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How is the 'biggest thing to happen to iPhone since iPhone' simply a taller screen and newer processor? What about NFC? Wireless charging? Sorry Apple, but t

How is the 'biggest thing to happen to iPhone since iPhone' simply a taller screen and newer processor? What about NFC? Wireless charging? Sorry Apple, but this just isn't that impressive.

calciphus 14y ago
They meant it's physically biggest. The only excitement they could generate was "it's slightly taller!"
TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago
Perhaps it's the beginning of the end, eh? Jobs's legacy may not last long.
- msbarnett 14y ago
  Because if there's one thing Steve Jobs was known for, it was cramming in as many tick-list features as possible. /s
- batista 14y ago
  Were you even along for the ride man? Jobs/Apple was never about bundling tons of irrelevant features together (wireless charging? Please...), and winning by ticking feature checkboxes. Jobs used to introduce a new iPod model every year or so. And he also got to introduce 4 iPhone models. Lots of times the changes were incremental (3G -> 3GS for example). Heck, back in the day, a new color or some more storage was considered a huge improvement over the previous iPod model. People literally went bezerk in the possibility that the next iPod could also play video (imagine that!). And now you have a mature phone, in it's 6th version, fast as hell, with a GPU that you would have killed for to have in your laptop half a decade ago, camera, gyro, retina, bigger screen, thin, new extremely featured iOS, some 500.000+ apps etc. What exactly do you want with that? Magic sprinkle dust? I would be satisfied even if Apple had only sticked to making computers/OS. They have far surpassed that. Nobody even asked them to make mp3 players, phones, or tablets in the first place. Since we will be using all of the above for the next 20 years, I think they will be fine, even if they dont pull another market/device out of their hats...
  - pooriaazimi 14y ago
    You made a big mistake: It's now some 700,000+ apps! :)
    - adhipg 14y ago
      , = . (and vice-versa) in some European countries. So he meant 500k + apps.
  - barrkel 14y ago
    I wanted something that would be qualitatively better than current Android phones. It didn't deliver. At all. It's trivial for the phone to be better than 5+ year old tech. But that's a completely irrelevant comparison.
    - veemjeem 14y ago
      The same could be said about the first gen ipod, when compared against the current lineup of mp3 players at the time. The ipod didn't even have wifi or a color display!
      - Steko 14y ago
        And less space than a nomad. Lame.
    - batista 14y ago
      >I wanted something that would be qualitatively better than current Android phones. It didn't deliver. At all. IMHO, it's better than any Android phone out there, bar none. From the construction, to the display, to the weight and size, to the cpu/gpu combo, and more importantly to the huge app ecosystem that makes use of standard gizmos inside it, and ties it all together. Plus the media ecosystem. Plus the third-party peripheral ecosystem. >It's trivial for the phone to be better than 5+ year old tech. But that's a completely irrelevant comparison. Yes, completely irrelevant, since it's also better than any 1 month old tech, or the previous iPhone itself. What's the competition? Some Android phone that will be left without an update to the next Android version and which has the subpar Android app ecosystem and subpar construction/design? Or the Lumia that doesn't even have an OS out of beta yet and is "due to arrive later this year"?
- eddieplan9 14y ago
  You forgot that Steve told us focus is about saying no. http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/06/jobs-focus-is-about-saying-no/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/06/jobs-focus-is-about-saying-...
RobAtticus 14y ago
Probably a play on the fact that it is physically bigger (taller).
- freyr 14y ago
  Yes, it's fairly obvious (after you pointed it out).
  - omgsean 14y ago
    Do you work for Samsung's legal team? ;)
johndavi 14y ago
I imagine the use of 'biggest' is meant to highlight the size increase explicitly, versus your typical hyperbolic marketing.
- jlgreco 14y ago
  The problem is that it draws attention to the fact that other than literally a size change, there is not terribly much that makes this an unusually "big" update.
  - johndavi 14y ago
