iPhone X: Bargain! You've just bagged yourself a cheap AR device Apple fanbois being fanbois, Apple's new iPhone X isn’t "super expensive" but rather "totally worth it". Or, as chief executive Tim Cook styled it, "a value price... for the technology you’re getting". Indeed, some have gone so far as to compare the iPhone’s bloated price tag to overpriced coffee, arguing to this coddled …
“Fools and their money” - it seems to me that the biggest fools are those who religiously say “I’ll never buy a… (Microsoft / Google / Apple / Amazon - insert product of choice here)” rather than considering the merits of the product itself and whether it fills a need at a particular time. Similarly, a fool might fixate on the size of the price ticket without considering whether it represents good value for money. There’s no doubt that £1k is an awfully large sum - but that doesn’t necessarily mean that a product so priced is bad value.
A famous motoring journalist once waxed lyrical about the qualities of a motor car made by brand X (no, I’m not saying which one - if you read the article too then you’ll know who), describing it as better built, more comfortable and more refined than a Rolls Royce. He then fixated on the price and said that he wasn’t prepared to spend 80K on a car made by brand X. If his review was accurate (and I haven’t tried the product in question because I don’t have 80k) then he’s a fool because, by any measure, an 80k car which outperforms a Roller is staggeringly good value. He’s fixated on the badge and not on the product.
Of course, not buying the product because you don’t have the necessary funds (80k, 1k - or even a tenner) is another matter entirely. But that has nothing to do with the badge.
@inmypjs
Whether or not you are a fool, that is a very foolish statement - and one that betrays you as a member of, at the very least, the cult of “anything but Apple”. It is foolish for two reasons:
1.) Because if you had a genuine interest in the whole glorious spectrum of digital information technology and computing you wouldn’t need anyone to tell you what represents good value. You’d read about it, and go out and play with it.
2.) Your use-case differs from mine and therefore what you consider to be “good value” is likely to differ, perhaps markedly, from what someone else considers to be good value.
For my use-case the iPhone SE represents excellent value for money, as does the base model iPad. Equally, much as I like macOS, the Mac doesn’t make a compelling case for itself right now - certainly not one good enough for me to consider replacing my seven year old computer.
"that is a very foolish statement"
Really? You never heard of the Cupertino idiot tax?
Apple products command a large premium for the name.
Apple products can only be good value to people to who attach a lot of value to the name. I suggest that makes they and not I the foolish ones.
@ 45 RPM
I think the point is, is ANY smartphone worth £1000, (or $1000) or whatever, and although value is obviously perceived, I think regardless of what you can afford the question would have to be exactly that, and I think the reality is most people don't think so simply becuase you can buy something that is just as good or better for considerably less. Yes, you could argue that the specs say it outperforms anything else but it doesn't make any difference in real world use.
I think cards are slightly different because they all very considerably in terms of quality and abilities, but for the most part you can do everything you need with a decent quality smartphone that costs under £300. You won't get twice as much (or more) by spending double or treble that.
Sticking with the Mark Twain analogy: if Tom Sawyer had been an Apple branding consultant then the brush would have been rebranded as an 'iBrush' and the whitewash would come in as an extortionate 'Must Have Accessory'.
I presume with ARKit that by now Apple employees are getting used to seeing a VR Steve Jobs walking round shaking his head and crying in disbelief at the one-horse monstrosity that his (and Woz's) child has become.
"I have absolutely no desire to have an iPhone (or any other smartphone, for that matter)."
And there's no point picking those grapes that are too high for you to reach because they are sour.
Phaedrus recounted a pithy summary of "The Fox and the Grapes".
Driven by hunger, a fox tried to reach some grapes hanging high on the vine but was unable to, although he leaped with all his strength. As he went away, the fox remarked 'Oh, you aren't even ripe yet! I don't need any sour grapes.' People who speak disparagingly of things that they cannot attain would do well to apply this story to themselves.
