iPhone Apps to help you celebrate New Years Eve!

Oh, Hi New Years Eve!

In case you weren’t aware, the biggest party of the year is just around the corner! Here at iPhone Antidote we are always wanting the best for our valued customers, and right now that means preparing you to party! We’ve got everything covered in apps to help make your New Years Eve a memorable one.

Countdown– The most important part of the party- the countdown of the last moments of 2012, and with everyone looking forward to 2013 ( and the kiss at midnight!) with hope and joy.

We suggest you check out Countdown Timer Pro– A simple countdown app that also includes an animated NYE time-zone map that lets you see when midnight is rung in all over the world.

The first ever Times Square New Years Ball Drop App looks great. You can customize your own countdown with your time-zone and a selected photo, take part in the official Times Square countdown and even have your face projected onto the Toshiba Vision Sign and send NYE themed e-card to friends and family.

Fashion– You have to look good for NYE, I think we can all agree to that, and here are the apps to help you look your most attractive, sparkliest self.

Trendabl is like social networking for your clothes- you can upload photos of yourself in your outfit options and get expert and random objective advice. ‘Go try it on’ is good for this as well. ASOS and Shopstyle are the go to shopping apps if you think you have time!

Fireworks– If you aren’t in a position to be outside enjoying fireworks, or don’t enjoy crowds, this app if for you. Flashmob New Year’s Fireworks lets you enjoy New Years Eve firework celebrations from all over the world including major landmarks including Sydney Harbour Big Ben, and the Eiffel Tower.

Transport- Make sure you guys are safe this NYE and have your transport options sorted out for getting home on New Years Day! Download the transport app for your town’s network to make sure you can work out what’s going on with going home- no matter how many drink’s you’ve had! If you optimistically drove somewhere and then realized you forgot you were going to drink on NYE, try StearClear. They’ll send a team of two to wherever you are, one to drive you home, the other to drive your car home.

Alcohol – If you’re out and looking for a good bar, Scenetap say that they can tell you how crowded a bar is- what the gender ratio is and the average age of the clientele- mainly focused on Chicago, SF and college towns. If you’re at home, try Mixology– an excellent assistant to cocktail making, even making suggestions based solely on what you have in the cabinet. Drunkguard is a quality app for keeping you safe and out of trouble- it helps you estimate your blood alcohol level (only estimate though- don’t drive if you’re even close to the illegal level), keeps your from drunk-dialing, drunk texting and drunk tweeting.

Resolutions – Now, the serious part of New Years Eve. Everyone likes to dabble or fully immerse themselves in the idea of Resolutions. Most of these will have to do with fitness, money, career or Love. To help you keep these wonderful promises to yourself, we suggest the following apps.

For health– My Fitness Pal, or, for the smokers, Livestrong Myquit Coach.

For money– Mint to keep a track of money going in and out and helping you to save.

For career- Business Building Secrets, Evernote for organization, and CareerBuilder for those looking to switch careers.

Lastly but by no means least, Love. Here are some apps to help you step out and find that special someone in 2013! Give these a try- OkCupid, How about We, or Are you Interested?

Wishing you all a safe and Happy New Year From all of us at iPhone Antidote!

Who got an iPhone 5?

Who got an iPhone 5 today? Who got any new iPhone? Lucky bastards!

Well, here’s a way to earn good karma, give back to the world, and earn some sweet cash on top of it all.

Recycling your stinky old iPhone with the iPhone Antidote is the best way to sell your old iPhone, no matter what condition it’s in. We accept broken, water damaged, cracked, used and new iPhones, and with quote prices guaranteed, we offer you 40% more money for your iPhone than the nearest iPhone buyback program on the Internet.

We’re a fast and  reliable company  that is interested in creating the best possible experience for our valued customers. We want to give you cash, and we want to do it easily and quickly.

So what are you waiting for? Simply go to our quote page, fill in the details of you old iPhone, print off a shipping label, and send it in to us. Sit around and play with your new iPhone 5 for a few days (bastard) and then go spend your cash! Go! Seriously, dude… go.

Google Maps for iOS

If you weren’t aware from the very loud sighs of relief from Apple customers worldwide, Google Maps for iOS was finally released Wednesday night.

Whilst Apple are still working on repairing their somewhat faulty version, Google has reworked their maps app for the iOS release so that it is remarkably different from the version we have known before (and the android version).

