What a month to talk about iPhones. After the Apple Conference on the 10th about iOS 7 and the iPhone 5s and the iPhone 5c and all the speculation thereafter, and the subsequent release of those products on the 18th, not to mention our own durability video, we’ve been one-track-minded for some time. And since all of that, we’ve read review upon review about the benefits, drawbacks, myths, and overall quality of each new thing.
After about a week’s time, we’ve finally been able to sort through it all, and choose the best, the worst, and the outright ridiculous things on the internet about the iOS 7, the iPhone 5S, and the iPhone 5C. In this post, we’re going to go over the top stories — the best of them, the worst of them, and the just plain stupid.
iPhones 5S and 5C Sell $9 Million in First Weekend
Apple had high hopes for the release of the iPhone 5S and 5C, but even this was a surprise. Wall Street Journal reports:
The company also said that its quarterly sales and profit margin would likely be at the high end of the company’s previous forecast. Apple in July projected revenue between $34 billion and $37 billion and gross margin between 36% and 37%. The company’s stock jumped $23.23, or 5%, to close at $490.64 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
Even the iOS 7 was an unexpected success. WSJ continues: “Apple also said that more than 200 million of its devices already were running iOS 7—a free overhaul released last week of the operating system used on iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices.”
Even more interesting: the iPhone 5C, which was supposedly to appeal to lower-end markets like China, was outsold 4 to 1. And not just in the US. From the website Quartz:
Twenty-four hours after we found out that the iPhone 5s is out-selling the cheaper iPhone 5c by a ratio of nearly four to one, new data show that China and Australia, where the 5s is outselling the 5c five to one, are the two countries where the iPhone 5s is most popular.
Improvements in the iOS 7
There have been a lot of lists and breakdowns of the new operating system the iOS 7, so we picked from among them what we thought were the best qualities:
From C-Net:
Control Center
One of the most talked about new changes for iOS 7 is not new at all on Android phones, but I think I speak for most iOS users when I say the Control Center is an extremely welcome addition. It was always a pain to sift through the settings using a number of taps just to access the brightness controls. Same for Wi-fi settings, which — because of an old router at home — I ended up having to access frequently. Now, a simple swipe upward gives me easy access to these settings and more. Oh, and the flashlight button to turn on your flash when it’s dark is a great touch.
iTunes Radio
Frankly, when I heard Apple was making a Pandora-like radio option, I wasn’t that impressed. I mean, there are a slew of streaming-music and audio apps in the App Store and many of them are free — at least the radio features are. But now that I’ve used the app for a few days, I like it better than most streaming-radio apps I’ve seen.
Not only can you create a stream based on songs or multiple artists, but there are featured streams that are great for music discovery. Also, when I really like a song I’m listening to, I can buy it straight away from iTuneswithout missing a beat of the song or closing the app.
Camera app
The iOS 7 camera app is not a huge change over what we had in iOS 6, but I really like having the ability to swipe between shot types. The filters are also a nice touch for adding a quick effect, though I wish there were more to choose from. But what I particularly like is the ability to take burst shots. Everyone knows that not all photos come out perfectly, but if you can take several at a time, chances are at least one will be to your liking. I have an iPhone 5 so the burst shots feature is not as good as it is on the iPhone 5S (10 photos per second, along with slow-mo), but I’m glad there’s a slower variation available on the iPhone 5.
Keep checking in for more iPhone news, coming soon.