Posts tagged: iPhone 5 features

WWDC lowdown!

 

Alright guys, so yesterday was THE BIG DAY!

 

The four day annual world wide developers conference for Apple began yesterday morning, kicking off at the Mascone Centre in San Francisco at 10am.

 

As per usual, WWDC began with a perfectly orchestrated keynote speech given by Tim Cook, featuring a few other key Apple guys AND more importantly, featuring some new Apple software and hardware announcements and previews.

 

 

DOUBLE RAINBOW EXCITING!

 

 

For the first time, the keynote was broadcast live from the Apple website and on Apple TV.

 

The two hour address was, as expected, super stylishly presented, with multiple media presentations, some jokes, and a few fantastic and even surprising new Apple products and updates.

 

The top things you should know about that were announced today are:

 

 

– The new Mac Pro. Stellar, revolutionary and round.

 

– iOS 7, the biggest change to iOS since the iPhone came out.

 

– OS  X Mavericks – the new operating system named after a California beach break.

 

– New Macbook airs with super extended battery life.

 

– iTunes Radio – the much talked about radio product that actually sounds better than we expected!

 

 

Super double rainbow exciting, right!?

 

 

We’ll have even more from WWDC coming up this week!!

 

 

iOS 7

 

 

Yesterday we were given a preview of iOS 7, and apart from the fact that we only saw a teensy snippet of one of our personal favs and the man mainly responsible for iOS 7, Jony Ive, the new iOS announcement exceeded even our expectations. And we had high hopes!

 

Now, this system update will not change your life drastically, it will not do your job for you or make you a more beautiful person, but what it does is promise to enhance your life, with it’s combination of a pared down and simplified beauty and increased functionality.

 

This seventh system update is the biggest change to iOS since the iPhone came out with the user interface changing pretty drastically as well as the addition of a number of new features.

 

As was predicted ( or leaked in a timely manner by Apple), the new iOS has none of the skeumorphic, life like graphics or icons as seen in the previous versions.There is a whole new color palette, completely new icons and the overall impression is a much cleaner, flatter, brighter and simpler user interface.

 

There is a translucent feel to the screen, which gives depth to the phone, even down to the wallpaper, which you can now see behind app icons, and that moves intuitively in relation to the motion in your hands.The typography, also, has been redesigned to be bigger, spacier and cleaner.

 

Apple has said that this is the future of iOS, that as well as being the biggest change to iOS since the original iPhone, it is a new beginning.And, well, we haven’t tested it out yet, but we like the way it looks. We like the new features, and we like the direction Apple is going with it.

 

Here are some new features that make iOS 7 super, double rainbow exciting.

 

Control center
Swiping up from the bottom of the device, you can find the all-new control center. This innovation provides quick access to preferences and settings. You will find switches for wifi, Airplay, a flashlight, do not disturb, brightness, airplane mode, and quick music buttons.

 

 

 

Weather, Messages, Calendar

Messages and the Calendar app have both been cleaned up and simplified. The updated weather app has animation representing live weather, (the lightening looked particularly cool) with the ability to see more details such as humidity, and scrunch all your favorite places together to see not only the weather in each, but the time in world clock format.

 

Multitasking

Pressing the power button twice will now give previews of apps that are open, rather than the small app icons that we see right now on iOS 6.

 

The phone will intuitively learn which apps you use most often and at what time. Background processing will then provide updated content, ready and waiting for the time that you use them.

 

This also applies with apps that send push notifications- when that happens, the phone will start processing updates because it knows that you will more than likely be opening that app soon.

 

The phone will recognize and take advantage of power efficient times, such as when it is connected to Wi-Fi, to update apps.

 

 

 

Airdrop
This is a new function, sadly only available on the most recent devices ( iPhone 5, iPad etc).

 

Airdrop makes it super easy to share photos, videos, contacts and other stuff between friends with iPhones. Connecting via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, you can simply click the share button and choose the recipient from those around you.

 

You can send whatever you want ( from apps that support Airdrop) and the person receiving can choose to save the item- it will then be located in the appropriate app. Photos in iPhoto, etc.

 

 

Safari

Safari is updated with a new full screen look and smart search tab, one tap access to favorites and better parental controls.

 

You also have the ability to see and browse your tabs from other devices.

 

Also… and this is kind of a biggie… no more eight tab limit! Oh my god apple, why did that take so long, but thank you, thank you.

 

Tabs are also now organized differently- vertically in 3D instead of horizontally, with the ability to reorder the tabs. To get rid of one tab you just swipe it to the left.

 

 

Photos and camera

The camera app now includes 4 camera options- Normal, square cropped, video and panoramic. You also have the option of a number of live filters to apply to photos.

