iPhone 5s

NFC/fingerprint sensor patent tips off exciting iPhone 5S Home button potential

Ed Sutherland ∙ September 9, 2013

Much has been made about the highly-expected iPhone 5S containing a fingerprint sensor within the Home button. Other talk has surrounded the promise of Near Field Communications (NFC) and Apple's off-and-on interest in the technology. It appears both a fingerprint sensor and NFC may join together to turn the next iPhone into an electronic wallet and more.

According to a new Apple patent that's surfaced in Europe, the iPhone 5S may include an updated Home button encircled by a ring which detects your finger. But this super-charged Home button also adds NFC, potentially replacing passwords and enabling secure wireless e-commerce, next-generation docks and other exciting opportunities...

Martin Hajek’s vision of the Lord of the Rings iPhone 5S Home button

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated May 16, 2018

A pair of sketchy images posted Friday by the Chinese-language blog C Technology prompted quite a stir among technology denizens. If you haven't seen them already, the purported photographs show an odd-looking iPhone 5S packaging (likely Photoshop'd) sporting device graphics on the box's front. The most curious aspect of it: a redesigned Home button, without the square in the middle and with a silver ring around it.

The photos led armchair analysts to postulate that the ring is actually a fingerprint sensor - nevermind that virtually every single rumor points to the sensor being actually built underneath the Home button. Anyway, here's 3D artist Martin Hajek's awesome Lord of the Rings mockup which draws from the supposedly "leaked" packaging...

Everything we think we know about the iPhone 5S

Cody Lee ∙ Updated May 16, 2018

It's been a long, long time, or so it seems, since Apple unveiled the iPhone 5. And while the handset has done decidedly well for the company, it's been close to a year now, and consumers are ready for something new.

If our intel is accurate, they shouldn't have to wait much longer. Apple sent out invites last week to a media event set to take place on Tuesday, September 10 at its Cupertino, California campus. And it's widely expected to use the stage to unveil a new handset.

In fact, most of the evidence suggests that, for the first time in its history, Apple will unveil two new iPhones next week. One is the replacement for the flagship iPhone 5, believed to be called the iPhone 5S, and the other is an all-new budget model, allegedly called the iPhone 5C.

Now, Christian has already done a great job going over what we expect to see from the latter, so it's time to take a look at the former. Here's everything we think we know about the iPhone 5S…

Alleged iPhone 5S spotted with China Compulsary Certificate markings

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

There's been a lot of talk recently about Apple's upcoming iPhone plans for China. The company is expected to unveil two new handsets next week, the 5S and the 5C, and rumor has it that it just inked a deal with the country's largest carrier.

So as you can imagine, that makes this next iPhone 5S shell leak rather interesting. Because while we've already seen a number of photos and videos of the handset's rear casing, this particular one has China Compulsory Certificate markings...

Apple updates apps with support for iPhone 6 and iPhone 7. Wait, what?

Cody Lee ∙ Updated April 14, 2018

Apple posted tiny updates for a number of its apps this week, including iMovie, iPhoto, Pages and more. And while the updates themselves seem insignificant—most of their change logs read "addresses compatibility issues"—they may not be.

It's been discovered that all of these apps, and several others from third party developers, now show that they've been "optimized for iPhone 6" in their Compatibility sections on the App Store. Does this mean the iPhone 5S is actually the iPhone 6?

Update: as noted by several commenters below, it appears that Apple either has a major glitch in its iTunes backend, or is totally trolling us. Users are seeing "optimized for iPhone 6, 7" and so on, depending on their region. We have updated the title of the post to reflect this.

Blurry images claim to show iPhone 5S Home button with a silver ring around the edge

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated November 29, 2016

We're just days away from Apple's big reveal. Oddly enough, there's been little - if any - credible leaks to support the fingerprint scanning thesis, which analysts and industry insiders alike believe to be the handset's killer feature. So, either Tim Cook & Co. have tripled-down on secrecy or the rumor-mill has been taking us all for a ride.

