Tag Archives: iphone

Apple iOS 7 running behind, could be the UI overhaul we’ve been hoping for!

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In a Branch chat, Daring Fireball’s John Gruber says, according to what he has heard, Apple’s new upcoming iOS 7 is not only running behind schedule, but more importantly that it will bring a significant user interface (UI) refresh.

What I’ve heard: iOS 7 is running behind, and engineers have been pulled from OS X 10.9 to work on it. (Let me know if you’ve heard this song before.)

Gruber went on to say that he’s heard that iOS 7 is a “significant system-wide UI overhaul” and the iOS engineers who are allowed to carry around devices with iOS 7 on them even have special privacy filters on their devices which reduces viewing angles. This is to prevent others from accidentally getting a glimpse of the new iOS design in iOS 7.

Such secrecy and such management focus on iOS over OS X is nothing new, in fact back in 2007, Apple delayed the release of OS X Leopard to concentrate work on what would be at the time the first iPhone, and from what Gruber hints, that could be the case with iOS 7, meaning a possible delay of OS X 10.9.
softwareupdate

iMore’s Rene Ritchie follows up Gruber’s comments, saying that he’s heard that Ive’s work with iOS 7 is “making many people really happy, but will also apparently make rich-texture-loving designers sad.” His comments come during a Branch talk that includes Gruber, Ritchie, TechCrunch’s MG Siegler, Engadget’s Tim Stevens, The Next Web’s Matthew Panzarino and more.

Ritchie follows up what were his earlier predictions that he’s heard that an event for a new 9.7-inch iPad is, or was planned, for April, but it was contingent upon the new iPad being ready for release. He also notes that he’s hearing the iPhone 5S will arrive in August, although it could be a July/August window rather than a specific month.

As for what could be on the iPhone 5S, both Siegler and Panzarino say they’ve heard a lot about biometrics on the new device, in the form of NFC and Fingerprint reader. The feature would apparently be used for payments and identification. Panzarino also notes, it wouldn’t be surprising to see AuthenTec’s biometric technology (developer of Fingerprint reading software) in Apple devices so soon after Apple purchased the company last July because of the urgency of the deal.

Finally, Siegler says he’s heard “a whisper” that Apple’s Passbook team is due for a shakeup and is in “shambles”, though Ritchie points out that Scott Forstall’s departure could be the main reason for the Passbook team’s troubles.

Who knows what the next iPhone and iOS 7 holds, what it does seem, is it’s going to be much more than we originally anticipated, which is awesome, for once, we’re excited about Apple again.

Sources: Branch, iMore, MacRumors

Blackberry CEO Thorsten Heins claims Apple now lacks Innovation

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In an interview in The Australian Financial Review, Blackberry CEO Thorsten Heins described the Apple iOS platform as an outdated user interface, claiming that the iPhone is “at risk of being replaced in the popularity stakes” due to a ‘lack of innovation’.

Blackberry’s Thorsten Heins with the Z10

Quote:
“Apple did a fantastic job in bringing touch devices to market … They did a fantastic job with the user interface, they are a design icon. There is a reason why they were so successful, and we actually have to admit this and respect that,” Mr Heins said.“History repeats itself again I guess … the rate of innovation is so high in our industry that if you don’t innovate at that speed you can be replaced pretty quickly. The user interface on the iPhone, with all due respect for what this invention was all about is now five years old.” [...]

“The point is that you can never stand still.”

Blackberry itself (formerly RIM) and Thorsten Heins have of course had more than their share of first hand experience of falling behind due to criticised levels of innovation, this of course playing a big part to the sudden loss in Blackberry worldwide smartphone market share, which has fallen from nearly 20% to just 3.5% over the past three years alone.

Of course Blackberry’s new weapon to combat this is the new Blackberry 10 operating system, latest device being the Z10, Q10 to follow soon. The OS has been redesigned from the ground up and has actually been gaining rather positive reviews, but its a tough market out their and Blackberry, like Apple, like anyone, really need to step up their game if they want to not only stand out, but even continue in the ever growing battle in the Smartphone world.

Following the shock departure of the man behind iOS, Scott Forstall from Apple, Apple design chief Jonathan Ive late last year took over responsibility for software as well as hardware design, creating whole new levels of speculation as to whether Jony Ive’s legendary design status could bring it in to software and the upcoming iOS 7 platform.

Realistically speaking, we think you’ll have a lot longer to wait, and that’s the biggest problem of all, the long waiting period. Waiting for Apple to revolutionise and innovate has become crucial to Apple as a company, they need to before its too late. Apple iOS accounts for more than 60% of Apple’s earnings, its mad that they’re not doing something to keep that going, the iPhone being the largest margin.

Everyone can see through their sour grapes, ‘Why you’ll love an iPhone campaign’, not to mention Phil Schiller quite frankly embarrassingly battering Android, Apple has gone all defensive as there’s not much left to give, but their gonna have to start giving soon otherwise they’re gonna face another late 90s but in the iOS world, and there’s no Steve Jobs to come back and make everything better again.