The new version can be used on all iPhones starting from the 3GS, an iPod Touch fourth and fifth generation, or an iPad running at least iOS 5.1 (although on the iPad you will be using the iPhone version).

When you start to use this version, it will ask you to sign in to your Google account. If you do this, the app has numerous additional extras you can utilize, but it is not necessary in order to use the app.

Let’s say you do log in, you now have the ability to recall all your previous searches (including trips looked at on separate devices), and have access to shortcuts to the addresses of your home or work. Nice.

After you make the choice of logging in or not, you’ll come to the main maps screen. A clean, nice looking interface with the search bar at the top, a directions button and a profile button on the top right, and a location icon on the bottom. To the right is a button made up of three dots, when swiped or clicked, it produces a screen that lets you choose traffic, public transit, satellite or Google earth mode.

The profile button is where you’ll find you’re saved shortcut addresses and all your previous saved searches (which you can also edit and delete at will).

Now to the important part: Searching. When you search for a business, each matching result will be represented by a red dot- tap on a specific red dot and the name of the business and the approximate time to that location by navigation will appear. You can swipe left to right to get to the next venue, and information about each venue will appear at the bottom of the page – information such as reviews, website, and the ability to call them or save the address.

So, you’ve found we’re you want to go, or you just want to go to a specific address. Here’s the other important part- navigation.

From the original main maps page, you can click on the navigation icon in the search bar. If you have already searched for a business or location, you can click on the transport icon down the bottom right of the page, it will ask if you want to go from your current location (change if you don’t). Pick the best option for you – you also have the option here to avoid highways and tolls by clicking ‘route options’- click start, and voice and map instructions will begin.

The app will continue to instruct you even when the phone has locked, but if need be, you can turn off the voice instructions and change the map into a list in settings.
One last cute Gimmick- shake the phone when you’re using Google Maps, and a screen appears asking you for your feedback.

Google Maps is back for iOS users. It looks good, it looks useful, so let’s see how this plays out, especially when Apple re-release Apple Maps… Should be an interesting match.

Google Maps for iOS available now for free in the App store.

Christmas Apps!

Hey Guess what? It’s Christmas!! Whether you’ve been dreading it or shave been dying to be amongst the tinsel, trees, gifts and all things Rudolph, we have some iPhone apps to help you out this festive season! See below for the best useful, fun, silly and magical Christmas apps.

Cards from Apple. Everyone likes Christmas cards! Create custom Christmas cards with their pre-built templates and photos from your iPhone, and address them using the contacts in your address. (Free)

Amazon.com. If you, like most I imagine, haven’t prepared your gift purchases in advance, or you just like getting your Christmas shopping done in one sitting without the crowds, the obvious answer is Amazon. Cheap, quick, and easy. December 19th is the last day to buy presents delivered before Christmas.

Christmas Countdown Recipe’s
With almost 210 easy but impressive Christmas related recipe’s available, a easy to use shopping list, nutrition tips, photos of each dish and the ability to share through social media, this is the go to Christmas recipe app. Free.

Sleeps to Christmas.  Simple but exciting for the kids and the young at heart. A countdown to the second for Christmas day with some Christmas animations and songs to accompany. Free.

Sing Along Christmas Carols
Christmas Carol karaoke anyone? For family, party or bar-time fun. Everyone likes a Christmas carol! Free

Trade Nations: North Pole
Create a Santa’s workshop to make presents, complete with elves as cobblers, wood carvers and present wrappers. A really nice way to pass the time and keep in the spirit. Even better -if players fill the present meter and create enough presents to reach their goal, the creators will donate $15000 to Child’s Play, a charity that improves lives of children in hospitals throughout the world. Free

Elf yourself is a classic, bound to make all ages laugh. Take a photo or use one from your phone’s photo album, the app puts your face onto an elf, and makes it dance to silly Christmas songs. Free ( more songs available for a fee).

Gangnam Santa Booth
Similar to Elf Yourself , and very silly for the silly season- Do just as above, instead your face goes into a Christmas themed Gangnam style dancer.

Christmas!! This all-encompassing app has everything you might need for the season- present lists, games, wallpapers, advent calendar with secrets you can unlock each day, a small selection of Christmas songs and a countdown. For the Christmas spirited. Free.

