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Iphone Apple

Apple Unveils iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max, iPhone Xr (venturebeat.com) 215

Apple on Wednesday announced its 2018 flagship phones: the 5.8-inch iPhone Xs and 6.5-inch iPhone Xs Max. From a report: As the direct sequel to the iPhone X, the iPhone Xs retains its predecessor's marquee features: a stainless steel frame and 5.8-inch, edge-to-edge Super Retina display, interrupted by a depth-sensing Face ID camera inside a black "notch." The new model promises the best liquid resistance in any iPhone, with a screen that's now HDR10 and Dolby Vision-certified.

As expected, Apple also introduced a larger version of the iPhone Xs called the iPhone Xs Max. While the iPhone Xs packs a 5.8-inch OLED screen into a footprint roughly the size of its former 4.7-inch iPhone 6, 6s, 7, and 8 models, the Max version includes a 6.5-inch screen within a chassis sized like the 5.5-inch-screened iPhone 6 Plus and its successors. [...]

The iPhone Xs has a 2436 by 1125 screen, while the Xs Max has a 2688 by 1242 screen, the largest ever in an iPhone. Apple's calling it "Max" because it's bigger than the iPhones' past Plus-sized displays. Apple also says that the new phones have wider stereo sound fields than before.

[...] The handsets are powered by A12 Bionic, a 6-core, 7nm CPU with 2 performance cores that deliver up to 15 percent speeds and 40 percent lower power, with 4 efficiency cores running at up to 50 percent lower power. Apple is touting a 50 percent GPU performance improvement over the A11 Bionic, as well. It also has a second-generation Neural Engine, and can process 5 trillion operations per second, up from 600 billion the year before.
Both the new iPhones sport a dual-camera system:12MP wide-angle+12MP telephoto. The new iPhones can accommodate up to 512 GB of internal storage. The base models of iPhone Xs and iPhone Xs Max start at $999 and $1,099 respectively. More on this here. On the sidelines, Apple said it was inching closer to selling its two-billionth iOS device.

The company also announced the iPhone Xr, the cheapest among the three handsets announced today, that sports a 6.1-inch LCD display (instead of OLED screen) and does not offer 3D Touch functionality. Its base model starts at $749. All of these handsets go on sale later this month.
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Apple Unveils iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max, iPhone Xr

Comments Filter:
  • Wow (Score:2, Redundant)

    by pablo_max ( 626328 )

    Totally amazing.

  • Sweet (Score:5, Funny)

    by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @01:03PM (#57299216) Homepage Journal
    Sweet, now I can throw away my old iPhone X, or maybe sell it on eBay. It was getting kind of boring.
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Or just buy a mid range Android phone for 1/3rd the price and enjoy better specs, non-glued battery and an SD card slot.

      • Re:Sweet (Score:5, Insightful)

        by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @01:19PM (#57299380) Homepage Journal
        I don't want Google spying on me.
        • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          But you are okay with Apple spying on?

          If you really care the only option is an Android phone with a custom OS that doesn't include Google services. OnePlus handsets are well supported, cheap and well made.

          • by sinij ( 911942 )

            Unfortunately, unless you are willing to live with a flip phone someone going to spy on you. It might as well be people that don't have a search engine and are not so far known for selling your data to advertisers.

            • If you use a flip phone someone will totally be able to spy on you - gathering of voice and sms messaging is a well established practice by many countries intelligence agencies.

              Itâ(TM)s only since the advent of apps that individuals have achieved a degree of privacy in communication.

            • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              Why on earth would Google sell your data to advertisers? It's the only thing that makes their advertising platform valuable, if they sold it their core product would become worthless!

          • But you are okay with Apple spying on?

            I wouldn't be Ok with Apple spying on me. But do you have any evidence it does?

            • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

              Same evidence you have that Google spies on you.

          • OnePlus handsets are well supported, cheap and well made.

            In which universe?! They START FROM $499 for the OLD model and everything except the SOC/RAM is sub-par (even for the times when it was launched) for what they claim to be (flagship): mediocre display (at least they don't put it upside-down by design lately), no microSD expansion capabilities, NO CAMERA STABILIZATION, no water protection except some dubious claims on twitter like "it will be fine for normal usage", no wireless charging. YES, it does h

          • But you are okay with Apple spying on?

