First Impressions of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus: Sleek Look, Great Display, Unoptimized Apps Blurry, Loud Vibration

While the official reviews of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were published several days ago, with the devices now making their way into customers’ hands we are starting to see broader first impressions of the larger iPhones.

Case from MacRumors giveaway, based on rumored design specs (Photo by @adam_moreno)
Several posters in our forums have highlighted the high-quality “Retina HD” displays on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, but have observed that apps yet to be optimized for the larger displays appear “quite blurry” or “‘big’ and disgusting” due to scaling issues.

Photo by jchiou
Another aspect being noticed by users is the much louder vibration on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, something highlighted by John Gruber in his review earlier this week.

The iPhone 6 has a noticeably stronger vibrator to me, and with the iPhone 6 Plus, it’s so powerful it’s actually a bit noisy — the sound made by the 6 Plus vibrator is so strong, I wonder if there are going to be complaints that it’s not “silent” at all.

As someone who runs his iPhone in silent mode much of the time, I definitely appreciate the stronger vibrator.

Customers are also generally praising the overall look of the new iPhones, calling them “sleek and beautifully made” and “glorious”. Those opting for the gold model may notice that it is “a bit more yellow golden” than the gold iPhone 5s.

Gold iPhone 6 (left) vs. gold iPhone 5s (Photo by @horwitz)
As for size, some customers have been concerned about placing orders for the iPhone 6 Plus without having a good idea of just how big the device really is. Reactions now that users are getting their hands on them seem to be mixed, with some saying they “love every inch” of the 5.5-inch display while others have found it too big for their tastes. Some in-store customers were able to compare the two sizes before purchasing, helping make the decision easier.

For ongoing coverage of photos and first impressions, readers are welcome to follow our consolidated thread stickied in our iPhone forum.

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Tim Cook Helps Kick Off iPhone 6 Sales at Palo Alto Retail Store

With Apple’s retail stores beginning sales of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus today, customers have been lining up to either pick up their pre-ordered devices or take their chances on launch-day supplies without reservations. Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster conducted his annual line count at Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan and found a record 1,880 people in line at 8:00 AM, an increase of 33% over last year’s line.

Tim Cook at final employee meeting before opening doors of Palo Alto store (via @CNBCnow)
Apple executives are also getting into the spirit of the iPhone launch, with CEO Tim Cook making his traditional visit to the Palo Alto store to greet customers. Cook walked the line and posed for photos with customers before heading into the store to meet with staff and open the door to welcome customers.

Several other executives are also out and about, with new retail chief Angela Ahrendts presiding over her first iPhone launch by visiting the flagship store in Sydney, Australia, and Internet software and services chief Eddy Cue making an appearance at the Stanford store.

Phenomenal start to a historic day and an honor to be with our incredible team and first customers in Sydney. pic.twitter.com/28aww07wGj

— Angela Ahrendts (@AngelaAhrendts) September 18, 2014

Nearly all Apple retail stores in launch countries have now opened for business today, with only the three stores in Honolulu, Hawaii yet to begin sales of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

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iPhone 6 and 6 Plus Go On Sale in U.S. and Canada to Huge Lines

Following launches in a number of other countries around the world earlier today, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have now begun going on sale in the U.S. and Canada, with 8:00 AM Apple launch times in the eastern and central portions of the countries having already occurred.

As expected, supplies of the iPhone 6 Plus have been tight in some cases, although perhaps not as low as originally thought. Apple’s own stores appear to have the strongest supplies of the iPhone 6 Plus, with carrier stores in some cases having barely a handful of units to distribute.

iPhone 6 line at Toronto’s Eaton Centre Apple store snaking through multiple levels (via @KristinaParts)
Lines at most stores, particularly Apple’s own locations, are long in most cases, despite the company having offered pre-orders for delivery this year. As of 6:00 AM, the line at Apple’s flagship Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan stretched for twelve city blocks, according to Business Insider. Other locations are obviously seeing shorter lines, but many customers are reporting lines numbering in the hundreds at their stores.

Some MacRumors forum members are updating their statuses in our iPhone 6 Launch Meetups forum while others are sharing their thoughts in our general iPhone forum as the launch continues.

For those with pre-orders going out for delivery today, our forums remain busy as users track their orders minute-by-minute. MacRumors forum members in the U.S. are generally organizing in one of a number of threads depending on where they ordered from.

– The “I just bought/ordered/shipped/received my new iPhone 6/6 Plus” thread
– iPhone 6 & 6 Plus Sprint Pre-Order Thread!
– T-Mobile.com preorder thread
– ATT Pre-order status
– VZW Order Status Thread
– Apple.com Pre-order thread

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Apple Utilizing Own Content Delivery Network to Help Deliver iOS 8 Update [iOS Blog]

According to data from internet research firm DeepField, Apple relied on its content delivery network along with Akamai and Limelight to handle the rollout of iOS 8 publicly this week (via The Wall Street Journal). The release of iOS 8 caused web traffic to more than double in some areas as millions of iOS users rushed to update their iOS devices.

