Can the iPhone SE (2) Make You Reconsider $1000 Phones? →

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Is all of that worth the cost? Sure, for a lot of people. Is any of it necessary? Other than low-light photography, there’s virtually nothing that I do on those $1,000 phones that I can’t do equally well on the iPhone SE. It is fast, capable, reliable, and familiar. I’d miss those advanced features and more expansive displays, but not as much as you might think.

If I were buying the iPhone SE, I’d seriously consider spending the extra $50 to upgrade the storage to 128GB, just in case I’d want it three or five years down the road. That timespan is the reason the iPhone SE is a big deal. No other phone that costs less than $500 can claim to be this good, nor last that long.

The iPhone SE is not just a good deal. It’s also a really good smartphone.

I'm really liking the videos that The Verges' Dieter Bohn has been putting out and the fact that I concur 100% with this write-up gives me even more confidence that I'll be "fine" for the next 6-8 months. Heck, it'll most likely make me even reconsider purchasing the iPhone 12 for $1149, maybe.1 I mean seriously, I spoke about this upgrade cycle at length a while back (6 years ago) but I'll break it down again.

The iPhone X 256GB Silver cost me $1149 + tax = $1250 - $320 for trade-in = $930 divided by 30 months = 913 days of constant and daily use is about $1 a day for a TOOL that we are accessing day in and day out. Whether that's a good thing or bad, at least we get to track it now and step back. But hell, I just even bought a new 16" MacBook Pro and am producing again! Priceless.

  • The fact that a $1000 straight out of pocket for a device is definitely absurd hence the reasoning why I was trying to make my iPhone X 256GB Silver last for 36 months!↩

    • Moving Forward without the Headphone Jack →

    Not being able to charge and listen means quiet drives to work or taking the kids to school. If you need your phone to last all day on a single charge, you will try and keep the battery close to 100 percent until you get to work. (This means not using the Lightning headphones to make calls in states that require hands-free calls while driving either.) The removal of the headphone jack will cause issues for a number of low-income consumers who will purchase the iPhone 7 or another phone without a headphone jack over the next few years. And those issues will persist until Apple delivers a legitimate charging solution that doesn’t cost more than a monthly payment for an iPhone.

    Talk to your kids on the way to school. Listen to the radio... seriously? Is this a serious argument? Low Income families should not be purchasing the new iPhone 7 until it becomes an affordable option. You don't see people in India or China complaining about not having the best. This is an American problem and Apple develops for the world.

    Sure, some consumers will hold onto their existing iPhones, or upgrade to the iPhone 6 or 6S, but in two years those phones won’t be on sale. And if you want to stay in the iOS ecosystem with an up-to-date phone, there will be no device with a headphone jack, forcing you to spend money to retain features that have become staples in your day-to-day life.

    You can always buy a phone that is older than 2 years old from other retail means. Such a crappy article just yelling for attention. No one is forcing you buy a phone. The headphone jack is dead, just like the 5.25 floppy, 3.5" floppy, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM... everything else before it. As much as I hate the dongle, we can only move forward. Onward.

    Simple reminder. Remember that 2.5" jack that some phones were using for headphones back before the smartphone? That was irritating. The iPhone made the 3.5" headphone jack the standard on phones.

    Websites Sharing All Your Data

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    I've always wondered why over the years or so that one of my favorite websites started to get bogged down by excessive loading times. Now I know exactly why and no it's not your old iPhone / Android phone model.

    Holy crap. It took over 30 seconds. In the end, it fetched over 9.5MB across 263 HTTP requests. That's almost an order of magnitude more data & time than needed for the article itself.

    Just to put this in some rough perspective: Assuming I had a 1GB / month data plan, I could visit sites like The Verge about 3 times per day before I hit my cap. If I'm lucky, some or most of this will get cached between requests so it won't be quite that bad. In fact, another report tells me that a primed cache yields 8MB transferred - so maybe 4 visits per day.

    Read his entire analysis and tell me what you think. It's mind boggling really.

