Handhelds

172 'Handhelds' stories December 2010 - December 2013

This is what the 5c ‘Crocs’ case would look like for the iPhone 5s

Mark Gurman Dec 3 2013 - 11:40 am PT

When Apple launched the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c earlier this fall, the company also debuted accompanying cases. To match the plastic colors of the 5c, Apple launched a “Crocs-like” case for the phone with holes on the back.

The iPhone 5s launched alongside a leather case in multiple colors. Now, technology writer Michael Andrew shares photos of what he claims to be a prototype version of the 5c case for the 5s.

There are, however, two crucial differences between the iPhone 5C version of the case that was meant for the iPhone 5/5S and the actual, official iPhone 5C case that was released to the public:

Instead of the seven-by-five grid of holes that is on the back of the released iPhone 5C case, the case for the iPhone 5/5S sports a subtly different six-by-five grid of holes.

Unlike on the iPhone 5C case, the top and bottom of the iPhone 5/5S is not protected by the silicon case.

We can’t verify that these photos represent an actual Apple prototype, but they, nonetheless, show what the 5c case would look like if designed for the 5s’s body. Another photo is below:

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‘Toaster’ dual-iPhone charging dock appears on Kickstarter

Benjamin Mayo Nov 26 2013 - 4:35 am PT

3 Comments

The Foaster is a new novel charging dock for your iPhone and the creators are currently running a Kickstarter to put this neat dock into production. As you can tell from the video, the novelty here is the fact it resembles a toaster. The creators say that the kitchen is one of the most common places where people charge their phones, so they thought they would design a dock to suit.

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eBay for iPhone adds AirDrop and Pinterest sharing, retail pickup option

Zac Hall Nov 13 2013 - 10:02 am PT

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Taking advantage of a new technology introduced in iOS 7, eBay for iPhone has integrated sharing support for AirDrop in the latest update to its app.

AirDrop sharing allows you to share content you are viewing with others around you without your friends having to search the app or click any links. eBay also integrated Pinterest board sharing in its new version.

Customers in the US and UK now have the option to pickup purchases at local retailers as well.

Download or update the latest version eBay for iPhone for free on the App Store.

(eBay for iPad also received an update, which was mostly supplemental. Both change logs below.)
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iPhone 5s vs Nexus 5 Photo Smackdown: Vote which images are the best

Seth Weintraub Nov 6 2013 - 9:45 am PT

16 Comments

Update: Shocker iPhone won 55% to 45%

We’re doing a little poll over at 9to5Google on the quality of images taken on the new Nexus 5 vs. everyone’s favorite iPhone 5s (Gold obv.).

To check the validity of claims that the Nexus 5 has a poor shooter, we took 10 different pictures with both a Nexus 5 and the reigning champ of smartphone cameras – the iPhone 5s. We even split the test over two different Nexus 5s and iPhone 5s devices. The comparison test is below. We’ll publish the results tomorrow.

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Apple now highlighting 64-bit A7 iPhone 5s chip on magazine covers

Michael Steeber Oct 29 2013 - 7:04 pm PT

1 Comment

Earlier this month, we highlighted that Apple is touting the iPhone 5s’s Touch ID fingerprint scanner and gold color option on the back of certain magazine covers. Now, we’ve spotted a new magazine ad for the iPhone 5s. This one, instead, highlight’s the device’s 64-bit A7 processor. “64-bit” is complex technical jargon, but Apple simplifies it to mean that the iPhone is powerful and offers all-day battery life.

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iPhone takes 51% share of smartphone activations at Verizon in Q3, unit sales flat compared to Q2

Benjamin Mayo Oct 17 2013 - 5:45 am PT

5 Comments

Graph by Benedict Evans.

Verizon has just reported their results for the third quarter, with smartphone sales topping 7.6 million units. While the press release does not disclose details about iPhone performance, on Verizon’s conference call, the company announced that iPhones were responsible for just over half of all Verizon’s smartphone activations, compared to about 43% in Q2. It is important to remember the distinction between activations and sales, with activations including passed-down devices to spouses or children as well as the strong iPhone reseller market.

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As expected, Apple Store iPhone trade-in program reaches the UK

Ben Lovejoy Oct 14 2013 - 5:38 am PT

5 Comments

You may recall we broke the story that Apple’s iPhone trade program, launched in the U.S. in August, was coming to the UK. It’s now launched – but you may not want to use it.

