back to article Massive iPhone X leak trashes Apple's 10th anniversary circus

Apple apparently deploys resources comparable to the security apparatus of a repressive Cold War Balkan state to try to prevent leaks. To very little effect. And with magnificent irony, it seems to have itself to blame for the biggest leak of all. On Friday, several news outlets received a drop of what appeared to be a late …

  1. frank ly

    Apple has redrawn the poo emoji

    So, these emoji things are not standardised in terms of appearance? Is this like a font change? How many different representations of poo are there?

    1. Hans 1
      Boffin

      Re: Apple has redrawn the poo emoji

      <p>Well, not exactly, it is animated, so not a font as such, more like an animated image ... \u1F4A9 is the unicode symbol, representation depends on the font your browser uses ...</p>

      Sorry, I initially copy-pasted the unicode character, however, I got the dreadded:

      The post contains some characters we can’t support.

      1. Chemical Bob
        Facepalm

        Re: Apple has redrawn the poo emoji

        "Well, not exactly, it is animated"

        What were they thinking?! Animated poo is one of the last things any sane person would ever want to see!

        1. Evil Auditor Silver badge

          Re: Apple has redrawn the poo emoji

          What were they thinking?!

          When I first heard of an emoji film I thought it was a bad joke. Then missus assured me that it is actually a real thing. Which sane person would want to watch this? So, animated poo seems less of a surprise now.

          1. TRT Silver badge

            Re: Animated poo is one of the last things any sane person would ever want to see!

            Howdy-ho, everyone!

            1. Chemical Bob

              Re: Howdy-ho, everyone!

              Well, OK, Christmas Poo is special...

            2. handleoclast

              Re: Animated poo is one of the last things any sane person would ever want to see!

              @TRT

              You started it. You posted a video. I have no choice but to retaliate with the nuclear option. Not entirely suitable for work.

              Cake?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Apple has redrawn the poo emoji

      The description of what they are supposed to represent is the same for each unicode location. However the company that creates the emoji can represent it however they want - from basic mono to full colour animated.

    3. FlashGen

      Re: Apple has redrawn the poo emoji

      While Emoji are controlled and ratified by Unicode the actual interpretation is down to the individual vendor. There is a great 99% Invisible podcast about how emoji get proposed and accepted. Worth a listen: http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/person-lotus-position/

    4. Simon Harris
      Coffee/keyboard

      Re: Apple has redrawn the poo emoji

      Going by the Bristol Stool Chart, obviously just one representation is not enough!

      That categorises 7 different types of poo.

      Now wash your hands ---->

      1. macjules

        Re: Apple has redrawn the poo emoji

        Mr Pratchett would be proud of you sir.

        1. Dave 126

          Re: Apple has redrawn the poo emoji

          The graphic implementation of unicode emoji is up to vendors. Thankfully Google, in Oreo, has abandoned its weird 'smudged thumb print' style of emoji in favour of those that resemble every other vendor's (IRC, forums, WhatsApp, iOS to name but a few) since the days of acid house.

      2. handleoclast

        Re: Bristol Stool Chart

        @Simon Harris

        If you're impressed by the Bristol Stool Chart then you'll be overwhelmed by this (not entirely suitable for work). The Top 20 puts the BSC to shame. Especially the guy at what I hope was one of Donald Trump's golf courses.

      3. Spanners Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: Apple has redrawn the poo emoji

        Going by the Bristol Stool Chart...

        A nurser here once asked me what it was about Scottish people like me that made us examples for the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS). I asked her what was it about people like her from the "West Country" that made them subjects for the BSS...

    5. Len Goddard

      Re: Apple has redrawn the poo emoji

      I would be more impressed if they had an olfactory emitter which produced the appropriate odour.

      1. Evil Auditor Silver badge

        Re: Apple has redrawn the poo emoji

        Len Goddard, if my memory serves me right they had the respective "olfactory emitter" sone years ago in desktop products. Problem was that the emission of stink wasn't striktly limited to when a poo icon was displayed on screen. For those affected it was rather constant. And not very popular either.

