WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jes�s.
iPhone 5
The iPhone 5 is out. HighLights, carriers and more.
Today Apple announced the new iPhone sixth model officially called iPhone 5. List of what its new:
iOS 6: Inside the iPhone 5 will debut with iOS 6 already on board. Highlights include the new Apple Maps app, Passbook, shared photo streams, Siri updates, and the aforementioned FaceTime over 3G.
18% thinner than the iPhone 4S.
20% lighter weights 3,95 ounces.
4 inches Retina display. 326 pixels per inch. Total count pixels 1,136x640, 16:9 aspect ratio.
A6 chip, 22% smaller than the A5 ,Web pages will load 2.1 times faster, and the Music app with songs will load 1.9 times faster.
Camera: The main shooter, or the "iSight" camera, stays at 8 megapixels (with the best resolution being 3264x2448 pixels) with a feature list that includes backside illumination, a hybrid IR filter, a five-element lens, a f2.4 aperture. New is a dynamic light mode and you should be able to launch photography apps up to 2.1 times faster. Another addition is an image signal processor in the A6 chip. That will bring spatial noise reduction and a "smart filter" that produces better low-light performance and captures photos faster. Finally, there's a built-in panorama mode that stitches shots together for one large 28-megapixel photo.
The secondary front camera now can shoot 720p HD video and it gets a backside illuminated sensor. And as we heard at the announcement of iOS 6 back in June, FaceTime will work over 3G cellular networks. Some carriers like AT&T have already announced restrictions for that feature so be sure to check with your provider first.
Video resolution remains at 1080p HD, though image stabilization has been improved and face detection is now available in clips for up to 10 people. And in a nice move, you can take photos while you're shooting video.
Audio: The iPhone 5 gets an additional microphone for a total of three. You'll find one on the bottom, on on the handset's front face, and one on its rear side. What's more, the speaker now has 5 magnets (so up from two) which is apparently better and it's supposed to use 20% less space. The noise canceling feature should be improved, as well, and there's a new wideband audio feature that promises more natural-sounding voices. Twenty percent of carriers will support wideband audio, but so far we only know that Orange in the United Kingdom will be among them.
Battery Life: 8 hours of 3G talk time, 8 hours of 3G browsing, 8 hours of LTE browsing, 10 hours of Wi-Fi browsing, 10 hours of video playback, 40 hours of music, playback, and 225 hours of standby time.
5 rows of icons on the home screens.
Full five-day week view in the calendar, the calendar shows more events, and all iWork apps will take advantage of the bigger display.
Wide-screen movies will look better with 44 percent more color saturation than the iPhone 4S, will support 4G LTE networks. That's in addition to the current support for GPRS, EDGE, EV-DO, and HSPA data networks. LTE has a single chip for voice and data, a single radio chip, and a "dynamic antenna" that will switch connections between different networks automatically.
Smaller dock connector, smaller SIM card: On the bottom of the iPhone 5, there's that new and long-anticipated smaller dock connector. Called "Lightning" it has an all-digital, 8-signal design and an "adaptive interface" (we're not quite sure what that means yet). It's 80 percent smaller and since it's reversible, both ends will be the same.
By all means, it's bound to annoy owners of current speaker docks, accessories, and charger/syncing cables since it will render them obsolete. Apple will offer a connector (of course they will), but there's no word yet on how much it will cost.
A smaller connector help shave extra space to achieve a smaller phone with perhaps a bigger battery. The new connector cable will mainly be used for syncing and charging by most people who own an Apple TV or Bluetooth/Airplay accessories.
Release date and pricing
The iPhone 5 will be available in three capacity models, all of which will come in black and white versions. The 16GB is $199, the 32GB $299, and the 64GB $399. On September 21, it will go on sale in nine countries: the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Anyone in that first batch of countries can pre-order starting this Friday, September 14. More countries will follow by the end of this month and by the end of the year, the iPhone 5 will land at 240 carriers in 100 countries.
Carriers to support probably the iPhone 5 4G LTE: in the United States that means AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon Wireless. So again, T-Mobile loses out. In Canada it's Bell, Telus, Fido, Virgin, and Kudo. In Asia the providers will be Softbank, Smartone, Singtel, and SK Telecom. For Australia there's Telstra, Optus, and Virgin Mobile and in Europe it will go to Deutsche Telekom and EE. On carriers without LTE the iPhone 5 will run on dual band 3.5G HDPA+.
