Apple speculation thread

[merf]

iphone sound quality isn't great, I use £300 shure custom mould ec4s earplugs and it isn't a patch on my old Iriver player.

love my iphone to bits but would never site music play back quality as top drawer.

that said been a long time since music fidelity was something that sold devices or even cd's.

[abigsmurf]

Most mp3 players sound about the same through anything but expensive headphones.

I've stopped spending a fortune on headphones for three reasons:

-You lose all the bass if you don't get a perfect seal (which on ones without rubber bits, is pretty hard to do)

-I always lose the rubber bits

-The wires always wear out

[charlesr]

http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=345;16;-1;-1;234&sku=764564

£6 (!!! gone up £1 since I bought them). Excellent* sound and far quieter than noise cancelling ones because hey, it's an earplug. 3 different sized rubber plugs but quite difficult to get them off once they are on - wouldn't happen by accident in your bag.

*for £6

Mine haven't fallen apart yet and get a thorough workout on the treadmill at the gym (3 months)

[smouty]

Not targetting anyone in particular but saying that iPods have poor sound quality is plain wrong.

It is a widely accepted fact that the sound quality is not great. Take a look on the Headfi forums as an example. I've used headphones similar to the ones Charles linked to - Creative EP-630 or Sennheiser CX300 - which whilst not great are accepted as decent budget headphones and they [opinion] sound better on most of the other MP3 players I have compared to the Apple devices I have available [/opinon] :-
Daughters Nano gen1, Nano gen2, Ipod touch gen1 that I won, Iphone 2G and recently a 3GS free from Vodafone business.

[Brats]

Re the iPad, I wasn't that bothered, but a lot of reports have been saying how good it is once you see it in the flesh. Massive Apple fanboy Stephen Fry said on Newsnight that for reading books, it is far better than the Sony ereader or Kindle which was a bit of a surprise.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8485049.stm

[Dogg Thang]

Certainly surprises me. I haven't seen the Sony one but the thing that struck me about the Kindle was how gentle it is on the eyes. The iPhone is not as gentle. I'm not convinced that I need an e-reader yet but, if I was going to get one, I don't want it to be like staring at a computer screen.

[nonny]

Is it true that the iphone cannot multitask?

What I find with a lot of people that love apple is that they actually have not tried other things out - they say the sound quality is fine but they compare only to ipods. By most measures, most importantly ears, the ipod has poor sound quality for its price level. itunes does things differently so that must be the best way - except otherways that other companies do. Drag and drop is far easier for podcasts for example and if you have multiple computers to use (eg work and home).

I know people will say the new thing is great for ereading *without* comparing it to proper readers.
I have heard so many people say that the iphone is the best smartphone - most people who have them. The vast majority of people have compared it to nothing as it is the only one they used.

Yes it is true the iPhone cannot multi-task. None of the apps are permitted to run in the background so once you close them they pause. You can get around this by jailbreaking and installing two superb apps that run in tandem with each other, backgrounder and kurikai (sp?).

Backgrounder is as it sounds, it will leave apps running even when you close them. You just hold down the home button on exit of an app and a small message pops-up saying its been background enabled.

Then Kurikai is a fast switching app that you bring up with a shortcut key. There are a few to choose from but I use double-tap of the home button. When it pops-up it looks like a task manager of sorts and shows all apps running and you just select which one to enter. Or you can kill processes running plus have a favourite apps list to load from directly.

Seriously... why Apple dont do something like this is beyond my realm of logic. Just having these two applications and a few other tweaks to other apps (quick reply SMS etc...) have made the phone infinitely better to use and they all integrate into the logical springboard UI apple have created.

Brilliant.

As for sound quality. I agree with you there but it isnt a deal-breaker. I use better quality headphones as the apple ones are just ****e. That does the job and I find the quality acceptable. I've also had creative and iriver players in the past to compare it to and whilst it is less bassy getting into audio quality is a matter of opinion for most.

[CMcK]

The iPhone CAN multitask. It's running the phone applications and the OS all the time. You can then browse/e-mail/play a game while listening to your music. Lots of tasks going on there.
It's just that third party apps are presently not allowed to run in the background. Probably because these devices have finite RAM and battery life. And besides how on earth could you even see two apps at once on such a small screen?

I agree about the SMS notifications during a game. Really all games should at least autosave then let you deal with the message. Preferably upon leaving the SMS app you should be offered the option to go right back to the game where you left off.

