The iPhone phenomenon

Apple fans throughout the world are fasincated by the launch of the iPhone 5 today. Pre-orders were available in Singapore but that didn’t deter people from queueing to collect it overnight.

Look at the overnight queue at EpiCentre, Singapore.

Although the iPhone 5 is not technically superior than some of the Andriod phones out there, there are still a die hard group of fans that will go for the iPhone. It happened for 3GS, 4, 4S and now iPhone 5.

Some of it’s competitors has larger screen and slimmer body. Some even has anti dust, water resistance. The most important thing that most review sites forgot to mention is that the iPhone 5 comes with single band LTE 1800MHz unlike the others with Dual band of 1800MHz and 2600MHz. This is important as outdoor coverage is mainly 2600MHz and iPhone 5 will likely be seeing access speeds.

So, why is it that people are buying into Apple products knowing that the technical specifications might not be as good as the competitor. What I feel is the software that is more important than the hardware. Look at the apps you have on iPhone versus others. Secondly, it is the only brand that provides iOS upgrade from version 3 to 4, 5, and now iOS 6 across all iphones and iPads. Older phones gets a new life with every OS update. Compared to the Android, most of the older phones are still stucked at version 2.3.4 Gingerbread.

If you just bought your iPhone 5, I would like you to do a speedtest (using Speedtest app) on the LTE network. Do a screen capture and send it in to us on our Facebook page or email us at webmaster at ocworkbench.

Screen shot of Singtel phone user testing the LTE speed test at Kovan. It achieves 11Mbps for downlink and 27.11Mbps uplink.
Picture courtesy of Sgphonedeals

So what is your opinion about this phenomenon ? Will you buy one ? Post your comments below :

The latest iOS 6.0 has just been released 5 minutes ago.

We are updating our old iPhone 3GS to iOS 6.0 right now. The phone runs on M1 Singapore network and it will take a while to complete the download.

The iPhone 5 is finaly launched. So what is new ? Let’s take a look at it’s specs :

iPhone 5 specs: 112 grams (20 percent lighter than 4s), 7.6 mm (18 percent thinner), 4-inch display (up from 3.5 inches), 1136×640 pixel resolution (up from 960×640), a fifth row of icons on the screen, 44 percent more color saturation, LTE network compatible, available on Verizon/Sprint/ATT, processor and graphics are 2x faster.

The battery life far exceeds the iPhone 4S. It will have 8 hrs of talk time, 8 hrs of 3G / LTE browsing, 10 hrs for WIFI, 10 hours for Video, 40 hours for music and 225 hrs for standby.

The camera is improved too. It has a ‎8 megapixel camera
3264 x 2448, has backside illumination, Hybrid IR filter
Give elecment lens
f/2.4 aperture
25% smaller

It has an improved low light mode and a sapphire crystal lens cover.

The facetime front camera is upgraded and it supports 720p, backlit illumination, face detection
and now facetime over cellular.

Audio quality is improved too with an Improved speaker with 5 magnet transducer. Also Wide band audio too. Makes voice sound more natural.

The old USB cable goes into history as Apple introduces “lightning” connector. The new connector is smaller but there will also be an adapter for the old one

The new iPhone 5 will ship with iOS 6. It comes with new map applications that replaces google maps. Some other changes include tweeting right at the notification centre.

There is also iCloud Tabs which syncs whatever sites you have open on your Mac, iPhone, and iPad. A VIP VIP feature – messages from VIp filtered to special mail box.

iOS 6 also feature the Passbook. Passbook takes care of all the passes – boarding pass, ticketing etc. It has has push notifications — brings up boarding pass right on the lock screen, swipe it and you are right at your boarding pass.

Photo stream now can be shared with friends so that you can view what your friends are shooting.

There are also updates to Siri. It is now able to launch applications, recomend movies and check restaurants and do reservations. You can also update facebook using Siri.

Pricing is USD 199 for 16GB (contract). iPhone 4 8GB is Free with contract, iPhone 4S 16GB is USD 99 with contract.

iPhone 5 16GB is USD 199, 32GB at USD 299 and 64GB at USD 399, all with contracts.

Pre order starts from 14 sep, ships 21 Sep. iOS 6 comes Sep. 19th.

Later today, Apple is going to unveil the next generation iPhone or iPhone 5 that most will call it. So far, we have seen some rumours about the new phone, e.g. larger screen, new smaller dock, nano SIM etc. So, will it support the LTE network used in Europe and Asia or it supports all 4G networks ?

All will be made known to you at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time when Apple kicks off the event at Yerba Art Center in San Francisco.

