September 2012 has been a meaningful month for Apple. Along with the iPhone 5, Apple is rolling out iOS 6, which comes shipped within its new device, and available for other Apple devices starting September 19.
The new Apple smartphone and the new operating system are introduced with new features and capabilities to enhance user experience. With the iPhone 5 and iOS 6, Apple is hoping to distinguish itself once more in the market against other high-end smartphones from Windows Phone and Android rivals.
The iPhone 5
The new iPhone 5 was displayed during an Apple special event at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on September 12th, 2012 in San Francisco, California. Apple announced the iPhone 5, the latest version of the popular smartphone as well as new updated versions of the iPod Nano, Shuffle and Touch.
Enter the iPhone 5 and its A6 chip, which highlights Apple's effort to set a new benchmark in the mobile business. The most notable changes to the new iPhone 5 are in its physical features. It's 20 percent lighter and 18 percent thinner than the 4S. The iPhone 5 introduces the new 4-inch retina display screen with 1,136x640 pixel display with its own capacitive surface, creating a display that promises 44 percent extra color saturation and a more sensitive screen. These creates a way better touch response, better video and movie viewing, more room for app icons, better viewing for particular notes, a 5-day calendar view and easier email use.
The iPhone 5 is now equipped with a 1GB RAM, 1.07GHz processor and faster connection with 4G LTE that come bundled in its new design.
The most impressive thing the Apple did with the iPhone 5 was to increase the screen size by changing the aspect ratio to a longer and thinner screen. This enabled Apple to make a phone that was lighter and thinner, and about the same width, by making it a little taller. This means Apple could fight the screen size wars while maintaining a smaller and much more elegant form factor.
The iPhone 5 has a wide metal body that stretches above previous iPhones. The Gorilla Glass back of the last iPhone is now replaced with metal. The two-tone look might seem new, but it's a bit of a reference to the silver-and-black back of the original iPhone. The very top and bottom of the rear is still glass.
The rear camera is tweaked, but not quite as much as other features. It's still an 8-megapixel camera, but there's a new sapphire-crystal lens with improved features like faster shots, dynamic low-lighting adjustment, image stabilization, and the capability to take still shots while shooting video. The front-facing camera's been upgraded to 720p.
The audio improvement comes in the way of a third microphone, which aims to improve voice quality and, in particular, speakerphone quality, adding improved noise cancellation.
The iPhone 5 also introduced a new Nano-SIM card which is smaller and thinner than its Micro-SIM predecessor, and a new 8-pin dock connector called Lightning to replace its old 30 pin connector.
With all the new hardwares, Apple is concerned about the iPhone 5 battery usage. With bigger screen and LTE connection that are the biggest power users, Apple has kept its battery life, on paper, roughly the same as the iPhone 4S.
Many criticised the iPhone 5 for its lack of significant innovation, but Apple did not need to innovate – it needed to maintain its aura. And Apple has done this once again.
The iOS 6
Apple's latest update to the iOS 6 operating system introduces a raft of new features and enhancements to Apple's iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices and show's the companies determination to steadily improve and control the Apple mobile experience.
The sixth major build of the OS aims to bring the user experience to the next level with numerous new services, features and UI tweaks.
According to Apple, the update adds over 200 new features, to iOS 5, which was released last year. As rumoured, iOS 6 has an entirely new mapping system, and Apple is doing all the cartography itself. A new feature called FlyOver enables users to zoom around maps in 3D with rotating images. The new Maps app includes turn-by-turn navigation with TomTom data and will use anonymous real-time crowd-sourced data right from iOS users, to keep traffic fresh and up-to-date.
Somewhat controversially, this feature new map replaces the Google Maps-based version that has shipped since the original iPhone. However, users can get a new version from Google in the App Store, which the company released last week.
Siri has been enhanced with new languages. The numerous new features including movie, sports, and updated restaurant information. However, all of this new Siri updates, excluding the new language she speaks, is available only to US owners. Despite the numerous exploits on Siri, it is clear that Apple is constantly improving the iOS voice features, and Siri is now capable of launching apps as well as providing information. Siri now has become a more central part of the iOS experience, along with some form of SDK integration for apps.
The iPhone 4S has finally lost its Siri exclusivity. Tablet devices, iPad 2 and the new iPad are able to use Siri along with the new iOS 6. The new iOS 6 is also compatible with the three latest iPhone generations (3GS, 4 and 4S) and the iPod Touch 4th and 5th generation.
While Twitter was planted in the iOS 5, on the new iOS 6, it is time for the largest social network, Facebook to be integrated. Facebook users can enter their username and password into the Settings to use Facebook right from the iOS device. As with Twitter this enables its users to view, and respond to, messages without having to launch a dedicated app. The integration of Facebook into iOS has a deeper level of capability as it also integrates with Contacts information and Calendar, as well as notifications.
Safari on the other hand, now support iCloud with new features such as Safari tab sharing that enables users to open a web page on their iOS device, then open the same tab on their Mac and vice versa.
The new OS also features Passbook. Passbook is a new e-ticket app that handles all kinds of electronic tickets (including boarding passes), coupons, loyalty cards, etc.. The location-aware app makes the right coupon available in the right place at the right time. The Passbook will report the balance on coupons and cards, allowing users to check their ticket seats and show them relevant notifications (e.g. gate or terminal change for a flight).
Beside the main highlighted features and services provided above, there are plenty other and lesser new features such as a new App store UI, redesigned Music app and Weather app, improved Safari with full-screen mode, offline reading, better performance, better Mail, FaceTime over cellular network, updated Photo app, re-organized settings and icons, improved privacy, improved HDR camera function, improved keyboard and auto-correction, Do Not Disturb mode, Lost mode, Reject call with SMS, etc.
Impressions
The iPhone 5 and the iOS 6 brought plenty of new things, and most of the new features are well implemented. There might not really be too many advances as fans expected, but there is enough to make a difference, giving a new lease of life to every user and Apple fans that owns it.
Maybe Apple's new device and operating system were never expected to win new customers from the competition. Especially when Google's Android and Microsoft Windows Phone already had some of the said features and services. Apple was all about improving the user experience for those already in the Apple world.