We’re not even that excited for Apple’s next keynote address, in fact after every keynote with Tim Cook as CEO, Apple stock has fallen, and that’s saying something.

Apple iPhone 5 – Months On Review

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iPhone 5 next to the iPhone 4S

iPhone 5 next to the iPhone 4S

First Impressions

The iPhone 5 is Apple’s latest and greatest Smartphone and it’s literally the “biggest” thing to happen to iPhone, since iPhone as Apple states, and thats due to the larger 4 inch display (3.99 inch) running at the same 326PPI, however now at 1136 x 640, which is OK resolution but far from the best out there. When looking at the iPhone 5, its hard not to simply think of it as a stretched up iPhone 4S, and in most cases that’s all it really is with subtle differences port wise which we’ll get to in a minute.

Design

iPhone 5 SidesThe design is true iPhone, all about display at the front, the same classic Home button and call speaker up top, although the Front facing Camera has swapped places where the Proximity Sensor was before as you can see by simple comparison. The sides remain relatively unchanged, the same circular volume rocker and silent toggle, with the slightly smaller SIM Ejection Tool for the first of Apple Proprietaries, the NANO-SIM. The top houses just the Home button and a secondary mic for noise cancellation, and at the bottom is the new home for the 3.5mm headphone jack, the larger speaker grill, microphone and the second Apple Proprietary, the all new Lightning Connector.

The back of the iPhone 5 has head a relatively new re-design, nothing too drastic if we’re perfectly honest. Instead of the all glass backing we’ve seen from the iPhone 4(S), we have the new two-tone design, which has since being used (copied…cough) by the HTC One and even the Blackberry Z10. On the White iPhone 5, you have white glass pieces evenly cut top and bottom, on top housing the improved 8 megapixel Camera, mic and LED Flash, and an Aluminium finish with the Apple logo and other stuff. The black one has the same design affect (obviously black instead on the glass), but with a Slate finish rather than Aluminium.

Either way the design of the iPhone 5 is unmistakably Apple, and sticks to their classic look and feel which many out there still love today, although we would’ve liked to have seen something slightly more interesting to look at, we’re still at that point of getting a new iPhone and forgetting we’ve changed phones.

EarPods

Apple’s EarPods are Apple’s all new Earphones, and the iPhone 5 was the first device that came with them out of the box and the quick review of them goes … there better than the old Apple earphones, yeah they’re pretty average, but not terrible like the previous ones were. OK, we’re probably being hard on them, but for the price tag they are you can get some very impressive headphones for your money … no I’m not talking about the over-priced over-rated Beats headphones. Still, it’s nice to see better earphones in the box now, or earphones at all from most manufacturers, suppose it wouldn’t be much of an iPod if it didn’t come with them tho.

In the hand / Build Quality

I’ve added this in to the review because of how I feel about the iPhone 5 when it’s in the hand, despite taking a lot of getting used to the much taller display area, which quite frankly makes the keyboard awful to use, the phone is really sharp at the edges, especially with the White model, the White iPhone 4 I remember being sharper than the Black one, but both iPhone 5 models tend to have the same problem. The edges of both phones have been diamond cut, which is all great for making it look premium and sparkle, but it does make the iPhone 5 a very uncomfortable phone to hold, take us back to the days of the iPhone 3G when the late Steve Jobs says “it feels great in your hand, if you can believe it”, we did believe it, cos it was true, now it’s just … ughh.

Build quality is another major issue with the iPhone 5, it’s dreadfully bad! OK, whilst ours survived much better than many have, in the months we’ve had it, we have to completely agree where the complaints come from, the diamond cut edges will scratch like mad over time, just rolling your finger over it proves all to that, and to be honest it’s rather impossible not to. It scratches on jeans, light surfaces, everything, the edges between the Aluminium and glass at the back also end up with scuff marks, the only thing that remains undamaged over time is the front glass panel, which actually was very durable like the iPhone 4(S) one, but the back, and the edges, whilst it doesn’t crack when dropped, both scratch like hell.

The i-Phone itself … get it, and iOS 6

iPhone5and4S-Front

Yeah that was a terrible pun, but hey. The phone itself is actually very good, whilst it doesn’t top any Smartphone to the best phone we’ve ever had chart, its a very good phone, and if their wasn’t a major iOS6 bug meaning Call/Text/Alarm/Notification alerts most of the time fail to alert, we’d be happy to say reliable phone too. iOS 6 is fast, snappy, and very responsive and just does everything you throw at it straight away and smoothly, the only problem with that is … so did the 4S, and so it does now, so why buy the iPhone 5? Unlike, the iPhone 4S to the 4, the iPhone 5 really has zero buying reasons over the 4, other than the bigger display. The iPhone 4S could tout Siri, which the iPhone 4 didn’t feature, it could boast a better Camera, an actually available White version, a larger 64GB option, but with the iPhone 5 there’s just nothing major to get you to buy it. The 128GB version never came, although did for the iPad, the Camera is more or less the same, Siri is the same, build quality is worse, for existing iPhone 4S owners I’d recommend staying right away from the iPhone 5 to be honest.

