iPhone 7

[sxr7171]

You can walk into an Apple store and purchase one off contract. I did exactly that when I purchased a Verizon iPhone 6, and I have never had an account with Verizon or any MVNOs that use their network. It's true you cannot order one online though.

It used to be you could order the Tmobile version as the unlocked version. That changed this year. Again in usual form (happens every year without fail right when the new phone is announced) I cracked my screen so I'll land up at the Apple store and order today. That Galaxy S7 edge looks slick but I thought about it and I can't do without iMessage. Also iOS 10 is very good to the point I feel iOS 9 was a beta the whole time. Maybe copy and paste will actually work again. Maybe searching exchange email will work again.

 

[Kazukian]

I've never found the iphone+ hard to use with one hand. With the double tap the home button to drop down the screen feature I can easily hit things at the top of the phone when it drops down for me. Though I don't know what usage someone might be referencing when they say they have a tough time using it in one hand.

That works fine, and I find if I shift my hand a little, I don't need to use that feature.

 

[slayer202]

so I'm confused, I just ordered the phone from apple and there was a 2-year verizon contract price at the old subsidy pricing. 128gb for $300 plus a $40 upgrade fee. what am I missing?

 

[Eug]

I've never found the iphone+ hard to use with one hand. With the double tap the home button to drop down the screen feature I can easily hit things at the top of the phone when it drops down for me. Though I don't know what usage someone might be referencing when they say they have a tough time using it in one hand.

With the 6s, my thumb doesn't reach the other edge of the screen when I hold it with one hand so I can't type with one hand. In addition it always feels like it's going to fall out of my hand if I try to navigate it one-handed. Like I said I have small hands. For the Plus, it's even worse. My friends with larger hands are fine with the 6s but not Plus. They love it for 2-handed use though.

BTW, in the past year or so my 5S has been lagging a lot more in Safari for surfing. I'm not sure if it's the memory or the CPU. This mostly doesn't happen on my 2 GB A8X iPad Air 2. The worst lagging is actually really freezing for several seconds, on complicated webpages, so I'm thinking it is probably more memory (and memory bandwidth) related.

I'm definitely due for an upgrade. The tripled memory amount and near-tripled compute performance are gonna be really nice.

 

[ControlD]

so I'm confused, I just ordered the phone from apple and there was a 2-year verizon contract price at the old subsidy pricing. 128gb for $300 plus a $40 upgrade fee. what am I missing?

I imagine you are still on an old plan. You can still get subsidized phones as long as you don't change to a new plan as far as I know. You do get more for your money with the newer plans, but as long as you are happy with it that's all that matters

 

[slayer202]

I imagine you are still on an old plan. You can still get subsidized phones as long as you don't change to a new plan as far as I know. You do get more for your money with the newer plans, but as long as you are happy with it that's all that matters

I think I'm on a new plan, something something xl or something? Eh idk

 

[Tweak155]

So by some glitch, my upgrade eligibility started on 9/8 even though it was supposed to be 11/27. What luck. Only reason I even know this is because my wife and I got our phones on the same day and hers is 11/27.

That said, I got in on the free iPhone 7 by trading in 6 or better deal... but now I'm trying to get my wife the same gig. Anyone know how transfer upgrades work?

One of the people on our plan is eligible... anyone know how that would work on Verizon? When I go to "transfer upgrade", it kind of shows them swapping eligibility dates, but it also warns that the cost of the eligible line will go up... says nothing about the ineligible line going down. Doesn't that defeat the purpose?

Been on hold with Verizon for quite a while now... don't know if they'll ever answer.

 

[ControlD]

I think I'm on a new plan, something something xl or something? Eh idk

Yeah, trying to keep up with Verizon's plans is frustrating at best. I'm not sure the employees even know what is current these days.

 

[cmdrdredd]

With the 6s, my thumb doesn't reach the other edge of the screen when I hold it with one hand so I can't type with one hand. In addition it always feels like it's going to fall out of my hand if I try to navigate it one-handed. Like I said I have small hands. For the Plus, it's even worse. My friends with larger hands are fine with the 6s but not Plus. They love it for 2-handed use though.

