Speed

Though Apple touts that the iPhone 5 is faster with its dual-core A6 processor, it wasn’t fast enough to beat out Samsung’s Exynos quad-core processor. At 1.4GHz, it’s clear that Samsung is running laps while the iPhone 5, at 1.2GHz, is still wading in the kiddie pool. So, if you did go with the iPhone 5, it might be faster than the iPhone 4S, but if you were hoping for the fastest, you should have been looking at Samsung’s latest offering. On the other hand, if you like staring at your phone, waiting for it to upload that pic of a sunset on the beach, you might be sitting in pitch darkness when it gets on to your Twitter account.

Image Capturing

Even with their designer culture and artsy customer base, Apple’s camera also came in second to Samsung’s Galaxy S3. Apple’s iPhone camera has a lower megapixel count (1.2 mp) than the Galaxy’s resolution at 1.9 mp. Plus, you have the option to change the resolution of your image on the Galaxy and not on the iPhone 5. However, the iPhone 5 does have a very handy color-correct and auto-focus function that is on par with that of a professional photographer’s equipment, which the Galaxy claims to also have, but doesn’t deliver even close in an image comparison. Of course, sharpness and color brightness might not mean a whole lot to users who use a smartphone camera for Twitter or Facebook posts, but wouldn’t it be cool to get close to professional shots on a phone?

Apps and Maps

Perhaps the most talked about misfire that Apple made on the iPhone 5, aside from its susceptibility to scuffing, was its Apple Maps App. In a epic fail attempt to out-awesome Google’s Maps, Apple decided to pass on including Google Maps on iPhone 5 and opted to create its own map app from the ground up. This debacle was so disappointing that Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, issued an apology for the absolutely useless system. Complaints that the images of locations are not as clear as they appear in Google maps are petty compared to the real issue at hand, that the app doesn’t offer correct directions, locations or claims that actual locations don’t exist at all.

SmartPhone for Dummies Factor

Yeah, the iPhone 5 might be the easier to manage mobile device, but Samsung’s NFC technology is not connected to an “Apple only” mode of storing video, images and music, unlike the iPhone 5 which keeps everything exclusively in “the cloud.” Sure, keeping your data, art, images and music all in one convenient, easy to access place might seem great, but what if that cloud is hacked? What if you want to get music or images that are not Apple iCloud based? Are we to expect the world to convert over to the Apple empire? Well, maybe, but in the meantime, if you want to share music between operating systems without being an engineer and you don’t mind developing a little bit of tech sense, go with the Samsung Galaxy S III, you might not be considered the cool kid, but at least you won’t be limited to downloading from iTunes only, and that means you can save money too because with Android JellyBean, soon Samsung phones won’t have to worry about downloading audio, video or books from Google Play.

There are benefits to owning both phones, but when it comes to speed, efficiency, durability and the ability to change and adapt to technology with ease, Samsung’s Galaxy S III rises to the top of the heap and knocks Apple’s iPhone 5 out of the ballpark. Which is alarming, since Apple’s iPhone has been the number one name in smartphones for years. Perhaps it’s time to make way for a new heavy-weight champion.

Authored By:

Carmen Diego

Brings her Mac where ever she goes and loves everything Apple. She is crazy about the new iPad mini.

So as we are all aware, the new iPhone 5 was announced yesterday with a lengthy list of new specs, by apple, along with the new iPod 5g (the first of which to be released with a multi color color display option).  Both of which are going to have the anticipated iOS6 on them.  According to Apple, more than 400 Million devices have already been sold as of 3p.m. on Wednesday September, the 12th.  What does that mean?  Well according to economists, these large scale sales may actually help boost our economy.

So lets take a look at some of the new specs available on the new iPhone5.  Also, if you like me, your thinking “yeah, a new iPhones cool. But can we jailbreak this bad boy yet?”  And the answer is yes!!  Thanks to your friends over at RedsnOw.com, the makers of Absinthe have done it again. The only draw back being that Cydia is not yet on the jailbreak.  But you will still be able to download 3rd party apps from the web.  But first lets look at a quick run down of the new specs to the iPhone5.

With the new iOS6 being released, you will be able to take full advantage of it new updates best on the new iPhone5….

