This is the sort of improvement in day to day tech that I love to look up as it helps understand how letting clever people who are passionate about science and understanding have the resources and time to discover shit can produce useful stuff unplanned. Apparently this stuff has been around for decades known as self-cleaning glass and whilst the uses were obvious the initial formulations came from glass chemists (and have we as a society thanked chemists enough for all they have done for us?) who were curious about the glass surfaces and how they can be modified to interact/not interact with different types of oil/water mixes.
"and have we as a society thanked chemists enough for all they have done for us?"
As a chemist, there is no need to thank me, mainly because I have done nothing worth thanking me for. My primary contribution in this world is quite the opposite. I have the task of killing off 'new' technology or advancements. It is only the truly new that will succeed in defeating me.
i am unable to relate, being one of the enemy androids. But i also do that run devices into the ground thing. The trick is not to leave it so long that the technological leap isnt too great to wrap the brain cells around. I havent noticed smudging as a thing on my phone - but i usually get those screen protector thingies to stick on the front (and it has paid off over and over again. I'm squeezing the last drop out of mine at 5yrs and most probably could go for a few more years except for the camera. The low light capability sucks. And i'm not too impressed with the results in broad daylight especially when compared to other phones out there. There's too much digital manipulation inhouse going on for my liking. I do photography as a hobby and the comparison is telling when side by side. Saying that though, I kind of treat phones these days as a camera that happens to be a phone and a computer attached.
Similar - I have a pocket slab for accessing the internet, that also takes ‘practice’ photos when I don’t have my DSLR (yet to jump to mirrorless), sends texts and makes the occasional phone call. And authenticates me for work apps.
I’m curious about where computational photography has progressed beyond my ancient 8+. But I still enjoy going for a bushwalk with a DSLR over an iPhone.
This kind of innovation is great, but there is a part of me these days which wonders if there is some hidden environmental cost to these kinds of things. Sure the glass doesn't suffer from fingerprints, but is it because the glass is treated in some horrific bath of face melting uberchems that instantly deforms DNA when in remote proximity?
I AM sure that tech will resolve a lot of these issues, but I am also pretty sure we're never going to actually recover from the industrialisation stage of our development.
(Caveat, I SUCK at chemistry. I failed it in high school, and uni. Several times.).
Holy crap I just realised the no smudge thing! I upgraded from an iPhone 8 Plus to the 16 Pro just before Christmas and was so astonished by the technological leap from the 8 to the 16 I totally missed the smudge free glass aspect. The contrast between my pristine phone screen and the smudgy mcsmudgefest on my tablet is quite stark now 🤯
I know everyone's on the AI wankfest bandwagon but it's astonishing that they're not doing more of a song and dance about the physical features. Surely smudge free glass would be a selling point?
Do you know what? It was embarrassingly easy. I held onto my 8+ because I liked having a home button, and when the first models sans home buttons came out I couldn't work out how the hell that was supposed to work (big 'get off my lawn!' vibes).
However, having finally accepted the necessity to upgrade, once I got the 16 Pro and switched everything over, the no home button thing just... worked? And worked seamlessly, easily, and logically. I was furious for about 30 mins, but then accepted that I well and truly got my money's worth out of that 8+ even if my "HTF is that supposed to even WORK?" fears were unfounded.
I still have my 8+ because my authenticator app for Microsoft didn't transition across properly, in that the one on the new phone hasn't picked up my work accounts, and I haven't gotten around to reading the doco from work to reinstall it, and the couple of times I've had to use it to authenticate logins for work I even found myself swiping up on the screen to close out of the app instead of, you guessed it, hitting the home button. Sigh.
So yeah, the leap is fairly easy and intuitive, I had very little pain in the transition, and the no smudge glass and other cool features make it worthwhile. When the time comes to put your 8+ out to pasture you won't regret it 😊
I tend to run trailing edge with tech. And run it into the ground too. Never buy latest model, and always give it multiple generations between purchases. Also buy used iPhones over new.
Currently on an 8+ now, from a 5 before that. I think X’s were the new thing when I bought the 8+.
It’s still going, just, though I’ll probably buy a replacement this year, just to eek a little bit of resale value out of the 8+. Will disappear down the rabbit holes of comparisons of which series/models have what tech & chips etc.
