Coming out of the keynote, the answer was “no”. The iPhone X presented a truly monumental improvement over the Plus form factor and is a phone I actually have no complaints about. The phone is fast enough, Face ID works well for me, the cameras are excellent, and coming from a 7 Plus, I didn't lose screen size by moving to a physically smaller phone.

In contrast to other “S” years, which brought autofocus and video recording (3GS), Siri (4S), Touch ID (5S), 3D Touch and optical image stabilization (6S), the iPhone XS’s slight speed and questionable camera improvements made it seem as though there just wasn’t enough there to warrant upgrading to an iPhone XS from the iPhone X.

So what am I doing writing about my experience with the iPhone XS? Well, one thing that is significantly different this year is the availability of a larger model. I really like the iPhone X size (finding the 6/7/8 too small and the Plus too large), but since old habits die hard and I was planning on waking up to pre-order a new Apple Watch anyway, I figured I might as well tack on a XS Max to my order and give it a go for a couple of weeks.

The iPhone XS Max is more pleasant to use single-handedly than the 6s and 7 Plus, primarily due to the improved grippiness of the glass back over the soap bar-like aluminum back of the older phones. Still, many UI elements, and most importantly Control Center, are impossible to reach without using two hands.

Most apps I use on a regular basis haven't been updated to take advantage of the larger screen (and so present a scaled up 5.8″ interface), and aside from supporting a “regular” landscape size class over the “compact” one of the 4.7″ and 5.8″ iPhones, neither has iOS. Unless you find yourself watching a ton of video or have another compelling need for the larger screen, there's not a lot of benefit to the larger screen of the XS Max in October of 2018.

In previous years, upgrading to the Plus models afforded a higher density screen and an improved or additional camera. This year’s iPhones are the first time that the two sizes of iPhones are offered with no internal difference aside from the Max having a larger battery, which provides an extra hour of battery life.

After getting used to the 5.5″ Plus and then handling a 4.7″ iPhone, the smaller phone felt too small. After getting used to the 6.5″ Max and then handling a 5.8″ iPhone, the smaller phone feels just right.

Does this mean I’m sticking with my iPhone X? Going solely by the keynote and my personal preference towards the smaller phone, the answer would be “yes”. However, the general consensus is that the keynote this year greatly undersold the iPhone XS’s camera improvements. I personally found the camera segment to be uncharacteristically technical; it seemed far too concerned with not hurting previous iPhone’s feelings than it did with describing how much better the XS’s camera is than the specs suggest.

The many reviews that came out between pre-order and launch had no such qualms, and are what ultimately pushed me towards an iPhone XS. John Gruber’s review, Austin Mann’s camera review, and Sebastiaan de With’s technical deep dive all go into how Smart HDR salvages otherwise-unusable photos and how the larger sensor allows for better low-light photography (which is not without its trade-offs, as de With discusses).

As with every other “S” phone, many will dismiss the XS because it looks the same as the previous generation. On the flip side, tech specs rarely tell the whole story, and that’s what Apple focused on at the keynote last month. Even though incremental improvements seem smaller each year, 2-3 years of incremental improvements adds up to something significant.

As iPhone cameras have gotten better, I’ve been leaving my real camera behind, and having the best iPhone camera possible is a pretty big priority for me, so upgrading to the XS (and giving me the opportunity to get on the iPhone Upgrade Program) is a no-brainer. If you’re on an older phone and itching to upgrade, there’s no reason not to (well, maybe one reason: the iPhone XR, a lower-cost alternative to the XS, which ships next week). If you’re on an iPhone X, consider how often you’re hitting that 10% battery warning, how much video you watch, and how many photos you throw away. If it’s a lot, an iPhone XS or XS Max may be more than a minor upgrade to you.

I like the concept of a hands-free, always-listening virtual assistant, but I don’t get a lot of use out of iOS 8’s “Hey Siri” because the times I use Siri don't usually correspond with the times my phone is plugged in. When Amazon announced the Echo, a Siri-like device minus the screen, I signed up for the waiting list right away and purchased one as soon as I received my invitation on December 19^th.

