Also: don't miss that there are multiple pages of comments in this thread. You can get to those by clicking More at the bottom of the page—or do it like this:
It seems...kinda dumb. Instead of plugging in a lightning cable, I can now stick a hockey puck to the back of my phone?
The “safe” in MagSafe came from its “yankability” without sending your device flying. But if my phone is laying on top of a hockey puck...it’s gonna go flying if I trip on the cable.
Why couldn’t we fill in the lightning port and use flush surface contacts, like the MagSafe of yesteryear?
I’m also not sure why my case needs to magnetize to my device, getting rid of the lip around the screen that made it less cringe to lay my phone face down.
Am I missing something? I really don’t understand this feature.
EDIT: did I see an AirPower reboot in there or am I dreaming?
MagSafe can be seen as the replacement for AirPower! It's solving the same problem in a much simpler way.
AirPower's big promise was that it was a multi-device charging mat that didn't require perfect alignment to get high power charging. Apple ultimately cancelled it, likely because this proved too difficult to do safely. (rumored to be thermal issues with the multi-coil design)
MagSafe solves the alignment problem in a simpler way. Instead of carefully aligning your phone, the magnets just "suck" your phone to the optimal charging position.
It's likely solve the gap of "I can't use my phone while it's wirelessly charging". With the magsafe thing you can just clunk the charger to the back of your phone and keep using it. While battery life is still crap on these (side note - I didn't hear a single thing in the presentation about battery life... yikes) people are going to be charging their phones while they use them.
I hate to be a pessimist but with them not including a charger or headphones, they're slowly moving toward no data port whatsoever
I would have much preferred a USB-C plug for all my devices.
It’s nice that it’s wireless on the new iPhone and all, but it’s still an extra cable (or puck) to carry around.
Much like the headphone cable, I think that things like charging could be done in such a simple way, that the alternatives that are presented just don’t make the users lives easier and generate unnecessary waste.
My phone always slides off the center of my wireless charger in my car and it stops charging without me noticing -- I would love to have this feature there.
Another note: the iPhone 12s still support Qi wireless charging, up to 7.5W. MagSafe allows faster 15W charging (sigh). Apple said during the event that it wants a MagSafe ecosystem, so expect chargers, mounts and so on from third parties.- nilay Patel on Twitter
I think the concept of the wallet that can quickly snap on and off of the phone is pretty neat. I currently use a case that has a wallet functionality (for my driver's license and credit cards) and that doesn't allow me to use wireless charging without completely taking the case off.
Besides the convenience, it must be a way for Apple to eventually drop the charging port completely, maybe even with the next version. No police data tampering, but also no jailbreaks, a physically walled device.
Magnetic force falls off pretty quickly - a phone case can cause enough of a difference to make that force lackluster. Apparently, it seems, enough to put magnets in the case itself to better maintain that force.
Additionally, it looks like the goal is to let your phone be held vertically, while attached only to the magnet. This makes sense for car mounts, where you may want to mount your GPS via magnet and charge it simultaneously.
There appear to be a lot of people who use those ring-shaped grip holders (or a Popsocket, which has a similar functionality) that stick to the back of a mobile phone.
It appears you can have either MagSafe or the phone holder, but not both. Does Apple have a solution for this?
Upon further reflection, the magnets might have been a necessary tweak to the AirPower concept. They couldn’t get it working with a large matrix of coils, on which you could lay the phone/watch anywhere. Instead, the combo charging mat shown in today’s presentation will use magnets to force proper placement on the mat.
Being able to dock a device for charging with one hand (very difficult with a cable) is very nice. Wireless is superior to surface contacts because you can mount orient your phone in different directions without needing to account for the cable.
> Why couldn’t we fill in the lightning port and use flush surface contacts, like the MagSafe of yesteryear?
I don't remember MagSafe on macbooks ever being truly flush. It was less deep of a port than USB, sure, but it was still a port.
As for why not, there could be many reasons, but I have a feeling it might have something to do with their waterproof/dustproof rating. That's just a pure speculation on my end though.
Or, more likely, it is simply because swapping the lightning port with a magsafe one would make the phone pretty much impossible to use while charging. But with a lightning port + magsafe wireless charging, you get to have both use cases covered (using while charging with lightning, drop off for an overnight charge on your magsafe charging surface).
Eventually you will see the lighting port disappear with no way to back up the device locally. 5k cameras in cellphones with no removable storage and no way to locally backup.
Huge miss to not have touch id in a era of a raging pandemic. I literally have not used the face-id once outside my house since March, because I always use a mask, so I have to type in my password. Which I had to revert to an unsafe 6 digit one from my 12char alphanumeric that I had until March.