            If you really care the only option is an Android phone with a custom OS that doesn't include Google services. OnePlus handsets are well supported, cheap and well made.

            Very true. For a swathe of the unthinking /. responders saying "google spy" is the end of the discussion for them. Google is collecting data that you don't want, but there is a way of stopping that through non-Google Android. You have *no* idea what Apple is doing, you just have to trust them blindly.

        • That's why I bought an Amazon Fire 7 tablet.
          Now both Google and Amazon can spy on me!

          I installed Netflix and... nothing else. Amazon must be pissed off that I bought it on sale on Amazon Day.

        • Re:Sweet (Score:5, Insightful)

          by phalse phace ( 454635 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @02:27PM (#57300050)

          I don't want Google spying on me.

          And I like getting timely OS updates and bug fixes

          • I get updates about every other week for my Samsung Note 8... Last update was September 5th, in fact.
            • I get updates about every other week for my Samsung Note 8... Last update was September 5th, in fact.

              Is your Samsung Note 8 "a mid range Android phone for 1/3rd the price" of these new iPhones that AmiMoJo suggested getting?

              And how long do you think you'll continue to receive OS updates and bug fixes for your Samsung Note 8? If past behaviour is any indication, it won't be for more than 2.5 to 3 years. Apple still provides updates and bug fixes for iPhones that are 5 years old.

            • I get updates about every other week for my Samsung Note 8... Last update was September 5th, in fact.

              IIRC, Samsung's policy for updates is 18 months.

              Meanwhile, even the iPhone 5s can run iOS 12.

      • Or just to stick to what you own and stop buying a new device every year or two.
        • My iPhone 6s is still going strong...

          • I'll see your iPhone 6s and raise you a 5s... bought used on Craigslist.

            • Well played, sir.

              • What would be truly impressive would be if your username matches your daily transportation.

                • What would be truly impressive would be if your username matches your daily transportation.

                  It actually does - sort of. I'm driving the thing a couple miles to/from my house to the train station, where I catch a train to work. I'm a bit scared to drive the Escort much further than that...

                  I expect within the next 12 months I will finally replace it. The Escort's had a very good run, but any more I feel like I'm tempting fate. I actually ran out of gas the other day - wasn't sure that was the problem at first, and have to admit I wondered "is this it for the old girl?"

            • by hawk ( 1151 )

              I foolishly bought a refurbished 5 when my 6plus died.

              Foolish, as in I bought it from Frys, who insisted it came from apple had the full warranty.

              While I should make a fuss about the battery which clearly wasn't up to snuff, at this point I'd have to do the repairs involved with running it over with one of my Cadillacs . . . at least it was the '97 and not the '72 . . . and, for the record, they don't react well to this . . .

              So I've been waiting for the new ones, and two numbers is worth a small fortune to

    • Re:Sweet (Score:5, Interesting)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @01:23PM (#57299412)

      knowing it is sarcasm. However Ill bite.
      If you are an iPhone user, you really don't need to upgrade every year. Every 4 to 6 years probably.
      Year 1: Congrads! you have a top of the line phone.
      Year 2: You are finally getting apps that will support your phones new features. (btw 6 months ago there was an Android competitor that is superior to your phone)
      Year 3: Your phone is getting kinda boring, Works fine, the apps have some new features that you really don't need too much. The features that were toys on your phone are starting to mature and become useful.
      Year 4: Your phone is starting to feel sluggish, but still usable. Just the newest apps out there don't work well.
      Year 5: That last iOS update gives you no real advantages, except for security patches. Everything you seem to run that you have updated is starting to run slow. Why are all the apps seeming to be 4 times as slow, as like they are staying current with mores law.
      Year 6: iOS will not support any updates on your phone, as also most apps will not update anymore. It is slow and starting to hinder anything productive you may want to use the phone for.

      Going from an iPhone X to and Xs will not give you much, espctially as all the cool features on your X is now being supported.

