The iPhone 5 buyers and owners thread! (1 Viewer)

[Sam Posten]

Everything you need to know about the Maps brouhaha:
http://counternotions.com/2012/09/21/applemaps/
On the other hand, those worried about scuffs might have a legit concern;
http://www.macrumors.com/2012/09/21/iphone-5-rear-case-scratch-test-video/'
Mophie here I come!
Cheeeeeeeese may be my favorite Apple commercial of all time.
OF ALL TIME!
http://9to5mac.com/2012/09/21/three-new-iphone-ads-hit-thumbs-physics-and-cheese/

 

[DaveF]

Still waiting to see how fast maps get better. It's a real downgrade in some ways: for example, it doesn't show all dc metro stations. This is a practical problem. And this is what the Kontra essay misses: apple made some things worse for users for its own benefit. Full stop. He's being an apologist, but my wife doesn't care. Her map app is now missing info it had last week.
There are some improvements like the speedier graphics and easier to read directions (but we've not gotten turn-by - turn to work yet). But it's not a full-on, awesome killer feature on day 1. It's an ambivalent feature.
That's a bummer. It's a little un-apple-y? Maybe, maybe not.

 

[DaveF]

I like the ads. I'm curious about the new earphones. I use my apple earphones daily, listening to podcasts around the house, to music falling asleep at night, and talking on the phone. If the new ones fit a little better and sound a little better, that will be a good upgrade.

 

[Nelson Au]

I have a white iPhone 5, 16 gb model. It's a loan for a project we are doing for it.
So while it's not working because it's not an activated unit, I was really impressed by its size. I turned it on to light up the screen and compared to my iPhone 4, I was impressed how the screen felt so much bigger, despite it only being longer and not wider.
As mentioned above, it really does feel like a solidly built little machine. Amazing how much thinner it is compared to the 4. The ringer switch is dimensionally thinner too. I have not pulled and tried the Lightening connector, but it sure looks small!
The new metal frame is very bright on the white version. Odd to see the headphone jack at the bottom end, but I like it. And nice that Apple took the extra step to make the plastic bits at the antenna splits, Lightening jack, and headphone jack ring white on the white model.
That was a very quick look. Can't wait to get my black one and actually activate it.

 

[Carlo_M]

