Hi Rob,
My quick 2 cents on the controversy over what the new iPhone will be called - not a big deal at all. I don't care about it and it won't affect the user experience one bit. If people want to freak out about something, freak out about iOS 6 downgrading to an inferior mapping system. THAT'S something to be concerned about.
Regards,
Brent
Chicago, IL
Hi Brent - Good point - and on that note - lets get into the September 12th event - Actually a few hours before the event it became apparent the iPhone 2012 - was actually going to be called the iPhone 5 - which is now the official name - this became apparent when searches on Apple.com found reference to the soon to be press release about the iPhone - with the title - or URL - www.apple.com/pr/library/2012/09/12Apple-Introduces-iPhone-5.html
While the link itself did not work - it was pretty clear - the name was going to be iPhone 5 - and When Tim Cook and team took stage - that was confirmed.
Per the event it started out with the typical Rar Rar Go Team type announcements. talking about Apple stores - new ones and new countries. 380 stores over all now in 13 countries. The obligatory Mac outgrowing PC in sales growth info - Repeat on the iPad sales from Q2. That Tablet share from April to June the iPad had 68% of the market - but the iPad accounted fro 91% of the web traffic - which Tim then said he did not know what these other tablets were doing quote They must be in warehoused or on store shelves or maybe in someone's drawer. unquote. Then he talked about now over 250,000 iPad Apps. He mentioned there are over 700k iOS Apps overall and 90% of them get at least one download a month and the average user downloads over 100 apps.
And then he turned the mic over to Phil Shiller to talk about the new iPhone. To which he officially announced the iPhone 5. Uggg - Ok rob get used to the name it is a done deal. He then showed it and not to anyone surprise it was what had been leaked in the images before. It is a metal back it is all aluminum and glass. 7.6 mm thin - 18% thinner than the iPhone 4S. it is 112 grams - 20% lighter. It has the 4" screen expected as well. A 1136 x 640 screen resolution. 16:9 aspect ratio. There is now an extra row of icons - so it is 5 rows of 4 apps - plus the 6th row for the dock. It does have the rumored in-cell touch sensing tech for the screen - making it even more accurate on touches. As also expected and needed - it is LTE. The LTE works in a bunch of countries - in the US with AT&T, Verizon and Sprint. In Canada - LTE works with Bell, Rogers, Telus, Fido, Virgin and Koodo.
There are other countries in Europe and Asia with LTE compatibility - more on that in the near future.
It has a new A6 processor which Apple claims is 2x faster CPU than A5 and 2x faster graphics.
Battery life is about on par with the 4s - 8 hours of 3g talk time, 8 hours or 3g or LTE browsing, 225 hours of standby. Again a wash on the battery life vs 4s.
Per the Camera - it remains an 8MP camera with a 5 element lens as with the 4S - but there are some improvements. Dynamic low light mode, Preceision lens alignment - hey does that mean the 4S lens was not aligned with precision? And the 5's camera has a Sapphire crystal - because you know that sounds so cool. And well because quote Sapphire is renowned for being hard and crystal clear" Phil also claimed Photo capture is 40% faster - which by the was the 4S capture speed was pretty quick as it was.
And with the iPhone 5 they added Panorama - which well lets you take panorama photos.
Overall the improvements in the camera seems minor vs the 4S - not nearly as big a jump as from the 4 to 4S. But if you are going from the 4 to 5 - you will be really happy.
Per video recording. You can now take photos while recording video. Ok - cool feature.
And there is improved video stabilization - that unlike the Nokia 920 does not require a guy in a van - just saying.
FaceTime Camera is now 720P HD - with backside illumination and face detection - so some improvements to the front facing camera.
There are now three mics - Bottom, Front and Back. And the speaker had been improved on the bottom - but still mono speaker.
And as feared / expected for some time - it is now a 9 pin smaller dock connector - the 30 pin doc connector is gone. Say hello to Lightning - that is the name of the connector tech - to go along with thunderbolt on the mac - how cute. It is an all digital reversible connector. So does not matter how you plug it in. As also expected they have a 30 pin to 9 pin dongle adapter.
It will be available in either black or white. Pricing as expected stays the same - $199 for 16gb, $299 for 32gb and $399 for 64 gb versions. With a 2 year contract that is. iPhone 3Gs is dead - gone no more. iPhone 4 with 8GB is now the free phone and the 4S with 16 gb is the $99 phone.