      • iPhone 5 user (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward

        I'm currently using an iPhone 5, so I guess I'm on Year 6. Only two apps that I regularly use won't get updates anymore. Everything, otherwise, still runs fine. Don't really see a need to upgrade. It takes OK pictures. Battery life is fine. I can browse the web and read email when I need to. I might upgrade to the iPhone SE or XR at some point but I don't see the need to right now.

        • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          I'm currently using an iPhone 5, so I guess I'm on Year 6. Only two apps that I regularly use won't get updates anymore. Everything, otherwise, still runs fine. Don't really see a need to upgrade. It takes OK pictures. Battery life is fine. I can browse the web and read email when I need to. I might upgrade to the iPhone SE or XR at some point but I don't see the need to right now.

          I'm still using an iphone 4S. A phone I got when Steve Jobs was still alive (a common joke is it's the "for Steve" phone - hence

      • A lot of the same stuff is true for Android phones as well. If you buy the latest Samsung or HTC flagship, it will only be six months until there's something new and better. The only real difference is that not getting updates for your phone happens closer to Year 2 for a lot of devices, but for most users that updates aren't terribly important. For some, it's realistically Day 1 if the sales are bad and the manufacturer doesn't want to bother with support.

        Anyone who buys a flagship phone that they repla
      • I've been using iPhone 4S since 2011, and been eyeing that iPhone SE for a while. Hope this reduces its price. I really enjoy having a cheap phone that does all I need it to.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Correction, when you take your brand new top of the line iPhone out of the box there is already a better spec Android phone, and an equivalent spec one for half the price.

  • by Andy Smith ( 55346 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @01:05PM (#57299248)

    I hope theyâ(TM)ve dropped the ridiculous network restriction on the Watch. Currently in the UK it only works on one network AND your iPhone must be on the same network. I donâ(TM)t use that network so the Watch has been off-limits to me.

    • Re:Watch (Score:4, Interesting)

      by MachineShedFred ( 621896 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @02:28PM (#57300068) Journal

      the restriction is that the carrier needs to support E-SIM instead of actual SIM cards. There's no SIM tray on the Apple Watch.
      They are using E-SIM on the new iPhones as well to enable dual-SIM capabilities, likely with one physical SIM tray and then the E-SIM functionality. That is, if they do it right so that your primary carrier can be E-SIM and then if you are traveling you can get a local data-only SIM or what-have-you.

      Short version: that's a carrier issue, not really an Apple issue outside of them not including a SIM tray on the watch for savings of physical volume.

      • not really an Apple issue outside of them not including a SIM tray on the watch for savings of physical volume.

        But wasn't the whole SIM -> microSIM -> nano SIM "race to the tiniest" madness happening, exactly for the purpose on saving on physical volume ?

        Or were nano-SIMt somehow already a requirement for the giant slabs of smartphone, when other manufacturers have managed to cram *dual* SIM and microSD behind the battery cover ?

        But, ... but... this one is 0.1 mm thinner !

        • A SIM card is the same size as a credit card. I don't know of any cell phone that used it. They all used the mini SIM, then the micro, then the nano.

      • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        It's not a carrier issue. I used eSIM chips in products for years and they work great on every UK network. That's because the company I get them from has deals set up with every UK network.

        Apple needs to do those deals. Maybe they did some kind of exclusivity thing or maybe they just don't want to, but it's their fault. The carriers support eSIM just fine.

  • It's now almost as good as the Pixel 2 phone released a year ago.
    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      The iPhone camera is top 5. It gives you a somewhat artificial photo, but not unpleasant. That's particularly true in low light situations.

      The better bokeh effect is nice, close to the Pixel 2 from last year but because it's optical it's less flexible.

  • At least that's what they used to say.

    • by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @03:46PM (#57300744)
      Steve Jobs said crap like that all the time. I remember one year he talked about why putting video on something like the iPod was pointless since the experience was bad and then next year told everyone how cool it was that you could now have video on your iPod. If Apple had something to sell you, that thing was the greatest fucking thing ever, at least until the next thing. If they didn't have it, it was some pointless feature and what kind of knuckle dragging ape would want that.

