iPhone 5 NFC and Thunderbolt connector the overkill

The Apple iPhone 5 continues to be the subject of intense debate even though a release may yet be some months away. With more rumors and leaks occurring almost every day we like to bring readers all of these developments although of course nothing is yet confirmed. Today we want to talk about the possibility of NFC and a Thunderbolt connector for the iPhone 5 and ask if this could be overkill?

Many of you will have heard of Near Field Communication (NFC), a digital mobile payments system, which is being slowly brought to more and more devices, particularly those using the Android platform. It hasn’t taken off in quite the way we anticipated yet but of course if it was to come to the next iPhone this would be a huge boost and make its use far more widespread. A few days ago we looked at the idea that NFC could come to the iPhone 5 after reports that code from prototype models revealed NFC chips so it does look as though this idea could be plausible for the iPhone this time around.

The new iPhone is guaranteed to sell in huge numbers but we have spoken before about the need for Apple to bring something new and fresh to the iPhone 5. We feel that Apple really has to bring something new and groundbreaking to the table for the iPhone 5 but would NFC be enough or will people be expecting much more? Also is it possible to add too much new technology to the iPhone 5 for effect, that’s not actually needed? With that in mind we found an interesting report on Product Reviews. This looks into leaks that appear to show that a Thunderbolt connector could come to the iPhone 5 but asks if this is simply overkill.

The possibility of a Thunderbolt port-equipped iPhone 5 comes from some leaked photos that appear to show what could be a Thunderbolt connector but could possibly be a microUSB port. Nothing can be confirmed as the leaked photos cannot be authenticated but it’s intriguing nevertheless. First thoughts about Thunderbolt for the iPhone 5 may well have people salivating over the extra speed but it’s easy to assume that any new technology for the iPhone 5 would be widely welcomed. However Product Reviews points out that although this sounds great, the average iPhone user simply would not need such a huge boost in speed.

Recently we also gave news about a possible new 19-pin dock connector for the iPhone 5 while Product Reviews also talks of the possibility of Apple moving to a new common connector that could be used over a range of phones. If Apple is considering changes here, the idea that a Thunderbolt port could appear raises issues such as extra cost and power consumption. Another concern that comes to mind is whether Apple would really want to promote Thunderbolt connector use, considering its push to get users to transfer files wirelessly using iCloud? Therefore we wonder if this is a step too far at this stage and if Apple might be better concentrating on a Thunderbolt iPhone 6 or later.

We’d be interested to hear your opinion on this. Do you think an iPhone 5 with Thunderbolt connector and NFC would be a great idea, after all, the more speed and convenience the better? Alternatively you may feel that Thunderbolt for the iPhone 5 is not necessary and would simply be overkill and you would prefer a standard connector? Let us know with your comments.

Article source: http://www.phonesreview.co.uk/2012/07/02/iphone-5-nfc-and-thunderbolt-connector-the-overkill/

iPhone 5 Release Date, Rumors Round-up

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There’s no doubt that the iPhone 5 is one of the most anticipated smartphones, as all the Apple fans are eager to see what the Cupertino-based company prepared for them this time. Will Apple call their next iOS smartphone iPhone 5? We don’t know, yet. Maybe it will named the new iPhone, instead of the popular nickname of iPhone 5 given by the media, just like it happened with the iPad: so far, we’ve had iPad, iPad 2 and the new iPad, even though many are calling it iPad 3.

The other companies can’t enjoy the same buzz created around the launch of Apple product launches, because the. The public had a similar reaction ahead of the Samsung Galaxy S3, also because the South Korea-based phone maker managed to keep their new flagship secret. Well, not as good as Apple and their iPhone, where the security level is incredible. You can see for yourself that we have no concrete information about the iPhone 5. All we can to is to take educated guesses based on Apple’s product launch pattern.

Rumor has it that iPhone 5 will be 7 mm thin. The slim smartphones are highly appreciated by the consumers, but everyone expects iPhone 5′s design to be flawless. I don’t think Apple will rush to present a new design language. They will rather stretch the case of the iPhone 4/4S. Apple’s designed evolved but only the iPhone 4 was the model that brought a real revolution. The shape of iPhone 4/4S became a sort of icon for Apple, and I don’t believe the guys from Cupertino will drop it with ease.