 

The photos app has a brilliant way of organizing your photos using time and location to bundle your photos into ‘moments’, which are photos from the same time and/or place. These ‘moments’ can then be organized into ‘collections’, which are groupings of moments using that same organizational information.

 

You can also view your whole collection via year, see what locations you were in for each year, and scrub to find a specific photo.

 

 

Siri

Siri now has not one but two new voices, a more human like female and male voice!

 

A new interface, with sound waves to represent Siri when he/she’s processing, French and German capabilities and a whole whack load of higher intelligence makes Siri exciting again.

 

The results can now include photos within the app and has the ability to answer more questions more intelligently, with Twitter, Wikipedia and web search results from Bing integrated into the app. Interesting choice with Bing, but we’ll ride with it for a while…

 

Siri itself has also become more integrated into your device, and can perform functions such as turning the brightness down, turning Bluetooth on etc.

 

 

New app store
For starters, the new app store looks way better. Secondly, all of your apps will now update automatically, (down with those little red numbers!) and thirdly, we now have some new search options.

 

You will be able to search for apps based on your location, or or an event or festival you’re at. You can also now search for and find apps using age range, which is designed with kids in mind.

 

 

Itunes Radio
We have a whole other section on iTunes Radio, go here to read it ☺

 

 

Ios in the car
iOS will soon be integrated into your car by having your device display through the in-car monitors. A bunch of cars will begin to be integrated with Siri, Maps, messages and more in 2014.

 

The introduction to this was pretty broad, however there will be more details to come. The car manufactuors who will be including iOS in at least one of their models include Honda, Mercedes- Benz, Nissan, Volvo, Kia, Acura, Ferrari, Hyundai, Infiniti, Jaguar, Opel, and Chevrolet.

 

 

OK, so those are the big features. There are also a ton of different, smaller features in iOS 7, like the updated notification centre that can now be accessed from the lock screen, and synced across all of your devices, and the activation lock to try to prevent theft ( no-one can use your iphone unless they know your iCloud username & password.)

 

 

We think that iOS 7 is really pretty cool, especially considering that we’ll be getting at least a few more cool features in the hardware component around the same time (Fall this year). What do you guys think?

 

 

iOS 7 will be available to the public in the Fall. Demos for iOS 7 are available on Apple’s site- here.

 

 

First image courtesy of techradar.com, all others courtesy of Apple.com

100 million iPod Touch’s sold and a new, cheaper update released!

 

Another milestone for Apple- they’ve just sold their 100 millionth iPod touch! That’s like, 5 iPod touches for everyone in Australia! Yay!

 

The device has been around since 2007 and the latest update has just been released last Thursday- with interesting results.

 

The updated iPod only comes in two colors, is only 16GB and has no rear facing camera. That all sounds …a little bit bleh, until you discover the reason for this is the lowered price- now only $229 compared to the 32Gb at $299 and the 64Gb at $399.

 

Selling cheaper versions of their products has been something that Apple seemed to have shied away from previously. Now however, with this cheaper iPod update, it seems like the first steps for Apple in trying to provide a bigger price scale of their product line to reach more people.

 

This gives credence to the rumors that Apple is planning to bring out a less expensive version of the iPhone.

 

According to Analysts, an ‘iPhone mini’ will be announced in July, called such not in reference to size, but in price- with guestimates pointing at a price tag of about $350- $400 to buy outright.

 

That’s a pretty penny saved compared to the price of the iPhone 5 which is currently $700-$900.

 

Just like Apple, we’ll have to wait and see if this iPod touch product meets with enough success in sales to know if the move to provide cheaper Apple products is a good path to take.

The risk of trying out this path is that people might rather stick to what they know, be it more expensive Apple products with all the bells and whistles, or another cheaper brand that is already established in that price range.

 

We vote… good move, Apple!

 

 

 

Image courtesy of engadget.com

iOS 6 Review

The iPhone 5 of course comes with the new operating system iOS 6, however you can and should upgrade your current model for free– and it’s been available since Sept 19 ( 100 million devices have so far been updated!).

 

Keep in mind that even though it’s available on all Apple models after and including the 3GS, only the iPhone 5 and iPhone 4S can utilize all the features. And there’s 200 of them!

 

It will take time to find them all and Apple hasn’t even named them all, here are the best and most noticeable new features of iOS 6.

 

#Email has been upgraded in a few noticeably better and more efficient ways, incorporating a new VIP email inbox so that you don’t have to sift through crap that’s only kind of important to get to the juicy most important emails.

There is now the ability to insert numerous photos & videos in the body of an email instead of attaching them one at a time, and you can now have more than one signature, depending on if you’re sending an email to your boss or your crush ( *special signature for your crush actually not recommended).
To select or delete draft emails, just hold down the compose button.
The smallest but somehow best new feature with email is that instead of pressing the refresh email button to get new emails, you can now simply swipe down, you get a spinny wheel and voila new emails. It looks much better.

