Apple Announce iPhone 5 – Here’s What You Need to Know

A few years ago a new Apple announcement meant very little in the home automation world.  But now that the smartphone is increasingly becoming the preferred interface to our homes, a new iOS device is a more important event.  Tim Cook and the rest of the Apple generals are on stage right now so here’s our cheat sheet of hightlights from todays announcement.

iPhone 5 Hardware

  • New Model is Named “iPhone 5”
  • (3GS is now gone) Starter model is 4.
  • Preorders from September 14th – Shipping on 21st Sept to USA, UK, Canada,France, Germany, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan . More countries on 28th
  • Prices start at £529 (unlocked without contract)
  • Made of glass and aluminium, available in Black (with anodised back) or White (with raw aluminium back)
  • 18% thinner, 20% lighter, 9mm taller than iPhone 4S “The world’s thinnest smartphone”
  • 4″ 1136 x 640, 16:9 Retina display, 326 PPI
  • 44% more colour satuaration
  • Existing Apps will be letter-boxed until updated
  • LTE, HSPA+, DC-HSDPA
  • Compatible with UK’s New 4G EE Network
  • “Dynamic Antenna”
  • Wi-Fi, 2.4ghz and 5ghz on 802.11n
  • A6 CPU – 2x Faster CPU & 2x Graphics compared to A5
  • Battery Life Better than 4S
  • Improved Camera f2.4, still 8MP but with “Dynamic low light mode, precision lens alignment, sapphire crystal lens”
  • New “Panorama” mode
  • 1080p video, improved video stability, face detection plus ability to take photos while shooting video
  • FaceTime camera now “720p HD”
  • 3 microphones now (up from 2), bottom, front, and back
  • Improved speaker design
  • New all-digital 9 Pin “Lightning” connector replaces 30 pin – connects either way round. 80% smaller
  • Adaptor will be available to convert 30pin to new 9 pin
  • New ‘EarPod” headphones replace the old buds

iOS6 Software

  • iOS 6 Available Sept 19th
  • Safari Full Screen Mode
  • Safari iCloud Tabs (a-la-Chrome) shared between devices
  • Siri improvements
  • Accessibility enhancements
  • New Apps Store design with Facebook integration
  • New version of iTunes – Simplified “edge to edge design”, coming “late October”

iPods

  • New 7th Gen iPod Nano returns to stick-of-gum format. Multi-touch screen, Bluetooth, Lightening, Video Playback, 7 colours, From $149
  • New 5th Gen iPod Touch –  New 4″ screen, A5 CPU, 6.1mm thck, Siri, 5 colours, From $299

www.apple.com/iphone/

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2 Comments on "Apple Announce iPhone 5 – Here’s What You Need to Know"

  1. thanks Mark – really appreciate your summaries – brief & to the point !

  2. Mark Harrison | September 21, 2012 at 4:05 pm |

    Quick summary of the ‘problems’ that have been announced by third-party sites:

    1: The case back seems to be prone to scratching to a far greater extent than previous models.

    2: While the mapping application in iOS 6 seems to be good, the quality of the map DATA that supports it seems to have been widely criticised. Apple have posted several vacancies in the last few days for mapping data specialists, but iOS 6 users should be aware that, for the time being, the map app is a step backwards in some respects, and the Google Map App previously included as standard isn’t (yet?) available from the App Store.

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