Apple iPhone 5 Review

The iPhone 5. As in five million units sold over the course of a … weekend. Can't say no to that. This is the latest installment in the smartphone series that changed the mobile phone industry and we can understand people couldn't wait. Now, what is it they couldn't wait for? The Apple iPhone 5 brings the long anticipated larger screen and more capable internals that we already know are ready to trade blows with the most powerful chipsets out there.

   



Apple iPhone 5 official photos There's also the new slender, slimmer body that no photos really do justice to. If all of Apple's claims are true then the iPhone 5 is a real engineering masterpiece - double the performance in a more compact package without sacrificing anything in terms of battery life. They could've done worse. A lot worse. But this is Apple telling you to prepare to be wowed. So you have every right to play hard-to-please.

Key features

• Quad-band GSM and quad-band 3G support with 14.4 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA
• LTE support where carriers support it and CDMA support when sold by CDMA carriers
• 4" 16M-color LED-backlit IPS TFT capacitive touchscreen of 640 x 1136px resolution
• Scratch-resistant screen glass, fingerprint-resistant coating
• 1.2GHz dual-core custom-designed CPU, PowerVR SGX543MP3 GPU, 1GB of RAM, Apple A6 SoC
• iOS 6 and iCloud integration
• 8 MP autofocus camera with LED flash and touch focus
• 1080p video recording at 30fps
• 1.2MP secondary front-facing camera
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
• GPS with A-GPS connectivity; digital compass
• 16/32/64GB storage options
• Accelerometer, proximity sensor and a three-axis gyro sensor
• Active noise cancellation with a dedicated secondary microphone
• Standard 3.5 mm audio jack, stereo Bluetooth v4.0
• Excellent audio output quality (though worse than 4S)
• Apple Maps with free voice-guided navigation in 56 countries
• Voice recognition, Siri virtual assistant
• Supports HD Voice (needs carrier support too)
• FaceTime video calls over Wi-Fi and cellular
• Impressively slim and light
• Great battery life

Main disadvantages

• Aluminum body looks cool but is easy to scratch
• Proprietary connector, incompatible with previous-gen accessories (needs adapter)
• The new display is not proportionally bigger, but only taller
• Unadapted apps run letterboxed due to the unusual resolution
• nano-SIM support only
• Apple Maps app not up to scratch
• No USB Mass Storage mode
• No FM radio
• No stereo speakers
• No microSD card slot
• No NFC connectivity (though that may be nitpicking)
• Stuck with iTunes for loading content
• Mono audio recording in videos

Should the iPhone 5 be worried about not doing quite enough in terms of new design and features? That question sounds ridiculous considering the sales numbers. But there's a long-term perspective that goes beyond a record-breaking opening weekend.

   

The Apple iPhone 5 live photos People who thought the iPhone 4S was a half-hearted effort, are rightfully expecting the iPhone 5 to be the real upgrade of the brilliant iPhone 4. In the end, though, there's more to a smartphone's real worth than dry specs. Apple has, on multiple occasions, been able to produce devices that are better than the sum of their parts and few will be surprised at the iPhone 5 pulling off a similar trick.


 


We also took the Black and Slate version for a spin There's no time to waste, so follow us to the next page for the unboxing and hardware inspection of Apple's latest. We'll also take a close look at that sweet new display and see whether the claims about it being the most advanced in business hold water.

Apple iPhone 3GS 8GB         iPhone 4 16 Gb Black            iPhone 4S 16GB                         iPhone 5 16Gb White

Unlocked by Apple                                                            Factory Unlocked                                Unlocked 

 

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Next-Gen iPad Mini Will Come With Retina Display!

Launched back on 2^nd November, the iPad Mini has been showing ground to other 7 inch Android tablets like the Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD. The iPad Mini has received mostly positive reviews, but despite that, a lot of people have been complaining about the lack of retina display and a faster processor along with the hefty $329 price tag. And it looks like Apple is going to address at least some of those complaints in the next generation of iPad Mini, probably the iPad Mini 2.

The display of the current-gen iPad Mini is not that bad either with 1024 by 768 resolution but it really looks quite bad compared to other Retina-fied Apple devices. According to a recent report from DigiTimes, the iPad Mini 2 will finally have a Retina display with a resolution of 2058 by 1536 with a 326 ppi which easily enters the Retina territory.