    6. handleoclast
      Coat

      Re: Apple has redrawn the poo emoji

      There are many representations of poo. There are even many animated representations of poo (or representations of animated poo, if you prefer).

      Here's the description of one. See if you can figure out what it is (answer at end).

      Imagine a dog laying a dog egg. A rather round one. Impressed by this, the dog decides to lay a second egg on top of the first. This second egg is given a slight sculpting on top, by artistically crimping it off using the anal sphincter. The double dog-egg works wonders and starts dancing around.

      Yes, it's EDF's "Zingy" mascot.

    7. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Apple has redrawn the poo emoji

      How many representations? I count 12...

    8. katrinab Silver badge

      Re: Apple has redrawn the poo emoji

      No, in the same way that the letter "a" is not standardised in appearance, it will appear differently on your screen depending on your font selections, the poo character is also not standardised.

    9. Bill Gray

      Re: Apple has redrawn the poo emoji

      "...So, these emoji things are not standardised in terms of appearance?"

      Not at all. The Unicode consortium provides charts with example glyphs at

      http://www.unicode.org/charts/

      Each chart contains boilerplate that says, among other things :

      "The shapes of the reference glyphs used in these code charts are not prescriptive. Considerable variation is to be expected in actual fonts."

    10. Tom Melly

      Re: Apple has redrawn the poo emoji

      Seven.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_stool_scale

    11. Tigra 07

      Re: Frank ly

      Depends what you've eaten usually...

  2. PhilipN Silver badge

    Not sure whether this is news-worthy

    Been getting regular updates of the public beta iOS, at shorter and shorter intervals. More could change between now and ... tomorrow... so no-one knows whether this is the one which will inhabit the new phone.

    AND teasers found in the code do not necessarily mean the feature will ever happen.

    I’ll wait for the real thing, thanks, the more important item being when the phone will go on sale!!

  3. FuzzyWuzzys
    Facepalm

    Is "iPhone X" the actual name?

    X? Putting X in the name?

    Why are publicity depts so useless and lazy with product names these days? X sounded futuristic in 1975, kids toys have X on them 'cos kids are a bit dopey, not bloody expensive gadgets for grown adults. Canon's flagship camera the 1DX, latest incarnation...the 1DX Mk II! *clap* *clap* *clap*, special kind of genius at work there in the naming dept!

    1. Blotto Silver badge

      Re: Is "iPhone X" the actual name?

      wow calm down,

      its the ten year anniversary of the iPhone, 'X' is ten in Roman numerals & they've used X before as in OS X, as in the tenth incarnation of Mac OS. This phone is their celebration edition, hence iPhone X.

      Its sad that it needs to be explained to someone on a tech site.

      1. Tikimon

        Re: Is "iPhone X" the actual name?

        Granted that X is Roman numeral for 10 and anniversary, right. Apple is STILL late to the "X implies high-tech" party. Be honest, if you see anything named "Product X" these days, you sneer a little. If you're an Apple fan you might suddenly decide to give them a special pass, but it's still an old, tired naming convention and shrieking "tenth anniversary!!!" won't change that.

        They could have done better.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Is "iPhone X" the actual name?

          Be honest, if you see anything named "Product X" these days, you sneer a little.

          Yup no one else is using it because it so last century.

          Xbox One X ?

          1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
            Happy

            Re: Is "iPhone X" the actual name?

            @Lost all faith...

            Be honest, if you see anything named "Product X" these days, you sneer a little.

            Well, United Launch Alliance for sure and possibly Blue Origin too -

            https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/09/07/spacex_x37b_spy_plane_launch

            Smiley: Elon Musk

    2. Version 1.0 Silver badge

      Re: Is "iPhone X" the actual name?

      Wait for the iPhone XXX

      1. chivo243 Silver badge

        Re: Is "iPhone X" the actual name?

        @Version 1.0

        That would be the Amsterdam Version...

