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Apple Keynote Address 2013, Part 3: the iPhone 5S

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[Whew . . . almost done with our extensive recap of the Apple keynote address of the iPhone 5S. If you missed parts 1 and 2, you can click here for the iOS 7 or here for the iPhone 5C.]

The centerpiece for the Apple keynote address 2013 was without a doubt the iPhone 5S. This was the most awaited product for the tech crowd, the Apple fanboys, and general consumers who are looking for the latest upgrade. As interested as people were in the iOS 7 or the iPhone 5C, this was the main event.

iPhone 5S Design

A lot of hoopla had been made before the event about the new colors for the iPhone 5S (even here at iFixYouri Blog), but if you hadn’t already heard, they will be released in gold, silver, and gray, and is made from high-grade aluminum.

iPhone 5S Array

iPhone 5S Function

There are a lot of new innovations to the iPhone 5S, but today Apple focused on just 3 main ones: performance, the camera system, and security.

Performance

The big unveil for the iPhone 5S was the new A7 chip, which is 64-bit, meaning, as Schiller phrased it, “the world’s first and only such CPU in a smartphone.” Regarding integrations with the iOS 7 he goes on to say that “you’ve heard a lot about iOS 7, but what we haven’t told you is that its been completely engineered for 64 bit at the same time. It’s got a new 64-bit kernel, libraries, and drivers. All built-in apps have been reengineered. It’s a seamless dev transition, with full backwards compatibility.” And for the techies:

  • 2x General Purpose Registers

  • 2x Floating-Point Registers

  • Over a billion transistors

  • 100 square mm die size

What does this all mean in lay terms? That the The A7 is up to 2 times as fast as the previous generation of CPUs, and handles graphics up to 2 times faster — which means that the iPHone 5S will be 40 times faster than the original iPhone!

iPhone 5S Graphics
Demonstration of iPhone 5S graphics.

Apple also claims that the battery life is better than the previous generation. That remains to be fully conclusive, as the full chart of life expectancy is “incoming.”

The final piece was the M7, or Motion Coprocessor, which will continuously monitor motion data, accelerometer, and gestural data, and it can tell if you’re walking or driving. Schiller foresees “a whole new generation of health and fitness applications,” and even mentioned working with Nike on some of these apps.

Camera System

The new camera boasts a larger, f/2.2 aperture. It’s got a new, 15% larger active sensor area with 1.5 micron pixels, separating themselves from the competition by stating that “Bigger Pixels = Better Pictures”. Working with the new camera app, the new iPhone will be able to take the best pictures on the smartphone market.

Schiller explains: “Before you even take a picture, it’s setting light balance, and exposure. For the first time, it’s creating a dynamic local tone map around the image. For the first time, it’s doing autofocus matrix metering with 15 focus zones. When you do take a picture, it automatically finds the sharpest of multiple pictures.”

Other features:

  • The flash in the iPhone 5S has two LEDs — one white, one amber. It analyzes the lighting in the room, and adjusts to use a different color flash based on its analysis.

  • Slo-Mo Cam

  • burst mode. If you hold your finger on the shutter, it can take up to 10 frames per second

  • auto-image stabilization; it takes multiple photos at once, and combines the sharpest parts of each image

Security

Possibly the most talked-about feature after the event, the new heralded security function is called the Touch ID. This is a fingerprint identification software that actually reads your prints (from multiple fingers) on the physical home button, which is now made of laser-cut sapphire crystal, surrounded by a stainless steel detection ring on top of the touch ID sensor.

This will take the place of the 4-digit security code, and even the Apple ID for app purchases.

The new iPhone 5S will cost $199 for 16-gigabytes, $299 32-gigabytes, and $399 64-gigabytes. They will be available for purchase on September 20, 2013 in the US, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, United Kingdom. Will be available in 100 other countries come December.

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So that’s the wrap. iOS 7, iPhone 5C, iPhone 5S . . . a whoooole lotta news here at iFixYouri. Stay tuned for our series of teardowns, coming as soon as we can get our hands on them.

[thanks to Greg and Darrell at Techcrunch for the live blogging]

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Apple Keynote Address 2013, Part 2: The iPhone 5C

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[This is Part II of our recap on the Apple Keynote address, on the iPhone 5C. For Part I, on the iOS 7, click here]

Busy day here! We’ve been going over all of the new information released at Apple’s keynote address, and there’s so much to talk about. Perhaps the most interesting development discussed is Apple’s latest iPhone 5C, which is much more of a departure than the 5S (which we’ll discuss in the next post). The iPhone 5C represents a new kind of iPhone – smaller, more compact, and more affordable, and it is seen as perhaps more desirable for emerging markets like China or South America.