The high-end smartphones are nowadays arriving with 4.5+ inch displays, while Apple got stuck to 3.5-inches. Just look at the kings of the smartphone segment: Samsung Galaxy S3 (4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED), HTC One X (4.7-inch Super IPS LCD2) and Galaxy Nexus (4.65-inch Super AMOLED). Sources say that the iPhone 5 will feature a slightly bigger touchscreen panel, sized between 3.9 and 4.1 inches, with a resolution of 1,136 x 640 pixels. You can see that Apple kept the width of the iPhone 4S’ resolution (960 x 640 pixels), so the applications will be ported on the new display much easier. Moreover the new resolution will almost get close to the HD resolution of the high-end Android smartphones – 1,280 x 720 pixels for Samsung Galaxy S3, Galaxy Nexus and HTC One X.

Reports claim that the iPhone 5′s display will be protected against scratches by a Gorilla Glass 2 layer. The Gorilla Glass 2 is now thinner than the previous generation, allowing Apple to keep their new iOS smartphone as slim as possible.

I guess Apple will want a unique size for their smartphone, like Nokia did with N9 and its 3.9-inch display. I wouldn’t be surprised if the new iPhone has a 3.99 or 4.05 touch panel.

As about the iPhone 5 CPU, I see no motivation for Apple to fit a quad-core chipset inside their phone. A quad-core processor would give them headaches when it comes to making the iPhone 5 only 7 mm thick. Moreover it would eat more battery and the heat level would be too high. Maybe Apple will overclock the new iPad’s A5X processor to 1.2 GHz. The next-gen iPhone would probably feature 1 GB of RAM and it will be offered in three storage variants: 16, 32 and 64 GB.

Apple would want to integrate a powerful graphic processing unit, and it will definitely be a PowerVR unit. Maybe Apple will use the entire A5X SoC from the new iPad, including the PowerVR SGX543MP4 GPU with four cores.

We know for sure that iPhone 5 will come pre-loaded with iOS 6, the latest version of the Apple’s mobile operating system. The user interface is the same, but each time is faster, it comes with new features centered on key elements: intuitive and simple.

We already know that iOS 6 will be available for iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad 2, new iPad and last gen iPod Touch. It arrives with an improved Siri, Passbook and NFC, Apple Maps with turn-by-turn navigation, Facebook integration, better iCloud support and FaceTime calls over 3G cellular networks.

It seems that iTunes will be upgraded, too, with a revised interface, one of the biggest changes since its launch in 2001, with iCloud integration, improved sharing features for the songs in App Store and an easier way to discover movies, songs and applications.

As about connectivity, rumor has it that iPhone 5 will sport NFC and 4G LTE besides the standard WiFi, Bluetooth, 3.5 mm jack and GPS. The 4G will be a decisive factor for the US market, where the consumers are desperate to have it on their smartphones.

The iPhone 4S’ 8 megapixel camera is doing a good job already and I don’t see a reason why the should fit one with a bigger resolution. Besides the Nokia 808 PureView and a couple of Sony Xperia models, most of the high-end smartphones are boasting about their 8 megapixel units. Still, Apple might revise the camera application, adding new features.

It will be great if Apple’s next iPhone comes with better battery life, but the dual-core CPU, the powerful GPU and the company’s desire to develop a slim device, might make the iPhone 5′s battery life worse than iPhone 4S’. Just look how the new iPad has a battery twice as capable as the previous model, but it’s thicker, so it will be interesting to see what solution Apple will choose for the next smartphone that will soon join their line-up.

Everyone expects to see the iPhone 5 / new iPhone in flesh sometime in September or October 2012. Anyway until the next-gen iOS-powered phone is officially introduced, we will keep you up to date with the latest details about this highly-anticipated smartphone.

Article source: http://www.tech.sc/iphone-5-release-date-rumors/

iPhone: 5 years old – still 5 years ahead?

When Steve Jobs announced the iPhone five years and six months ago in January 2007 during Macworld, he said it was five years ahead of the competition.

Five years later, both Google and Microsoft appear to have caught up with Android and the yet-to-be-released Windows Phone 8, with other mobile operating systems having fallen largely by the wayside in comparison, despite ongoing sales of Symbian, BlackBerry OS 7 and Bada-powered smartphones.

However, Apple has not only either largely matched competitors in missing features, it has built an entire ecosystem whose sum is much greater than its parts, spawning the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, Apple TV and iOS-style improvements to Mac OS X including the App Store, let alone the winning improvements of the MacBook Air and new MacBook Pro with Retina Display.

Its “app store” is still unmatched in both pure numbers and in superb quality software written to take full advantage of the different iDevices, and while there are plenty of “fart apps” on all platforms, the iPhone still carries exclusive titles that certainly do take their time in being ported elsewhere – especially when the competition has so many different versions that it’s difficult and developer resource intensive to keep up.