      It's generally a good sales tactic. Why tell people something is awesome if you don't have it. Even if it really is a cool feature, I'm sure there are some downsides to it, such as it really killing battery life (why one of their earlier phones didn't have 4G, although they were kind of right about that as the first 4G phones were battery hogs) or whatever else you can come up with. Emphasize what you have. It's the other guys job to try to sell their product and if they're your competition don't do their job for them.
    • Honestly, I'm going to go out this weekend and replace my iPhone 5S with an iPhone SE and I should be good 'til 2020 or so.

      If I want a big screen, I have an iPad mini. Why do I want to drag around a big screen when I don't need one?

      • If I want a big screen, I have an iPad mini. Why do I want to drag around a big screen when I don't need one?

        "Big" is a question of perspective and use case. It's the wrong question. The question is how will you use the device and what size screen fits your preferences and needs. Your needs are probably different from mine and so what constitutes a "big" screen to you might be different. I've looked back to some of my older iPhones with 3.5" screens and they are clearly too small to be optimal for my needs. The real question is what is the biggest size screen that you can comfortably carry while still meeting

  • by sootman ( 158191 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @01:19PM (#57299382) Homepage Journal

    from https://twitter.com/sixcolorse... [twitter.com] :

    If you fall and are unresponsive for a minute the apple watch series 4 will call the emergency number for you. Also sends your info to your emergency contact. AW also can now detect and alert on low heart rate and screen your heart rhythm and alert if it detects a-fib

    How much does Apple care about this heart-analysis feature? Here's the president of the American Heart Association to call it "game changing."

    You can have my Apple Watch when you pry it off my cold, dead wrist. Literally. :-)

    • by Tugrik ( 158279 )

      Posted this on another thread, but it bears repeating here, my apologies:

      I'm an afib/sinus-bradycardia patient and a beta tester for the AliveCor / Kardia apple-watch band product they sell. I had the condition most of my life but it wasn't properly diagnosed until I started playing with home EKG equipment and noticed the trends. I've been using the AliveCor watch band product (and the separate unit they sell) for a few years now. It has been an invaluable asset in my afib care, and the data from it (and th

  • I want more detail on this "5 trllion operations per second". Considering the GTX 1080 is a 9 teraflop card [firstpost.com], I am pretty skeptical that the A12 is pushing ~60% of that.
    • Why? That's a 2-year-old card built on a 16nm process.

      • It is a bit dubious. However, the A12 has about the same number of transistors (6.9e9 vs 7.2e9) on a smaller, more efficient process. It might not be that far out.
        • And the clocks are similar, too. 1.7-2.5GHz for the chips on the GTX1080. We don't know the A12 clock speeds but the A11 ran up to 2.4GHz... presumably we don't get a slowdown. I dunno - at the end of the day it's a fairly useless measure... the proof is in the pudding, as they say.

    • by figleaf ( 672550 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @01:56PM (#57299762) Homepage

      Apple usually advertise burst speed - at which they beat most other mobile processors.
      Over longer runs Apple processors heat up quickly and don't do well on sustained performance. This might be due to the larger size of the chips than most comparable generation mobile processors.
      When it comes to sustained performance and size of the die Qualcomm et al beat them by a mile.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward

        So Qualcomms are better at a use case scenario that would overheat your phone and drain your battery quickly? A use case that only shows up on synthetic bench marks and in no way reflects real world usage?

        It's 2018 and instantaneous single-thread performance is STILL king for end user applications. Power up, deliver the processing power to effect minimal delay to the user when they need it, then power down again to save energy. You may not feel like it, but the time between user actions to a process is glac

    • The processor the 5 trillion operations per second refers to is not as general purpose as the CPU and GPU. Is a processor dedicated to processing operations related to running values through neural networks (think matrix operations mostly). Given the very limited in scope tasks it has to do the higher operation count is not unthinkable.

