
Apple Officially Reveals The iPhone 5 - salimmadjd
http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/12/apple-iphone-5-official/
======
jpxxx
Pretty excellent design choices this time around.

Substantially improved body, performance, performance, performance, as world-
mode as world-mode gets, significant camera upgrades, total carrier coverage,
total content market coverage, a best-of-breed cloud story, deep integration
with currently happening social networks, a total revamp of all I/O (save for
the undoubtedly still-shitty speakerphone), an expansion of valuable flagship
features into new markets, and (sigh) body with half the chance of shattering.

This will be targeted at mopping up any straggling iPhone 3x users in the
wealthiest markets, re-upping the tens of millions of 4-adoptees, and offering
a $200 ("free") phone in unsubsidized markets that finally has the same design
language as the $800 flagship while running most of the same software
features.

It still looks, walks, and talks like the best for the most. Enjoy your new
shipment of money hats, Apple.

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sardonicbryan
"[A 3.5 inch screen instead of a 4 inch screen]is an example of one of those
design decisions that you don’t usually notice until you see someone doing it
wrong. It’s one of the things that makes Apple products Apple products."

<http://dcurt.is/3-point-5-inches>

~~~
jkn
The author used a smaller radius for the Samsung phone... Is it a mistake or
is the the picture on the right at a smaller scale?

~~~
HeyImAlex
Using the ruler tool in photoshop and comparing the ratios, it looks like
they're pretty close to the same scale, and, even though it doesn't effect the
message of the picture much, the second area is definitely smaller...

~~~
Steko
It's likely because your hand has to traverse the entire back of it. Put a
phone in your hand and see how far your thumb swipes. Now turn the phone 90
degrees (or use a 2nd larger phone) and see that you really do make a smaller
circle.

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ubershmekel
Screen resolution of 1136x640

Why on earth would they go 144x80 pixels shy of 720p, 1280x720?

Hasn't the world suffered enough from transcoding? So the eye sees your
perfect DPI, but the pixels are going to be imperfect because it's a random
down-sample size that doesn't divide anything standard.

I don't get it.

~~~
andrewmunsell
Devs would have a _completely_ new resolution. This maintains compatibility
without having a ton of black bars around the screen. And yes, I realize it
letterboxes with older apps. But I don't want vertical black bars too.

~~~
mirsadm
They could have scaled it in one direction and keep the black bars only on one
side. It is really silly not to use 1280x720.

~~~
masklinn
> They could have scaled it in one direction

Yes, I'm sure "blurry as fuck" is what people look for in a backward
compatibility feature. With 2:1 already dodgy, 9:8 scaling would have flown
_really well_

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sophacles
I don't get it. If I buy an old IPhone, or anything with a Micro-usb, I can
just take my phone knowing I can charge it just about anywhere. But they put a
new connector on it. Why not just put a micro-usb _without adaptor_ on it? It
seems that it would make a lot of sense for those of us who don't want
pockets/bags full of cords and adaptors. Or just do both.

~~~
spicyj
For one, Apple's new connector ("Lightning", but I'm not sold on the name) is
reversible so is easier to insert correctly.

~~~
sophacles
That is fantastic. Seriously, USB is annoying that way. But now when I take a
trip for a couple days, which my work has me doing regularly, and if I have an
Iphone 5, I have to be sure to bring my adaptor kit, or pay a $30 adaptor tax.
With micro usb, I pay a $1 forgetfulness tax, if that, because almost
everywhere has a spare usb charger or cable lying around.

I don't want to pay that much to not have to turn the cable over once.

~~~
danielweber
In nearly every single situation, the right orientation for a USB cable is
with the USB symbol on top.

There are exceptions, but this one rule let me get it right for all but 1
device I own.

~~~
brunnsbe
Yes, but it's still the connector most people put in correctly on the third
try. ;-)

~~~
notimetorelax
I noticed that micro USB is better in this respect.

------
Steko
Apple should just hire Will Ferrell and/or Danny McBride to do the keynotes.
"We didn't just make a new dock connector, we went the extra mile and gave it
a rad name. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you Lightning. It's made with bits of
real cheetah, so you know it's fast."

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tomkit
In Steve's latest bio it seemed to suggest the next iPhone would have a
revolutionary design. It seems to be pretty iterative to me.

