657: Ears Are Weird
Episode
113 min
Read time
2 min
Topics
Productivity, Fundraising & VC, Design & UX
AI-Generated Summary
Key Takeaways
- ✓iPhone Air thermal limitations: The Air concentrates all logic boards and processors into the camera plateau area, leaving only battery in the thin body section. This design lacks vapor chamber cooling present in Pro models, resulting in significant thermal throttling during sustained workloads compared to Pro variants with full aluminum heat dissipation.
- ✓USB connectivity disparity: iPhone 17 and Air models remain limited to USB 2.0 transfer speeds of 480 megabits per second, a 25-year-old standard introduced in April 2000. Pro models support 10 gigabits per second USB 3 speeds, creating a 20x performance gap that becomes increasingly embarrassing for thousand-dollar devices.
- ✓Speaker configuration compromise: The iPhone Air eliminates the bottom speaker entirely, relying solely on the earpiece speaker for audio output. This represents a significant downgrade from the two-speaker stereo system in other models, particularly affecting users who frequently play media through built-in speakers rather than external audio devices.
- ✓PWM accessibility feature: iOS 26 introduces a display pulse smoothing toggle in accessibility settings that disables pulse width modulation on OLED screens. This addresses complaints from PWM-sensitive users who experience eye strain and headaches from rapid pixel on-off cycling, though disabling may impact low brightness display performance and battery efficiency.
- ✓A19 Pro performance metrics: Geekbench results show the A19 Pro delivers 8% faster single-core, 13% faster multi-core, and 40% faster Metal compute scores versus A18 Pro. The chip now matches or exceeds 2019 Mac Pro 12-core Xeon performance in single and multi-core tests while consuming a fraction of the power.
What It Covers
ATP 657 covers iPhone 17 Pro and Air hardware analysis, including unibody titanium construction, camera plateau design compromises, USB-C speed limitations, new PWM display toggle, and Saint Jude Children's Research Hospital fundraising campaign updates.
Key Questions Answered
- •iPhone Air thermal limitations: The Air concentrates all logic boards and processors into the camera plateau area, leaving only battery in the thin body section. This design lacks vapor chamber cooling present in Pro models, resulting in significant thermal throttling during sustained workloads compared to Pro variants with full aluminum heat dissipation.
- •USB connectivity disparity: iPhone 17 and Air models remain limited to USB 2.0 transfer speeds of 480 megabits per second, a 25-year-old standard introduced in April 2000. Pro models support 10 gigabits per second USB 3 speeds, creating a 20x performance gap that becomes increasingly embarrassing for thousand-dollar devices.
- •Speaker configuration compromise: The iPhone Air eliminates the bottom speaker entirely, relying solely on the earpiece speaker for audio output. This represents a significant downgrade from the two-speaker stereo system in other models, particularly affecting users who frequently play media through built-in speakers rather than external audio devices.
- •PWM accessibility feature: iOS 26 introduces a display pulse smoothing toggle in accessibility settings that disables pulse width modulation on OLED screens. This addresses complaints from PWM-sensitive users who experience eye strain and headaches from rapid pixel on-off cycling, though disabling may impact low brightness display performance and battery efficiency.
- •A19 Pro performance metrics: Geekbench results show the A19 Pro delivers 8% faster single-core, 13% faster multi-core, and 40% faster Metal compute scores versus A18 Pro. The chip now matches or exceeds 2019 Mac Pro 12-core Xeon performance in single and multi-core tests while consuming a fraction of the power.
Notable Moment
Jony Ternus demonstrated confidence in iPhone Air durability during a press interview by throwing the device across the room to a journalist who failed to catch it, letting it clatter onto a table. He then challenged them to bend the phone, knowing they would not apply full force to break glass in their bare hands.
Episode Transcript
John, I have to update my number. It's now one. How many phones you smashed? Mhmm. Oh, no. Well, at least you did it right before the new one. You're so angry at these old phones. Now that the new ones are out, you have to smash them. Literally hours after I ordered its replacement. Well, that's the time to do it. For the first time ever, I missed my pocket. Oh, no. Now remind me, are are you a caseless caseless as well? I mean, you're obviously not a caseless caseless, but do you roll with a case or no? I have been going caseless for maybe, I don't know, six months, something like that. You had the leather sticker thing on the back. Right? Oh, that's right. Yes. Yes. Yes. But that doesn't protect against hitting in the corner or the front. No. And I and this was literally like I was getting into my car in my driveway, and I was wearing new shorts. I'm not used to these. Maybe that's the problem. Who knows? Who cares? I put I put my phone down into my pocket, but it was not in my pocket, and I let go. And so it fell I don't know. My legs aren't that long. Two and a half feet. I don't know. You were still on the ground at this point? Well, yeah. I was standing on the on the sidewalk, you know, on my driveway in front of my car. I was about to get in my car. I put the phone and I dropped it from pocket height onto the concrete driveway. Mhmm. And it didn't sound like much, but I picked it up and it hit the back corner, and so the back glass has a huge spider crack. Oh, yeah. That's alright. The the screen's okay. You're fine. Well, the good thing is I have AppleCare, it turns out. But I am back to using the leather stick on back again in the meantime. You don't say. Well, fun fact, I'm pretty damn sure we covered this on the show. But, the express replacement is great, but it costs you a $100. Yes. If you're gonna get this thing fixed, I would strongly advise for you to do so at an Apple store and save yourself the 100 bones. Oh, I didn't do that. I just ordered the $100 thing, and it's gonna be here, I think, tomorrow. I mean, that is certainly the easier way if you would like to set a $100 aflame. But, I I Who's gonna get a new battery then too? Right. And and I figured, you know, this phone yeah. Because my battery, you know, I don't baby it like John. I I use the crap out of it. And so, you know, I'm I I think I'm somewhere in the nineties, but it's still, you know, not not a brand new battery. And, you know, this phone is about to …
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