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Tag: IPhone 5S »

Logitech Protection + Power iPhone5/5S Case Hardware Review

By Jade Walker on October 31st, 2014
While this case has a great fit and is easy to get on and off, the battery is borderline non-functional.
Read The Full Review »

Matt Morris - iPhone 5S Adventure Goes Diving Off a Cliff With the New iPhone 5S

Posted by Andrew Stevens on October 7th, 2013

"Matt Morris - iPhone 5S Adventure" is a short film that was shot completely on the iPhone 5S, showcasing the new camera and other features of the phone. With that, why not create some fun and entertaining videos? That's what these guys did during their latest adventure to the skate park, parking garage, and cliffs!

Check out this video and take a leap of faith off the cliffs! Though, be smarter with your iPhone and know that it's still not water resistant.

What kind of videos would you make with your new iPhone 5S?

Apple's Online Store Once Again Enables In-Store Pickup for iPhone 5S

Posted by Andrew Stevens on October 1st, 2013

Still looking for an iPhone 5S? Well, you'll probably keep looking for a while as 9 to 5 Mac reports that even with the return of the in-store pickup option, most Apple stores are reporting that the devices are unavailable. At least you can keep yourself busy by continuously trying the in-store pickup option until the day comes that it is available at your local store.

I wonder how many people are still perfectly happy with their iPhone 5.

Credit: 9 to 5 Mac

Apple's Event Recap - iPhone 5S, 5C Announced, But Is That It?

Posted by Jeff Scott on September 10th, 2013

The Apple event today seemed a bit light on content. Could be part of the reason they had the event at the Apple Town Hall on the Cupertino campus to a very small and intimate crowd. We got pretty much just what we expected, two new iPhones, and bits of other things. Here's a quick recap of what we know:

iOS 7 - a quick recap of iOS 7, not showing anything we didn't see at WWDC. It looks good, but doesn't go far enough.

iOS 7 is out for the iPad 2 and later, iPhone 4 and later, and iPod touch 5th gen and later on next Wednesday, September 18th.

iPhone 5C - the new colorful and cheaper iPhone 5 -- that's not really that much cheaper. Just $100 cheaper than the current and new iPhone 5 models. It's basically the same as the current iPhone 5 but with a plastic back and a slightly better FaceTime camera on the front. It's $99 for the 16GB model on contract. Not a great savings.

The iPhone 5C will be available in red, yellow, white, green, and blue.

iPhone 5S - the new flagship iPhone adds a few interesting things, faster processor that also happens to be 64bit, 2-5x faster than the current model (both were quoted), motion co-processor, and fingerprint scanner.

The camera is faster, better, with a better flash. Does slo-mo video and burst photos. Cool, but not revolutionary.

A fingerprint scanner is hidden in the home button and it is great for security, if it works. Fingerprint scanners are notoriously unreliable. The scanner allows the phone to be unlocked and approval of iTunes purchases. That's about all we know right now. Hopefully it will allow locking of other things and lead to a multiuser system in the future.

The motion co-processor is a big deal as it allows apps to accurately track motion at all times. Think of it as turning an iPhone into a Nike Fuel band or Fitbit with a huge brain. Should mean a bunch of much better fitness tracking apps.

The iPhone 5S will be available in white, black, and gold.

The iPhone 5C only is available for pre-order on this Friday, September 13th and available in-store on the following Friday, the 20th.

iWork - is now free with a new iOS device purchase. Not sure what that means for current devices. We'll know more once the dust settles. That means Pages, Keynote, Numbers, iMovie, and iPhoto, but oddly not Garageband.

What's Missing - and that was about it. Nothing unexpected, nothing new, no mention of game controllers or Apple TV updates or iPads or a multiuser system to support family use of an iPad. Overall I was rather disappointed in the announcement. Not expecting too much more, but hoping there were some nuggets hiding in iOS 7 that hadn't surfaced yet. And the iPhone 5 to 5S update is a minor one that won't be needed for all but the most hard core iPhone fan.

This means we should expect to see more from Apple before the holiday rush. But what will it be?

Apple Special Event: iPhone 5S and 5C Announcement Today

Posted by Jeff Scott on September 10th, 2013

Wondering where you can watch the announcements from the Apple announcements today? We've got details below.

It doesn't look like Apple is going to live stream the event today, so live blogs will be the only way to follow along with the announcements. As usual we'll tweet the highlights to our Twitter stream, you can follow along there.

And while not there in person, our friends over at Pocket Gamer are pseudo-live blogging the announcements.

Engadget usually has really good coverage but they don't seem to be covering the event this time are covering the event, just slow about it. The Verge is usually another good option.

