Other What was the biggest technological leap in the history of iPhone?

[flyinmac]

It’s certainly your opinion on what you prefer, but I’m not really too concerned about the government infiltrating my iPhone trying to find some long lost twin. What Matters to me, is Apple Values my security and I believe 3D facial mapping is far more secure than to 2D facial mapping, which was my point in my previous post. When it comes to technology, I don’t think Apple is the first to release something compared to the competitors, but they are usually the ones to refine and make the technology better.

I agree with your points in general.

I’m not overly worried about the government having reason to get into my phone. But, in a discussion of security measures, Face ID seems among the weaker compared to fingerprints and passwords. Obviously passwords being the less likely to be compromised if the user was smart enough to make it ridiculously complex.

Hopefully my genetic twin doesn’t use the same passwords I do. Lol. Now that would be freaky. Hmmm... wonder what he’s thinking right now... I certainly hope it’s a different thought. Lol.

But, from a probability factor in my genetics, I’d say face recognition would be very weak. Even within my immediate family.

Finger prints, a less likely match

And passwords even less likely. I know what passwords my family uses (yeah, I know... why do they tell me these things). And I know I choose much more complex than that. But hopefully most people choose smarter than my family members. Though reports seem to indicate not. But I think if you cared enough, you could generate a password that would statistically be harder to crack than your fingerprint.

 

[actcyclist]

Looking at which iPhones made other things in my life obsolete. ...

The 5s was the first phone with a camera that was good enough for me to abandon digital cameras. It also had sufficient battery to stop me keeping a seperate iPod

The 6 (actually I have a SE) and Apple Pay made my wallet obsolete two years ago.

 

[Hieveryone]

I would say FaceTime is the biggest leap

 

[Shanghaichica]

iPhone 4: the Retina display

Runner up: iPhone 3G -the App Store.

 

[bluecoast]

It has to be the 3G, because of 3G connectivity, finally allowing the phone to feel fast on the go and the App Store, for obvious reasons.

Though I owned the 3GS (my first iPhone!) and I remember the battery life (and camera) being truly terrible. So much so that I still carried around my compact camera with me.

I only stopped doing that when I got my 4s, so on a personal level, that was a revolutionary moment.

Otherwise I think it’s been lots of incremental YoY changes and it’s hard to pinpoint a single generation jump that’s as meaningful as the original to the 3G.

Maybe perhaps the 6 and 6 Plus but simply for their big screens.

For better or for worse, they marked the moments when we started to get addicted to these machines in our pockets, when suddenly using Instagram etc became way more fun on these big screens.

All hail the rise of the phone zombie!

 

[PhoneMe1]

Not FID.

 

[44267547]

Not FID.

Take in consideration no other smart phone manufacturer has 3-D facial mapping in the sense of biometric security. To me, Thats a _massive_ technological leap forward, even if its not perfect.

 

[ACG12]

6 plus to 6s plus.

Double the RAM
4k video
3D touch
A8 to A9 was a big jump in performance
Fixed the bending and touch disease issues

 

[kevink2]

Retina display seems most notable to me, so 3GS to 4.

Other than being faster, there is absolutely no observable difference to me between my 8 and my 6. I even have it in the same case.

I'm agreeing. Since before the 4, phone makers didn't think resolution was all that important. (Of course, it took software updates to properly use it. Older software tech would have just made everything too small). Now, many other companies have even higher DPI, but it seems it is generally good enough now.

Another is the jump to 64 bit. Another area where Apple was ahead of the crowd. It provided some other benefits even before RAM size got large enough to require it. But more invisible to the user.
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I’m going to somewhat cheat and say iPhone to iPhone 3GS. Because that OG iPhone was slow, only had 2G and no GPS, etc. etc.

Between the original and the 3GS there was the 3G, which had 3G, but otherwise performance specs weren't all that much better than the original. The 3G was my first iPhone, since I wasn't going to go back to a 2G phone from what I had then.

