- Hey there, guys, Jonathan here.
Today, against my better judgment,
I'm addressing the iPhone XS problems.
Cue the face the palm for that thumbnail.
(slow guitar music)
Now, I know it's a little bit off a long shot,
but the one thing I ask is please watch and listen
to this video thoroughly before you smash your keyboard.
If you caught my XS Max review,
I tried to be as objective as possible
and point out the good and also the things
that frustrated me,
specifically, the fact that it's 2018,
and Apple does not include a fast charging solution
in the box with the prices they are charging
for these iPhones.
Like, that's not okay.
Of course, from there, naturally,
I got those lovely comments saying,
"Jonathan, what you are you, some paid Apple fanboy?
"You shill."
"Why aren't you covering Beauty-Gate
"Charge Gate, Auto Correct Gate?"
And the thing is, that review is based off
my personal experience.
I did not personally experience any charging problems.
With that said, though, I wanna make it super clear
that just because I didn't personally experience that
doesn't mean the problem doesn't exist
and more importantly, doesn't mean Apple
should be excused.
Marques did a fantastic job of explaining
the whole game situation.
And the big number that stood out to me
was last year, Apple shipped over 200 million plus iPhones.
And if there was a problem with just 0.01% of those,
that equated to 21,000 plus iPhones.
That is a lot of upset people out there.
Now, the crazier thing about all that
is the Charge-Gate was actually a security bug
with how the iPhone protects that lightning port.
And Apple addressed that and fixed that
in the iOS 12.1 beta.
Now, hold your pants, Jimmy,
because I know you're foaming at the mouth,
waiting to say, Jonathan, that's BS.
The average user shouldn't have to install a beta
to charge their phone.
Betas aren't stable, it's not the average thing to do.
And I completely agree with you.
Honestly, it's very similar to a problem I had last year
with the Google Pixel 2.
Portrait mode was nonexistent.
Like, it just wasn't on the phone at all.
And the funny thing is is I essentially
got yell replied at saying,
"What, are you stupid?
"Just site load the app, idiot."
"Clear your cache, reset the preferences,
"reset the phone three times,
"and then count back from 17,
"and it's gonna be okay.
"Stop being a moron."
And the thing is, is just like I don't think
the average person should do that.
Like, imagine explaining to your grandmother,
oh, just side load the app.
That's not gonna happen.
And for you saying, Grandma's not gonna rock a Pixel 2,
you, sir, are a liar.
I know plenty of grandmas who rock a Pixel 2.
It's a great phone.
The point is, bugs happen.
It's not just Apple.
It's Google, it's Samsung, it is most companies out there.
I mean, hell, Tesla's had some crazy bugs recently
where people are driving,
and the software is restarting as they're driving
on the freeway.
That is scary as hell.
That is an $85,000 piece of tech
that could potentially endanger someone's life.
Like, to me, that's a little bit bigger of a deal.
The thing is, though, Tesla problems
don't get as much clicks iPhone problems.
From there, I'm gonna go ahead and talk
about Beauty-Gates,
which actually isn't a thing.
Calm down, buddy, because I know you're yelling
at me right now saying, you, you Apple fanboy,
you paid (bleep) hole.
Beauty-Gate is a thing.
I got a secret for you.
You're probably gonna get mad.
But earlier today, on Twitter and Instagram,
I posted this lovely Pixel 2 portrait selfie.
And it got an out roar of complements.
"Could easily get mistaken for a DSLR."
"Still the daddy in the camera department."
"Looking crispy."
"No wonder there's no makeup effect."
"You managed to include the bumps
"at the edges of your face caused by the facial hair.
"Impressive."
"Best portrait mode yet."
"So good, #nobeautygate."
From there, I posted a second picture
and got the same reactions.
"It's better that it's not using some crazy
"high shutter speed mixed with noise reduction,
"creating that plastic look to people's faces."
"Best camera 'til Pixel 3 arrives."
"If you say no, you are literally a fanboy."
Bro, that was taken on the iPhone XS Max.
So, I just wanted that to be a little bit
of a lesson out there.
Don't let a preconceived notion or headline
skew your judgment because clearly,
everyone who thought that that was a Pixel
automatically assumed that it was much better
than the iPhone,
when in fact, that was the same iPhone XS Max
that apparently had all the Beauty-Gate problems.
With that said, though, there is something happening
with the front facing camera on the iPhone XS,
but it's not Beauty mode,
it's not isolating the skin.
It's actually noise reduction on the entire image.
If you haven't met my guy, Rene Ritchie,
who's an amazingly smart guy,
did a fantastic breakdown and explanation
of what exactly is happening with the front facing camera.
Way more in depth,
so if you got a minute,
it's a really great watch.
I'll link it down below or up here.
But essentially, what's happening here,
is the front facing camera is taking multiple shots
at multiple exposures
and then stitching those together.
And the aftermath of that
is you're going to have to apply noise reduction,
which creates a smoothing effect over the entire image,
not just isolating skin tones.
If you actually watch Marques' video,
every example of a front facing shot that he used,
if you notice, the background on every single one of those
isn't blown out or overexposed.
So it's a bit of a trade off.
For the most part, in every single shot,
you're getting way better dynamic range.
No blown up backgrounds, no overexposed images,
but in certain cases where it struggles with light,
yeah, it's going to really, really aggressively
pull down that noise reduction,
and that's where you get that skin smoothing effect.
So the bad news is, yeah, because it's not beauty mode
or something you can turn off,
it is stuck there.
But the good news is,
is that it's software based.
And if we've learned anything this year
is that Apple is listening.
So I wouldn't be surprised
if we saw that just pulled down a little bit
in one of the future iOS 12 updates.
So that is my take.
Problems suck, bugs suck.
You should not have to deal with them.
The company should be held responsible.
This is not a giant pass for me for Apple.
I have plenty of things from them that frustrate me.
I've addressed that, I voiced that.
If you don't like the iPhone, don't buy it.
In fact, check out the LG V40 ThinQ,
which a lot of people don't seem to care about,
but it's actually a pretty awesome device.
Or maybe you want some positivity in your life.
We talked about the Apple Watch
and how Mr. Gregory McFadden lost 100 pounds.
So, check those out, and I'll catch you guys later.