know, he uses android as his daily driver.
  • fanofanand - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    I didn't know, based on his reviews I wouldn't think Joshua would touch an Android anything with a 10 foot pole. Apple goes big.little like Android did a half decade ago and that makes Tim a "madman". Seriously, the Apple fanboyishness is off the charts here.
  • beepboopbop - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Anandtech reviews tend to focus on analysis of the hardware performance. The areas where Apple seems to excel are CPU performance and storage speed. It seems, at least in my opinion, that there is less of an emphasis on software (meaning iOS vs Android doesn't matter that much).
  • Psyside - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    NOT IN CPU SPEED, in storage speed and apple optimized benchmarks - ONLY
  • beepboopbop - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Have you checked out the Geekbench 4 results?
  • Geranium - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Geekbench? LOL. That benchmark can fit in L1 cache. A processor with higher L1 will Score better. Are you sure Geekbench on Android, iOS, Mac and Windows use same workloads?
  • beepboopbop - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Geekbench 4 uses the same workloads cross platform.
  • lilmoe - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    "Geekbench 4 uses the same workloads cross platform."

    Sure, and I'm Bill Gates.
  • dsumanik - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    I'll correct that statement for you:

    "Anandtech reviews USED to focus on analysis of the hardware performance."

    Now they try to help with product placement and market perception, as per parent company Purch.

    In essence, hey can't risk angering their sponsors anymore, so as long as you ignore the words and photos in each article and just look at the numbers and charts

    ...the site can still be somewhat relevant.
  • lilmoe - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    "Anandtech reviews tend to focus on analysis of the hardware performance"

    ehh... Lets just say they "used to"...
  • danbob999 - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    3.5" display is also the perfect size... until Apple releases larger phones.
  • artk2219 - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    I'm fairly certain the "madman" comment was made sarcastically.
  • ToTTenTranz - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Speaking of the HTC 10...
  • porphyr - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    first thing I thought of too haha
  • hifiaudio2 - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Holy crap this is sad that Apple is spending this much time at a launch event showing a game I played 30 years ago.
  • mkozakewich - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Naw, Pokémon Snap came out 17 years ago.
  • LoneStarMac - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Mario and Pokeman ?

    That's great, all the middle schoolers will be thrilled...

    What about the adults ?
  • Deelron - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    They're the ones who I see downtown Friday nights and weekends... playing Pokémon.
  • ExarKun333 - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    GPS on the watch? Please say yes!
  • mdriftmeyer - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Apple Watch 2 is a grand slam for me. Finally going to invest in a smart watch.
  • ExarKun333 - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Same here. Current watch was not a consideration due to battery life and lack of GPS. This will be a GREAT product. Not a huge Apple fan either...
  • FATCamaro - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Yup - same.
  • yvizel - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    No change in battery life.
    They never mentioned it even...
  • ExarKun333 - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Better and more efficient CPU/GPU will help this. Obviously GPU will impact, but if you apply the 20% or so improvement from the iPhone 7, you almost get 2 days of use. Nice improvement and you can always disable GPS for better life.
  • ExarKun333 - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    GPS (not GPU)
  • yvizel - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    If you check the Apple website, it is still rated at 18 hours.
    The battery life has always been the problem of this watch. Until they figure out how to make it usable for an entire week, I cannot make sense of it.
  • The Von Matrices - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Capacitive touch instead of buttons? Has anyone ever had a button on their phone stop working after repeated use? I don't know of anyone who has. This seems like a style decision much more than a functionality decision.
  • Gunbuster - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    More likely a cost save in hardware, even if a few cents time millions of phones is going to buy some purchasing bean counter a Ferrari.
  • FATCamaro - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Anecdotally, two people I know have had home buttons stop working after about 3 years and 5 years.
  • ingwe - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    My lock button stopped working.
  • aliasfox - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    My iPhone 4's home button stopped working around 4 years in.

