You own the 5 and you look at the 5S and think is it worth the upgrade.
Possibly not but then I don’t think Apple is looking for you to upgrade every 12 months. Most contracts are 24 months and that’s when they will be looking for you to upgrade your current iPhone.

But is the 5S worth the money. If photography matters then it should. Touch ID is very convenient. Technology made easy and useful. The new processor A7 and M7 coprocessor is genius. The iPhone camera is about a quality shot and snapped without much skill.

The 5S is no exception. The pixel size on the 5S has been increased from 1.4 microns to 1.5 microns, a new 5 element lens, f2.2 versus previous f2.4. Apple also designs its own image signal processor. So its gets the most out of its software and hardware. So the larger pixels and lower f stop will help with lower light photos.

The new chip still does white balance and auto exposure, but now does dynamic tone mapping which is state of the art stuff. In addition, autofocus matrix metering with 15 focus areas is common on decent DSLR cameras but not phones!

The 5S is able to take several shots and automatically select the best one based on a number of factors without you realising. True Tone flash is genius again offering a more natural flash with 1,000 shades. It is not the answer to all prayers but it should produce more natural shots.

The 5S can take 100s of photos in burst mode and still process the images behind the scenes, checking for exposure, sharpness, faces, smiles and blinking.

120fps on slow motion video. That’s impressive alone but you can edit the footage on the fly too. The A7 chip also allows panoramic photos at 30fps which is 50% faster than the 5. Also during the capture of the panoramic shot, exposure gets adjusted. Plus these photos can be 30mb in size. As a comparison both the Samsung S4 Zoom and Xperia Z1 managed 5-600kb in file sizes.

Apart from the camera, the A7 processor will allow for other amazing processes to function even faster like games and third party accessories.

Personally, I just wish the screen was 4.5 inches in the same size frame. That would make it so perfect.

What do you think?

The Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk, has reported that in a poll of 1,000 UK adults conducted by online survey company Usurv immediately after the iPhone launch event last night, only 31 per cent of existing iPhone users said they wanted the new Apple iPhone 5S.

This compares to 44 per cent of UK iPhone users who were willing to upgrade to the iPhone 5 directly after its launch last year.

Despite the iPhone 5S being revolutionary, I do think the economic conditions play a part in these figures.

And even though Apple’s shares dropped by over 5% yesterday following the launch, I still believe the new iPhones will sell like hotcakes. Plus there is the China market to add to Apple’s sales figures.

The Wall Street Journal confirmed some of the details surrounding the fingerprint sensor and Touch ID.  To use Touch ID, it is mandatory to also set up a passcode. This acts as a fallback in case the fingerprint sensor fails temporarily or experiences a permanent hardware fault. iOS may necessitate a passcode under some other conditions, as well.

Only that passcode (not a finger) can unlock the phone if the phone is rebooted or hasn’t been unlocked for 48 hours. This feature is meant to block hackers from stalling for time as they try to find a way to circumvent the fingerprint scanner.

By having the sensitive data expire fairly quickly, Apple is hoping that hackers will not have enough time to decrypt the data and have it still be useful. However, the time is long enough that it should not inconvenience users very often.

Apple says testing has shown that although the sensor is substantially better than fingerprint protection systems found in laptops, it will fail occasionally. In particular, Apple points out that moist fingers (such as sweat or residue from creams and lotions) do not work well with the device. The system may also have difficulty reading fingers that have scarred skin. However, as Touch ID can manage up to five fingerprint profiles at a time, Apple notes that customers can still take advantage of the feature by simply using a different finger for recognition.

I really like this new feature and think Apple made the technology useful and simple too.

During Apple’s keynote speech in which they announced the new iphones, I tweeted that now when you get mugged for your iPhone 5S with its fingerprint scanner, you will have your fingers chopped off.

Many people retweeted my tweet, probably thinking that it was a humourous tweet.

However, it actually is a factual statement. It is well known fact, that previous devices with a fingerprint scanner have left mugging victims minus their fingers.

So be prepared.

The good news, is that the scanner times out after 48 hours after which you will have to enter your password, hopefully reducing the need of losing your finger.

Hilarious parody on the new iPhone 5S.

Just under 2 weeks on 10th September 2013, Apple will announce details on its new iPhones.

The iPhone 5C looks like to be a mid priced polycarbonate iPhone which will be available in a number of different colours. It is likely that the 5C will be the 5, but just in polycarbonate shell.

The iPhone 5S will be the upgrade to the 5. This will be available in 3 colours. White, Black and Champagne Gold. The storage will also be available in 128gb.

The new A7 processor inside the 5S is running at about 31% faster than the iPhone 5′s A6 chip. The iPhone 5′s A6 chip is dual-core, and the iPhone 5S will also remain dual-core. There is a possibility that it will handle 64bit. The fingerprint sensor built into the home button is a possibility, linked into some new payments system. The camera will have dual flash, upgraded optics but still only be 8mp.

Photo via ASCII.JP

Photos via Sonny Dickson

Reuters is reporting that this year, Apple is expected to launch the iPhone 5S, which will include new fingerprint technology and possibly in a few more colours.

It is also likely that the 5S will be visually identical to the current iPhone 5, but with upgraded internals from the processor, camera and memory. With the new Ipad offering memory up to 128gb, it is quite possible the 5S might stretch to this limit too.

I just wonder, who would spend the extra premium on having memory at 128gb. Would you?