The new feature iPhone 14 is easier to use. Any iPhone is better than your android, they’ve told me. I’m reluctant to purchase new technology. It comes with a lot of lingo, and people who know that lingo assume everyone else does too. When I ask these people questions I hear words I’ve never heard before. When I go to educate myself in the various reviews and ads, I run into the same problem. So, I’ve stayed away from anything I didn’t immediately understand. But this new technology keeps coming at me; it won’t quit. I’ve decided that if I am to remain a player, then I have to learn this new language. I’ve begun to unwrap the new language. I suspect there are others who don’t know what a 15 bionic chip is. Seems like the iphones are particularly cloaked in professional jargon, more than the androids. Maybe that is because the iphones are more technologically sophisticated than the androids. Well, let’s learn to talk about the iPhone 14, because I just heard on the news the iphone 15 will be out next month.
New Features iPhone 14
There are eleven features that distinguish the iphone 14. Of course there is more than one iphone 14. There are also the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Max. There will be as many versions of the iPhone 15. First, let’s just list the features.
Longest life battery
Ceramic shield
Water resistance
Video stability
Pro-level camera
A15 bionic chip
Emergency SOS
Crash detection
Super speedy 5G
Personalization
My concern as a consumer, I will be buying an iphone soon, is to understand more precisely what these descriptions mean. The iphone has a development trajectory and these features change with each stage of development. I have found that iphone features are not always what they appear in the everyday meaning of the words. This is one of the reasons I decided to write this article.
Some suspicious person might think that Apple is trying to be sneaky. That is not the case. Although we call the iphone a phone, it is not. Look it up on Wikipedia, it is a computer. I would say small, but small doesn’t mean anything when it comes to electronics. An iphone is a versatile and powerful computer. When I was in undergraduate school, our university’s computer took up the entire top floor of a men’s dormitory and it was less powerful than an iPhone 14. Certainly, less versatile. Apple gains nothing by being sneaky. The iPhone series is creating a new world for us and the complexity of that world requires a new vocabulary. This is the uncomfortable price of change. It used to be called progress. We’ve had so much of it that we’ve given it a nickname, change. Let’s delve into these features before we run out of talking space. We’ll just go down the list.
What It All Means
First, Apple claims it’s battery in the iPhone 14 has the longest life of any smartphone before it. So, how long does the battery last? It lasts a remarkable 10 to 17 hours. But that is just half the answer. What is it’s longevity? Apple recommends replacement after 4 years. Maybe, if you are young enough, that may seem a long time; but in my life 4 years seems like just a few weeks. I would have liked perhaps twice that long. But this won’t drive me away from the iphone.
The third item is the ceramic shield. I first want to know what a ceramic shield is. My mind can do things with this name. I best get it pinned down. It is a casing made by Corning that embeds ceramic, nanocrystals in the material through a high-temperature, crystallization process. These ceramic crystals don’t interfere with the transmission of light through the casing because they are shorter the the wavelength of light. Ok, cool.
This accounts for the second feature which is that iPhone 14 is tougher than any other previous smartphone glass. I suppose one has to take Apple’s word for this claim, but, given the crystallization process they use, it is believable.
The fourth feature is that the phone is water resistant. Investigation of this feature brings some caveats. The phone does resist water, but the testing was not done in natural conditions. In other words, will your iPhone 14 be safe it you take it to the beach with you and drop it into the surf while standing on a rock formation? It is unknown. However, reports on iphones that have been guaranteed as water resistant have, after begin dropped into the water and continued to function normally, have run into water-related issues as time has passed.
The fifth feature is camera stabilization in videos. iPhone models after iPhone 6 Plus have come with this ISO feature. The term ISO refers to your camera’s sensitivity to light. The higher the ISO setting, the more sensitive your camera is to light. Apple has used a gyroscope to stabilize your camera. In the iphone, the gyroscope is a MEMS. A MEMS is something that is almost other worldly. MEMS stands for micro-electro-mechanical-system. They measure 1 to 100 micrometers. So, the gyroscope in your iphone is a very small device.
The sixth feature is a pro-level camera. The words sound familiar, but I’m not sure what a pro-level camera is. Does it just mean something like what professional photographers use? Apple has provided pro-level cameras since the iphone 11 and 11 Max. While recent, this feature is not totally new. The camera in your iphone is professional level because it has three cameras. It is a triple camera system. One camera is for a very wide focus like a landscape photo. Another camera has a very close up focus, and the third camera has a middle ground focus. Each camera has 12 megapixels. Pixels are the units that comprise a photo, so the jphone camera is getting very sharp images.
The seventh feature is the 15 bionic chip. First, here’s the stats on the 15 bionic chip. They are very impressive. A 15 bionic chip can perform 15.8 trillion calculations per second. These chips have systems on them called transistors. These are called systems on a chip (SOC). A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electrical signals and power. This ability is important for such tasks as seamlessly integrating the functions of different widgets, for example. A semiconductor is simply a type of material that has electrical conductivity.
Almost Miscellaneous Features
The eighth and nineth features are detection of a crash and the report of the crash to emergency personnel to get you help. This sounds wonderful, and it is. But again, there are caveats. The caveats are of the same type as we found in the feature, water resistance. The testing was done in inadequate natural conditions. Thus, your phone, should you crash in an environment very different from the one where Apple tested the feature, might not detect the crash or locate the satellite needed to communicate with rescue personnel.
The tenth feature of your iphone 14 is a super speedy 5G. 5G is a type of network that supports high quality video and audio streaming without interruptions and buffering. To use 5G, you need two things. A 5G device and a 5G plan from your mobile network. Thus, the 5G feature is a feature of both your phone and your mobile network. It is not something that belongs just to the phone.
The eleventh feature involves IOS. IOS sounds like something I should know but then, in time, I realized I don’t– like SOC. iOS stands for iPhone Operating System, hence the little ‘i.” Oh, thank God, that’s off my mind! Well, your iphone allows you to perform actions in your iPhone Operating System, your iphone for short, by simply tapping the device on the back. Your phone has an app library and makes folders for you to organize your apps. You can even stack apps on top of one another in the order in which you use them during your day. This is called a “smart stack.” You can take actions in your iOS, like screen shots by a simple tap on the back of the phone. OMG, what a miracle. I’ve never been able to master the implementation sequence for the screen shot. I don’t know why, but that routine has been a thorn in my flesh. In a few simple steps, you can change your default browser and email app. However, getting used to the tap function, a “few simple steps,” may soon become burdensome. I’ve noticed that tendency in myself. If that isn’t enough, you can change your display settings to dark mode, change the display text size and zoom on your display. You virtually become a designer. Now this is innovative in the Apple tradition. The iphone 14 allows you to customize your ringtone and hide your location for specific apps while revealing your location for others. This is more than innovative, it is cool.
So, What Comes Next
Well, Apple has just revealed that there will be a next. The Apple 15 and 15 Pro. Released on September 15, my birthday. I feel a special connection. No way am I not going to buy one. Now, my friends can be at peace for me. I’ve talked myself into it! I will wait the couple of weeks for the birth of the iphone 15. Maybe some special person will give it to me for my birthday? May be too much to expect. That’s ok. I’m getting one anyway.