Well, OK, the media and the tech geeks have already bandied about the latest and greatest iDevices from Apple, with the most recent ones - the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus - hitting store shelves in the U.S. already and soon to go worldwide just in time for the holiday shopping season.
The new iPhone models have been rumored, talked, blogged and bandied about for months now, so much of what the iPhone is about now was not real mystery - two sizes of screen, including a "phablet" size, Retina HD displays, larger battery - while a few others are being hailed for coming true or for being well-shielded from the media gossip tsunami that inevitably pre-dates any Apple launch event.
By now, a lot of people have given their takes on the new phones, everything from the cosmetics to what is under the hood of these machines. After our own look at it from an average consumer perspective, we have distilled all the bells and whistles down to the absolute best things we find with these new devices that are innovative based on Apple's standard from past devices.
Bigger, badder battery. The battery has been talked abut as being huge, but it's at least being talked about as being 50 percent more efficient that even the iPhone 5 battery of two editions ago. This means your mobile device will be even more mobile than before because you won't have to be near at outlet quite as often.
Lightning McQueen. The processor on these bad boys is the new A8 chip, which is said to be 25 percent faster in processing and have 50 percent faster graphics than those iPhones on the A7 chip. What this means - the iPhone 6 models would be 50 times faster in processing power and 84 times faster in graphics than the first iPhone that launched in 2007. A processor that has has accelerated to be 5,000-percent faster in just seven years? Maybe it's so much picturing how fast that is now but rather how slow the original iPhone really was.
Even more memory. The new iPhones are now starting to hold as much memory as two-year-old iPads. The 16GB version is still the small one, but the medium size is now gone from 32GB to 64GB, and the 64GB "large" size is now up to 128GB. That means even more selfies and funny cat videos!
Bigger is better. Apparently pockets and purses are getting larger, as there has been a market for larger phones lately. Apple joins the fray with two record-sized phones - the 4.7 inch 6 and the 5.5 inch 6 Plus, both larger than any previous iPhone model. Add to that HD Retina displays (720p for the smaller and 1080p for the larger) along with the ability to have a horizontal home screen and the display will be a big improvement.
Apple Pay. The new thing is to use a smartphone to pay for groceries or any retail shopping trip. While Apple is late to the game, Apple Pay will allow iPhone users to scan in a bit or credit card and then use the phone to pay for everything anonymously (or so we're told). This is supposed to be the most secure way to pay among smartphone payment options, but we'll have to see.
Wi-fi jingles. Being able to make calls over wi-fi is relatively new, but it's great to have the opportunity built into an iPhone. This can make international calling easier and cheaper and can help users "skirt" any roaming or excessive call charges they might incur. It's also great when you need to make a call but you just don't get cell reception because the nearest tower in in your neighbor's yard and not your own.