Face ID is a major downgrade from Touch ID regardless of the pandemic.
Touch ID (combined with a home button) is a lot faster. You can reach into your pocket or handbag, put the finger on the button and press it while you're taking it out. By the time your phone is out it's unlocked and on the home screen. I don't recall seeing people failing to unlock their phones while paying with Apple Pay before but now it's a reasonably common occurrence if they didn't "prime" it ahead of time.
You can also quickly unlock your phone if it's not directly aligned with your face without having to pick it up (let's say it's on a table or desk) or if you're letting another person handle it.
Face ID is also annoying in bed, when either your face is obstructed by pillows/blankets or if you're holding your phone too close to your face and need to hold it further away for a second, illuminating the whole room in the process.
Touch ID also makes the authentication action explicit. If you're handling someone else's phone, you can look at the lockscreen without attempting to authenticate by simply keeping away from the home button and using the power button to wake it up. With Face ID the simple fact of looking at the phone is an authentication attempt and you'd be consuming the limited amount of attempts the owner has before they have to fall back to a passcode.
Problem is that Apple just isn't nimble enough to do anything about it. Everything important about these phones was set in place before there was a pandemic.
What’s makes this even more frustrating is that they just came out with Touch ID in the power button foe the iPad Air, so they could have put both on the phone.
Of note: the iPhone 12 mini appears to be slightly smaller and lighter than the (current) iPhone SE (2), so is basically the phone those of us who prefer phone-sized phones have been asking for for years. The price differential of $300 seems reasonable (in Apple-adjusted numbers); if I hadn't bought an SE this past month (unfortunate toddler-related water incident!) then I'd be right in there.
The pants look artificial, the hands and feet are really dark, you can't see the detail on the trees. Is this just a really hard angle to shoot, against the summer sky?
My iPhone 6S+ is still running super smooth. Maybe because I'm not a huge photography buff or mobile gamer, but each year I wait to see something that will finally make me buy a new one, but each year I just don't see it.
I don't know exactly what I'm waiting for, but this wasn't really it.
(Also enjoying using one of the last TouchID iPhones during Covid 19)
That was actually much more substantial of an upgrade than I previously anticipated. The stronger glass, MagSafe being able to stick your phone magnetically to surfaces, and the Dolby Vision HDR recording are what really got me. Not so much 5G.
It's not widely known but iPhone 11 pro has a softer glass, more flexible, which better withstands falls. Problem is that it scratches easier than previous models. They improved this in the iPhone 12 models, maintaining the flexibility while making them harder to scratch.
What I'm really hoping is that MagSafe finally fulfills my dream of having a secure magnetically-attached wireless charging point in a car. Accessories to this effect theoretically exist already, but they all suck.
The magsafe is really cool but for anyone interested in the wallet accessory just be careful with putting NFC chipped cards there. Paying with Apple Pay from your phone could get confusing.
"The iPhone mini fits in the palm of you hand" lol.
It's interesting that a reasonably sized phone is now a selling point in itself.
In general i like keeping my devices for as long as possible - so when i jumped from the iPhone 6 to the iPhone 10, i was surprised to learn that the phone was hard to use with one hand now, extremely slippery and way, way heavier than my iphone 6.
The mini seems like a good size for me. The Pro 12 looks absolutely amazing though! I usually don't fanboy but goddamn their product design is stellar.
I feel we need to talk about the charger. It is not included in the box. The reasoning is that we have our chargers from previous iPhones. But those white boxes all take USB-A. The included cable is USB-C. Never mind, I will just use the USB-C charger from other devices. But wait... the cable that comes in the box is USB-C male and those adapters from other devices don't take USB-C (either fixed cable, or USB-A, or non-standard female port).
The most disappointing aspect to me is that the difference between the Pro and the Pro Max is no longer just the size. I'm quite fond of the size of my 11 Pro and I don't really want to be upsold to the Pro Max if I want the best.
I feel like I'm going insane. On every single model revealed today, there is a differently-colored patch on the right side of the phone, below the power button. What is it?
It's not the SIM card slot - that's on the left side. It's not a new TouchID sensor - the website doesn't even mention it at all. And yet it exists in every single render.
I understand the value of the different phone sizes but still can't understand why companies are selling 64 GB models.
I know we have everything in the cloud these days but with apps with rich assets and smartphones being more capable with cameras, you run out of 64 GB quite easily. 128 GB should be the baseline model in 2020 for any phone that costs above $600.
"Across the iPhone family, we’re removing the power adapter and EarPods that often go unused, but including the fast-charging USB‑C to Lightning cable that most people need."