•    New iOS6 on the larger 4.87×2.31xo.30 body, and 4 inch display, weighing in at just under 4 ounces 3.95 oz.
•    A 640×1136 pixel screen at an amazing 326 ppi density, with multi-touch availability, and an updated light sensor, and as well as an updated proximity sensor.
•    The battery has been updated to an great 22h hr stand by time and 8 hour talk time
•    With the new A6 doul-core ARM cortex A15 processor, the new iPhone will be lightning fast, even while gaming on its new built in graphics excelarator and

The New A6

processor
•    Even the camera has been tweaked up a little with an 8 MP camera. And a plethora of new updates on the image capturing system.

I strongly believe that, yes the new iOS will be better.  But is it worth is to shell out the extra “dough” for the new iPhone 5?  I dont think so.  The only people that will benefit with the new iPhone and its A6 processor will be gamers.  For that reason and its slightly and i do mean SLIGHTLY larger screen.  If you have a 4S, then i suggest you just do the update and save the money.

But if you still want the new iPhone 5 with all the new updates and its O.S., how can you take full advantage of the device?  JAILBREAK!!!! Thanks to all the Beta releases of iOS6, the jailbreaking community has been able to stay on top of this.  As a result, you will be able to Jailbreak your new iPhone5 or newly updated iOS6 device as soon as you update.  The device update will be available on iTunes or your devices’ updating system on September 18th.  If you previously Jailbroke your device on iOS 5.1.1, then you know how quick and easy it was.  And thanks to everyone who worked around the clock on the Jailbreak, it will once again be that simple.

So here is a nice and to the point “how-to” on updating to iOS6 and Jailbreaking the iDevice right after. Just remember there is still currently no Cydia.

Supported devices are
•    Iphone 5
•    4s
•    3GS
•    iPad 3 (The New Mini)
•    iPad 2
•    iPod Touch 4G
•    iPad Touch 3G

1)    You are going to want to update your 5.1.1 iDevice to iOS6, by either plugging into iTunes and updating. Or, going in to the devices settings>general>update. Nice and simple
2)    Go to Http://www.AbsintheJailbreak.com
3)    Download Redsn0w 0.9.13DEV4  (available for both OS X, and WIN admin)
4)    unzip the program
5)    Connect your device
6)    Open the program (your device will be detected by the program)
7)    click on “JAILBREAK”
8)    Follow the simple on screen directions and your …
9)    DONE

*NOTE* i suggest you save your previous version on iOS5.1.1 due to the fact that you may not like the fact that Cydia is not available yet.  This way you will be able to switch back to 5.1.1 and regain your jailbreak
And that’s all folks!! Nice and simple.  Let me know what you think by sounding off in the comments below.  And as always you can follow me on Twitter @ichuckydee for more updates on iOS6 and the iPhone5.

“Apple went out and partnered with the weakest player,” he said. “They’re now coming out with the lowest, weakest data set and they’re competing against Google, which has the highest data set. What’s going to happen with the Apple maps, is that you’re literally not going to find things. When you do find them, they might be in the wrong place or position geographically. And if you do have it, the route to it may not be the optimal route.”

This lines up with what I have found when I finally got the beta working and tested it.  Shame.  Right now I rely on google map search to find almost anything and it works great.  For driving directions I use motionX which is a great turn by turn navigation app.  I do not know what motionX uses for search, but I really hope its google.

I have a hard time imagining that Apple is not aware of this limitation and thus must have a plan in place to try to improve the dataset, but I imagine this will take time.  In that time they may manage to piss off a number of users like myself who fell in love with Maps before anything else on the iPhone. In fact, it was Maps on the iPhone 1 that really impressed me, impressed me enought to become an iphone fan boy.

I still have hope though.  One of my MAJOR complaints with google maps on the iphone is how messy the traffic display is.  If you need to see what is going on with the freeways, I do not need to see every little side street as well making it almost impossible to see what is going on at a quick glance.  I have not see a good screenshot to see what this will be like, so I guess I have to wait to see this in action to really know.

Graphics aside, I’m expecting a pretty strong backlash from people complaining about poor search results and perhaps sub par navigation based on what I’m reading.  And who knows?  That might be enough to move a few people to Android.  Might be for me.  We’ll have to see.  In the meantime, no iOS upgrades for me thanks.  I wonder of one day they will simply cut off google for older iphone users?  That would really s&*k.