The Echo is packaged in a non-descript black box with an orange interior. Inside the box is the device, power adapter, remote, batteries, and remote stand. There’s also a quick start pamphlet which I can only assume was printed before the Echo name was decided on. There's no mention of “Echo” in the guide to the point of it being awkward – it’s either “your device” or “Alexa”. In fact, the guide sends you to amazon.com/alexasetup and asks for feedback at alexa-feedback@amazon.com.

The Echo’s launch was strange in other ways too. For one, none of the major tech sites have reviews and there’s no way to leave a review for the Echo on Amazon itself; clicking the “Leave a Review” button on the order page took me back to the Echo’s marketing page. Finally, the return period for the Echo is 180 days, in contrast to 30 days for Amazon’s other hardware products, and—SPOILER ALERT—returning it requires a call to Amazon customer service.

Setup is straightforward: You connect your phone to the Echo’s WiFi network and set it up through the companion app. The companion app is terrible. For one, it isn’t optimized for iPhone 6/6 Plus. Second, it’s non-native, and built using some framework that doesn’t even support the rubberband scrolling that’s been in iOS since 1.0.

The voice recognition is spot-on, and the microphones work so well that the Echo can pick up my voice at a normal volume from anywhere in my living room.

However, while Echo can hear me just fine, there isn’t a whole lot you can have it do. It’ll play the news from NPR, the BBC, and a few other stations, play music from Prime Music (both music you’ve purchased and from their streaming service), tell you the weather, answer basic questions (e.g., “How tall is the Empire State Building?”), and add items to your to-do/shopping lists. That’s it.

It doesn’t integrate with calendars, so you can’t ask Echo to tell you what’s on your schedule for the day. Asking for what’s on your calendar for the day will instead give you a Flash Briefing from the news outlets you've configured.

Echo inexplicably maintains two distinct to-do lists, a to-do list and a shopping list, and they both have pretty much the same functionality. For example, neither list allows you to set a date on an item, so “Alexa, remind me in half an hour to check on the oven” becomes the item, “Half an hour to check on the oven”. The only difference between the two lists is that to-do items let you play back what you’ve said to the Echo and shopping list items let you search Amazon and/or Bing for the text of the to-do.

I thought I could hack around the lack of due dates on to-do items by using timers, but it turns out you can only set one timer on the Echo. Even worse, setting another timer while one is active will silently replace the old timer.

Other things you would like the Echo to do, it just doesn't do. When I ask, “How long will it take to get to Laguardia?”, it responds with, “Your current location is 3,570 miles from Laguardia. As I don't know your speed, I can't tell you how long it will take.” If I repeat the question but instead specify “Laguardia International Airport”, Echo tells me it doesn't understand the question but that it‘s “added a Bing search to the Echo app”.

Yup, you’re awkwardly reminded of the fact that the Echo uses Bing every time it can‘t parse a command. There was no way I could find to change the search engine, which really sucks.

To wit: the Bing search‘s first result for my “how long will it take to get to Laguardia International Airport” query is a woefully unhelpful Yahoo! Answers page on how long it takes to get to JFK from Laguardia. The same query on Google results in a Google Maps answer box containing directions from my current location to LGA.

If you’re in the market for a Bluetooth speaker and you don’t need it to be plugged in all the time, then the Echo may be worth considering. If you’re looking for anything more than that, you’ll find the Echo to be a half-baked product with many rough edges. The iOS companion app is an embarassment and it’s lack of integration with any type of calendar or map service make it hard to justify as a productivity tool. It makes for a fun tech demo, but as an actual product that costs actual money, I found that the Echo is way too limited and has no place in my life.

This tweet by Espen Antonsen about Microsoft’s 1997 acquisition of Hotmail got me thinking about acquisition costs per user, so I ran the numbers for other social network acquisitions.

It turns out that Facebook’s purchase of WhatsApp at $35.56/user ($42.22/user if we also include the $3B in RSUs) is in line with average acquisition costs of $35-$40/user.

