Thoughts on iPhone 5S / 5C?

[Altis]

Anybody paying attention to Apple's unveiling today?

5S seems pretty nice, although not all that different.

5C is a 5 with thick plastic casing. I think it only exists to justify the $100 gap (US/CAN) between the 5 and 5S, as the 5 with the aluminum casing would be too similar to the 5S.

It's a very good time to buy a used iPhone 5, though!  Prices are low, and even if you slap a case on it, it's still no thicker than the 5C.

Any thoughts?

[Lastpilot]

Plastic cases and fingerprint readers. Meh.

Well, it's better than maps and siri LOL.

For those who have a 5 like me, they will be underwhelmed. For those that don't have a 5, they will be happy maybe even tempted. Isn't that the point they wanted to make? Open up to new markets while keeping existing customers happy with their phones?

We all know REAL geeks will wait for the full overhaul, not some S or C model. It just makes me all the more curious about next years phone.

[noisyturtle]

Apples basic re-marketing philosophy:

[Findecanor]

Apparently, the ordinary iPhone 5 is discontinued as of now... replaced with the 5C and 5S and they continue to sell the 4S. Get it while you can, if you want it.
Anybody know the price difference between the current 5 and the 5C?
The old 5 is known for having a low signal strength. I wonder if any of the new ones is better ...

The 5S has a fingerprint reader that you can not not use to operate the phone and the motion/gyro/compass/GPS chip works when the phone is "off"... Bring on the NSA jokes!

I am a little bit concerned with the overloading of the Home button for fingerprint reading and getting back to the home screen. I wonder if not many people use the button as a kind of "Cancel" button, to get out of apps that they had not intended to use.
"But song on iTunes?".
"Cancel"
"Purchase complete!".

[baldgye]

kinda bummed I can't upgrade as my iphone5 is broken and I really like the look of the gold/white 5s

[HendyZone]

time for upgrade my poor iPhone 3G 

[Computer-Lab in Basement]

Apples basic re-marketing philosophy:

(Attachment Link)

^So true...


iPhones are overrated. GO ANDROID!!!

[Thimplum]

garbage

[tipo33]

overpriced.

[Michael]

I will wait until the 6. These incremental updates = meh.

[domoaligato]

Plastic cases and fingerprint readers. Meh.

apple bought the fingerprint reader company. I have a Motorola Atrix 4g and Motorola was already licensing the fingerprint reader technology from the company that apple bought.
that is one of the rumors as to why Motorola stopped using the fingerprint readers on there android devices.
Again apple is remarketing old technology as something new.

[Krogenar]

Anybody paying attention to Apple's unveiling today?

...

Any thoughts?

I'd have to ask my parents how they feel about it. 

[Findecanor]

I wonder how long it takes before someone fools the fingerprint reader.
It is capacitative, so you would need to cast the print in gelatine.

[domoaligato]

I wonder how long it takes before someone fools the fingerprint reader.
It is capacitative, so you would need to cast the print in gelatine.

A mold of a finger is pretty easy to make with smooth on products.

[demik]

So Apple can do ipods with colorized alu but not phones.

[baldgye]

So Apple can do ipods with colorized alu but not phones.

they made it gold, the only real colour.

[Findecanor]

A mold of a finger is pretty easy to make with smooth on products.

I think that RTV has too much shrinkage. Urethane has a bit of shrinkage as well, and it cures in an exothermic reaction which would burn your skin.

Anyway, the point is not to mould a finger which you have direct access to, but to lift a fingerprint from a glass or other surface.
There was a Mythbusters episode, where they made a gelatine fingerprint mould by etching a circuit board.

[concept73]

This is just a joke, a thicker plastic and a $100 price tag morwe?!

[Findecanor]

A mold of a finger is pretty easy to make with smooth on products.

I have a Motorola Atrix 4g and Motorola was already licensing the fingerprint reader technology from the company that apple bought.

... Wait a minute... Have you tried cracking the fingerprint reader on your Motorola phone?

[baldgye]

This is just a joke, a thicker plastic and a $100 price tag morwe?!

?? It's a cheaper iPhone 5... nothing more

[Clicky]

I thought it was interesting that they chose to call the 5s their most "forward thinking" phone ever.  I'm not a huge picture guy, so the camera improvements didn't really impress me.  The fingerprint scanner also seems kind of meh to me.  I was intrigued by it being a 64-bit phone and the boosted graphical capabilities, but it wouldn't sway me into buying one because swipe-tap-tap-tap-swipe games just really don't do it for me. That being said, if Apple became serious about gaming and produced an attachment that added a d-pad and buttons, I would buy it in a second.  I think it would need to be made by Apple and not by some third party for developers to really support it.   Anyways, if you were dying to get an improvement to your iPhone camera, a fingerprint scanner, and a performance boost to gaming, then the 5s is right up your alley.  If you can live without those things I would definitely wait and see what they do with the iPhone 6.