~~~
grecy
Let's face it, in this consumer world, where our needs and wants are defined
by enormous marketing budgets, every new model _simply has to be_
revolutionary. Even if they just put a new color on something, it has to be
marketed as such to convince people they not only want it, but actually need
it.

When that new Ford F-150 comes out with 34% more power, it always amazes me
that nobody says "what the hell were you doing last year that was so crap?".

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ddon
may be less than people expected, but still very impressive list of
improvements:

\- 20% lighter than the previous model

\- a little larger display

\- A6 processor

\- camera with a better low-light performance

\- 802.11a/b/g/n 2.4GHz, dual channel 5GHz, just like in the Kindle Fire HD

\- 4G LTE networks support (around the world)

\- HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA (improvements to the existing 3G technology)

and, looks like more news to come...

~~~
nubela
iterative, my friend. apple has lost its touch on innovation, imho.

~~~
fredoliveira
You have to be pretty innovative with chip design to make processors that
double the performance over the previous model.

You have to be pretty innovative with hardware design to reduce the weight of
a phone that's already compact by 20%.

I don't think they lost their touch at all.

~~~
rieter
Do you really believe Android manufacturers use fundamentally different chips?
Most of Apple chips are designed and manufactured by other companies,
including the CPU.

~~~
fredoliveira
I'm sorry, but you're wrong. Apple's Ax processors are _manufactured_ by other
companies (mostly Samsung) but they're _designed_ by Apple, in-house. They
started doing so after the acquisition of PWRficient.

They _are_ indeed different from the CPUs used by other smartphone
manufacturers.

~~~
wmf
Of course, Apple "designs" the exact same Cortex-A9 and PowerVR cores as
everyone else. (I'll give them some credit if they are first with A15.)
Qualcomm is arguably more innovative given that Krait, Adreno, and the
baseband are all in-house.

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rm999
I'm curious how the new screen shape will play out. And not just the issues
with fragmentation of aspect ratio, but with usability. Currently the iphone
screen is just big enough that I can hold it with one hand and reach all four
corners with my thumb. That said, I trust Apple has tested the usability
aspect of the phone and has a plan for the aspect ratio differences.

~~~
awolf
I've been working with the new layout system Apple added in iOS6 (Auto
Layout). You basically define a set of rules like: this sticks to this, this
view's height is proportional to this view's height, etc. The SDK attempts to
reconcile the rules you gave and lets you know if there are any ambiguities in
a clear way. It's very well thought out- powerful yet easy to use. I don't
think fragmentation will be a problem.

I do think however that the extra width in Landscape will now require a
completely different interface. Adding 88 extra screen pixels means that
simply rotating and stretching the interface has crossed the line from "looks
kinda weird" to "looks terrible".

~~~
andybak
Isn't that pretty much what other layout engines do? i.e. QT etc.

What was the situation before? Absolute positioning via x/y? Really?

~~~
awolf
Absolute positioning, along with an "auto-resizing" mask for each view
defining how it should react to change in the parent view's size.

The old way was versatile actually. What it lacked was being able to relate
views to anything aside from it's parent container.

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secalex
I'm totally stoked about people regularly plugging phones into their PCIe
(Thunderbolt) port. Hottest talk at BlackHat USA 2013 will be an iPhone 5 ->
MacBook exploit using DMA.

~~~
andrewmunsell
They just call it Lightning. AFAIK, it still plugs into USB.

~~~
secalex
That doesn't seem clear from the coverage so far. Obviously it has to be USB
in the box, but the name hints that there would be a Thunderbolt option at
least.

~~~
andrewmunsell
I'd be surprised. There's nothing you would need 10 Gbps for on a phone. The
flash memory wouldn't even keep up. Plus with cables costing $50, it'd be an
expensive option to have a second kind of cable. It's probably just marketing
lingo to make it _seem_ like it's related to TB.

~~~
ubercore
Driving a display would be one of those times, though. I would love having a
phone as the basic computing device, with a desktop and tablet shell.

------
isaacwaller
No NFC, very disappointing. I guess mobile payments will be delayed another
year?

~~~
andrewmunsell
Well, to be fair, I'm not exactly sure _where_ I'd use NFC since no where
around where I live has NFC terminals. It's only the transit system...
Barcodes at least work at Starbucks and the Airport, among other places.

