Comment: Apple fails to answer the real question: why?
- Auteur:Ella Cai
- Relâchez le:2017-09-22
The new Apple iPhones include some clever new tech that serves no purpose at all, believes Josh Brooks, editor of Electronics Weekly.
In the past couple of weeks the web has been full of breathless reporting about Apple’s latest iPhones, especially the X.
It has facial recognition, no home button, wireless charging and a big new screen. Bloggers have agreed it’s wonderful. So far, so predictable.
My favourite coverage of the launch, though, was on the satirical website The Daily Mash, whose headline read, if you’ll excuse some coarse language: “iPhone X hailed as huge step forward in pointless things to dick about with.”
They’ve got a point.
There is no doubt some incredible technology in these phones, made by some of the sharpest engineers on the planet.
There’s real significance in that Apple has confirmed that the new phones feature GPUs designed in-house and not by Imagination.
The new six-core CPU sounds impressive too.
But it all begs one big question: why? What does this wonderful technology enable?
A quote in the press release from Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice‑president of worldwide marketing, underlines the absence of a real answer.
“iPhone X enables fluid new user experiences,” he says, “from unlocking your iPhone with Face ID, to playing immersive AR games, to sharing Animoji in Messages.”
To me, that all sounds thoroughly futile.
Animated emojis? Come on. Face ID? Personally, I think that’s a bit creepy. Augmented reality games? OK, that may make money, is it really the biggest thing here?
This is pure technology for its own sake. There’s no purpose here. It’s not solving a problem that anyone has identified.
I love Apple products, but they can do better than this.
In the past couple of weeks the web has been full of breathless reporting about Apple’s latest iPhones, especially the X.
It has facial recognition, no home button, wireless charging and a big new screen. Bloggers have agreed it’s wonderful. So far, so predictable.
My favourite coverage of the launch, though, was on the satirical website The Daily Mash, whose headline read, if you’ll excuse some coarse language: “iPhone X hailed as huge step forward in pointless things to dick about with.”
They’ve got a point.
There is no doubt some incredible technology in these phones, made by some of the sharpest engineers on the planet.
There’s real significance in that Apple has confirmed that the new phones feature GPUs designed in-house and not by Imagination.
The new six-core CPU sounds impressive too.
But it all begs one big question: why? What does this wonderful technology enable?
A quote in the press release from Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice‑president of worldwide marketing, underlines the absence of a real answer.
“iPhone X enables fluid new user experiences,” he says, “from unlocking your iPhone with Face ID, to playing immersive AR games, to sharing Animoji in Messages.”
To me, that all sounds thoroughly futile.
Animated emojis? Come on. Face ID? Personally, I think that’s a bit creepy. Augmented reality games? OK, that may make money, is it really the biggest thing here?
This is pure technology for its own sake. There’s no purpose here. It’s not solving a problem that anyone has identified.
I love Apple products, but they can do better than this.
