IPhone 5 Official Features & Specs

So much seems to have leaked in the last couple of months - bigger screen, name of the phone (iPhone 5), new dock connector - that it feels as though the only things that we've yet to find out are  the price. And... the "something special", which last year was "Siri", the voice assistant, which many people have put down but is likely to be an increasingly important feature in the future.

So without further suspense here it is:

First: "the thinnest and lightest phone Apple's ever made, 7.6mm thin, 112g so 20% lighter, smaller volume.Phil Schiller quoted "This is the monumental challenge.. have everything the iPhone 4S has even before new features. It's really easy to make a product that's bigger, everyone does that."

"Made entirely of glass and aluminium, unlike anything we or anyone in our industry has made before. Hardware and software engineering is the most challenging our team has ever taken on."

Performance claims

So according to Apple, the iPhone 5 will achieve:

• 225 hours standby

• 40 hours music playback

• 10 hours LTE use (4G when it becomes available in the UK)

• 10 hours video

• 8 hours 3G

• 8 hours Wi-Fi

Those aren't much shifted from the 4S, though the LTE/4G figure is surprisingly high.

As for the camera, there'll be an A6 chip used to process images, and a "smart filter" which looks at the image and figures out where areas should be coloured (sky) or textured. "Faster photo capture, now 40% faster". 

Panoramic images... Apple claims that the Panoramic shots will be at the range of 28 megapixel stitching. (This is in the Samsung Galaxy S3 range and the new Nokia Lumia range - will be interesting to see the comparisons.

Photos while recording. The back camera takes 1080 pixel images, and can take photos while recording video. The front does the same but at 720p. This is all feature-competitive with the Samsung top end, but makes it hard for the Nokia Lumia to compare.

Time to connect

OK, now let's kill the connector. "So many things we used to do over the wire we now do wirelessly. We use Bluetooth … Wi-Fi for our stereo … iTunes … it's time for the connector to evolve."

New connector is called "Lightning … so we have Thunderbolt and Lightning". Hurrah for puns. 80% smaller, reversible, "easier to use". Bose already doing it, as are B&W, JBL and Bang & Olufsen.

"But what about all the connectors you have now?" There's a 30-pin-to-Lightning adaptor. Slightly chunky-looking but, OK, (Sold separately of course)

Siri

Siri can now do sports (or at least American sports - can it do British ones?)

Now if you ask Siri "what's the best..." it replies "that's a very subjective question..."

Or: "find a reservation for four for sushi at eight o'clock". That's pretty awesome, integrated with the OpenTable app. (In the US, unclear if it's in the UK too.)

The iPhone 5 will come in black and white, just like the old ones.

 Apple didn't just want to make a new phone, they wanted to make a much better phone.

Apple claim "You'll experience a big increase in speed in everything you use the iPhone for ... especially for graphics-intensive apps," Maybe that is going to be a main point the iPhone 5 will be sold on and that it'll have a bigger screen and be faster.

Headphones

Apple has spent three years designing an entirely new headphone. They call them... headpods. They look unlike any headphone you've ever seen before. 

Apple claim these headphones reduce the amount of lost sound compared to its predecessor.

The new EarPods will come with the new iPod Touch, iPod nano and, of course, the iPhone 5.

They're also available in Product Red, where a portion of the profits goes to fight AIDS in Africa. Over $50m has been donated so far.

So.........Finally

Price

 "Just two questions left: how much do I have to spend?"

The same prices as for the 4S last year: $199 (16GB), $299 (32GB), $399 (64GB).

UK prices will no doubt be the currency equivalent. 

"When can I get my hands on one? 

You can pre-order on September 21st

.

Need to know: Apple iPhone 4S

Apple yesterday made its big announcement in San Francisco, unveiling the Apple iPhone 4S. The phone is an incremental upgrade to the iPhone 4, rather than the full-blown successor many had expected. Its core improvements include a faster processor, better camera and improved call quality. There's even a voice-controlled personal assistant on board. The Apple iPhone 4S will launch in the UK on 14 October.



New Apple boss Tim Cook revealed that the outer design of the iPhone 4S will remain the same as the iPhone 4, with all the big changes being made inside. The phone includes an A5 dual-core processor - the same chip that runs Apple's latest tablet, the iPad 2. The inclusion of that chip makes the iPhone 4S twice as quick as its predecessor and also means it can offer dual-core graphics, making the phone's graphical performance seven times quicker.

