Hey, it's time for another WWDC! Granted, I haven't been doing iOS development in awhile, and find that I'm not eyeing the latest hardware as much as I used to, but it's still at least a little fun.
For a lot of people, there is a lot of fun and money to be had from the Apple Speculation Game.
For me, I don't care nearly so much. Historically, I have bought iPhones every 3 years, and iPads nearly as often. My most recent iPhone is a 6S, so, I probably won't buy a new phone in this coming year.
But here's what I hope for:
-An iPhone 6S,
-Retaining the headphone jack,
-With more storage available,
-Faster would be fine, but isn't required,
-And rather than be thinner,
-Make the front and back flush with the thickest part (the camera),
-Taking up any extra space with battery.
There. That's it for iPhone.
I love my 6S. It's height and width are fine. I like having a Lightning connector as well as a headphone jack. I use my headphone jack REGULARLY. I have several different pairs of headphones. I often swap what pair of headphones is on my head into a different device while sitting at work; I use different headphones for different things. Likewise, I may swap what headphones are in my device.
Bluetooth does not give me that flexibility. The cords don't bother me that much. I will probably buy a nice pair of Bluetooth headphones in the next year or so, but I don't want it to be my only option.
As far as the body being flush on front and back, I hearken back to my iPhone 5 (as well as the 4/4S and 5S phones). My 6S is the first phone that I felt that I needed a case on it. I had my 3GS and 5 on my person day-in and day-out for each of their 3-year lives. While the backs were a little worn, that didn't bother me. I loathed the idea that I would have to make the device thicker just to protect something that I had no intention of selling, so I didn't need to protect it. They each suffered a couple falls, but nothing damaging.
My 6S, on the other hand, drove me nuts, because the camera sticks out. The phone does not lie flat on a table. So, in order to keep from damaging the camera, or causing stress to the phone when laying it on a table repeatedly, I bought a case. I got a leather case which I'm quite pleased with, but I hate that I needed it.
I would much rather have a thicker phone with better battery life.
Apple's product lineup from this last year disappointed me. I didn't care about the iPhone 7, but I wasn't going to get a new iPhone unless my current one broke. But I wanted to buy a new Mac Laptop, or a cheap laptop, and an iMac. Typically I would buy the mid-level 15" MBP, but this year I'd intended to buy a pretty much maxed-out 13". But then Apple "Innovated". "Bravely."
I don't know anyone who cares about the touch-bar. I know a lot of people who care about a goddamn Escape Key. I care about the Escape Key.
I know people who want an Apple Desktop. I was ready to buy an Apple Desktop. Guess who didn't buy an Apple Desktop.
In fact, I was so disgusted by Apple's lineup, I went all the way around, and found what is almost my ideal setup: A Razer Stealth Blade with the Razer Core. This is an Ultrabook, paired with a Thunderbolt 3 Dock that allows me to run a desktop GPU. I love this setup.
My two complaints are 1) the trackpad isn't as nice as Apple's, and 2) it's running Windows. Now, this isn't a knock on Windows, per se; I had administered Windows for a long time. I can make it work. But I'd rather be running MacOS, by a long shot. Aside from gaming, my main application categories are a web browser, terminal, and text editor. Editors and browsers are fine on Mac, but I want ZSH with oh-my-zsh, my .zshrc, and a Unix toolchain. Yes, I can install a *nix distro on it, but I'd rather have the MacOS without having to jump through a shitload of hoops.
I'm sorry, but Synaptics is not nearly as good as Apple's touchpad. I wish it weren't the case.
The one upside is that the number of usable games in my Steam library doubled immediately, and I've been able to play a fair number of games that used to be completely inaccessible to me before.
Too bad Apple couldn't provide something that I could use. I needed a laptop, but all Apple provided were severely compromised options.
Maybe this year will have better options.
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