In astronomy, it is known as the 'Goldilocks Principle,' where Earth is located not too close to the Sun but not too far away. The 'just right' thinking needs to be applied to calls for a larger-screen iPhone, according to one analyst. While an iPhone with a larger screen is needed to increase demand in China, anything larger than a five-inch display risks creating an 'iPhad' that's part iPhone and part iPad...
Just as Apple's U.S. carrier partners Verizon and Sprint announced iPhone 5c pre-orders beginning Friday at 12:01am Pacific, the U.S. retail chain Walmart said Thursday it too will start taking pre-orders for the device tomorrow.
The retailer typically carries iPhones at prices lower than other stores and new iPhones are no different: an iPhone 5s with sixteen gigabytes of storage will cost you $189 after a two-year contract, which is $10 cheaper from standard $199 downpayment...
It looks like folks hoping to find a case that offers full device protection for their iPhone 5s may not have to wait very long to get one. Popular case-maker OtterBox announced this week that it has 4 cases ready to go for the handset.
More specifically, the company says that all of its new cases are "designed specifically to accommodate the new Touch ID fingerprint identity sensor technology," and all device functionality remains uninhibited by the accessories...
Apple left a few important questions unanswered regarding its all-new fingerprint sensor implemented on the iPhone 5s, called Touch ID. The useful feature stems from Apple's 2012 purchase of Israeli-based biometric security experts AuthenTec. In a nutshell, Apple strives to easily and securely authenticate users into their device and approve purchases from the iTunes Store, App Store or iBookstore - simply by scanning their finger on the Home button.
What happens next is anyone's guess. Neither Apple's website nor available promotional material reveals much in way of detail. Perhaps sensing a privacy scare in the making, Apple dispatched its spokesperson to dispel any notion that the new iPhone might expose users to security risks...
One of the big new features in the iPhone 5s is its A7 processor with '64-bit desktop-class architecture.' What these buzzwords essentially mean is that the thing is fast—Apple says the CPU is 40x faster and graphics are 56x faster than the original iPhone.
But that doesn't really tell us much in the way of performance, does it? Luckily, an early graphics benchmark for the handset surfaced this morning that gives us a better idea of how the 5s will perform. And the results show significant gains over the iPhone 5...
I'm not sure how it happened, but somewhere amidst all of the excitement yesterday, we completely neglected to talk about the new Infinity Blade game. For those who missed it, Apple brought Chair's Donald Mustard up on stage during its iPhone event to introduce Infinity Blade III.
The move, of course, was to help Apple show off the power of the iPhone 5s' new A7 processor, but it was a big moment for Infinity Blade fans as well. After the 'Dungeons' title was canceled, the future of the franchise was uncertain. But Chair put all those concerns to rest yesterday...
There weren't many surprises left yesterday during Apple's iPhone event where not one, but two devices were unveiled. There was of course the iPhone 5s, the new flagship device, and also the iPhone 5c, the rumored inexpensive iPhone aimed at emerging markets and first time smartphone buyers. At least that's what we all believed.
If we all knew early on what the iPhone 5c was going to look like, there was something we were not certain about: the pricing. With an estimated unsubsidized price tag of $450, the iPhone 5c was supposed to hit the sweet spot. It was not Samsung-cheap, but it was not iPhone-expensive either, making it the defacto budget iPhone Wall Street had been pushing for.
Wall Street had actually brainwashed us to believe that a cheaper iPhone was what Apple needed in markets where the company isn't doing as well as it should, such as China, and other parts of Asia, Russia, etc.
Whether Wall Street is right or not doesn't matter because, as always, Apple didn't let the money men dictate the company what to do. As always, Apple went Apple's way and unveiled a device that is everything but affordable. It sure is $100 less than the top of the line iPhone 5s, but starting at $549 off contract, the iPhone 5c is still $100 more expensive than our wildest expectations.
So what happened?
Apple's new iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c can work on more than thirteen different LTE bands, "more than any other single model of smartphone," per Apple. Whereas last year's iPhone 5 launched in a hundred countries across 240 different carriers, 2013 iPhones will be released on an additional 30 carriers, bringing the number of world carriers which carry Apple's device to 270. Now, there's been some commotion whether or not the handset's updated LTE capabilities support 4G LTE flavors of United Kingdom's O2 and Three carriers...
Recall how the iPhone 5c was thought to be Apple's answer to China's smartphone market dominated by inexpensive handsets? Turns out, the handset costs "significantly more" than expected and nearly as much as the full-featured iPhone 5s, also unveiled Tuesday. At $733 without a subsidy (in China), the iPhone 5C may not be so cheap after all.
"By any standards, it's a premium price," one analyst told the New York Times Wednesday morning. However, there still could be good news for Apple, as China approves the iPhone for China Mobile, the world's largest wireless carrier...
Can't get enough of the new iPhones? Yeah, us either. So as you can imagine, we were excited to see that Apple has posted three new promotional videos for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c on its YouTube channel this evening.
Ok so they're not new videos—Apple showed them during its media event earlier today. But for those who missed them, or just love watching Jony Ive talk against a white background, we've posted the clips after the break...
Well, that’s all folks. The highly anticipated iPhone event has come, and gone. All announcements have been made, all software has been released, and Apple has shown us the future of its smartphone line.
A lot has happened in the last 12 hours, and we understand that it might have been difficult to keep track of it all. So we’ve put together this awesome roundup of everything important that happened today…
As expected, Apple unveiled two new smartphones today. The first was the plastic iPhone 5c, and the second the iPhone 5s. And if you've been paying attention to the rumor mill over the past several months, there shouldn't have been any surprises.
The 5c comes in various bright colors, and is equipped with hardware comparable to that of the iPhone 5. And the 5s of course looks very similar to its predecessor, but it includes a faster processor, better camera and a built-in fingerprint sensor.
You have to admit that even though it sports the same design as last year, and new features were kept to a minimum, the iPhone 5s is still a very impressive handset–both from a design and performance standpoint. Here, take a look at this gallery...