BTW, in the past year or so my 5S has been lagging a lot more in Safari for surfing. I'm not sure if it's the memory or the CPU. This mostly doesn't happen on my 2 GB A8X iPad Air 2. The worst lagging is actually really freezing for several seconds, on complicated webpages, so I'm thinking it is probably more memory (and memory bandwidth) related.

I'm definitely due for an upgrade. The tripled memory amount and near-tripled compute performance are gonna be really nice.

The way I hold it one handed must be different. I balance the phone on my pinky and rest my index, middle, and ring fingers about 1/2 way up the back of the phone and let it lean on them. Then to hit the far edge of the screen I can allow the phone to tilt by pressing the rear of the phone with my fingers along the back. I do this with my left hand. I do not have the phone touching my palm so it allows my thumb to stretch out a bit more across the screen.

 

[slashbinslashbash]

With the 6s, my thumb doesn't reach the other edge of the screen when I hold it with one hand so I can't type with one hand. In addition it always feels like it's going to fall out of my hand if I try to navigate it one-handed. Like I said I have small hands.

I think the case you use makes a big difference. The 6/6s models are slick as all getout and feel like they will slip no matter what, even when holding with 2 hands. I have a Magpul bump case ( https://www.magpul.com/products/magpul-bump-case-iphone-6-6s ) on mine and it feels fantastic and completely non-slippery, but not so rubbery that it grabs on your pants pockets trying to get it in or out. It feels pretty secure in-hand even if I'm not holding it particularly strongly. It also has a "lip" on the front so that, if I lose my grip a bit, I can always "catch" it with my thumb to keep it from falling. It's a nice case, especially for the price, and I highly recommend it. It does not add much weight or size to the phone.

 

[Tweak155]

So by some glitch, my upgrade eligibility started on 9/8 even though it was supposed to be 11/27. What luck. Only reason I even know this is because my wife and I got our phones on the same day and hers is 11/27.

That said, I got in on the free iPhone 7 by trading in 6 or better deal... but now I'm trying to get my wife the same gig. Anyone know how transfer upgrades work?

One of the people on our plan is eligible... anyone know how that would work on Verizon? When I go to "transfer upgrade", it kind of shows them swapping eligibility dates, but it also warns that the cost of the eligible line will go up... says nothing about the ineligible line going down. Doesn't that defeat the purpose?

Been on hold with Verizon for quite a while now... don't know if they'll ever answer.

Well, I finally got this worked out... took forever. But if anyone has the same question, they basically just swap the terms on each line, so now my wife's line is cheaper, plus the phone payment. Her sister's line will drop when the original contract date hits on 11/27.

So, now I have 2 iPhone 7 128gb on the way! Didn't really care / want to get the 7, but offering $650 trade in made it a no brainer. Main reason to upgrade is space so this was the cheapest option as it will only cost me $99 out of pocket per phone.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I think the case you use makes a big difference. The 6/6s models are slick as all getout and feel like they will slip no matter what, even when holding with 2 hands. I have a Magpul bump case ( https://www.magpul.com/products/magpul-bump-case-iphone-6-6s ) on mine and it feels fantastic and completely non-slippery, but not so rubbery that it grabs on your pants pockets trying to get it in or out. It feels pretty secure in-hand even if I'm not holding it particularly strongly. It also has a "lip" on the front so that, if I lose my grip a bit, I can always "catch" it with my thumb to keep it from falling. It's a nice case, especially for the price, and I highly recommend it. It does not add much weight or size to the phone.

That case uses the same texture as their magazines which is pretty top notch in all conditions.

 

[sxr7171]

I just went to the Apple Store. They have no way of selling me the phone. They directed me to do it online and then on their system. If you don't have have postpaid with Verizon you cannot preorder an iPhone 7s CDMA version.

They said maybe when it comes into stock they can sell me one.

 

[Aikouka]

That works fine, and I find if I shift my hand a little, I don't need to use that feature.

I don't really have a huge issue using the plus, but I also have larger hands. (Not too large, but I'd say on the higher side of normal.) If I need to hit the top, I'll usually just shimmy the phone down with one hand, and that's all it takes. Some may not want to do that, because it isn't hard to drop it like that, but it's pretty rare for me to ever drop my phone, and I've never broken a screen even after using smartphones for around eight years.

