As soon as it’s available, I’m not going to get one.
I have an iPhone 3GS and an iPad. And I know that when I have to replace them, I’ll go for an Android phone/tablet. No doubt about that. I’m tired of having to go through iTunes for almost everything, I can only add music/videos from my home computer. That sucks.
All Heil Google! (just Kidding). Although… I wonder when Google Glass will finally see the light. THAT is an interesting gadget.
The main problem with Android tablets is that they haven’t seen much support from the development community for some reason. So the tablets are great for browsing, e-reading etc. but not much for good app support. Maybe the success of the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire will change that, but so far we haven’t seen it.
The ol country’s local newspaper had an editorial yesterday saying that it did not matter what the iPhone 5 had, it’s sucess is guaranteed by its followers. 
people sometimes forget that apple has worked to build that reputation and earned the good faith from its customers. they have in fact engineered many great products over the years and has consistently been working on progression for better serving their consumers.
personally I’ll still call it if they come out with a dud product. like the iphone 3g and 3gs, for example? it looks like a toy and I could never take it seriously. honestly I tried to like it, tried to find something in it’s hardware design that I liked. but just every time I look at the thing… well, yeah. toy.
and I still feel meh about the ipads from day one. I have a macbook pro which is old and dying, and I’m going to replace it with a new macbook pro. its likely I’m also going to get the iphone 5. but as far as ipads (or just tablets in general) go? no thanks. I can do everything the ipad does on my new iphone 5. “what about reading ebooks?” apple fanboys and fangirls may ask. well, if I wanted to read ebooks on a bigger screen that isnt the mbp, I’ll just get a freakin’ kindle (paperwhite, probably).
most people usually pay attention to apple because after all they’ve worked incredibly hard to achieve that trust for product quality over the years, that the people are willing to give apple that benefit of the doubt. and then the smarter consumers will look, and judge if they like it. if they dont, then they ignore and move on. and if they do, they pull out their wallets and deliver the benjamins.
fyi, if anyone cares: samsung = whatever. I’ll choose htc over samsung any day.
I will give Apple one thing: They sure know how to make laptops!
Macbook pros are lighter, more compact, and have better battery life than any PC notebooks I have seen. Sure the equivalent PC notebook have better video card for gaming or whatever, but those pc notebooks weights a freaking ton, produces a crapload of heat even when its sitting around doing nothing. I’ve touched every PC notebook at the computer store and they’re all hot to the touch. Mind you most PC notebooks are made of plastic so if its hot to the touch, its sizzling inside! The battery life of most PC notebooks are also kinda crap; the instant its unplugged you can barely watch a DVD/movie on it before it quits. Macbook pros on he other hand are often slightly warm or cool to the touch when its sitting around doing nothing, gets warmer when watching HD videos, and only gets as hot as most PC laptops when you run a game on it. Mind you macbook pros are made from aluminum so the difference between the outside and the inside temperature isn’t that great… The battery life is great, you can actually watch TWO movies while its unplugged… and since its relatively light and compact, you can take it out more often. Want something even lighter? Macbook airs are even lighter and some have said is almost as good as a 13 inch macbook pro.
I’ve never really caught onto ipads… I mean that’s what the iphone is for… as for Androids I can’t say I like it much… but I never really owned an android phone before so I can’t say. Iphones does get free updates all the time while Android updates are handled by the manufacturer, so if your manufacturer no longer supports the phone then you will not get updates. I don’t even think an android as old as an iPhone 3GS can get the equivalent of iOS5 (whatever that is)
The only thing that sucks about the macbook pro is that it isn’t that good at gaming, due to crappy integrated intel video chipset but its still respectable, but then a macbook pro isn’t really made for gaming… that’s what xbox or desktop PC are for.
I don’t think I will ever buy a PC notebook ever again.
macbook pro really is exceptional. I dont play pc games so the graphics card part doesnt really bother me. have to disagree with the heating part though; both me and my sister use mpb’s (mine 15" hers 13") and to be frank they can actually heat up pretty good, even when you dont have a disc spinning in the optical drive. only switched to mac in late '08 (less than 4 years ago), but honestly. once you go mac, ya never go back… 
anyway, back to topic… I’m just waiting to get some hands on experience with the iphone 5. anyone know if its available for test drive at apple stores in taipei as of tomorrow? if not, when?
I mean the macbook pro is relatively cool if its sitting around browsing websites, it gets hot when its doing something intensive like watching HD movies.
A PC notebook on the other hand is still fairly warm even when its sitting around doing nothing or just browsing the web. Since most of them are made of plastic, the heat you feel on the notebook while using it is only half of the actual heat on the component because plastic isn’t a good heat conductor.
Expect to see it in Taiwan stores sometime between October (if we’re lucky) and December.
… ripping off costumers by charging 29$ for a transition piece (new connector) that costs probably 1$ in production … but hey, profits need to be made and it doesn’t matter how! :loco: :roflmao:
Not to mention if you have one of those stereos with a ipod dock, now they won’t work anymore because it would be hard to fit an adapter in there, meaning better sales for new stereos with with the newer ipod dock.
