I actually sometimes even watch the new product announcements. There were a lot over the past week or so, in case you didn't notice. Several smartphone and tablet manufacturers were in a rush to get their latest and greatest Android or Windows 8 product announced before Apple's big reveal. I am a little biased towards Samsung at the moment given my great experiences with their smartphones over the past two years, so I'll admit that I felt a little smug that Samsung announced their flagship phone (with flare) months before all of this hubbub, and that I've had my Galaxy S3 in hand long enough to already know all of its ins and outs before these other products can be had.
Anyway, there were only two of these product announcements that I actually watched in the past week - Apple and Amazon. These are two amazing companies. I admire them both for different reasons. Apple came back from the brink (with a little help from Microsoft, but most people don't know or want to hear about that) with a revolutionary device, and no, it wasn't the iPhone. The iPod overcame all the objections to digital music, and finally got us to actually pay and listen to mp3 files. The user design with the little scroll wheel that most people came to love - kudos! I have mixed feelings about the usability of iTunes, but no one can deny that they accomplished something amazing.
Some people think I don't like Apple just because I actually have some complaints with some of their products. Not true, I just roll my eyes at the people who think they are everything, will only consider their products, and think they invented the smartphone. But, I won't go into all that here.
Amazon. Well, they may not have invented the digital marketplace, but they certainly mainstreamed it. They didn't invent the e-reader either, but they did with ebooks what Apple did with mp3 music. They made it easy and seamless, and they did it when we'd already learned to depend on them to order so much online already. Today, I can read a Kindle book on my laptop, phone, iPad, or Kindle Touch and it will sync seamlessly to the last place I read. I can carry around a library full of books rather than asking my husband to help me find a place for yet another bookcase. I don't have to remember the page I left off on the several books I sometimes have going (I was never a fan of bookmarks, so yes, I'd literally memorize the page number each time).
Back to the product announcements. Here are my general first impressions of the Apple product announcement, in case it is helpful to anyone out there:
iPhone 5, etc.
- 4-inch screen: Finally, now I don't have to feel sorry for iPhone owners browsing the net on their tiny screens. I'll still keep my 4.8 inch screen, but it's a definite improvement.
- Display: Yes, they have Sammy beat on the ppi (pixels per inch) - beautiful, and the entire reason I purchase an iPad. The new Nokia Lumina will beat it, but I've been disappointed so far with Windows Phone's attempt at a resurrection of their OS. I wish them well and hope Windows Phone 8 is great.
- Design: Yes, it's very pretty. I would never argue that. Nor would I ever confuse a Samsung phone for it or it's predecessors, but that's an entirely different blog post. It now will briefly hold the title for the world's thinnest phone. Although that's a war I hope stops soon as well. I don't care what type of glass or back you put on a phone, if it gets too thin, it will be easier to break. Someday I imagine we'll have the technology for super-thin and super-durable phones, and I hope some folks smarter than I are working on it, but for now, it just doesn't work. I've already noticed a durability difference in my thinner Galaxy S3 (with Gorilla Glass 2) phone compared to my Galaxy S2 (with original, thicker Gorilla Glass).
- Connectivity: LTE, finally. Yes, you now have 4G data connection, which has been available on other phones for a long time, and honestly, confused a lot of people as to why they had iPhone 4's and 4S's that weren't 4G.
- Processor: Why is Apple so vague about the processor's actual specs? I still don't understand that. I suspect the specs are actually quite good given that it is supposed to be twice as fast as the already decent processor in the S4, so why not just tell us?
- Battery: They managed to keep similar battery life despite the speedier processor and thinner phone, BUT it doesn't match some of the Android phones out there (mine included), and, as always, you cannot easily replace the battery. My phone has longer battery life and I still carry around a spare for emergencies. To be fair, several high-end Android phones and others are starting to include a non-replaceable battery, but I don't like it for any consumer electronics product and never have.
- Storage: Options, options, options. Well, except the one that's always missing - to add an external microSD card.
- Connector: Lightning. Sounds great, something new to market. And we promise we'll make adaptors for all of your old Apple products! Really, this is my hugest disappointment. Instead of updating an adaptor to something more universal (microUSB) that works great, let's make another proprietary connector different from the old one. If I had lots of Apple products, I would be ticked. I already don't like what it implies for my iPad 3. I just keep imagining all those nice iPhone/iPod docks with a beautiful new iPhone/iPod sitting precariously above the new adaptor. Hmmm...
- EarPods: To me, just about the best thing that came out of the entire product announcement. My daughter is the only person I know well who just loves the old Apple earphones. These earpods look very well-designed and I have high hopes that the sound quality will be much better. And the price is not outrageous.
Stay tuned for a separate post about my thoughts on the Amazon product announcement!
I hope your weekend is filled with lots of time with family and friends, and time with your favorite tech product as well.
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