re: Apple’s announcements – the things I’m most interested in were the cellular watch (even though I don’t typically wear a watch, this is definitely useful for swimming, and the price isn’t … mindbending)… and… hm. Everything else (even the X) feels evolutionary more than revolutionary.
I’m jazzed that iTunes will support 4K, and that effectively all my media “evolves” with it, which was a huge ?, but they answered in a way I’m really happy with. The catch is, I don’t really care all that much for 4K/HDR just yet, and the investment I’d need to make to upgrade is significant. It’d be a new ATV, a new TV, and a new receiver (since our old one is missing some critical HDMI support) – which means an ATV upgrade is effectively a $1500 upgrade with a shitload of extra gear.
And while sure, 4K is interesting, I haven’t seen anything that (for the size of the TV we have) makes a great case for it being worth the upgrade cost.
So the ATV is a no.
I need a new iPhone – the 6+ has fallen way off the technology curve. The pricing on the new models is … weird. The 8 is what, $849? Which puts it firmly in the camp of “really fucking expensive”. It’s significant enough that to me, the difference between $849 and $999 is kind of a wash, given that I keep my phones for about 3-4 years (until they’re really no longer supported by the manufacturer).
But with any product (and while Apple does better than most, they’re not immune to this) their first generation of anything always sees a significant improvement the next go-around. So while the 8 is an iteration on a well known & proven formula, the X is … ? Who knows. It’s also unlikely to see massive 3rd party adoption of the novel display because you can’t develop an app for just the leading edge of consumers. So you’ve got this marvelous display for photos & web stuff, and I don’t know that that’s a critical selling point for me.
So where’s that leave someone in my situation? Spend $$ for an 8, or spend $$+ for an X, where the features are maybe interesting but not that critical?
Chances are, I’ll skip the watch – just because I honestly find them uncomfortable to wear. Even in the swimming situation, it’d be nice, but not necessarily critical. Chances are I’ll skip the ATV until 4K is more firmly established as a more long-term standard. Then the decision is mostly 8 or X, and the answer I’d guess given the pricing is *probably* X at 64gb.
But who knows? The 6+ is annoyingly slow (and uncomfortable) at this point. Maybe it’ll hang on for another year, though.