Sources:

• Hotmail
• Flickr
• MySpace
• Skype
• Delicious
• YouTube
• Skype
• Tumblr

For better or worse, I make major photographic equipment decisions shortly before I get on a plane to a far off land. Though I’ve taken my Canon 40D on multiple trips, I’ve always felt limited by its size and its shortcomings in low-light (despite shooting with an f/1.4 prime and an f/2.8 zoom). Shortly before my trip to China this past May, my Gear Acquisition Syndrome flared up and I began looking for a replacement.

Since the 40D’s release six years ago, Canon’s prosumer line of cameras hasn’t improved much. I considered upgrading to the 5D Mark II, which has a full-frame sensor that provides better performance in low-light, but the prospects of doing so became much less compelling after I compared its size and weight to my already burdensome 40D.

So began my research into mirrorless systems. I had already toyed with a Micro-4/3 system camera a few years back, but its lack of a viewfinder really turned me off. Sony’s NEX-6 and NEX-7 have received good reviews, but the Olympus OM-D EM-5 was really the king of mirrorless cameras.

I found a great deal on a black OM-D EM-5 with the 17mm f/1.8 and 45mm f/1.8 prime lenses and picked up the 9-18mm lens for ultra-wide shooting. Although the two prime lenses have great reputations, I expected a drop off in image quality, low light capability, and usability due to the camera’s smaller sensor and body. The camera proved me wrong right away when I took the camera to see a band made up of second-year MBAs perform at Webster Hall late last semester. Due to the increase in noise associated with higher ISOs, I don’t feel comfortable cranking the 40D past ISO 1600. That night, however, the fast-moving subjects and lack of light forced me to shoot the E-M5 at ISO 6400. I expected the images to be full of noise and generally not publishable, but I was blown away by the camera’s performance.

The images are not completely noise-free, but the noise has, as Jonathan Auch describes it, “a very special, almost organic or ‘film-like’, quality”. Rather than detract from the photograph by showing the limitations of the equipment it was captured on, the noise adds to the aesthetic quality of the image.

Thanks to the camera’s performance and it’s small size, I feel comfortable taking the camera anywhere – I no longer fear that a lack of available light will result in me carrying around a heavy, useless piece of equipment. The Olympus’s small size also makes it feel less intrusive to shoot with. While I do feel more comfortable shooting through the electronic viewfinder, not having to hold up a cubic foot of camera to my face to snap a picture allows me to be subtler in my captures. Thanks to the tilting screen, I can literally shoot from the hip to capture candids that I never would have been able to capture on time or had the nerve to shoot with a larger DSLR.

The rise of excellent optics in smartphones has already put a crunch on the point and shoot market. If an iPhone 5s’ camera is good enough for National Geographic, it’s good enough for Joe’s family vacation. Image quality in smartphone cameras are “good enough” for dedicated use and an abundance of sharing options on all mobile platforms make getting photos out into the world much easier than having to find a USB cable or card reader to get photos on to a computer.

Similarly, the performance of mirrorless systems (Canon and Nikon’s half-hearted attempts notwithstanding) has come close to matching that of DSLRs. While there are still some high-end pursuits that require top-notch image quality at all cost, most hobbyist photographers will find that the convenience of a mirrorless kit, weighing a third of their DSLR kit, that still produces excellent qualities make the decision a no-brainer.

The far superior performance-to-weight ratio of this breed of cameras cannot be overstated. The OM-D EM-5 is light and small enough that I have it in my bag and carry it with me every day. It’s no longer the case that “the best camera is the one I have with me”, but rather, “I always have the best camera with me”.

Justin Blanton on the RX1:

My biggest hangup with the RX1 is psychological. Frankly, I just kind of feel like an idiot using it. It doesn’t have a viewfinder (optical or electronic) and so to frame shots you’re left to hold the camera in front of you and look at the (stunning) LCD display…like an octogenarian tourist trying to get a snap of the Mona Lisa. The process just feels a little silly to me after having spent so many years hiding my face behind large DSLR bodies and lenses. You definitely look like a fresh-out-of-Best-Buy amateur with this thing.