Here is what they say,

The sources have yet to specify whether the device will use Apple's Retina Display technology to enhanced resolution, but market observers said it is highly likely based on the development of past Apple products such as the iPhone and 9.7-inch iPad series.
Meanwhile, the sources also said that Apple will restructure the lighting of the next-generation 9.7-inch iPad from two LED light bars to one in order to decrease the device's overall weight.

It was pre-predicted by analysts that Apple would include a Retina display into the iPad Mini 2 to convince all those who have been complaining about the lower-res display of the iPad Mini into buying the next-gen iPad Mini. That higher resolution display will also finish the concerns about the higher price tag.

iPhone 5 vs Galaxy S III vs iPhone 4S

The iPhone 5 and Galaxy S 3 are very different phones. The former has a smaller screen, thinner design, and an operating system that is very much a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of experience. The Galaxy S 3 has a huge display and a much larger form factor that is more conducive to gaming and video watching, but perhaps a bit difficult to use with just one-hand. In this video, we compare the merits of both the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy S 3!

In this video we compare the new iPhone 5 with the iPhone 4S. The iPhone 5 has the new A6 dual-core 1GHz Apple CPU with 1GB of RAM, while the iPhone 4S has an A5 dual-core 800MHz Apple CPU. The display on the iPhone 5 is 1136x640 while it's 960x640 on the iPhone 4S. The battery is also a bit larger on the iPhone 5, very much needed for the larger screen and inclusion of the LTE radio.

Related articles

• Sony getting ready to release new Android flagship that will directly rival iPhone 5, Galaxy S III
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• Samsung and Apple allowed to add products to lawsuit, such as the Apple iPhone 5 and the Samsung Galaxy S III
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5 Simple methods to help preserve your iPhone 4S battery life

The iPhone 4S is already generating praise for its relatively well performing battery but everyone who has got their hands on the iPhone 4S already knows that more is never good enough. Even as manufactures introduce better performing batteries, technicians are already developing the next generation of battery intensive applications. Hence, to make the best of the battery you have, you need to make some small efficiency focused changes to the iPhone setup. This does not mean that we ought to choose one extreme and shut down all external applications found on the iPhone, but rather make small changes to get the best user experience without having to charge the phone every few minutes.

 

1. Turn-off unnecessary connections: Whenever possible, disable unnecessary connections such as Bluetooth, GPS and Wi-Fi. If you are at work and you have your own PC, then you would not exactly need these connections because you will be able to access these features via PC. The best times to use these connections are when you are on the move or you do not have access to a PC (and internet).

2. Adjust Brightness: when you are at home or at the office, turn down the screen brightness. This needlessly drains your battery. Activate the brightness when you are heading outside but remember to turn it off when you are inside.

3. Disable 3G: Unless you need fast connection speeds, turn off the 3G because this takes a significant toll on the iPhone’s battery.

4. Notification settings: Adjust your synchronisation and notification settings because the constant updates can quickly wear down even the toughest battery. The best thing to do would be to manually refresh unessential apps.

 5. Careful of the multi-tasking: Sometimes you might use your iPhone for music, movies, social networking and general communication. If you have any important work, then tone down on the multi-tasking and focus on one simple set of applications.(via planetiphones)

Siri GUI, Dictation And Voice Commands Now Fully Working On iPhone 4 And iPod touch 4G

The developers and hackers from the iPhone jailbreaking community sure are a talented bunch of people. Despite reports of Siri being incompatible with older iOS devices because of them “not having suitable hardware”, these folks took up the challenge of making Siri work on these devices and, if today’s news is anything to go by, they have successfully completed that challenge.
Yesterday, we published a step-by-step guide on how to install Siri’s GUI on iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4G but that was, as you may remember, GUI only. Today, we’ve received news that Siri now works 100% on the iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4G, with its GUI working smoothly and Apple servers accepting and processing voice input.

The news comes from 9to5Mac – a blog dedicated to covering all things Apple – in a post where they announce that they have, in collaboration with developer Steven Troughton-Smith, managed to get Siri working with all of its features on older iOS devices such as the iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4G.
From 9to5Mac:

On the iPhone 4S launch date just a couple of weeks ago, we broke the news that developer Steven Troughton-Smith had successfully ported the Siri user-interface and some of the underlying code from the iPhone 4S onto the iPhone 4. The port was functional except for the most important part: talking to Apple’s servers. Now, Troughton-Smith has followed up with Chpwn to get the server fully working on an iPhone 4 and iPod touch.