Ouch. Do most people really not use the power adapter?
I don't know if this has been remarked upon, but I kind of appreciate the diversity in the presentation. It's not showy or contrived; Apple doesn't make a huge deal out of it, but it's nice to see a wide variety of genders and races.
iPhone 12 mini has not been authorized as required by the rules of the Federal Communications Commission. iPhone 12 mini is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased, until authorization is obtained.
Can we talk about the hypocrisy of the recycling segment given that Apple is a known adversary of the “right to repair” bill?
All of this “net-zero” talk yet they have a system in place that makes it prohibitively expensive to repair slightly damaged devices (ie, bad battery) out of warranty. So, consumers are left to live with the problem, pay for the cost of the repair which ends up costing about 1/2 to 3/4 of a new phone, or just buy a new phone.
Of course, people could go to a third party repair facility, but Apple doesn’t provide these businesses with the replacement parts and software to fix their phones. In one case, the display hardware identifier is tied to the “True Tone” feature and changing the display will result in this feature not working. In another case, the TouchID is hardcoded to the device and can only be reset by Apple techs, otherwise the Touch ID feature no longer works.
I like Apple products in general, but this is one of the few cases where Apple can do better.
[+] [-] dang|5 years ago|reply
https://www.apple.com/iphone-12/
https://www.apple.com/iphone-12-pro/
Also: don't miss that there are multiple pages of comments in this thread. You can get to those by clicking More at the bottom of the page—or do it like this:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24767378&p=2
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24767378&p=3
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24767378&p=4
[+] [-] cmckn|5 years ago|reply
It seems...kinda dumb. Instead of plugging in a lightning cable, I can now stick a hockey puck to the back of my phone?
The “safe” in MagSafe came from its “yankability” without sending your device flying. But if my phone is laying on top of a hockey puck...it’s gonna go flying if I trip on the cable.
Why couldn’t we fill in the lightning port and use flush surface contacts, like the MagSafe of yesteryear?
I’m also not sure why my case needs to magnetize to my device, getting rid of the lip around the screen that made it less cringe to lay my phone face down.
Am I missing something? I really don’t understand this feature.
EDIT: did I see an AirPower reboot in there or am I dreaming?
[+] [-] varenc|5 years ago|reply
AirPower's big promise was that it was a multi-device charging mat that didn't require perfect alignment to get high power charging. Apple ultimately cancelled it, likely because this proved too difficult to do safely. (rumored to be thermal issues with the multi-coil design)
MagSafe solves the alignment problem in a simpler way. Instead of carefully aligning your phone, the magnets just "suck" your phone to the optimal charging position.
[+] [-] curiouser2|5 years ago|reply
I hate to be a pessimist but with them not including a charger or headphones, they're slowly moving toward no data port whatsoever
[+] [-] harha|5 years ago|reply
It’s nice that it’s wireless on the new iPhone and all, but it’s still an extra cable (or puck) to carry around.
Much like the headphone cable, I think that things like charging could be done in such a simple way, that the alternatives that are presented just don’t make the users lives easier and generate unnecessary waste.
[+] [-] kube-system|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] totaldude87|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] blantonl|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] poisonborz|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] FoomFries|5 years ago|reply
Additionally, it looks like the goal is to let your phone be held vertically, while attached only to the magnet. This makes sense for car mounts, where you may want to mount your GPS via magnet and charge it simultaneously.
[+] [-] doc_gunthrop|5 years ago|reply
It appears you can have either MagSafe or the phone holder, but not both. Does Apple have a solution for this?
[+] [-] cmckn|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xnx|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] philihp|5 years ago|reply
Cases then need to have an exposed area for charging, and the surface contacts lower the weather resistance.
[+] [-] bredren|5 years ago|reply
It seems you would pick the phone up and if you didn’t grab and put down the charging disk, it would go clunk and hit the ground.
Sort of like the watch charger will do if it isn’t in a holder. Except louder and more expensive to replace.
This was actually shown in the “snap” video they showed where a phone was pulled away.
I couldn’t understand, are we expected to adhesive this to our bedside stand? Velcro adhesive? Use some other accessory that holds it down?
It just feels incomplete to me.
The cases and wallet thing seem great but I don’t get this charger.
[+] [-] filoleg|5 years ago|reply
I don't remember MagSafe on macbooks ever being truly flush. It was less deep of a port than USB, sure, but it was still a port.
As for why not, there could be many reasons, but I have a feeling it might have something to do with their waterproof/dustproof rating. That's just a pure speculation on my end though.
