512 Pixels

If the rumors are true — and for the sake of this article, let’s roll with that — Apple will be releasing a new 4-inch iPhone sometime this spring.

Dubbed the iPhone 6C, this rumored device is said to have:

• 4-inch display
• A9 chip
• Touch ID
• Metal casing in several colors

It’s fun to talk about rumors, and I think this one has two big categories of things to think about: the phone itself, and where it would land in Apple’s product line.

The 6C

While the iPhone 5C was basically an iPhone 5 in a new case, the 6C could be the result of a different strategy. The A9 chip has only been found in the 4.7 and 5.5-inch form factors of the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. It doesn’t seem like this phone is going to be a remixed version of a previous device.

A new 4-inch device with an A9 would represent an option that people who want a smaller phone haven’t had in a while. Since the fall of 2014, if you’ve wanted something smaller than 4.7 inches, it meant buying something old.

I won’t be surprised if the A9 in the 6C ends up being clocked slower than the 1.8 GHz found in the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus. A smaller chassis means a smaller battery and a more strict thermal envelope.

If Apple can squeeze the A9 into something this size, I think it will sell well. I’ve heard from readers and people in my personal life who would like to purchase a new phone of this size. My wife, who reluctantly just upgraded to a 6S, is going to be frustrated if the 6C is real and any good.

I don’t think that this phone would be as fully-featured as its bigger siblings. I bet that 3D Touch may be left out to help keep the cost down a bit, but I do expect to see Apple Pay coupled with the older Touch ID sensor that’s still found on the iPads.

As far as cameras, I wouldn’t be surprised if the 8 MP sensor from last year’s iPhone 6 makes a return appearance.

As far as the exterior of the device, I’d love to see some colors return to Apple’s iPhone line. I still get a tinge of envy when I see a green or blue iPhone 5C out in the world. The rumor mill says Apple will use anodized aluminum instead of plastic, which would help this phone feel higher end and less chunky than the 5C did.

The Product Line

As a successor to the now-discontinued iPhone 5C, it’s interesting to think about where this new phone would sit in the product line.

In 2013, this arrangement was pretty straight forward. The 5S occupied the top spot, with the 4S at the bottom as the free-with-contract device. The 5C sat in the middle, replacing the iPhone 5 entirely. This is what the 2013 iPhone lineup looked like:

Today, things are a bit more complicated. In addition to the top-tier 6S and 6S Plus, Apple continues to sell the 6 and 6 Plus, as well as the 5S:

The easy assumption is that the 6C would replace the aging 5S as the free-or-very-cheap option, but the recurring rumor of the 6C being powered by the A9 makes me think this may slide in roughly where the iPhone 6/6 Plus currently sits in the lineup.

Would Apple then move the iPhone 6 down to the bottom rung and put the iPhone 5S out to pasture after two and a half years of sales? While I would certainly like to see it roll off, the Apple of today likes a wide spread of devices to hit a lot of price points, so 2013’s iPhone may have a little life left in it.

This would put the 6C’s pricing lower than the flagship phones, but not in the cheapest slot in the lineup. I think at the end of the day, Apple will position the iPhone 6C as a good phone for people who want something a little smaller, while older devices are still around for the budget-conscious. The C didn’t stand for cheap last time around, and I don’t think it will this time, either.

T-Mobile has taken some heat for its Binge On program, in which the company downsamples streaming video to 480p in exchange for not counting the data against customers’ data plans.

The program can be turned off, but is on by default for T-Mobile customers. Netflix, Hulu, HBO Now, Watch EPSN and Sling Television are listed as partners, and the company says that video from other sources isn’t affected.

Two days ago, the Electronic Frontier Foundation voiced concern that all video is downsampled:

Back in November, T-Mobile announced a new service for its mobile customers called Binge On, in which video streams from certain websites don’t count against customers’ data caps.1 The service is theoretically open to all video providers without charge, so long as T-Mobile can recognize and then “optimize” the provider’s video streams to a bitrate equivalent to 480p. At first glance, this doesn’t sound too harmful—customers can watch more video without worrying about their caps, most will consider 480p to be adequate quality (especially on a small phone screen), and the harms of treating individual video providers differently are diminished when T-Mobile offers the program to any provider for free.

