The iPhone 5 was unleashed upon the public on Friday and, as soon as it was in the hands of the public, more than a few reports emerged suggesting that the iPhone 5 was more susceptible to scratching than its predecessor. Disgruntled consumers quickly took to forums and discussions boards to note their displeasure at the fragility of the panel coating on the new iPhone 5. Some sites even went as far as to scratch the iPhone 5 with metal keys with a view to assessing the scratchability of the new device.
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Category Archives: Editorial
A Reflection On The Scratchability Of The iPhone 5
Reflections On The iPhone 5
After playing with the new iPhone 5 for the past few days, two things have become apparent. First, it’s worth the cost, and second, Apple have absolutely nailed it with this one. From the moment that you take the new iPhone out of the box, you’ll wonder how we actually got to this extraordinary point, an iPhone this thin and light, with this level of performance is astounding. Indeed, the first thing you notice about the new iPhone is how different it feels in your hand compared to previous versions of the iPhone. With the new design, it’s almost a surprise when you hit the power/lock button and fire iOS 6 up. It feels, almost, as if it is a toy phone.
Once you have turned it on, the second thing that hits you is how Apple has improved the color saturation of the screen. Holding it side by side with a 4S, you’ll see that the colors are richer, denser and offer a noticeable improvement in visual quality. This is also particularly evident when viewing photos in your photo stream. You’ll also notice a significant improvement in color saturation when looking at pictures taken with the iPhone 5 on your Mac screen. The camera on the iPhone 5 is dramatically better.
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An Opinion On Apple’s New Maps App
There are two sides to every story and this opinion is no different. Having spent some time using the developer preview and final releases of Apple’s new Maps app, the replacement for Google apps, it is perhaps easy to come to one of two conclusions. The first, and perhaps most obvious, is that the new Maps app is pretty inferior to its predecessor, with less detail and some glossy features, like city fly over, that aren’t much use unless accompanied by Superman-like functionality, or a helicopter. In addition, some of the 3G mapping that Apple has incorporated also looks pretty awful at the moment, and some locations are just missing altogether.
That said, the alternative opinion is that Apple seems to manage to make seemingly innocuous functionality come alive with their touch. By including turn by turn directions in the new app, the company has included a pretty nifty feature that most people will love. In addition, the smooth animations, more responsive feel and anecdotally faster load times can offer a completely different experience from Google Maps.
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The Best Damn Apple iPhone 5 Media Event Live Blog
The Apple Media Event to announce the iPhone 5 takes place on September 12 at 10am PST / 1pm EST / 6pm UK.
We’re blogging it right here with what you want, and need, to know, so crack a beer and get comfortable…
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Opinion: AT&T Offers A Piss Poor Excuse For Limiting FaceTime
AT&T has responded to the public outcry over the fact that the carrier was planning on restricting FaceTime over 3G only to customers who were part of their mobile sharing plans. Many people were upset with AT&T’s policy that only a restricted group of customers were able to utilize FaceTime over 3G and even went as far as suggesting that the policy appeared to violate net neutrality rules, and should be the subject of an FCC investigation.
AT&T has responded to this by suggesting that FCC net neutrality rules “do not regulate the availability to customers of applications that are preloaded on phones” and has pointed out that AT&T is allowing FaceTime on the iPhone subject to some reasonable restrictions. In AT&T’s view, these restrictions are in place out of an “overriding concern for the impact this expansion may have on our network and the overall customer experience”.
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Editorial: High Expectations For The New iPhone Dock Connector
Apple is expected to launch the highly anticipated iPhone 5 next month at an event that will apparently be held on September 12. While the rumored features for the new device have included a larger screen, faster processor, completely new design, and 4G LTE compatibility, the feature that has perhaps some of the highest expectations is a brand new dock connector.
The new dock connector is expected to be rolled out across the entire iOS device line-up, but the iPhone 5 will reportedly be the first device that will receive it. According to the latest reports, the new dock connector will only possess 8 pins instead of the 30 pins that are found in the current dock connector, and will feature a much smaller interface. While it has been established with relative certainty (relative certainty in as much as any Apple rumor), very little is actually known about the new dock interface, which is pretty interesting how much is riding on the new interface.
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Apple Removes YouTube From iOS 6… So What?
Apple yesterday released a new beta build of the upcoming iOS 6 operating system to registered developers, and almost immediately, the net was alight with the news that the company had removed the YouTube app from iOS 6. Shortly after the news emerged, Apple issued a statement to The Verge stating that their ‘license to include the YouTube app in iOS has ended, customers can use YouTube in the Safari browser and Google is working on a new YouTube app to be on the App Store’.
While this may seem like a reasonable explanation, some people completely freaked out (!) and conspiracy theories abounded about the reasons behind it. The essential question is, however, what is the impact going to be for users of iOS devices? Aside from not having the app native to their OS when they purchase an Apple device, it’s not that big a deal. Google will likely fire a free YouTube app on to the App Store prior to the release of iOS 6, and all people hahve to do is download it. Job done.
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What Is Going To Save The Inexorable Slide Of The Daily?
Following on from the recent news that The Daily, the News Corp iPad-only publication, had been put ‘on watch’ following massive financial losses of up to $30 million, it has now emerged that The Daily is cutting staff and reducing production costs in an effort to stay afloat. According to a report from AllThingsD, The Daily is laying off approximately 30% of its staff, mainly in the editorial and sports sections in an effort to save money. In addition, the app will now only work in vertical format rather than both vertical and horizontal formats, in an effort to reduce production costs.
The news is not surprising considering the lackluster reception that The Daily has had since launch, both with subscriber uptake and the criticism of its content. The question is, however, will laying off 30% of the staff as well as reducing sports content help to save the publication? Surely a reduction in content in the editorial and sports sections will simply drive people away rather than attracting new subscribers which is what The Daily would need to focus upon.
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Apple Updates iWork But Stays Stuck In 2009; iWork ’12 Still Just A Dream
As part of their Mountain Lion launch day, Apple yesterday released an update today to iWork applications for both OS X and iOS devices in light of the release of Mountain Lion to the public. The company released updates for the iWork apps for iOS devices which added compatibility with the iCloud ‘Documents in the Cloud’ functionality, allowing automatic syncing between iWork on both Mac and iOS devices.
Together with the iOS app updates, the company released an iWork 9.2 update which updated the individual iWork apps to Pages 4.2, Numbers 2.2 and Keynote 5.2. This update also brought with it full iCloud syncing compatibility as well as voice dictation to complement the new feature in Mountain Lion. In addition, compatibility with the Retina Display of the new MacBook Pro was also included. While these updates are significant in the context of external factors, like the new MacBook Pro, iCloud and Mountain Lion, Apple itself notes that iWork is still in 2009 mode.
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Editorial: An iPhone, iCloud And A Naked Person Can Be Dangerous
For the longest time, cell phone cameras have to be among the most useful, and yet most hated things to take on a drunken night out. What would happen, should your iPhone 4S be confiscated by your mate who snaps a compromising photo of your naked ass. The picture is snapped, stored in your camera roll and then, your Camera Roll contents are synced to your iCloud Photo Stream the next time you connect to a Wifi network.
So, the photos are thus far on the camera roll of the iPhone, the photo stream of the iPhone and, the next time your Mac is booted up, iPhoto or Aperture on your Mac. But they also go to other areas outwith the Photo Stream and camera roll. Depending on how you have things set up, Dropbox automatically syncs your naked photo using its funky new Photo Upload feature.
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