Sweet Options for the iPhone 5

By GREGORY SCHMIDT

Speck’s lineup of iPhone 5 cases include, clockwise from left, CandyShell, CandyShell Flip, FabShell, CandyShell Grip and SmartFlex Card.

The accessory market is being flooded with cases for the iPhone 5 as manufacturers rush to provide options for the latest Apple smartphone. But few companies have done much more than resize old cases.

Speck, based in Palo Alto, Calif., has taken a more thoughtful approach, tweaking the design of its CandyShell cases to make them thinner and give them a better grip.

Speck was recently awarded a patent for its CandyShell design, which combines a hard, glossy exterior with a soft, rubbery interior in a single piece. A raised bezel offers a modest amount of screen protection when the phone is placed face down, and rubberized tabs cover the buttons.

I’ve always been partial to the CandyShell Flip because the bottom third of the case flips back for easy docking. I hate wrestling with cellphone covers to get them on and off. But when I heard about the redesign for the CandyShell Grip, I thought I would give it a try because I can be rather clumsy when it comes to holding my phone.

The CandyShell Grip now has rubber ridges woven into the plastic on the back, and the finger pads on the front were removed. The redesign makes the case easier to hold securely, which is especially handy when playing games on the phone. But I found that the grips also make it harder to slide the phone in and out of your pocket, so it’s a bit of a trade-off.

The CandyShell cases, which cost $35, come in a variety of colors and designs, some commemorating holidays, flags, countries and even bridges. (Please, Speck, make a Brooklyn Bridge case!) The cases are relatively expensive, but they offer decent protection without adding much bulk. And the good thing about having so many options is that when you get tired of one case, you can easily switch to another.

Source: Nytimes

The iPhone 5: My First Impressions

David Pogue

Peter DaSilva for The New York TimesThe iPhone 5, right, and the iPhone 4S.

Apple unveiled the new iPhone 5 today in San Francisco. As it turns out, most of the individual rumors about it were true — but even so, they didn’t describe the whole package.

The new phone is the same width as the old one, but taller and thinner, as though someone ran over the old iPhone with a steamroller. When held horizontally, the four-inch screen has 16:9 proportions, a perfect fit for HDTV shows and a better fit for movies. The added screen length gives the Home screen room for a fifth row of icons.

The band around the edges is still silver on the white iPhone — but on the black model, it’s black with a gleaming, reflective bezel. It looks awesome.

The back is aluminum now. The strips at the top and bottom of the back are made of glass, the better to allow the wireless signal through — but as a side benefit, you can now tell which way is front as you fish the thing out of your pocket.

The processor, with a new design, is twice as fast, according to Apple. And the iPhone has 4G LTE, meaning superfast Internet in select cities.

Not many rumor mills predicted the improvement in the camera. It’s an eight-megapixel model with an f/2.4 aperture, meaning that it lets in a lot of light. The panorama mode is the best you’ve ever seen: as you swing the camera in an arc in front of you, a preview screen shows you the resulting panorama growing in real time. I took only two panorama shots in my limited time with the iPhone 5, but they came out crazy good.

The camera takes 40 percent less time between shots, it can recognize up to 10 faces (for focus and exposure purposes) and it can take still photos even while you’re filming video.

The new phone also offers better battery life (eight hours of talk time or Web browsing), according to Apple (I haven’t tested it yet). It also has noise cancellation both for outgoing and incoming sound. The phone is also ready for wideband audio — your callers won’t have that tinny phone sound, but richer, more FM-radioish sound — but that requires the carrier to upgrade its network. The catch: no American carriers have announced plans to do that.

At first glance, there’s really only one cause for pause: Apple has replaced the 30-pin charging/syncing connector that’s been on every iPhone, iPad and iPod since 2003. According to Apple, it’s simply too big for its new, super-thin, super-packed gadgets.

So with the iPhone and the new iPod models also announced today, Apple is replacing that inch-wide connector with a new, far smaller one it’s calling Lightning.

I’ll grudgingly admit that the Lightning connector is a great design: it clicks nicely into place, but it can be yanked out quickly. It goes in either way — there’s no “right side up,” as there was with the old connector. And it’s tiny, which is Apple’s point.

Peter DaSilva for The New York TimesThe iPhone 5, right, connects to power cables, stereo docking stations and other peripherals using a smaller connector that is incompatible with previous models.

Still, think of all those charging cables, docks, chargers, car adapters, hotel-room alarm clocks, speakers and accessories—hundreds of millions of gadgets that will no longer fit the iPhone.

Apple will sell two adapters, a simple plug adapter for $30 or one with a six-inch cable for $40, to accommodate accessories that can’t handle the plug adapter.

That’s way, way too expensive. These adapters should not be a profit center for Apple; they should be a gesture of kindness to those of us who’ve bought accessories based on the old connector. There’s going to be a lot of grumpiness in iPhoneland, starting with me.

Overall, though, Apple seems to have put its focus on the important things you want in an app phone: size, shape, materials, sound quality, camera quality and speed (both operational and Internet data), and that’s good. I’ll have a full review once I’ve had some time to test the thing.

The new iPhone goes on sale on Sept. 21 for $200 with a two-year contract from Verizon, Sprint or AT&T. (That’s the 16-gigabyte model. You can get 32 gigs for $300 or 64 gigs for $400.)

If you’re content with last year’s technology — or 2010’s — you can also get the iPhone 4 free with a two-year contract, or the iPhone 4S (16 gigs) for $100 with contract.

The holiday shopping season has begun.

Source: The New York time

Latest Rumors Say iPhone 5 Production Begins in Taiwan

New sources claim that an order for fifteen million iPhone 5 units was received by the Taiwanese company “Pegatron Technology” from Apple, and the new phones are scheduled for a September shipment. According to these, the fifth generation iPhone will not have a different design than the iPhone 4. Pegatron didn’t make an official statement regarding its cooperation with the makers of iPhone.

In 2010, following the partnership with Apple for 10 million CDMA iPhones 4, Pegatron considerably increased the number of its factories, equipment and personnel. Currently, the company’s factory in Shanghai (China) started employing more workers, which indicates the fact that they are preparing for a large work load, such as 15 million iPhones.
Pegatron is also hoping that they can get their hands on some Macbook and iPad orders, as well as Acer notebook orders, since they lost their biggest client, Asustek Computer. Market analysts do believe that Pegatron will get orders from both Apple and Acer in 2012.

iPhone 5 Release Still Not Officially Set

 

Many Apple customers were expecting the unveiling of the iPhone 5 earlier this year, in June, at Apple’s annual World Wide Developers Conference, but Steve Jobs disappointed the public when it didn’t mention one word about a new smartphone. He did, however, introduced Apple’s newest operating system, iOS 5, which is set to launch in September. iOS 5 brings more than 200 new features, including Notification Center, iMessage, Twitter, Newsstand, enhanced photo functions and more.
iOS 5 is expected to be the operating system of the new iPhone 5, and while many of us are hoping for a lot more upgrades, such as a better camera, 4G LTE compatibility, dual-core processor or a larger screen size, Apple hasn’t yet released any information about the introduction of a new smartphone.
This year’s delay might be due to the fact that the company is trying to prevent shortages. Even so, people are getting tired of new rumors surfacing every day, and they don’t know which one to believe anymore.