However, as Marvin Ammori wrote in Slate, there is another “feature” of Binge On that has many customers complaining. Ammori pointed out that T-Mobile is applying its “optimization” to all video, not just the video of providers who have asked T-Mobile to be zero-rated. T-Mobile claims it does this to provide a better experience for its customers, saying that “T-Mobile utilizes streaming video optimization technology throughout its network to help customers stretch their high-speed data while streaming video” and that Binge On helps “deliver a DVD quality (typically 480p or better) video experience with minimal buffering while streaming.”

The EFF’s testing shows that with Binge On enabled, T-Mobile throttles all video traffic, and doesn’t seem to optimize video at all.

Earlier today, T-Mobile posted a blog post on the subject, by John Legere, in which the CEO writes:

Customers now have the option to get WAY more video from their data plans PLUS FREE VIDEO from popular sites, AND more power and control over how they use their data. And customers want it! Video usage is huge! Just since launch, customers are watching 12% more video. In fact, we’ve already seen daily average viewership on one of our top services spike 66% among customers not on unlimited high-speed plans, in other words the ones who benefit from Binge ON the most! AND viewing time increased 23%. It’s crazy!

[…]

There are people out there saying we’re “throttling.” They’re playing semantics! Binge On does NOT permanently slow down data nor remove customer control. Here’s the thing, mobile customers don’t always want or need giant heavy data files. So we created adaptive video technology to optimize for mobile screens and stream at a bitrate designed to stretch your data (pssst, Google, that’s a GOOD thing). You get the same quality of video as watching a DVD – 480p or higher – but use only 1/3 as much data (or, of course, NO data used when it’s a Binge On content provider!). Watch more video, use less data from your service plan. That’s an important and valuable benefit!

In addition to the blog post, Legere posted this super-professional response to EFF on Twitter earlier this afternoon:

. @EFF pic.twitter.com/pv6V4oOJwS

— John Legere (@JohnLegere) January 7, 2016

(The answer to his last question, by the way, can be found here.)

I haven’t done any testing on my T-Mobile account, and in fact, turned off the option as soon as it was announced because seeing video in the highest resolution is more important to me than eating into my data. However, the carrier’s response to EFF is pretty gross, and has me feeling pretty weird about having a T-Mobile SIM in my iPhone.

Graham Spencer at MacStories, in his nice look back at the Mac App Store:

Just how often do you open the Mac App Store?

The Mac App Store had such promise. The App Store is a huge deal, and there was excitement that it could breathe new life into the Mac ecosystem, but it hasn’t turned out that way. Many major developers have pulled out, and Apple’s had some pretty major issues on their end as well.

There’s still promise in the Mac App Store, but Apple has a long way to go to prove that it can be worthwhile for developers again. I’d like to see them address this, since an all-in-one place to download and update apps can really simplify things for everyday users.

Personally, I only ever use it if I have to. If a developer offers their app for sale directly, I’d rather go that route. I don’t think I’m alone there.

This week on Connected, we talk about how Apple could differentiate the next big iPhone and check back in on iOS 9 after several months of daily usage.

Oh, and we plan a trip to Vegas.

My thanks to these sponsors:

• Casper: Because everyone deserves a great night sleep. Get $50 off with the code ‘CONNECTED’
• Squarespace: Build it beautiful. Use code ‘WORLD’ for 10% off.
• Braintree: Code for easy online payments.

This one is short and sweet:

AppleWorks for Mac OS X does not use Unicode text encoding.

This is because it does not support the Unicode character set.

Thanks, Apple. Really glad we cleared that up.

Since buying the iPad Pro, I’ve been looking for a bag for carrying it and some select accessories to meetings. This little Tom Bihn bag is my solution, and I’m pretty happy with it.

Marco Arment, on an outlier in Apple’s product line:

Despite the low-resolution screen, slow hard drives, very little RAM, and CPUs that were middling even in 2012, it’s an open secret among Apple employees that the “101” still sells surprisingly well — to a nearly tragic degree, given its age and mediocrity.

Geeks like me often wonder why anyone would still buy such an outdated machine. I’ve heard from many people who buy it (or who’ve been unsuccessful in talking others out of it), and it’s surprisingly compelling, especially for volume-buying, price-conscious customers such as schools and big businesses.

I’ve been subscribed to Mac Power Users for years. I was listening to David and Katie well before I started my own career in podcasting.

The show has been around for almost seven years, and will hit episode 300 in just a couple of weeks. To mark the occasion, Myke Hurley and I will be taking over the show, interviewing David and Katie about their podcasting, workflows and more.