Apple says it will offer up to £175 for iPhone models in its UK stores. Apple offers up to $250 in its U.S.-based locations. The program allows a customer with an iPhone 3G or newer to receive a gift card with the trade-in-value for use towards a new iPhone. The new device must be activated in-store.

An online version, based on a different recycling firm, launched in the UK last year.

But for those who really don’t want the hassle of dealing with private sales, it’s at least an option to make that shiny new iPhone 5s a little cheaper …

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Are iPhone 5c sales low or supplies high?

Ben Lovejoy Oct 11 2013 - 8:04 am PT

36 Comments

Image: abcnews.com

KGI’s Mingchi Kuo, an analyst with a solid track-record, and the man who came closest (almost) to calling opening weekend sales of the iPhone, now believes Apple shipped ‘just’ 11.4M iPhone 5c handsets in September, rather than the 17M he had earlier forecast, reports Business Insider.

Kuo is now estimating Apple shipped 11.4 million 5Cs in the September quarter, a 33% drop from his original estimate. He also says he expects 5C sales to be just 10.4 million units for the December quarter, a 10% sequential drop.

This makes some sense of the rampant discounting seen on the 5C (which actually started at Walmart before launch), but doesn’t necessarily mean that iPhone sales as a whole are down …
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Apple’s guidelines now officially allow developers to use all colors of iPhone 5s in marketing

Benjamin Mayo Oct 9 2013 - 6:45 am PT

1 Comment

Alongside the launch of the 5s and 5c, Apple has adjusted its marketing guidelines for App Store developers in response to the wider color palette of iPhones now on sale. Apple now officially allows developers to include iPhone models other than black in their marketing.

Up to now, developers were only supposed to use black iPhones although it is well known that Apple never really enforced these requirements. As such, many developers have used white iPhones in PR images over the years regardless of the regulations. Now though. developers are free to use gold or white colored devices in their marketing at will.

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Literal camera shootout tests iPhone 5s slo-mo by shooting iPhone 5c

Ben Lovejoy Oct 8 2013 - 6:32 am PT

1 Comment

Whenever a new phone comes out, there are always a bunch of drop-test videos, keen to see how the handset fares when dropped onto various surfaces. Rated RR‘s tests are a little more … extreme. Generally involving a 50-cal rifle.

So when they wanted to see how the iPhone 5s 120fps slo-mo performs, what else would they do to find out but shoot a defenceless iPhone 5c? It may not be quite as pretty as some demos, but it’s certainly impressive.

Still looking for that elusive in-store iPhone 5s? Screen-scraper web app is here to help

Ben Lovejoy Oct 2 2013 - 5:11 am PT

4 Comments

If you’re still hoping to pick up an iPhone 5s from your local Apple retail store, developer Mordy Tikotzky has put together a web app to help.

Just go to the iPhone Check website, put in your ZIP code (it’s US-only at present), select your desired color and carrier and hit the Submit button. The web app carries out the search for you, screen-scrapes the results from apple.com and then presents a neat, color-coded table of results.

Apple briefly introduced an in-store pickup option, pulled it after one day and restored it a few days ago. The tool is a very handy way to check availability, but if my quick tests are anything to go by, you’re still not going to have much luck finding a gold one (other solutions are available …).

Verizon confirms software glitch allowed upgraders to keep unlimited plan, but deal will be honored

Ben Lovejoy Oct 1 2013 - 3:51 am PT

1 Comment

AllThingsD has confirmed our suspicion that it was a software glitch that allowed iPhone upgraders to keep their unlimited data plans.

There is, however, good news for those lucky enough to have upgraded their phones before the glitch was caught:

[Verizon] said it would honor the unlimited plans of those customers who managed to upgrade while Verizon was working to fix its software.

New iPhones hit nine regional U.S. carriers on October 1st

Ben Lovejoy Sep 25 2013 - 7:40 am PT

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While the iPhone was available from the four main U.S. carriers from 20th September, those who want to stick with smaller regional carriers have so far had to wait. 1st October is now known to be the magic date for nine carriers, with others expected to announce shortly.

The nine companies who have so far announced that they will have both the iPhone 5s and 5c available from that date (via MacRumors) are:

– Appalachian Wireless
– Bluegrass Cellular
– C Spire
– Cellcom
– GCI
– MTA
– Nex-Tech Wireless
– Ntelos
– Strata

Not all regional carriers yet support LTE for the iPhone. You can check which do in this Apple support document.