Apple’s iPhone and iOS have certainly inspired much copying and many attempts to outdo Apple, and just as when mp3 player makers were vainly adding FM tuners, voice recording and a vast array of models and sizes to compete with the iPod, so too have the competitions attempts to copy Apple’s finesse and the experience it delivers seen much feature-adding and approximations of the iDevice experience – without being able to fully or properly match what Apple has created, nurtured and grown exponentially.

As Apple executives like to note, “only Apple” could have achieved the success and scale that it has, and that is because it has taken a principled stand on the need to make your own hardware if you want to sell software.

Apple was five years ahead of the competition in many ways and is still ahead when you look at everything Apple does, from its stunning new developments that leapfrog the competition in smartphones, software, hardware, tablets, third-party software compatibility, infinite accessories, ease-of-use, ease-of-learning, pre and post-sales experience, usage experience and more.

Apple made smartphones easy, changing the way they operated, and truly looking like 21st century devices, rather than rehashes of technologies created  in the 20th.

Sure, you might say that multi-touch would have been brought to market by someone else first – perhaps Palm with WebOS, perhaps Nokia or Microsoft – but the fact is that Apple did so, working on the iPhone for four years before unveiling it unto the world, while it was releasing iPod models and looking at the smartphones of 2004 and 2005, before the iPhone world existed.

Android smartphones have done the most to copy as much of the Apple experience as possible, and to try and “embrace and extend” the iPhone experience as much as possible, but only beat Apple’s iPhone today when looked at in aggregate.

In 2012, Apple is still the company the industry is following, despite bold steps by some at times to try and take the lead.

While competitors launch ever larger phones that are harder to use with one hand, Apple is only five years going to launch a smartphone with a larger than 3.5-inch screen – if expectations for a 4-inch screen are finally fulfilled later this year when the iPhone 4G, 4GS, iPhone 5 or just “new iPhone” is released.

Some competitors have long offered full multitasking, Apple’s limited multitasking has forced app makers to write more cleverly to work, where possible, with Apple’s much stricter multitasking policies, leading to a still leading bloom in apps while competitors have struggled to keep up.

Sure, Android has over 500,000 phone apps, but supposedly less than 1000 tablet specific apps, while Windows Phone 7.5 has finally crossed the 100,000 app barrier threshold, meaning both Android and, when it is released, Windows Phone 8, are best placed to truly bring the real competition to Apple’s hardware and software vision.

Continued on page two, please read on!

Article source: http://www.itwire.com/your-it-news/mobility/55503-iphone-5-years-old-%E2%80%93-still-5-years-ahead

Samsung Galaxy S3 (S III) Big with Share Shots, in NYC & Bigger than iPhone 5?

To ensure that the Samsung Galaxy S III, “the next big thing is here,” Samsung is posting videos to a giant screen in New York City’s Time Square.  Along with that big shot celebrities are sharing their Samsung Galaxy S III big shots (photo).  The big wait is finally over for those who want to buy some models in store.

Time Square is aglow with Samsung Galaxy S III videos. There are videos of  moon walks, weddings, slow mo mob scenes and  model poses.  To make a big phone look big, have a big guy endorse it.

A really big guy, former basketball star Walt “Clyde” Frazier has been signed to endorse the Samsung Galaxy S III especially the ShareShot feature (get it basket shots/camera shots.)

He previously had a flip phone here are some of the Frazier’s favorite features of his Samsung Galaxy S III:

• It’s easy, a lot simpler than I thought it would be.
• It’s stylistic, it looks like Clyde. It’s got a nice screen it’s very simplistic, just touch what you want.
• The camera has really impressed me. You can take pictures and you don’t have to worry about if  it’s right or not, cause in 1 second it takes 8 different pictures and the camera selects the best one for you.
• Yeah because you can share pictures with people. Like if you had one of these, we could kind of like touch them together and share the pictures and information. It’s invaluable man.
• Music.
• Twittering.
• I Googled myself.

Demos of Clyde’s favorite features appear in videos below such as Share Shot, S Beam, S Voice personal assistant and an over demonstration from Sprint.

Kirk Yunhnke of ABC called the Samsung Galaxy S III  ”fast, sexy and filled with cool new features that Apple isn’t doing on the iPhone. Simply put, it’s by far the best Android smartphone on the market today and the new king of smartphones.

We are planning to do a review of reviews of the Samsung Galaxy S III, once the review dust settles to get a consensus of all model across carriers.

The Samsung Galaxy S III  (16GB) is on sale today in  Sprint stores.  It was officially announced via Twitter the in-store release is today for Sprint.  Best Buy also Tweeted that they have the Samsung Galaxy S III in stock.