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Is "iPhone X" the actual name?

        "Wait for the iPhone XXX"

        The iPhone 101010.

        That's a mouthful. Do you think Apple will still be around then?

        1. Aladdin Sane

          Re: The iPhone 101010

          The answer to the great question of life, the universe and everything.

        2. Anonymous Coward Silver badge
          Boffin

          Re: Is "iPhone X" the actual name?

          Wait for the iPhone XXX"

          The iPhone 101010.

          Roman numerals are additive - XXX is 30. That's another 20 years, so just before the y2k38 bug hits therefore I expect they'll still be around.

          1. Dan 55 Silver badge

            Re: Is "iPhone X" the actual name?

            just before the y2k38 bug hits

            Not yet another alarm bug...

      3. Simon Harris
        IT Angle

        Re: Is "iPhone X" the actual name?

        "Wait for the iPhone XXX"

        Does that have an extra strong vibration mode?

        'I can't turn it up to 8 - it'll blow my cock off!' - the IT crowd angle.

      4. Graham Hawkins

        Re: Is "iPhone X" the actual name?

        Mine's a 6X thanks...

      5. big_D Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: Is "iPhone X" the actual name?

        Wait for the iPhone XXX

        With extra Vin Diesel? I think I'll pass.

      6. Teiwaz
        Paris Hilton

        Re: Is "iPhone X" the actual name?

        Re: Is "iPhone X" the actual name?

        Wait for the iPhone XXX

        Complete with tired old pizza delivery schtick and as fresh and natural as late 80's silicon enhancement....

        almost there a decade early...

      7. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Is "iPhone X" the actual name?

        Available already with the right background photo and ring tone.

      8. macjules
        Gimp

        Re: Is "iPhone X" the actual name?

        I'm waiting for the iPhoneXIT

        (actually I am waiting for the fanboy downvotes now)

        1. Dave 126

          Re: Is "iPhone X" the actual name?

          UNIX, NeXT, OSX, XDA Developers, X Window... Nothing wrong with X. To be futuristic with go-faster stripes, you need an X and a Z, as Clive Sinclair observed!

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Is "iPhone X" the actual name?

      Remember Mac OS X?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    £1,000 for a phone

    I could get an interesting, roadworthy car for that. I suppose this an Apple product we're talking about, but still, a thousand quid for a copy of the Galaxy S8,...

    The only potential thing that might be innovative is that there's reason to suspect that Apple's wireless charging solution will be a touch better than Qi, in that it won't be anywhere near as position sensitive as Qi pads are. OTOH, to get a sufficiently large charging zone, the charging pad is likely to be significantly bigger than a Qi pad, perhaps the size of an A4 sheet of paper. So I'm guessing a charging cradle for most users, with the option availability of the larger charging pad that you'd probably put on the underside of a desk. But that's all speculation on my part.

    1. Lord Elpuss Silver badge

      Re: £1,000 for a phone

      It probably won't be a complete Samsung copy.

      (1) It won't blow up,

      (2) It'll be supported for more than 5 minutes, and

      (3) It won't spaff your data over anyone who breathes hard at it (or send it back to the mothership).

      While I'm on the subject I reckon if we all chip in a penny or two we can buy old Orlowski an iPhone that he can beat into pulp, thereby releasing some of his obviously pent up rage at all things Apple. Apple are a very rich, far from perfect facelesss corporation, and yet every time I read one of Orlowsi's snarkfests it immediately turns me into a rabid Apple defender just to redress the balance.

      Pisses me off.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: £1,000 for a phone

        bugger off then

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: £1,000 for a phone

        "(3) It won't spaff your data over anyone who breathes hard at it (or send it back to the mothership)."

        Err... yes it will and yes it does.