I’ve gone through a couple of viewfinder-less cameras in my search to find a lightweight replacement my DSLR and Justin sums up exactly how I felt after using them. It seems stupid to worry about how you feel when shooting, but if it’s something that keeps you from taking a shot, then the whole point of a carrying a more portable camera disappears, no matter how well it compares to a DSLR.

My iPhone 4S cellular data usage stats from October 22, 2011 to September 22, 2012.

I used 11.4 GB of data in 336 days, or about 34 MB/day. For comparison, I used about 14 MB/day on my iPhone 4.

This continues the trend of increasing data usage with each new device, but the jump from the 4 to the 4S is the largest jump I’ve seen so far (2.4x increase in daily usage). I would attribute the large increase do to my the amount of traveling I did this year. Without WiFi, I relied on my phone quite a bit, especially in countries where tethering was allowed.

See here for my iPhone 4 data usage.
See here for my 3GS data usage.
See here for my 3G data usage.
See here for my original iPhone data usage.

Matt Alexander, on what he came to realize after living a few weeks without an iPad:

The iPad is a means for productivity, entertainment, and communication - it encompasses the tasks we have so often spread across mediums into one centralized and fantastic location. But, in doing so, the door is open for inadvertent and helpless absorption into its environment. Into allowing oneself to reach for the iPad when you would otherwise be open for valuable thinking, reading, writing, and whatever else may be of importance to you.

Sent from my iPad

Marco Arment, writing about speculation that the iPad 3 will be disappointing, even before anyone has seen it:

Knowing no more than you do right now, I can guarantee you: the iPad 3 will disappoint a lot of armchair tech commentators, “analysts”, and anyone who gets paid by the pageview. (How convenient.)

We see this “disappointing” talk from many of the old-timers because they’ve spent 25 years writing about specs and that’s the lens they use to look at the iPad. “It’s not getting a quad-core processor? Android tablets have quad-core chips. How disappointing.”

They don’t care that Apple and third parties ship software that utilizes both cores (iMovie, GarageBand) and that hardly anyone ships Android software that utilizes more than one core, much less all four. They don’t care that Apple may have tweaked last year’s dual-core chip to get better performance and better battery life. According to them, since 2=2 and 2 < 4, the iPad 2 is a lackluster upgrade and is empirically worse than an Android tablet.

Meanwhile, 50 million people couldn’t care less what’s inside an iPad. All that matters is that the hardware and software work together to make a delightful experience. Just look at what Om Malik wrote about giving his iPad 2 to his mother in India:

It didn’t matter how it was happening — just that she could talk to her grandson who was oceans apart from her. If there ever was a moment that captured the emotion in a piece technology, that was it. The look on her face made me realize how lucky I am to write about an industry that makes such things possible. I also thought to myself, maybe somewhere Steve Jobs is smiling too.

Like I said before: It’s not about what it is. It’s about what it does.

There have been reports over the past few weeks that Microsoft is working on a version of Office for the iPad. The main downside most think of to selling an iPad Office suite is that Office is the missing piece to the iPad puzzle and that enterprises will flock to the iPad in lieu of Windows 8 tablets once Office becomes available. There are two issues with this scenario: (1) the iPad is doing fine in the enterprise without Microsoft’s help; and, (2) Microsoft shouldn’t care if they make $15 off of Office for iPad or a Windows 8 license.

Office for iPad actually presents Microsoft with a great opportunity. It’s no secret that Windows Phone 7 reviews well but doesn’t sell well. Part of it has to do with a weak marketing effort on Microsoft’s part, but a lack of enthusiasm among frontline sales reps plays a huge role as well. The average consumer walks into a carrier store knowing about the iPhone, but may be swayed to pick up an Android handset at the salesperson’s behest (which in turn is driven by incentives). Windows Phone never enters the conversation.

Windows 8’s Metro interface is reviewing well, as Gruber mentions in a link to Christian Cantrell’s review of Windows 8 Consumer Preview, but again, Microsoft faces a perception problem. iPads and Macs are eating up PC sales, and so many won’t even give Windows 8 a shot.

