New iPhones! This is exciting!
Okay so its not actually ALL that exciting. Maybe like 3/4 worth of exciting. Lets dive into it.
Last week, at its yearly September address, Apple revealed not one, but TWO new iPhone models; The 5S and the 5C. One being the obvious successor to the current model, the iPhone 5, and the other being the cheaper more affordable model marketed to a less wealthy market.
THE IPHONE 5S
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| According to Apple Marketing Chief Phil Schiller, "(Aluminum) is the Gold standard of smartphones". What does that make Gold? |
So the year is no longer 2007. The iPhone is simply not as revolutionary as it was 6 six years ago. The smartphone market is a whole new ball game. Android smartphones are outselling iPhones globally; largely due to the incredible price difference and variety of models. Where the iPhone was the frontrunner in the smartphone race, it is now struggling to keep itself "fresh" and "new".
Enter the 5S. The iPhone 5S is the second iPhone to don the 4 inch (diagonal) retina display. Outfitted with a new 64-bit, A7 chip; the new 5S can now handle applications requiring more memory. What does this mean to you the user?
Nothing.
For the moment, this means nothing. The 5S is the only phone out there running an A7 64-bit chip. 95% of all iPhones will still be running 32-bit chips, so most developers will likely continue to write their code in 32-bit compatibility. In the future this will be huge! It will allow the iPhone to run many more memory heavy applications. But not today. Its really not doing much for you.
Another one of the new bells and whistles in the 5S is the M7 coprocessor. This chip uses information from the gyroscope, accelerator, and compass (without the use of the A7, thus saving battery)to turn the iPhone into the ultimate motion tracking device. The iPhone can now be used to track movement with much better accuracy, which can enable it to become the ultimate pedometer/health tracker. Similar activity trackers such as the Fitbit require bluetooth connections to your iPhone, which drains battery and requires another piece of technology on your person. No other product is as connected to the iPhone. While seemingly meaningless to some, for developers of health related apps, this will be a major improvement.
Finally, my favorite part of the new iPhone 5S has to be the new camera. The new camera has only minor hardware differences, but all of these combined provide for a much better picture. Auto-focus is much more improved, and a dual light flash provides better color. With two different colors of exposure coming from two different flashes, the two can combine and create a picture with a much better exposure, as opposed to the current flash which has only one light and gives night-time pictures a much more washed out look.
THE IPHONE 5C
Like stated earlier, for the first time Apple has released two new iPhone models. This one being the cheaper alternative to the 5S, and the replacement for the 5 on Apple's product line. The 5C is largely identical to the iPhone 5, with some minor differences.
The most obvious difference being the physical appearance. The iPhone 5C dons a colorful plastic shell, a divergence away from the classic black and white the iPhones are known for (however, it should noted that also the 5S comes in a new champagne color). The design breathes new life into the phone, and complements the new IOS 7 operating system, but we'll talk about that later.
There are minor camera improvements, with a slightly better pixel quality on the front facing camera. Nothing major, but still one of the few changes. The other large difference between the 5 and 5C is that the 5C only comes in sizes up to 32 GB. The 5 came in 3 sizes; 16, 32, AND 64 GB. The 64 GB model now resides solely on the 5S, limiting the cheaper iPhone to less space.
Another minor change also resides in the hardware, as both of the new iPhone models have better connectivity with mobile data. They are each able to pick up a broader range of 4G LTE bands (whatever that means).
So the 5C doesn't really compare to the 5S, but the fact that for the first time Apple isn't recycling the previous model (the 5) as the cheaper alternative to the newest phone definitely gives the 5C some commercial appeal. Overall though I think most people will be motivated to chock up the extra cash for the 5S, but only time will tell.
IOS 7
IOS (iPhone Operating System) 7 may very well be the biggest revamp to the iPhone in the phone's short 6 year history. With IOS 7, Apple has completely redesigned the iPhone. Previous updates had changed minor functionality and appearance related things, but this has created an entirely new phone. Everything you knew about the iPhone has changed. Theres a lot to cover, so lets get into it.
Appearance
Perhaps the biggest change to the IOS, Apple has abandoned its 3D design style in favor for a much simpler design palette of more standard colors and a much more white oriented design. All of the factory installed app icons have been redesigned, come of them not even recognizable. The chart below shows the IOS 6 app icon to the left of its IOS 7 counterpart.
Most of the Apps' individual interfaces have also changed, following the new simplistic
design of IOS 7. For example: The music app is completely different. Unlike the rest of the IOS, which seems to have been dumbed down; the music app seems to have been made more intricate. Each listing now has the album artwork right next to it, with some exceptions. The traditionally black Now Playing screen now wears white, and has a majority of the controls below the album artwork unlike previous OSs. Not much functionality improvements here. Just change.
Another app with a notable change is the Photos app. The Photos app now categorizes your photos by date. This makes it easier for people like me, the dweeb with 3,000+ photos, to sort through my collection. I hail the improvement as I have lauded the Photo app interface for a long time. The improvement is well needed and should be praised. The design of the app follows suit with the rest of the IOS with simplistic whites and other flat colors.