Lets talk camera:

The camera on the iPhone 4S has an eight-megapixel sensor - a substantial improvement on the five-megapixel sensor contained within the iPhone 4. There's a redesigned lens, too, so the sensor can pick up 73% more light than the iPhone 4. That means you should get far better results in low light. Pictures will be sharper, too. The camera can shoot in 3264 x 2448 resolution - offering 60% more pixels than the iPhone 4. Apple says it intends its phone's camera to be a serious competitor to dedicated point-and-shoot cameras.

Lets talk video:

In addition to its still image performance, the camera will shoot video in full 1080p high definition. There's now real-time video stabilisation, so unsteady hands won't ruin a video and there is real-time temporal noise reduction, which reduces the blurry effect of fast-moving objects

Personal Assistant?

Perhaps the most headline-grabbing feature of the iPhone 4S is voice control. It comes with a built-in 'personal assistant' called Siri. Ask Siri a question, such as 'What is the weather going to be like?' and it will respond with appropriate information, such as the weather forecast. Siri was shown off doing everything from reading out recent emails to making appointments directly within the calendar app. It can also handle dictation, which could prove handy when sending text messages. Siri works via a data connection, so you need a decent signal to use it and a large internet package on your price plan.

Battery life:

All these new features appear to come with no negative impact on battery life. In fact, Apple says the phone has a better battery performance than the iPhone 4, with the iPhone 4S offering eight hours' talk time.

Signal?

Last year, Apple's launch of the iPhone 4 was quickly overshadowed by the 'antenna-gate' tales of dropped calls and dodgy connections. So it was no surprise that this time we heard all about a feature that will enable the 4S to intelligently switch between mobile phone antennae, thus improving call quality. The 4S can also download data twice as fast - at a theoretical maximum speed of 14.4Mbps download. That makes it as fast as the 4G handsets that are gradually taking off in the States, says Apple.

We will definately find out if that's true.

 

Additional news:

Finally the iPhone 4S will run Apple's new mobile operating system, iOS5. The operating system will be launched on 12 October and will be available free for Apple devices. New features announced today for iOS5 include a rejigged camera app with additional editing features and Newsstand for accessing magazines and books in a dedicated app.

Apple Seals the Deal: iPhone 5 Event Set For October 4th

It’s about time.


Apple is hosting its next iPhone event at its Cupertino, California headquarters on Oct. 4. Press invites landed in media inboxes first thing this morning, with a very enticing tag line:


“Let’s Talk iPhone.”


Tim Cook is expected to be master of ceremonies at the event now that he is Apple’s CEO.

The media event is taking place at Apple’s 1 Infinite Loop HQ, out of the norm from past iPhone events held in the city of San Francisco.

At the event, we’ll find out once and for all if we’re getting an iPhone 5 or an additional budget iPhone 4S.

The iPhone 5 is reported to have a larger, possibly edge-to-edge display, a thinner silhouette and an elongated home button.

It’s also expected to house an A5 processor, like that of the iPad 2.


No doubt IPhone 4 users will benefit from any software enhancements through a software update on iTunes, but the question is will it be worth investing in an iPhone 5 / 4GS

Facebook Overhaul...

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg has once again announced changes to the layout of his social networking site.
Facebook has come under fire on numurous forums, Facebook pages and on Twitter on these constant but seeminlgy 'not needed' changes.

The latest being a complete overhaul of its home page, so say goodbye to your old profile you'll now be able to skip to your activity in different years and months using the timeline on the right hand side of your home page.

As well as your profile picture, you will now be able to pick a cover picture which will stretch across the top of your page.

The new Acitivity Log allows you to see what you've added on your Timeline and any other notifications. To make things easier privacy for each piece of content can be controlled and even deleted from here.

New apps have been introduced (Spotify) allows you to stream music without leaving the current page or dealing with annoying pop ups.

So will these changes although not welcomed right now push Facebook and it's users to the next level of networking?  Will we see more unhappy users leave Facebook in its 1000's? Or will we just sit there infront of our new look profile page and take it on the chin?