I think Apple needs to skip iPhone 5S and just jump to iPhone 6.
Why? Because of the technological trend of necessity. When Apple could not come up with an answer to Window's 3.1 onslaught, it almost went bankrupt. I feel Apple is stuck with its same old trend from yesteryear. Making the same old devices improving little by little without actually poking their head out to look around to see if they are still on the right track.
Small screens is DEAD. If I am not convinced of iPhone 5 (skipping it), I am sure there are others like me, who feels the same way. I will also skip the 5S (because of the small screen in the rumors). It is like Apple trying to improve their old product lines without looking around what people are buying. It is their biggest handicap right now, the small screens.
The ONLY thing keeping Apple alive right now is the iOS apps. They will survive another year because people will get an iPad for big screens, while they skip the iPhone upgrading. If the iPad has mobile calling, I think people will probably get the iPad Mini Retina instead of an iPhone. Otherwise, the iPad 4 with Retina (but not take pictures or movies with it because of the poor camera bezel design that directs light directly into the lens).
Conclusion: iPhone 5: No buy. iPad 4: Buy only for Apps, not camera usage.
Ok. Now that I have criticized Apple, I feel it would only be fair to criticize Samsung (their main competitor). The Samsung Galaxy S4 is OK, but it has 2 major defects:
1) The screen is pentile (or some weird subpixel arrangement) that does not have 3 subpixels of RGB per pixel (Please correct me if I am wrong on this). If it does not have RGB per pixel, it will have artifacts, and if they state it is 1920x1080p, it is actually lower, about 2/3's lower.
2) It runs Java. (more on this in a moment).
Conclusion: Samsung S4: No buy (see above 2 bullet items). However: You can remove the battery, and you can put in SD card. It also has temperature sensor and barometer! These are good features that may let you overlook the terrible terrible screen.
Two more competitors: Sony Xperia Z and HTC One.
Xperia Z:
Good: The main feature is 1920x1080p (no pentile), so you get 3 subpixels of RGB per pixel. Screen is 5 inches. Waterproof. SD card.
Bad: Corners too squarish, too splashy with ornaments.
HTC One:
Good: Another 1920x1080p (no pentile). Again 3 subpixels per RGB pixel. Screen is 4.7 inches. Camera is best.
Bad: Not waterproof. Can't take out battery. Can't put in SD card.
If you just want a Phone with no Apps downloading, get the HTC One. It also has the best camera. I rarely see people print out photos anymore, so I don't know what Samsung is doing with the photo album feature. It is more common to views on their 1080 monitor/TV, or show it on the phone. HTC One is the best phone right now because of the good camera. Only 2 Megapixels is needed for 1080p and it has 4 Megapixels to satisfy picture taking, and movie taking at 1080p with their good low light capture camera.
Xperia Z is second Place. If Samsung has 3 subpixels per pixel, instead of Pentile then Samsung would have been number 2 behind HTC One.
Now on to the Java thing. I have mentioned before... They need to move the Java layer up to the Apps layer (for backward compatibility), and allow direct native code in C on Android without going through the Java API layer. Android is going to die of lack of apps because everything will be ports of iOS apps (running under Android in C). No one is going to make native Java apps, because they will run too slow to compete. It will require double the cores and double the memory to stay competitive with native C code (which Windows Phone is keep to step into its place if they get their act together). Objective C will even lose to native C code like how Windows games (in C) runs faster than OSX games (Objective C layer Operating System) on same hardware.
I think Google recently moved around the Android head guy. I hope they do the right thing and get rid of Java as a requirement. Or they will die a slow death. Even Samsung is wise to have a backup OS plan. If Google wants Android to survive, they gotta move the Java up to the Apps layer only for backward compatibility, and let future Apps run in C directly on the hardware without going through Java. All apps worthy of mention on Android runs in C anyways, through the slow Java, making it harder to develop. NaCl on Chrome OS may work, but they gotta make it be able to compile native code like on Windows Phone or iOS (but in C, not pseudo slow half interpreted Objective C like it is now). You don't want people in the future to say: Well, if you want games, run it on Windows Phone, not iPhone. Like how it is when people say you should run on Windows instead of Mac. So Google has some serious things to think about... keep marketing it, or really go in and do the right thing for the future. NaCl I think is meant for HTML and is not the solution like native code on Windows Phone or iPhone (well close to it).
There you go:
If you don't care about Apps, HTC One is the best PHONE.
If you care about Apps, get the iPad 4.
If you want to take pictures or movies get the HTC One (NOT iPad 4).
If you want to display movies or pictures, get the Xperia Z or HTC One (pure 1080p) for a phone, or iPad 4 for larger size.
If you want lots of gadgets, get the Samsung Galaxy 4. (nice barometer, temperature, etc). But that Pentile thing really hurt them. It stopped me from considering the S3.
Enough bad and good so it is a double edged sword for those who wish to attack one another.
