Yesterday was a big day for Apple and Apple fans.
During their highly anticipated keynote in the new Apple Headquarters in California, CEO Tim Cook didn't only pay tribute to Steve Jobs, but also introduced some new Apple products.
Since the first ever iPhone was launched exactly 10 years ago, it was obvious that a special kind of phone was about to be released.
As I already stated in a post a few months ago, information had already leaked about the new iPhone - but until then, everything was still a speculation.
Now, it's been confirmed -
Apple has announced the revolutionary iPhone X, as well as an iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.
iPhone X
The iPhone X (which is actually pronounced "iPhone ten") is the most innovative smartphone we've seen from apple yet.
It's supposed to be released November 3rd, but as we know it's not always easy to actually get your hands on new apple products once they come out.
The price starts at $999, which is very expensive for a smartphone. The price factor is actually something that sparked a huge discussion online, about whether this price was justified and how much a smart phone should cost.
What do you think about the price - reasonable or overpriced?
Design and Screen
The iPhone X screen is almost completely bezel-less. It misses the home button and features a 5.8 inch super retina display. The OLED screen offers "accurate, stunning colors, true blacks, high brightness, and a 1,000,000 to 1 contrast ratio."
The phone itself is made with "the most durable glass ever in a smartphone", and it's water and dust resistant.
Camera
The iPhone X features a dual 12MP camera at the back featuring optical image stabilization, fast lenses and are depth sensing.
The wide-angle and telephoto cameras enable both optical- and digital zoom of up to 10x for photos and 6x for videos.
The 7 MP "true depth" front camera now also offers Portrait mode, enabling you to take artsy selfies with blurred backgrounds.
Another new feature within the portrait mode is portrait lighting, where you can switch between different light settings to achieve different effects on your picture.
Wireless charging
Wireless charging is nothing new - owners of certain android smartphones have already been using this feature for years.
But now, finally has already jumped on the bandwagon and integrated charging with the Qi wireless chargers, which are already being used in airports and hotels around the world (and they're even featured in an IKEA collection!)
Apple also plans to release the AirPower mat in 2018, a thin mat where you can place up to 3 different devices to charge wirelessly.
Animoji
Animoji is a new feature that hasn't been leaked before. Everyone was totally surprised by it and it turns out that most people actually thought this was the coolest / most interesting feature of the iPhone X !
Animoji gives you the ability to animate your favorite Emojis with your own facial expressions.
Since the iPhone X is equipped with face mapping techniques, the truedepth front camera analyzes more than 50 different muscle movements to mirror facial expressions in 12 different Animoji.
Face ID
The most controversial feature is probably the face ID, which is why I've saved it for last.
It works by projecting over 30,000 invisible dots on your face, to create a facial map.
An integrated infrared camera then recognizes the dot pattern, captures an infrared image, and transfers the data to the secure enclave in the A11 Bionic chip to confirm a match and unlock the phone or make a payment.
The process is encrypted and protected by the Secure Enclave, and was designed to resist fraud with photos or masks.
The machine learning feature of the A11 chip recognizes your face, even if you change something about your physical appearance - glasses, hats, different hair colors and make up won't affect it.
Security concerns
Facial recognition is a new technology that we will see a lot more of in the future. Although some people might not be comfortable with it, I've already wrote a post about it 2 months ago, and I will say it again:
Facial recognition is on the rise, and no one can stop this movement - it will undoubtedly become a part of future technologies, whether we like it or not.
For some, it might seem scary, risky, or just plain stupid to use it in a smartphone, but it's a futuristic feature.
Famous whistleblower Edward Snowden was one of the first to publicly state his opinion about the safety of Face ID.
In conclusion, he said it's positive that Face ID already had a panic turn-off - but he also said that face scanning is "a tech certain to be abused".
What is your overall opinion about the iPhone X, the price, and features like Animoji or Face ID?
Which feature are you must excited about?
© Sirwinchester
Good one
upvote for this comment and the op
Will the face recognition prevent your phone from been unlocked while you are alseep
your eyes have to be open, and looking at phone. So no crazy girlfriend can unlock it, LMAO
I feel more comfortable with this now.... Thanks for the the helpful reply, mate. Though I might have to see off parts of my Dad's car to get the phone
Now the next thing they should do is make a phone that actually functions properly!
As I told my friend X for Expensive :-)
I just build a gaming rig for the same price. Way more worthwhile.
you should also do some mining with it. Currently it is worth it.
WOW! Nice features, here in Mexico is good amount of mula! Defenetly worth it for camera lovers! Thanks for sharing. Cheers from Mexico amigo!
Yeah actually this would be my only reason to buy it. The camera is really good and has all the features which the Iphone 8 Plus has.
Aaaand you can buy a car for the same price 😂
I saw a meme on Instagram that was like:
all the things you could buy instead of an iPhone X - 10 pairs of jordans, 100x lunch, 1 month rent...
It's really crazy, smartphones are coming close to the price of laptops nowadays.
They will probably replace laptops soon...
But not with facial recognition, unless you buy KITT, but that's more than $1000.
BTW, the price in Europe will be 1159 euros, there is something weird going on here, a quick conversion tells me 999 dollars is about 840 euros.
It's an stupid amount of money for something like this, in my opinion.
Regarding the features; this animoji stuff does not interest me at all. The camera's will probably be okay, we'll see what the first impressions are.
But I do have some grave concern about the facial recognition part.
Maybe I'm just naturally paranoid, but I will never use that. Hell, I even have the camera on my laptop taped off. No, not really, but the risk of abuse only keeps getting higher and higher.
The price of shipping over the Atlantic? 😏
LOL, they're all made in China, so that shouldn't be it.
I think maybe translation costs from US English to UK English ;-)
Excelente post, muy interesante, gracias por compartirlo.
Saludos :)
Gracias! :)
wow,, this is really amazing
Technology is really indeed moving so fast
i was really amazed when i saw that
We are getting enslaved 😳
WAOOOO!!!, en Venezuela estará disponible en un precio extravagante lamentablemente !!!
@sirwinchester Thanks for publishing this Charming instant in time for yourself..
Oh,that's interesting,Let me translate this post in my language Myanmar.
@sirwinchester Excellent Tale. Awesome you ended up in the position to hustle your way out of your respective condition.
The fact that they are touting the animoji stuff is absurd for adults, unless maybe parents are buying $1200 phones for their kids? Not in this house. Thanks for the info. I'm trying to figure out if I should go 8 or X. I mostly only care about the camera.
you got to give to apple , when we thought they were running out of ideas they gave us iphone x. what next for apple .... who knows. they have stunning designs for X