The Wide, Wide World of Apple

[DGuller]

So I want to give a quick iPhone 5s review, but I hardly have a proper frame of reference.  I've never used an android phone, and because this was a work phone, andriod was not an option (see a few posts above).  All I can compare this to is my 3 year old BB Bold, and my iPod Touch.

Obviously, it's a lot like my touch.  I'm pretty familiar with the basic interface by now, but this is obviously much quicker and more responsive.  The screen is beautiful, and the fingerprint scanner works very well.  It seems odd though I have to press the button, then hold my finger for several seconds.

Interface for emails and messages is miles better than my old BB - I can fly through those things like nobodies business.

It was very lucky I had by accident linked my iTunes account to my work email several months ago.  That meant I could load all my apps and songs onto the new phone.

I'm very happy with it.

You don't actually have to press the home button to get in by fingerprint.  Just hold your finger on the button.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

The horribly overpriced garbage can new Mac Pro comes out tomorrow:

The Mac Pro is available with a 3.7 GHz quad-core Intel Xeon E5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz, dual AMD FirePro D300 GPUs with 2GB of VRAM each, 12GB of memory, and 256GB of PCIe-based flash storage starting at $2,999 (US); and with a 3.5 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon E5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz, dual AMD FirePro D500 GPUs with 3GB of VRAM each, 16GB of memory, and 256GB of PCIe-based flash storage starting at $3,999 (US). Configure-to-order options include faster 8-core or 12-core Intel Xeon E5 processors, AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB of VRAM, up to 64GB of memory, and up to 1TB of PCIe-based flash storage. Additional technical specifications, configure-to-order options and accessories are available online at www.apple.com/mac-pro.

[Barrister]

So I want to give a quick iPhone 5s review, but I hardly have a proper frame of reference.  I've never used an android phone, and because this was a work phone, andriod was not an option (see a few posts above).  All I can compare this to is my 3 year old BB Bold, and my iPod Touch.

Obviously, it's a lot like my touch.  I'm pretty familiar with the basic interface by now, but this is obviously much quicker and more responsive.  The screen is beautiful, and the fingerprint scanner works very well.  It seems odd though I have to press the button, then hold my finger for several seconds.

Interface for emails and messages is miles better than my old BB - I can fly through those things like nobodies business.

It was very lucky I had by accident linked my iTunes account to my work email several months ago.  That meant I could load all my apps and songs onto the new phone.

I'm very happy with it.

You don't actually have to press the home button to get in by fingerprint.  Just hold your finger on the button.

Nope - I definitely have to press, then hold.  BUt only for about one second (not the several seconds I said before).

[OttoVonBismarck]

I have the 5S as well BB, I'm a big fan so far. It's my first Apple phone and probably my favorite smart phone that I've had.

I had a Blackberry Tour that I really liked, and liked the physical keyboard and the screen was big enough for my purposes. But when I switched from that to a Motorola Atrix I realized the physical keyboard was overrated and there were a lot of nice features in Android that BlackBerry did not have. The one thing I will mention, the Motorola Atrix had a fingerprint scanner as well and may have been the first smart phone to offer this feature (this was in 2010 or so.) I never used it because it was painfully buggy, took 5-6 swipes every time and just was a general headache.

I appreciate that Apple didn't just throw the fingerprint scanner onto their phone as a gimmick that doesn't really work. So far mine has worked exceptionally well, the only time it just won't work is after I get out of the shower which makes sense given my finger surface is different at that time.

After my 2 year contract expired I traded my Atrix in for a Lumia 1020 mainly out of Microsoft loyalty and I had read good things about WP8. The Lumia was actually a very good smart phone, and also had a really big screen. WP8 itself works great in my opinion, and despite the smaller size of its app store you can mostly get anything you'd need on WP8. The problem is, that has been achieved by Microsoft actually developing its own version of popular apps when the app developers choose not to put in the effort of doing it themselves. For example Microsoft basically wrote the Windows Phone Spotify app because Spotify didn't want to write one. However, it's horribly broken. Many of the Microsoft written third party apps are like that, they have the veneer of providing a Windows Phone version of a popular app but end up being bug ridden shit piles.

When I dropped the Lumia into a lake right around the time the 5S launched I decided it was a good time to give Apple a try after I'd survived its initial popularity/craze back when the iPhone first came out. I don't miss the larger screen size at all, and in many ways I find the smaller screen size on the 5S to be more convenient in several ways than the Lumia.

I think it really depends on your use case. Some people watch movies and read books on their smartphone, but I have actual books, an iPad, and a home theater so I don't have any desire to do that stuff on a smart phone whether it has a 3.5" or 5" screen.

The iOS 7 rollout also has me convinced that some large portion of people will call any new version of software "shit" if it makes any major interface changes, when the new software is actually better in pretty much every way. When I updated my iPad to iOS 7 there wasn't a single issue I had, and I've generally liked the new interface better than the old one. I never understood all the complaints about iOS 7.

[HVC]

So I want to give a quick iPhone 5s review, but I hardly have a proper frame of reference.  I've never used an android phone, and because this was a work phone, andriod was not an option (see a few posts above).  All I can compare this to is my 3 year old BB Bold, and my iPod Touch.

