New Apple Lust Objects for 2010 and onward

the 7 claims to have 4x faster LTE. I have to admit that was enticing.

this sounds v dubious or at least v network-specific

lmao @ Apple's shitty earbuds and (formerly, still possibly?) shitty iTunes Store compression and all of the bullshit auto-transcoding and then having the audacity to talk abt how lightning sounds "better"

something that ppl will nod along to and be like "oh wow, better is great! we want better, yeah" but truly truly would never give a shit about irl

can't find it now but the one (lukewarmly) positive review I've read of the airpods so far was getting clowned a lot for saying the airpods sounded "loud."

iTunes Store is 256kbps AAC, which is very good imo

http://www.macrumors.com/2016/09/08/att-and-tmobile-iphone-7-models-lack-cdma/

frankly the iPhone 6S looking better and better

good luck usa

la-hollll

I'm going to see how the new iOS runs on mine before making any decision; as it stands the one I have, two years old now, has been handling everything I really need just fine

traditionally where apple shines: the perfect timing of delicious new iphone hardware and a new os suddenly slowing down your two year old phone.

i'm hoping those of us with a 6 get a solid third year, but having 1 gb ram (the 6s has 2 gb) it feels like apple gave itself a golden opportunity to make them just laggy enough to be annoying. then again i've not heard about any performance issues from the ios 10 betas.

OK, is there any reason for a U.S. AT&T or T-Mobile customer not to get the "Verizon/Sprint" iPhone 7 (models A1660/A1661) given that they support every band and frequency the intended AT&T/T-Mobile handset does *except* the CDMA ones? Without CDMA support, you won't be able to roam on Verizon or Sprint networks (or occasional non-US CDMA carriers) except where voice over LTE is available. It will also make it worth less at trade-in time since one-half of potential American buyers won't want the non-CDMA phone. Since all the carriers have disbanded their former subsidized phone plans (get phone for cheap or free, but must agree to 2 year service contract), seems thing to do is buy the phone separately if you're on AT&T or T-Mobile. No word yet on whether the unlocked iPhone 7 you buy directly from Apple will or won't be the CDMA-capable version.

Always buy the phone separately if you can afford the upfront cost. And no, no reason to get AT&T model.

all the carriers have disbanded their former subsidized phone plans (get phone for cheap or free, but must agree to 2 year service contract)

wut?? i thought this was the entire model for mobile networks. it still is in europe. american networks don't do this anymore?

Nope: Two-year phone contracts are now dead at all major US carriers

As recently as two years ago, the subsidized two-year contract was the most popular way to get mobile phone service in the US. You'd pay anything from zero (for a basic flip phone) to about $200 (for the current iPhone with standard memory) - basically the carrier paid up to a $500 subsidy on the phone, but that cost was worked into higher monthly payments so you didn't really save any money over the two-year period. The phones would be locked to the carrier you bought it from, often even after the two-year committment was honored (this practice was controversal and became very unpopular, prompting the carriers to agree to unlock phones after the contract expired as lawmakers threatened action). T-Mobile - fourth place amongst the "big 4" carriers - was the first to drop two-year contracts instead selling phones on a 2-year installment plan alongside less expensive service. That proved to be a hit and vaulted T-Mobile ahead of former third-place Sprint in customer count. The other three big carriers have since followed suit.

haha wait isn't that the same thing??

seems that way to me. you still end up with a 2-year contract and a "free" or (+$x) phone

No, because now if you find in the first few months after you bought your phone that your carrier has crappy coverage where you live, you can switch to another carrier. You'll still be obliged to pay off your phone, but you can use your phone on the new carrier you switch to. Under the old 2-year subsidy plans, doing that would incur a huge early-termination fee, and you'd probably need to get a new phone as well that's locked to your new carrier. Now that the phone and the cellular contract are separate, you can switch carriers at any time without penalty.

oh, ok. sounds good.

The 2-year subsidy plans also worked against you if you were satisfied with your over two-year-old phone. Your monthly service fee included almost 1/24th the cost of your phone, which comes out to almost $20/month. If you bought an iPhone 5S three years ago with a 2-year subsidy plan and decided not to upgrade to the 6S last year, you'd be paying that extra $20/month for the last year (and as long as you keep the same phone). You'd effectively be forever paying off your phone as long as you keep it, not just the first two years when you're still under contract.

hmm. so should i upgrade now (my Verizon 2-year deal just ended) to get my money's worth out of my current contract?

actually, never mind - it looks like i'm already on that sorta thing as of the last phone

If you're on an expired 2-year contract but are happy with your current phone, no need to upgrade, but you'll probably save money by changing to one of the new unsubsidized plans. After all, the way you got your old phone for $199 instead of $749 is because your carrier was making up the difference by charging more each month. You don't want to be paying that built-in monthly subsidy any longer than you have to.