    It may be a cost savings to go haptic, but it'll definitely help with waterproofing not to have additional moving pieces there.
  • Geranium - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Ask Samsung users. They are using capacitive from the beginning.
  • Eidigean - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Home button broke on my iPhone 4, and power button broke twice on my iPhone 5, all covered under warranty.
  • Gunbuster - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    TLDR, is Siri still an idiot?
  • artk2219 - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Siri will be an idiot for quite some time to come, although to be fair she has gotten better over the years.
  • VagueByDesign - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    The wireless headphones are cool, but making it so you can't charge your phone at the same time it is connected to an aux input is a problem. A lot of people charge their phones while driving and have the phone connected to the aux input. Not everybody has a car that will do bluetooth connection with their phone, so this particular phone is going to be a problem for those of us without a brand new car.
  • ExarKun333 - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Agree. I believe this is why we saw the aux connector on the latest lightning dock. The writing was on the wall...
  • Deelron - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Luckily there are items under $20 that plug into an aux port and either are USB powered or battery powered and provide Bluetooth connectivity for those cars. Easy solution, and one less wire running to your phone while charging (replaced by one wire running elsewhere!).
  • solipsism - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    You don't even need to go that old route. Just get a Lightning adapter that has both Lighting and a 3.5mm jack on the other end. This even makes getting into and out or your car easier, because you now only have to plug in the Lightning connector into your phone, not the Lightning and 3.5mm plug.

    This is going to be the same for Android users soon enough when USB-C becomes the only plug on future devices.
  • Murloc - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    no need for that special adapter on newer vehicles either since they come with a USB port and CarPlay or whatever android equivalent.
  • solipsism - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Sure, Murloc, but the OP seemed to specify that the 3.5mm aux port on their stereo was current solution.
  • danbob999 - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    If you pay the $2000 technology package. Basic cars do not even have bluetooth.
  • solipsism - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    1) I don't doubt there are some cars that require the Technology package, which typically includes the color info-tainment display, backup camera, sat radio, BT, and hand free steer wheel options, but there are innumerable cars that offer BT automatically or as an add-on without buying the technology package.

    2) Even if you don't have BT built-in, there are a plethora of 3rd-party vendors that allow you to easily connect to your car's stereo using the 12V cigarette lighter. For audio, this isn't great because wired or BT it's still passing it to a radio station, but it's an option.
  • Sushisamurai - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    The solution is a $20-30 USD Bluetooth transceiver to AUX. gives me Bluetooth and hands free when I turn on my car.
  • danbob999 - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    At least USB-C is a standard that can be used by any vendor
  • solipsism - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    1) It can be, but note that it's also proprietary and licensed.

    2) Even with a Lightning connector, the signaling is still USB so an adapter works just fine. This is why Lightning cables have a USB-A connector on one end.

    PS: I'd personally like to see Appel do away with both headphones and PSUs in their iPhone boxes. These seem to get unused the most. How many people like Apple's cartilage crushed EarPods? Or have a drawer filled with their PSUs. If they're going to include PSU's, I'd like for them to finally make the move to using USB-C, not USB-A, ports in them, and the appropriate cables. This probably flies in the face of the current EU law, but USB-C is the 'de facto' future of the universal port interface standard for PSUs (even if they don't yet know it).
  • Brazos - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    For $12 I bought a BT adapter for my car. Plugs into my audio adapter and my phone plays thru it to my radio. Works great.
  • Murloc - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    cars have had bluetooth for years now, if you have a 5+ years old econobox, chances are you don't buy new iphones right as they come out either, if you drive a very old car because you just don't care about having a new one, you can buy an aftermarket radio, 42% of these radios sold in 2011 (5 years ago) had bluetooth already.

    I also see from other comments that there are supercheap BT adapters.

    They don't have to care about your problem since it's been solved already.
  • shabby - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Apple needs to invent wireless charging...
  • name99 - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    You do realize that Apple ALREADY SELL a device that uses wireless charging?