Or, more likely, it is simply because swapping the lightning port with a magsafe one would make the phone pretty much impossible to use while charging. But with a lightning port + magsafe wireless charging, you get to have both use cases covered (using while charging with lightning, drop off for an overnight charge on your magsafe charging surface).
[+] [-] jankyxenon|5 years ago|reply
Primary goal here is to get a secure, consistently lined up charging mechanism.
Apple has used magnets in chargers before, and lo- a brand was reborn.
[+] [-] fudged71|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] znpy|5 years ago|reply
It also costs an extra! It's MAGIC! Aren't you excited?
[+] [-] scoutt|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] millzlane|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] whatever1|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Nextgrid|5 years ago|reply
Touch ID (combined with a home button) is a lot faster. You can reach into your pocket or handbag, put the finger on the button and press it while you're taking it out. By the time your phone is out it's unlocked and on the home screen. I don't recall seeing people failing to unlock their phones while paying with Apple Pay before but now it's a reasonably common occurrence if they didn't "prime" it ahead of time.
You can also quickly unlock your phone if it's not directly aligned with your face without having to pick it up (let's say it's on a table or desk) or if you're letting another person handle it.
Face ID is also annoying in bed, when either your face is obstructed by pillows/blankets or if you're holding your phone too close to your face and need to hold it further away for a second, illuminating the whole room in the process.
Touch ID also makes the authentication action explicit. If you're handling someone else's phone, you can look at the lockscreen without attempting to authenticate by simply keeping away from the home button and using the power button to wake it up. With Face ID the simple fact of looking at the phone is an authentication attempt and you'd be consuming the limited amount of attempts the owner has before they have to fall back to a passcode.
[+] [-] samatman|5 years ago|reply
Problem is that Apple just isn't nimble enough to do anything about it. Everything important about these phones was set in place before there was a pandemic.
[+] [-] onedognight|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Amorymeltzer|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jefftk|5 years ago|reply
The pants look artificial, the hands and feet are really dark, you can't see the detail on the trees. Is this just a really hard angle to shoot, against the summer sky?
[+] [-] ab-dm|5 years ago|reply
I don't know exactly what I'm waiting for, but this wasn't really it.
(Also enjoying using one of the last TouchID iPhones during Covid 19)
[+] [-] gjsman-1000|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lifty|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] crooked-v|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] john_minsk|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tpmx|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bnj|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ianmobbs|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cbsks|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dartdartdart|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ehsankia|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kossTKR|5 years ago|reply
It's interesting that a reasonably sized phone is now a selling point in itself.
In general i like keeping my devices for as long as possible - so when i jumped from the iPhone 6 to the iPhone 10, i was surprised to learn that the phone was hard to use with one hand now, extremely slippery and way, way heavier than my iphone 6.
The mini seems like a good size for me. The Pro 12 looks absolutely amazing though! I usually don't fanboy but goddamn their product design is stellar.
[+] [-] riantogo|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Hamuko|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AgentEpsilon|5 years ago|reply
It's not the SIM card slot - that's on the left side. It's not a new TouchID sensor - the website doesn't even mention it at all. And yet it exists in every single render.
[+] [-] ciarannolan|5 years ago|reply
I find them really hard to watch. It's about 95% fluff and bullshit and 5% about the technology. I usually just read the bullet summary afterwards.
[+] [-] burlesona|5 years ago|reply
I just wish they’d give iPad the same treatment and make a Pro in a Mini size :)
[+] [-] actuator|5 years ago|reply
I know we have everything in the cloud these days but with apps with rich assets and smartphones being more capable with cameras, you run out of 64 GB quite easily. 128 GB should be the baseline model in 2020 for any phone that costs above $600.
[+] [-] Zaheer|5 years ago|reply
Ouch. Do most people really not use the power adapter?
[+] [-] hardwaregeek|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cranium|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] christoph|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] xyst|5 years ago|reply
All of this “net-zero” talk yet they have a system in place that makes it prohibitively expensive to repair slightly damaged devices (ie, bad battery) out of warranty. So, consumers are left to live with the problem, pay for the cost of the repair which ends up costing about 1/2 to 3/4 of a new phone, or just buy a new phone.
Of course, people could go to a third party repair facility, but Apple doesn’t provide these businesses with the replacement parts and software to fix their phones. In one case, the display hardware identifier is tied to the “True Tone” feature and changing the display will result in this feature not working. In another case, the TouchID is hardcoded to the device and can only be reset by Apple techs, otherwise the Touch ID feature no longer works.
I like Apple products in general, but this is one of the few cases where Apple can do better.