~~~
untog
I know this is a somewhat inaccurate comparison, but no-one (and by that I
mean major brands, etc) had mobile apps until Apple made a phone that allowed
them. If Apple made an NFC-enabled iPhone companies could see reason to jump
on the bandwagon.

~~~
andrewmunsell
I'm sure it would, but it's not a huge loss IMO. It'll come eventually and
I'll miss not being able to do things like the Nexus Q + NFC Android phone
pairing, but oh well.

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breckinloggins
I know this is really silly, but every year I wish they would put an FM tuner
in the iPhone, and every year they don't.

~~~
mtgx
I've never even thought of this - the iPhone doesn't have an FM radio? That's
pretty ridiculous. Pretty much everyone, at least outside US, wants that on
their phones. But I guess some learned to live without it _because iPhone_.

~~~
arrrg
Oh my god. I must have been caught in a time vortex and transported back to
2005 when everyone was saying the iPod would be doomed if Apple doesn't
include FM radio. Pronto.

Apple will add an FM tuner when the product no longer really matters. You
know, like they now did with the iPod nano.

------
JimmaDaRustla
"Apple just did what Microsoft couldn't - get people to buy a Windows phone."
- Credit to commentor engadget.

------
neya
So basically, its an inferior Galaxy S3 with the same old design for twice the
money. Well done Apple.

~~~
crygin
If that's your perspective, what do you think it means when people choose to
buy the iPhone instead of the Galaxy S3?

It doesn't mean that the people who choose the iPhone are sheep, or don't
understand what they want. It means that the iPhone has some kind of appeal
that you don't understand. Rather than claiming that something is "basically"
something else, I'd recommend taking the time to understand why it's actually
different, then applying those lessons to the products you develop.

~~~
bluntly_said
To answer your question: I'd say it means the people choosing to buy the
iPhone aren't doing it based on the merits of the device, but rather the
ecosystem around it (A LARGE part of which is advertising, particularly
advertising that makes the device a status symbol).

I say this because he's right, from a technical perspective the iPhone is
"basically" just another smartphone. The guts are the same, the form factor is
essentially the same. Hell, at this point even the feature sets of iOs and
Android are basically the same.

So yes, there are reasons why people choose to buy an iPhone. But the only
real "lesson" I see at this point is that brand names and advertising work...

~~~
parasubvert
Firstly, ecosystem is a bit more than advertising, dude. iTunes, iCloud,
AirPlay, and the App Store are all real, tangible things, and much richer than
their Android counterparts (my opinion).

Secondly, you're looking at speeds & feeds, and not the design of the thing.
It's the best designed phone in the market in terms of look, heft, hand feel,
not even beginning to get into the UX of iOS. These are little things, but
they matter to people, and they're not easily quantifiable on a data sheet.

~~~
bluntly_said
But see, that's my point. It's not really the best designed thing on the
market anymore. It's one good choice among many.

Sure the first generation iPhone was just hands down better than the
competition at the time, but it's not anymore.

Claiming that the look, heft, and hand feel are better is ridiculous, all of
them are subjective opinions that vary widely among users (Take me for
example, I really like the slate and glass look, but since I have big hands I
dislike the heft and hand feel.)

Further, the thing is running a new version of the OS, so when you talk about
the UX of iOS 6, what you're really saying is that you believe (based on
previous Apple iOS releases) that they will create a good user experience.
That's branding.

And I want to stop and state: branding isn't bad. If you've had a previous
version of a product and you LIKED it, it's entirely reasonable to assume a
future release is also something you'd like. but that doesn't make the device
any better or worse, it just makes you more likely to buy it.

And finally, yes I agree that Apple has carefully curated their ecosystem so
it seems clean and polished. But it's not any richer (my opinion is that it's
considerably less rich since it's so heavily curated, but again that's
opinion). MOST importantly though, the ecosystem has little to do with the
device itself, that same ecosystem could exist around any device (and does
exist around older iPhones).

~~~
parasubvert
> Claiming that the look, heft, and hand feel are better is ridiculous, all of
> them are subjective opinions that vary widely among users

It's no more ridiculous than people saying they prefer the look, heft, and
feel of a BMW or Benz vs. a Ford Taurus SHO.

> when you talk about the UX of iOS 6, what you're really saying is that you
> believe (based on previous Apple iOS releases) that they will create a good
> user experience. That's branding.

Yes, I agree that's branding, but that wasn't what I was referring to. I was
talking about the UX of iOS in general vs. most versions of Android or WinMo.
Admittedly, Android 4.x has gotten much better.