    I guess. They can't all be the 'biggest' though. And the subtlety is in fact the play on typical marketing-speak, which, as evidenced by the parent comment here -- and many others -- is typically ingested wholesale by the consuming public. I imagine AAPL are not worried about turning off the hyper-literal critics amongst the crowd. Good lord, what am I doing debating/discussing a marketing headline... Anyway.
    - jlgreco 14y ago
      Oh, don't get me wrong. I don't mean to fault them for not changing much; sometimes there simply isn't a lot that should be changed. I just think it wasn't a particularly bright wording.
batista 14y ago
Plus, "simply a taller screen and newer processor", really? New screen, new processor, new innards, new machining and construction, new connector, new iOS, new camera, improved battery life AND lighter. NFC and wireless charging? Who promised you that? And who delivers those at the moment? You might want to see this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk
- quaunaut 14y ago
  Name for me one brand new feature. This is a product update, this isn't deserving of a new version number, and it certainly isn't "the biggest thing to happen to the iphone since iphone". This isn't to say it's a bad device, just infinite hype for zero payoff.
  - evan_ 14y ago
    > Name for me one brand new feature. LTE
    - morsch 14y ago
      That's just an implementation detail of an improvement of an existing feature.
      - pooriaazimi 14y ago
        Then wireless charging and NFC could be counted as mere improvements (of existing features, i.e. cable charging and scanning barcodes) too!
        camiller 14y ago
        Well, to be fair, NFC is capable of two way communication where scanning a barcode is one way communication. You are comparing galaxies to apples ;) As an android (GS3) user I would have liked the iPhone to get NFC (and NFC based mobile payments) for the simple reason that the more phones capable of NFC payments the more merchants are likely to support it which benefits all of us (or at least all of us interested in paying for things with our phones). The same argument would hold true for wireless charging, but it would probably be unlikely for Apple to adopt the emerging "Qi" wireless charging standard and instead roll it's own.
stevenrace 14y ago
Has Apple declared it doesn't have NFC? Couldn't this be a 'software enabled upgrade' in due time? A number of chipsets do 802.11ac + NFC/RFID + (wifi,etc) in the same package. I suppose we won't know until teardowns begin appearing...
- jrockway 14y ago
  Which chipset does 802.11 and NFC? And even if there is a chipset that does both, NFC requires a flat antenna about the size of a contactless card somewhere near the surface of the phone.
  - mkhattab 14y ago
    There's a new chipset that does 802.11, NFC and Bluetooth. According to the date of the press release below, this chip was released sometime in June 2012, so obviously not enough time for Apple to integrate in the new iPhone. http://www.marvell.com/company/news/pressDetail.do?releaseID=2421 http://www.marvell.com/company/news/pressDetail.do?releaseID...
    - stevenrace 14y ago
      Correct, but NXP, TI (w/ WiLink[1]), Broadcom, Qualcom, Intel,... are shipping similar products. As someone working in the 'Internet of Things' space, I wasn't so much disappointed with the lack of NFC - as Zigbee/802.15.4. Again, thanks to integrated radios, NFC and Zigbee can be done on the same chip. The (mass adopted) future will have to wait for another product/hype cycle. [1] Feb. 2012 - http://www.ti.com/general/docs/wtbu/wtbuproductcontent.tsp?templateId=6123&navigationId=12870&contentId=146147 http://www.ti.com/general/docs/wtbu/wtbuproductcontent.tsp?t...
      - jrockway 14y ago
        I too would like more Zigbee support. As it stands the modules are overpriced but quite useful.
- 14y ago
gavinlynch 14y ago
...and you expected them to instead say what, exactly? "This is the smallest, most incremental update to the iPhone since iOS 5.1 begat iOS 5.1.1?" It's marketing, sheesh.
- RivieraKid 14y ago
  I would expect them to extravagate only slightly. But "the biggest thing to happen to the iphone since iphone" is pure BS.
  - branchan 14y ago
    But isn't it totally accurate that the iphone 5 IS the best iphone yet for Apple?
  - sbuk 14y ago
    No. It's pure marketing.
    - jlgreco 14y ago
      The two are mutually exclusive?
      - sbuk 14y ago
        It's harsh to suggest that marketing is just BS. It is what it is.
- B-Con 14y ago
  Every release for Apple is the biggest thing they've done so far. Apple does not do uninteresting releases. At least, they don't tell you that.
- ajross 14y ago