Now imagine a world where the average consumer walks into the store knowing about the iPhone and having been wowed by Office for iOS’s Metro interface. Office for iOS isn’t going to push Windows Phone to #1 or #2, but at least Microsoft will be back on the radar. Even if users have already chosen the iPad for their tablet, an Office/Metro halo effect can drive those iPad users to Windows PCs and phones.

Along those lines, an iOS version of Office also allows Microsoft to establish a foothold with their own ecosystem – particularly their cloud storage solution, SkyDrive. If a user becomes dependent on Office for iOS and ends up storing all their documents on their personal SkyDrive or their company’s SharePoint server (because that’s all Office for iOS supports), they will likely seek out a PC solution that’s compatible with what they currently have. So would they rather go with a Mac, whose version of Office is usually a year or two behind the Windows version and never offers the same exact features, or go with Windows, whose version of Office receives first-class support from Microsoft and uses that cool Metro interface that they wish all of iOS had?

My iPhone 4’s usage stats from July 9, 2010 to October 12, 2011.

I used 5.6 GB in 410 days (460 days minus 50 days spent out of the country for work), or about 13.6 MB/day. For comparison, my iPhone 3GS used 3.1 GB in 381 days, or 8.13 MB/day.

It’s not quite the doubling I saw when going from 1st Gen to 3G or 3G to 3GS, something I would attribute to iOS 5, which I’ve been running since the early summer. I always had WiFi off prior to iOS 5, but with the new wireless syncing feature, I am using WiFi exclusively at home and at work and only dropping down to 3G when I’m not at either.

In contrast, I got my 4S Saturday morning and was out of town until Sunday afternoon. The usage counter on the 4S reads 53.4 MB, or about 25.7 MB/day.

See here for my 3GS data usage.

See here for my 3G data usage.

See here for my original iPhone data usage.

Link to Photo

The latest version of the iPhone and iPad operating system, iOS 5, comes out today and is available for third and fourth generation iPod touches, all iPads, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

There are a ton of great features included in the update, but the feature that will have the most profound impact, especially for people who don’t plug their devices into their computers every day, is free iCloud backup. In addition to copying any new content to the device, iTunes also backs up your device’s data to the computer. The type of data that is backed up includes:

• Photos and videos in your Camera Roll
• Messages
• App data
• Device settings
• Home screen layout

If you ever lose your device and need to get a new one, you can restore the device using the latest backup and the device will look exactly as it did at the time the last backup was taken. The key here is “at the time the last backup was taken”. If you haven’t plugged your phone into your computer in a month and then need to replace it, all of the photos, videos, text messages, and notes taken in the past month are gone. Even better: you can restore the device from anywhere there’s a WiFi connection – you don’t have to wait to get home to get up and running.

With iCloud backup, your device is backed up to Apple’s servers daily, as long as it’s plugged in and connected to WiFi. BOOM You no longer have an excuse for not having an up-to-date backup of your phone.

HOW TO GET IT

In order to get iOS 5 and iCloud backup, you do need to update to iTunes 10.5 and you do have to plug your device into iTunes one last time (future software updates come directly to your phone – another benefit of having iOS 5). Once you plug the device in, iTunes will tell you that a new version of iOS is available and ask you if you want to upgrade. If it doesn’t, you can check manually by clicking on your device on the left hand side and then click “Check for Update” near the middle of the screen.

After the upgrade is complete, go into your device’s Settings, tap on iCloud and follow the instructions on the screen in order to set up iCloud and iCloud backup.

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

–Steven P. Jobs, 1955 – 2011

Link to Photo

Ben Brooks has a post up describing the situation most of us are in: despite being loyal AT&T customers for at least the past four years (thirteen years in my case), we aren’t eligible for the full discount on the new iPhone 4S.

Instead, AT&T offers a smaller subsidy for those close to the full discount date, but not quite there yet. Ben, along with most people who bought their iPhone 4s on Day 1, aren’t eligible until November 18th. In my case, I’m not eligible until March 10, 2012 as a result of family members having used upgrades recently. If you have upgrades available on other lines in your family plan, the upgrades are pooled and can be used for a phone on any line, so you can use one of those to get your shiny new iPhone 4S and you can stop reading now if you want.