The CoverItLive blog will be updated automatically from ABCNews. So, stay tuned to this page

Note: The updates in the CoverItLive module below will come through automatically when the event begins; no need to refresh the page. Just keep it locked here!

An Apple iPhone 5 introduction video has been circulating on youtube a few days ago. It looks authentic but I have some reservations.

The videos claims that the iPhone 5 has an all new design unibody construction with antenna at top and bottom of handset with glass cutout RF windows. It is 9mm taller and 22% thinner.

It is 7.5% lighter at 4.6 ounces or 130g. It has a 4″ 16:9 widescreen display with in-cell technology. THe display resolution is at 640×1136 at 326ppi and is 18% larger than before.

It claims to be powered by A6 processor, ram upgradable to 1GB ??? Storage is 32, 64 and 128GB. It has a front facetime camera but nothing is mentioned about the back camera.

There is a new mini dock connector, a 9 pin connector that has a 50% smaller port and supports USB 3 ? Why not Thunderbolt?

The SIM card used will be the next generation Nano SIM card, it is 40% smaller than microSIM at 12.3×8.8.0.67mm ???

There is a Fingerprint Scan on it’s home button!

There are ios enhancement which is mission control – allownig y ou to change audio etc. There is a new UI for calendar and contacts app. New Passport app, Siri and Maps.

So what do you think ? Is it real or fake? Post your comments below.

Jog down the memory lane. I suppose most of you that has been through the cassette tapes for loading applications will remember these technology products e.g. Hayes modem, Apple IIe etc. Check out the video and see if you still recognise them.

Apple won a jury verdict of more than $1.05 billion against Samsung Electronics Co. (005930) after a finding that Samsung infringed six of seven patents for mobile devices in the first lawsuit to go before a U.S. jury.

Apple, sued Samsung in April 2011, and Samsung countersued each other in the U.K., Australia and South Korea. Apple sought $2.5 billion to $2.75 billion for its claims that Suwon, South Korea- based Samsung infringed four design patents and three software patents in copying the iPhone and iPad. Samsung’s demand for as much as $421.8 million in royalties was based on claims that Apple infringed five patents.

Apple also wants to make permanent a preliminary ban it won on U.S. sales of a Samsung tablet computer and extend the ban to Samsung smartphones. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, who presided over the San Jose trial, would decide that question herself without the jury.

According to WSJ and AFP news, Apple is preparing to launch a smaller tablet to compete with the Android tablets of various sizes.

Early leaked information claimed that the new iPad will feature a smaller than eight inches (20 centimeters), compared to the 9.7-inch (25-centimeter) screen on Apple’s market-leading iPad, launched in 2010.

It is cited that Apple was working with screen-makers LG Display of South Korea and Taiwan’s AU Optronics.

So will you be getting one ?

According to Cnet, Microsoft’s mysterious media event scheduled for tomorrow. It is speculated that Microsoft will launch it’s own brand tablet with Barnes & Noble to challenge Apple’s iPad.

In fact, it is more or less confirmed the media event is focused on a new product is being developed in conjunction with Barnes & Noble and will focus on entertainment, according to a TechCrunch report.

If that is the case, the so called new tablet is aimed at the Amazon Kindle Fire as a entry level entertainment device for e-reading just like Kindle adopted a modified version of Android.

Not long after the media invitations to tomorrow’s event in Los Angeles surfaced, speculation swirled that Microsoft was getting ready to unveil a tablet running either Windows 8 or Windows RT. The Wrap went so far as to report that the new device would be a “Microsoft-manufactured tablet” that would “put the company in direct competition with giant rival Apple.”

The doors open Monday at 3:30 p.m. PT, with the event itself presumably beginning at 4 sharp.

In our previous article, we mentioned that it is possible to charge your new iPad via the USB ports on my HP Notebook. This is accomplished by installing the USB power boosting driver which was made available by ASUS. With the driver installed, and system rebooted, you can now charge your new iPad using your notebook. It will charge but it is definitely is not as fast as the power adaptor charge which outputs 2.1A.

Below is a video to prove that it works on my 1st generation HP ENVY 14 notebook.

It is a known fact that Apple products tends to draw more current than the usual gadgets from other manufacturers. As there are plenty of USB ports on motherboards or notebooks, the tendency of plugging in to the PC for quick charge is quite the norm for most readers.

On the left is the charger for iPhone 3GS. On the right is the charger with adapter (middle) for new generation iPad.

