The Wingspan

Centennial High School's Daily Online News Source

The Wingspan

The Wingspan

It’s Time For Five (Kyle Simpson)

Another year has brought yet another iteration of the ever popular Apple iPhone. This year’s iPhone 5 has brought a few new hardware upgrades of last year’s iPhone 4S. The new iPhone sports a new proprietary Apple A6 chip that doubles the speed from the 4S’ A5 chip. The new 4 inch screen also allow for a greater resolution (1136 X 640 as opposed to 960 X 640). The 5th iteration also improves the front facing camera from shooting VGA quality video and pictures to 1.2 Megapixel pictures and 720p video. The new iPhone is now capable of supporting Verizon and AT&T’s 4G networks granting even faster browsing speeds while roaming. The major changes to the iPhone platform how ever come from Apple’s shiny new iOS 6 software update (which will be available on all iPhone platforms from the 4 on). The new software package brings great new features such as Passbook which allows users to store gift cards and plane tickets right on your phone. The camera also receives a buff for iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 owners with the new “panoramic” shooting style, which allows you to sweep your phone around and take gorgeous panoramic photos. The digital personal assistant “Siri” has also received and upgrade, allowing her to check sports score, movie times, and become more intuitive and useful (She has also been added to 3rd generation iPads as well). Where Apple has stepped on a few toes with this iteration is in the new “lightning” charging design which is dual sided (so no more fumbling in the dark to try and find the right side to plug in to your phone). With this new design renders the tried and true “30-prong” design obsolete. So take care of that one charging cable you get, because you will not be able to use one of the thousand probably laying around your house like in the past. However you can buy an adapter that will cost you approximately $30. Pre-Orders for the new iPhone begin on September 14th and the device is released on the 21st in 16, 32, and 64 gigabyte models setting you back $199, $299, and $399 respectively. For more information on the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 you can visit apple.com/iphone.

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