iPhone 5 announced for 21st September release

S0ULphIRE

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Apple announces 4-inch iPhone 5 with LTE, Lightning connector, September 21st release date | The Verge

The new iPhone is finally official. Apple has named its sixth-generation smartphone the iPhone 5 and Phil Schiller has detailed its full set of features, specs, and release details. Measuring 7.6mm in thickness and 112 grams in weight, this is the thinnest and lightest iPhone that Apple has ever made, and is constructed "entirely" out of glass and aluminum.

Main specs that jump out at me:

Longer screen, 1136x640 res for a slightly off 16:9 ratio (1.775 instead of 1.777, negligible)
Improved rear camera (8MP)
New dock connector. (pricing for adaptors here.)
LTE compatible
A6 chip (needs benching/testing before comment)

I'm also interested to see what the Apple club have to say now about the
1. Apps having to fit multiple resolutions
2. Dock connector adaptors. While a necessary change, the adaptors are pretty pricy, especially considering how many devices/docks are out there.
3. Changing the screen size to emulate its competitors. Better sue 'em?
 
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I'm glad they decided to increase screen real estate, hanging with the same 3.5" design they've had since 2007 would've likely started to really hurt them if they'd continued any longer.
That said, changing the size is likely to **** off die-hard fanboys who loved to espouse the perfectness of a 3.5" screen.

At the very least, it's put iPhones into the same arena as Android phones in terms of non-uniform screen hardware. IMO that will turn out to be a good thing for Android, as it'll remove just a bit of the "us vs them" mentality (I hope)
 
I'm glad they decided to increase screen real estate, hanging with the same 3.5" design they've had since 2007 would've likely started to really hurt them if they'd continued any longer.
That said, changing the size is likely to **** off die-hard fanboys who loved to espouse the perfectness of a 3.5" screen.

I'm actually tickled to death about the larger screen, it's always been one of my main gripes. Makes it look a tad weird with the length, but there are some long Android phones out there at least.

IMO that will turn out to be a good thing for Android, as it'll remove just a bit of the "us vs them" mentality (I hope)

Probably not, but I am interested in seeing benchmarks. This claim of it being twice as fast as the 4S has me intrigued to see if that's accurate. Since the benchmarks for the 800MHz A5 dual-core chip was faster than the 1.2GHz dual-core Exynos chip on the Galaxy S II and Snapdragon processors on other HTC phones, I wonder how this one will stack up.

Also, I don't think "looking dumb" is a valid argument. Seeing as it's not longer than other existing phones. Proportions are a bit weird, but not that much.

EDIT: Thinking about it, I also wanted to mention I am SUPER excited for the camera. They kept the same resolution on the back one but greatly improved the quality and added a dynamic low light mode, got a precision lens alignment, and a sapphire crystal (fancy).

The sample untouched photos look amazing.

http://www.redmondpie.com/iphone-5-camera-untouched-samples-photos/
 
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To clarify, the main argument I heard from Apple supporters against using a larger screen like all the newer android devices was "because it'll mess up the apps and fragment app and make hard to develop and iphone is easy coz one phone one size"
By releasing an iPhone with a different screen size, the "problem" is now shared by both parties. I.e one less thing to tear the groups apart, though I'm sure both sides will still find plenty of things to whine about :p
Not saying ALL iphone users make that argument, just saying it was a common one ;)

Also, I'll add here that arguing subjectives like "I hate that bezel" or "looks too thin/thick" is pointless, so let us all refrain from it mkay?

A big gripe for me is they're going through all the fuss of changing their connector, but they're keeping it proprietary to make extra $$$. **** like that hurts the industry, good for Apple but bad for everyone else. Why do we even bother making standardised connectors like Micro USB? I guess it's not like Apple has a massive history of anti-competitive behaviour or anything...
 
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To clarify, the main argument I heard from Apple supporters against using a larger screen like all the newer android devices was "because it'll mess up the apps and fragment app and make hard to develop and iphone is easy coz one phone one size"
By releasing an iPhone with a different screen size, the "problem" is now shared by both parties. I.e one less thing to tear the groups apart, though I'm sure both sides will still find plenty of things to whine about :p
Not saying ALL iphone users make that argument, just saying it was a common one ;)

I got what you were saying. The app argument is really silly, because it'll just allow app makers to have additional stuff on the screen once it's updated. Now for apps that aren't continuously updated or have been out of the loop for a while, maybe it would be a problem. Though I wonder how the "backwards compatibility" will work with said older apps, well they do a sort of odd letterbox thing on the sides or will it just stretch, that's the question.

Also, I'll add here that arguing subjectives like "I hate that bezel" or "looks too thin/thick" is pointless, so let us all refrain from it mkay?

I don't even understand the problem with the bezel in the first place...and the back has been greatly improved, what with it not being all glass anymore.

A big gripe for me is they're going through all the fuss of changing their connector, but they're keeping it proprietary to make extra $$$. **** like that hurts the industry, good for Apple but bad for everyone else. Why do we even bother making standardised connectors like Micro USB? I guess it's not like Apple has a massive history of anti-competitive behaviour or anything...

I'm not too keen on the connector changing either (I smell some adapters in my future...), but they are updating it to operate with USB 3.0 speeds, so that's kinda cool to me. Apple isn't the only one with proprietary charger ports, I'll say that much. And the iPhone port did stay the same for all iterations until now, which is something other companies haven't been able to say until recently...like HTC and Motorola. Motorola especially, the old 2 pin charger plugs that were horrible? *shudder*
 
I don't even understand the problem with the bezel in the first place...and the back has been greatly improved, what with it not being all glass anymore.
Big ditto. Wanted to smack Ives for covering it with glass.

Apple isn't the only one with proprietary charger ports, I'll say that much. And the iPhone port did stay the same for all iterations until now, which is something other companies haven't been able to say until recently...like HTC and Motorola. Motorola especially, the old 2 pin charger plugs that were horrible? *shudder*

Which is no excuse. Note I never said other companies weren't guilty of the same thing. I just said Apple is, and they are. Constantly. Wherever they can. Whenever they can. Down to the freaking screws that hold the phone together. getsoldman.jpg
 
Which is no excuse. Note I never said other companies weren't guilty of the same thing. I just said Apple is, and they are. Constantly. Wherever they can. Whenever they can. Down to the freaking screws that hold the phone together. getsoldman.jpg

I agree. I only applaud them for at least keeping the same proprietary port for all of their iDevices until now.

:Peeking:

I mean think about it, they had the same 30-pin connector ever since the first iPod surfaced, with them only changing the capability as opposed to the physical connector. I don't know of any other company that kept a connector the same for as long across all of their similar devices...Motorola is immediately out, HTC, Palm, Samsung, LG, Pantech, Nokia...the only one I can think of that may have kept a similar charger port was the Blackberry, but I'd need to research that one.

I'm not as annoyed with the proprietary-ness of Apple only because it was constant. Working in cell phone sales before the big smartphone boom was such a pain when trying to find the correct replacement chargers. Samsung and LG were particularly nasty about it, we carried at least 5 different chargers to accommodate for all the crazy different charger ports at some point. And those were all "official" chargers, not knockoffs.
 
I'm still kinda finding it hard to believe they could sue over a bandwidth. Especially since according to that article Apple has 434 LTE patents themselves...there was at least some validity in Apple's charges against Samsung (like the gigantic internal document outlining how the iPhone was superior in certain ways and what Samsung would do to copy the same functionality/feature to their phones).

But all in all, I'm tired of all the lawsuits from any side at this point. It's annoying.
 
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