Gorgeous demo of iPhone 5s slow-motion video capabilities

Ben Lovejoy Sep 25 2013 - 7:03 am PT

8 Comments

There have been a number of demonstrations of the new 120fps slow-motion video capabilities of the iPhone 5s, but this one is the most beautiful I’ve seen.

Normal video is shot at 30 frames per second, a rate fast enough that the action looks smooth to the human eye. By filming at 120fps, four times faster than normal, the footage still looks beautifully smooth when slowed down by the same amount.

The effect was used in footage shot at the Burberry London fashion show, shot entirely with the iPhone 5s.

Via Daring Fireball

Apple announces record 9 million iPhone sales over first three days, 200 million iOS 7 updates

Benjamin Mayo Sep 23 2013 - 5:31 am PT

9 Comments

Update: On Twitter, Tim Cook has tweeted, for the second time, to thank customers for the “amazing” sales.

[tweet https://twitter.com/tim_cook/status/382172377569689600]

Apple has just announced first-weekend sales figures for the iPhone 5s and 5c. Sales for both phones total 9 million. In comparison, the iPhone 5 shipments topped 5 million in the same period. These numbers come in at the higher end of analyst estimates, with many predicting bearish sales similar to the iPhone 5 launch last year. As expected, Apple did not reveal the breakdown of sales between the different iPhone models.

Alongside phone sales, the company’s press release also highlights iOS 7’s successful launch. Apple has announced that 200 million devices have been updated to iOS 7 since it was released last Wednesday. This is double the rate at which iOS 6 was adopted.

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Apple’s iPhone 5S renders 1080P video at twice the rate of the iPhone 5, Geekbenches close to 2010 Mac Mini

9to5 Staff Sep 22 2013 - 5:32 am PT

22 Comments

Almost the exact 2x Apple promised and great for people doing big videos. Also notable from Macsfuture:

The iPhone 5s’ Geekbench score of 2552 is close to the score of the “Early 2010” version of the Mac Mini.

So it seems that Apple’s processors are about 3-4 years behind Intel’s currently. If Apple’s Ax processors keeps doubling speed every year and Intel struggles to keep up with Moore’s law, it doesn’t take a Computer Science major to see what’s going to happen in a few years.
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Apple boosts production of gold iPhone 5s by a third after availability went straight to October

Ben Lovejoy Sep 20 2013 - 1:52 am PT

13 Comments

The WSJ reports that Apple has instructed suppliers to increase production of the gold model of the iPhone 5s by one-third after seeing high demand for the color. Availability for the gold model was into October within 30 minutes of orders opening on Apple Store sites around the world, with retail stores also reportedly selling out quickly and carriers getting few in the first place …
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iPhone 5s & 5c get first teardowns revealing fingerprint sensor assembly & new components

Jordan Kahn Sep 19 2013 - 9:08 am PT

1 Comment

With Australia, alongside other countries in Asia included in the initial September 20 iPhone launch, the first to get their hands on the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, a repair company in the country has just posted the first teardown of the two new iPhones. The iExperts Team out of Australia has taken apart both devices, revealing new components but not yet giving us a look at what we expect will be a Samsung made A7 chip.

The first thing noticed in the teardown was a new connector for the TouchID fingerprint sensor assembly. Lining up with leaks leading up to the launch of the iPhones, it also found a 5.92Whr battery in the 5s (up from 5.45Whr in the iPhone 5), and a 5.73Whr battery in the iPhone 5c. Internal layouts for the two new iPhones also seem to line up with part leaks we seen in recent months. Interestingly, the site notes that the batteries are stamped with “Apple Japan.”

Many of the teardown shots below also include an iPhone 5 next to the 5s and 5c for comparison.

iExperts notes that Apple has fixed an issue from previous generation devices by adding an extra coating to switches “that should help hold them together to prevent the failures prevalent in the other models.”

We don’t learn much more from the teardown, which is likely still in progress as the site analyzes new internal components, but we’ll be learning a lot more as others pry into their new iPhones in the hours ahead. The teardown also gives us a good look at Apple’s new home button/fingerprint assembly:
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iPhone sales up 28% this quarter, forecasts Morgan Stanley

Ben Lovejoy Sep 18 2013 - 4:07 am PT

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Morgan Stanley is estimating that iPhone sales for Q3 (Apple’s fiscal Q4) will hit 34.5M, 28 percent higher than the 26.9M sold in the same quarter last year, reports Fortune.