IOS6Then there’s this, iOS 6, the world’s most …hang on, most advanced mobile operating system? Let’s start again.

Then there’s this, iOS 6, the world’s most disappointing mobile operating system, that’s better. OK, now before you all get in to a hissy fit and start needing the Doctors for your incredible shock, I love the iPhone, I love iOS, but come on, after seeing advances over the years with Google Android with Jellybean, Microsoft with their slick Windows Phone 8 operating system, and … at a stretch BB10, maybe not, but the other two definitely, it’s hard to see what Apple’s been doing the last 6 years to iOS. (Yes, the iPhone 5 is the 6th iPhone, grade A for Maths right there Apple)

The UI has remained more or less unchanged, the only thing thats changed since iPhone OS 1 is background images, Folders, Spotlight and Notification Centre, everything else is the same! Ok, Apple have updated the look of their apps, some cases I wish they didn’t, the Music player sucks on the iPad since the iOS 5 update, I hate the Whiter look of the iOS 6 one too, but updating apps is redundant, what about the thing you see more than anything, the OS itself, no wonder people are saying the iPhone is boring more than ever in the last year, we were yawning at WWDC. With Scott out, and Jony Ive in control of Software design, which could go either way, we are on our heels looking out for iOS 7, and we’re keeping our hopes up and fingers crossed for the future.

Specs Sheet

Apple A6 1.2GHz Dual Core Processor

1GB Ram

16/32/64GB Capacity

4 inch display (326PPI)

4G LTE, HSPA+, World phone Network

8 Megapixel (1080p Video) Rear Camera, 1.2 Megapixel (720p Vide0) Front Camera

Summary

The iPhone 5 is quite frankly the most expected phone ever released, every leak became true, every expectation was true, it’s the most natural update from the iPhone 4S, whilst the A6 processor only really increases from 800MHz to 1.2GHz Dual Core, it still handles the OS very well, games still lead over the Android platform on iOS, and with possibly the best graphics we’ve ever seen on a mobile device, still being in the App Store rather than Google Play, Apple still has a winner for the gamers out there, but give it next year, when Key Lime Pie is out by Google, and others have updated, Apple needs to deliver the goods, another yawn like this one and they’ll begin to seriously lose marketshare. The phone itself a very good, yet poorly built, phone that will have most users hard to disappoint, its the new iPhone for godsake.

 - The first iPhone to get 4 stars, a natural progression from the 4S, but 4S owners will be left scratching their head if upgrading, nothing surprisingly new or beneficial, and embarrassing build quality

Our Best Cydia Repos and Useful Tweaks for 2013

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Every once in a while we all do it, we look down at our iPhone home screen and think is this really it? Well, thankfully you can Jailbreak your device with ease thanks to the latest Evasi0n Jailbreak out at the moment, in seconds your iOS 6 device can be Jailbroken and ready to install the latest tweaks. So, which tweaks do we like and should you check them out.

Well, before we get in to all that, one of the first things you are going to think about is adding some useful and popular Cydia repos that gives you the best jailbreak tweaks to install on your device, well here are some of our recommendations from what we’ve found over the last few weeks.

1. xSellize

2. SiNful iPhone Repo

3-Hackulo.us

4-iHackstore Repo

5-iHacksRepo

6-Hack Your iPhone Repo

7 Insanelyi

8 Bite Your Apple Repo

9 K3a.Me

http://k3a.me

10. iClarified

http://cydia.iclarified.com

11. iFonetec

http://app.ifonetec.com/cydia/

12. Boerse

http://Boerse-Repo.Net

We’re sure there’s loads more, but these are definitely some of the best we’ve found and been using for many of the tweaks shown below.

So, lets get to the Jailbreaks and tweaks themselves, here’s some which we love.

1. AppCent

Why isn’t iOS like this by default, AppCent, available for free in the iHacksRepo, adds a percentage on to your Springboard when you begin installing an application, so instead of showing simply installing, it shows a percentage of how much has been installed instead, very useful for downloading really large apps and games from the App Store.

2. Auxo

Auxo is awesome, Auxo brings more of what should have been to iOS 6, in this case Multitasking. When you bring up the Multitasking pain up after installing Auxo, which is free also in the iHacksRepo, you will see image previews of the last state of that app, you can then swipe down to close individually or if you tap and hold an app, it will ask ‘Do you want to remove all apps from the multitasking tray?’, so useful. But that’s not all, scroll to the left and you’ll find a music player, once again you’ll find shortcuts to the usual suspects, Wi-Fi/3G/Bluetooth etc, all of which can be customised in Settings.

3. Barrel (2)

Everyone loves Barrel and we’re no different, although we’ve found if you want it to work on the iPhone 5 you must search for Barrel 2, we experienced some Safe Mode restarts when attempting to install Barrel. Once you’ve installed Barrel 2, you can then customise how your Springboard transitions through its pages, with some special effects such as the classic (always seems to be used) Curl and Roll Away, although in Barrel 2 we have a new favourite called Vortex, check it out anyway for free in the BiteYourApple Repo.