      3. Open Sauce

        Re: £1,000 for a phone

        "It probably won't be a complete Samsung copy"

        You could be right, it may not be a copy at all, looking at it's components, i wouldn't at all be surprised if it was more a Samsung manufactured device than an Apple manufactured device.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: £1,000 for a phone

      It's not really a copy of an S8 - the Galaxy doesn't have the screen either side of the camera, if you're thinking purely aesthetically. It's also not got the S8's Bixby button, but will have two cameras on the rear instead of one. Also differences in fingerprint sensor.

      So we're back to "they copied me, waaah, it's a rectangle with rounded corners and a screen on it". There's far closer clones to the iPhone X such as most Huawei devices. Essentially (ha! there's another one....) unless you go out of your way to deliberately look different - perhaps by making a round phone, then it's going to look enough like something else for people to notice.

      Also, you pay too much for cars. Last cheap roadworthy car I bought cost less than a Moto E.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: £1,000 for a phone

        It's probably closer to a Samsung S8 than the Samsung devices were to the iPhones Apple were suing Samsung over.

        It's all very well having a bit of a ribbing over copying but Apple were the only ones who took a competitor to court due to Design Patent 504,889", which consists of a one-sentence claim about the ornamental design of an electronic device, accompanied by nine figures depicting a thin rectangular cuboid with rounded corners

      2. hoola Silver badge

        Re: £1,000 for a phone

        What a biased and twisted view

        "So we're back to "they copied me, waaah, it's a rectangle with rounded corners and a screen on it". There's far closer clones to the iPhone X such as most Huawei devices"

        How the hell can existing devices be copies of something that has not even been launched. Almost every feature on this expensive candy bar has been on other manufactures phones for years.

        Just who is copying who, or to be more precise, who is just following the trend set by more dynamic companies?

        Me thinks Apple are doing a lot of following here.

    3. Annihilator
      Thumb Up

      Re: £1,000 for a phone

      "I could get an interesting, roadworthy car for that"

      I love cars under a grand. But I refer to them not as "interesting", but as a "mysterious" roadworthy car. As in, "I wonder which part I'll need to replace next..."

      1. Dave 126

        Re: £1,000 for a phone

        Re the price tag.

        The Samsung Note 8 is enjoying record pre-orders, despite being nearly £900. Okay, there might be some pent up demand from would-be Note 7 owners, but suggests there are people willing to pay that much.

        It is more likely that people used to paying £700 for a phone will pay £1,000 for a phone than it people will jump from a £300 phone to a £700 (with so many good solid handsets at around £300, those who buy flagship phones aren't desperately price conscious).

        It is rumoured that Apple's suppliers are struggling to make the cut-out screen in sufficient quantities (and are passing the cost of the low yields on to Apple), and so initial supplies of the new phone will be constrained. As such, Apple wouldn't gain additional sales by reducing the price tag.

        (Sent from my Nexus 5. No immediate plans to upgrade, but watching Qualcomm's / Apple's / Google's et al AR/3D scanning efforts with interest)

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Wireless charging

      While I think the implementations that require a charging pad are pretty pointless, there have been persistent rumors that Apple is working with a company called Energous that claimed to have perfected wireless charging at a distance of up to 15 feet. Apparently they signed a deal with them that gave them dibs on being the first to support their technology.

      It is possible the iPhone X will have an unadvertised capability to use this and not be limited to pads, which would fit in with rumors HomePod will charge devices within a range of three feet. Three feet is still too limiting IMHO but at least it would be proof of the technology - presumably something explicitly designed for distance charging would be able to do better. I think the big win for this type of technology would be for laptops - a few such chargers in suitable locations around your home would enable you to never need to plug in your laptop!

      The best feature would be the cries of anguish from all the nutty "electrosensitives" who claim they get physically sick from wifi and cellular, but somehow UHF TV broadcasts at far higher power never seemed to bother them...

      1. Aladdin Sane

        Re: Wireless charging

        Easier to just charge it in a microwave oven.

    5. trevorde Silver badge

      Re: £1,000 for a phone

      It's not for poor people

  5. J. R. Hartley

    Meh

    iPhones have been a legacy product for many years.

    1. Ed 11

      Re: Meh

      Keep telling yourself that.