  Of course it's marketing, and Apple certainly isn't alone in selling stuff with hyperbole. What I think the grandparent was getting to isn't pointing out the silliness of the ad copy, but that the actual device being advertised is an underwhelming incremental improvement. This is less of an improvement on the 4S than the 4S was over the 4, and the 4S was uniformly dinged for being a disappointing (most of the best new stuff was software) iteration. Really, this isn't even to ding Apple: smartphones are becoming commdities. The years of rapid evolution are behind us. The Android market is seeing similar pressure, as the most recent phones all more or less look and work identically.
Yhippa 14y ago
Yes! I was hoping for wireless induction charging.
Androsynth 14y ago
Law of diminishing returns?
andrewljohnson 14y ago
I think you didn't get the joke. Great that you don't think the iPhone is up to snuff, but the marketing slogan is a play on the size of the device. That part is quite clever and will perfectly communicate to people what's new about the iPhone.
- jonursenbach 14y ago
  I don't think anyone seeing this marketing slogan is going to think that this is the reason.
  - jaxn 14y ago
    It was my first thought.
brown9-2 14y ago
Since the iPhone 5 has neither of those features, it's both possible for this iPhone update to be the "biggest thing to happen to iPhone" and for future updates to also be the "biggest thing to happen to iPhone". It's a comparison to the state of previous iPhones, not a comparison to the state of all phones on the market. </pedantic>
thesash 14y ago
Apple made major updates to the core features that people use every day: brand new maps app, redesigned itunes, updated camera. Apple understands that hardware is less important than software in the day to day experience of using the phone, they continue to focus on improving the experience of using the device, not the spec sheet. Thats why major hardware changes tend to be battery, screen, and camera: those are the features that most affect the day-to-day experience of the user. Consumers outside HN aren't going to base a purchase decision on specs, so shiny toys like NFC or wireless charging end up compromising battery life or size, it's probably a pretty easy call for the company to make given the focus on the core experience.
- sshconnection 14y ago
  Their maps app is a regression stemming from political strife with google. It's much less useful now.
  - thesash 14y ago
    I haven't used the new version, so can't comment on quality. My point was just that the "biggest thing" part of the announcement was probably based on the software updates. In terms of impact to user, the addition of turn-by-turn directions is a pretty big deal.
DavidZhangToGo 14y ago
It's the combination of software and hardware that makes the iPhone, don't just look at the spec.
cryptozeus 14y ago
really !! NFC..who care about that. No body uses it even with existing phones. future of payment is going to be without plastic cards , NFC etc. Check square's new feature of paying it wifi
- camiller 14y ago
  I use it for everything from my morning beverage to putting gas in the car. If it isn't important to you then that's cool but don't assume your opinion extends to all of us.
  - r00fus 14y ago
    Care to embellish? What are you using, and where are you located geographically?
- zmmmmm 14y ago
  The only reason nobody uses NFC is because the iPhone doesn't have it. Seriously the entire payments industry is ready to deploy something but they are all holding back waiting to see what Apple will do in case they zig and Apple zags. I guarantee that if Apple had announced NFC today the entire payments industry would be different in 12 months time. As it is, the internecine warfare in the payments industry will just continue.
  - kahawe 14y ago
    Can you help me understand why NFC matters? It is not like using my credit-cards or ATM-cards or just plain-old-cash didn't work just fine and comfortable and reliable enough...? I honestly don't understand it, especially from the "payment industry"'s point of view - why would they care? It is just costs to them and they wouldn't be able to replace existing payment terminals either because people will still use cards or just cash.
    - zmmmmm 14y ago
      > It is not like using my credit-cards or ATM-cards or just plain-old-cash didn't work just fine and comfortable and reliable enough...? From an industry point of view, I think it makes small transactions extremely secure - with the secure element in the NFC chip, tapping it to the payment terminal provides complete physical proof of the presence of the card. That's way better than even having a sales person sight the card or magnetic stripe etc. which be easily forged. Once the transactions themselves are very secure there's no longer a need for things like signatures or PINs or other layers of security. That means you as a consumer can just walk into a store, take some things, tap your card / phone and leave. It's a bit hard to describe, but once you've done this you realize (at least I did) how much anxiety the barrier of payment at the end was detracting from your shopping experience. It's not rational, but my personal experience is that there's a strong level of anxiety about being challenged as to your identity and this removes it and makes the whole experience really easy and pleasant.
