So the "blink" feature or those credit cards with the tap and pay like Mastercard's paypass are going away in favor of Chip and signature?

Just for information's sake (and I own a Nexus 5, which is better than the 4)

Luv it when all the android fanboys come crashing in....adds a little spice to the thread
^^^

And my son luvs his Nexus 4 and I like my backup Moto G running on TMO

It's not chip and signature it's chip and pin, it's not good enough to just have the card for purchases you need to know the 4 digit pin and enter it into the terminal at the time of purchase. No pin no purchase, we don't accept UK cards without it and will do a Code 10 on foreign cards without it over a certain amount. NFC cards which is what I assume you mean by blink, normally incorporate chip and pin can only be used for smaller amounts (~�10-�15) paying by NFC as you don't need to enter anything to verify your identity. Larger amounts need to be done via chip and pin so that the identity of the purchaser can be verified.

3rd party keyboards is big (and oh-so late to the party). I hate typing on my wife's iPhone 5. So much more used to the BB physical keyboard and pretty much any Android keyboard (Swiftkey, Swype, my default Xperia keyboard). At least my iPad has enough screen real estate that I can touchtype in landscape model.

I'm pretty sure most people here know what chip and PIN is
Last I heard, most US card issuers were going chip-sig, not chip-PIN.

I prefer this comparison http://en.rocketnews24.com/2014/09/1...apanese-otaku/

As a lucky apple shareholder since 1991, bring it on. My 401[K] says: "Any news is good news"

LOL.

Fwiw, the first CPU benchmark has been reported/claimed and the lowly dual-core, 1GB iPhone6 appears to slightly exceed the quad-core 2GB Moto X at the top of the phones on the Android CPU benchmarks.

25% faster than the 5s

Benchmarks are worthless because they can be gamed. The only thing that matters is real-world performance. iPhones outperform their specs, there's no doubt about that. The software and hardware are tightly integrated, and they use finesse vs Android's brute force to get tasks done.

What exactly does that mean? I have yet to stress any of my fingers more or expend more calories using a smartphone vs. an iPhone.

Unless you actually use it.

[Battery capacity does not] have a linear relationship with size, not to mention that's only half the equation. Battery technology is evolving all the time. More power storage in the same amount of space (not to mention even the "small" phone got ~15% bigger). At the same time, newer hardware requires less power. Which tech evolution is happening faster changes day by day. There's no reason that Apple can't shell out a few more bucks and buy a battery with more storage or find a way for its hardware/OS to use less power. It's competitors have figured this out...

And the watches aren't coming out until next year...

RAM doesn't really have anything to do with a *CPU* benchmark test. But yes, the CPU benchmark looks good.

Apple uses clock cycles very efficiently, and everything is tightly integrated to maximize that efficiency. Android handsets use the brute force of more RAM and faster processors to achieve similar results, without the efficiency. This is why Apple handsets meet or even beat Android flagships at many tasks, despite having less RAM and slower-clocked processors with fewer cores. It's also why Apple handsets can last all day on a much smaller battery than a flagship Android device. At the risk of stating the obvious, clock cycles use energy.

I think the real question with apple pay is whether stores will actually adopt it or not. Maybe if who they contract with for their credit card processing machines release a new machine that has both apple pay and chip/pin capability in one device, it could happen. But I honestly don't see a lot of retailers running out to add this feature, especially since they *are* going to be having to replace the devices for machines that can handle chipped cards. The other question is whether they'll put up with the additional fee that's going to be tacked on from apple for the privilege. I certainly wouldn't expect to see this in smaller businesses simply because of that fee, there's a number of small business already that would far prefer you do a debit card than a credit card transaction just because of the larger charge with a credit card. (Personally, I feel this is really a large issue with *all* of the digital wallet type systems.)

Are your talking about external hardware keyboards? I've had a 3rd party Bluetooth keyboard with my iOS deceives going back to when the 4S came out.