In the past, we have iPhone 3GS that charges real slowly on the standard USB ports.  This changed when Gigabyte introduced their 3X USB Power. Basically, other manufacturers followed suit by throwing in a driver which allows the USB port to output ~1A instead of the usual 500mA.  This speeds up the charge time by almost 2X.

Other manufacturers – ASUS, ECS, MSI, BIOSTAR, ASROCK all has similar products allowing you to ‘quick charge’ your Apple device. Unfortunately, the software will only work with their own brand and models of motherboards.

The picture above shows the original iPhone 3GS USB power adaptor with Input of 100-240v 0.15A, output 5v, 1A.

For notebook users, manufacturers seldom update drivers and you will usually end up with “Charging with this accessory is not supported”. We did some research and found out that ASUS AI CHARGER works on my HP Envy 14″ notebook. You can download the software, install and reboot your machine. Once you plug in your iPhone or iPad, you will see it charging with 1A.

The picture above shows the new charger that outputs 2.5A, 250V and the adaptor has an input of 100-240v 0.45A and output at 5.1V 2.1A.

The new Apple iPad was released a couple of weeks ago. We did an experiment, charging it using with an iPhone 3GS charger. It simply took forever to charge. We estimate that it takes around 1 hr to charge 10%. If the standard iPhone charger takes so long to charge, we can confirm that the new iPad probably require more power to charge it.

We then tried it on our HP notebook and ASRock NetPC (both with USB boosting software installed). Both machines have no problems detecting  and charging it (prior to installing the driver, it won’t even charge it).

We took a look at the charger and noticed the differences in the iPad and iPhone charger, the output rating is quite different. With the driver installed, the iPad can still be charged but it will be at half the speed compare to if you charge from the power plug supplied.

The question now remains if motherboard manufacturers design a specific USB charge port just to output 2A for charging the iPad ? Would you rather charge your iPad with the accompanied charger or buy another board with such a feature ? Discuss.

M1 to offer new iPad in Singapore on 16 March

SINGAPORE, 13 March 2012 – M1 today announced it will offer the new iPad on Friday, 16 March. M1 will offer iPad with a range of attractive data plans that will allow customers to connect to its High Speed Packet Access Plus (HSPA+) network with speeds up to 21Mbps.

The third generation iPad is a category defining mobile device that features a stunning new Retina display, Apple’s new A5X chip with quad-core graphics and a 5 megapixel iSight camera with advanced optics for capturing amazing photos and 1080p HD video. It also still delivers the same all-day 10 hour battery life* while remaining amazingly thin and light. iPad with Wi-Fi + 4G is world-ready, allowing users to connect to fast networks worldwide when they travel.

“We are excited to offer the amazing new iPad on our advanced high speed mobile network,” said P. Subramaniam, M1’s Chief Marketing Officer. “This, together with our affordable data plans mean M1′s customers will be able to take full advantage of the power of the new iPad.”

The new iPad will be available at the M1 Paragon flagship store on 16 March at 12:01am. Customers may also obtain the new iPad from all other M1 shops at usual operating hours. For complete details on pricing and availability please visit www.m1.com.sg/iPad.

Make your new iPad even better with the best value plan in town.

• Free 10GB Data Bundle
• Up to 21Mbps Speed
• Only $40.00/mth

* Prices inclusive of GST

Apple today issued invitations to the media for an event next Wednesday, March 7, where it’s expected to launch the next iPad. Invitations were received by bloggers and reporters in the United States.

The news also confirmed earlier speculations that Apple would debut the new iPad 3 this March 7 which is the same day of the week Apple used to launch the original tablet in 2010 and last year’s iPad 2.

The invitation writes “We have something you really have to see. And touch,” read the invitation, which continues Apple’s tradition of keeping its invitation text cryptic. The background is a photo of iPad 3 with  a finger pointing to the Calendar app. It seems that the there won’t be a home button on the iPad 3.

Although specifications is not confirmed, the new iPad 3 might just sport a faster quad core processor, higher internal memory capacity. There might be 3 versions, LTE, 3G and WIFI only.

We shall see on March 7. Post your comments below.

Apple iPad 3 scheduled for March 2012 release ?

Apple fans have been waiting impatiently for the iPad 3. The latest rumour is that the iPad 3 release is schedule to coincide with the March lanuch of iOS 5.1

DIgitimes has been leaking some infomation in the past weeks claiming that the new model production levels to 9.8 million in Q2 2012. Foxconn on the other hand also told Bloomberg that they are beginning production in Jan 2012 reaching full volumes in Feb.
So what is new about the iPad 3 ? Basically rumours again, it will have a Quad core ARM processor, in competition from Tegra 3 (nVidia) and Snapdragon S3 (Qualcomm). The processor is said to be A6 and is still manufactured by Samsung.