Preorders start on September 14th - with launch on September 21st - Available on the 21st in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. Starts shipping to more countries on Sept 28th and then be december it will be available in over 100 countries on 240 carriers.
No word yet on where the head phone jack is - but there was one photo showing the power button top side - but no whole for the head phone jack - so it seems that the headphone jack will be on the bottom.
iOS 6 will be available for download on September 19th.
Next up with a new iPod Nano - and skip over that as it does not run iOS .
After that they talked about the iPod touch.
The new 5th gen iPod touch is thinner and lighter - just 6.1 mm thick and 88 grams on weight.
It has the same 4" retina screen from the iPhone 5. It has the A5 processor. It still has both a front and rear camera and now there is an LED flash. The camera on the back is a 5 MP camera with Sapphire crystal and 5 element lens. So essentially the same camera as the back of the iPhone 5 except 5 MP not 8 MP.
Front camera is 720 HD camera - which is the same as the iPhone 5 front camera.
Same Wifi as with the iPhone 5.
And it has SIRI.
It has what they are calling the loop. or iPod touch loop - which is a wrist strap that connects to the back bottom corner. Good for kids.
And now it comes in multiple colors. 5 different colors to be specific and the loop is color coordinated to match.
The new iPod touch 5th gen - will be available in october starting at $299 for the 32 GB version and $399 for the 64 GB version. If you want a cheaper iPod touch - the 4th gen iPod touch is sticking around at $249 for the 32 gb version and $199 for the 16 gb version.
The new iPod nano - it is $149 also available in October. But we are not talking about it.
And remember those new rumored ear buds we talked about - yeah well rumored no more - as they turned out to be the real deal - with Apple announcing the new ear buds available today.
So to wrap up looking at the iPhone 2012 bingo card the new iPhone is called the iPhone 5, it has LTE, There are new earbuds, It has a metal back, It is thinner and lighter, it has the 4" screen, An a6 Processor, HD Video front camera, Has the new 9 pin dock connector - 9 if you count ground - which is now called lightning. It has the in-cell touch sensing tech. And the head phone jack is now on the bottom. It has a sapphire crystal lens cover.
What we are not sure about yet is How much Ram it will have - But I would say it has to be at least 1GB. Not sure if it has a nano-sim card. And not sure if it will be on China Mobile. Which to me is the biggest news or lack there of for Apple stock that is.
It does not have a higher res camera and it will not be on T-Mobile - not yet at least.
Per the bingo card - we did get at least 2 bingos - across the top row and the 2nd column as well. Still have a chance for two more depending on what we learn about the sim card, ram and china mobile.
My overall impression - it is a nice upgrade - but not as big an upgrade as say from the iPhone 4 to 4S. What you say - but Tim Cook and Leo Laporte said it was a bigger increase than the 4S - and Leo Said the 4S was just a minor update. Umm Yeah - read my post on that from October last year or better yet - read the post I am putting out later today - where I compare all the new specs for the iPhone 4, 4S and 5 when they were announced vs the previous gen and score them. What I did was say each new feature could have a score of 1, 2 or 3 - 1 being a minor improvement for the end user, 2 being a mid and 3 being a big improvement for the UI of the device. For example - on the iPhone 4 - the retina display gets a +3, but the 4 element lens a +1 and 720p video recording a +2. When I did this for the past 3 generations. The iPhone 4 had a +30 score, the 4S had a +29 score and the new iPhone 5 - it has a score of +25. And That was with me giving a 0 on the 9 pin dock connector - really if you are going from any previous iPhone to the 5 - the new dock connector should be a minus 2 or 3. And the headphone jack on the bottom should be another -2 or -3. So if I did minuses - The iPhone 5 would get a score of about a +20. Again this just comparing from the last gen to the next gen. If you currently have an iPhone 4 - yes - the iPhone 5 is a big jump up and going from anything prior to the iPhone 4 or an Android device is the difference between heaven and hades But going from a 4S to a 5 is a much smaller jump then a year ago when people went from a 4 to the 4S - in my opinion and well per my scoring. So that is why I will be waiting for the iPhone 2013 before I upgrade from my iPhone 4S. Let me know your thoughts.
Hi Rob,
The new iPod nano is going to be the best thing that ever happened to the pebble. Very let down by this. Guess I'll have to buy that ugly pebble.
Rob
Hebron ky
Hi Rob,
I'm guessing that the Pebble folks are breathing a sigh of relief that the new nanos are not watch shaped.
Matt S
Winston-Salem NC