After watching Apple’s keynote for the iPhone 6 and the Apple Watch, it’s safe to say that Apple wants to integrate itself in all possible aspects of our lives. From the innovative Apple Pay to Apple Health, an Apple product a day may be enough to keep you away from traditional items you’ve used for years, such as the newspaper, and even your wallet. We all know that Apple is ridiculously amazing at marketing anything, but are there more exciting features that make me really want the new iPhone 6, or should I just stick to the iOS 8 upgrade?
iPhone 6 Exclusive Features
When I first began watching the announcement Tuesday evening (a little late, yes), I was excited to see what Apple had in store, but also very skeptical. Every product announcement that comes from Apple is “the best iPhone EVER,” a product that’s “going to change everything,” and they always, somehow, manage to convince everybody that they cannot go another day in their ordinary lives without this extraordinary new device. For every iPhone release, we expect the same things: a bigger screen, better resolution, and a better camera. So how would the iPhone 6 be any better or different from the iPhone 5S or 5C? Do I really need to shell out all that money for a new contract and a new phone?
Mobile Wallet
Apple aims to revolutionize the way we go about our everyday life, and the Mobile Wallet is no exception to that. Ever felt so inconvenienced by having to pull your wallet out of your pocket and decide which credit card to use? Have no fear – Apple has solved the issue for you! With the new Mobile Wallet feature, you can pay for lower-priced items using the integration of Passbook and Touch ID. Skeptical about Apple storing your credit card information and purchase history? They claim to do neither – instead assigning your credit card a one-time unique number that is used to complete the transaction with the merchant. Apple claims they won’t see your purchases or track your purchasing behavior.
Better Battery Life
One of the more exciting but lesser innovative features of the new iPhone 6 is better battery life, which means 11 hours of video watching and Wi-Fi browsing. As Apple gives us reason to become even more dependent on our cell phones, a longer battery life is absolutely necessary.
Faster Networking & Internal Processer
The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus boast a 64-bit A8 chip processor and M8 co-processor. For those of you who are like me and have no idea what that means, the Apple iPhone 6 is now 25% faster and 50% more efficient than its predecessor thanks to the A8 chip. Additionally, the M8 measures your motion activity for the Health app without draining your battery life. The M8 chip also can measure elevation and tell when you take the stairs,
thanks to a new feature called “Barometer.”
Larger Screen Displays
As people have complained that Apple’s screen is too small to watch movies on (seriously people, go an hour without watching TV I dare you), Apple has announced that its iPhone 6 will boast a screen of 4.7 inches, and 5.5 inches for the iPhone 6 Plus, going for a “Phablet” look.
Improved Camera
Selfie-obsessed Millennials rejoice: the newest iPhone boasts an 8-megapixel camera, an improved sensor, True Tone flash, and an even faster autofocus. This means you can take even more selfies in a fraction of the time it took you before!
iOS 8
Despite these new features for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, most of the cool new features are available from iOS8, which can be downloaded onto your outdated and totally lame iPhone 5. Sure, mobile wallets are convenient, as is better battery life and a faster processor. But let’s be real here: nobody who has an iPhone 5 should be crying poverty. If you are due for an upgrade, I suggest you take it. My mom has an iPhone 4S for example and it’s time for her to trade on up, not because its embarrassing that she has such an old phone, but because the functionality of her phone is decreasing by the day. However, if you have a newer iPhone model and are considering the upgrade, I suggest saving your money and instead downloading iOS8 for free; these are my reasons why.
Health and HealthKit
Arguably the coolest feature for fitness geeks like myself, Apple’s new HealthKit feature syncs with third-party apps and services to measure your fitness activity in order to provide you with a “health dashboard.” You can measure your heart rate, calories burned, blood sugar, cholesterol, and even create an emergency card that is accessible from your Lock screen. While the new iPhone 6 boasts the M8 chip, which is more advanced in measuring your motion activity, it is not essential to the use of the app itself.
Better Chat
Texting just became so much more. Instead of being able to send one picture at a time, now you can send multiple. You can also name, mute, or leave group chats, which we all know can be both annoying and serious battery drainers. You can also tap your messages to add video, voice, or your current location at a much faster speed. لعبة القمار اون لاين Apple has also graced us with the convenience of tapping to see any attachment in the text conversation, instead of having to scroll up through endless messages. Thanks Apple!
Interactive Notifications
Ever been so-in-the-zone playing Candy Crush or Words With Friends that you couldn’t respond to a text? Drop down notifications for texts, tweets, and calendar events are now actionable, meaning you can interact with these features without having to switch out of the app you are currently using. بوكر اون لاين Hallelujah!
Keyboard Enhancements
QuickType will feature predictive typing suggestions, allowing you to not only type out messages faster, but finally your iPhone will stop autocorrecting to “ducking!” Additionally third-party keyboard support will come with iOS8. Apps like SwiftKey lead the way in keyboard support apps, which already embody the predictive typing software by memorizing syntax, slang, and social language usage. I hope Apple can totes keep up with all my abbrevs!
Integration of Siri and Shazam
Siri is now voice accessible with the command “Hey Siri,” and she can even identify songs for you and direct you to the iTunes store to purchase the song. I foresee many “accidental” embarrassing song purchases in the future of those who have had a beer too many. Way to capitalize on us during our weakest moments, Apple!
Self Destructing Photos and Recovering Deleted Photos
IOS8 will feature a “Recently Deleted” album in the photos app, for all those who may have mistakenly deleted a good photo (or selfie). Additionally, following the lead of what Snapchat originally was supposed to be, iPhone users will now have the option to make a photo “self-destruct” after 2 minutes. طريقة الربح في لعبة الروليت
Continuity Between Devices
When Orange is the New Black season 2 premiered, I did not want to do anything else with my life other than watch it. However, I was inconvenienced by the fact that my seating location of choice did not have an outlet nearby, meaning that when my computer died, I was SOL. Now, with Apple’s latest feature of Continuity, you can start something on your computer, and finish it on your phone or iPad (or any other combination of the 3), so long as these devices are nearby. Thanks, Apple, for helping me maintain my addiction to Netflix!
Verdict: Save Your Money & Download iOS8
Unless you’re trying to be the next Annie Liebowitz, suffer an actual addiction to your phone, or are truly inconvenienced by the fact that you have to have a wallet, I suggest keeping your iPhone 5, 5c or 5s, and simply downloading the software update. While the price tag for the iPhone 6 is no different than the price when the iPhone 4 or 5 were released, most of the truly great and useful features come in the software update.