The iPad 3 might have a retina screen that has a resolution of 2048 x 1536 9.7 inch. The screen could be by made by Sharp as Apple is investing in infrastructure of Sharp’s LCD plant.

The iPad 3 will have a bigger battery to counter the better graphics engine. It might have a larger storage 128GB? It might also be thicker than the iPad 2 due to the higher resolution screen.

Rumours just continue to flow on the net. Some expecting Thunderbolt, SD card slot. NFC, LTE and multi versions of the iPad. SIRI voice engine might also be part of the new iPad.

Some what do you expect from the new iPad 3 ? Discuss in the comments below.

Apple just release it’s iOS 5.0.1 to fix the power drain issue. This firmware can be downloaded automatically over WIFI saving you the trouble of updating it through itunes with USB cable.

It is 38.9MB in size and it does the following :

- it fixes bugs affecting battery life
- Resolves bugs with Documents in the Cloud
- Improves voice recognition for Austrailan users using dictation

The three Singapore telcos, M1, Starhub and Singtel has already announced their price plans for the new Apple iPhone 4S that goes on sale on 28 OCT 2011.

We have consolidated the various price plans into this chart for your easy reference. So, which telco give you the best deal? Let’s analyse it for you.

If you are on a budget constraint and wants the latest gadget at minimum cost, the M1 plan seems to be the cheapest among the three telcos. At S$36 a month, you get the same amount of local outgoing minutes. Other than the iPhone 4S 16G is $7 more expensive than the two other telcos, the 32GB and 64GB model are relatively cheaper than Singtel and Starhub.

What about the S$56-$59.90 range plans ? For this plan, M1 again is the cheapest in terms of per month subscription.  Data bundle are all 12 GB. SMS doesn’t really matter as you can use Whatsapp or imessaging  on iOS.  Other than it’s pricing of iPhone 4S 32GB which is more expensive than Singtel, both Starhub and Singtel can’t match M1′s pricing.

As for the $98-$99.99 range, M1 again seems to edge out the two competitors. It has unlimited data bundle. So, you can use this plan to replace your broadband if the HSPA speeds are good at your location. With unlimited data, you can make SKYPE calls, download videos without worry. M1 is also generous to provide 700 minutes of outgoing calls. The price for it’s 4S 32GB is also cheapest of all. As for iPhone 4S 64GB, Singtel is $2 cheaper but you pay $2 more monthly for the subscription.

Now, the highest plans. M1 again is cheapest at S$198. Singtel and Starhub both has 2000 minutes and 2000 SMS bundled in. M1 on the other hand gives you unlimited incoming calls. Data is both unlimited on M1 and Starhub but capped at 30GB for Singtel. You don’t have to pay upfront for iPhone 4S 16GB and 32GB models. As for iPhone 4S 64GB model, Singtel is $7 dollars cheaper than M1 at S$115 and Starhub at S$128.

Before you decide on which operator and plan to take. It is important to know some of the perks that are available on the various networks. Among the 3, Singtel and Starhub both has 3G video streaming from their pay tv service. M1 on the other hand lacks out this feature.

Secondly, Singtel so far has the widest coverage and signal shouldn’t be an issue in most parts of the country. The other two operators do have good signals in prominent towns and in city area. 3G signal coverage is not as far reach as Singtel.

Thirdly, you have to consider the network. If you use the data bundle for serving internet, which one gives you a better experience in terms of speed and loading?

Fourthly, if you travel often, you might want to check who are their roaming partners. Certain roaming partners offer better roaming rates if you log into their network when overseas.

So, good luck and enjoy your new iPhone 4S. Any comments, please post them at this link http://forums.ocworkbench.com/showthread.php?p=488156#post488156

Comment at the end of the post.

Apple 4S has gone on sale in various countries yesterday. Our friends at ePrice in Hong Kong managed to get hold of a set through their own means from Australia. They put the shiny brand new iPhone 4S powered by iOS 5.0 against the older iPhone 4 to a test on web browsing speed, application loading time and lastly the speech recognition assistant SIRI using Hong Kong style English. Check out the videos below :

Round 1 : Web browsing

Round 2 : Game loading speed

If you are a non English native speaker, Apple’s iPhone 4S SIRI engine will probably piss you off. Below is a video of a Japanese man testing out the voice recognition engine. It is a total disaster. Check out the video and comment.