    2. Open Sauce

      Re: Meh

      Agreed!

      https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fly-Fishing-Memories-Angling-Days/dp/009177909X

      ;o)

  6. Unep Eurobats
    Holmes

    This isn't a leak

    It's just part of the PR.

    1. Aladdin Sane

      Re: This isn't a leak

      I'm aghast to find such a blatant display of cynicism on this site.

      1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

        Re: blatant display of cynicism

        Hey, this is Apple we are talking about. This level of cynicism is allowed and indeed expected when anything related to Apple is concerned.

        1. Dan 55 Silver badge

          Re: blatant display of cynicism

          It probably wasn't a sanctioned leak as it just made Tim's presentation even more boring.

      2. ITS Retired
        Holmes

        Re: This isn't a leak

        That blatant display of cynicism probably means one has a clue to what's actually going on.

        So cynic away.

  7. phuzz Silver badge
    Gimp

    Wireless Charging

    "Apple's wireless charging is tipped to be incompatible"

    And they'll be charging at least £50 for the charging dock which probably won't even come with it's own power supply (and will be incompatible with any power supply you currently own).

    Still, someone will queue up all night to buy it, so I guess Apple must be doing something right.

    1. Naselus

      Re: Wireless Charging

      I thought that you HAD to be compatible if you joined the Qi consortium? Which was kinda the point, no?

      1. O RLY

        Re: Wireless Charging

        The tea hasn't kicked in yet, so I spent a few moments wondering what the hell Apple was doing with omnipotent aliens from TNG before I realized that you didn't write "Q Continuum." Carry on.

      2. phuzz Silver badge

        Re: Wireless Charging

        I assume Apple wonn't bothering with Qi, in the same way they've not bothered with a USB charge port like ever single other manufacturer out there.

        I don't just mean phone manufacturers either, practically everything I own with a battery in it uses micro USB to charge, but that's not the Apple way.

        1. Naselus

          Re: Wireless Charging

          They weren't going to, as they were holding out for some magic long-range wireless tech to pop into existence. They didn't appear overly interested in actually spending any money making that happen themselves, mind. When it continued to not appear of it's own accord, they threw in the towel and signed up with the WPC.

          I just thought that joining the WPC required one to hold to certain standards. What with it being a standards organization. Apparently it's not one of those standards organizations that set standards that members are expected to actually follow.

  8. Dwarf

    Important facts please

    Do the new models have a 3.5mm headphone socket ??

    If not, don't expect to sell me one.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Important facts please

      Of course it will... You plug the 3.5mm in a bluetooth dongle that talks to the phone!

      1. Tim Seventh

        Re: Important facts please

        "Of course it will... You plug the 3.5mm in a bluetooth dongle that plugs into an APT-x compression device that plugs into the adapter that talks to the phone!"

        ftfy.

  9. Red Bren

    Iphone owners are in the know

    I was listening to radio last week and one of the presenters predicted the launch. When asked how he could be so sure, he explained that the battery in his current iphone always suffered degraded performance about a week before Apple launched the next version.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Iphone owners are in the know

      Pah, Red Bren! You should be ashamed of implying that Apple nobble the existing phones to "nudge" owners.

      There's no need, because any true Apple owner knows when its time to upgrade, when they get that tingling feel as soon as any new i-product is launched. This also means that every Apple addict is soon going to be either a grand worse off in cold hard cash, or on the hook for £50+ a month for the next two years, and it also means that chavs on mopeds will be very interested in stealing them.

      1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

        Re: Iphone owners are in the know

        Think of the other upside. All those Fanbois will be trading in their one year old iPhones in order to fund their latest Apple Drug Fix. That means a good number of used phones becoming available.

        And they'll get several years of updates.... I'll be in the market for an iPhone 7 to replace my iPhone 6.

        Saves a packet of money over the years.

        1. FatGerman

          Re: Iphone owners are in the know

          >> Saves a packet of money over the years.

