Hasta La Gadget!

For a while Apple has been selling the iPhone 5s via their online stores, although the caveat is that you’d have to buy it locked to any of the major carriers and sign a new two-year deal with the company. Well the good news is that if you were thinking about picking up an iPhone 5s for yourself but don’t want to be tied to a contract for whatever reason, you might be interested to learn that Apple is now selling SIM-free iPhone 5s units via their online store.

As you can see in the screenshot above, the price of the phones are significantly higher than on contract, and customers would have to pay $649 for the 16GB model, $749 for the 32GB model, and $849 for the 64GB model. Interestingly enough it seems that while the shipping times for carrier-locked iPhone 5s units are at 3-5 days, the SIM-free models have shipping times set at 1-2 weeks. We’re not sure why this is the case, it could be that Apple had allocated a certain amount of units for carriers, but if you wanted a SIM-free iPhone 5s, you’d be in for a relatively short wait. As stated on the website, these unlocked units have the model number A1533 and are only compatible with GSM networks.

Apple To Offer SIM-free iPhone 5s In The US original content from Ubergizmo.

The iPhone 5s has been available for several months now inside the United States, and here near the end of November of 2013 we’re seeing the first push of an unlocked, off-contract iteration of the smartphone. This device has been available off-contract inside the USA previous to today, but until now we’ve not seen the […]

Designer Mike Charles wanted to have a dock for his iPhone that would not only reduce cable clutter but blend in his kitchen as well. He ended up with the Foaster, a dock for the iPhone 5, 5S and 5C that looks just like a toaster. He gets bonus points for not naming it the iToaster.

The Foaster has a plastic body with aluminum trim. It will come with two MFi-certified Lightning-to-USB cables so you can charge up to two iPhones at once. Sadly, unlike a real toaster its slots are not spring-loaded. The phones won’t sink when you plug them in and they certainly won’t pop off when they’re done charging. But at least you can easily plug and unplug your iPhone from the dock.

Pledge at least $79 (USD) on Kickstarer to get a Foaster as a reward. What’s next? Foven for iPads?

Back when Apple hadn’t unveiled its two new iPhones, it was believed that the low-cost iPhone 5c might end up eating into the margins of the relatively expensive iPhone 5s, particularly in markets like India and China. This isn’t the case though, the iPhone 5c hasn’t performed as well as everyone believed it would in those markets primarily because its not as competitively priced as many thought it would be. There has already been a lot of talk about iPhone 5c sales being weak, and its expected to remain weak throughout the fourth quarter of this year. TrendForce estimates that the iPhone 5c will account for 24 percent of the total iPhones shipped during this quarter, whereas iPhone 5s sales are expected to account for almost 70 percent of all iPhone sales.

The firm’s recent research report estimates that Apple shipped 33.8 million units of the iPhone in Q3, 2013, with the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c making up for more than 50 percent of that combined. It also claims that Apple has adjusted the iPhone 5c’s Q4 shipments down by 11 million units, which seems plausible as there have already been a lot of rumors about Apple cutting down production of the iPhone 5c. TrendForce expects Apple to ship 46 million units of the iPhone in this quarter, resulting in a 2.2 percent year-over-year increase.

Weak iPhone 5c Sales Expected In Q4, 2013 original content from Ubergizmo.

We knew that the iPhone 5s was a hot item, especially the gold model which appeared to be a pretty popular choice, but adding to the fact that there were reported production issues with the iPhone 5s’ Touch ID sensor, shipping times of the handset quickly went from 7 to 10 business days, to a vague October timeline. Well the good news is that Apple appears to have gotten their supply chain in order and things seem to be chugging along nicely, at least for now, because according to Apple’s online store, shipping times of the iPhone 5s (all models) show a shipping time of 1-2 weeks.

Granted this is still a relatively long wait compared to 1-3 days or 7-10 days, but it’s still an improvement nonetheless, and we can only assume that further down the line those shipping times will improve. The reason behind this improvement in shipping times could be due to Apple cutting production of the iPhone 5c in a bid to focus more on the iPhone 5s and boost its production rate. While this might be good news for customers, it might not be for Apple’s manufacturing partners, such as Pegatron, who has reportedly missed its Q3 profit target due to production cuts of the iPhone 5c.

iPhone 5s Shipping Estimates See An Improvement original content from Ubergizmo.