What is so appealing about the new iPhone 6 devices? Freshmen Atsuo Chiu and Jake Longoria will tell you, as well as junior Dakota Cosgrove.
And if you’d like to learn a little more about the health monitor on these new devices, P.E. teacher Michelle Myers is your source.
Chiu received his new iPhone 6 Plus through the mail during his class trip to Marin Headlands.
“I like that the screen is very big,” Chiu said.
The smaller screen of the iPhone 6 makes it more difficult to type on, so having the bigger screen on the 6 Plus makes games more fun.
Chiu uses his new phone for video games such as Cut the Rope 2 and Minecraft, planning out events, and texting.
Consequently, he said the $399 price for his 6 Plus is reasonable.
How does the 6 Plus compare to other Apple products and other brands? Chiu noted that other brands already offer large screens, whereas the larger screen is a new feature of Apple.
“The resolution is pretty good, and the fingerprint comes in handy,” Chiu said. The touch ID, released in the last couple of years, uses a sensor to read the fingerprint of its user in order to unlock the device. With this feature, the phone always knows who its primary user is.
Freshman Jake Longoria received his iPhone 6 four days after it was released. Longoria is a fan of the new design because of its more rounded edges. He also likes the bigger screen, although he thinks the company could have “stayed true to Apple with a smaller screen.”
Longoria said this device is different from other companies’ because it has only one button on its screen. He also said it is different from older devices because the power button is on the side of the phone.
What does Longoria use his new device for? He uses it to Google things that come up in conversations and to listen to popular music.
Why didn’t he buy the 6 Plus? “The 6 Plus was just way too big. (It) just didn’t feel like a phone anymore.”
Junior Dakota Cosgrove received her iPhone 6 on Oct. 16, after going to the Apple store to buy the new device and finding it was already sold out. Cosgrove resorted to ordering the phone and picking it up two weeks later.
“It’s super fast, and I like the camera quality,” Cosgrove said.
Cosgrove also likes that a password is not required to open the device and that instead she can just touch the fingerprint ID to unlock it.
Replying to texts is also easier on this device and the big screen is an advantage. The battery also lasts a long time.
“I use it for everything,” she said.
This includes music, texting, Snapchat, Instagram and help with homework.
“I really like the app sound cloud,” Cosgrove said. “It has (a) bunch of cool music”.
Cosgrove uses this app for music and follows her friends’ accounts.
How does her new device compare to other devices from Apple and other companies?
“I think they made it a lot more like Android,” Cosgrove said. The iPhone 6 has a bigger lock button on the side, which corresponds to the one on an Android.
Cosgrove says the iPhone 6 is “better than the iPhone 5”. On her iPhone 5, whenever she would attempt to install new iOS updates, her device would glitch. Now her iPhone 6 works well with iOS 8.
She thinks the price is reasonable but only because of her situation. She went to the AT&T store because her phone wasn’t working and was able to get the trade-in program to get her new phone for free.
P.E. teacher Michelle Myers is enthusiastic about the health monitor feature on these new iPhone devices. There are two different versions of the fitness apps.
Wello is one of the health monitors that clips onto the iPhone, iPod or Android device to take respiration, temperature, heart rate, lung volume and EKG waves from the heart. It also includes a spirometer, a device that measures the volume of air that the lungs take in and out. which is useful and cheap for children with asthma.
This monitor is fairly accurate although it’s not 100 percent because light and frequency can alter the readings. Myers says she is “in the process of reading reviews to see if the app will be successful.”
“I’d love to use it for P.E.,” Myers said. However, she noted that the monitor wouldn’t be available to all of her students because not everyone has iPhones or Androids.
The other, newer version of the health monitor is supposed to keep track of glucose levels, which Myers said “(is a) really cool feature for diabetics.”