          I've never spent more then 75 quid on a phone. Currently got an iPhone 4. It may not make supermodels wet their knickers when I take it out of my pocket, like the poor mug who paid 300 quid for it new probably thought it would, but it still does what it was designed to do. I'm still not sure I understand what this new one will do that mine doesn't, other than shiny bling bling.

          1. Rob D.
            Pint

            Re: Iphone owners are in the know

            Have a beer - we are a bit modern what with our collection of new-fangled iPhone 5 (plain, no S) rather than 4. Bought them cheap off eBay a few years back and after spending fifteen quid on replacement batteries, they are just what you need to make phone calls, get 'on the line' and do a bit of that social media thing my children seem so interested in. Sadly the phones can't make 3D HD movies, survive deep sea diving, and the supermodel thing is no go with the 5 as well.

            So fan of the Apple iPhone 5 - yes; thinking of spending £1,000 for a new one - er, they still do everything they could do, they are still getting updates 5 years on and are just damn good, reliable smartphones so why change?

          2. PNGuinn
            Trollface

            I've never spent more then 75 quid on a phone ...

            Yeah, I have.

            For a Motorola brick - with pull up aerial and flip out mouthpiece.

            100 squid. 17 odd squid a month contract for 15 mins airtime. In 1995.

            Battery life on standby of about 9 hours. At least some things don't change that much.

            A good inch thick, but you could *just* stuff about half of it into your shirt pocket. And it didn't bend.

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: I've never spent more then 75 quid on a phone ...

              I've never spent less than £700 on a phone. I think that makes me rather special.

            2. hoola Silver badge

              Re: I've never spent more then 75 quid on a phone ...

              Ahh, the MR1, if you bought the "high capacity " battery it may have even lasted into the evening. Trouble was that is you could fit enough of it into your pocket, your trousers fell down. Also the battery clip was the most ill-conceived piece of shite you could imagine. If you dropped the phone, the clip would break leaving the batter free to slide off (double sided tape was the fix). At least it was the battery that broke.

              Other than that the thing was indestructible, I found my old one in the loft and my kids played with it for years when they were little with out smashing it. Give a two year old a modern phone and it will be a source of shards of glass in minutes, particularly as its only use is to hit things with as there are no buttons or flappy bits!

    2. Blotto Silver badge

      Re: Iphone owners are in the know

      Thats funny as mine and hers iPhone 6 batteries are exhibiting unusual rapid battery drain as of the last 2 weeks.

      gone from all day surfing, whats app email etc to just a few hours.

      I can't believe Apple could be doing this on purpose but it is an odd coincidence.

      1. James 51

        Re: Iphone owners are in the know

        Probably apple doing background downloading of the new OS.

        1. TRT Silver badge

          Re: Iphone owners are in the know

          That tingling sensation... that's using a third party USB charger which isn't properly mains isolated.

      2. Sgt_Oddball

        Re: Iphone owners are in the know

        Engineered to fall apart the day the warranty expires.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    of course there's a point in turning up...

    ...to get laid.

    1. Eddy Ito
      Devil

      Re: of course there's a point in turning up...

      At $1,000, I think you mean "to get screwed." It's not quite the same thing.

      1. Aladdin Sane

        Re: of course there's a point in turning up...

        Depends on the vibrate function/

  11. andy 103

    Other tech you could buy for a grand...

    Go on... list what you'd spend 1k on, if you could...

    I've said this before. Apple could charge 10k for a phone, and people would still buy it. It's nothing to do with how good the technology is. It's to do with how it's marketed, the hype and perception of it. You could make something technically superior, but unless the word gets out, and it's perceived as "cool" then it's a non-starter. This is how successful people make money - it's called "a business".

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Other tech you could buy for a grand...

      Other tech you could buy for a grand...