The first most noticeable difference in the iPhone 5C is the design. It’s made entirely of plastic, and is of one single piece. As Phil Schiller, senior vice president of Apple’s worldwide marketing said: T”he entire back and sides are made from a single part, its front one glass, multi-touch surface. As close as you look, you won’t see joints or seams.” The iPhone 5C comes in an array of colors: green, white, light blue, hot pink, and yellow, each one with color-matched wallpaper. As an added esthetic bonus, they come with a line of custom cases, soft to the touch, and with holes cut in them to show the original color.

iPhone 5C Matching Wallpaper
Color-matched wallpaper on the iPhone 5C.

iPhone 5C Specs

But let’s get to the specs. It has a 4-inch retina display, full sRGB (standard Red-Green-Blue color space), integrated touch, and widescreen video; the insides are basically the same as the iPhone 5, that is, powered by an A6 chip, albeit with a new construction. It has an 8-megapixel camera with a hybrid IR filter as did the 4s and the 5, plus a new Facetime camera, and Apple claims the battery life has been improved as well. As for its cell service, Schiller claims that it supports more LTE bands than any smartphone in the world.”

As an added point, Schiller went on to mention that it has been made without harmful, ecologically hazardous chemicals. So there’s that. And if you hadn’t guessed, the iPhone 5C is completely compatible with the new iOS 7 software that Apple just spent 20 minutes talking about.

Now, for the price: analysts expected this to be the most affordable (new) iPhone yet, and this is certainly the case. It goes for $99 for 16-gigabytes and $199 32-gigabytes with a two-year contract. However, the full price, that is, without a contract is $550, which is much higher than had been previously predicted. Will this affect their plans to corner the developing market? Time will tell. Speaking of time, they will be available for pre-order on Sept. 13, and available for purchase in the US, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, United Kingdom; available in 100 more countries in December 2013.

That’s it for the iPhone 5C, for now. The 5C is certainly an interesting twist on the iPhone, and we at iFixYouri are curious as to how we are going to break this down, once we get our hands on one. When we do, be sure to check back in for the video.

Next up: the iPhone 5S. We’ll be getting to this shortly, so please check back for updates regularly!

[thanks to Greg and Darrell at Techcrunch for the live blogging]

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Apple Keynote Address 2013, Part I: iOS 7

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Well, the day has finally arrived, as millions of geeked-out tech fans have been waiting anxiously for word about the newest Apple products at this year’s keynote address in Cupertino, California — specifically the iOS 7, and the newest members of the iPhone family: the iPhone 5C and the iPhone 5S. And it didn’t disappoint, from the amount of traffic and tweets and live blogs around the internet. Even Elvis Costello got in on the action, showing up for those in the audience with a rendition of Peace, Love, and Understanding. But we digress. Let’s get to the good stuff.

Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering who heads iOS and OSX, came up to introduce the latest updates for iOS 7, of which there are over 200. Aside from stressing the beauty and the ease of use of the new Apple operating system, he went on to describe some of the newer functionality and compatible apps that it has. Here’s the run-down:

  • New interface: color pallettes, parallax wallpapers, single-swipe control panel
  • More convenient pull-down search function
  • new camera app with filters (think Instagram)
  • AirDrop, the new peer-to-peer file sharing system. Can share photos or other files between two devices.
  • New default ringtones and text tones.
  • Improvements to Siri – male voice, new voice commands, such as searching Wikipedia or other web sites, to compete with Google’s voice search on Android.
  • New music app with built-in iTunes Radio support

The last software-related topic touched upon was iWork, presumably trying to break the stereotype that Apple devices aren’t conducive for getting work done or creating content, which is one of the continued knocks that Android manufacturers and users often pile onto Apple.

Apple's Newest Apps

Here’s what Tim Cook, CEO of Apple had to say about it: “iWork has three amazing apps. The first is Keynote. Keynote allows you to create world class presentations on your iPad or iPhone. And Pages. It allows you to create and edit documents from anywhere. And Numbers. Numbers is the best spreadsheet design software anywhere. iPads aren’t great just for consuming content. They’re also great for creating content. We have content like iPhoto, which lets you take your photo editing to the next level. And iMovie, which lets you create movies straight from your iPad.”

 He went on to announce that all 5 of these content-creating apps will be free, and will automatically download when setting up your iOS 7.

Lastly, Cook went over the compatibility of the iOS 7 with the other Apple devices (that are not the new iPhones). It’ll support the iPhone 4 and later, iPad 2 and later, iPad Mini, and 5th generation of the iPod Touch. Downloads of the iOS 7 will be available from the Apple store starting on September 18th.

If you think the iOS 7 updates are impressive, what until you see what they’ve done with the iPhone; or rather, iPhones. In the interest of space and focus, we are going to continue the discussion of the Apple keynote on the next blog post. Click here for Part 2 on the iPhone 5c.

[thanks to Greg and Darrell at Techcrunch for the live blogging]