I beg to disagree, to me that sour grapes analogy appears totally inadequate. I perceive the iphone more as an accessory for fashionistas than anything else. Sometimes I suspect that most of those fashionistas are not even real fashionistas, quite often they look more like fashionista wannabes or something of that sort, I am not totally sure what they really are.
Come on guys cool down it's just a stupid gadget but you are dealing with it as if it was some kind of deity, don't make my observations a personal matter to you. Apple does not care about you as little as 1/1000th as you seem to care about them. You're blowing things out of proportion.
> It has never occurred to me to apply Aesops Fables to computing.
The book Escher Bach and Godel uses Aesop-like fables as an introduction to each chapter about information theory, though the author gives the nod to logician Charles Dodgson - better known to us as Lewis Carroll for his stories containing strange talking animals.
Agree completely el kabong. Its just a phone.
My reasons for never touching an apple thing ever again started in about 2003 (give or take a couple of years). I wanted to watch a quicktime video so downloaded the quicktime player from Apple which cunningly forced on me iTunes. I hadn't asked for that. Didn't want it. My MP3 collection was carefully curated. Suddenly Apple wanted to take over - and did a bit of damage to my metadata.
F_ckers. It wasn't straight forward to uninstall either. Like those search bars that just won't go away and have to be hacked out of the registry. I'm still pissed off about it now. They can go screw if they ever think they will get a single pence from me.
@lotaresco you know what assuming makes of "u", right? There's quite literally no amount of money _paid to me_ that would convince me to use an iPhone, or any other Apple product; if his case is anything like mine, it has nothing to do with "sour grapes" - and yes, quoting Aesop does make you something, but "look smart" isn't it.
"People who speak disparagingly of things that they cannot attain would do well to apply this story to themselves"
So the starving wolf was morally incorrect for making themselves feel better about being excluded from a meal? Where is the giraffe in this story that fed the wolf the grapes rather than forcing it, in desperation, to eat little Red Riding Hood's Grandmother?
Just another example of "I am alright Jack" until you get eaten by a starving wolf pack and then complain how immoral the world is. You made it dog eat dog so only you could have the grapes and as ever with exclusion there is a hidden cost you are going to pay once the supply of Grandmothers runs out.
Jeffrey Nonken» "I have absolutely no desire to have an iPhone (or any other smartphone, for that matter)."
Uh, good for you. Your point?
No point really, it is primarily a statement.
I am of the opinion, though, that spending $1000 on the new handset is foolish.
But then again, I lavish attention on my Mac IIfx, which many would consider to be foolish. So, who am I to judge what people spend their money on?
Well it's Monday, so your Pixel's screen will be completely burnt in and unreadable, but that won't matter because the phone will be unusable due to Russian hackers running fake news bots on your phone right now having lightly stepped pasts Android's crappy security.
I'm sure that there will be some former Google Glass enthusiasts keen to revisit AR, but I'm really struggling to see any real world utility for myself and 99% of the rest of the population from this technology, certainly in the next forty years.
Augmented reality, like virtual reality is the latest version of 3D. That didn't catch on, I predict that other than a few niche applications (Pokemon Go........) this will all go the same way, driven by shiney-eyed tech evangelists, who are all competing with each other to develop something because they can, rather than because it confers any real world benefit.
The whole thrust is that it doesn't matter if you see the point or not: it'll come to enough handsets that maybe some app developer will find a killer use-case that you've over looked.
It's more akin to having GPS on a phone than a 3D television. Whilst it was immediately clear that live navigation would be quite useful, it was harder to foresee what it would enable - Uber and taxi driver protests.
Have a look at the history of internet use by demographic, sector, gender etc, have a think about online retail, and ponder how a 3D scanning environment-aware phone might plug into that.
It's not just Apple - Qualcomm are touting similar sensors and co-processors for release early next year.