The iPhone 5c...I don't know.  It's my understanding that typically when a new iPhone is released that the previous iPhone generation moves to the $100.00 price point.  By removing the iPhone 5 from the lineup it seems to me that they're saying something along the lines of, "The iPhone 5s definitely isn't worth twice the price of an iPhone 5, so instead here's a much cheaper piece of hardware."  That being said, I think it will still sell well in the emerging markets they're supposedly looking to target (I also think it will be a hit with young teenage girls).

I think Apple produces high quality products, but I feel that if someone owns an iPhone, especially an iPhone 5, this is definitely not the time to upgrade.  If you're looking to purchase an iPhone for the first time then these seem like fine options (though if you're interested in the 5c, I would probably wait to see how well it's reviewed).

[microsoft windows]

THE IPHONE 5 IS STUPID

GET A WINDOWS PHONE

[daerid]

A mold of a finger is pretty easy to make with smooth on products.

This has been addressed. The sensor only works with a living finger.

Source: http://www.citeworld.com/security/22399/iphone-fingerprint-scanner-better-biometrics

[rowdy]

THE IPHONE 5 IS STUPID

GET A WINDOWS PHONE

Too little, too late.

[baldgye]

GET A WINDOWS PHONE

I can't even imagine a world where this has happened

[Findecanor]

This has been addressed. The sensor only works with a living finger.

Source: http://www.citeworld.com/security/22399/iphone-fingerprint-scanner-better-biometrics

1. That's not a very good article overall. Not specific enough.
2. The sensor in iPhone 5 is capacitative. There are research papers that tell about capacitative sensors being fooled by gelatine casts because of the capacitative properties of (animal) gelatine being close to living tissue.
3. Mythbusters used gelatine casts to fool capacitative fingerprint sensors. The procedure: Fool Grant into leaving his thumb print on a CD. Dust. Lift with tape. Scan. Clean up in a computer. Print and etch a circuit board. Cast gelatine on top of circuit board. Still, this procedure has a few steps more than just using tape which was sufficient to fool optical sensors.

[baldgye]

This has been addressed. The sensor only works with a living finger.

Source: http://www.citeworld.com/security/22399/iphone-fingerprint-scanner-better-biometrics

1. That's not a very good article overall. Not specific enough.
2. The sensor in iPhone 5 is capacitative. There are research papers that tell about capacitative sensors being fooled by gelatine casts because of the capacitative properties of (animal) gelatine being close to living tissue.
3. Mythbusters used gelatine casts to fool capacitative fingerprint sensors. The procedure: Fool Grant into leaving his thumb print on a CD. Dust. Lift with tape. Scan. Clean up in a computer. Print and etch a circuit board. Cast gelatine on top of circuit board. Still, this procedure has a few steps more than just using tape which was sufficient to fool optical sensors.

It's a phone, not the door to the worlds stock pile of nuclear weapons....

[microsoft windows]

GET A WINDOWS PHONE

I can't even imagine a world where this has happened

[rowdy]

GET A WINDOWS PHONE

I can't even imagine a world where this has happened

Show Image

I will admit that I did have a Windows CE PDA at one stage.  I actually grew quite attached to it.  Then I got an iPod touch.  The only thing I missed was all the info on the home screen.

[Lanx]

when are we gonna see the jokes

iphone 5c

whats the c stand for?

iphone 5cheap
iphone 5crap

like apple is dumb, c probably stands for colors (i didn't check out any news really) but they shoulda been smarter than that.

it's like if you're a father, and your last name is Jules, you won't name your son
Benjamin Jules...

bad initials.

[Puddsy]

Not android no thank you

Except everyone else I know is going to buy one then patronize me for not having one.

Ah, high school.

[sth]

I will wait until the 6. These incremental updates = meh.

i dunno man, i think upgrading on the tock is a lot better in apple's case than on the tick. the first ones always have some problems that mostly get worked out for the update... but you don't get early adopter points for that.

[Altis]

I will wait until the 6. These incremental updates = meh.

i dunno man, i think upgrading on the tock is a lot better in apple's case than on the tick. the first ones always have some problems that mostly get worked out for the update... but you don't get early adopter points for that.

Good point.  The same could be said of iOS versions... early adopters often pay the price with buggy software.

I'm on the fence about updating given the slew of issues I'm seeing on some Mac forums... lots of errors installing, activating, etc.

If only I could be cured of this bug for tech stuff...!

[rowdy]

Some of those errors might just result from saturates networks - too many people trying to drink from the early adopter's cup of courage.