    I think they know rather more about the subject (including the ways in which it is sub-optimal and needs to be improved) than some random teenagers on the internet.
  • shabby - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Which iphone has wireless charging?
  • name99 - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link

    The Apple Watch
  • artk2219 - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Yeah, you're a little late to that party. Like 125+ years late.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_power_trans...
  • adityarjun - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    http://images.anandtech.com/doci/10656/14732734099...
    What is this? This implies that the gpu in A8 is more powerful than A9
  • Andrei Frumusanu - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    That should be power consumption.
  • adityarjun - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Makes sense. It is still weird for a company as large as Apple to make such a mistake. Doesn't anyone review the slides?
  • solipsism - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Where is the mistake? It clearly says "…the power of…".
  • Deelron - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    It makes perfect sense with what the presenter was saying at the time, in static form it does come across as confusing.
  • fanofanand - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Andrei you are still here! Is Ryan just playing an April Fool's joke on us in the other thread????
  • Psyside - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Hey Andrei, please give us some info why did you drop the 8890 vs 820? :(
  • Andrei Frumusanu - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Happenings in my personal life which took priority. Maybe I'll dump the data I have in a piece but it's not going to be a review anymore.
  • lilmoe - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Hope you're doing well. You have been missed :)
    Please stay active in the future. When you write, people read.
  • jra101 - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    HTC Duo Cam anyone? http://www.anandtech.com/show/7893/the-htc-one-m8-...
  • VagueByDesign - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    I still don't get it... I'm not an apple hater or anything, but these phone specs have been available for years. You can't throw a rock in the air without it hitting someone using a phone with these numbers. Does Apple do wireless charging at all? Didn't see that listed as a feature. And why brag about a 12MP rear camera when you can get a 16MP rear camera on a number of other phones? I just don't get it... Does Apple keep their heads in the sand while they are developing this stuff? At least give us something that competes with the flagships of LG and Samsung.
  • adityarjun - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Well, iPhones have been shipping with one of the best camera for years (I am not saying 'the best camera'), and their phones happen to work well and smoothly.
    I gave an android phone to my dad and he would get confused since whenever he tried to open a photo, there would be so many app options. App duplicacy is a serious issue. As is updates. The Galaxy Note 7 launched with Marshmallow and Nougat will be released just 2 months later, but we will get it after 5-6 months! And it will count as a major upgrade. The iPhone 7 launches with the latest iOS onboard. So there are indeed a lot of pros to an iPhone. (I am a Nexus 5X user myself and definitely not an android hater)
  • beepboopbop - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Megapixels aren't all that matters when it comes to image quality. In fact, given two sensors of the same size, the one with more megapixels will have lower low-light performance than the one with fewer megapixels because the size of each pixel is smaller and can thus capture less light. There is a reason why Samsung went from 16 MP sensors to 12 MP.
  • aliasfox - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Megapixels mean next to nothing - you'll see professional photographers using 12-16 mp DSLRs (Canon 5d mkI, Nikon D700, Nikon D4s are all in this range). Basically, once you get into double digit megapixels, everything else becomes significantly more important - color fidelity, noise, dynamic range, etc.

    I bet Apple is actively ignoring wireless charging.

    And according to most tests and video shootouts, the iPhone is almost always comfortably in the lead when it comes to performance.

    Now that I'm done saying good things about Apple, the announcement seemed like a bit of a snooze. Dual cameras is the 'it' thing this year, and everything else is the typical new phone upgrade (faster! better battery!).