I actually considered the 3G recently as my "home" phone which is on a $9/90 day plan to replace my Cable phone I had for $21. The number to give people when I have to, but don't really want to get called on. That phone was just TOO painful to use now. The OS upgrade to 4 slowed things down, but my expectations have changed through the years.

 

[melman101]

Between the original and the 3GS there was the 3G, which had 3G, but otherwise performance specs weren't all that much better than the original. The 3G was my first iPhone, since I wasn't going to go back to a 2G phone from what I had then.

I actually considered the 3G recently as my "home" phone which is on a $9/90 day plan to replace my Cable phone I had for $21. The number to give people when I have to, but don't really want to get called on. That phone was just TOO painful to use now. The OS upgrade to 4 slowed things down, but my expectations have changed through the years.

I know... that’s why I said it was a bit of a cheat. Lol

 

[Reno Raines]

I would say the jump from 2g to 3g as it made the phone a lot more usable. Using the edge network even back then was painful.

 

[quietstormSD]

Although I didn’t own one, I’d say the Retina display on the 4 was the biggest leap.

 

[throAU]

Either the retina display in the iphone 4 or touchID in the iPhone 5.

No other feature has imho improved the user experience so much.

 

[Falhófnir]

Definitely iPhone 4:

1. Retina screen
2. First truly beautiful design
3. FaceTime
4. Fully custom A4 chip
5. iOS 4 and all the features that brought (multitasking, folders, background wallpapers for the first time)
6. Big camera upgrade over 3GS (5MP from 3 and 720p video over VGA)

Definitely magical... and indeed the first time I ever paid attention to iPhones which I’d previously considered the ugly plastic lumps with dreadful cameras that got unusably slow after a year xD

 

[44267547]

Either the retina display in the iphone 4 or touchID in the iPhone 5.

No other feature has imho improved the user experience so much.

I would agree, but I would have to opt for touch ID. I remember when touch ID was introduced, it wasn't just a massive step for biometric security in smart phones, but it made world headline news in the media. And it refined nicely all the way through the iPhone 8.

 

[arkitect]

Touch ID.

 

[Falhófnir]

I’d assume the X has to be the biggest leap, since lcd to amoled is huge.

Honestly I don’t think oled is that big a leap, it’s often billed as a natural evolution from LCD, and for certain it has its benefits, including being thinner, flexible, richer colours and it’s effectively infinite contrast ratio; but it also has drawbacks like burn-in, pentile, PWM dimming, and shorter lifespan.

 

[44267547]

Honestly I don’t think oled is that big a leap.

In the sense of technology as a whole, OLED is not a big leap. But respectively to Apple, it _is_ a big leap, because they have been so committed to LCD panels for years and OLED was their first transition away from LCD. I suspect OLED will be the primary until micro LED will debut, which will likely be somewhere around 2021.

 

[Falhófnir]

In the sense of technology as a whole, OLED is not a big leap. But respectively to Apple, it _is_ a big leap, because they have been so committed to LCD panels for years and OLED was their first transition away from LCD. I suspect OLED will be the primary until micro LED will debut, which will likely be somewhere around 2021.

It does seem to be the new go to technology for their flagships, but that has shown up another factor with oled - it’s basically Samsung’s technology, Samsung virtually single handedly pulled it to where it is today and all the time Apple are using oled, they are beholden to Samsung. Other display-makers are either bit players who can’t provide anything like the volume Apple need, or else they’re frankly just not very good at it - particularly in terms of delivering consistency. LCD is a wide market with a fair number of options for Apple, a lot of players are still doing a lot of innovative things (JDI’s flexible plastic LCDs which might be going into the lower end iPhone this year, for e.g.). With oled, it’s basically Samsung dominating if you want the best with a few others dabbling at the edges...

I personally think Samsung are a good company that deliver usually very good quality components, but it remains a big limit for Apple that it’s working within what Samsung can do with it’s spare capacity - and therefore pretty much can only fine tune what Samsung offers and has to pay the price Samsung want. I don’t know what the situation for microLED will be like, but LCD is still a perfectly good choice imo - i’ve yet to see a screen I like more than the iPhone plus’ on a phone.

