Hacker News Reader

Comment by novok | Hacker News Reader

Apple's mobile devices haven't been that interesting since the iPhone X / Watch Series 3. Nothing really has felt like a 'must have' upgrade. iPhone 12 & series 4 watch was definitely an improvement stylistically, but that's about it.

And apple only really cares about privacy from 3rd parties, not privacy from apple for their customers. They don't E2E encrypt their backups, and many other services, which makes their service operation not very attractive. Why use apple services if it's not going to be private, might as well use the better run or cheaper google or amazon ones at that point.

Most interesting thing so far is the M1.

View on HN

Upgrades are hard even when they subtle.

Iterating hardware is extremely complex.

The internal layout of the phones changes every year and all the supply chain needs to get instructions to get the exact adjustments.

New parts need to be procured. New software needs to be integrated and tested.

Every year there are major software updates that launch new stable OS versions.

Every year your ecosystem evolvez and you have to keep everyone in the loop.

I find mind-blowing how good they are at re-aligning all the pieces after major shifts like form-factors or adding propietary silicon.

It’s even more mind-blowing when you think that they are producing millions of these devices and distributing around the world at key times of the year.

I know for some people it’s hard to see innovation in their year updates. But they need nearly perfect operational coordination to achieve what they do at their scale.

The parent comment makes it sound like a bad thing, but I kind of enjoy the current way of not feeling the need to buy the latest and greatest every year.

Chugging along with my iPhone 8. Screen is cracked and battery is getting worse, but the phone itself I have n problems with. If I could get the battery and screen replaced for relatively cheap I would, but as it stands that would cost me way to much compared to a new phone.

If it phones and you can use the web a bit or an app, it’s all good in my book.

> Apple's mobile devices haven't been that interesting since the iPhone X / Watch Series 3. Nothing really has felt like a 'must have' upgrade. iPhone 12 & series 4 watch was definitely an improvement stylistically, but that's about it.

1994 DOOM

1996 Quake

1997 Quake 2

1999 Quake 3

2004 Doom 3

2007 Crysis < Phones are here

Supposedly they were planning to encrypt backups, but looked at the expected number of users that would lose their keys and not be able to access their backups and bottled out.

More likely: https://bgr.com/2020/01/21/iphone-icloud-backup-isnt-fully-e...

Also apple had your choice key escrow/backup for filevault backups, and it's the default option, which is how you deal with the above issue.

Also a few key things are E2E backed up (keychain, health), so that reason hasn't stopped them before.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com