Talking Santa
A great app for the kids who can talk with Santa and have him repeat what they say. There is a really nice option to make videos of Santa saying a special Christmas message and send it via email, text or facebook, or just replay it for the kids on Christmas eve/day as a special surprise. Free.

Happy Holidays! May Santa get you all the iPhones you wanted- and don’t forget to send us your stinky old one’s in the New Year!!

iPhone Antidote 2012 Holiday Gift Guide

Here’s a list of awesome gift ideas for your loved ones just in time for Christmas! From the cheap and cheerful to the truly luxurious, for kids all the way to grandparents, we think we’ve got everything covered for gifts in the iPhone world! Merry Christmas!

1. The good ol’ fall back stocking stuffer- the iPhone case. For this year’s version, we suggest going to zazzle.com or vistaprint.com and ordering a custom iPhone case, perhaps with a picture of your smiling face on the back… or for something more ingenious, try for a picture of the side of your loved one’s face, so when using it, their phone will look see through…

Alternatively, you can go for something a little bit more… flashy, perhaps something you wouldn’t stuff into a stocking. Introducing the worlds most expensive iPhone case- designed by UK brand Uunique, who claim that it’s London Lotus iPhone 5 Case is the most expensive on the market. At $302,985, I bet they’re right.

2. Another stocking stuffer, but more of the necessary ‘school shoe’ type. If you don’t know what to get someone, and you don’t really like them that much- get them some iPhone lightening to USB cables. $19. Super… useful.

3. For the reader in the family, sign them up for some audio books. Go to audibleshopnow.com to sign them up, and they get two free audio books of their own picking, plus whatever book you want to pony up the cash for. If they can’t handle people speaking books at them, buy them some books on iBook for their idevice.

4. The gift of music. Music is the soundtrack of our lives. It creates moods, aids memory, allieviates boredom and enhances life events. It can also be a whole lot of fun. For the gift of music, buy them a Pandora gift card, or an iTunes gift card.

Pandora Internet Radio is a service that recommends and plays music based on the user’s selected preferences through any computer or idevice. A one year subscription for Pandora is $36 www.pandora.com/one/gift

Giving an iTunes gift card means your loved one can buy the tracks and albums they really want. You can buy these online over here or at many major shopping outlets- you may want to look around too, as you can often get great deals on these if you buy multiple.

5. Headphone splitter. A very small gift, capable of bringing so much joy. Have you ever needed to share something with a loved one, friend or work colleague in a public space? Ever wanted to watch a TV show in an airport? At school/work? Ever need only the two/three/four of you to hear? The headphone splitter is tiny little gadget gold. Buy one for your girlfriend with a DVD copy of that show you don’t want people to know you watch together. Less than $5 at Radioshack.

6. Speaking of headphones– another excellent Christmas Present. The two top picks from us are; Skull Candy Heavy Metal and BeatsByDre.

For Skull Candy , not only are the Heavy Metal earbuds a very decent, sexy product, all Skull Candy earphones and headphones come with a lifetime warranty, so you’re effectively buying your loved one headphones for life. Right now you can get 50% MSRP by entering the coupon code REDBULL50 at checkout. www.skullcandy.com

If you want to go for a more professional sound quality and have a little more cash up your sleeve, we recommend BeatsByDre headphones. With a range from Wireless to Studio, the listening pleasure is guaranteed with these bad boys. www.beatsbydre.com

7. For the times when headphones aren’t needed, you can give the gift of music OUT LOUD! Good speakers are invaluable and make for a great Christmas present. Our recommendations are on the cute, cheaper side and the slightly more expensive, quality side. How much do you really like them??
For cutesy, go for the Deadmau5 MP3 Speaker from Urban Outfitters. Damn Cute. $35.
For quality, sophistication, and ease of use, try Jambox- either the original or the big Jambox. Also not bad looking, this speaker is wireless, can be used with any of your devices capable of Bluetooth and produces amazingly pure sound quality. They come in multiple colors and you can buy them from multiple retail stores such as Costco, Fry’s, Best Buy, Staples or Radioshack. You’re looking at about $150 for the original, smaller Jambox.