4. InfiniFolders

You maybe seeing a trend here, all so far are what should be in iOS by default, this is InfiniFolders. Don’t you just hate how in iOS when you add a Folder it stops at 12 (or 16 for iPhone 5) with no ability to add more, this is useless, especially if your on an iPhone with the 12 limit, iOS should allow you to add way more than that with a simple scroll down to view the rest, well that’s exactly what InfiniFolders does, and its available for free in many Repos, but we’ve used the BiteYourApple Repo for our iPhone 5.

5. Octopus Keyboard

Despite been developed before the Z10 was released, this is the easiest way to explain what it does. Octopus Keyboard gives your iPhone the Blackberry 10 keyboard, as you type words with your keyboard, suggestions will appear above certain letters, and if you want to type that word simply swipe up that letter and it will finish off the word for you, the tweak learns what you type to create more valid suggestions based on your typing patterns and previous words typed too, this is one of our favs, however this tweak is not free, costing $4.99 in the K3A.me Repo.

6. KBShortcuts

KBShortcuts is another one of our favourite Keyboard add-ons, this tweak allows you to do the traditional Desktop keyboard shortcuts on your iPhone, except instead of using Command or Control keys, you use your Space bar and drag, for example to select all of some text, Tap and drag the Spacebar to the letter A, to Copy drag to C, paste drag to V etc. All shortcuts can be configured, although if you are unsure what everything does, Drag the Spacebar to the ? symbol and it will tell you in a pop up. KBShortcuts is free in the BiteYourApple Repo.

7. ProTube (2)

ProTube is an add on well known, the original version added a download button to playing videos in the built in YouTube app, in ProTube 2 it works with iOS 5 or 6, with the Google built YouTube app, which must be installed before applying this tweak. ProTube 2 adds a download button in the video playing as well as a Downloads section in the apps sidebar. You can even download every quality available up to 1080 and M4A Audio as an option too, the videos can also be saved to your Camera Roll. ProTube 2 is available for free in many Repos listed. UPDATE: Recently the app has been experiencing errors, if you experience this you’re not alone, hopefully these will be fixed when a later version is released, current version 1.0.4

8. GBA.EMU and GBC.EMU

They may not be tweaks, but its sure good to be able to run emulators on an iPhone finally, whilst none have been updated to support the iPhone 5 display, its awesome to be able to install and run GameBoy Color and Advanced games finally. What’s interesting about these two is they are actually available in the Google Play store for over £3 each, free for iPhone Jailbreakers in the xSellize and BiteYourApple repos.

9. IntelliScreenX

This is a popular one, altho not free either, in fact its a massive $9.99, but with it you can customise the Lock Screen to use the Notification Centre for not only widgets but with a simple gesture, your FaceBook, Twitter and Email feeds will show up as well with built in response tools and more. If you’ve got the money this is available in the BigBossRepo for that rather whoa price of $9.99

10. BytaFont

The iPhone is filled with many things, but all those things are in the same boring font, wouldn’t it be great if you could just change the font and download better ones afterwards, well with BytaFont you can, available for free, just give it a search, this tweak will allow you to edit and change all fonts around your iPhone. Fonts are to installed separately from the app.

11. Zeppelin

Zeppelin is another well used tweak, it allows you to change the Carrier text with a logo of your choice, it’s not a tweak we’re fans of but one we’ve heard requests for, Zeppelin is available for free in the ModMyi Repo, so check it out.

12. Slide My Name

This simple tweak allows you to edit what your unlock slider says, instead of Slide to Unlock, it could say Your iPhone, or whatever your imagination gives you, Slide My Name is available for free in the BigBoss Repo.

Apple iOS 6.1.2 coming next week!

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Apple are set to release the next update for iOS 6 in the form of 6.1.2. This is set to fix Microsoft Exchange and Passlock bugs which has been affecting a few 6.1.1 users. According to reports across the web it is due to be released on 20th Feb. So mark your planners for it.

It’s just been a week since 6.1.1 was released specifically for iPhone 4S users which fixed 3G bugs which apparently has affected the Vodafone network.

So lets see if any more bugs occur from 6.1.2 or Apple have finally managed to fix them.

 Reblogged from TechREX Online, view that post here!

Nokia Lumia 920 topping Pre-Orders all around Europe!

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expansys

We’ve already been hearing reports earlier that Nokia Lumia 920 pre-orders are selling out in Italy, and beating the iPhone 5 on pre-orders on PhoneHouse in France.

Now that the handset is also the top pre-order on Expansys UK (as shown above), its also topping the charts as well, with the yellow version number 1 and the black version number 3. See the Expansys page here.

Hopefully the momentum will continue when the handsets are actually released on carriers next month.