“It really was a significant coming out party for the Apple CDN,” DeepField Chief Executive Craig Labovitz said. “This is definitely a realization that Apple is not just a software player. They’re not just a maker of PCs. They have an Internet backbone and an international Internet presence.”

Apple has not commented publicly on its content delivery network, but the company reportedly has been working on the network for several years. The CDN was believed to have gone live in the US and Europe in July of this year when Apple used the network to deliver smaller OS X updates.

In the future, the CDN likely will be used to delivery software updates, such as the upcoming OS X Yosemite release, to customers worldwide. Apple also is expected to gradually migrate its iTunes and App Store away from Akamai and other Level 3 CDNs as it strives to deliver data reliably to its customers by bringing this content delivery under its direct control.

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MapMyFitness for iPhone lets you see all your activity in one place

The best thing about iOS 8 isn’t continuity texting or a liberated keyboard — it’s that it’ll give you rock hard abs. Which is exactly what you need if you’re going to pull off any of Under Armour’s skin-tight clothing. The sports brand wants to help you along with that, and has just updated its suite of apps (the popular MapMy… franchise it bought) to include unified activity tracking. This means if you have compatible hardware (like Jawbone’s UP, or a Withings Pulse) or an iPhone with an M7/M8 chip in it, you can fold all your activity data into the one MapMyFitness app. This also means you won’t get dupes any more if you were already tracking with the app and a tracker separately. Already working on those biceps by lifting your fancy new iPhone 6 Plus? Good, because the apps have also been given a digital nip and tuck to look extra buff on the new larger displays.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple

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Source: iTunes

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iFixit cracks open an iPhone 6 Plus to get at the massive battery inside

Need something to make the wait for your new iPhone easier? Watching the crew at iFixit go at a brand new iPhone 6 Plus with their screwdrivers, spudgers and iSclacks probably won’t help, but at least it will pass the time. They’re in the middle of pulling Apple’s XL-sized phone apart, and while there’s not a lot new to report (it’s a phone, and it has 1GB of RAM) the pics are always entertaining. The 6 Plus’ 5.5-inch display also leaves room for a larger battery, and now we know that it’s a 2915 mAh unit, about twice the size of the one in the iPhone 5s, and slightly bigger than the battery in the Galaxy S 5.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Apple

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Source: iFixit iPhone 6 Plus teardown

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iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus Get Cracked in First Drop Test

With the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus already underway in several countries, many companies have begun performing tests and benchmarks on the device. PhoneBuff has taken the two devices and put them through a drop test, dropping each on its back, side and front.

The iPhone 6 did well when dropped on the side and back, but unsurprisingly suffered when dropped on its face. The 6 Plus, on the other hand, cracked when it landed on the side. However, it sustained little further damage when falling on its face.

Based on this one test, both phones may have performed worse than the iPhone 5 design which was described as “very durable” and survived similar drops in a previous drop tests. Without standardized testing, it’s hard to draw definitive conclusions.

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iPhone 6 Plus Teardown: Twice as Big a Battery as iPhone 5s

iFixIt is in the process of taking apart the new iPhone 6 Plus, currently on sale in Australia. Surprisingly, the team points out that the internal layout of the device is extremely similar to that of the iPhone 5s, except at a larger scale and with a bigger battery. The teardown’s findings reveal the battery capacity of the device and some internal reorganization.

In removing the front panel from the rest of the device, the iFixIt team notes that there are “no noticeable booby traps”, referring to the iPhone 5s’ cable that ran from the Touch ID sensor to the Lightning port. The battery in the device is listed at 2915mAh at 3.82 volts, in line with the previously leaked battery prototype for the device and giving the 6 Plus double the battery capacity of the iPhone 5s’ 1560mAh and much larger than the iPhone 6’s 1810mAh battery.

The teardown also revealed that the vibrator is now located under the logic board and to the right of the battery.

iFixIt’s teardown is still in progress and this post will be updated if anything significant is revealed.

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Health Record Providers Cerner and Athenahealth Developing HealthKit Apps [iOS Blog]

Cerner and Athenahealth, two of the leading electronic health record providers in the United States, will be developing apps that work with Apple’s Health app, according to Reuters.

Cerner and Athenahealth representatives said they are building integrations with HealthKit and working with Apple. Previously, Apple announced a partnership with rival electronic health record company Epic Systems. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

The new apps are likely to be similar to Epic’s MyChart [Direct Link] app, which gives users access to lab results, appointment information, medication and more. The MyChart app also uses Apple’s HealthKit as a traffic controller to send some information about a patient, like weight, in the opposite direction, Epic told VentureBeat.

Yesterday, Apple found a last-minute bug in HealthKit that forced the company to pull compatible apps from the App Store. Apple is currently working on a fix, which it promises will arrive by the end of September.

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