Well rumor control says there will be a 8meg camera and the A5 chip which is suppose to make gameplay screaming… but is that really enough to make people upgrade?  I’m not sure that is going to be enough… At least for me  I know it wont be.

Quick update.  Although there will not be LTE, t-mobile and sprint (and china?) should have support. Also hearing it may be called the iphone 4s.

UPDATE:  I posted a question on Quara to see what people see in the real world vs. my one test I did in a high connection environment and got an interesting answer from David Boreham

In my work I carry both ATT and Verizon phones. I travel around the USA and I always test network speed on both carriers. I have never, ever seen a case where ATT was faster. Often the speed is quite close, but typically upload speed on ATT is significantly slower than VZW, In my experience the big difference between the two carriers is that the probability of service being ‘usable’ is much higher on Verizon. If they’re both working well then the speed difference isn’t noticeable, but often ATT doesn’t work well (either has no coverage, or coverage with poor QoS).

I replied back that it makes total sense that if your connection to the AT&T tower is not strong, you are going to lose data speed because of error correction.  Also if you are moving around and switching towers, you will lose some data rate in the handoff.

First, what is the big difference between the Verizon CDMA and AT&T UMTS system as a user? Skipping the technical details; there are two main differences. 1) UMTS is faster then CDMA.  Almost twice as fast!  Have a look at this graphic from PCW.

AT&T is  twice as fast in both download and upload speed.  If you are doing a lot of surfing or downloading large files, you can really feel the difference.

We have AT&T with 1410 kbps and Verizon at 877 kbps giving 1410 / 877 = 1.6 times faster.

The second big difference is that with UMTS you can both talk on the phone and use the data system.  Now your first reaction (and what they Verizon people at the presentation said when asked) how often is that going to happen?  As an iphone user for near 3 years; he’s right. Its not very often.  UNLESS you are tethering.  THEN it matters. Which brings us to the big condition I talked about in the beginning of this post.

Are the rumors true that you get 5gigs of tether data included with your unlimited data plan? Lets say they are. AND lets say you are not jailbroken and thus do not use PDANet for tethering and creating a wifi spot.  Then this could be an important feature because as we are becoming more and more connected and more loaded with internet enabled devices; this could make the difference.

But; if you KNOW you will never (or almost never) will need to tether or create a wifi hotspot using your phone, then this condition falls away.

So far, it looks like there is no reason to move to Verizon.  Its slower, and will kick you offline if a call comes in.  So why are people so excited?  Because ITS THERE!!!  In other words, a slow 3G CDMA is better then the AT&T edge service which many people are forced to live with.  Also Verizon has a much better coverage in both data and voice.  So if you live somewhere where AT&T 3G is not available or very sketchy, Verizon is you best bet.

Now lets make the question harder.  What if you live in an area with coverage is spotty.  Like the bay area.  THEN which is the best bet?  NOW we are asking the hard question, and the one I’ve been trying answer.

I have not updated my AT&T account because I was not sure if I wanted to stay with AT&T or not. I get lots of dropped calls at home, sometimes at work and only 30% uptight at my girlfriends. So now how does the math work?

The answer depends on how much data burst speed you need on your phone, and when I say data burst speed, I mean when you need to make a ping to the internet and get some sort of reply quickly.  For example, maps.  If you want to quickly pull up your maps and see where you are, you want the map tiles to download as fast as possible.  If you are panning around quickly, then every time you move the map off the current tiles set, you need new tiles.  I did a side by side test and I could feel a slight difference between ATT and Verizon.  I tried downloading a web page. NYT.  The speed difference is noticeable.  Tried sending an tweet with an attached image; although it was only about 2 -3 seconds slower, I could still feel it … and yet I’m leaning on going with Verizon.  Why?

Because I would rather have slow then no connection at all.  And as I said above, in 18 months there will be a new phone using the 4G network.  Here is the twist though.  I’m going to get the iphone 4 with the two year plan.  Then sell it and get a 4g phone running android and wait for the 4G iphone.  At least; that is the plan.  I’m going to let the Verizon phone live in the wild for a month before I do anything.