This is the sort of improvement in day to day tech that I love to look up as it helps understand how letting clever people who are passionate about science and understanding have the resources and time to discover shit can produce useful stuff unplanned. Apparently this stuff has been around for decades known as self-cleaning glass and whilst the uses were obvious the initial formulations came from glass chemists (and have we as a society thanked chemists enough for all they have done for us?) who were curious about the glass surfaces and how they can be modified to interact/not interact with different types of oil/water mixes.
"and have we as a society thanked chemists enough for all they have done for us?"
As a chemist, there is no need to thank me, mainly because I have done nothing worth thanking me for. My primary contribution in this world is quite the opposite. I have the task of killing off 'new' technology or advancements. It is only the truly new that will succeed in defeating me.
i am unable to relate, being one of the enemy androids. But i also do that run devices into the ground thing. The trick is not to leave it so long that the technological leap isnt too great to wrap the brain cells around. I havent noticed smudging as a thing on my phone - but i usually get those screen protector thingies to stick on the front (and it has paid off over and over again. I'm squeezing the last drop out of mine at 5yrs and most probably could go for a few more years except for the camera. The low light capability sucks. And i'm not too impressed with the results in broad daylight especially when compared to other phones out there. There's too much digital manipulation inhouse going on for my liking. I do photography as a hobby and the comparison is telling when side by side. Saying that though, I kind of treat phones these days as a camera that happens to be a phone and a computer attached.
Similar - I have a pocket slab for accessing the internet, that also takes ‘practice’ photos when I don’t have my DSLR (yet to jump to mirrorless), sends texts and makes the occasional phone call. And authenticates me for work apps.
I’m curious about where computational photography has progressed beyond my ancient 8+. But I still enjoy going for a bushwalk with a DSLR over an iPhone.
This kind of innovation is great, but there is a part of me these days which wonders if there is some hidden environmental cost to these kinds of things. Sure the glass doesn't suffer from fingerprints, but is it because the glass is treated in some horrific bath of face melting uberchems that instantly deforms DNA when in remote proximity?
I AM sure that tech will resolve a lot of these issues, but I am also pretty sure we're never going to actually recover from the industrialisation stage of our development.
(Caveat, I SUCK at chemistry. I failed it in high school, and uni. Several times.).
Holy crap I just realised the no smudge thing! I upgraded from an iPhone 8 Plus to the 16 Pro just before Christmas and was so astonished by the technological leap from the 8 to the 16 I totally missed the smudge free glass aspect. The contrast between my pristine phone screen and the smudgy mcsmudgefest on my tablet is quite stark now 🤯
I know everyone's on the AI wankfest bandwagon but it's astonishing that they're not doing more of a song and dance about the physical features. Surely smudge free glass would be a selling point?
Surely!
I’m still on a slab of an 8+ too.
How did you find the jump?
Do you know what? It was embarrassingly easy. I held onto my 8+ because I liked having a home button, and when the first models sans home buttons came out I couldn't work out how the hell that was supposed to work (big 'get off my lawn!' vibes).
However, having finally accepted the necessity to upgrade, once I got the 16 Pro and switched everything over, the no home button thing just... worked? And worked seamlessly, easily, and logically. I was furious for about 30 mins, but then accepted that I well and truly got my money's worth out of that 8+ even if my "HTF is that supposed to even WORK?" fears were unfounded.
I still have my 8+ because my authenticator app for Microsoft didn't transition across properly, in that the one on the new phone hasn't picked up my work accounts, and I haven't gotten around to reading the doco from work to reinstall it, and the couple of times I've had to use it to authenticate logins for work I even found myself swiping up on the screen to close out of the app instead of, you guessed it, hitting the home button. Sigh.
So yeah, the leap is fairly easy and intuitive, I had very little pain in the transition, and the no smudge glass and other cool features make it worthwhile. When the time comes to put your 8+ out to pasture you won't regret it 😊
Awesome info, many thanks for that.
You're most welcome! Happy to wax lyrical about my new phone if you have any questions 😂
I can see some smudging on my loser iPhone 14.
Dump it.
I tend to run trailing edge with tech. And run it into the ground too. Never buy latest model, and always give it multiple generations between purchases. Also buy used iPhones over new.
Currently on an 8+ now, from a 5 before that. I think X’s were the new thing when I bought the 8+.
It’s still going, just, though I’ll probably buy a replacement this year, just to eek a little bit of resale value out of the 8+. Will disappear down the rabbit holes of comparisons of which series/models have what tech & chips etc.