EDIT:

To go into detail on how I hold it, I usually hold it at an angle with my index, middle and ring fingers against the back of the phone, my thumb performing the navigation, and the bottom of the phone resting on my pinky. When I want to use something near the top, I move my pinky to the back of the phone, and slide it using my index finger. To move it back to the original position, I turn my wrist to make the phone flat, and while doing that, I move the phone away from me using my index finger, which allows my pinky to go back to the bottom. Once my pinky is on the bottom, I move my three rear fingers back to the normal spot.

It sounds like an involved process, but honestly, it's pretty natural for me. I had to sit there and watch what I did just to type all that stuff out.

 

[Eug]

NBA player vs. reporter:

I like to have the end of my fourth finger grip the side of the phone. That way I never feel like I'm going to drop the phone. However, that restricts how far my thumb can extend to that side. On a 4" iPhone, my thumb goes all the way across, but on a 4.7" it doesn't quite make it. On a 5.5" phone, I'm not even close.

I can compensate by putting my third and fourth fingers just on the back of the phone, which allows my thumb to reach further, but then it only works OK for me for 4.7" phones and not 5.5" phones, and it makes me feel like I'm going to drop the phone. If there is something sticking out on the back of the phone (like a stand), then I can grip that with my 3rd or 4th finger and I feel stable again, but I don't generally use cases like that.

But with two hands, I can use any size phone and the bigger the better. Ironically, a LOT of women I know prefer giant phones, but that's because they always use the phones two-handed (when typing) and have purses to hold the phones.

 

[Kazukian]

I just went to the Apple Store. They have no way of selling me the phone. They directed me to do it online and then on their system. If you don't have have postpaid with Verizon you cannot preorder an iPhone 7s CDMA version.

They said maybe when it comes into stock they can sell me one.

With shipping dates to November already, I don't imagine they want to sell one on a plan that could be cancelled at the end of the month.

 

[Eug]

I look forward to the reviews of the AirPods, as it is seems they are trying to address a number of different issues with wireless headphones, and a number of aspects of them suit me:

1) I'm not a fan of Beats and Dr. Dre, so I'm glad these are not Beats branded, although I admit I'm splitting hairs since Apple owns Beats.

2) They include a mic.

3) Initial reports are they may be decent sound, and the fact that Apple has a custom Bluetooth chip for these and future headphones is promising for the power utilization and bitrate issues (and the headphones have advanced power saving features). We shall see though.

4) The price is cheaper than what I was expecting, not outrageously high if the quality is decent, although I suspect the price point signals a middle of the pack sound quality if I were to guess.

5) They have faster and simpler pairing.

6) They are pods, not wired together.

7) They are white!

Hopefully, the reviews support the hype. These are something I wouldn't buy without reviews, unlike an iPhone or iPad.

 

[Kazukian]

I just dropped a whopping $13 on another pair of BT workout headphones for mowing the lawn, it's the only time I use them.

 

[Eug]

I just dropped a whopping $13 on another pair of BT workout headphones for mowing the lawn, it's the only time I use them.

$13? How bad are they?

 

[Kazukian]

$13? How bad are they?

They got 4 stars on Amazon, that's my cut off, anything below 4 is a no buy, and sometimes 4 is stretching it...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016WFWU04/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

$13 with code MVDC6Q2F

I have a pair of BT headphones somewhere, but darned if I can find them.

 

[Eug]

Hmmm. $29 on Amazon.ca. Still not too bad though. I may get something in the under $50 range for the office. My Sennheiser RS160 setup there is too clunky

 

[WelshBloke]

$13? How bad are they?

Does sound quality really matter when you're mowing the lawn?

 

[Eug]

Does sound quality really matter when you're mowing the lawn?

I wouldn't use them for mowing the lawn. And for the record I use Etymotic ER-4P ear canal phones to mow the lawn. They happen to be my most expensive set of headphones too, ironically.

http://www.etymotic.com/consumer/earphones/er4.html

They're like ear plugs but with very good sound.

 

[Rubycon]

I guess I will get one although I don't know why.

 

[Eug]

Shipping has begun for at least some US customers.

You can check your Apple My Support Profile to see if the item is there. If it is, and if just happens by chance to be shipped by UPS, you can go to the UPS website and either use UPS My Choice (if you're registered) or a reference number to track it. That reference number is either your phone number or your Apple W order number minus the last two digits.