Why? Because of the technological trend of necessity. When Apple could not come up with an answer to Window's 3.1 onslaught, it almost went bankrupt. I feel Apple is stuck with its same old trend from yesteryear. Making the same old devices improving little by little without actually poking their head out to look around to see if they are still on the right track.
Small screens is DEAD. If I am not convinced of iPhone 5 (skipping it), I am sure there are others like me, who feels the same way. I will also skip the 5S (because of the small screen in the rumors). It is like Apple trying to improve their old product lines without looking around what people are buying. It is their biggest handicap right now, the small screens.
The ONLY thing keeping Apple alive right now is the iOS apps. They will survive another year because people will get an iPad for big screens, while they skip the iPhone upgrading. If the iPad has mobile calling, I think people will probably get the iPad Mini Retina instead of an iPhone. Otherwise, the iPad 4 with Retina (but not take pictures or movies with it because of the poor camera bezel design that directs light directly into the lens).
Conclusion: iPhone 5: No buy. iPad 4: Buy only for Apps, not camera usage.
Ok. Now that I have criticized Apple, I feel it would only be fair to criticize Samsung (their main competitor). The Samsung Galaxy S4 is OK, but it has 2 major defects:
1) The screen is pentile (or some weird subpixel arrangement) that does not have 3 subpixels of RGB per pixel (Please correct me if I am wrong on this). If it does not have RGB per pixel, it will have artifacts, and if they state it is 1920x1080p, it is actually lower, about 2/3's lower.
2) It runs Java. (more on this in a moment).
Conclusion: Samsung S4: No buy (see above 2 bullet items). However: You can remove the battery, and you can put in SD card. It also has temperature sensor and barometer! These are good features that may let you overlook the terrible terrible screen.
Two more competitors: Sony Xperia Z and HTC One.
Xperia Z:
Good: The main feature is 1920x1080p (no pentile), so you get 3 subpixels of RGB per pixel. Screen is 5 inches. Waterproof. SD card.
Bad: Corners too squarish, too splashy with ornaments.
HTC One:
Good: Another 1920x1080p (no pentile). Again 3 subpixels per RGB pixel. Screen is 4.7 inches. Camera is best.
Bad: Not waterproof. Can't take out battery. Can't put in SD card.
If you just want a Phone with no Apps downloading, get the HTC One. It also has the best camera. I rarely see people print out photos anymore, so I don't know what Samsung is doing with the photo album feature. It is more common to views on their 1080 monitor/TV, or show it on the phone. HTC One is the best phone right now because of the good camera. Only 2 Megapixels is needed for 1080p and it has 4 Megapixels to satisfy picture taking, and movie taking at 1080p with their good low light capture camera.
Xperia Z is second Place. If Samsung has 3 subpixels per pixel, instead of Pentile then Samsung would have been number 2 behind HTC One.
Now on to the Java thing. I have mentioned before... They need to move the Java layer up to the Apps layer (for backward compatibility), and allow direct native code in C on Android without going through the Java API layer. Android is going to die of lack of apps because everything will be ports of iOS apps (running under Android in C). No one is going to make native Java apps, because they will run too slow to compete. It will require double the cores and double the memory to stay competitive with native C code (which Windows Phone is keep to step into its place if they get their act together). Objective C will even lose to native C code like how Windows games (in C) runs faster than OSX games (Objective C layer Operating System) on same hardware.
I think Google recently moved around the Android head guy. I hope they do the right thing and get rid of Java as a requirement. Or they will die a slow death. Even Samsung is wise to have a backup OS plan. If Google wants Android to survive, they gotta move the Java up to the Apps layer only for backward compatibility, and let future Apps run in C directly on the hardware without going through Java. All apps worthy of mention on Android runs in C anyways, through the slow Java, making it harder to develop. NaCl on Chrome OS may work, but they gotta make it be able to compile native code like on Windows Phone or iOS (but in C, not pseudo slow half interpreted Objective C like it is now). You don't want people in the future to say: Well, if you want games, run it on Windows Phone, not iPhone. Like how it is when people say you should run on Windows instead of Mac. So Google has some serious things to think about... keep marketing it, or really go in and do the right thing for the future. NaCl I think is meant for HTML and is not the solution like native code on Windows Phone or iPhone (well close to it).
There you go:
If you don't care about Apps, HTC One is the best PHONE.
If you care about Apps, get the iPad 4.
If you want to take pictures or movies get the HTC One (NOT iPad 4).
If you want to display movies or pictures, get the Xperia Z or HTC One (pure 1080p) for a phone, or iPad 4 for larger size.
If you want lots of gadgets, get the Samsung Galaxy 4. (nice barometer, temperature, etc). But that Pentile thing really hurt them. It stopped me from considering the S3.
Enough bad and good so it is a double edged sword for those who wish to attack one another.
Sorry apples and oranges here. Tablets are not phones.
