IPhone 6C, 7, 5Se rumours...

Officially, nothing is known about the next iPhone. For all I know Apple might have decided that enough is enough and they're just gonna focus on cars and new MacBooks. Rumours and speculation are always rife and here's a few I've heard going around which may or may not be true...

iPhone 6c

Basically a plastic 4 inch version of the iPhone 6 with mostly the same internals only a cheaper build, and more budget friendly price point. Seems feasible.

iPhone 5se

Rumored to be an updated iPhone 5s with a 4-inch display, A8/M8 chips, the 8/1.2 megapixel cameras from the iPhone 6, and Apple Pay.

Seems to be a weird name, but maybe it could stick. Perhaps it's a code name. Certainly the premise seems like it could fly.

The end of the headphone jack

A fair amount of rumours out there that suggest the next major release of the iPhone is going to do away entirely with the 3.5mm headphone jack in favour of relying on a new set of bundled EarPods which work wirelessly over Bluetooth.

Sure, why not, right? Except all your existing wired earphone would be rendered useless overnight. 

On the positive side though, the lack of an opening in the iPhone body for headphones could make it easier for....

Dustproofing and waterproofing 

Could the iPhone 7 really be entirely waterproof? It is known that the existing iPhone can resist a fair amount of H20 exposure. 

Could Apple be making this official? It's something that the general public would certainly be looking for. A very very useful feature.

Wireless charging

A technology that has existed for a while, and a chance for Apple to milk it with selling accessories!

Redesigned form factor

As with each major release (ie. Not an 'S' release), this is the norm. Sorry no clue what though. Perhaps slimmer if there's no headphone jack.

Storage starting at 32gb

With Apple's fairly successful foray into the rented and subscription based media scene, users are dying to get that additional storage on the Low range model in order to take full advantage. A 32gb base model seems the logical step.

OLED display

OLED means thinner, brighter and lighter devices. That makes sense. 

Better camera

Some Rumours have emerged that suggest there could be a second rear camera to simultaneously capture pano and zoomed shots. This kind of thing is unseen. Who knows?

That's the round-up anyway. Let me know your thoughts in the comments...

Microsoft Lumia 550 - Windows 10 Mobile on a budget

When I was back in the UK this Christmas, I was doing some supermarket shopping and happened to stumble upon the Lumia 550 on the shelf advertised for £99. I'd already heard of the device, knowing that it would be debuting with Windows 10 Mobile installed on it alongside the higher specced 950 and 950XL.
I asked to purchase one and was told that it was locked to a network and that they have to remain locked for a year before they will unlock it officially.

I went away and decided that I needed to get one of these somehow to try out the latest iteration of Windows 10 Phone/Mobile/for Mobile. Friend of mine was coming over from Chicago, so I asked to pick me up an unlocked version. Retailed at $139 (USD), and came out at $153 after taxes added.


So now I have one in my hands, and I got the chance to start it up, play around with it and use it as my daily driver for a few days. Here's what happened:

1) The device is packaged well, with just a charger. No earphones, no removable USB cable, nothing. But what would you expect for this price. It's a bargain.


2) For the price, the screen on this phone is excellent. Bright colours, not too bad viewing angles.

3) Despite being a budget phone, the performance of this device is not bad at all, and is 4G LTE.

Those three points had me feeling pleasantly satisfied with myself for investing in such a great value phone. Maybe I'd sell my iPhone, maybe I'd subscribe to Groove Music, maybe  I'd consider an upgrade to a 950 or 950XL at some point....


Then, Windows 10 Mobile happened.

I've loved the concept of Windows Phone and their live tile interface since it came out. I had a Samsung Omnia 7 and thought it was great. It really is awesome. However, since the days of Windows Phone 7, things haven't really moved on in terms of the platform. I mean, how long do you want to fill the app-gap? Its not as noticeable anymore, but it is noticeable.

Also, if you're going to release a new operating system, make sure it's ready for primetime. Windows 10 Mobile is nowhere near ready. It had 38 updates waiting for me right out of the box. And those updates took over an hour to download, install and finish. Then after that, there was an entirely new OS update 10.0.10586.29, which took about 2 hours to download, prepare to install, then install. Not good Microsoft, not good at all.

Anyway, I finally got to using the device and it looks very pretty. But, it isn't always responsive, and then there's the settings app which looks much nicer than the settings of Windows Phone past, and matches the desktop settings app, but, still is confusing for finding some things as basic as changing the timeout time for the screen turning off.

Alongside that, I set the alarm to wake me up in the morning, and it just flat didn't work. Didn't go off at all. The settings were right but it didn't go off. Annoying.

Then I downloaded WhatsApp, and tried to use it with my phone on silent. But, when WhatsApp notifications arrived they still made a noise.

I could go on more about irritations of Windows 10 Mobile, it just doesn't seem to be finished. It feels like beta software.


Another slight annoyance with the device is that it is a fingerprint magnet (I believe the white version wouldn't be so much though).

After everything is said and done, even after one or two days I'm longing for my iPhone 6S Plus again. And I will definitely go back to it, feeling ultra disappointment that Microsoft STILL has not got their act together.

Despite this, if you're in the market for a cheap phone that does the basics just fine, then this wouldn't be a bad device to go for, but comparing it to the 640XL of my friend's, I would suggest you go for that at the moment, because Windows 10 Mobile just isn't ready yet.


UPDATE:
Several other reviews suggested this device has all day battery life. I can confirm that for me this hasn't been the case. With intermittent use such as Facebook, Twitter and a few other apps, the battery was down to 5% before 6pm. Whereas my iPhone which had not been charged since the day before was still at 12%.