Obviously, it's a lot like my touch.  I'm pretty familiar with the basic interface by now, but this is obviously much quicker and more responsive.  The screen is beautiful, and the fingerprint scanner works very well.  It seems odd though I have to press the button, then hold my finger for several seconds.

Interface for emails and messages is miles better than my old BB - I can fly through those things like nobodies business.

It was very lucky I had by accident linked my iTunes account to my work email several months ago.  That meant I could load all my apps and songs onto the new phone.

I'm very happy with it.

You don't actually have to press the home button to get in by fingerprint.  Just hold your finger on the button.

Nope - I definitely have to press, then hold.  BUt only for about one second (not the several seconds I said before).

you just have to click and place, not keep holding down. At least I don't have to.

[Barrister]

you just have to click and place, not keep holding down. At least I don't have to.

Yes.

[DGuller]

I don't even have to click or press, I just lay my finger on top of the button and wait 1-2 seconds.

[OttoVonBismarck]

On mine, the phone's screen stays black if you just rest the finger on it. You have to click once to "wake up" the screen, then you can just hold your finger on the sensor and it scans. Do you wake your screen up by hitting the power button first, then place your finger on the home button?

[DGuller]

On mine, the phone's screen stays black if you just rest the finger on it. You have to click once to "wake up" the screen, then you can just hold your finger on the sensor and it scans. Do you wake your screen up by hitting the power button first, then place your finger on the home button?

Doh, you're right, I do wake it first by clicking the home button.  I didn't realize I was doing it until I tried it just now.

[Tonitrus]

The horribly overpriced garbage can new Mac Pro comes out tomorrow:

The Mac Pro is available with a 3.7 GHz quad-core Intel Xeon E5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz, dual AMD FirePro D300 GPUs with 2GB of VRAM each, 12GB of memory, and 256GB of PCIe-based flash storage starting at $2,999 (US); and with a 3.5 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon E5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz, dual AMD FirePro D500 GPUs with 3GB of VRAM each, 16GB of memory, and 256GB of PCIe-based flash storage starting at $3,999 (US). Configure-to-order options include faster 8-core or 12-core Intel Xeon E5 processors, AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB of VRAM, up to 64GB of memory, and up to 1TB of PCIe-based flash storage. Additional technical specifications, configure-to-order options and accessories are available online at www.apple.com/mac-pro.

Maybe I should go all 1%-er and get one! 

[Ed Anger]

I'm not getting one.

[Barrister]

The horribly overpriced garbage can new Mac Pro comes out tomorrow:

The Mac Pro is available with a 3.7 GHz quad-core Intel Xeon E5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz, dual AMD FirePro D300 GPUs with 2GB of VRAM each, 12GB of memory, and 256GB of PCIe-based flash storage starting at $2,999 (US); and with a 3.5 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon E5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz, dual AMD FirePro D500 GPUs with 3GB of VRAM each, 16GB of memory, and 256GB of PCIe-based flash storage starting at $3,999 (US). Configure-to-order options include faster 8-core or 12-core Intel Xeon E5 processors, AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB of VRAM, up to 64GB of memory, and up to 1TB of PCIe-based flash storage. Additional technical specifications, configure-to-order options and accessories are available online at www.apple.com/mac-pro.

Maybe I should go all 1%-er and get one! 

If I win the Lotto Max tomorrow I'm definitely replacing my current Mac Pro with a new one.

Otherwise... pass.

[Syt]

Our marketing team works with MacPros. I will say one thing for them: the screen is f'ing awesome.

[Duque de Bragança]

The horribly overpriced garbage can new Mac Pro comes out tomorrow:

The Mac Pro is available with a 3.7 GHz quad-core Intel Xeon E5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz, dual AMD FirePro D300 GPUs with 2GB of VRAM each, 12GB of memory, and 256GB of PCIe-based flash storage starting at $2,999 (US); and with a 3.5 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon E5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz, dual AMD FirePro D500 GPUs with 3GB of VRAM each, 16GB of memory, and 256GB of PCIe-based flash storage starting at $3,999 (US). Configure-to-order options include faster 8-core or 12-core Intel Xeon E5 processors, AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB of VRAM, up to 64GB of memory, and up to 1TB of PCIe-based flash storage. Additional technical specifications, configure-to-order options and accessories are available online at www.apple.com/mac-pro.

This means you can max it out for around 10,000 dollars.

[Grey Fox]

The horribly overpriced garbage can new Mac Pro comes out tomorrow:

The Mac Pro is available with a 3.7 GHz quad-core Intel Xeon E5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz, dual AMD FirePro D300 GPUs with 2GB of VRAM each, 12GB of memory, and 256GB of PCIe-based flash storage starting at $2,999 (US); and with a 3.5 GHz 6-core Intel Xeon E5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9 GHz, dual AMD FirePro D500 GPUs with 3GB of VRAM each, 16GB of memory, and 256GB of PCIe-based flash storage starting at $3,999 (US). Configure-to-order options include faster 8-core or 12-core Intel Xeon E5 processors, AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6GB of VRAM, up to 64GB of memory, and up to 1TB of PCIe-based flash storage. Additional technical specifications, configure-to-order options and accessories are available online at www.apple.com/mac-pro.

Maybe I should go all 1%-er and get one! 

If I win the Lotto Max tomorrow I'm definitely replacing my current Mac Pro with a new one.

Otherwise... pass.

Stay Off, I need it more than you do!