If Apple is introducing a so-called “iPhone 4S” — an iPhone 4 in practically the same case with upgraded internals and a better camera mobile[sic] — then the camera sensor will be larger than the existing one on the current iPhone 4 model.
The lens opening is huge. I’d say at least 4x the size, on the Otterbox Defender and Speck Candy Shell cases designed for the next iPhone. This is exciting.
A bigger lens means more light gets passed through, and that’s a really good thing. I just hope Apple upgraded the size on the supposed 8 MP image sensor.
And then…
After I finished writing this up, I went through the comments. It seems the Speck Candy Shell with the huge lens opening has been at AT&T and Verizon stores for a couple of months already. The small lens opening was interfering with the flash was the reason the case was redesigned with a bigger opening. Shucks.
I shouldn’t be too disappointed though. A big opening like that would have made the iPhone 4S look a bit weird. And I can trust Apple to continue improving the camera without having to make the lens bigger. Case in point is the iPhone 4. As far as I can tell the lens is the same size as the previous iPhones. But the iPhone 4 takes significantly better photos and videos than the 3G/3GS.
Apple increased the number of pixels from three megapixels to five, but what usually happens is more pixels are crammed into the same-sized image sensor. This leads to smaller pixels on the sensor and smaller pixels generally mean less light gathering capability. And that in turn means lower quality photographs and videos. That’s not what happened with the iPhone 4 though.
Apple kept the size of each pixel on the image sensor the same and made the image sensor bigger and employed backside illumination (BSI) technology.
BSI puts the light-blocking transistors on the back to improve light transmission to the sensors. So same lens size, same pixel size, but more pixels that can absorb more light, and much better photos and videos.
Will Apple do something like this with the iPhone 4S as it moves from five megapixels to eight? I’m betting on it.
Verizon clearly favors the former. John Gruber at Daring Fireball:
Verizon’s interests are better served in a carrier-dominated industry, rather than a handset-dominated industry, and Apple is heading toward a dominant position.
Florian Mueller at FOSS Patents details implications for Verizon taking sides with Samsung:
This attempt by Verizon to interfere with Apple’s enforcement of intellectual property rights against Android in general and Samsung in particular is a declaration of war that may have far-reaching consequences in the U.S. market.
Verizon filed a request for permission to file an amicus curiae brief in support of Samsung. What is an amicus curiae brief?
An amicus curiae brief is a way for third parties with an interest in the outcome of a lawsuit to present their views to the court. The judge will now have to decide whether Verizon is admitted as an amicus curiae, which literally means “friend of the court”. Verizon has already filed its proposed brief, and most likely the judge won’t deny the carrier’s request to intervene. However, it remains to be seen whether the judge will believe that the market-leading carrier represents the public interest [...]
And that’s where Gruber’s insight becomes crucial. Verizon isn’t a neutral third party representing the public’s interest. The largest wireless carrier in the U.S. is without any doubt interested in curtailing Apple’s dominance. In a broader sense Verizon is speaking on behalf of all wireless carriers in their desire to regain their once dominant position. And this goes against the public interest. I don’t want Verizon logos on my phone. I don’t want undeletable Verizon-branded crapware on my phone. I don’t want Verizon in a position to dictate how a phone should look or function. Remember the days when the carriers in effect determined what phones we could get? I don’t want to return to those days. I want a future where more companies like Apple make those decisions.
That’s one of ten reasons Don Reisinger at eWeek raised as to why Apple’s iPad 3 might face trouble at launch. The Macalope responds:
Does everyone buy a new Mac every year? No. Do Macs still sell well every year? Yes. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!
That was number four. Reisinger’s number six:
Consumers Are Looking for Bigger Displays
He’s referring to the bigger 10.1-inch displays. What sayeth The Macalope?
The screen on the iPad is 9.7 inches. The Macalope defies Don to find a meaningful collection of consumers who would buy an Android tablet over an iPad because of a 0.4-inch difference in the screen size.
There’s eight more where that came from; be sure to check it out.
I noticed something interesting the day I was confined to just 13” of screen space. Even though I couldn’t see everything I needed to operate and reference at once, I became more focused. Only seeing one window at a time enabled me to mentally hunker down on the task at hand. My actions felt purposeful; my decisions, deliberate. Surprisingly, my productivity didn’t suffer. I did slow down, but also experienced a calm efficiency—similar to that which is required when fastening the innumerable rows of snaps on a screaming baby’s pajamas. If you rush, you’re going to mess up; if you miss snaps, it’s going to take longer. And rushing makes you sweat. Never let the baby see you sweat.
Walton usually does his design work on a 27-inch iMac but it broke down for a day. Going from a 27-inch LCD with 2560×1440 pixels down to a 13-inch with much less could be limiting. And that’s exactly what happened: he was forced to limit his focus on the task at hand one task at a time. In his post he shares more secrets to his unitasking success.
A whopping 89 percent of iPhone owners have indicated they will stick with Apple for their next handset, dwarfing all other hardware makers, according to a new survey.
The survey was conducted by UBS Investment Research. I’m part of that 89%, but with a twist. When I complete my two year sentence with AT&T I will stick with the iPhone but move to a different carrier. Most likely Sprint. Hopefully the unlimited data plan will survive until around this time next year. #2 HTC had a 39% retention rate.
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