siglesias 14y ago
Sorry Apple, but this just isn't that impressive. You know what? Just like any startup that posts here, Apple is filled with real people who take real pride in what they do, and I can imagine that for any of the thousands of folks who worked really hard on designing this product and manufactured to absurdly low variances, the sentiment you just expressed was deeply hurtful, and, in fact, wrong. There's a lot to be impressed by here. Lots of tiny details that aren't captured on a feature checklist. If you don't like it, don't buy it. Don't sling shit publicly on their announcement day because your pet features weren't included (1). 1) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4357133 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4357133
- redthrowaway 14y ago
  Sorry, but they're being judged by their own marketing, not by objective qualities. This really isn't "the biggest thing to happen to iPhone since iPhone", it's more of an iPhone 4SS. That doesn't mean that it's not a fine phone, but their marketing invites judgement on a scale their product can't live up to.
  - sirn 14y ago
    I thought the "the biggest thing to happen to iPhone" tagline is a pretty cute pun referring to the increased physical height until I read this thread. Seems like I'm the only one thinking that. Oh well, tagline done terribly, I guess.
    - redthrowaway 14y ago
      That's actually a good insight, but I doubt it's what they were going for with that tagline as it's just not obvious.
    - vacri 14y ago
      I thought so too, then I saw that the marketing department decided to then prattle on about reductions in height and weight. They also show the phone side-on and there's no physical comparison to the earlier model showing the larger screen. The message wasn't very clear, and seemed to contradict itself. In fact, it seems to be a play on words that the 'biggest change is the fact that it's so thin' and not the 'biggest change is the biggest screen'.
eevilspock 14y ago
The biggest disappointment to me is the tiresome and childish war between Fanboys and Fandroids, not just on Engadget and the like, but also here on HN.
pacomerh 14y ago
Oh geez, you need to see that Louis C.K video about how everything is amazing and nobody is happy.
- chrisbolt 14y ago
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk
jsz0 14y ago
Just about every single component was changed or upgraded. So that's pretty big. In previous generations of iPhones they only focused on one or two parts. 3G/cellular improvement, 4/screen & design, 4S/speed & camera, 5/LTE cellular improvement, screen, design, cameras, dock connector. Definitely the biggest iPhone upgrade they've ever done. I don't know if wireless charging has improved since the Palm Pre days or not but it wasn't really setting the world on fire back then. NFC is pretty neat but my guess is Apple is looking at their own system they can control and profit from. If NFC becomes a big deal before they do their own system it may turn out to be a bad gamble.
- mahyarm 14y ago
  Remember, they can add NFC and wireless charging to the 5S.
turingbook 14y ago
Phil Schiller said that it’s not clear that NFC is the solution to any current problem, Passbook does the kinds of things customers need today. “As for wireless charging, Schiller notes that the wireless charging systems still have to be plugged into the wall, so it’s not clear how much convenience they add." http://dthin.gs/SFngTb http://dthin.gs/SFngTb
- gizzlon 14y ago
  It's still unrealized, but imagine being able to put all your devices on the table and they would charge.. Sounds cool to me
saturdaysaint 14y ago
Yeaah, the Palm Pre's wireless charging sure set the world on fire... This collective "meh" has been said over and over again in techie forums about every iteration of the iPhone (including the first one), as Apple's marched from a bit player to the most profitable company in the world on the iPhone's success. Actually, this was pretty much the response to every iPod, too.
gonzo 14y ago
http://allthingsd.com/20120912/interview-phil-schiller-on-why-the-iphone-5-has-a-new-connector-but-not-nfc-or-wireless-charging/ http://allthingsd.com/20120912/interview-phil-schiller-on-wh...