Note: The best deals still remain for the Sprint 16GB SG S3  LetsTalk for $179.99 with a new contract, add coupon code  JULY4SALE  for 15% off your cart. Followed by   Wirefly is also taking preorders for the discounted price of $179.99 for new customers, $10 free Google Wallet credit included

Google Wallet only works after, the most recent update is installed on the Sprint models.

Some forum members have noticed that allow LTE is not officially available in Houston, that they are connecting to the fast 4g LTE network.

Samsung Mobile has launched a support section on a microsite solely dedicated to the Samsung Galaxy S III that links to Samsung’s website telling you its time upgrade when your smartphone doesn’t have the features of the Samsung Galaxy series:

1. You want to share…everything – for automated status updates.
2. You’re tired of playing Solitaire…by yourself – new games with Android 4.0.
3. You want your phone to do what you say…on command – S Voice.
4. You can’t watch a movie…or even see the people in your photos.
5. You’re tired of searching for a pen and paper…when you run into a rock star.

Related News:

1. New iPhone 5 vs Samsung Galaxy S3 (S III) Buy Now or Wait?
2. Samsung Galaxy S II in US Bigger than Droid Bionic, iPhone 5, Christ, Buddha or Statue of Liberty?
3. Samsung Galaxy S II News: Samsung Galaxy S II Release Date in U.S. within August Functions to Attain iPhone 5 Rivalry

Article source: http://wirelessandmobilenews.com/2012/07/samsung-galaxy-s3-s-iii-bigger-iphone-5.html

iPhone 5 Release Date This Fall, iPhone 5 Domination in 2013

The latest on the iPhone 5 release date comes from Mark Moskowitz, and there’s talk of a late-in-the-year iPhone 5 release that will drive it to be the biggest smartphone in 2013. The iOS6 release date is quickly becoming the favorite time to coincide with an iPhone 5 release date, although they don’t necessarily have to happen on exactly the same date. iOS6 could predate the iPhone release, and give an opportunity to still include it on the new phone.

iPhone 5 Release Date

The big comment drop of the week came from J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz, who said “We think that a combination of revolutionary hardware enhancements and software-driven services (i.e., Passbook, Maps, FaceTime over cellular) stand to reaffirm the iPhone as the leading smartphone in 2013.” Although there’s no mention of a specific month or time as the real iPhone 5 release date, he’s building on the notion that Apple will release it sometime in the Fall as it did last year. The leading consensus for this year is that the iPhone 5 release date will follow a similar route, with Apple announcing the iPhone 5 at a presentation in the Fall, leading to an iPhone 5 release in time for holiday shopping. Apple sold 37.04 million iPhones in the final quarter of last year, after its introduction in October.

This dovetails nicely with comments from Pacific Crest analyst Andy Hargreaves. Forbes reported that Hargreaves thinks there will be “’extraordinary demand’ for Apple products through fiscal 2013. He thinks the company is likely to be supply constrained on iPhone 5 for the first several months after launch, ‘which will likely make Apple’s ability to ramp supply the key driver of FY 2013 earnings.’” I guess the big question with both of these comments is do they know something about the IPhone 5 release date that we don’t, or are they just reviewing the same materials as the rest of us and throwing their comments out there?

iPhone 5 Rumors

Current iPhone 5 rumors  include near-field communication (NFC), a  smaller dock connector and a bigger screen size that is estimated to be about 4 inches. The new iPhone dock connector has been confirmed by CNET saying “TechCrunch has independently verified that Apple is working on adding a 19-pin port, replacing the current 30-pin port, to the new iPhone.” Other iPhone 5 rumors include a bigger phone (to compete with the Galaxy S3, as well as a trend that is hitting smartphones this year in an attempt to bridge the gap between a phone with a too-small screen size as well and a medium-sized tablet. As long as the phone stays portable, I see this as a good trend, whether it’s an iPhone 5 feature or not. The iPhone 5 rumor for near-field communication  was raised by TechCrunch, who said “Google is now shipping 1 million NFC-enabled Android devices every week,” which adds upt o a whopping 15% of Android devices. Near Field Communication is the ability of two iPhones to communicate with each other without the use of Wi-Fi, as long as their near each other. This . Apple would need to make thisiPhone 5 rumor surfaced a few weeks ago as a feature called Airdrop an iPhone 5 feature to compete, and looks like prerequisite instead of a nice to have.

Read more Digital Music News

Article source: http://www.thespacelab.tv/spaceLAB/2012/07July/MusicNews-003-iPhone-5-Release-Date-Rumors-Features-iOS6.htm