Sound quality on the iPhone is pretty good assuming you don't listen to poxy lossy audio. Lossless files with decent headphones and all is well. I have an iPod hooked up to a Becker/Bose setup in the car and the sound quality is better than via the Becker (read OEM Sony) changer.
I've also found an even bigger gap in quality with my Dad's Denon mini system. Audio from the iPod sounds better than the built in CD player.

Regarding the iPad I've had a chance to read up on it and peoples reactions tonight. It's like the iPhone unveiling. Lots of detractors that just don't get who this device is aimed at. Anyone with an ounce of computer savvy would find it useful as a companion device to a full blown computer. But that's not the primary market for it.
To the average punter the iPad is pretty much all they need. I'm the go to guy for computer stuff in my family and amongst my work colleagues. Most of them use their computers for web, e-mail / webmail and downloading the photos from their crummy point and shoot cameras. Maybe the odd iPod user and that's really it.
These are the kind of people the iPad is for. People who have no idea what a right click is for, who think the desktop is where everything is kept and think Yahoo! or Google is their web browser and type www.blahblah.com into the search page rather than the address bar.
And that's a bl**dy big market.

Personally I think we'll end up with one in the house as a companion to the MacBook which I share with my good lady. 64GB with Wi-Fi only sounds good. But I will wait until I have actually handled one as I'm still a little unsure on the size / weight side. I have large hands so I doubt that will be an issue for me but the other have has pretty small hands and I wonder if it will suit her.

[Rep]

Ha! What a load of rubbish.

Am I the only person left on the planet that doesn't own anything by Apple? I'm not a PC head or anything it's just that I've never actually found any of their products useful for me in the slightest.

I'm the same, had awful experiences with Apple tech in the past and i can't justify the price of iPhone (but then i'm still using a Nokia 3310!). That pad looks pretty swish though.

Hate them as i do however, they are truly the masters of Interface design and marketing. Interface Design especially, they break fundamental design laws but still develop some amazingly usable stuff.

[CMcK]

I'm the same, had awful experiences with Apple tech in the past and i can't justify the price of iPhone (but then i'm still using a Nokia 3310!). That pad looks pretty swish though.

Hate them as i do however, they are truly the masters of Interface design and marketing. Interface Design especially, they break fundamental design laws but still develop some amazingly usable stuff.

Fundamental design flaws like every mobile I owned from 1996 until I bought an iPhone having the same menu setup which had become overrun and unwieldy needed to be broken.

[nonny]

I'll say this for the iPad... if it had multi-tasking and a built-in front facing camera for video chat usage it would probably have a valid place in my household. I would forsee the better half using it a lot for easy video chats back home, a mainstay for an ex-pat living on skype.

Really I feel it's it shortcomings that disappoint me. Apple are masters of UI, no question about that but... they're equally masters of holding back on functionality for future generations of the product. On the iPhone I bit the bullet with the 3G model knowing firmware 3.0 was imminent and that for me was the right time.

With this iPad, though I know it sell bucketloads... I feel it wont really do everything I desire of it until version 2-3. Until then I see a netbook as a valid option over this, even if the UI is more standard and less intuitive (or fun).

[Brats]

The lack of flash is a real killer for me. First thing my daughter asked me when she saw it on the news was 'Can I play Moshi on it' to which the answer was no.

[merf]

I think CMcK nails it, all the web furore about the Ipad totally misses the point, its like the endless stupid arguments about the Wii not being hardcore enough. Hardcore nerds aren't the target audience as they simply aren't where the mass money and purchasing power is that Apple want to get.

Can totally see the brilliant logic in simplyfying tech, making it easy to use, nice to look at and flogging to the masses. I suspect many people would far prefer a closed format with lots of flexible apps like on an Ipad to a similar device running linux, windows with its endless stream of updates, virus issues etc.

I'd rather be flogging and on a share of profits for Wii's and Ipads than PS3s and high end Alienware gaming laptops

[Paulos G]

Interesting thoughts by the splendid Stephen Fry about the iPad here.

[fishbowlhead]

Surely if you want to read a book, you'll just read a book, or is that too much hard work these days. After all there cheap, require no power and can go absolutely anywhere with minimum fuss, ooh ooh and, aaaaand! you can even read them in the sun toooo .