Sunday, February 26, 2012

3rd Gen, More Coincidental Than A Rule


one comment i need to make regarding 3rd gen Apple mobile devices which makes it more coincidental rather than a rule.  in all cases the deciding factor has come down this one thing - storage.  if you haven’t notice i delay buying each of these device families until one was released with the amount of storage i felt would satisfy my needs.

increased gigabytes is indicative of so much more than just storage, but all the hardware that would have to be present in order to support managing it all.

working in a high tech environment you learn things like that. when a new product that boast 2x or 4x the amount of cache memory, it’s usually complimented with increased processing power to manage it all without performance loss.

this was especially true with the iPhone 3GS as i waited for a model that featured storage equal to my 3rd gen iPod.  to effectively manage all that storage it had to have a better, faster, CPU with more system memory.  and to compliment the CPU additional hardware was included such as a digital compass, and a 3MP digital camera with standard definition video recording.  32GB is plenty of storage to capably handle all my apps, music, photos, and videos.  also i have managed to upgrade iOS from the original v3 to the current version (v5.01) without any issues, and with negligible loss of functionality from the OS itself (no Siri, who cares).

one of the reasons why the iPhone 4 was not a good choice for me was due to the fact that it was limited to only 32GB of storage.  with the camera updated to take 5MP photos and 720p HD video recordings, i had a feeling that 32GB of storage would fill up relatively  fast not leaving very much room for anything else.  that concern was substantiated when a good friend of mine who bought the iPhone 4 noticed how quickly he was running out of space taking family pictures and videos.

the 4S features an increase of storage with 64GB which would seem fine if the camera specs stayed the same as the 4.  however Apple updated the specs to feature 8MP photos and 1080p HD video recordings.  depending on usage 64GB may be plenty of storage to handle that.

keep in mind, the iPhone is device used by people casually to keep their memories recorded on their devices so they can instantly share them with others right from that device.  i don’t like the idea of removing older photos and video from my iPhone just to make room for newer stuff.  as of now the majority of my phones storage is occupied with pics and videos, and i don’t want to remove any of them.

that’s why i’m a little concerned with the upcoming 6th gen iPhone (5); even with improved specs the storage may remain at 64GB when i feel it should be more.  and unless my attitude changes by the time it's released, i may deny myself of the pleasure of having a new model.  which sucks, because i see how much better the iPhone 4S performs, and i do want to upgrade to take advantage of the next iPhone's technology, but ideally if it features more storage.

if it comes with more storage i can load all the apps i have & will have in the future, along with my music selections, with plenty of space left over to take high resolution pictures and HD videos.  and with more storage may come with a better CPU + more system memory to handle it all.  a better CPU with increased system memory may also mean new or better hardware (something beyond a digital compass and 3 axis gyro, better graphics) to take advantage of what that it can do. When that iPhone is released that will be the iPhone to get as it will be well equipped to be future proofed for at least 3-4 years.  this same idea can be applied to the next iPad.  it all comes down to storage as the indicating factor.

one other concern i have with storage on future iPhones is that our world is moving into the cloud.  for the past several years there has been a big push to move our digital lives into a storage devices we can’t see, touch, feel.  Apple has decided some time ago to enter into this market by providing their users today with iCloud.  it’s quite possible that they may limit future iPhones storage prospects to 64GB, and push their cloud storage agenda by encouraging their users to continuously upload their photos and videos to iCloud.  which is not necessarily a bad thing, but i wonder how something like that will work, especially when new users are limited to 2GB data cap, less they spend more money on unlimited internet plan.  and in this current economy i wonder if how many people are willing to do that.  who knows?  by then data caps my be lifted for good so users will have unlimited access to their stuff.  but if Apple limits their iPhone to 64GB and no more, that may be a clear indicator that local storage will eventually become a novelty, and cloud storage a necessity.  there goes my indicator.

in any case, storage has been my indicator and major factor in all of my devices, and, therefore, a coincident that the storage i felt i needed just happened to be in 3rd gen devices.


peace,
@riel


continue with "iPad3, It’s Getting My Attention"
continue from "3, The Magic Number"


2 comments:

sdinma said...

Isn't that what iCloud is for?

Unknown said...

iCloud is good for backups and syncs. but i think local storage will still be a necessary purely for performance.