 

#Handling incoming calls has been improved ( although this feature has been around on driods for a while, it’s nice that Apple has caught up, and it’s a very useful feature). When someone calls, you now have the option to answer the call, put the call through to voicemail, or reject the call and reply to that person with an automated text message. There is also the option to reject and get the phone to remind you later that the person called.
Another call handling feature is Do Not Disturb– this feature, when turned on, prevents notifications, texts and calls from everyone except a select few that the user chooses. An unknown number calling more than once in a three minute period with be let through as well, allowing for possible legitimate emergencies.

 

# Shared photostreams, allows users to share photos with friends in realtime without messy attachments. The selected photos are uploaded to iCloud, available to friends and family right in their own photo app on their mac ( running mountain lion ) or their iphone ( if it’s running iOS 6) and if the friends aren’t on an apple device, the photos are available on their very own unique URL.

 

#If you’re worried about privacy, the new Advertising tracking feature is for you. The ability to turn off and stop marketers from targeting you with ads. Small but pretty powerful.

 

# iOS 6 comes with deeper facebook integration – you can now post photos straight from the camera, ask Siri to make a post for you, post location from maps, post scores from the game centre, and tap to post to twitter and fb from the notification centre. Facebook THIS!

 

# The much discussed Passbook app is a virtual wallet for keeping and more importantly easily accessing your boarding passes, coupons, loyalty cards, movie tickets and more, with tickets/boarding passes appearing on the lock screen when the event time approaches or you enter into the right location ( E.g. airport).
With NFC ( Near Field Communication ) rumored to be released for Apple devices after Christmas, this will mean that in the not too distant future payment processing applications will be available for this passbook as well.

 

#Siri is improved with this new operating system, with 7 new languages added to her repertoire, the ability to ask Siri to launch apps and to interact with maps and new knowledge for Siri with movie screening times and sports scores.

 

#You can now Facetime over any 3G or 4G cellular network as well as over wifi.

 

#Safari is a lot faster and now includes iCloud tabs which have the ability to sync open tabs between iOS6 and OS x Devices. Through the reworked sharing options menu you can also send an interesting article/picture etc via email, message, and facebook, as well as being able to print, copy, or add to bookmarks. A super nice new feature is the ability to add a website to an offline reading list for later perusal.
When viewing safari in landscape, there is now a ‘view in full screen’ button, on the bottom right.

 

#Updating apps no longer requires a password, and downloading a new app doesn’t close the app store. Newly downloaded but unopened apps get a fancy bright blue ‘new’ banner.

 

#The Find My Friends App has been updated, so that you can be notified once friends or family have left or arrived at a certain location.

 

#There is a bunch more emjoi icons.

 

#For the alarm you can now escape the godawful noise you’ve been putting up with and pick any song from your music to gently raise you from your sleep.

 

#Late night listening– A new EQ setting that lowers the jarring bass making the music less intrusive, allowing falling to sleep easier.

 

#8 more default wallpapers

 

#Bluetooth settings appear right at the front of the settings page.

 

So there you go, the best improvements that come with upgrading to the iOS 6 operating system.

There are a few features that you will lose when upgrading to iOS 6 – youtube for example, is absent from the update, but you can just go to the app store and download it for free.

The new operating system is definitely stacked full of small but ultimately more efficient improvements, making the user experience that much more fast, fun, and valuable.
Then there’s maps. Which… we’ll discuss… next time…

iPhone 5 review pt 2

 

 

The New iPhone 5 Features

Now that we’ve looked at the physical features of the iPhone 5, lets have a look at the real magic, the stuff that actually takes you where you want to be.

 

We’ll start with what is specific to the iPhone 5, then we’ll look at the what comes with the new operating system update- iOS 6.

 

Along with being larger, the iPhone 5 screen has the ability to be 18% brighter than the 4S.

 

It has built in wireless LTE technology that connects to faster networks so that you get much faster browsing, access to emails, etc. It also includes Wi-Fi N support which allows incredibly fast wireless connection to 5GHz networks, which means faster downloads, streaming and browsing when connected wirelessly AND gives you a better range for connecting to more wireless access points from greater distances.

 

This technology combined with the new processer in the 5 makes the device noticeably faster and more efficient, and according to Apple, twice as fast as the 4S. Snazzy.

 

The camera on the iPhone 5 is much improved, with better HDR, faster picture taking speeds and the ability to take panoramic photos of up to  240 degrees. You just watch, the next trip you go on- all your photos will end up panoramic. It’s kind of addictive.

 

The audio quality is significantly improved on the 5, with higher fidelity speakers that are not only louder but carry a much better sound quality. There are also three microphones on the 5, which help with noise cancellation and improve video sound quality.