It just shows how much ‘big Brother’ Apple is concerned/thinks about it’s returning (hooked) customers … NOT! 
Now wait … wasn’t there anything similar to the new connector??? How about USB? It’s one thing re-inventing something, it’s another one selling a shitload of crap to your customers … 
I want one. I’ve been waiting since the 3gs for this.
the usb is a chubby little guy… it’d take up too much space. part of the iphone 5 is that it’s smaller (in volume), thinner and lighter. mainly ergonomic concerns, as well as fully progressing the connector to digital is what I’m guessing. I do agree that it kinda sucks that previous speaker models will now require an adapter, and so does the charger for cars (which I own), but honestly it’s been like a decade since they released dock connector 1.0. I can forgive. I’m no tech whiz, but I imagine it’s like switching from tube tv (analog) to lcd (digital), better for the long run.
ah. I’ll be back in the states by December. if it reaches Taiwan at an earlier time, I may have to resist temptations for buying it here rather than (cheaper) with a verizon contract.
that said, do you (or does anyone) know if the hardware and software (ios 6) will remain consistent with the iphones in the states when it’s released here?
AFAIK it will be the same phone worldwide. However, it is possible that 4G LTE in Taiwan (which I read is supposed to be coming next year i.e. 2013) will use a different standard than that in the US. If that was so, then Apple could possible modify their Taiwan release of the iPhone match the local LTE standards. But I feel that’s an unlikely scenario. Possible, but unlikely.
As for the whole dock connector thing, I agree that the dongles are overpriced, but I can’t fault them for wanting to replace a connector that hasn’t changed significantly in NINE YEARS. It was originally designed for connecting iPods to FireWire, and those days are long gone.
A few other random points:
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I think whoever believes the media is biased in favour of Apple needs to read more articles, and also hasn’t been reading articles very long. I got my first Mac in 1994, and at that time I couldn’t read anything about Apple without reading the words “beleaguered” in front of it. Rolling Stone even did a huge feature-length article called “The Fall of Apple” basically mourning the death of the company amazon.com/Rolling-Stone-Apr … B002PUB3HM (look in the top right corner). In the glory days of the iPod, I can’t count the number of times I read about an ‘iPod killer’ or ‘the next iPod’. Now we see the same thing with the iPad. Apple is steamrolling over the tablet competition yet all I read is basically ‘sure Apple is on top for now, but they face increased competition from blah blah blah’… I think Apple will be more worried when non-Apple tablets start selling in measurable numbers, which hasn’t really happened yet (in Apple’s event they mention 91% of tablet-based web traffic comes from iPads).
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No amount of positive media coverage can help a company be as successful as Apple is without great products to back it up. Consider a few years ago, when Nintendo’s Wii and DS video game systems were riding high on a wave of positive press. And like Apple, Nintendo has their share of fanboys singing its praises. The first few years were great, and Nintendo themselves released a lot of high-quality software, but when third parties stuck to the PS3 and 360 and (for the most part) refused to release high-quality software for the Wii, customers flocked to the other systems. Likewise, when Nintendo released a their new 3DS featuring 3D visuals, something most customers don’t really care about, sales went down and the media responded with boatloads of negative press. Apple is under pressure to continually release quality, hit products that resonate with customers, lest those customers go elsewhere.
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The real ‘mindless sheep’ are a lot of the Android users. Sure there are some tech geeks who choose Android for its flexibility, but a lot of the Android users out there are ordinary folks who just go to the cell phone shop, tell the staff they want a new phone and then walk out with whatever the salesperson hands them. I have several friends with Android handsets who don’t even know that it’s Android! I ask them “is it Android?” and they give me a funny look and say “I dunno, it’s a phone.” Carriers like the iPhone because it sells, but they’d prefer to sell an Android device because Apple refuses to allow them to dump all their crap and custom bloatware all over the phone. Companies like Samsung have worked hard to get in bed with the carriers, so their phones get pushed harder.
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I’m mostly excited about the A6 chip in the iPhone 5. My “new iPad” is wicked fast and it only has an A5X chip, so if the iPhone 5 is even faster then I definitely want it. My iPhone 4 seemed fast when I got it, but recently I’ve been doing a lot of streaming with the new podcasts app and also with iTunes match, and this seems to slow down the iPhone 4 considerably. Of course LTE will be great as well, once it comes to Taipei.
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I’ve heard complaints that the iPhone 5 is “boring” and that it’s not revolutionary. But those same complaints were lobbied over the iPhone 4S, and it went on to sell by the boatload and make untold billions of dollars for Apple. I don’t see any reason why iPhone 5 won’t do similar numbers.
It COULD come out in Taiwan before December. They claim this will be the fastest international roll-out yet.
iOS6 will be the same on the phone no matter where you buy it, save for any local settings that you change yourself. Not all features are available in all countries though. For example, SIRI can make restaurant reservations and view YELP reviews in the States but not in Taiwan.
Very good point. If you had a product that was making you billions, why would you want to change it?
you can’t cut your old simcard to fit the new nano-Sim slot… so it means if you want to use the new iphone5 in taiwan, you really have to wait.