Unless someone comes out with a better piece of evidence than these blurred photographs of a supposed iPhone 5S packaging, we'll have to speculate whether or not anything has changed about the iPhone's iconic Home button.

Have a closer look at the images right after the break, pinches of salt and everything...

Estimate: 13M iPhone 5S/5C sales in 10 days, 31M iPhones in Q4

Ed Sutherland ∙ September 6, 2013

Although Apple's much-awaited September 10 announcement remains days away, analysts are already weighing the potential benefit for the all-important fourth quarter. Can Apple get a much-needed bump in end of the year sales by launching the upgraded iPhone 5S and the new iPhone 5C, as well as potential distribution deals in China and Japan?

At the heart of new estimates for the September quarter is Apple's ability to quickly announce, then begin sales of the new hardware. Lucky for Apple, before becoming CEO, Tim Cook was the iPhone maker's supply chain maestro...

Reuters: China Unicom/Telecom to start taking iPhone 5S/5C pre-orders next week

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 6, 2013

Yesterday, China's state-owned #3 carrier China Telecom supposedly inadvertently let slip that it will start selling Apple's upcoming iPhone 5S upgrade and the new mid-range iPhone 5C beginning September 20. The official pre-order page had even gone live briefly before the telco killed it.

I'm always doubtful of such "leaks" and tend to dismiss them as the perfectly legitimate PR stunts designed to drum up the excitement ahead of the launch. Be that as it may, Reuters on Friday confirmed with its sources that both China Telecom and China Unicom will indeed start taking preorders for the new iPhones as early as next week...

What is Apple going to do with the iPhone 5 after next week?

Cody Lee ∙ September 6, 2013

Next week, Apple is expected to break its year-long product silence by unveiling not one, but two new iPhones. This will be the first time that the company has introduced two handsets simultaneously, leaving many wondering what it'll do with its legacy smartphones.

Pundits seem fairly split on the topic, but the recent consensus seems to be that the iPhone 5C will replace both the iPhone 4 and 4S, as well as the iPhone 5—leaving Apple with just two phones in its lineup. A new report, however, suggests the 5 may be sticking around...

China Telecom prematurely announces it will carry iPhone 5S/5C beginning September 20

Christian Zibreg ∙ Updated January 29, 2017

Just as Reuters suggested the major Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo could finally start carrying Apple's iconic smartphone this Fall, numerous reports that are now coming out of Asia highlight a seemingly unusual slip-up on the part of China Telecom, the third-largest mobile telecommunication provider in the People's Republic of China and tenth-largest carrier in the world.

The telco officially posted on the popular Chinese micro-blogging service Sina Weibo it'll be offering both the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C at launch. Heck, China Telecom had apparently been accepting pre-orders for both devices before it realized its "mistake" and took the post down...

China Mobile ‘has all of the power’ in iPhone talks as Apple makes concessions

Ed Sutherland ∙ September 5, 2013

Apple usually is in the cat-bird seat when it comes to negotiations. The brand's allure, coupled with billions in cash and a handset responsible for rocketing smartphone sales has made the iPhone maker a brutal negotiator. Now comes word Apple may have made concessions in order to get the world's largest carrier on its team.

Just what Apple had to concede to gain support from China Mobile varies from a low-priced iPhone 5C to even a slice of some profits. While the latter possibility is rather far-fetched, observers agree: the Chinese carrier "has all the power" in these negotiations...

Deutsche Telekom hints iPhone 5S could support LTE Advanced

Christian Zibreg ∙ September 5, 2013

There has been little, if any, confirmation regarding the next iPhone's improvements in the cellular radio technology department, which hasn't stopped pundits from speculating whether or not the iPhone 5S features support for the ultra-fast LTE Advanced standard, also known as LTE-A or simply LTE+.

Samsung notably promised to offer an updated version of the Galaxy S4 with LTE+ soon and now a cryptic comment by Deutsche Telekom suggests the iPhone 5S could in fact work with the latest cellular networking technology that offers at least twice the download speeds of the current-generation LTE standard...