Critics often berate Apple for retailing its smartphones, tablets and computers, at higher price brackets than some would estimate their worth to be, and although it's a topic of fierce debate, there's little denying that your average Cupertino product costs a considerable amount more than a similar alternative created by a rivaling company.
The iOS App Store is an extremely active place at the moment as the Apple review team struggle to fight their way through the barrage of apps that are being sent to them by developers with iPhone 5 and iOS 6 compatibility upgrades. We've already seen a number of notable and popular apps getting the support for the larger display of the new iPhone with Google now joining the party with a welcome update to their extremely popular Chrome for iOS web browser.
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 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 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.
One of the possible reasons why Apple shifted to their own mapping solution in iOS 6, besides reports suggesting that their five year long Maps license from Google had expired, is the company’s general preference to having complete and absolute control over how user’s use their products. In addition to that, data from users of maps is very valuable; data that Apple would like to keep to itself rather than hand it to a third party.
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.
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 appears that the iPhone 5 has a slight issue with its display, as one of our readers reports that his freshly unboxed new toy has a noticeable yellow tint to it. Could this be another “-gate” issue much like Antennagate on iPhone 4? Or is it an issue that will fix itself with the passage of time? Check out all the details after the jump.
