“New” Features of the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch

The iPhone 6 and the Apple Watch have most likely been blowing up your Facebook and Twitter news feeds, and it will most likely only get worse when the devices are actually available for purchase.

The iPhone 6 unlike any other smartphone I have seen is available in two different sizes. The nice thing about this is that if you like a smaller phone you have the option between a 4.7, or 5.5 inch screen.

Besides that though I, along with many others are struggling to figure out what is so new about what Apple has done. If they think that they are the first people to come up with a smartphone with these capabilities they may have been sleeping under a rock.

NFC on the iPhone 6….the Samsung Galaxy, and Exon Mobile cards everywhere

Near field Communications, or NFC is a new feature on the iPhone 6 that Apple is advertising under the alias, “Apple Pay”. NFC creates a very week radio signal that can only be picked up by a receiver sometimes no more than an inch, or two away.  A lot of people have been using this technology for a while now, but what Apple is planning to do with it has me very skeptical.

People have used NFC technology since the 1990’s. Exxon Mobile came out with a smart card in the late 90’s that allowed you to purchase gas at any of there pumps by flashing a card against the face of the gas station. The Samsung Galaxy also has NFC capability that allows you to make purchases at stores by hold your phone up to a receiver at the cash register.

Apple is now making this a major selling point that they believe will take us by storm. I am not sure though that they know this technology has been around for 15 years. Where have they been?

Putting this aside, I am skeptical that Apple Pay will catch on because of their explanation of how it works. Apparently you can place all of your credit cards on your phone. Use them and whatever you buy will come up on your bank statement, par usual, but there is no way to hack it.

Wait what?

So your saying that you can be billed for something, but the machine charging you won’t recognize your information? Also, your saying that if I lost my phone and deactivated it via Find my iPhone, no one would be able to take my SIM card out and upload my banking information onto a computer to make purchases?

Well if that’s the case why question Apple lets just all put our personal information on our phones, I mean that is what we did with iCloud right? Nothing too bad happened with that.

Other Impressive Features

Apple has finally caught on. A 5.5 inch screen comes standard with an iPhone 6 Plus. Following in the footsteps of other smartphones Apple has created a large screen phablet with retina display to woo people with, but it is still smaller than the Samsung Galaxy that comes with an HD screen also.

Apple is also claiming that they have made the iPhone 6 more power efficient, by giving it better battery life. Compared to what? The iPhone 5? The battery life on the iPhone 5 has terrible battery life, so I hope they realize that.

Another “catch-up”, or innovation Apple has taken part in is the smartwatch. They are releasing their version of this new fad in early 2015. Like many people have noticed though, plugging in a watch is weird. I can only speak on my behalf, but I don’t think people will start trading in their Rolex’s for a watch that can let you know when you get a phone call, or tell you how to get to the food store. I know I wouldn’t.

The watch is also eerily similar to watches that have already been created. Like the Galaxy smartwach, the Apple watch can find your phone, notify you of messages, calls, and emails, it has Bluetooth capability and it can sync with other same brand products. The only slightly creative feature Apple added is Siri, which can now be accessed through your wrist. Although the Galxy watch does not come with Siri, it is capable of voice recognition that allows you to make hand free calls, and searches through your phone. All and all the watches are the same.

As you may have realized I feel that Apple didn’t really create anything mind blowing, in fact they kind of just copied other peoples ideas and tried to make them sound better. Apple is starting to hear the competitors footsteps creep up behind them, and instead of trying to create new, truly innovative technology, they seem to be trying to reinvent the wheel. If Apple wants to stay on top they should consider getting back to their roots and actually create something the late Jobs would be proud of.