8. If a friend or family member is obsessed with Draw Something or similar game on iPad or iPhone, or simply prefers the antique skill of handwriting, a shiny new Stylus is a perfect present for them. The best one in our opinion for design, precision and overall quality is the Hand Stylus, available as of Sept this year. Go to www.handstylus.com. $29.95

9. Christmas time means snow! Snow means everyone having one freezing cold hand whilst they use their iPhone for updating that all important Facebook status right? No! Staaahp! Get a friend some Touchscreen Gloves and they’ll have two cosy hands all winter long! Best to get are Mujjo Leather touchscreen gloves, $168, second best are Mujjo Knitted touchscreen gloves for the more acceptable price of $32, orrrr, go to the national deals section of livingsocial.com and get some very respectable ( but perhaps not as warm) Sol and Oscar touchscreen gloves for $21.00.

10. For the friend that loves to use the Camera on their iPhone or iPad, the Griptight Gorillapod tripod for iPhone is a perfect present. Making their iPhone completely stable for that crucial photo taking moment, giving them the ability to set the tripod up on any surface, and giving them the opportunity to be all that much closer to taking the perfect iPhone picture. Or selfie. $30 from www.joby.com ( Currently Free US Shipping).

11. So you got your brother/sister the Tripod, and they’re happy as Larry taking photos. How about you ingeniously join presents together by theme, and get Mom and Dad a photo printer or Digital photo frame, so they can enjoy their progeny’s genius photography? Hammacher Schlemmer sell the The iPhone Photo Printer and the Wireless Smartphone Photo Printer, both of which print out extraordinary quality 300 dpi resolution photos (without ink cartridges), the second with the added bonus of not having to plug your iPhone in to the printer. The first is $159, the Wireless version $219. Take a look. http://www.hammacher.com/product/79938

12. Something for the Chef’s in the house. The iGrill oven Bluetooth thermometer is a digital thermometer that can be connected to any Bluetooth-enabled device, and enables the user to set a timer, view the current temperature in the oven, and look up recipes online. Sweet. $80. http://store.igrillinc.com/

13. If you’re someone who has to make sure the four legged members of your family get presents under the tree, this might be something less tasty but more useful than the usual bones and cat treats. The Tagg GPS Pet Tracker is a waterproof GPS-powered collar so that if they ever go missing, you, or someone in your family can check the Web-based map and know exactly where Scruffy got off to. $99 for peace of mind.

14. This one… Well, this gift idea might just have to be for yourselves, kids. Or me. It’s pretty damn awesome. The Logicom SPY-C Tank.

A futuristic tank. Tick. Moveable camera. Tick. Controllable from any iOS or Andriod device. Tick. It’s own wifi hotspot allowing you to control it both indoors and out. Tick. Night vision mode. Tick. Walkie Talkie Capability. Tick. The Spy-C tank will even let you record videos and upload photos via email or various social networks once they have been saved to your device. Santa… Hey Santa…you there Dude? I… I have a question…
$210.00

15. And last but not by any means least, Apple. D’uh. If you have the cash, spread the Apple joy this Christmas! Of all the products, we think that the iPad Mini or Macbook Air would be most welcome under the Christmas Tree. Both are long serving gifts and both have the ability to help the new owner improve their lives through the magic of technology. iPad Mini starts at $329 and Macbook Air 11 inch starting at $999.

Merry gift giving and the happiest of Holidays Kids!

Apple Maps for iOS 6 review

So, Apple Maps. Garnering a lot of press and a lot of anti-apple ammo, maps was the rather large hiccup of the iPhone 5 release. The premise made sense- take the advantage of owning one of the biggest and most useful apps away from one of their biggest competitors- Google. If they had the brainpower, they could build their own version. And they did, built using Dutch navigation equipment and Tom Tom’s Data.

And it works. Just not… perfectly. Yet. Soon after the release the internet was flooded with screenshots showing the inaccuracy of the application, from wrong destination information to odd looking buildings, roadways etc. Stating that your destination was in the ocean 10 miles out is not very good for a maps application. Unfortunatley the more humerous the inaccuracy, the worse it was for Apple- and anyone relying on the app to get them somewhere…

So. The app itself is not quite fully formed. It does, however, work very well for a lot of people. Here at iPhone Antidote we have used it extensively- across two countries, in the city and in the middle of nowhere, and have only come across one inaccuracy. Don’t get us wrong- there are  apparently lots out there, we just haven’t happened across a lot of them.