    We'll see how good the two camera depth mapping is - so far, I've been fairly unimpressed by dual camera algorithms, and disgusted by single camera ones.
  • Sushisamurai - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    I don't think wireless charging is "perfected" enough to be considered. 70%-80% efficiency in best case scenarios? That's horrendous.
  • mdriftmeyer - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    If you think all the guts are the same you would buy swamp land in Florida.
  • Eidigean - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Need to look past the number of cores. 4+4 CPUs in an android have been outperformed by 2 CPUs in an iPhone for years. 12M large pixels capture more light with less noise than 16M small pixels. Metal cases dissipate heat better than plastic. Native code runs faster than Java in a VM.
  • malukhel - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    So......big/little
  • solipsism - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    It certainly looks like Apple is adopting big.LITTLE, and that doesn't sound good to me considering how poorly it's been implemented when it comes to usability. I assume because Apple designs their own chips, and uses their own kernel and OS they know this is beneficial (otherwise they wouldn't have gone this route), but with too many poor results from vendors using Android I'll have to wait to see the results before I decide to champion Apple's solution.
  • mdriftmeyer - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    No it does not. Apple has just chosen to carve a newer path for the A Series addressing high efficiency lower power cores to offset their main high performance cores, thus tailoring their hardware to improve system battery life while not wasting resources on cores that are overkill for the specific processes requesting action.
  • solipsism - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    You don't think this is in anyway similar to big.LITTLE, mdriftmeyer? I'm sure the implementations are radically different, but the core concept seems to be the same from what little info I've read.
  • nils_ - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    With regards to Android, the linux kernel has had a fair share of scheduler issues and is poorly optiimsed for big little.
  • name99 - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    re big.LITTLE
    "Apple just validated ARM and Qualcomm with this move"

    You're missing the point. As you say, "I wouldn't be surprised if the migration is all done in hardware though and we're only looking at a dual core CPU from a software perspective" is THE QUESTION.

    I have very loudly and frequently criticized big.LITTLE not because the idea is stupid, but because the ARM implementation is stupid (in two ways
    - the different performance cores are in different clusters, so it is expensive to move from A57 to A53 or whatever
    - the OS has to do the scheduling)

    This sort of design can work very well (according to academic simulations) when
    - the two cores are very tightly coupled (eg perhaps even sharing the same L1 caches, or with a very fast path between the two sets of caches) AND
    - hardware is used to steer threads so that it can do so at a very fine granularity, and based on hardware metrics (like dumping a thread that misses frequently to DRAM onto the slower core).

    My guess is that both cores (of a fast.SLOW pair) ARE visible to the OS, otherwise Apple would not have talked about this as a quad-core device, and that
    - threads get an OS hint as to what level of performance is expected (this can be done because, for a while now, developers have been told to mark threads at a required performance level based on the type of UI interaction expected)
    - this OS hint is used in conjunction with hardware metrics to steer threads. So, eg, the background processing thread NEVER leaves the slow core; while if two UI-critical threads are running, one on the slow core, one on the FAST core, they will be interchanged occasionally depending on which one is currently doing a worse job of exploiting that FAST hardware.
  • lilmoe - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    hahahahahha
    sorry, had to laugh
    hahahahahaha

    sooo.... yea. big.LITTLE is the future, just like i said all along, more cores is the way to go. your iGod says i'm right. no more arguments.
  • Nullify - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Ahhh, the little Apple hating troll is upset again. It's OK, you'll get through another year of a new iPhone and Apple domination. Maybe you'll get lucky and something bad will happen to Apple (like exploding phones).
  • lilmoe - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    hehehe. I'd rather be called iFan troll, especially the blind cult following type.
    On a more serious note, I actually like the device. Like I said on the the first page of the comments, I'd be all over it if it had SD card expansion and a workable file system...

    I seriously HATE how people trash other innovations if they weren't used by Apple (big.LITTLE being a very good example here), and then change their entire rhetoric when Apple adopts said innovations, claiming that "Apple is doing it right/better" when they absolutely have no idea how it's implemented in Apple's closed system code.

    In short, I like trolling people who talk out of their behinds. I like some Apple products, but hate the greedy, anti-consumer approach of the company.
  • Nullify - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    What if it was something much simpler? The one thing Apple knows better than anyone is the performance requirements of all the threads within iOS itself. So maybe Apple offloads a bunch of OS specific stuff to run in the background on these low power cores which frees the two main cores up for user Apps. Or maybe I'm looking at this wrong?

    However they do it, the implementation is going to be vastly superior to Android simply based on the fact Apple has complete control over their hardware & software. This will just be another example of the advantages this control brings them.
  • Eidigean - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Just want to clarify, speaking as a dev, that increasing a thread's priority informs the scheduler of how important it is to give processing time to that thread.