Expansys France (below) shows an even better performance of the handset, taking both first and second spots.

expansysfrance

Expansys Germany (below) tops the lot however with the Lumia 920 in Yellow and Black followed by the Samsung Ativ S (32GB) all in the top 3, even the 16GB version of the Ativ S remains in the top 8 at 8.


Only time will tell how the device does further round Europe, this is a pre-order that lists no price (unconfirmed), however does offer cancellation if the price is too high, although all reports are showing the Lumia 920 to be £470.

Could EEs 4G launch also coinside with Lumia 920

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Everything Everywhere, the 4G LTE network merger that brings Orange and T-Mobile in to one network, is expected to launch its 4G LTE network in 10 cities and rollout in more from the 30th October 2012.

Joining the release of the new 4G network in the UK, EE are obviously going to have to release some devices to run on the new network, and in this press shot from EE there’s definitely some surprises in there!

Apple

Whilst not mentioned in the statement, the existing iPhone 5 will also run on Everything Everywhere 4G LTE network, and anyone on Orange or T-Mobile will be able to receive the service.

Samsung

Samsung are to be releasing a new version of the Galaxy S III variant, like the US AT&T variant compatible with the 4G service.

Huawei

Huawei will play a rather big part in EE launch, as whilst they are launching a 4G Android phone, they are also launching two dongles to hook computers up to the network as well.

HTC

HTC are to take steps similar to Samsung, and release a 4G variant device for the network too, whilst both networks currently have the OneX, HTC are to release a 4G compatible One XL. The device is however expected to offer some more differentiations from the OneX.

Nokia

Now, Nokia is the big one for us. Nokia is expecting to rollout both the Lumia 820 and the highly anticipated Lumia 920 on the 4G LTE network, which could see the devices arrive on UK shores on October 30th, and that is something we are incredibly excited about!

==

Overall we don’t know whether all the devices will be available on the day of launch or just as pre-orders, or both, but what we do know is this is great news for UK mobile customers, lets just hope the prices remain competitive.

It appears even the iPhone 5 can’t keep up with Lumia 920 Camera

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When Nokia was touting the Lumia 920 camera, it was, pretty fair enough to all Apple folk to say the iPhone in comparison was a year old, well that excuse can’t be used now as the iPhone 5 is finally on the market, allowing us to compare Nokia’s Lumia 920 against Apple’s latest hotness.

There have been some concern that the iPhone 5 would leapfrog the Nokia Lumia 920, but looking at this picture,  tweeted by Kristina Björknäs, who works for Nokia and taken at Photokina, shows that these fears were clearly misplaced.

I guess iPhone users will have to start getting used to being in second place in so many ways, with a worse screen, worse camera, worse maps, worse battery life and generally worse technology, not to mention the highly criticised scratch magnet the black iPhone 5 has been reported as.

To add to everything else, the Lumia 920 could be priced at an insane £320 if reports are true, compare that the iPhone 5 32GB price of £599.

Google to add native Maps app to iOS6

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Apple’s biggest criticism of the new iOS 6, and the new iPhone 5, is the lack of Google applications, namely YouTube and Maps. But it seems Google has some pity upon their iFriends out there by bringing their apps to the App Store, latest being Maps.

YouTube

The YouTube app on iOS is missing in iOS 6, but Google recently (now available) released a YouTube application for iOS users to download. Luckily the app is more reminiscent of the Android application and not the outdated poor previous iOS app, either way the app is out their, check it out!

Maps

One of the worst features in iOS6, and one you never thought you’d miss is Google Maps. When Apple decided to remove all that is Google from iOS (atleast by default) in iOS6, it seems the first thing we all noticed was just how bad the “Apple designed” Maps were. As a company that prides itself in design, it really has been a big let down, but it seems Google may have something to fix that for us. If some reports are to be believed, Google could be fixing part 2 of the jigsaw with a Google Maps application in the App Store too.

The first report comes by way of The Guardian, which says that Google is indeed preparing its own Maps app for iOS 6.

Google, I hear from roundabout sources, is enjoying the bad press Apple is suffering. It would be surprising if its mappers could resist some schadenfreude, since they are very proud of their work; having it rejected wholesale must be galling. 

The same sources say that Google is preparing a Google Maps app for iOS6, which will appear in time. No official statement has been made and there will inevitably be questions over whether Apple will approve it in the App Store. (Apple might not, on the basis that it “competes with existing functionality”, but would invite a further backlash if it did.)

The Guardian‘s report was tweeted by well-connected iOS developer Steve Troughton-Smith, who added a “Yep” to the assertion and framed it as if the app has already been submitted to Apple.


9to5Mac has also weighed in with its own claims that Google has had a standalone version of its Maps app for iOS for a number of years and that an iOS 6-compatible version has indeed been submitted to the App Store.

Finally, TechCrunch is also claiming that a Google app is in the works, with the company aiming to have it available on the App Store “before Christmas”. Apple has, however, been known to hold other Google apps in limbo for extended periods of time, so it remains to be seen if and when Google’s solution will be available as an alternative to the built-in Maps app from Apple in iOS 6.