We need your help! Tweet with the hashtag #MPU300 to have your questions or comments considered for the show, but don’t mention David or Katie. We want to them to come in cold!

This week on Liftoff, Jason explains how the phases of the moon work before wading into the weird world of tides.

My thanks to our sponsor this week:

• Luminos: A fantastic astronomy app, 10 years in the making! Now with an Apple Watch app for skygazing!

The Apple TV is TV at our house, and as such, we see its screensaver a good bit. On the old Apple TV, I had it pulling from a photo album of family photos, but when I installed our new one, I opted to use Apple’s “Aerial” screensaver instead.

If you haven’t seen it, Aerial has a collection of downright stunning flyovers from numerous cities and landscapes from around the world.

Most of the options have both day and night scenes, and the Apple TV plays whichever is appropriate based on the time of day.

I really do like Aerial, and I can’t help but think about ways Apple could do more with this system.

While I’d love to see the collection of footage expanded, (sorry San Francisco) Apple could offer specialized content based on date.

On New Year’s Eve, how great would it be to see fireworks displays over some of the most iconic cities in the world? In late July, it’d be fun to fly over the lunar landscape.

On that theme, seeing our planet from the point of view of the International Space Station would be breathtaking.

Aerial’s files are quite large at roughly 600MB each, so Apple has provided settings on the device to control how often it downloads new content. Settings range from “Never” to “Daily,” which is the option I’ve selected. For those who are willing and able, it’d be fun to have some suprises thrown in the mix.

Expanding the views shown off in a screensaver is probably not the most critical thing the Apple TV team could be working on, but sometimes that’s okay.

Ian Kar at Quartz:

Evidence that Apple wants to combine payments and iMessage is piling up. And it looks like the tech giant doesn’t plan to stop there.

A patent filing published earlier this month (Dec. 2015) indicates that Apple is not only looking at allowing people to send money over its text messaging service, but other services built into the iOS platform, including phone calls, email, and calendar invites.

While companies like Apple patent all sorts of things, marrying Apple Pay to a service like this would surely be a big blow to services like Square Cash.

With 2016 just around the corner, I’m taking some time to think about what Apple could do in the next year that would bring advancements to their products. Today, let’s talk about some things that are bigger than any individual product line.

iCloud Improvements

Let me say this up front: iCloud is a lot better than MobileMe ever was, and with the switch to CloudKit, storing data in it is more reliable than ever, but there are still issues.

iCloud is being pushed as the glue that can hold your various devices together, providing data and content wherever you are.

Google’s cloud services are seen as superior by many for the fact that there’s visibility into them. You can get to your data online, and export it all in industry-approved formats. A lot of similar tools exist for iCloud users, but in ways that aren’t always immediately clear. This can lead to a lack of confidence in the platform, and that’s not something Apple needs when it comes to its services.

Additionally, I think Apple could focus on making it simpler to understand what iCloud is and does, compared to things like iTunes Match and Apple Music. Why are all of these services offered as separate things, with separate billing systems?

App Store Changes

The App Stores now being under Phil Schiller may end up meaning very little, but I hope his team is spending time thinking about the price race to the bottom, sandboxing on the Mac and long review times that developers complain about on an on-going fashion. These issues aren’t idle complaints; being an independent developer on Apple’s platforms is becoming harder and harder for some to do and put food on the table. That’s bad for them, bad for Apple and bad for consumers.

The App Store is a powerful — and huge — platform, so I know the company needs to move carefully here, but I really believe that they can improve it for developers and costumers alike.

More Polish

There are little edges of Apple’s operating systems and other software products that need attention. The barrage of setup screens and pop-ups involved in getting a new iOS device are tiring. iTunes on the Mac is older and creakier than ever. Finder still hangs more often than or not if a server disappears from the network without being ejected.

Things like these examples aren’t show-stopping bugs, so they don’t seem to ever make it far enough up the to do list to get addressed.

Making a Better World

I like what Tim Cook is doing with Apple in the political and social arenas. From building green data centers to pushing for LGBTQ rights, I think Apple really is focused on making the world a better and more fair place to live.

That impact goes far beyond the next iPhone or the car, and I hope that they’ll continue to work hard in areas of labor practices and tax reform to further that story.

A key metric I look at is the diversity of Apple’s leadership team and the people who present in the company’s keynotes. Quite frankly, Apple has a long way to go here, and with Tim Cook talking the talk, it’s time to see some real results in Apple itself.