Now the IOS itself is much better as well. Aside from design, functionality is much improved. Perhaps the most notable change comes in the way of a control center from the bottom of the screen. This new swipe-to-access menu allows for much easier...well...control. Now users can adjust brightness, turn on/off "Do not disturb", bluetooth, airplane mode, the flashlight, and wifi, use their music controls, set a timer, use the calculator, and access the camera all from one swipe away. A historically Android-only feature, the control bar is perhaps one of the most popular new features.
Some more new features include
Enter the 5S. The iPhone 5S is the second iPhone to don the 4 inch (diagonal) retina display. Outfitted with a new 64-bit, A7 chip; the new 5S can now handle applications requiring more memory. What does this mean to you the user?
Nothing.
For the moment, this means nothing. The 5S is the only phone out there running an A7 64-bit chip. 95% of all iPhones will still be running 32-bit chips, so most developers will likely continue to write their code in 32-bit compatibility. In the future this will be huge! It will allow the iPhone to run many more memory heavy applications. But not today. Its really not doing much for you.
Another one of the new bells and whistles in the 5S is the M7 coprocessor. This chip uses information from the gyroscope, accelerator, and compass (without the use of the A7, thus saving battery)to turn the iPhone into the ultimate motion tracking device. The iPhone can now be used to track movement with much better accuracy, which can enable it to become the ultimate pedometer/health tracker. Similar activity trackers such as the Fitbit require bluetooth connections to your iPhone, which drains battery and requires another piece of technology on your person. No other product is as connected to the iPhone. While seemingly meaningless to some, for developers of health related apps, this will be a major improvement.
Finally, my favorite part of the new iPhone 5S has to be the new camera. The new camera has only minor hardware differences, but all of these combined provide for a much better picture. Auto-focus is much more improved, and a dual light flash provides better color. With two different colors of exposure coming from two different flashes, the two can combine and create a picture with a much better exposure, as opposed to the current flash which has only one light and gives night-time pictures a much more washed out look.
THE IPHONE 5C
Like stated earlier, for the first time Apple has released two new iPhone models. This one being the cheaper alternative to the 5S, and the replacement for the 5 on Apple's product line. The 5C is largely identical to the iPhone 5, with some minor differences.
The most obvious difference being the physical appearance. The iPhone 5C dons a colorful plastic shell, a divergence away from the classic black and white the iPhones are known for (however, it should noted that also the 5S comes in a new champagne color). The design breathes new life into the phone, and complements the new IOS 7 operating system, but we'll talk about that later.
 |
| I won't be impressed until I see one in Purple, but I might be a bit biased. |
Another minor change also resides in the hardware, as both of the new iPhone models have better connectivity with mobile data. They are each able to pick up a broader range of 4G LTE bands (whatever that means).
So the 5C doesn't really compare to the 5S, but the fact that for the first time Apple isn't recycling the previous model (the 5) as the cheaper alternative to the newest phone definitely gives the 5C some commercial appeal. Overall though I think most people will be motivated to chock up the extra cash for the 5S, but only time will tell.
IOS 7
IOS (iPhone Operating System) 7 may very well be the biggest revamp to the iPhone in the phone's short 6 year history. With IOS 7, Apple has completely redesigned the iPhone. Previous updates had changed minor functionality and appearance related things, but this has created an entirely new phone. Everything you knew about the iPhone has changed. Theres a lot to cover, so lets get into it.
Appearance
Perhaps the biggest change to the IOS, Apple has abandoned its 3D design style in favor for a much simpler design palette of more standard colors and a much more white oriented design. All of the factory installed app icons have been redesigned, come of them not even recognizable. The chart below shows the IOS 6 app icon to the left of its IOS 7 counterpart.
 |
| Can someone please explain the new "Photos" app icon to me? I'm totally missing that. |
design of IOS 7. For example: The music app is completely different. Unlike the rest of the IOS, which seems to have been dumbed down; the music app seems to have been made more intricate. Each listing now has the album artwork right next to it, with some exceptions. The traditionally black Now Playing screen now wears white, and has a majority of the controls below the album artwork unlike previous OSs. Not much functionality improvements here. Just change.
Another app with a notable change is the Photos app. The Photos app now categorizes your photos by date. This makes it easier for people like me, the dweeb with 3,000+ photos, to sort through my collection. I hail the improvement as I have lauded the Photo app interface for a long time. The improvement is well needed and should be praised. The design of the app follows suit with the rest of the IOS with simplistic whites and other flat colors.
Now the IOS itself is much better as well. Aside from design, functionality is much improved. Perhaps the most notable change comes in the way of a control center from the bottom of the screen. This new swipe-to-access menu allows for much easier...well...control. Now users can adjust brightness, turn on/off "Do not disturb", bluetooth, airplane mode, the flashlight, and wifi, use their music controls, set a timer, use the calculator, and access the camera all from one swipe away. A historically Android-only feature, the control bar is perhaps one of the most popular new features.
Some more new features include
- Automatic app updating
- Airdrop
- Photo filters built into the camera app
- 1:1 ratio photos (My favorite)
- Dynamic (Moving) backgrounds
- iTunes Radio (Think Pandora Radio)
- Facetime (Only) Audio
Overall I think that this new IOS along with the new iPhones will be very positively received. The new enhancements will give the iPhone a freshness it has lacked in the past few years.
But what do you think?!? Leave your Purple Opinions on the new Apple products in the comment section below! And don't forget to keep an eye out for the new season of Purple Opinions coming this Winter!
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