@Ledswinger
AR doesn't usually equate to wearing goggles a la Google Glass - which I agree would be a barrier to use in social situations.
It can be more akin to Google's Translation app (where you hold your phone over French text and see the English translation on the screen in context) or the Night Sky app. Like that, but for 3D physical environments and objects.
AR can become a replacement for a measuring tape for the casual user, in the same way as surveyors now use laser distance finders instead of sticks. Useful stuff, not gimmicks.
There are already at least 2 killer apps for AR: training and remote assistance.
Training as in learning anatomy or a highly complex 3D object (plane motor).
Remote assistance (computer based or human based).
As in where does a part has to be mounted in a complex system and such. Microsoft had quite a great video during its innovation conference in France, where it showed one of its customers doing exactly that. Can't remember exactly what it was, but it was pretty impressive, such a part to install on a submarine.
In addition to helping the technician do its job, he could superimpose other 'layers' of information.
In the example, he added the electric wiring scheme, and could see that the electricity team made a mistake and there was no chance the wirings could go between the wall and the piece.
In all the examples, HoloLens or glasses were used.
I see much less use for the phone form factor, except for what doesn't need to be super precise, such as trying to fit a sofa in a living room.
Aside from use locally, i.e. CAD/CAM/CAxE (x is some engineering discipline), just allowing this field engineer to not have to climb into a vehicle, be it plane or truck, to work with technicians on-site is something worthwhile. Even better, this engineer who's now mostly a shut-in can actually work from home, sitting up or in laying in bed.
That represents real value, well over $1000, basically extending/adding new capabilities and I just happen to get a phone besides. I've not bought into Apple, yet, although I recommend them regularly to the clueless amongst my userbase. Personally and professionally this is fucking huge. Also saves me money.
”I was laughing my arse off when those bunch of morons were camping at parks and playing Pokemon Go a couple of years ago.“
Gosh, it must be amazing being as achingly cool as you were. How dare those other people have fun doing something that’s so obviously beneath you.
Twat.
https://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2017/11/13/apple_leads_on_augmented_reality/
And as I said over there, while AR has a number of niche use-cases, it does not have a general use-case. Certainly not one which is compelling enough to make people slap a pair of goggles on.
(Mind you, it makes for a mighty fine gimmick - at an arena gig last night, I was genuinely impressed last night by how many people were taking snapchat-enhanced selfies. Therein lies at least one money-making route, it would seem...)
AR doesn't require googles. For many use cases it's sufficient to look through the phone screen. A current example would be Google's translation app - if you hold the phone above some French text the phone will display an English translation in context. Another example is the Night Sky app, which identifies constellations and planets from your point of view (location, direction)
Wow, live translation of text via the camera from Google.
Jesus, my first Windows Phone had that, 4 years ago, and all of them since.
Why is it that people only think that something is clever and cool when Google or Apple do it, despite it being available from a non-sexy Vendor yonks before.
Next thing you know, Google maps showing the Highway camera live feeds on Android will be touted as awesome, despite being on my Maps app for ages already.
My Nokia N9 had AR location placesdistance placed over the camera feed even longer ago than that - including stuff that you couldn't actually see. It doesn't tend to survive because it just isn't that useful in real life (partly because compass/gyro stuff is not perfect I suspect).
And, I presume when Firefox/Chrome adds the facility for web pages to be displayed in English without tiresome clicking and mucking about and copying bits into a translator, or has a right click that allows just a marked bit of text to be translated, it will be considered cool too. Meanwhile, I will just use Edge and half-forget that some of the pages I read are in a foreign language (until it becomes obvious from the translation that is).
Reminds of the time that someone said their camera had OIS, two years after my first camera that had it. Or the first time that boasted about having a whole 12MP when the one I was holding had 40.
And someone really was amazed when they put their phone on my wireless charging pad and saw it charge, THIS WEEK at my office, really, THIS WEEK. (Yes, it was a web developer.)
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