  • XS (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Translation Error ( 1176675 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @01:48PM (#57299674)
    They're really naming their phone XS? I don't know about anyone else, but if I find myself about to buy an expensive phone named Excess, I'd stop and think about whether I really need this.
  • I thought the iPhone already came with lots of excess. Or at least it seems to be targeting people who themselves have plenty of excess (money). But now if the phone is called (phonetically) "eye-phone excess" I think that might cause a little confusion.
  • E-sim feature (Score:4, Informative)

    by Cutting_Crew ( 708624 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @01:57PM (#57299788)
    I do like the e-Sim feature. Having two phone numbers on a single device.
  • Dual-SIM (Score:4, Interesting)

    by williamyf ( 227051 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @02:08PM (#57299884)

    I know a few people that were put off of apple's ecosystem because of a lack of dual-SIM phones.

    There are a few reasons to have it, like people who hunt for the best price/coverage between two operators, or executves with work and personal numbers, or people who travel a lot.

    whatever the reason was, if you wanted/needed the feature, now you have an excuse to go for an iPhone.

    • A really interesting aspect of the Dual-Sim thing, is that in China only Apple is making a model that does not have the eSim, but supports two "real" SIM cards at the same time.

      I could see a lot of people from other parts of the world interested in being able to use two full SIM cards instead of an eSim (more limited carrier support being just one) - it'l be interesting how many are imported from China around the world.

  • 15 percent (Score:2, Insightful)

    2 performance cores that deliver up to 15 percent speeds

    Woah, gotta get me some of THAT. How do they do it ?!?

  • by omnichad ( 1198475 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @02:18PM (#57299954) Homepage

    Most things never have a version 11. Neither Windows, nor MacOS, and now even the iPhone. It just stops at 10. Or you pull a Firefox/Chrome and your version number is over 9000.

  • by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @02:21PM (#57299984)

    This year, the flagship phone is the "iPhone Excess".

    So, next year, they're not even going to pretend - the 2019 flagship will be called the "iPhone Conspicuous Consumption". ... you heard it here, first.

  • Now where is that endorsement money Apple?

  • good-bye iPhone SE (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ChristTrekker ( 91442 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @02:45PM (#57300214)
    I think the axing of the SE is more significant than the new products that were announced. I was still really hoping for an SE 2.
  • by surfcow ( 169572 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2018 @02:46PM (#57300216) Homepage

    Apple. There are 7 Macs in your lineup. 2 of them are 6 years old. 5 get a "DON'T BUY" from the macrumors.com Buyers Guide. And 1 gets a "NEUTRAL". https://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac

    The average professional can not upgrade or repair your hardware anymore. You soldiered the memory and hard-drives. Removed the useful ports. And the escape key. ifixit.com gives recent MacBookPro's a repair-ability score of 1 out of 10. https://www.ifixit.com/laptop-repairability

    Guess you've been focused on other things, phones. Let us know if you go back into the computer business.

  • What's that? A phone exclusively for NBA players? For just about everybody else will look like a jerk with one of those to one's ear. I forgot - one uses these devices for anything other than phone calls.
    • by shilly ( 142940 )

      The phone is the same sized enclosure as the 8 plus. So people will look the same amount of a jerk with the new one as with the old.

  • While now only functioning as an emergency phone, my Lumia 1520 was the exact right size and aspect ratio. I was hoping for something like that to come along. Instead, we get this awful candy bar shaped device that may not be bigger than my Iphone X.

    If I went back to Android, I'd maybe have to check out the Honor Note 10.
  • Technology creeps forward.
  • They could have released a professional version and called it the iPhone XP!
  • by ReneR ( 1057034 )
    no / words
  • But where is the Iphone Xhpj?
  • MSN title a few days back: "iPhone prices would rise up to 20% if Apple assembles in US like Trump wants".

    Well, they did it without Trumps help. In Sweden, the maxed out XR, or whatever they call it now, ist over 2000â.

    I say let Trump have it. Apple will increase the prices no matter what, so at least Apple should produce them here.
  • Apple also says that the new phones have wider stereo sound fields than before.

    More meaningless marketing drivel. "Wider sound fields" and "deeper pixels". It's like the phrase "hand crafted" which you see every restaurant using lately which sounds like it should indicate something meaningful but really is a content free phrase. A McDonalds hamburger is "hand crafted" because some minimum wage teenager put a patty between two bits of bread. Unless no humans touched the product everything is hand crafted. Companies claiming their food is "home made" is another bunch of nonsense.

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