> the ecosystem has little to do with the device itself, that same ecosystem
> could exist around any device (and does exist around older iPhones)

But again, you're splitting a difference that doesn't exist anymore. There's
not "just a device".. the whole reason Apple justifies their large margins is
that they're selling an integrated experience of device, software, and cloud
services.

Yes, it could exist around any device, but it's sort of like saying "anyone
with a hot tub and sauna can be a 5-star spa". Those are devices, they're not
just about the design of the experience in totum. To suggest this is just
marketing and branding is to dismiss design as mere polish and ornament rather
than "how something works end-to-end".

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andrewmunsell
The whole iOS6 demo is a flashback to WWDC... Nothing new here for the iPhone
5 so far...

------
jcfrei
iPod touch loop button - seems like a design decision Steve Jobs would have
never allowed. It seems like they are just trying to get into the camera
market by attaching a wrist strap, yet they've sacrificed the purity of their
design. I'm not gonna speculate on whether this is gonna increase the appeal
of the ipod family, but to me it seems like bad design decision - from an
aesthetic point of view.

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brasmasus
25% smaller...sensor area? so reduced ability to create a depth of field
effect?

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citricsquid
Does anyone know when the iPhone 5 will be available to purchase, what's the
normal time to market after the announcement? (I'm in the UK, if that changes
how long I'll have to wait)

~~~
joshfinnie
Pre-orders start this Friday (Sept 14th), and shipping starts Sept 21st.

edit: US, Canada, UK, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and
Singapore markets

------
billnguyen
iphone 5: Bigger iphone is bigger and fits bigger stuff.

------
andrewmunsell
Seriously? New iTunes in "October"? That's a weird thing to pull considering
the new iPhone's out before then, new iPods, iOS 6, etc...

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enraged_camel
I was hoping that the iPhone 5 would be as exciting as the iPhone 4. I was
disappointed.

Things I was hoping for:

\- Completely waterproof design: would allow taking photos/videos underwater,
and prevent water damage in general.

\- NFC: I think a lot of people wanted to see this. I know not many places use
NFC right now but Apple has always been a _driving force_ of technology, not a
_follower_.

\- Built-in projector: Would make it ridiculously easy to show your
photos/videos to friends (just project them on a wall). Would also allow
giving presentations on the go (important business use-case).

\- Solar panels: for emergency recharging.

\- Radio receiver: not only for listening to the radio, but also for
developing integrations between the iphone and remote control devices that use
radio frequency

~~~
aaronbrethorst
Me too, and I was also hoping for a pony.

I don't think anyone ever predicted there was any chance of a waterproof
design, projector, solar panels, or a radio receiver. I get being disappointed
that Apple doesn't include the features you want, but why hope for things that
are almost certainly never going to happen?

~~~
enraged_camel
My thinking is that a company that has $117 billion in cash reserves should be
able to make a device that has seemingly impossible features, rather than
simple incremental improvements.

~~~
aaronbrethorst
It's not just what you put into it, but what you keep out that makes it
special. More features means more weight, potentially lower battery life, more
cost, etc. etc.

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smashing
As an app developer I thank the Screen Resolution Overlords for making all my
competitors look obsolete.

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silenteh
What about the battery? Any news about it? I really do hope Apple improved it
as well!

~~~
andrewmunsell
Yes, there is a slight improvement in battery life.

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arrowgunz
I was expecting a better camera. May be a 10MP. Very disappointed.

~~~
rimantas
More megapixels don't make cameras better. And with small CCD they make them
worse.

~~~
arrowgunz
When I say more, I meant more in an "Apple" way. Apple has always stood up to
the expectations of its users in terms of the camera quality. When it comes to
Apple, more mega pixels would definitely mean a better camera. They would
never just increase the number of mega pixels and have a low quality camera. I
would agree with what you've said otherwise.

~~~
runako
Faster image capture is better in an "Apple" way. The speed with which I can
take pictures with my 4S makes it far superior for e.g. taking pictures of
kids, who tend to not wait for your camera app to get ready.

And yet, you will still miss shots because the camera was slow. 40%
improvement here is a big deal.

------
tocomment
What is the third microphone for?

~~~
bluthru
Top is for noise cancellation, the back is for video.

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bluekeybox
When can you order one?

~~~
andrewmunsell
The 14th (Friday)

~~~
bluekeybox
Thanks.

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barista
I am still trying hard to find a reason to get excited about....

