Entry 1, Due 9.4.2014
Terra System
Milky Way Galaxy
Star Command is MIA
This week's topic will be the iPhone 5. It is new, sleek, and commonplace. It is a good item to bash if you're an Android fanboy like myself, and a good item to support if you eat Apples all day.
Nevertheless, I digress. What do I think about the iPhone 5? There are a lot of great features, from the incorporation of material design in the user interface to the sleekness of the phone. It looks good and it feels good. The interactions are intuitive, for the most part, and the software gets the job done.
The iPhone 5 is easily usable, enjoyable, and especially useful. It meets the basic requirements that many people ask of in a modern smartphones, such as text messaging and calling, but it innovates on some of them too. You can talk and text at the same time! That's very cool. Apple also recently implemented a process manager similar to that on the Android OS in that a user can now view open/running applications and close the ones they need to with one swipe. Neat stuff.
But what about the downsides? The new charging port is a pain, to say the least. Apple consciously made the decision knowing that the bandwagon would follow, and that's not a bad thing. It's just weird that all other iterations of the iPhone use the same type of charger and that this one uses one that is entirely incompatible with the rest of the lineup. The port looks weird, almost like it belongs to a MicroSD card or something. Additionally, it took Apple until 2014 to implement the aforementioned Application Manager. The Android OS has had that forever. Is that Apple admitting that the user experience of previous iPhone generations was subpar to that of Android users, or is it simply acknowledging that its competitor had an innovation that should be followed? Most likely the latter. Getting to the "Running Apps" tab in previous iterations was a hassle and not entirely intuitive for basic users. Now it's a breeze, so a big thumbs up to Apple.
All in all, I do very much like the look of the iPhone 5. It's easy to use and the innovative calling feature is quite cool. I wish my Android had that functionality. However, I'm on board with the backwards compatibility bandwagon for slow-to-upgrade users like myself, so I'm skeptical of Apple implementing a new charger. Will they phase out the old chargers, thus isolating a large demographic of users (iPhone 4 especially)? I'd like to think not. Then again, they're the business wizards and I am a lowly student blogging about them. Perhaps I should ask them to be the honorary armchair CEO.
*Hats off the the old style charger*
ReplyDeleteThey released a press statement saying that the new charger was reversible, that it was not as wide and wouldn't snag on anything and everything, which is very true.
BUT
The real story is that cutting off that extra centimeter of plastic saved them 20 billion in production costs (Numbers estimated). I strongly agree with your statements about losing its backwards capability. No bueno. But all in all Apple will rule the world - better jump on board before I am forced.
Hm. I think I may have already commented on this and it went away, so here's a similar comment to my last one in the hopes that only one will actually show up. I actually like the new charger because I was forever putting the old one in backwards, having to flip it over, and then realizing it was actually forward the first time, repeat. I do understand the frustration the new charger brings with having to buy new cables for car chargers and extra cords etc.
ReplyDeleteThe new charger has been a huge point for fans and enemies of Apple alike. I think it the whole "forced advancement" initiative Apple will take from time to time has a bigger impact on their user base then they realize. Not only is changing something so adamantly proprietary like the charger alienating all of their own past hardware, but the entire ecosystem of third party accessories like speakers, docks, etc. Within an instant, they just made hundreds of products obsolete with a single announcement of a new charger type. That always grinded my gears.
ReplyDelete