      I probably wouldn't spend it on tech. I'd start off by buying a £150 phone that would fulfil all the duties I need of a smartphone and do them rather well. That leaves me with £850 for whatever purpose I want, but if I take the challenge....I'd have a £300 Acer Chromebook 14. Still got £550, what to do with that.? I could buy a decent enthusiast's camera for all of that, or get a decent compact and £200 change. And with that £200 I'd buy a halfway decent gaming graphics card to replace my ancient GTX275, and still have fifty quid to spend on booze.

      1. xXSwolGunzXx

        Re: Other tech you could buy for a grand...

        If spending your thousand quid on other things than tech is an option then why not skip straight to the booze. Tequila is never obsolete.

    2. Rob D.

      Re: Other tech you could buy for a grand...

      Yep, 1K on a phone is stupid and some people are stupid with stupid money to spend on stupid marketing. (Are you gullible? Send £5 for our searching questionnaire.)

      Last few years though, I've bought three iPhone 5 cheap second hand for the SO and offspring, and the phones do everything required of them really well and really reliably. Might not be unique and replacing the battery is a pain but they are genuinely good phones not just good marketing.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Other tech you could buy for a grand...

        Skinflint.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Innovative"

    So they've cloned the S8 and bumped the price up and (presumably) removed all useful features such as microSD, headphones jack.

    I will give them credit for going with facial recognition only though, that does seem like a really bold move from a security and usability perspective.

    I can't wait to see all the tech journalists drooling over it tomorrow. There will probably be some edgy "Why I'm leaving the iPhone for good" articles which should be fun.

    1. AMBxx Silver badge

      Facial recognition

      Don't get too excited. I had it on my sadly departed 950XL. It worked well enough, you just look stupid holding your phone up to your face to unlock it. Much easier just to use a PIN (I've not tried fingerprint).

      1. Kristian Walsh Silver badge

        Re: Facial recognition

        Intel had a much superior face-ID technology to that of the Lumias, and Microsoft used in some of its Surface products. It made use of an additional front-facing infra-red camera beside the existing visible-spectrum one. Having two cameras provided depth perception, while the IR one allowed the system to distinguish between a warm-blooded human face and a wax/plaster/plastic model of one.

        I guess there wasn't space for yet another camera in a phone, but it does work much better than relying on a single visible-light camera.

  13. rh587

    "Apple's wireless charging is tipped to be incompatible"

    Does that mean it uses a system that works? One which isn't horribly inefficient and incredibly pedantic about whether you've placed it on the mat just so?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      If what I've seen touted by third parties is relevant, yes. But there's still a sweetspot, and outside it your phone won't charge, the difference from Qi is that the sweetspot is twice the area of the charging pad, the charging distance can be up to four inches of radio-transparent material (eg a thick desk or table), and you can make much larger charging pads, thus increasing the size of the sweetspot dramatically. The vendors claimed that orientation was not of significance. Having said all that, I've not seen used this technology myself, and we can be sure that the vendors will have glossed over any shortcomings.

  14. Tigra 07
    Trollface

    Obligatory poo emoji

    "Apple has redrawn the poo emoji"

    Actually they've just painted an apple emoji brown

  15. Kwpolska

    > But that pales into insignificance compared to the biggest reveal of all: confirmation that Apple has redrawn the poo emoji, which will now be animated.

    Nah, it’s not that. They’re introducing a bunch of new 3D animated emojis that are based on the user’s facial expression.

    1. zebthecat

      They’re introducing a bunch of new 3D animated emojis that are based on the user’s facial expression...

      ...when they are having a poo

  16. 45RPM Silver badge

    I can’t see how this hurts Apple…

    The share price is jumping on the news and, whether you care or not, whether you’ll buy the new gewgaw or not, the world + wife will still tune in to the announcement. It’s a media circus for a reason - you already know what to expect in the big top, but you’ll still attend - just in case one of the acrobats falls off the high wire.

    Sure, a little of the surprise might have gone, but the leak will have no material impact whatsoever.

  17. Benchops

    18.5:9 ?

    Ummm, you mean 37:18?

    1. Baldrickk

      Re: 18.5:9 ?