 

[44267547]

It does seem to be the new go to technology for their flagships, but that has shown up another factor with oled - it’s basically Samsung’s technology, Samsung virtually single handedly pulled it to where it is today and all the time Apple are using oled, they are beholden to Samsung. Other display-makers are either bit players who can’t provide anything like the volume Apple need, or else they’re frankly just not very good at it - particularly in terms of delivering consistency. LCD is a wide market with a fair number of options for Apple, a lot of players are still doing a lot of innovative things (JDI’s flexible plastic LCDs which might be going into the lower end iPhone this year, for e.g.). With oled, it’s basically Samsung dominating if you want the best with a few others dabbling at the edges....

That is true, Samsung was the only supplier that could meet Apples demands for the OLED panels. When I think it’s obvious Samsung has some of the best quality all LED panels in the industry, but Apple also seems to be expanding on to LG as a future supplier as well. I don’t know rather that will be when Samsung’s contract is expired or they will use them just as an alternative to Samsung.

LCD for Apple is not dead technology, it’s just technology that isn’t going to be a primary as much as OLED will be moving forward. LCD will be used likely as a cheaper alternative in their lineup for the 6.1 LCD iPhone and perhaps an updated SE.

I don’t know what the situation for microLED will be like, but LCD is still a perfectly good choice imo - i’ve yet to see a screen I like more than the iPhone plus’ on a phone.

I think micro LED is certainly in experimentation phase and Apple acquired Luxeview back in 2014, who are Micro Led manufacturers. In my opinion, the Apple Watch will see micro LED first, followed by the iPhone. Likely because they may not have very many suppliers lined up immediately, which might be in smaller quantities. But this technology looks very promising with improved resolution, significant less power draw and much brighter over OLED.

 

[BigDO]

Considering how many of my relatives are visually indistinguishable, I’d rather have fingerprints. This includes relatives that are so far detached that they’re not even related other than if you go back hundreds of years in genealogy.

If it wasn’t for being different ages, numerous members of my family would be considered identical twins. As in at the same ages, they all look identical.

Oddly, this is also true of all the lineage on my Father’s side going down the line. And my mothers side going down the line.

Now, the smart ones among you may call B.S. because then how does that work with me??? Well, simple, I don’t carry my father’s genetics. He’s not biologically my father.

But if you go from my children and back through me, my mother, my uncles, grandparents, and on backwards and then down forks stemming hundreds of years back... all down those forks are numerous identical matches.

My fathers line is the same. In that looking at his kids is like looking at my father exactly when he was in his 50’s, 40’s, 30’s etc.

How do I know when I’ve met another step brother??? When I’m standing in front of my dad and he’s suddenly gotten younger.

These similarities match speech patterns, voices, every single detail. There is absolutely no difference other than age. On both sides of the family.

So... if I used Face ID, all you need to get into my phone is anyone who is my gender and is genetically related somewhere down some fork in the family tree.

You want the really odd thing... even though none of these forks have ever crossed paths, they’ve even made the same first name choices on the ones who match visually with that name in other forks.

So how did I discover all that??? I spent the last 20 years trying to find a particular person in my fork. And ended up crossing paths with others from other forks during my search. And I was shocked to find the same names on the same faces at the same ages and nobody had any idea who anybody in the other forks was.

So yeah, I’m not sold on using face recognition. It would take the government less than an hour to find my identical twin. That person will have my birth name and be near my age.

For the curious... yes... one of my daughters carries the same name that was found in another fork in the right spot. This came to my attention after the fact.

My 2nd daughter was named very carefully and went through a much more thorough and deliberate name decision. Because the name she was to be given was learned to be the younger sibling of the other name daughters name in the other fork, and had died within a year of birth. So her name was changed to avoid the trinity effect that happened in the other fork. But perhaps it wasn’t avoided, because we had a miscarriage as well. So in essence 1 of the 3 still died. And in the same “birth sequence” if the miscarriage had been born.