Disregarding the flaws for a moment-  the features of Maps are great- turn by turn directions, voice intergration, flyover and vector based maps. The 3D looks brilliant, vibrant and lifelike, and it’s really fun to play with- the pivoting action of being able to rotate the point of view and zoom out so you can play with the whole globe is stupidly fun. A lot of people find the interface a lot simpler to use and more pleasing to the eye.

It’s definitely something that holds promise, which, yeah, is not really what you want with a cornerstone feature of a new operating system. You want that shit dialed in.
So, Good Guy Apple organizes a press release where they tell their own customers that they made a mistake in releasing their maps too early, that they were sorry, and advised them to go to their competitors- please. They showed remarkable customer service by admitting their mistake and doing the right thing for their customers.

Apple have told their customers that they are improving maps and that the problems like buildings or roadways looking a bit funny will be fixed by user feedback, so an increasingly perfected system. Until that point is reached, we suggest using Apple maps until you run into a problem, then using Google maps as a backup. To do this- go to google maps in safari, and you will be prompted to ‘save as an app for your mobile’ by touching the arrow on the bottom and choosing the option to add to homescreen.

Happy travelling.

New Apple Releases today!

Apple had a bunch of upgrades released today!

The new iPad mini, along with a revamped full size iPad, a 13- inch Macbook Pro with retina display and a new superslim iMac update. Let’s have a look!

# The 13 Inch Macbook Pro with retina display comes with a hefty price tag – $1699 (With free shipping)- but with over 4 million pixels making the screen pop with vibrant color and amazing quality,  this model being the  lightest Macbook Pro– and with incredible power, storage capability and speed, it is apparently well worth it for professionals who can afford it.

Considered to be very similar in performance to using the 15-inch model that was released over summer, the advantage of the 13-inch is that it is significantly lighter- by almost a pound.

It is generally agreed that Apple are making the Macbook Pro their flagship laptop– the one that elicits all the gasps, the one that is the dream laptop, and according to all sources, they are well on their way.

#The new iMac update comes with an all-new design– impressively reducing the thickness of the machine ( 40% less volume than the previous model) , drastically improving the speed of the machine and totally re-engineering the widescreen display.

The new machines come in 21.5 inch and 27-inch displays that have been improved by adding an anti-reflective coating– making it 75% less reflective, and by moving the LCD right up behind the cover glass making the display a lot clearer and brighter.

The machine also comes with 60% faster graphics, a brand new ‘fusion drive’ which combines huge storage capacity with lightening fast speeds. This combined with the latest Intel quad-core processers means that this machine packs a lot of power- and a lot of speed.
The 21.5 inch will be available in November at a starting cost of $1299, and the 27-inch will be available in December at a starting cost of $1799.

#With the new iPad mini weighing in at half the weight of the full size iPad (.68 pounds), and the screen being two-thirds smaller ( 7.9 inches rather than 9.7) , the first impressions out is that yes, the mini iPad is small, but it is not tiny or dinky. Having kept the impressive build and feel of the full sized iPad it has the same feeling of the iPhone 5- amazingly light in the hand and yet you still feel like the device is a serious one.

The screen resolution is impressive for it’s size with the same number of pixels present as on the iPad and iPad 2, it has a front facing and back facing camera, up to 10 hours of battery life, a fast A5 processing chip, and all apps made for the iPad are able to be used on the iPad mini.

Apple aren’t really entering into the tablet wars as much as a lot of people thought- rather, they are just releasing an extremely good, smaller version of a very good device. Prices start at $329, with pre-orders starting October 26th.

#The fourth generation iPad was also released today, with an upgraded A6X chip that makes it run twice as fast as the previous model whilst still retaining the 10 hours of battery.  It also comes with Apple’s new lightening connecter and and wifi speeds that are up to twice as fast as the previous model.
The new model comes in the same storage and pricing configuration as the previous iPad, starting at $499 for the 16gb wifi models. Preorders start October 26th.

In good guy Apple news, customers who are understandably annoyed that they purchased the 3rd generation iPad within the last 30 days will be able to swap out the two devices at *certain* Apple retail stores at no extra cost. Customers are advised to call ahead because the option to swap the iPads is not made by Apple, but is instead a store by store policy.

And that’s a wrap! We hope you guys enjoy these products if you can!

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

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 14^th– 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…)