    In my experience, if you want a thread to wake up say 30 times per second, even to do minimal work, the priority must be very high in order to wake up on time, not 20ms to 50ms late.

    This workload could still be done on a little core, reactive doesn't mean heavy, so I would not want thread priority to indicate which core to schedule the thread on.
  • name99 - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link

    You are SUPPOSED to tag your threads using QoS classes, which are more abstract descriptions of how you want your thread prioritized:
    https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentat...

    Dicking around with low level thread priorities is something you should rarely need to do unless you have very unusual requirements.

    Unlike thread priority, QoS IS a useful indicator of what core is likely best for a thread. Priority is sub-optimal for the kinds of reasons Eidigean gives --- it conflates two different issues, namely latency and some sort of "duration it takes to complete the task".
  • Eidigean - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link

    Thank you for the link. I was not aware of the method pthread_set_qos_class_self_np().

    When writing cross-platform code, such as Android which also uses pthreads, none of the other Objective-C techniques are appropriate.
  • Eidigean - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link

    Here's why I missed it. NOTE: QoS is available in iOS 8 and later. My codebase has been around since iOS 4.
  • ilkhan - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    One little flaw (lightning vs USB-C), otherwise looks like a good upgrade. I might have to skip the Nexus train this year.
  • annomander - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Yeah I agree, they are at sometime going have to swap lighting for usb-c.
    They are almost exact duplication.

    If usb c had not come out I could understand but not when it is adopted in MacBooks
    There is currently too many ports
    Usb
    Usb-c
    Lighting
    Thunderbolt

    Thank god FireWire has gone
  • Meteor2 - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Well Thunderbolt uses USB-C, so there's really only two ports, Lightning and USB-C.
  • solipsism - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    I don't understand your concern.

    TB was a brilliant solution that used Apple's free-to-license mini-DP connector (DisplayPort another brilliant solution) so that we could have high-speed data and video over a single port. Let's remember Intel wanted TB to run over USB 3.x, but were denied.

    Now with USB-C following* and surpassing Lightning with a small, well designed, high-speed, and reversible connector, that now accepts DP1.3 and TB3, the future of port interfaces is looking great.

    The only outlier will likely be Apple's iDevices with Lightning ports and a Lightning port on their Macs for their headphones (but even then they may say use BT or buy a Lightning-to-USB-C adapter/3.5mm-to-USB-C adapter).

    We can desire that the headphone market all have port interface, but the fact is Apple's MFi program offers too many high-value options that keep their peripherals working well and turning them a hefty profit in return—but don't paint that as mere corporate greed, or you're missing the point.

    My biggest issue with the 12" MacBook was the lack of the USB-C port on both sides, the way Google Pixel did it. I'm hoping that because these ports are both multi-use and small, that we get at least 4x USB-C + 1x Lightning + 1x MicroSD slot on the next MacBook Pros, with the ports balanced evenly on the sides towards the back as the logic boards get smaller, more dense, and ride the back vents for better airflow.

    * I see no evidence that Apple was behind designing USB-C. It's, at best, a homage to Apple innovation, so let's give the USB-IF some credit unless some proof can be verified.
  • BillBear - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    There were 79 engineers from various companies involved in creating the USB-C standard.

    18 of them were from Apple, so they were certainly as involved as anybody else.

    https://www.docdroid.net/uf3z/typec.pdf.html
  • solipsism - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Thanks for the link, BillBear.

    Involved, sure, but without researching each of the names and getting some in-depth data as to who was in-charge of which aspect of the connector, or what those Apple employees did for Apple, I don't think it's fair when people claim, "Apple invented USB-C so they could have something like Lightning."
  • BillBear - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Well, if you look at the numbers there were 36 different companies who contributed, yet Apple by itself still managed to contribute 23% of the overall engineering manpower.