Don't get your hopes up for anything too exciting. The event is being held at the Cupertino home base of Apple in a theater that is rather small for an important event. The small scale signifies that nothing too huge will be announced. My guess is the two new iPhones we have read about (iPhone 5S and 5C), updated iPod touch, revised Macs, and maybe an small update to Apple TV. And of course we'll hear about the release date for iOS 7.

Check back here later and we'll have more thoughts on the announcements made today. And we'll post the video as soon as it's up.


Announcement Recap


We'll have more in the coming days, but here's our recap of the event today where the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C were officially announced along with the release date of iOS 7.


Early Thoughts on the Apple Announcements

Tuesday is a Very Important Day for Tim Cook, and For Apple - Jeff looks at how Apple may be trailing behind it's users sophistication level when it comes to mobile devices.

iOS Is Falling Behind For Family Users - Jen takes a hard look at how iOS has failed to respond to the needs of multiuser families.

How to Prepare Yourself for iOS 7 - Carter looks at some things that will help get an iOS device ready for iOS 7.

Tuesday is a Very Important Day for Tim Cook, and For Apple

Posted by Jeff Scott on September 9th, 2013

Tuesday should see the announcement of the next iPhone. Purportedly the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C (Details on what is known thus far at iMore) with modest improvements over the current iPhone 5.

There's no doubt that the next iPhone will be the best iPhone Apple has ever created. And I am nearly certain that it will be the best smartphone available on any platform. But an increasing number of users are relying on their smartphone to do more and looking for more than what the iPhone offers.

Once Apple disrupts a market by releasing a new product, it generally makes incremental changes to that device to make it better and better, but never really making large jumps in technology or features. We can see this in the iPhone, iPad, even iMac product lines. The initial products were revolutionary in every right, the updated products were just evolutionary. That's good for most users, but I'd argue that in the case of smartphones Apple is being left behind. In this instance, the smartphone user base is maturing faster than Apple is innovating. And that's costing them users and mindshare.

iPhones in particular and smartphones in general have rapidly become the number one computer used by a large number of people. Those people want more and more features, faster devices that do more in every way, and integrate with their lives to a greater extent. And let's be honest, everyone likes to have the fastest, best, most lust-worthy device out there.

Well if what we know about the to-be-announced iPhone 5S - the flagship of the iPhone line - is true, Apple is certainly falling behind other options in innovation. As great as the iPhone 5 was (and is), it was met with tepid response as many saw it as just a refresh of the iPhone 4S. The iPhone 5S is less of a change and will surely see many of the same comments. Many users are maturing faster than the iPhone line and looking more and more at other platforms. Many have already jumped and as contracts end, many more are likely to. There are many reasons for this; here are just a few of the bigger ones.

Cloud Services - To be honest, iCloud is a bit of a mess. It's under-featured, years behind, and stuck in this odd once-per-year update cycle. It's way overpriced, underpowered, and under featured. Many users of iPhone also have Mac desktop/laptops. There's no reason, three years on, that all of my data isn't available everywhere, all the time, on every device. Dropbox can do it, Sky Drive can do it, Google can do it, why can't Apple?

There's also no reason that all photos, all videos, all music, all data, all everything isn't seamlessly available on all of my devices, anytime, anywhere. The current system of Photostream, iTunes in the Cloud, iCloud, iTunes Match, etc. It's just too fractured, too many rules, too many exceptions to the Apple credo of it just working.

iOS 7 - Whether you like the new look of iOS 7 or not, it is a good first step toward a new iOS. Perhaps too small of a step for as late as it it. There are many great features under the hood for developers, but most still want more. I rely on my iPhone, it's never more than 2 feet from my hand. Why doesn't it integrate better with my life and the way I use it?

In the past it has seemed that Apple pushes many of these life integration features off to app developers and that's fine. But if that's the way forward, app developers need better access to core OS features like the start screen and multitasking. Some form of widget/home screen update is vastly overdue as well to allow access to data quickly without the need to launch an app. And why can't users replace the pitiful built-in apps like Calendar, Reminders, Calculator, etc. with third party apps? Seems silly to continue to restrict that.

Multi-user access - iPads are used in families by multiple people. Why hasn't Apple created a multi-user system to allow better, restricted, and safer access when used this way? Android does, Kindle does, even Windows Phone does. Apple has the number one family computing platform, this is two years overdue.

Android has taken off respect to new interactions and interfaces, with mixed results it must be said. But the ability to communicate with your device in new ways and new ways for your device to communicate with you is something that the iPhone is way behind on.

Hardware Choice - right now you can buy an iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, iPad, or iPad mini. iOS users, like users of any platform, want choice. Why not offer something in the 6" range? How about something with a larger battery? I'd take something thicker for 2x battery life.

So does all this mean that the iPhone 5S will be a failure? No, not at all. It will be the best smartphone available, for most users. It just won't be held in the high esteem that some of the previous models have been. That will hopefully be a wake up call for Tim Cook and Apple.