 

Overall the iPhone 5 proves to be simply a better, faster, and more efficient user experience. Seemingly small changes have noticeably improved the phone greatly from previous models- and that’s before we even look at the improvements that come with the new iOS 6 operating system- over 200 new features– stay tuned!

The iPhone 5, Whatsup?

 

 

So now that we’re past the anticipation, the big event, the jubilation and by some accounts the disappointment, how is the iPhone 5 really doing? Is it better? As good as expected?

 

Articles leaking the new software and hardware features of the phone were building public anticipation right up until the announcement. Although most of those proved correct and worth the excitement, marking massive improvements to the 4s, there was some disappointment that there wasn’t a huge secret feature that Apple had managed to keep a secret.

 

Nevertheless, due to sly marketing or actual unexpected demand that led to limited supply, the iPhone 5 sold out in it’s presales in unprecedented time. Two million phones in about an hour starting at midnight September 14th twice the number of the presales for the 4s. In the three days following the actual release on Sept 21, Apple says they sold over 5 million more iPhones. AT&T are saying that it was the biggest iPhone launch by a long shot.

 

So, all pretty good.  There were, of course, those who said that the numbers were disappointing, that the device wasn’t worth any of the anticipation, etc, etc, those damn Samsung owners, so used to complaining they don’t know something to be happy about when they see it.

 

And here is what to be happy about: The new Features of the iPhone 5

 

Let’s look at the hardware first- after-all, first impressions only happen once right?

 

It looks great. Like, great. Still available in black and white, with the outside frame made completely from aluminium and glass. It’s pretty.

 

The iPhone 5 is 20% lighter than the 4s and by gosh you can feel it… It almost feels like a child’s toy in your hand, except much, much more serious. And sexy. A lot of the lightness has to do with the thinness of the device- 7.6 mm. Smooth all over. Fitting to the hand, no matter the hand.

 

The height has been increased to 4 inches, enabling the screen to contain more content- more icons, emails, calendar, and it makes watching movies a lot better. Awesomely, Apple have managed to keep retina display  effect- continuing the iPhone’s dominance in sharp high resolution screen display.

 

Apple kept the width of the iPhone the same as previous models, which has faced some contention, with people ( Even Steven Wozniak) stating that they believe it should have gone wider or stayed with the width and height. In saying that, the retained width and the increased height makes it seem not only a better device than the 4s but also remains the one-hand manageability.

 

Lastly, the iPhone jack has moved, making it more pocket friendly, and the dock shape has changed from a 30 pin dock to an 8 pin dock called lightening. Excellent news overall, somewhat dampened by the added expense and somewhat relative bother of buying and using adapters. But, there’s only one way forward, and in the pursuit of excellence, sometimes you gotta buy adaptors.

 

So, that’s the physical- see it, breathe it and touch it iPhone 5 features. Stay tuned for the software specs, a look at Apple’s Maps V Google Maps and how YOU can profit from buying the new iPhone 5. (This one’s important… just so you know…)

Pictures of the New iPhone 5

Here we go guys!  We have several new pictures to show you of the new iPhone.  They all appear to be from trusted sources, and it really looks like this is what we are going to end up seeing this September/October.  Not too many changes that haven’t been noted previously, but its still pretty nice to get a good look at what the finished product will end up looking like.  Here are the pics!

 

 

The New iPhone 5

 

 

The New iPhone 5

 

The New iPhone 5

 

The New iPhone 5

iPhone latest features: ‘iWallet’ and LTE Connectivity

Apple have won the major ‘iWallet’ patent this March 6th, LTE connnectivity on the iPhone 5!

 

iPhone 5: Prepare for more

iWallet: Using NFC to control your accounts

 

On 6th March, Apple won the patent for an intelligent technology named the ‘iWallet.’ The best part of the technology is that it will empower you to simultaneously control all your iPhone subsidiary financial accounts. You can do all your credit card transactions through your iPhone itself, making use of an inbuilt Near Field Communication (NFC) chip. Not only that, you can keep yourself updated about the payments you are making– via the statements from iTunes billing systems. If you are worried about security issues, you need not be—the digital encryption confirms every transaction you are making to be safe and secure. As per reports, ‘iWallet’ will also have a ‘Parental Control’ option—to make use of the features in a restricted manner; much like a digital wallet.

 

LTE Connectivity in iPhone 5: A surety

 

Going by the positive feedback Apple received from the latest iPad, implementation of 4G LTE connectivity is almost a surety. Owing to LTE’s superior download and upload speeds over conventional 3G networks, Apple is certainly looking forward to integrate this onto the next iPhone 5, possibly a Qualcomm next generation chip. Perhaps when you are reading this article; Apple techs are busy working out ways to increase battery life in the future LTE iPhone 5.