[via MacRumors]

Apple iPhone 5 and iPod Keynote Rundown

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OK, sit down, relax and prepare for what could be the most boring keynote ever, nah we’ll wait and see first. Tim Cook takes the stage with his signature ‘Good morning, thank you’, now lets prepare for a rundown of the commencing year and stats.

Stats

After a video of new Apple Stores opening and fans enjoying all new Apple gear, Tim talks stats. With 380 retail stores “our stores offer the best buying experience and the best customer service on the planet”, with 83 million visitors last quarter alone, “its absolutely amazing”.

Mac

On the Mac side of things, “We’ve had a very busy summer for the Mac. We launched Mountain Lion in July. Mountain Lion is the ninth major release of the best OS on the planet.”, with PC mag saying its the “best consumer operating system”. Mountain Lion was also the fastest selling version of OS X. The Retina MacBook Pro was introduced, and together Apple’s notebook range is #1 in the US in Marketshare with 27% of the market captured overall, with 15% year on year growth compared to 2% on the PC.

iPad

On the iPad side of things, “the iPad is driving the post-PC revolution and an amazing pace”, and as USA Today says, its “The finest tablet you can buy”, Apple have sold 84 million iPads just in June, more than any PC manufacturer has sold in their entire PC lineup, the iPad also holds a 62% tablet marketshare last year “April-June 2011″, and the iPad has an insane 91% web traffic of all tablets, “I don’t know what these other tablets are doing! They must be in warehouses or store shelves or maybe in peoples’ bottom drawer.”, says Tim. The iOS App Store now has 700,000 apps in the store, with 250,000 of those specifically made for iPad. Customers on average are using 100 apps, and 90% of those apps are downloaded every month.

iPhone 5

Now, to the iPhone. Apple has sold over 400 million iOS devices just through June. “Today, we’re taking it to the next level, making a huge leap. We have some very exciting news to tell you about iPhone”, and up comes Phil Schiller. Phil starts by quoting Time magazine in 2007 “it is the phone that’s changed phones forever”.

And now, we begin, iPhone 5 is its name!

The phone was introduced oddly, the phone risen up from the floor of the stage, which naturally makes it impossible to see for attendees, but now its on screen. Guess what, its the leaked device. “So, iPhone 5. It is made entirely of glass and aluminum. It’s designed and built to an exacting level of standard unlike anything we, or anyone in our industry, have made before.”, says Phil. The iPhone 5 is 18% thinner than the iPhone 4 and 4S, at just 7.6mm thick, and the lightest weighing just 112 grams, which is 20% lighter than the 4S.

Retina Display

The iPhone 5 still features the Retina Display at the same 326ppi, despite being 4 inch, with higher resolution obviously of 1136×640. We won’t tell Apple that the PPI is lower than the Nokia Lumia 920. The iPhone 5 has an extra row of apps on each page, great. Although someone did note that the Calendar has October 1st written on it, could that be release? The display also has 44% better colour saturation, with full SRGB rendering. “We couldn’t be prouder of it”.

Current App Support

One thing Apple told us about which we needed to know, whilst Apple’s apps look just great redesigned, what about old apps? Well, old apps will run letterboxes, with black borders on the side, which honestly is a bit disappointing, of course apps can be quickly updated, but still.

Ultrafast Wireless?

iPhone 5 features something Apple are calling “Ultrafast Wireless”. The iPhone 5 will support HSDPA+ at 21MBps (like 4S), but also DC-HSDPA at 42MBps and full LTE, which can go up to 100MBps on a great day! As for Carriers, in the US: Sprint, AT&T and Verizon, Canada: Rogers, Telus, Bell, Fido and Virgin, Asia: KDDI Softban, KT, SK Telecom, SmartTone, and in Europe it will be on DT and Everything Everywhere, oddly though O2 was also listed in the UK which don’t have 4G yet.

A6

The iPhone 5 will feature the all new A6 processor, which makes the 5 in the name seem odd. The processor is 22% smaller too and much more energy efficient, with apps loading typically 2x faster. EA Studios comes on stage to show off some A6 processor action, starting with Real Racing 3, a program EA purchased off Firemint. Now I don’t about you, but Real Racing 2 was by far the best racing experience I’ve seen on a mobile device, so Real Racing 3 is sure gonna be hot. One thing to note, is it just me that can’t see an optical drive on the iMac behind the man demoing. Anyway, Real Racing 3 coming later this year.

Battery Life

Battery Life on the iPhone 5 is going to be better than that on the iPhone 4S with 225hrs standby time and 8 hours of 3G and LTE browsing and 10hrs on Wi-Fi.

