Cellphones

It’s officially here – the iPhone 5.

12 September 2012 6:37 PM

Apple finally took the wraps of its latest iPhone, and it’s called the iPhone 5.

From Mashable.com:
“The iPhone 5 has a larger screen than previous versions, at 4 inches, with a resolution of 1,136 x 640 or 326 pixels per inch — which is still a “retina” display, as Apple defines it. The larger screen has a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio and has lengthened the phone overall, but it also allows for a total of six rows of apps on the screen — five rows on the “pages” along with the permanent single row along the bottom.

Apps designed for previous iPhones won’t scale to the new screen — they’ll appear with black bars on the two ends of the screen.

The phone, which is said to be made entirely of glass and aluminum, is also thinner overall. It’s just 7.6 mm thin, 18% thinner than the iPhone 4S. It also weighs 112 grams, 20% lighter than the 4S.”

Camera & Sound;
Front facing camera is now full HD, FaceTime over cellular, a panoramic shot with the iPhone 5 will be 28-megapixels, one mic on the front, one on the bottom, one on the back, earpiece has more noise cancellation.


Apple has also shrunk the dock connector of the iPhone, replacing the aging 30-pin connector with a much smaller jack, which it dubs the “Lightning” connector. – you will also be able to buy an adapter to convert it to a 30-pin to charge older devices. (not included when you buy the iPhone 5)

iOS 6 will be released on 19th September however expect slow speeds and high levels of downloads as many will be using the iTunes service to be first to update to iOS6 which will work on all phones and tablets back to the 3GS iPhone.

Cost – 16GB @ $199, 32GB @ $299 or 64GB at $399
When – Pre order on Friday (14th). Ship one week later, Sept 21.
Where? US, UK, Canada, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, all on the 21st.

“Today we’re announcing some exciting changes with iPod and iTunes.” Eddie Cue is up to demonstrate a brand new version of iTunes – dramatically simpler, with the cloud build in for PC & Mac The new iTunes looks nearly identical to the music player on the iPad and will be available in late October.

iPod Touch;

the Retina display is now in the iPod Touch and the headphone jack on the bottom same height as the new iPhone 5 iPod Touch gets the cool Panorama feature too. And the shared photo streams with 40 hours of music playback, 8 hours of video on the new iPod Touch battery iSight camera is going to be built into the Touch for the first time. It’s 5 megapixel, with autofocus, flash and Sapphire lens 1080p and even able to do videoing editing.

iPod Nano;

the new Nano is $149, the old Touch is $199 for 16GB, 32GB for 32GB ships with the new EarPods colors? black, white, blue, yellow, red.


EarPods; “we’ve spent 3 years designing an entirely new headphone … EarPods.”
EarPods headphones with little speakers on the side, basically. “We scanned hundreds of ears, looking for a commonality …” – says Jony Ive they are designed to intentionally direct sound, right into the ear “and of course, we want to make them available as soon as possible … today.” get your EarPods at the Apple Store now and of course, they’ll ship with the new Touch and the iPhone 5.

That’s it from us on the iPhone 5 Live, for a full recap of the iPhone 5 announcement including the full new line-up check out Mashable or watch the re-cap by TysiPhoneHelp / TysiHelp (Ty Moss) or SoldierKnowsBest (SKB) Apple will likely post the event on Apple Events page shortly.

Links:
Apple Shows Off More of iOS 6 at iPhone 5 Event – Mashable
Apple Adds Facebook Integration Into iTunes, Effectively Kills Ping – Mashable
Apple Announces Thinner iPod Nano – Mashable
Lightning: Apple’s New iPhone Dock Connector is 80% Smaller – Mashable
Apple Unveils New iTunes, Coming in October – Mashable
Meet EarPods, Your New Apple Earphones – Mashable
Apple Kills iPhone 3GS, Makes iPhone 4 Free – Mashable
iPhone 5 Compared With Competitors – Mashable
Apple iPhone 5 Event Coverage (Recorded) – YouTube, SoldierKnowsBest
iPhone 5, iPod touch 5G & New 2012 iPod nano 7G! – YouTube, duncan33303
Recap: Apple iPhone 5 Event – YouTube, SoldierKnowsBest
New iPhone 5, iPod touch 5G and iPod Nano 7G! – YouTube, tysiphonehelp
iPhone 5: Should you upgrade? – YouTube, tysiphonehelp
iOS 6 Panorama Mode – YouTube, SoldierKnowsBest

Apple iOS 6 (Beta 4) Kills Built-In YouTube App

6 August 2012 9:23 PM

Apple on Monday released iOS 6 beta 4 to developers, and one of the most notable changes is the removal of the built-in YouTube app.

According to users in the MacRumors forum, the YouTube app is not included in the list of apps on the iOS home screen, where it has resided since the iPhone launch in 2007. Apple said the license with Google to include the YouTube app on the home screen has expired and Google is now working on a standalone app for the Apple App Store.

The updated iOS app will not be available until the fall, when Apple rolls out iOS 6 (presumably with its next-gen iPhone). But when it arrives, the Maps app will replace the Google Maps app that currently comes pre-installed on all iOS devices.