    That's pretty darn involved.
  • Eidigean - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Not sure how strong USB-C is, but the Lightning port is designed to be quite strong, enough to cantilever the weight of the entire phone just by the Lightning connector, as seen in the dock below. Mini-USB would bend for sure.

    http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MNN62/iphone-lig...
  • BillBear - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    I wonder if Apple designed it's own Little CPU or if it's going with something stock?
  • Blark64 - Sunday, September 11, 2016 - link

    Nothing stock at all; Apple has been designing its own CPUs for years, based on their architecture license from ARM. Thats how they were able to deliver 64-bit a year before anyone in the mobile space. They also integrate GPUs based on the PowerVR series from Imagination tech.
  • Scabies - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    No Thunderbolt 3 MacBook Pro? I am disappoint.
  • BillBear - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Kaby Lake parts suitable for a MacBook Pro don't become available until next year.

    Apple hardly ever announces products that aren't close to a shipping date. The only exceptions I can remember are the first iteration of the iPhone and the Watch.
  • solipsism - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    There is word they are shipping now to suppliers, and that they quantities are high enough that certain suppliers could be selling products in the next couple months. I hope that's true, but I hope that's true without a desire to make the Holiday cutoff.

    Personally, I want Kaby Lake for the various changes coming over Skylake, but I'd rather Skylake this year than having to wait for Kaby lake next year.

    I'm on a 2013 15" MBP (Woe's me, right? :P)
  • BillBear - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    I'd rather hold out for full speed USB-C ports instead of USB 3 in a USB-C form factor, but that's just me.
  • Eidigean - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    I'd rather they not shrink it any further than my 2012 Retina, and leave all the display ports alone. Add USB-C for TB3, but leave the other ports intact.
  • Meteor2 - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    That's a lot more than I was expecting. The SoC performance is going to be incredible. I wonder how Apple do it.
  • xype - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    I really needed to know that HTC 10 is working well as a camera and all, when coming to read about the iPhone. Wonder why it got mentioned at least twice.
  • Lolimaster - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    One thing im happy is that now everyone will provide stereo speakers. Is the screen still IPS or OLED?
  • Sttm - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    Just wait, Apple will now sue AMD for using the word Fusion in reference to CPUs.
  • Lolimaster - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    That was the last Jim Keller trolling on future iMacs featuring AMD's Raven Ridge APU (Zen based).
  • kamm2 - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    What is up with that worldwide watch sales graphic? They were not #2 or even close. Must have been some commentary or clarification.
  • Deelron - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    It was by revenue, not units (I have no idea if accurate or not, just noting).
  • MarkieGcolor - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    I think waterproofing is the biggest and most understated upgrade. Although no 3.5 jack stinks, waterproofing makes this the most important iPhone and "the best phone Apple has ever made"
  • Sushisamurai - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    I'm a little confused here at the USB-C comparisons to lightning - from what I understand, Lightning has more pins and ergo more functions than USB-C, therefore, by going to USB-C from lightning, u would lose functionality no?
  • Eidigean - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    No, other way around. Lightning has 16 pins, USB-C has 24.
  • solipsism - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link

    As Sushisamurai states, USB Type-C has more pins, but like Megapixels in a digital camera, you can't use that as a sole metric to determine if it has more functions or if it's "better." The original iPod connector had 30 pins and it was replaced with Lightning with only had 8 usable pins. It's only with the 12.9" iPad Pro that Apple included a USB 3.0 controller and added pins to both sides of the female connector, as well as used an updated Lightning cable to take advantage of the 16 pins on the reversible Lightning connector. Going back throughout the history of computing we see very large cables with a lot more than 24 or 30 pins that did considerably less.
  • Eidigean - Thursday, September 8, 2016 - link

    Lightning has always been reversible with 16 pins, not 8. Reversible does not mean that the pins are doubled up, it means pins 1 and 16 are a differential pair, pins 2 and 15 are a differential pair, etc. HDMI and DisplayPort each use 4 differential pairs; which would only use up half of the pins.

    Power can come over multiple pins; still a pair, just not differential.
  • ruthan - Wednesday, September 7, 2016 - link

    I wonder which cumbersome device Apple users using for SD card reading, some "handy" apple branded crapp adapter..

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