We knew the iPhone 5 was thinner and lighter than the iPhone 4S, but seriously, it’s thinner and lighter than the iPhone 4S. By a pretty notable margin. Picking up the iPhone 5 is almost jarring — it’s barely heavy enough to feel “premium,” and it’ll probably make you handle it with care for free of breaking it in half with too tight a tug. The new Dock Connector — also known as Lightning — is most certainly smaller, and looks most at home on the new iPod nano. Without further qualifying, have a look at the comparison gallery below.
In its fifth generation, the iPod touch gets even closer to the iPhone, while still carving out its own multimedia niche. Borrowing the new 4-inch Retina display but slotting it into a mere 88g, 6.1mm thick chassis, it’s clear that doing away with the cellular radio has (among other disparities) made for an altogether more comprehensive and capable device. Certainly not one to fall into the iPhone 5′s shadow; read on for our first impressions!
It’s hard to believe how thin Apple can make the iPod touch without also making it feel fragile, but the new matte-finish aluminum casing – in a welcome range of colors now – actually comes across as tougher than ever before. The display is as crisp, bright, and generally beautiful as on the iPhone 5, but if anything its widescreen dimensions are exaggerated and emphasized by the narrow iPod body.
Inside, the Apple A5 chipset is a welcome addition, and now the iPod touch no longer feels like a slumbering compromise. Siri acts as we’ve already seen it, piping up when you double-tap the home button, though you’ll need a WiFi connection because cellular data is reserved for the iPhone. Menus whip through and features like the newly-supported iMovie and iPhoto load with no delay; we were soon shifting around video clips and editing stills, just as we were used to doing on the iPhone 4S.
Those new apps work with the 5-megapixel camera, of course, another new addition. Apple hasn’t stinted on specs there, despite the lower resolution than in recent iPhones, and you get f/2.4, an LED flash, and sapphire crystal protection. The camera strap – which comes bundled, and color-matches the iPod touch itself – seems like a gimmick at first, but a few minutes play with the Panorama mode and you realize that, just as gamers replaced their PSP’s and DSi’s with a 4th-gen iPod touch, photographers are going to increasingly dump their point-and-shoots for the 5th-gen version.
Of course, the 5th-gen touch won’t go into battle alone: Apple will offer the existing, 4th-gen model alongside it still, satisfying a lower price point. But the extra features you get from the new version are, we already believe, definitely worth the extra money.
Today Apple announced iTunes 11—a huge update with a totally new look. To tide you over until its release, which isn’t until October, Apple this afternoon releasediTunes 10.7, which includes support for iOS 6 and new iPod Nanos and Shuffles. Obviously it’s an smaller, albeit necessary update, but we know there’s a huge one coming next month. [Apple via 9to5Mac] More »
As the plethora of recent posts attest, Apple has indeed launched the iPhone 5, the next generation in its five-year-old iPhone family tree. But is it the best smartphone money can buy? For kicks and giggles, we’ve pitted the specs of Tim Cook’s darling against those found in the top Android and Windows Phone devices (as a disclaimer, the Nokia Lumia 920 has yet to be officially released, but we have received nearly all of the essential stats). So how does the iPhone 5 hold up against some of its most vicious competitors? Follow along after the break as we analyze the best of the best.
Note: We’re still waiting to get final word on a few of the specs, but we’ll update the post as those details come to light.
While we won’t be seeing the heavily redesigned iTunes 11 until October, Apple has unveiled a new update ready for its roster of new devices, not to mention the incoming iOS 6. The refresh will work with the fresh-off-the-production-line iPod Nano and Shuffle hardware — but that’s the extent of what’s new in the 165MB download. You can grab it at the source below.
The new iPhone 5 may be instantly recognizable, but in the hand it’s a very new – and very polished – device indeed. Apple has mixed together evolutionary and revolutionary where each were required, and so we get the bigger, 4-inch display, the sleek new chassis and the internal magic, such as LTE and an A6 chipset, that we were hoping for. The new iPhone 5 won’t be in stores for a couple of weeks yet, so read on for our first impressions!
You can’t mistake the iPhone 5 for any other smartphone, but nor has it stayed exactly the same as its predecessor (which stays on sale as Apple’s new $99-on-contract midrange model). The new casing does away with the sometimes-delicate glass back panel, replacing it with a tactile sheet of anodized aluminum; it’s also noticeably slimmer which, with the body staying the same width but growing longer, makes it feel all the more tapered and slender in the hand.
Gripping it, your thumb is able to navigate the full length of the display without stretching, just as promised, and while it’s undoubtedly a light handset it doesn’t feel delicate. We loved the Retina Display in the iPhone 4/4S, but the iPhone 5 trumps both: it looks somehow crisper and cleaner, and it’s bright, even under the lights of Apple’s demo area. The anti-glare coating certainly helps there.
Swiping through the iOS 6 homescreens – with their new row of icons slotted in – is slick and smooth, just as before, but now apps load with no lag whatsoever. It’s of course worth noting that these are brand new phones (and probably running not-quite-final iOS 6 software), but they’re as fast as you’d hope and jumping between apps is quick and simple. We’ll have to wait until review units arrive before we can see quite how much of an improvement the A6 chipset brings.