    My Favorite LiveBlogs for Apple Events

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    Over the last few years, many geeks, myself included, become glued to their computers & smartphones following a live blog of the Apple Event. It comes around twice a year, sometimes three and today is the day! The iPhone 5 is set to be announced in just under 15 minutes and here are the two blogs that I love!

    Ryan Block for gdgt.com does an amazing job of coverage. He has become synonymous with live journaling and if this was the only feed you could pull, I'd recommend it.

    You can also count on Joshua Topolsky from The Verge to do a wonderful job.

    I follow these two streams for varying angles and pictures throughout the event. Text wise, they both have their moments of colorful commentary and are fun to follow. Hopefully I'll get to be at one of these events someday!

    The Best Laptop without a Budget

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    Here's a great video review of Apple's latest MacBook Pro with Retina display by Ross Miller at The Verge.  It's short and sweet and gets right to the point.  You can drool over the beautifully written review too! It's been over three and half years since I bought a laptop, the first unibody 5,1 MacBook Pro, and I definitely think it's time to upgrade.  If you ask me, I'm all for choosing the higher tiered model at $2,799 then upgrading to the faster  2.7GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7 because of the higher cache on chip = 8MB L3, and then going with 16GB RAM.  Yes, it's an extra $450, but worth it since you can't upgrade later on.  Spec it out now and be happy for the next couple of years.  And no, I don't think that upgrading the hard drive to the 768 SSD is particularly worth another extra $500 as you can get a Thunderbolt drive for that kind of price.  Spec it out!

    "It is the most expensive MacBook Pro out there, one of the most expensive laptops out there, but… if budget is not an issue, this is the best laptop you can buy right now." - Ross Miller, The Verge

    Here's picture of the Retina display up close. AMAZING!

    I wish I was worthy to receive a review unit!

    iPad 2012 Summary of Reviews

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    As of 2100 EDT on the 14th of March, the media embargo from Apple was lifted and the reviews are in. Everyone LOVES the Retina Display and LTE.  I might as well reiterate it again; EVERYONE LOVES THE RETINA DISPLAY!!!

    Truth also be told, I'm glad I went with the 32GB Verizon model and can't wait to pick mine up on Friday.  Some have already asked and yes, I might end up asking if I can up it to the 64GB version being that applications are coming in weighing at at least 1.5 times the size and some even up to 5 times larger!  Here are a couple of snippets from the sources that I believe run true to the way that I analyze new hardware, tech and software.

    "...it just looks otherworldly; like a glowing piece of paper." - Joshua Topolsky; The Verge

    " The new iPad is the most functional, usable, and beautiful tablet that any company has ever produced." - Joshua Topolsky; The Verge

    "It has the most spectacular display I have ever seen in a mobile device. ... Using the new display is like getting a new eyeglasses prescription — you suddenly realize what you thought looked sharp before wasn’t nearly as sharp as it could be." - Walt Mossberg; WSJ: All Things D

    "Since it launched in 2010, the iPad has been the best tablet on the planet. With the new, third-generation model, it still holds that crown." - Walt Mossberg; WSJ: All Things D

    "Reading on the big retina display is pure joy." - Jon Gruber; Daring Fireball

    Techcrunch has a great review with pictures detailing the difference in Tweetbots's iOS Twitter client; Retina vs. non-Retina.

    Check it out:

    Props out to Tapbots for hurrying up the development of Tweetbot for iPad and getting it rushed out into the Apple App Store Ecosystem! SWAG! (you'll be getting my donation in first thing on Friday!)

    Here's another close up from The Verge on the difference in screens of non-Retina vs. Retina.

    Update 1: One of the newest and one of my personal favorite sites, The Wirecutter, also just posted their tablet recommendation. I've also included The Loop's review as well.

    "This is the tablet you want." - Brian X. Chen; The Wirecutter

    "The bottom line is that it's the best tablet and everyone who reviews one agrees. And even people who love Android phones kind of can't say much about how Android tablets stack up against the iPad. And unlike with computers or stereos or cameras, you don't really need my help, or anyone else's help, to understand that. So, I will end here." - Brian X. Chen; The Wirecutter

    "So, what did I like about the iPad? Simple — the experience. Nobody in the market today can touch the Apple experience." - Jim Dalrymple; The Loop