How is the 'biggest thing to happen to iPhone since iPhone' simply a taller screen and newer processor? What about NFC? Wireless charging? Sorry Apple, but this just isn't that impressive.

calciphus 14y ago

They meant it's physically biggest. The only excitement they could generate was "it's slightly taller!"

TazeTSchnitzel 14y ago

Perhaps it's the beginning of the end, eh? Jobs's legacy may not last long.

msbarnett 14y ago
Because if there's one thing Steve Jobs was known for, it was cramming in as many tick-list features as possible. /s
batista 14y ago
Were you even along for the ride man? Jobs/Apple was never about bundling tons of irrelevant features together (wireless charging? Please...), and winning by ticking feature checkboxes. Jobs used to introduce a new iPod model every year or so. And he also got to introduce 4 iPhone models. Lots of times the changes were incremental (3G -> 3GS for example). Heck, back in the day, a new color or some more storage was considered a huge improvement over the previous iPod model. People literally went bezerk in the possibility that the next iPod could also play video (imagine that!). And now you have a mature phone, in it's 6th version, fast as hell, with a GPU that you would have killed for to have in your laptop half a decade ago, camera, gyro, retina, bigger screen, thin, new extremely featured iOS, some 500.000+ apps etc. What exactly do you want with that? Magic sprinkle dust? I would be satisfied even if Apple had only sticked to making computers/OS. They have far surpassed that. Nobody even asked them to make mp3 players, phones, or tablets in the first place. Since we will be using all of the above for the next 20 years, I think they will be fine, even if they dont pull another market/device out of their hats...
- pooriaazimi 14y ago
  You made a big mistake: It's now some 700,000+ apps! :)
  - adhipg 14y ago
    , = . (and vice-versa) in some European countries. So he meant 500k + apps.
- barrkel 14y ago
  I wanted something that would be qualitatively better than current Android phones. It didn't deliver. At all. It's trivial for the phone to be better than 5+ year old tech. But that's a completely irrelevant comparison.
  - veemjeem 14y ago
    The same could be said about the first gen ipod, when compared against the current lineup of mp3 players at the time. The ipod didn't even have wifi or a color display!
    - Steko 14y ago
      And less space than a nomad. Lame.
  - batista 14y ago
    >I wanted something that would be qualitatively better than current Android phones. It didn't deliver. At all. IMHO, it's better than any Android phone out there, bar none. From the construction, to the display, to the weight and size, to the cpu/gpu combo, and more importantly to the huge app ecosystem that makes use of standard gizmos inside it, and ties it all together. Plus the media ecosystem. Plus the third-party peripheral ecosystem. >It's trivial for the phone to be better than 5+ year old tech. But that's a completely irrelevant comparison. Yes, completely irrelevant, since it's also better than any 1 month old tech, or the previous iPhone itself. What's the competition? Some Android phone that will be left without an update to the next Android version and which has the subpar Android app ecosystem and subpar construction/design? Or the Lumia that doesn't even have an OS out of beta yet and is "due to arrive later this year"?
eddieplan9 14y ago
You forgot that Steve told us focus is about saying no. http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/06/jobs-focus-is-about-saying-no/ http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/06/jobs-focus-is-about-saying-...

RobAtticus 14y ago

Probably a play on the fact that it is physically bigger (taller).

freyr 14y ago
Yes, it's fairly obvious (after you pointed it out).
- omgsean 14y ago
  Do you work for Samsung's legal team? ;)

johndavi 14y ago

I imagine the use of 'biggest' is meant to highlight the size increase explicitly, versus your typical hyperbolic marketing.

jlgreco 14y ago
The problem is that it draws attention to the fact that other than literally a size change, there is not terribly much that makes this an unusually "big" update.
- johndavi 14y ago
  I guess. They can't all be the 'biggest' though. And the subtlety is in fact the play on typical marketing-speak, which, as evidenced by the parent comment here -- and many others -- is typically ingested wholesale by the consuming public. I imagine AAPL are not worried about turning off the hyper-literal critics amongst the crowd. Good lord, what am I doing debating/discussing a marketing headline... Anyway.
  - jlgreco 14y ago
    Oh, don't get me wrong. I don't mean to fault them for not changing much; sometimes there simply isn't a lot that should be changed. I just think it wasn't a particularly bright wording.

