The modern high-end smartphone is the ultimate example of the convergence of technology: besides being, you know, a phone, these devices are our music players, video players, alarm clocks, organizers, dictionaries, calculators, internet communications devices, full HD video recorders and go-to cameras.
The first weekend of iPhone 5 sales is now over and judging by the queues that were being experienced at various Apple Stores in available countries, it was expected that Apple would be seeing some extremely positive sales numbers after the first three days of availability. In a press statement coming out of California today, Apple Inc. have announced that they managed to ship five million iPhone 5 units following the release on Friday September 21st.
The iPhone 5 has been officially available through Apple and the carriers for two days now and although it has been heralded as a success, there are still a few issues that have some users expressing a little concern. One of the biggest talking points has been the removal of Google Maps in favor of Apple's own vector based mapping system, which in itself wouldn't be too much of an issue but Apple have gotten things drastically wrong in some users opinion.
It appears to be something of a trend these days, but the release of Apple's new iPhone 5 has done nothing but lead every two-bit tech fan with a video recorder to take to YouTube in an attempt to prove, or disprove, that the thing can be scratched. And by scratched, we mean pretty much obliterated.
Yesterday, it was confirmed through multiple benchmarks that, with its custom ARMv7 dual-core chip dynamically clocked between 750MHz to 1.2GHz, Apple’s iPhone 5 is indeed the fastest smartphone available in the market today. It bests every other high-end Android smartphone (Galaxy S III, One X, Galaxy Nexus, you name it!); doesn’t matter if they come with four cores or are clocked at higher frequencies.
Among the first things hardcore Android enthusiasts do after unboxing their shiny new smartphone or tablet is to look for ways of gaining root access to it. “Rooting” is the Android equivalent of “jailbreaking” (an iOS term) which lets users run apps that can make changes to or access system level data and resources.
Apple made a song and dance of the new iPhone 5's camera improvements, and although the resolution remained at 8-megapixels (translating to "unchanged" among the overwhelming majority), Apple not only improved its build quality by incorporating a Sapphire lens, but also claim it performs much better in low lighting conditions.
Despite the shockingly-bad Maps app upsetting a vast number of iOS 6 users, the Cupertino company's latest and greatest mobile firmware has been downloaded and installed in record numbers. Fuelled by the frenzied consumer rush for the new iPhone 5, the new operating system has been adopted at a rate 122 percent faster than iOS 5, which released last October.
You remember the ongoing battle between Samsung and Apple over what does and does not constitute patent infringement? You know, the one that ended with Apple being awarded $1 billion in damages and Samsung left to lick its wounds? Bet you thought that was the end of that, didn't you?
Fans of Microsoft's Xbox Music Pass appear to be in luck, if they also plan on picking up one of the new Windows Phone 8 devices that will be hitting the streets shortly. The Windows Phone 8 hype is beginning to reach a whole new level of, well, hype. We're not too far away from new smartphones packing Windows Phone 8 reaching stores, and we're still learning new and somewhat interesting things about what features will and will not make their way into those handsets.