Apple had only just begun taking iPhone 5C pre-orders Sunday when Morgan Stanley’s AlphaWise Smartphone Tracker closed the books on Q3 2013, but the survey had already registered a bump in buyer interest in the company’s line of smartphones …
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Nokia’s new camera-phones cost the same $29 as Apple’s iPhone 5c ‘Crocs’ CASE

Jordan Kahn Sep 16 2013 - 7:43 am PT

10 Comments

While everyone was expecting Apple to introduce its new colourful iPhone 5c as a “lower-cost” option, Nokia today announced a truly low-cost device with its new $29 Nokia 108.

Compare that with the $29 Apple is charging for just the case-– the one no one seems to like— for its low-cost offering. iLounge got theirs a little early and described it:

The silicone rubber case is lined with microfiber on the inside, and includes Sleep/Wake and volume button protection. It’s quite light, with the empty space left by a 5 x 7 grid of 5/16″ holes helping to keep the weight down, while also oddly exposing only portions of the iPhone 5c’s rear labeling.

Nokia’s camera phone does calls, text, video capture, and also includes an up to 32GB of memory, an MP3 player, FM radio, Snake the game, and battery life up to 31 days on standby. It also has colourful red, white, black, yellow and cyan back plates that can be removed and swapped for other colors.

As Benedict Evan’s wrote a few days ago, the disparity in what Apple and Nokia can get for their wares is quite striking.
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Some iPhone retailers seeing double the demand they saw at last year’s launch

Benjamin Mayo Sep 13 2013 - 8:13 am PT

7 Comments

Via KnowYourMobile, Phones4U are reporting that demand for the iPhone 5s and 5c has already surpassed that of the iPhone 5. Although this is the first year that Apple is offering two models of iPhone, which would naturally boost interest, the fact that this milestone has happened so soon is surprising. Phones4U say that growth in pre-registrations is already double what it was for the iPhone 5 for the same period. The company predicts that the phones will set their record for most handset pre-registrations ever.

The iPhone 5C became available for pre-order this morning. Certain SKU’s of the phone have already sold out.

Reminder: Apple confirms iPhone 5S orders start at 12.01am PT on September 20th

Ben Lovejoy Sep 13 2013 - 7:00 am PT

3 Comments

While it was known that the iPhone 5s would first go on sale on 20th September, and we assumed this meant midnight for online orders, this has now been confirmed by Apple. Pre-orders for the iPhone 5c are already live, and we did a round-up on the carriers and retailers.

We’re expecting iPhone 5s stocks to be tight, which is why our own Seth Weintraub has decided to opt for the gold (sorry, champagne) one.
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Opinion: Why I love the iPhone 5s, and why I’ll be sticking with my 4S

Ben Lovejoy Sep 11 2013 - 7:19 am PT

281 Comments

I like my gadgets, and generally consider myself an early adopter. When my friends are looking at buying a new piece of technology, I’m the one they ask as they know I’ll either own it or have tried it.

So you might be surprised to learn that my phone is an iPhone 4S and that after yesterday’s unveiling of the 5s (no, I don’t know why it suddenly became lower-case either), I’m planning to wait for the iPhone 6 before upgrading.

It’s not that the 5s isn’t impressive from a purely technological viewpoint. It is. A 64-bit phone? That’s a pretty incredible achievement. Delegating sensor functions to a separate chip to enable constant use without the usual battery-drain? Brilliant. A truly state-of-the-art fingerprint sensor? Fantastic. A larger phone sensor with lower pixel-density? Exactly the right approach, and I was delighted to see Apple refusing to join in the stupid megapixel race.

But I’m still not going to buy one, and the reason for that is two-fold. Before I get to that, one piece of context. In the U.S., upgrading can be a no-brainer as you end up on the same tariff either way. In the UK, it’s better value long-term to buy the phone outright at full retail (around $1120 for the 64Gb 5s), so you have to balance incremental benefit over other gadgets you could buy with the same money – like a new iPad. So, back to those two reasons …
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Poll: How much will a 16GB iPhone 5C cost, unsubsidized?

Seth Weintraub Sep 9 2013 - 6:33 pm PT

20 Comments

One of the bigger questions remaining about Apple’s event tomorrow is the price point of the iPhone 5C. Some, including Reuters, have put the price point very low, in the $100 Android range. Others have put it higher at $500 and above. Assuming Apple goes with a 16GB base model, I’d personally guess about $450 or slightly lower. How about you?