For No One

On purchasing an older iPhone

A relative recently asked me whether he should get an iPhone 4 as his first iPhone, two models behind the iPhone 5, released roughly 6 months ago. I imagine the advice I gave will probably apply to the same question around this time next year, substituting model numbers.

No one knows when the next iPhone will be coming out, but odds are in favor of August or later. I would definitely recommend against the iPhone 4 at this point in time - I had it for 2 years, and it was great when it was new, and is still decent now, but starting to show its age. And when you buy a phone, you’re committing to 2 years of using it. Disregarding the points situation¹, an iPhone 4 is free (or maybe $1) when you sign up for a 2-year contract. The iPhone 5 is only $199, which is nothing compared to how much you’re going to be spending on a service plan over the life of the contract.

I’ve owned the 1st-gen iPhone, the 4, and now the 5, always buying them at launch, and have been relieved to upgrade both times. After a couple of years, the older phones start to feel slower. Apps run slower, you start to get constrained by the memory, and you’ll lose support for the latest OS sooner. I would strongly recommend the iPhone 5 if it’s at all possible - the 4G/LTE alone justifies the price difference, not to mention the larger screen, and thinner/lighter design.

I might add, depending on the person, to wait for the next model. If I were ready for a new phone, that’s what I would be doing. I had to wait 2.5 years between iPhone 4 and iPhone 5, because of the change in release cycle they began with the 4S. If I were impatient (or didn’t care about obsolescence), I would have gotten a 4S when my 4’s contract was up.

My upgrade strategy for Apple devices though, is to wait for the next model when I’m ready to upgrade. You guarantee yourself the longest period between product releases you could possibly anticipate. Of course, that doesn’t apply if your phone/computer breaks and you need a new one, but if you’re in a position to do so, I would recommend it. Also, you may be someone who doesn’t care about having the latest and greatest, and every model of iPhone has been great, so you have to make your own decision.

Barcodes in Passbook

On the latest episode of The Talk Show, The iPhone 5 Episode, John Gruber and MG Siegler discussed barcodes on an iPhone screen not scanning properly, and speculated that Passbook (a new feature of iOS 6) might require a special type of scanner. They’re partially right, as explained in the wwdc videos about Passbook¹.

Passbook authors can choose between three styles of barcode:

• PDF417
• Aztec
• QR

Those three styles all have something in common: they’re 2D barcodes, as contrasted from the old-school 1D barcodes, as seen in most stores.² The presenter in the WWDC videos explains their choice to only support 2D barcode formats.

Scanners for 1D barcodes typically use lasers to read them, and those do not work (at least not well) with iPhone screens, as I’ve experienced in the past with scanned-in rewards cards. The 2D formats can only be read by optical scanners (taking photos of the target), which work fine with iPhone screens. Passbook cranks up the brightness on the phone’s screen all the way when it’s displaying a barcode to make a successful scan even more likely.

Not all barcode scanners will properly read an iPhone’s screen, but Apple chose barcode formats for Passbook which require scanners that will work.

Where did these playlists come from?

I’ve been using the same iTunes library since 2004, upgraded and augmented through the years. I’m a Smart Playlist fan, and have an elaborate system of playlists. Years ago, by 2006 at the latest, I deleted the default Smart Playlists iTunes puts into a fresh library to demonstrate the feature.

I’ve also been using an iPhone since launch day in June 2007, and have never reset my library. Each iPhone change or upgrade has been restored from a backup of my old one.

Can someone please explain to me how/why now I’m seeing, in addition to the playlists I created, the following Smart Playlists on my iPhone?

• Music Videos
• My Top Rated
• Recently Added
• Recently Played
• Top 25 Most Played
• 90’s Music

Frankly, I’m baffled.

Update (later on, the same day)

And then, after a sync with iTunes, they disappear… So strange…

“The new iPad”

Of all the new things about the iPad announced yesterday, one thing surprised everybody. What did they decide call it? Rather than going with “iPad 3” or “iPad HD”, they chose, simply, “The new iPad”. From Apple’s homepage (screenshot for posterity):

Why would Apple choose this path, after they did name the previous model “iPad 2” and still refer to it as such?¹

Historically, Apple has named their products, and let those names stand. As John Siracusa was joking on Twitter yesterday, the iMac and iPod lines have always been named this way. Though this leads to some confusion when identifying older models, it also doesn’t attach a stigma to older products by their names alone. (Eww, that’s an iPad 2? You disgust me.) Of course, Apple didn’t keep selling factory-new older models of the iMac or iPod, so the naming made more sense.

That aside, the simpler naming does fit in with Apple’s design ethos. They hide the complexity behind the consumer-focused name, the same as they create simple software interfaces, and devices with a single button. After the iPad 2 fades from memory, only “iPad” will remain - clean, simple, focused. And it won’t sound ridiculous in 10 years (who would want an iPad 13?).

What prompted them to revert to this course midstream, though? It must have been the media reaction after the iPhone 4S’s introduction, in which numerous publications slammed the new iPhone because they wanted the “iPhone 5”. Forget that the 4S was faster in almost every respect. Forget the public preview of the puck’s destination in user interfaces (Siri). They wanted an iPhone 5, and they didn’t get one, and cried like babies.

Apple then, at their next event, says (essentially) “Fine, no more numbered names. Let the device stand on its merits.” I would guess after yesterday’s event that we will never see an iPhone 5. Not in name, at least.

A question remains, though. When you walk into an Apple Store in three years and ask for a discounted, older, model, what do you ask for?

“Can I please have the iPhone from two years ago?”

“I want the iPhone with the A7 processor”

“Give me a 6th generation iPhone”

These don’t sound right. The last two rely on details Apple intentionally doesn’t discuss at length with the public at large. I guess we’ll find out where they stand as the story unfolds.

Update 3/9/2012

And the media reacts… Steven Sande on TUAW, speaking about the denser battery of the new iPad (emphasis mine):

If that’s true, it means that the next-generation iPhone (no way am I going to refer to it as the iPhone 5 after what Apple pulled on Wednesday…) could presumably have much better battery life than the iPhone 4S with little or no increase in weight or size, assuming that the device uses the same Retina display and adds 4G LTE.