batista 14y ago

Plus, "simply a taller screen and newer processor", really? New screen, new processor, new innards, new machining and construction, new connector, new iOS, new camera, improved battery life AND lighter. NFC and wireless charging? Who promised you that? And who delivers those at the moment? You might want to see this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk

quaunaut 14y ago
Name for me one brand new feature. This is a product update, this isn't deserving of a new version number, and it certainly isn't "the biggest thing to happen to the iphone since iphone". This isn't to say it's a bad device, just infinite hype for zero payoff.
- evan_ 14y ago
  > Name for me one brand new feature. LTE
  - morsch 14y ago
    That's just an implementation detail of an improvement of an existing feature.
    - pooriaazimi 14y ago
      Then wireless charging and NFC could be counted as mere improvements (of existing features, i.e. cable charging and scanning barcodes) too!
      - camiller 14y ago
        Well, to be fair, NFC is capable of two way communication where scanning a barcode is one way communication. You are comparing galaxies to apples ;) As an android (GS3) user I would have liked the iPhone to get NFC (and NFC based mobile payments) for the simple reason that the more phones capable of NFC payments the more merchants are likely to support it which benefits all of us (or at least all of us interested in paying for things with our phones). The same argument would hold true for wireless charging, but it would probably be unlikely for Apple to adopt the emerging "Qi" wireless charging standard and instead roll it's own.

stevenrace 14y ago

Has Apple declared it doesn't have NFC? Couldn't this be a 'software enabled upgrade' in due time? A number of chipsets do 802.11ac + NFC/RFID + (wifi,etc) in the same package. I suppose we won't know until teardowns begin appearing...

jrockway 14y ago
Which chipset does 802.11 and NFC? And even if there is a chipset that does both, NFC requires a flat antenna about the size of a contactless card somewhere near the surface of the phone.
- mkhattab 14y ago
  There's a new chipset that does 802.11, NFC and Bluetooth. According to the date of the press release below, this chip was released sometime in June 2012, so obviously not enough time for Apple to integrate in the new iPhone. http://www.marvell.com/company/news/pressDetail.do?releaseID=2421 http://www.marvell.com/company/news/pressDetail.do?releaseID...
  - stevenrace 14y ago
    Correct, but NXP, TI (w/ WiLink[1]), Broadcom, Qualcom, Intel,... are shipping similar products. As someone working in the 'Internet of Things' space, I wasn't so much disappointed with the lack of NFC - as Zigbee/802.15.4. Again, thanks to integrated radios, NFC and Zigbee can be done on the same chip. The (mass adopted) future will have to wait for another product/hype cycle. [1] Feb. 2012 - http://www.ti.com/general/docs/wtbu/wtbuproductcontent.tsp?templateId=6123&navigationId=12870&contentId=146147 http://www.ti.com/general/docs/wtbu/wtbuproductcontent.tsp?t...
    - jrockway 14y ago
      I too would like more Zigbee support. As it stands the modules are overpriced but quite useful.
14y ago

gavinlynch 14y ago

...and you expected them to instead say what, exactly? "This is the smallest, most incremental update to the iPhone since iOS 5.1 begat iOS 5.1.1?" It's marketing, sheesh.