PAYING THE ETF

The full subsidy for an iPhone 4S is $450 and the smaller subsidy is $200. For a lot of people, the early termination fee of $325 minus $10 for every month you’ve been under contract is less than the difference between the two subsidies, meaning that it makes more sense to pay the ETF and start a new contract with AT&T. Unfortunately, AT&T has policies in place to prevent this from being an option. First, there is no way to pay the ETF without canceling your account. Second, if you do cancel your account, you have to wait 90 days until you’re considered a new customer. If you open a new account before the 90 days have elapsed, AT&T will just reactivate your old account.

GOING UNLOCKED

Since the small subsidy is only $200, one might be tempted to just pay the no-commitment price for the iPhone 4S and save the upgrade for the next iPhone. For the iPhone 4, the unlocked price and the no-commitment-but-locked-to-AT&T price are the same, so it made more sense to buy the unlocked iPhone. I tried to see if the same is true for the iPhone 4S, but I couldn’t find the pricing for the unlocked iPhone 4S. I started a chat with an Apple rep who told me that there would be no unlocked iPhone 4S at launch.

OUR OPTIONS

Now that Sprint is joining the fray and Verizon has the iPhone 4S at launch, it’s curious that AT&T is going to such great lengths to inconvenience their customers. Taking a longer-term view of things, and assuming that the iPhone 5 pricing will leave us in the same boat, here are the options available to us (these are numbers for 16 GB models; add $200 for two 32 GB models or $400 for two 64 GB models):

• $640 - Switch to Sprint or Verizon, then switch to the other or back to AT&T for the iPhone 5 and paying a $240 ETF. Probably not worth it.
• $650 - Switch to Sprint or Verizon and get half-subsidy pricing on the iPhone 5.
• $850 - Pay no-commitment pricing, and then get the full-subsidy for the iPhone 5.
• $900 - Pay the half-subsidy pricing, re-up for two years, and then get the half-subsidy pricing again on the iPhone 5.

Amazon just announced the Kindle Fire, a 7" tablet priced at $199. In contrast to the existing Android tablets out there, Amazon doesn’t focus on specs. In fact, Amazon offers just as many specs on the main Kindle Fire page as Apple does on the iPad page – they tell us that the Fire has a dual-core processor (but no mention of clock speed, amount of cache, model number, etc) and that the Fire has a 7" screen with IPS technology, “similar technology to that used on the iPad” (their words, not mine).

For example, the Motorola XOOM page tells us (if we have Flash installed): “The dual-core process MOTOROLA XOOM has a larger screen, more pixels and higher-quality front- and rear-facing cameras than the competition.” These types of marketing messages have questionable value because they require consumers to assume that “better than” comes with no strings attached and assumes that consumers can draw the conclusion that better specs imply higher utility.

Instead, Amazon sets aside those assumptions and clearly articulates the utility of the device: you can read books and magazines, watch TV and movies, listen to music, check email (a jab at the email-less RIM Playbook, no doubt), use apps and play games.

Rather than telling us what the Kindle Fire is and expecting us to figure out what it can do, Amazon saves us the trouble and tells us what it does. And what it does is extremely compelling.

From Chris Ziegler’s review of the Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch (yes, that’s the real name):

Sprint and Samsung appear to have shown a lot of restraint regarding third-party apps and crapware. Besides the typical TouchWiz apps, the phone throws in a shortcut to download a trial version of N.O.V.A. 2 HD ($4.99 for the full game), NASCAR, Sprint ID, Sprint Mobile, Sprint Music Plus, Sprint Radio, Sprint TV & Movies, Sprint Zone, and TeleNav GPS. Some — NASCAR and Sprint Music Plus, for instance — can be uninstalled, but some cannot.

Nine pre-installed apps, six of which can’t be uninstalled (assuming the N.O.V.A. 2 shortcut can be deleted), shows “a lot of restraint”? Man, Android and iPhone users live in two completely different worlds.