It’s anti competitive. The best player in any vertical gets 90% of the economic benefit. So they all try to build natural monopolies. Platforms. Standards. Whatever.
http://bgr.com/2016/09/29/iphone-7-exploding-fire-photos/
Is Apple now copying Samsung? I guess we’ll find out soon enough if this was an oddball one off or an actual problem like it was for the Note 7.
I got the jet black (polished) iPhone 7 plus 128GB, the smallest memory size for that finish. It only took about 2 weeks from the date of my preorder, which was way ahead of the estimated delivery date.
I’m pretty in love with the device. The back is grippy for the first time, as compared to the metallic backing plates which tend to slip as your fingers sweat on them. It feels the same as the front glass. I wasn’t paying careful attention and was surprised that an $850 phone doesn’t come with AirPods. So this thing really is $1k when you add those in. I hooked up the lightning adapter to my Bose earbuds and all is fine there.
The other night I asked the uber driver to turn the radio on and he handed me a cable to connect my phone. Obviously that wasn’t possible. First limitation.
I have the first apple watch and I’m not upgrading it until it gets thinner in form factor. I don’t care if the screen is brighter or if it has GPS.
I don’t think it’s at all intended to damage…however I think it’s definitely a nice consequence for the manufacturers that the older phones struggle with the new software.
Is it not optional (the ‘upgrade’ to new software versions)? On Android I can defer upgrading/updating as long as I want. I wouldn’t be surprised if the iPhone took a different approach.
Well, it would seem my first foray into Samsung products has been a bust. Maybe I’ll go back to Blackberry lol. Or maybe I’ll try that Google phone?
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2016/10/11/samsung-stopping-galaxy-note-7-production/91885996/
Samsung engineers right now: https://i.imgur.com/uDqEkRA.gifv
poor axel, that sucks
get an S7 EDGE
Almost Note sized, excellent phone.
CountVohn and I are in the same boat. We all have Note7s.
The Google Pixel XL looks interesting if I can wait until like 10/20/2016. This is from a quick search.
If you have another phone you can use for a little bit, the Google Pixel XL ($769) may be the phone for you. Google’s first smartphone will be out October 20, and like the other phones on this list, it has a 5.5-inch display, fast charging battery that promises nearly 7 hours of charge in 15 minutes, and unlimited storage for photos and videos on Google Photos. It runs the latest version of Android, version 7.1 Nougat, and even supports Google’s new Daydream virtual reality platform, giving you a replacement for Samsung’s Gear VR. Unlike the Galaxy S7 or iPhone 7 Plus, the Pixel XL will be exclusive to Verizon. An unlocked option will be available from Google that works on the other major carriers, but according to Google’s site, it is either out of stock or on a 5-6 week backorder.
I have Verizon and am stuck between the the S7 Edge and waiting for the Pixel XL.
Looks like that’s not an option seeing as I’m not in the US. Also, unlimited storage in the cloud is great and all but that requires unlimited data to transfer things back and forth no? lol
I have to say, I was really liking the stylus that came with the Note 7. But I still truly despise virtual keyboards. Everyone said I’d get used to them but nope, I know myself better than anyone else and I didn’t expect I would and I certainly did not. Then again, I don’t use my phone as much anymore since I hate typing on it which I guess isn’t a bad thing 
Got a Pixel XL yesterday, liking it so far. Software seems better integrated, the size is nice and I love the rear mounted fingerprint scanner. Haven’t got to test the camera yet.
Been playing with my S7 Edge for a few days now. It basically is a good replacement for the Note 7. Battery life is slightly better and I would kill the Note 7 battery pretty fast between texting, emails, streaming music, etc. While the S7 Edge does use the older style charging plug it will slow charge with any older charging cable like my S4 charger. Still waiting on my Otterbox Defender case but for now the S7 Edge fits in my Note 7 Commuter Otterbox case and hasn’t broken with the 8 times that I have dropped it.
The incentives to trade in the Note 7 to get a S7 Edge were too good to turn down. Samsung is giving a $100 credit and the phone is much cheaper. The Note 7 was listed at $864 and the S7 Edge was like $769. Still trying to see if I can apply for the S7/S7 Edge promotion from Samsung too for the VR gear. That would mean that I get the Gear Fit2 watch, the VR gear, and the exchange benefits. The guy at the Verizon store told me that I wasn’t being charged for the phone on my plan but Verizon will likely fix that. I was wondering why my bill was so low for the first and second month.
Gear fit 2 is nice, I’ve had one since June and love it. Perfect for running if you get some Bluetooth headphones and load up some music.
Since I absolutely despise virtual keyboards I bought a note 7 external keyboard from an online retailer.
Now that I have to return my Note 7, I’ve asked Samsung to refund me this keyboard since it can only be used for a Note 7.
Of course, Samsung has been giving me the run-around for weeks now. I can’t stand Samsung the company anymore.
This was my first Samsung and most likely the last one.
Pixel looks good but lame not having expandable memory
iPhones are now the proper size so they’re an option
plenty of other android choices too
why don’t you just return it to wherever you bought the product from? Almost everyone accepts returns for stuff like that.
I bought it from the US online. Don’t think they’ll accept it as a return. Especially since I used it quite a bit.
As for another phone, yeah, I can’t make up my mind at this point. LG? Pixel? Priv? Won’t be an iPhone, that’s the only thing I know lol
Been using the iPhone X for almost 3 weeks now. This time I upgraded from the iPhone 6S Plus which I had since July of last year.
Side by side, the X is much smaller, about the size of the regular 6/7. The screen is much taller, yet it is slightly more narrow. The OLED screen seems a bit brighter, but best of all, it helps combat the short battery life woes. In the last couple of months I was getting home from work with around 20% battery life left. As I write this message on my way home now, I’m still at 70%.
The X comes with a bunch of “new” features, but not all of them are even worth mentioning. Best improvement over my last phone is definitely the camera. It takes amazing pictures, especially in portrait mode (released with the 7). The downside of this is, the camera sticks out about 1.5-2mm from the back of the phone so if you drop it, the camera is probably screwed. I’m a minimalist case kind of person too and the case I’m using right now will more than likely do nothing to prevent any damage during a fall.
The other big change, although I’m still deciding if it’s an improvement, is the removal of the Home button. This obviously takes a little time to get used to considering I’ve been conditioned to use it for the last 8 years. It’s nice to have the extra screen room at the bottom of the phone but it isn’t even fully utilized in some apps and not at all in others. Because there is a cutout at the top of the screen to house the camera and sensors, apps need to be updated to support the phone. What is nice is when you have multiple apps open you can flip between them by swiping left or right along the bottom of the phone.
Old vs New:
Home single tap - swipe up
Home double tap - swipe up and hold
Close apps - swipe up, hold, then long press an app window, swipe up on each app you want to close
The facial recognition is alright I guess. I personally enjoyed grabbing my phone out of my pocket by grabbing it with my thumb on the scanner so by the time I pulled it out it was already open. With the facial recognition you need to give it a chance to scan your face and then swipe up once it lets you know it’s unlocked. Surprisingly it can handle this quite well in low light situations, but what it cannot handle is identifying you with sunglasses on. I’m sure you can make another facial profile with all of your various pairs of glasses if you really wanted to though.
One thing that I greatly appreciate as a software engineer is the fact that you can now take screen videos. This will help quite a bit with debugging. I’m not sure this will be that helpful to the regular user though.
The Animojis are funny, but at the same time, they are completely pointless.
As far as releasing “new” features that have already been available on Androids for however long goes, it is my opinion that Android just releases unrefined features that lack the UX (user experience) of the same feature when it is released in an Apple product.