RivieraKid 14y ago
I would expect them to extravagate only slightly. But "the biggest thing to happen to the iphone since iphone" is pure BS.
- branchan 14y ago
  But isn't it totally accurate that the iphone 5 IS the best iphone yet for Apple?
- sbuk 14y ago
  No. It's pure marketing.
  - jlgreco 14y ago
    The two are mutually exclusive?
    - sbuk 14y ago
      It's harsh to suggest that marketing is just BS. It is what it is.
B-Con 14y ago
Every release for Apple is the biggest thing they've done so far. Apple does not do uninteresting releases. At least, they don't tell you that.
ajross 14y ago
Of course it's marketing, and Apple certainly isn't alone in selling stuff with hyperbole. What I think the grandparent was getting to isn't pointing out the silliness of the ad copy, but that the actual device being advertised is an underwhelming incremental improvement. This is less of an improvement on the 4S than the 4S was over the 4, and the 4S was uniformly dinged for being a disappointing (most of the best new stuff was software) iteration. Really, this isn't even to ding Apple: smartphones are becoming commdities. The years of rapid evolution are behind us. The Android market is seeing similar pressure, as the most recent phones all more or less look and work identically.

Yhippa 14y ago

Yes! I was hoping for wireless induction charging.

Androsynth 14y ago

Law of diminishing returns?

andrewljohnson 14y ago

I think you didn't get the joke. Great that you don't think the iPhone is up to snuff, but the marketing slogan is a play on the size of the device. That part is quite clever and will perfectly communicate to people what's new about the iPhone.

jonursenbach 14y ago
I don't think anyone seeing this marketing slogan is going to think that this is the reason.
- jaxn 14y ago
  It was my first thought.

brown9-2 14y ago

Since the iPhone 5 has neither of those features, it's both possible for this iPhone update to be the "biggest thing to happen to iPhone" and for future updates to also be the "biggest thing to happen to iPhone". It's a comparison to the state of previous iPhones, not a comparison to the state of all phones on the market. </pedantic>

thesash 14y ago

Apple made major updates to the core features that people use every day: brand new maps app, redesigned itunes, updated camera. Apple understands that hardware is less important than software in the day to day experience of using the phone, they continue to focus on improving the experience of using the device, not the spec sheet. Thats why major hardware changes tend to be battery, screen, and camera: those are the features that most affect the day-to-day experience of the user. Consumers outside HN aren't going to base a purchase decision on specs, so shiny toys like NFC or wireless charging end up compromising battery life or size, it's probably a pretty easy call for the company to make given the focus on the core experience.

sshconnection 14y ago
Their maps app is a regression stemming from political strife with google. It's much less useful now.
- thesash 14y ago
  I haven't used the new version, so can't comment on quality. My point was just that the "biggest thing" part of the announcement was probably based on the software updates. In terms of impact to user, the addition of turn-by-turn directions is a pretty big deal.

DavidZhangToGo 14y ago

It's the combination of software and hardware that makes the iPhone, don't just look at the spec.

cryptozeus 14y ago

really !! NFC..who care about that. No body uses it even with existing phones. future of payment is going to be without plastic cards , NFC etc. Check square's new feature of paying it wifi

camiller 14y ago
I use it for everything from my morning beverage to putting gas in the car. If it isn't important to you then that's cool but don't assume your opinion extends to all of us.
- r00fus 14y ago
  Care to embellish? What are you using, and where are you located geographically?
zmmmmm 14y ago
The only reason nobody uses NFC is because the iPhone doesn't have it. Seriously the entire payments industry is ready to deploy something but they are all holding back waiting to see what Apple will do in case they zig and Apple zags. I guarantee that if Apple had announced NFC today the entire payments industry would be different in 12 months time. As it is, the internecine warfare in the payments industry will just continue.
- kahawe 14y ago
  Can you help me understand why NFC matters? It is not like using my credit-cards or ATM-cards or just plain-old-cash didn't work just fine and comfortable and reliable enough...? I honestly don't understand it, especially from the "payment industry"'s point of view - why would they care? It is just costs to them and they wouldn't be able to replace existing payment terminals either because people will still use cards or just cash.
  - zmmmmm 14y ago
    > It is not like using my credit-cards or ATM-cards or just plain-old-cash didn't work just fine and comfortable and reliable enough...? From an industry point of view, I think it makes small transactions extremely secure - with the secure element in the NFC chip, tapping it to the payment terminal provides complete physical proof of the presence of the card. That's way better than even having a sales person sight the card or magnetic stripe etc. which be easily forged. Once the transactions themselves are very secure there's no longer a need for things like signatures or PINs or other layers of security. That means you as a consumer can just walk into a store, take some things, tap your card / phone and leave. It's a bit hard to describe, but once you've done this you realize (at least I did) how much anxiety the barrier of payment at the end was detracting from your shopping experience. It's not rational, but my personal experience is that there's a strong level of anxiety about being challenged as to your identity and this removes it and makes the whole experience really easy and pleasant.