(by "changing to one of the new unsubsidized plans", I meant even if you stay with the same carrier you've been using; just get one of the new, less-expensive service plans)

Say this much, when wired headphones or earbuds fall out at least they just dangle. These new magical earbuds, they're just going to bounce off into the gutter, down the subway train, into puddles ...

Yeah basically the situation I'm in is I'm still on one of those two-year-contract plans, due for an upgrade, and also have a broken screen to boot, so there's really no reason not for me to upgrade to something. I'd have to spend $79 just to fix the screen and the upgrade prices range from like free to $300 for the phones I'm interested in. But I'm having a hard time on whether I should pull the trigger on the 7 or just get a 6s for cheap (or an SE for free I think?). I keep having visions of being annoyed with the dongle all the time (or losing the dongle and being unable to listen to music on headphones until I get a new one). Although at $9 I could just pick up a few and have spares around.

I think Apple made a few huge mistakes. (1) They should have waited longer to take out the jack, until a transition to wireless was a little further along. (2) They should probably have announced the airpods at a different time, e.g. a non-phone event. (3) The design of the airpods is just bad. They should have given them some sort of connecting band or string.

Everyone is talking only about two things -- the loss of the jack and how bad the airpods are (even though you don't actually need the airpods) and it's tarnishing the whole release.

Ordered two Verizon 256 gig matte black iphones this morning, signing up for the Apple Upgrade Plan. It's nice to not have to drop 2K on phones at one time, that's for sure.

i like the idea of wireless headphones a lot, but I don't relaly like this execution, too expensive and will get lost. if I get this phone (at some point I assume I will have to) I'll just do the adaptor in the plug I guess. lame.

Jeff how does the Apple upgrade plan price out per phone, and are there different tiers of it for different tiers of phone?

airpods look dumb, they shouldve gone for a different design than just, like, taking the wires off the regular earbuds

also i keep thinkign they are called "air buds"

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMzQxODE4MzEyNF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNjk2OTY4ODE@._V1_UX182_CR0,0,182,268_AL_.jpg

man alive: http://www.apple.com/shop/iphone/iphone-upgrade-program

if you go to the payment part a couple sections down, it shows the monthly cost

wait, so it's actually $32.41/mo and up for 24 months, with an early upgrade fee option after a year? Doesn't that just work out to the same price as a full-price phone spread out over 24 months?

Pretty much, but you get Apple Care+ included so you only pay $29 if you smash the screen. Also I don't have to have the yearly dilemma if I want to upgrade my phone, I'll just do it and continue paying what I'm paying per month.

you also don't have to find a buyer for your used phone if you upgrade, so you're kind of getting an automatic 1/2 of the original value with no work

Oh wait, so they just take the phone back and that covers the upgrade cost?

http://i.imgur.com/0sZ0l77.jpg

yeah there's no "upgrade cost" per se, you pay them that much per month, and every year you can walk in and swap phones

Erotic xp

One of my favorite things about this is that, in response to questions about how you can charge while listening to headphones, Apple responded that you should buy their charging dock, which has a 3.5 headphone jack on it. However the dock does not have a lightning jack on it, so you can't use their lightning headphones with it.

that image is some beauty-of-horror masterpiece

so bad jfc

wondering who is going to come out with the best bluetooth receiver/remote dongle

https://www.amazon.com/Ericsson-Hi-Fi-Bluetooth-Stereo-Headset/dp/B003DQ1DCM

I got a good deal on one of these a couple years ago, you know it's some weird remainder tech because it says Sony/Ericsson on it!

(I threw out the included earphones obv)

ugh just hearing the phrase "bluetooth receiver/remote dongle" makes me want to barf

dongle is a really terrible word. It sounds like another word for dingleberry.

get a bucket, man, I'm going to copy/paste it about twenty times now. tell me when you're ready. xp

lol

wait I thought "dingleberry" was a euphemism for the balls. have I being doing this wrong? obviously the dongle is the shaft.

a dingleberry is a shit particle that gets stuck on a butt hair, which is kind of what this adapter thing is like

headphones do look like of like a butt

kind of like

me irl right now lol
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81%2BDCRC-MmL._SL1500_.jpg