[Altis]

That could be, but the errors occur after the download is done, and after it installs, it fails.. I don't know, there's a lot of behind the scenes activity I don't understand, I suppose.

There were many issues with the GM release, which was expected to be fixed up a bit before the public release; alas, it's the same build exactly.

[Flyersfan1]

I will wait until the 6. These incremental updates = meh.

i dunno man, i think upgrading on the tock is a lot better in apple's case than on the tick. the first ones always have some problems that mostly get worked out for the update... but you don't get early adopter points for that.

I agree, I used to hate being on the "S" cycles for upgrades, but then I realized you get a more refined phone in most cases.  I'm pretty sure the 6 will probably see some sort of screen increase, but I really like the changes they made to the camera and the touch ID seems very cool.

[PadawanGeek]

My thoughts on the iPhone 5S/C? None whatsoever! I'm an Android guy, but my Machead bro is gonna get it, or has gotten it.......

[rowdy]

Some blurry wallpapers here for anyone looking for iOS 7 wallpapers.

[cactux]

Nice HW, stable OS with multiple critical limitations.

[i3oilermaker]

Anyone lining up in Lincoln Park, Chicago tomorrow?

[microsoft windows]

no

[baldgye]

Anyone lining up in Lincoln Park, Chicago tomorrow?

Why not just go the day after, or pre-order online? I've never understood the benefits of queuing for a phone, a device that is (best case) literally out-dated within a year.

[samwisekoi]

One adds an "S", the other adds a "C" and a plastic case, while still being too costly.  And the same old UI and company-controlled ecology.

But it has an "S" now, so the hipsters will be excited.

And the NSA can add hipster fingerprints to their database.  This was important since many of the fixie-riders don't have driver's licenses or bank accounts.  Good ol' Tim, jus' helpin' out the guv'ment.



Yawn.

 - Ron | samwisekoi
(Apple employee 1989-1997)

[daerid]

That's actually completely inaccurate.

[noisyturtle]

I will wait until the 6. These incremental updates = meh.

i dunno man, i think upgrading on the tock is a lot better in apple's case than on the tick. the first ones always have some problems that mostly get worked out for the update... but you don't get early adopter points for that.

You are the last person I would've expected to be in agreement with Apple's general business philosophy. My entire world view is shaken. 

[baldgye]

I will wait until the 6. These incremental updates = meh.

i dunno man, i think upgrading on the tock is a lot better in apple's case than on the tick. the first ones always have some problems that mostly get worked out for the update... but you don't get early adopter points for that.

You are the last person I would've expected to be in agreement with Apple's general business philosophy. My entire world view is shaken. 

"Apple's general business philosophy" by that you mean making money?

[samwisekoi]

That's actually completely inaccurate.

Well, yes, if you want to bring "facts" to a "truthiness" fight.   

Actually, Colbert-accuracy standards aside, iPhone people will buy iPhones.  Re fingerprint-reading, I've seen *some* of the technical discussion about the on-phone, encrypted, hash-only fingerprint validator, and remain unconvinced that it would be impossible to gather and upload either a reversible hash or some other encoded version of users' fingerprints.

We know that Apple is under a FISA order for something, and that they have made the mildest of public objections (compared to Google, Yahoo, and even Microsoft for heaven's sake!)  So there is no way to know yet if the phone can or does provide fingerprint info as metadata, nor even if FISA considers fingerprints protected "content" or unprotected "other information".

Even assuming that the 5s is a righteous piece of utterly benign technology, now is an unfortunate time to bring to market a piece of technology most commonly associated with law enforcement.

But ArsTechnica or EFF or someone will have these into an RF testing enclosure and try to find out what, exactly, is going in and out.  Remember the key-logger that was "only for trouble-shooting"?  That was a surprise, eh?

TL;DR:  My first reply was mostly a joke.  My concern about the fingerprint reader is that it may turn out not to be a joke at all.

 - Ron | samwisekoi

p.s.  Pro tip: A post actually containing a satirical comic may very well be satirical itself.

[noisyturtle]

I will wait until the 6. These incremental updates = meh.

i dunno man, i think upgrading on the tock is a lot better in apple's case than on the tick. the first ones always have some problems that mostly get worked out for the update... but you don't get early adopter points for that.

You are the last person I would've expected to be in agreement with Apple's general business philosophy. My entire world view is shaken. 

"Apple's general business philosophy" by that you mean making money?

Making money is the outcome, greed through Stockholm Syndrome-esque obedience and incremental improvement is the philosophy.

[Tym]

ios 7 thoughts? I don't like it I have it on my iPad and blurgh.

[microsoft windows]

WINDOWS 7 IS BETTER THAN IOS 7. IOS IS STUPID AND IT SUCKS. GET WINDOWS 7!