siglesias 14y ago

Sorry Apple, but this just isn't that impressive. You know what? Just like any startup that posts here, Apple is filled with real people who take real pride in what they do, and I can imagine that for any of the thousands of folks who worked really hard on designing this product and manufactured to absurdly low variances, the sentiment you just expressed was deeply hurtful, and, in fact, wrong. There's a lot to be impressed by here. Lots of tiny details that aren't captured on a feature checklist. If you don't like it, don't buy it. Don't sling shit publicly on their announcement day because your pet features weren't included (1). 1) http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4357133 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4357133

redthrowaway 14y ago
Sorry, but they're being judged by their own marketing, not by objective qualities. This really isn't "the biggest thing to happen to iPhone since iPhone", it's more of an iPhone 4SS. That doesn't mean that it's not a fine phone, but their marketing invites judgement on a scale their product can't live up to.
- sirn 14y ago
  I thought the "the biggest thing to happen to iPhone" tagline is a pretty cute pun referring to the increased physical height until I read this thread. Seems like I'm the only one thinking that. Oh well, tagline done terribly, I guess.
  - redthrowaway 14y ago
    That's actually a good insight, but I doubt it's what they were going for with that tagline as it's just not obvious.
  - vacri 14y ago
    I thought so too, then I saw that the marketing department decided to then prattle on about reductions in height and weight. They also show the phone side-on and there's no physical comparison to the earlier model showing the larger screen. The message wasn't very clear, and seemed to contradict itself. In fact, it seems to be a play on words that the 'biggest change is the fact that it's so thin' and not the 'biggest change is the biggest screen'.

eevilspock 14y ago

The biggest disappointment to me is the tiresome and childish war between Fanboys and Fandroids, not just on Engadget and the like, but also here on HN.

pacomerh 14y ago

Oh geez, you need to see that Louis C.K video about how everything is amazing and nobody is happy.

chrisbolt 14y ago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk

jsz0 14y ago

Just about every single component was changed or upgraded. So that's pretty big. In previous generations of iPhones they only focused on one or two parts. 3G/cellular improvement, 4/screen & design, 4S/speed & camera, 5/LTE cellular improvement, screen, design, cameras, dock connector. Definitely the biggest iPhone upgrade they've ever done. I don't know if wireless charging has improved since the Palm Pre days or not but it wasn't really setting the world on fire back then. NFC is pretty neat but my guess is Apple is looking at their own system they can control and profit from. If NFC becomes a big deal before they do their own system it may turn out to be a bad gamble.

mahyarm 14y ago
Remember, they can add NFC and wireless charging to the 5S.

turingbook 14y ago

Phil Schiller said that it’s not clear that NFC is the solution to any current problem, Passbook does the kinds of things customers need today. “As for wireless charging, Schiller notes that the wireless charging systems still have to be plugged into the wall, so it’s not clear how much convenience they add." http://dthin.gs/SFngTb http://dthin.gs/SFngTb

gizzlon 14y ago
It's still unrealized, but imagine being able to put all your devices on the table and they would charge.. Sounds cool to me

saturdaysaint 14y ago

Yeaah, the Palm Pre's wireless charging sure set the world on fire... This collective "meh" has been said over and over again in techie forums about every iteration of the iPhone (including the first one), as Apple's marched from a bit player to the most profitable company in the world on the iPhone's success. Actually, this was pretty much the response to every iPod, too.

gonzo 14y ago

http://allthingsd.com/20120912/interview-phil-schiller-on-why-the-iphone-5-has-a-new-connector-but-not-nfc-or-wireless-charging/ http://allthingsd.com/20120912/interview-phil-schiller-on-wh...