Troughton-Smith is the same developer who first got Siri’s GUI working on the iPhone 4, which we talked about earlier this month. After “following up” with developer chpwn, he has managed to trick Apple’s servers into accepting voice input from Siri on officially unsupported devices. This only became possible after iPhone Dev-Team managed to jailbreak iPhone 4S from which Troughton-Smith was able to extract necessary files to make Siri work.
Sadly and, yet, understandably, Troughton-Smith refuses to distribute these files which are required to make Siri work on iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4G as doing so would be illegal. Besides this, setting Siri up on iPhone 4/iPod touch 4G takes about 20 steps and requires a “validation token” that has to be taken live from an iPhone 4S.
Still, there is hope for those of you who are interested in making Siri work on their iPhone 4 or iPod touch 4G as Troughton-Smith states, after being asked if he sees Siri coming to Cydia in the form of a tweak, “I have no doubts that others will package this up and distribute it quasi-illegally, or try and sell it to people. I am only interested in the technology and making it work”. (via Redmondpie)

Related articles

• Siri Gets Around - Now (Almost) Available on iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4G (cosbysweaters.com)
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• Siri hack on iPhone 4, iPod Touch can now chat with Apple's servers (venturebeat.com)
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• Siri Ported To iPhone 4 and iPod Touch 4G (techcrunch.com)
• Siri hacked to work on iPhone 4 and iPod touch 4G (gizmag.com)
• Jailbroken iPhone 4 and iPod Touch Run Limited Siri [Iphone 4s] (gizmodo.com)
• How To Get Siri GUI On iPhone 4 And iPod Touch 4G Right Now (Guide) (netwidz.com)
• Why Siri doesn't like older iPhones (news.cnet.com)

“Siri, Will You Marry Me?”

Apple’s latest big thing is undoubtedly Siri, the digital assistant locked deep inside the new iPhone 4S. As soon as people began getting their hands on the iPhone 4S and, more specifically, Siri, they started to ask her (or him) increasingly random questions, just to see what the response was.

This led to more than a few blog posts and videos doing the rounds, showing off just what happened when you asked Siri where you could hide a dead body, or asked it to tell you a joke. It was all (mildly) amusing, and we all giggled. Now, two weeks since the initial launch of the iPhone 4S, we thought all that silliness was behind us, but alas, it seems we aren’t quite as safe as we thought.
Now we have a new video which is an interesting riff on the old ‘Siri, will you marry me?’ question.
The video follows a group of friends who are asking Siri some comedic questions, except they get more than they bargained for, way lot more actually.
Now, before you watch this video, let me add this. Yes, it’s entertaining, and yes, we have to commend the people behind it for putting together a nice little video. That said, we’ve no idea whether anyone else has managed to make Siri do what it did in the aforementioned video, and to be honest, we’re not even sure whether this is legit in the first place.
That said, it’s worth watching, so long as you’ve nothing more important to do with the next 120 seconds of your life.
Oh, and make sure you watch to the very end!
Now we’ve all sat and watched yet another video about Siri’s often off answers to questions, can we, as the internet as a whole, please make a pact? Moving forward, can we all agree to stop with the Siri videos showing the same thing, over and over? Yes we know Siri has some canned responses to some interesting questions, and yes it was funny the first 143 times we saw them. But we’ve seen them now, we laughed and we cried.
But really, are there not more interesting, and hopefully useful things we can use Siri for? (via Redmondpie)

Siri for iPhone Definition

Definition:
Siri - Siri is a voice-activated app that works with the iPhone 4S and iOS 5 to allow users to take action on their iPhone by speaking. Siri can understand not just basic commands, but also the colloquialisms that are common to human speech. Siri can both speak back to the user and take dictation--transcribing voice to text.
Siri was originally developed as a standalone iOS app by a company called Siri. Apple bought the company in April 2010 for an undisclosed amount of money (some have speculated that the purchase price could have been as high as US$200 million).
Hardware Compatibility

• iPhone 4S

App Compatibility
Siri only works with the built-in apps made by Apple that come with the iPhone. Siri is not currently compatible with third-party apps. Among the apps that Siri interacts wit are:

• Maps
• Mail
• iMessage
• Calendar
• Clock
• Reminders
• Phone
• Weather
• Stocks
• Address Book

The dictation feature, however, does work with third-party apps (Apple has, to date, mentioned Facebook and Instagram as compatible apps).
Third-Party Service Integration
Siri integrates with a number of third-party services to provide deeper information. It uses Wolfram Alpha to find deep data and process more complex requests. It also uses Yelp to find restaurants and provide feedback on them from Yelp users.
Example Uses
Some example uses of Siri include:

• Tell the iPhone 4S to set an alarm, find a kind of restaurant or add an appointment to your calendar
• Have Siri read text messages to the user and then take dictation for, and send, a response
• Create a reminder to perform an action based on your geographic location
• Dictate an email without touching the iPhone's keyboard.
• Search the web by speaking the search term

Conversations with Siri
Want to find out what other people are asking Siri? Or have you had funny conversations of your own with Siri that you'd like to share? Check out our Conversations with Siri page.(via about.com)

Apple iPad 2 GPS - Quick Guide and Capabilities

Ever since Apple introduced the original iPad, there has been some confusion about its GPS capabilities. Based on the questions I receive and the comments I'm reading, people still want to nail down the facts on the location and GPS capabilities of the various iPad 2 models before they buy. Note that the links in this post provide more in-depth information about key terms and features.
The technical specs as listed by Apple provide a good starting point: The "Wi-Fi" versions of the iPad 2, which come in 16, 32, and 64GB-memory models, do not have built in GPS chips. One cause of confusion is the fact that the Wi-Fi models can determine your location fairly accurately, as long as they are within range of a Wi-Fi signal, thanks to their Wi-Fi positioning capability. The Wi-Fi models also have a built-in digital compass.
The iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G models do have built-in GPS chips that receive signals from the global GPS satellite system to determine your location - as closely as three meters, depending the the number of satellite signals the chip is receiving. GPS in the iPad 2 is classed as assisted GPS, also known as AGPS, which enhances the performance of standard GPS in devices connected to Wi-Fi or the cellular network. The iPad 2 W-Fi + 3G may be used for the full range of apps that require detailed location information wherever you may be on the planet, including mapping, driving, services locators, and more.
Updated: There have been claims that the iPad 2 Wi-Fi model, which does not have a GPS chip, will use the GPS feed from an iPhone 4 (with iOS 4.3 installed) tethered to it with Apple's new Personal Hotspot feature. This did not work in my tests, using apps that indicate when they have a GPS fix available, and other sources have concurred that the Personal Hotspot tether does not provide GPS data to the original iPad, or to the iPad 2.(via about.com)

Judge Refuses To Ban iPhone 4S Sales In Italy Despite Samsung’s Protestations

 

The latest battle in the over-arching war between the two giants is all about the iPhone 4S, with Samsung trying to stop Apple from being able to sell its latest smartphone in Italy, of all places.

Unsurprisingly, Apple isn’t so fond of that idea, and as such the pair have been slogging it out in the courts.
It appears that Apple has drawn first blood in this particular battle, after a judge in an Italian court ruled that Apple could indeed sell its iPhone 4S to eager buyers in the country, despite Samsung’s claims that the handset violates intellectual property rights.

Apple has continued to flagrantly violate our intellectual property rights and free ride on our technology. We believe it is now necessary to take legal action to protect our innovation.

Samsung is particularly upset at Apple’s use of wireless communications technology, which the Android and Windows Phone 7 partner claims infringes on two of their patents.

The infringed technology is essential to the reliable functioning of telecom networks and devices and Samsung believes that Apple’s violation as being too severe and that the iPhone 4S should be barred from sales.

The case isn’t quite over yet though. The Italian judge has accepted the request of both Apple and Samsung to be allowed to submit more evidence. That new evidence will be reviewed at a hearing on December 16th.
Apple had been set to bring the iPhone 4S to Italy on Friday, which can now go ahead as planned, with pre-orders having begun last week. Someone at Apple was clearly confident that they were not going to be forced to postpone a launch worth millions of dollars.
Samsung will now continue in its efforts to have the iPhone 4S banned in other countries, including Japan and Australia, after Apple was successful in getting the Galaxy Tab 10.1 banned from being made available to Australian customers already.
Why can’t we all just get along?
(via PCMag)