Same story with the 8, the more I think about it the more I’m tempted to just keep this one… but then my contract is (just) up, so while there is a potential saving to be had (vs a cost increase for an upgrade), it’s not that much more and I do have a family full of children gleefully eyeing off my 8 Plus as an upgrade
I haven’t had a chance to look yet today, but a quick glance doesn’t seem to list pricing for Telstra or Optus yet? Although the guestimate is 11 Pro Max 256GB going for ~$135/m on Optus and $150/m on Telstra.
I suppose it’s a question of market vs effort. Will it sell xx% better if that worked or not? I live in hope none the less as I get older.
The battery on my 7 is very marginal now. I could get the battery replaced I suppose, but nah, I will let it start crapping out and then get a new one, probably iPhone 12.
Re the ECG reading on AW 4&5, I would not be surprised if:
(A) Apple Australia has not gotten off its arse, being little more than a glorified importer; or
(B) our regulatory arrangements have no provision for such a device (ie a device that does not have the accuracy of a rolled gold, multi hundred thousand dollar ECG machine), and would require Apple Australia to lobby for a new regulatory provision, and thus see (A).
I’m porting back to Telstra this time around (as it turns out). Optus wanted $145 vs Telstra at $149 (256GB iPhone 11 Pro Max 256GB on the 60GB Plans), I’ve been thinking of switching for a little while and for $4 / month I think it’s worth it.
Strangely, the first time through it said they were unavailable, the second time around the order seems to have gone through… Will see what happens over the next week I suppose.
They do have provision for those devices. But their decisionmaking process is snails pace. Glacial even. There’s also the matter of money… who gets it, how much, and what its paying for. I don’t know how the system works, really, but as an insulin dependent diabetic I am still waiting for them to approve a subsidy for the Freestyle Libre sensor… which costs $100 every two weeks. And yet here we are 2 or 3 years down the track and no closer to getting it. If I lived in Europe it would cost me nothing.
This was almost the year I didn’t get an iPhone (would have been the first time since the original iPhone). But with the better battery life, I kind of thought why not, I was worried though, I’m going on holiday on Monday the 23rd and I thought if I order and don’t get launch day delivery I’ll have to cancel. Didn’t get through until about 10.05pm. But got the 20th.
Mine took a couple of attempts before it worked, gave me an order number but as someone who is porting in it also said I would get a text message with a code which might take up to four hours. Nothing yet, although it was 10pm, will see what happens today.
I was surprised how it seemed easy to get the phone on 20/9. I thought I’d miss out for sure. But I even ordered the watch late this morning and still got 20/9. Either there’s less demand or more supply.
That doesn’t bode well for Apple - the phones have just become way too expensive especially the high end ones. The two phones I got with AppleCare totaled over $4k. That’s a lot.
… So, apparently I don’t have an online order… But the Telstra store was able to port my number today, place an order for pickup at the Telstra store and confirm 20/09 pickup all done after lunch today. At that point in time they still had 59 units (256GB Space Grey Pro Max) available in the system for pre-order which really does beg that question over supply vs demand vs price.
Even Apples own store is showing all models as available for in store pickup on 20/09. Delviery dates seem to be a little different with some things delivering on the 20th and others various dates from 24/09 to early October.
I’m running the watchOS 6 beta - ECG not available.
The article you quoted is from the US - ECG is not available in Australia and is limited by the watch sensing where you are and not allowing you to access it.
Apple would be in deep trouble if they allowed it here without regulatory approval.
Like many people, I gave the 5G question a bit of thought.
Buying the iPhone X after the iPhone 7 meant that this was a potential upgrade year for me, which I had to weigh against the likely possibility of 5G next year. But thinking about it, I was OK with buying this year, and sitting next year’s 5G upgrade out, all because 5G tech is still in its infancy, at least as far as modems go.
When it comes down to it, even if 5G modems are “good” next year, it’ll likely be another year before it’s in enough places in Australia to make it worthwhile as a potential iPhone selling point.
It’s another point in the “it’s getting harder to sell iPhones” column, as the incremental updates are getting increasingly, uh, incremental each year.
Me, this time last year:
Comparing the iPhone X, the iPhone XS, and iPhone 11 Pro from this year tells a slightly different tale: while there’s still only a handful of differences from the iPhone XS to the iPhone 11 Pro, there’s enough truly new stuff from the iPhone X that make it a worthwhile upgrade.
At least more than the XS was to the X last year, IMHO.
But after we get 5G, what next? What’s the next big upgrade? I don’t know. But I hope someone at Apple does.
My understanding is that the initial roll out of 5G is limited to a frequency band near the band used for 4G. The performance will be better than 4G, but not astoundingly better. The initial modem chips used will be power hungry at first and the coverage patchy at best. Despite this, Telstra plan to charge extra for a 5G plan, because they are Telstra.
In a few years they are supposed to also start using a much higher frequency band that offers a great leap in performance, but a poor range. The signal will not penetrate buildings as well as the signal at the lower frequencies. Again, initial coverage will be patchy, and chips power hungry. 5G phones bought now may not even support those frequencies.
In time, modem chips will be built in to the phone SOC ( system on a chip) providing better performance, power efficiency and space savings.
In short, there does not appear to be much advantage in looking for 5G when selecting a new phone in the next year or two, unless you want to pay extra to be at the bleeding edge.
Another factor to consider is the very small amount of 5G coverage, that’s not going to improve much for at least a couple of years.
I admit, it could be useful at the MCG during finals time when 3G and 4G are congested and the wifi is over subscribed (and similar very limited usage cases) but that’s not really a compelling reason to upgrade (unless you work at the MCG)