So yeah... freaky genetic parallels. But anyway, yeah It seems like I recall discussions of Face ID being tricked with similarities.

With my family’s genetics, it’s definitely going to be easy to get in.

Cool story, bro.

"Visually indistinguishable" applies to fingerprints, too. Face ID is definitely more secure than a fingerprint, regardless of the youtube attention seekers .

 

[Middiebear]

Definitely iPhone 4:

1. Retina screen
2. First truly beautiful design
3. FaceTime
4. Fully custom A4 chip
5. iOS 4 and all the features that brought (multitasking, folders, background wallpapers for the first time)
6. Big camera upgrade over 3GS (5MP from 3 and 720p video over VGA)

Definitely magical... and indeed the first time I ever paid attention to iPhones which I’d previously considered the ugly plastic lumps with dreadful cameras that got unusably slow after a year xD

Thinking back throughout iPhone history there are 3 monumental iPhone releases that come to mind:

iPhone 6 and 6 plus- I’d consider this the iPhone’s real last ‘event’ release in terms of excitement, demand, and popularity.

By 2014 the smart phone industry had all migrated over to the larger screens while the iPhone was stuck with the 5 and 5s design that provided a just a slightly longer screen that nobody really asked for.

The iPhone 6 and 6 plus sold like hot cakes thanks to the pent up demand that users waited for years for Apple to finally bring the much long desired larger screens and a phablet into the iPhone family.

It also brought along a fresh new design since the iPhone 4 in 2010.

iPhone X- Apple finally unveils a completely new design after stagnating with just minor iterations of the iPhone 6 design with the 6s, 7, & 8.

Bezeless display, OLED, FaceID and no home button provide a fresh new experience.

iPhone 4- Nothing mentioned above beats the iPhone 4 release.

The iPhone 6 and 6 plus are the only phones that come close in terms of ‘event’ status regarding the phone’s release. Though I’d say the iPhone 4 has them beat. Making this still the iPhone’s most impactful iPhone release ever.

The iPhone’s final summer release brought in huge lines at Apple stores and a phone that was sold out and difficult to find.

The change from the iPhone 3GS at the time to an all glass design with the iPhone 4 was the most drastic change iPhone history (Yes, even more so than the iPhone X).

It was and still is iconic- back in 2010 it was still a major status symbol to own and use an iPhone. Though it wasn’t enough to own an iPhone, you needed to own the lastest iPhone to really stand out, and the iPhone 4 did just that.

Not only that, the iPhone 4 brought gigantic upgrades to the iPhone that were listed above- but also a white color option which was a breath of fresh air in a sea of only black smartphones at the time.

There was also the new ability to take pictures in the dark thanks to the addition of a flash on the rear camera.

The importance new front facing camera can also not be understated.

On the prior iPhones you only had the option of turning the phone around, snapping a picture with the flash-less rear camera and hoping for the best.

The iPhone 4 finally brought the ability to easily take pictures you could see in real time of yourself, ushering in a selfie generation.

These were technological features that if you were stuck on the 3GS at the time the experience on the iPhone was sorely lacking and made the iPhone 4 users that much more enviable.

 

[BigDO]

Without a doubt it was the iPhone 4.

 

[pika2000]

Biggest leap probably 3GS to 4. We were going from plastic low res screen phone to metal and glass with retina screen, and with the first named Ax chip (A4).
Next would be 7 to X. We were going from aluminum to glass with wireless charging, edge to edge OLED screen, Face ID, first Apple custom GPU, new rear facing camera module, gestures, removal of Touch ID and home button.

 

[throAU]

I would agree, but I would have to opt for touch ID. I remember when touch ID was introduced, it wasn't just a massive step for biometric security in smart phones, but it made world headline news in the media. And it refined nicely all the way through the iPhone 8.

Yeah, thinking a bit more i'd have to say touchID also.

The retina display is a NICE thing, touchID is a workflow changer.

I use touchid so many times per day... paying for things, unlocking my phone, unlocking my password manager on my phone, unlocking my watch with my phone (which then can unlock my mac) etc.