Having only released iOS 6.0 for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users last week, Apple has now offered a healthy update to its little black box - the Apple TV - with build 10A406e also taking the version number up to 5.1.
The smartphone market is among the largest and fastest growing markets in the world of consumer electronics. It is currently dominated by the iPhone and Android smartphones, with BlackBerry and Windows Phone at a distant 3rd and 4th position. Now that Apple has released the iPhone 5, arguably the biggest smartphone of the year with 5 million units sold in the opening weekend, it’s time to take a look at the smartphone market and, more importantly, involved consumers.
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.
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.
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.
Apple really brought forth some significant changes with the iPhone 5, and one of the most obvious is the new, larger display. Having stuck faithfully by its 3.5-inch configuration since day one, the Cupertino-based company finally felt it time to offer users of its iconic smartphone a little bit more real estate to play around with. However, breaking from the mold of many rivaling vendors, the fruit company opted to maintain the same width of the display, instead adding a sizeable block of pixels along the top.
It has, by and large, been a pretty good past week or two for Apple, and with stocks rising thanks to high sales forecasts of the iPhone 5, Tim Cook and his team have plenty to feel positive about. Having said that, iOS 6 hasn't released to such critical acclaim, and although it offers quite a few minor improvements in many key areas, one of the most anticipated changes - the new Maps app - looks to have been a marked fail.
The first drop tests have already compared the iPhone 5 against the Galaxy S III, and have shown that Apple has superior build quality which can withstand multiple falls without too much problem, but what about the technical and overall performance of the iPhone 5 during everyday use? The guys over at AnandTech ran some comprehensive tests on the new iPhone to determine the levels of performance that it provides, utilizing tests such as the Geekbench as well as SunSpider and BrowserMark analysis.
Apple has just started airing four new TV commercials for the newly launched iPhone 5. They have also been posted on the official Apple site and on their YouTube channel.