      It should be that, but some guy somewhere hit upon the bright idea of keeping the '9' from the 16:9 aspect ratio to make it clearer that it's a little longer.

      I do wish they would just give the resolution and size though.

    2. petef

      Re: 18.5:9 ?

      Actually the simplest integral ratio is 812:375

  18. jamesb2147

    Better for democracy

    Author, have you never used WebOS' wireless charging cradles? Not since about 2011 have such things been manufactured, but they were introduced back in 2009 by a team largely consisting of the original iPhone folks from Apple (with commensurate legal threats from Steve Jobs to sue Palm into oblivion at the time).

    They were the earliest, and so far only, team to get wireless charging right. I sometimes wonder if their patent is what's fucking everyone else's standards.

    The charging base is angled, uses bog-standard coils like everyone does, but each base and device has a pair of small rare earth magnets in each which ensure that the device lines up properly. Further, a special display mode was activated on the phones when they were docked, to show a customizable display with perhaps the time and notifications, so your phone essentially became an interactive desk clock.

    If you've not seen it before, take 10s of your life and be amazed by this review video from 2009: https://youtu.be/fpfQSLBezn4?t=2m44s

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You can bet that if they have decided to go face recognition only then it will be far far better than anything that has gone before. Much like Touch ID was much better than anyone else's fingerprint reading. Yes they don't *invent* a lot of these technologies. But when they do them, they are usually the best implementations.

  20. Alistair
    Coat

    Apple's new toy

    Big flat screen, no button in the middle, faeces recognition, .... oh, nope, misread that...

    (the one with the rooted android and RR, and no google apps in the pocket please)

  21. Annihilator
    Thumb Up

    "Apple was hoping to reveal to an astonished audience at tomorrow's 10th anniversary iPhone event."

    Don't worry, they'll still be astonished.

  22. hi_robb

    I can see it now!

    The minute people start having issues with FaceID, Apple will tell them...

    'You're looking at it wrong."

    Or maybe I can't see it and that's why it won't work.

  23. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
    Joke

    And and Dec

    If both Ant and Dec get these new phones, will they be able gain access to each others phones using Face Recognition?

  24. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge

    TAM flashbacks

    Hopefully this is better than the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh - the double-priced Mac with lots of flashy A/V gadgets, not enough RAM, a reduced keyboard, and the glacially slow Power PC 603e that made me hate being a Mac software developer at the time.

  25. Winkypop Silver badge
    Facepalm

    A thousand spondulicks for a phone

    Hmmm, OK...

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re. wireless power

    There is a way to get 20+ feet range, problem is that materials simply aren't available commercially yet.

    If you use a room temperature superconductor (have sample here, at least in small domains within the bulk) the antenna is essentially a monolithic block with the RTSC coil within.

    Its got a Tc of at least 107C (some 300+K) and Jc high enough for most uses but still can't levitate a magnet yet. I might be persuaded to send a sample of the coil though once its working as for my application a single layer unit would work fine at typical QI frequencies and still double the range with a metamaterial pellet for waveshaping similar to an AM radio ferrite rod.

    The finicky part is forming the initial layers which is done from the Mott insulator using 390nm laser under O2. Once you have that part right its stable and no more hazardous than plain old YBCO when sealed inside its plastic and ceramic "brick" as there is no wear out mechanism for the coil.

    If overloaded it quenches and shuts down recovering once the overload goes away.

    After venture capital to get this off the ground.

  27. Nameless Faceless Computer User
    FAIL

    I want my headphone jack back

    I want my headphone jack back. I trusted Apple to provide an improvement over the ancient hardware design of the audio jack. I've suffered thru splitters, adapters, broken connections, low mic volume, bluetooth horrors, and lightning only headphones costing hundreds of dollars. I miss my ancient audio jack. You know what other hardware design is ancient? The wheel. But, nobody has been foolish enough to try to re-invent the wheel.

    1. Open Sauce

      Re: I want my headphone jack back

      "I trusted Apple"

      That's where you went wrong.

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