Camera

Camera wise, the iPhone 5, by being thinner does make things harder to do camera wise, but its still an 8 Megapixel camera but with better optics (thought we’d left the Nokia conference), with a 5-element lens and f/2.4 aperture, same as the 4S, but thinner. The iPhone 5 does however have faster photo capture and dynamic low light mode, which evaluates nearby pixels to give up to a 2 f-stops greater low light performance, Apple obviously weren’t too happy about their recent 4S embarrassing low light performance. So, a pretty hot camera on the iPhone 5 then. One thing thats a bit mad about the iPhone 5 camera is its a 28 megapixel image, thats 28 megapixels! The camera also features built in Panorama. The camera also features image stabilisation and a feature that allows you to remove people walking past (why do I hear Lumia 920 again, these are the same features nearly). The 1080P video capture, or 720P front-facing, also has better improved video stabilisation with 3 microphones built in to the phone for higher quality audio. 3 microphones, on the top, bottom and back, improve noise recognition but also cancellation. Speaker wise the iPhone 5 has something Phil calls “sideband audio”, which basically means its better quality to you and me.

All new Connector

Next that trusty iPod Connector, dating back 9 years! “So many of the things we used to do over the wire we can now do wirelessly”. The all new thinner cable is real, and Apple are calling it …. seriously they are, calling it Lightning…. yep first Thunderbolt, and now Lightning, they love the bad weather. The cable is 80% smaller than the 2003 iPod connector, adapters are available, but new docks are being made. No mention however amongst all of this of iPhone price, boo. Now, iOS6 and up comes Scott Forstall.

iOS 6

Maps

Scott demoing the new “now ready” maps applications Apple has created with their partners. The Maps application has integration with Yelp for business cards, and the turn by turn navigation we heard about earlier. Flyover gets another demo, oo look its Big Ben in London, all rather impressive, but still prefer the Google app they had.

Safari

Safari now has a feature from Lion/M.Lion, full screen view, tap the icons in the corner to go full screen, and iCloud Tabs will finally arrive upon the release of OS X 10.8.2 and iOS 6.

Mail

Very little changed in Mail, you can now VIP people, and flag messages for follow up, or of course use Gmail.

Passbook

Passbook as mentioned before allows all your boarding passes and everything else in one app, of course if the iPhone 5 doesn’t have NFC its gonna be a bit of a let down for me. Your tickets also show up at your lock screen.

Photostream

You can now subscribe to peoples Photo Streams, which sounds a bit hmm, but hey, I’m sure that will just be marvellous.

Siri

Same as previously demoed, scores, open apps, theatre times and showings were demoed same good ol iOS6 Siri, it also has movie recommendations based on Rotten Tomatoes, which to me have very inaccurate ratings so won’t rely on that. You can now post Facebook statuses, likely Tweets too, using Siri.

Others

In the phone app you can now send a quick text or iMessage if you can make it to call back. But thats generally about all they mentioned on iOS 6. One thing disappointing though, is the iPhone 5 does not feature NFC making Passbook seem worthless.

More on iPhone 5

Phils back now to talk more on iPhone 5. The iPhone 5 will come in two colours, yes, black and white fronts, but on the back the White one will have full raw aluminium back, whereas the Black one will have a black anodised backing, which is interesting. “iPhone 5 is now the best phone we’ve ever made, and what would be a great phone without a killer video”, up comes their old classic videos, Jony Ive kicking off as usual, standard Apple promotion video.

Price

The iPhone 5 will be priced identical to the iPhone 4S at US $199 for 16GB and $100 more each for 32GB and 64GB variants. An 16GB version of the 4S will remain available for less and the 8GB iPhone 4 will remain at a lower price.

Pre-orders start this Friday, and it will ship to the US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore on the 21st September 2012. 20 more countries next month, making it the fastest rollout ever.

The iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S, iPad 2 and 3, and iPod Touch (current) are all getting atleast some features in iOS6, which is to be released 19th September.

iPod and iTunes

Tim Cook is back on stage to talk iPod and iTunes, up comes Eddy Cue to talk first on iTunes. iTunes has been a great success with over 26 million songs on iTunes and over 20 billion songs purchased since its 9 year ago launch. Over 435 million iTunes accounts are out their all with one-click-purchasing, 66% of which are done from iOS devices. The iTunes Store has been redesigned on the iPad, same new look as on the iPhone really, improved performance and you can preview whilst still browsing.

iTunes 11

Mac and PC clients of iTunes are to be updated too, Eddy called iTunes “the worlds most popular media player” and the new iTunes “dramatically simpler”, with a new grid system. A new “in the store” button is features as well so you can easily and quickly buy more stuff from iTunes. Don’t think anyone is really that excited about the new iTunes but it looks pretty nice, finally looks different!

Finally iTunes will have a “coming next” button where you can see whats coming next as well as changing whats next too. The mini player in iTunes also has a much better look and feel and actually does things now, not just pause, play next and previous!