The good news is i think Google (YouTube) will be able to pull this one off, if they add a YouTube app to the App Store rather than built in as it will be updated more often. I myself hardly use the YouTube app due to lack of features and design is a little out-dated.

According to iLounge, meanwhile, iOS 6 beta 4 also includes Bluetooth sharing. Last month, there were reports that users will not be required to enter a password when downloading free apps in iOS 6.

check out 92 New Features in Apple’s iOS 6 by pcmag.com.

Google Offers App Comes to Android

3 November 2011 4:18 PM


Google has released an app for its daily deals site Google Offers, making it more convenient for U.S.-based Android users to discover, purchase, and redeem online coupons.

The app offers the same deals as its Google Offers beta Web site; today’s deal is $15 for $25 worth of REI outdoor gear. You can purchase the deal through the app and flash your phone to redeem it at the merchant. The app also stores all your offers and alerts you when they’re about to expire.

An iOS version will come … eventually. “iPhone users, stay tuned because Offers is coming soon to the App store” Google said.

Download Google Offers version 1.0 at the Android Market. It requires Android 2.1 and 1.4MB of space.

Last week, Google Offers announced cross-promotion deals with 14 other daily deals sites, and will send an email of offers from partners like Gilt City, Dealfind, DoodleDeals, GolfNow, HomeRun, Juice in the City, kgbdeals, Mamapedia, Plum District, PopSugar Shop, ReachDeals, Active.com Schwaggle, TIPPR, and zozi.

Yesterday, Google faced some heat when its highly anticipated native Gmail app for iOS was launched with numerous problems, forcing the company to withdraw the app.

Apple admits there is a problem with iPhone 4S’s battery life – but says it will take weeks to fix

3 November 2011 4:14 PM

Apple has finally admitted that there are problems with the new iPhone 4S’s battery life, after weeks of reports of devices overheating and batteries draining in less than 12 hours.

The good news is that the problem appears to be due to a bug in the iOS 5 software that the phones use – rather than a problem with the battery itself. The bad news is that the problem will take ‘a few weeks’ to fix.

Speaking to website AllThingsD, Apple said, “A small number of customers have reported lower than expected battery life on iOS 5 devices.”

“We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks.”

Mac websites also report that a new ‘test’ version of the software has already gone out to app developers, and one of the changes is that the new software, “Fixes bugs affecting battery life.” Australian users will also be reassured to find that the new software reportedly makes it easier for iPhone’s Siri voice control system to understand their accents No fix is in the pipeline for Scots who find that the voice-command system can’t understand them, however some temporary fixes are available for the battery problem, however. Apple’s official ‘help’ forums have been deluged by complaints about the problem – with some users reporting that the battery lasts less than a day. Sites such as Macworld have offered guides to how to ‘fix’ the handset while users wait for help from Apple.

So far, though, no one solution appears to fit all the problems. The Apple fan site iDownloadblog suggests that the problem might be in the section of the Settings menu dealing with the phone resetting its time zone when you travel.

iOS 5′s GM release introduced a bug that causes the Setting Time Zone function to keep the location tracking circuitry running constantly, draining battery power considerably,’ said the site.

Switching it off may mean that your iPhone will no longer set its own time zone when you travel. “But that’s a small price to pay for having your iPhone last more than 12 hours on a full charge.”

So far, though, the fix is not confirmed to work on all affected iPhone units. Other users have reported different bugs where using the browser causes battery life to drop alarmingly. Others have found that the phone gets worryingly hot in their pockets Apple has reportedly been in touch with individual iPhone users over the past days to try and pin down the root of the problem.

iTunes 10.5 – Now available for download

11 October 2011 7:01 PM

Summary: Full of iCloud goodness.

Ahead of tomorrow’s release of iOS 5 and iCloud, Apple has released an update for iTunes.

iTunes in the Cloud
iTunes now stores your music and TV purchases in iCloud and makes them available on your devices anywhere, any time, at no additional cost.

Automatic Downloads
Purchase music from any device or computer and automatically download a copy to your Mac and iOS devices.

Download Previous Purchases
Download your past music, TV, app, and book purchases again, at no additional cost. (Previous purchases may be unavailable if they are no longer on the iTunes Store)

Sync More
Sync with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 5.

Wi-Fi Syncing
Automatically sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iTunes any time they’re both on the same Wi-Fi network.

iTunes 10.5 brings with it compatibility with iOS 5 and iCloud, and adds support for the iTunes Match part of the iCloud service.

iTunes Match is a $24.99/year subscription service that allows users to have their entire music library synced with Apple’s database of over 20 million tracks, making those songs available for use on any iCloud-enabled device. If a particular track isn’t available on iTunes, don’t worry, it can be uploaded so it too is available to all your devices.

If you’re going to be upgrading to iOS 5 tomorrow then you will need this update, so get it now rather than having to fight it out tomorrow.

Updated (07:01PM) with information on Windows-specific elements of iTunes 10.5
ITunes 10.5 requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later. On the Windows side, iTunes patches a slew of vulnerabilities, including several that could allow a remote attacker to execute malicious code. iTunes 10.5 also marks the first time an iTunes installation on Windows doesn’t include (or require) QuickTime.