Right after the Apple event ended, my social media feed was flooded with posts like "the strongest ever," "squeezing out every drop," and "buy, buy, buy." Honestly, I was excited too, but after the excitement came the worry—there were so many specs for the new devices: iPhone 16, 16 Plus, 16 Pro, 16 Pro Max, plus Apple Watch and AirPods. Under each product were chips, cameras, screens, battery life, weight, price—dense as an anthill. I originally planned to jot them down in a spreadsheet, opening Excel and typing one by one. After less than ten minutes, I got annoyed. My hands ached, and it was easy to mix up rows.
Later I remembered that Apple's official website actually has structured data, and the developer documentation also has JSON-format spec sheets. Instead of copying manually, why not just pull the JSON, convert it to CSV with a tool, paste it into a spreadsheet, and have it neat and clean? I acted on it. I found an online JSON to CSV tool, pasted the data I scraped from the official site, clicked convert, and—poof—the table appeared. That moment felt like straightening out a tangled mess with one swipe.
Let me walk you through how I did it. First, you need JSON data. On Apple's product comparison page, press F12 to open developer tools, find the request in Network that returns the spec parameters, and the Response is JSON. Or even easier, some third-party sites have already organized JSON, so you can just copy it. Once you have the JSON, open a JSON to CSV tool, paste the data into the input box, and pay attention to its configuration options—such as whether to expand nested objects, how to handle arrays, and whether to use commas or semicolons as delimiters. I usually choose "flatten nested" because Apple's specs are often like {"display": {"size": "6.1", "type": "OLED"}}. If you don't expand them, the CSV will just have a blob that's unreadable.
After conversion, download the CSV and open it in Excel or Numbers. Columns are columns, rows are rows. The iPhone 16 Pro's A18 Pro chip, 48MP main camera, 5x telephoto, titanium frame—all neatly arranged. I added a filter, sorted by price, sorted by screen size, and compared however I wanted. Previously, watching a keynote meant taking notes in a small notebook. Now it's done in ten minutes, and I can send the table to friends. Whoever asks "What's the difference between Pro and Pro Max?" I just send the file and save the hassle.
Actually, JSON to CSV tools aren't just for organizing phone specs. You can do the same with graphics cards, laptops, cameras, even rental listings and fund data—anything in JSON format. The key is: don't be afraid of those curly braces and square brackets; the tool will help you break them down. The only thing to note is that before converting, it's best to delete useless fields, otherwise the CSV will be full of nulls, which is also annoying.
For this Apple event, the final table I put together showed the iPhone 16 standard version starting at 5999, Pro at 7999, Pro Max at 9999—no price increase compared to last year, but storage went from 128GB base to 256GB base, which is more for the same price. The A18 chip's benchmark scores, camera aperture values, battery mAh—all lie in the table. If you don't want to bother, someone online has shared the CSV directly, but doing it yourself gives you a better sense of the data.
In short, next time you face this kind of information bombardment, don't be silly and copy by hand. Find a JSON to CSV tool—it takes five minutes. The time saved can be used to watch a review video, or just take a nap. Isn't that better than wrestling with a spreadsheet?