The new iTunes Store has the same all new interface as found on iOS 6 devices, with the carousel interface, same for apps and books, all in all a pretty good iTunes to be honest, I’ll definitely be upgrading straight away, like it, although not until October sadly.

iPod

Greg Joswick, nice name, comes on stage to talk iPod. Apple has sold over 350 million iPods to date, although Apple “don’t do this just for the numbers. iPod and music are part of the DNA of the company. We love music.” says Greg. First up, Nano.

iPod Nano

The 7th generation iPod Nano, yep there’s been seven, has a pretty nice look and feel to be honest, looks a bit unusual at first, but nice! Based on the size of the volume controls, its pretty small. The iPod Nano, has a Home button, a 2.5 inch display with multi touch capabilities, and big circular buttons, and in natural Nano style available in 7 colours, likely to match the generation number! Also features an FM Radio built in, nice Photo and video viewer too. Whilst the Nano doesn’t feature any app support it does have a massive 30 hours of music playback on the very iOS 6 looking Music app!

Price wise, the iPod Nano will be $149 for a 16GB version.

iPod Touch

iPod Touch next, with 175,000 games available, 150,000 available with Game Center support, the iPod Touch is certainly an incredible gaming device, and this is the 5th generation iPod Touch. It weighs 88 grams and is just 6.1mm thick, with the same new dock connector on the bottom as the iPhone 5. The new iPod Touch also features brushed aluminium, so none of that annoying Chrome to scratch up. The iPod Touch also has the same 4 inch display as the iPhone 5 which is awesome, with the A5 processor bringing dual core capabilities, no mention of iPhone’s processor in core capabilities on the A6. The A5 processor in the iPod Touch was demoed with a freaky game called ‘Clumsy Ninja, which is something, the A5  is expected to bring 7x faster graphics compared to the previous gen iPod Touch.

The iPod Touch will give you 40 hours of music playback, 8 hours of video, which is actually a slight increase on the 4th gen. Also features an “iSight” camera on the back, which is 5 megapixel, and now has a built in flash! The camera has backside illuminated, f/2.4, 5-element lens and that same sapphire crystal lens cover, the way this is worded does make is sound like Jewellery, but its an iPod. The camera also has 720P video recording, and the iPod Touch can now play 1080P and use iMovie. Airplay Mirroring also runs on the iPod Touch, as well as finally, the iPod Touch will get Siri!

Colours

The iPod Touch will come in 5 colours, raw aluminium, black, blue, yellow and red!

iPod touch Loop button

The iPod Touch at the back on the bottom left features an odd button, which apparently can be used to attach a little wrist strap on it!

Price

Existing 4th gen iPod Touch will remain available for $199 and $249 for 16 and 32GB, and the new iPod Touch will be available in 32GB and 64GB for $299 and $399 respectably.

EarPods

Next up, Apple are creating new earphones, if there anything like their current premium headphones, I’m fine. The EarPods look like the same earphones that leaked recently, a video is been played showing how the odd design of the EarPods has been made. The shape of the EarPods is actually made from geometry of the human ear, so likely incredibly comfortable. The EarPods will start shipping today!

Product [RED]

ALL iPods will have Product [RED] versions too.

Overview

A whole new lineup of iPods, minus the Shuffle which remains the same. New iTunes Music Player, which actually looks pretty clean, and the new iPhone 5, the fastest most thinnest iPhone ever shipped, even though its the 6th generation, they don’t seem to remember that! Oh, and EarPods.

The keynote ended with a performance from the Foo Fighters.

What we didn’t see

-NFC capabilities in the iPhone 5

-iPad Mini, or any iPad news

-New iMacs

So Just How Good is the Camera on the Lumia 920? (Video)

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Nokia Lumia 920 vs Samsung Galaxy S III & iPhone 4S

Nokia, after their big September 5th conference, showed some real life tests to attendees on how great the camera really is on the Lumia 920. Nokia showed how the Camera could take pictures and focus in complete darkness, in this case a small hole in a wall, and did this test against top handsets from Android and iOS, notably the Galaxy S III and the iPhone 4S, three phones with 8 megapixel sensors. To focus in dark areas the Lumia 920 does something rather unique, whilst it appears to use a Flash, it only uses it as a Focus guider in taking such pictures, so you don’t get the added affects of using a Flash, the results are just incredible.

Next was video, in this test they held the Lumia 920 in the air and took a small video, the video result was smooth and looked like it was filmed from a tripod. Video capture was not however compared against the two other devices, but all devices do support 1080p video recording so it will be interesting to compare video quality later when the device ships.

Apple release iOS 6 Beta 4 with no dedicated YouTube app

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As noted by several who’ve received the update, Apple’s new iOS 6 Beta 4 just released to developers removes the dedicated YouTube app that has been included on the iPhone operating system since its launch in 2007.

The reason for the removal is unclear, although speculation naturally turns to the strained relationship between Apple and Google. Aside from YouTube, Apple’s iOS 6 contains another high-profile departure from Google’s services with Apple rolling out its own mapping and navigation service to displace Google.

YouTube videos can still be played through the embedded viewer, but the removal of the dedicated YouTube app marks a significant reduction in the prominence of Google on iOS.

 

Update: The Verge reports that Apple has issued a statement acknowledging the removal.

Our license to include the YouTube app in iOS has ended, customers can use YouTube in the Safari browser and Google is working on a new YouTube app to be on the App Store.