Apple is particularly keen on the camera on the iPhone 5, and from even a brief play it’s clear that the new features added are probably going to go down well with existing users. It may not have the handy camera-strap attachment of the new iPod touch (we’d expect to see third-party case manufacturers step up to deliver there, though curiously Apple hasn’t been talking about any iPhone 5 accessories at this event) but the Panorama mode works surprisingly well, even if you just casually swing the smartphone around the scene.
Meanwhile there’s no shutter lag or app delay that we can see, and the whole thing – together with the camera shortcut on the iOS lockscreen – makes an even stronger case for replacing your dedicated point-and-shoot. Photo and video samples will have to wait until review units, unfortunately, though they look great on the Retina display.
Existing owners will have a couple of surprises. The headphone socket is now on the bottom edge, as has been the case with the iPod touch, and the nano SIM slot means your existing micro SIM won’t work. Perhaps more frustrating will be the change of dock connector, the Lightning port being a necessity to achieve the form-factor, though there’ll at least be an adapter offered for older accessories.
In short, it’s a beautifully constructed, cohesive combination of design and materials: even if you’re not an iOS fan, you’ll have to appreciate the package Apple has put together. If, though, you are an iOS lover – and there are plenty of them around – then the iPhone 5 is easily the best model yet. It’s the significant refresh many were hoping of the iPhone 4S, and it’s going to sell like wildfire.
More details on all of Apple’s announcements today in our Apple Hub!
Naturally, there’s a good amount of anticipation surrounding the release of Windows Phone 8 handsets, but before that day arrives, developers will need proper software to code apps. Microsoft stopped short of releasing the requisite tools, but today, the company announced the Windows Phone 8 SDK preview program — essentially a way for developers to get in line for when the software becomes available. As is, all developers must submit an application to the Microsoft Connect website by Monday, September 17th, at which point, they’ll be provided instructions “the following week” of how and where to download the SDK. As for why the company has stopped short of an immediate release, Microsoft blames it on the fact that not all Windows Phone 8 features have been announced — which gives us reason to hope we’ll see a full disclosure in the near term.
In related news, the Redmond giant has also revealed that the Marketplace will be renamed the Windows Phone Store, which is intended to harmonize the naming scheme with the Windows Store. It’ll first rear its head in both Australia and New Zealand, but the company promises to roll out the new storefront to other countries in the weeks ahead. As for what you can expect, a cleaner design and new menu options are said to be in the mix, along with news and reviews from various technology blogs and journalists. Other improvements will include new search functionality to account for typos, along with suggestions for similar apps, regardless of what’s in the title. Finally, Microsoft will also introduce new categories such as Best Rated, Top Free and Top Paid. We’ll initially see these designations in the online store only, but the company promises to mirror the functionality on its phones later this year.
A full-frame sensor inside a compact camera sounds like lunacy, but Sony’s managed it (at least, in principle) with its new Cyber-shot RX1. While only at the engineering sample stage, we’re already deeply in love with its retro body and the potential that lurks inside that 24.3-megapixel sensor. The question, of course, is how did they manage to squeeze that whopping hardware into such a small body? Take a gander through the gallery from our brothers at Engadget Chinese to see how it achieved such a feat.
It’s time to take a peek at the entirety of the iPhone 5‘s specifications, top to bottom, as the device hits the Apple Store online and we get our first full taste of Apple‘s new smartphone hero (be sure to have a look at our wrap-up of Apple’s big event). This device is the thinnest and lightest iPhone yet with a 4-inch Retina quality display up front and a new A6 chip under the hood. The iPhone 5 works with 4G LTE on a variety of networks both here in the USA and abroad and works with what Apple calls Ultrafast wireless or “LTE. The right way.” The iPhone 5 has a new set of earbuds called EarPods, a new dock connector called Lightning, and a boosted 8-megapixel “iSight” camera as well.
This device has an on/off sleep/wake button on top, a 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack at the bottom near two speaker grills and a Lightning connector. It’s got three microphones for HD recording, and two buttons on the left, one for turning the volume up and one for turning it down. Of course, the iPhone 5 also comes running iOS 6, which boasts a number of improvement and new features, including Apple’s new Maps app, Facebook and Passbook integration, and new Siri functionality (which includes support for additional languages). NOTE: Check out our full hands-on with the iPhone 5 soon in our Apple portal!
That A6 chip lends to “twice the CPU and graphics performance,” and that 8-megapixel iSight camera on the back comes with a sapphire crystal lens that not only provides “a crystal clear” image, but is also more durable than standard glass. The iPhone 5 takes advantage of Apple-developed single-radio LTE, and also has dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi support at its disposal. Even though the iPhone 5 comes with a brand new Lightning connector, users will be able to connect to legacy 30-pin devices through the use of a special adapter, so Apple has you covered there. On the front we also have a “FaceTime HD” 1.2-megapixel camera, capable of shooting in 720p.
So there you have it, the iPhone 5 is actually a thing and it’s already taken up residence on the Apple’s homepage. It’ll go up for pre-order later this week on September 14, and then Apple is set to begin its worldwide roll out of the new phone on September 21. Like iPhones in the past, this one comes in three different flavors: 16GB for $199, 32GB for $299, and 64GB for $399 (with a two-year agreement of course). Tell us – are you picking up the iPhone 5 next week?
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