I think everyone by now has heard the news about the 10th anniversary iPhone, the device called the iPhone X. Starting at $999 and packed full of new and/or revolutionary features, the iPhone X is hailed by some tech websites as perhaps “the future of the smartphone.” And while I do feel like there is a lot to like about what Apple has done, I think there are also a few reasons you might want to hold off buying the most expensive iPhone ever.
![[Op-Ed]Rumored new Nexus program full of question marks and probably bad news for Verizon customers](https://silicontheoryblog.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/verizon-lock-540x438.jpg?w=274&h=222)
There was some troubling info floating around the internets in the last few days; most notably this report from the ArsTechnica, wherein Verizon has basically admitted to doing “Verizon” things. While the current FCC chair is very interested in making net neutrality a thing of the past, it is still the law of the land for now. And under it, Verizon’s blatant throttling of a service like Netflix is in violation of it.
The recent rumors of the 2017 Google Pixel devices got me thinking; while the larger Pixel device appears to be a significant redesign, and looks very promising so far, the smaller regular Pixel device (made by HTC) will basically look very much the same in terms of design. While very little other info is currently available in the way of specs at this point, Google’s decision put more design and R&D into the Pixel XL is following the same trend as most of the larger OEMs in the last 2 years: larger smartphones are becoming more and more the norm. Which begs the question: where have all the good small smartphones gone?
I get asked pretty regularly about the phone that I use, and what phones I’d recommend most people to buy. So that got me to thinking – what are the phones I’d recommend to most people? And the first question is usually “what is your budget?” The good news is that there are options for folks in just about every price range. So, what is the best phone you can get for your money? Let’s explore…
This is part 2 of our feature on OEM Stock Watch 2017. If you haven’t already, make sure you go back and check out part 1 to get our feelings on how the other major OEMs are doing this year. Once you’ve done that, click on through to read part 2! Part 2 covers what my (Shawn) thoughts are on the rest of the OEMs; Sean P. will have his parts coming in a special part 3 (as soon as his RL work stuff calms down a bit)
In light of the recent (and on-going) issues surrounding net neutrality and the FCC’s role in our wired and wireless broadband future, I wanted to repost this article from 4 years ago (if you can believe it) – a lot of what I talked about is still in play today. Please enjoy! We, as smartphone fans and users, are moving into a very unique time in our history. Mobile usage of smartphones (and other mobile devices like laptops and tablets) has increased the demand for mobile wireless broadband to astronomical levels. Mobile carriers are providing this service to consumers, and are seeing profits skyrocket as users are removed from so-called unlimited plans onto more carrier friendly (and profitable) tiered data plans. No longer do consumers need unlimited calling plans – they need bigger and bigger data packages. This shift to mobile consumption of data by users on such a large scale and the incredible price gouging of consumers by voice and data providers is moving us towards a state of what I’d refer to as the “datapocolypse” – where the demand for data is so great and the cost of getting it is so much that (as the saying goes) something’s gotta give.
There has been some news out of Apple lately about how they are going to be launching a series of instructional courses at their retail store locations called “Today at Apple.” These sessions cover a wide variety of topics, including using software products associated with Macs, iPads, and iPhones, as well as a basic intros on how to take better pictures with your iPhone. These workshops are going to be leveraged going forward as a key piece of Apple’s retail strategy, but here’s the funny part: these classes already exist. And I went to one this week. Here’s how it went. Spoiler – if you read the title, you’ll already know a bit about how I felt when I left.
Here are some of the things that were interesting to me from over the weekend (or very early this morning) – this will be in the spirit of the the Silicon Theories features, where we highlight a few things and then explore them in depth at a later time. Please enjoy!
As the year is reaching its midway point, we wanted to take a look at how we felt the major mobile device manufacturers were doing, and we thought it would be appropriate to treat them like we would any other big company…by rating their “stock” (according to both Sean P. and myself) We’ll give our thoughts on everyone from Apple to ZTE, and loads more in between. Because the list is so big, we will do it in two parts, with part 1 today and part 2 coming next week. So without further ado, let’s give you a look into the crystal ball of these two day traders!
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| the OnePlus 3T, Apple iPhone, and Google Pixel |
Silicon Theory 
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