Some Day 1 observations:
The 5 is significantly faster than the 4. I know this sounds like a "duh" statement [Apple claims 2X as fast as the 4S which was faster than the 4] but until you use it you don't realize how much faster it is in actual heavy usage! I think with heavy web browsing I actually get *better* battery life because it is rendering the pages so much faster! This is over both wi-fi and LTE so I know it's not just LTE that's accounting for the speed. Wi-fi performance is also significantly faster and I'm connected to the same modem I was two days ago with the 4.
This speed obviously extends to everything: games load faster and play smoother. Apps like Sports Illustrated load (as a program) and update data so much faster it's not even close. I would estimate I can get my sports scores, over wi-fi, more than 5X as fast. On my 4 it would take maybe 10-15 seconds from program load to score update. The 5 does it in 2-3 seconds. From cold-boot (not running in the background).
According to PC Magazine it is now officially the world's fastest smartphone (title obviously is a tenuous one to hold on to for more than a couple of months).
The gamma of the screen is a different value than the 4. Don't know which is better or more accurate, but the color values are a bit different between the two differences, in a noticeable (but not necessarily bad) way. I did note earlier that a purple ice cream I took a pic of on the 4 came out blue. It's still blue on the pic that migrated, but in a few weeks I may be out to that restaurant again and I'll take a pic with the 5 and see if it accurately records the color.
Panorama, for those who like to take those types of pictures, is a game changer! And even if you don't like to take them, it may tempt you. I'm a DSLR guy and don't gravitate towards the Instagram/gimmicky photos, but I actually really like this feature.
I greatly appreciate these Maps improvements:
1. turn-by-turn
2. New traffic display (they only display yellow and red dotted lines when traffic is bad, not green when traffic is good, which I prefer because it keeps the screen from being a rainbow-colored mess and keeps from obscuring street name and route directions!)
3. The vector rendering of the maps (not just the 3D but the actual buildings themselves - they look sharper and load faster than Google Maps did)
4. The overall smoothness of the zooming in and out
5. The inclusion of road closures
I freely admit I haven't had Maps fail me with data yet, so the first few times it does that I may be really ticked off, so I reserve the right to change my mind later.
The speakers are another great improvement over the 4. Clearer and can play back louder without breaking up.
Call performance in my apartment (could nearly be qualified as an AT&T dead zone) doesn't seem to have improved much. I've only used it for one short call it didn't perform well (though not worse than the 4) but it will take some time to evaluate this. Today I'm going to a game in the Rose Bowl, a place that historically choked the 4, forcing me to drop to EDGE to get any data/voice usage, so it will be interesting to see how many of my fellow UCLA fans have upgraded to an LTE phone.
For iOS6;
I like that they moved the Bluetooth option one level up and put it next to Wi-Fi, as I turn both on/off frequently. Apple could take ONE MORE STEP and make that option left/right swipable for on/off at the top level so users don't have to drill down one more screen to turn it on/off (kind of like you can delete emails by swiping to the left without needing to go into the actual email).
Thank you for finally letting me re-organize the order email accounts appear. Because I set my work one up first, and then my GMail, GMail always appeared at the top, and now I can change that around!
Safari updates information when in page preview mode (not sure that's the right name for it). For example I have one page that's on an item I want to buy from Amazon. I routinely open pages that appear to the left and right of it. When swiping between those pages (so they're mini versions of themselves) I saw the Amazon price change without actually selecting that page, while it was just being previewed! Cool.
Fullscreen in landscape more is the bomb. Now do it for portrait mode, Apple.
Pull to refresh (in email) is also a neato graphical change. I'm sure I'll get sick of it eventually.
New emoji makes my girlfriend happy! okay I use them too.
I really like not having to input my password to update Apps (though at some point this will probably be used to hijack users and I won't think it's cool at that point).
I also like when loading new apps, or updating existing ones, it allows you to keep browsing in the store and doesn't kick you out onto the home screen.

 

[Carlo_M]

My impressions of the "new" Apple stock earphones:
Well they won't be replacing my Westone UM3X IEMs (in-ear monitors) anytime soon for critical music listening, but they are MILES AHEAD of the old (terrible) iPod/iPhone stock earphones.
I never used the old earphones unless I needed the phone/mic functionality. The music performance (and better sound isolation) of the new stock earphones are such an order of magnitude better than I could imagine using them when I don't feel like lugging around a $400 set of IEMs. For $29 they are a steal. I'm thinking of picking up one or two more to keep around the office and in the car in case I forget the original pair at home. The travel case is a nice (albeit inexpensive) touch.

 

[Todd H]

I HATED the old ear buds because they were so painful to use. They never stayed in my ears well and hurt to wear. The new ones are way more comfortable.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

Apple had plenty of Lightning cables in the stores yesterday. I picked up a couple and will flip the ones that are being shipped to me. Although the Apple Store had no cases, the AT&T stores had plenty...all of them different Speck models. One of my friends bought one and I was impressed with the fit, given the short time frame the company had to work with. I might have bought one myself if I wasn't partial to iSkin.

 

[DaveF]

A look at early reviews and benchmarks say iOS6 works fine on the iPhone 4, so I'm upgrading. See how it behaves this weekend.

 

[Carlo_M]

Dave - I had iOS6 on my 4 for two days before buying the 5 and didn't have any problems (outside of the documented ones re: people's dislike of the new Maps app).

 

[DaveF]

Good. iPhone 4 Upgraded and iPad in the works.

 

[Sam Posten]

I've had it on my iPad since first beta, full steam ahead =)

 

[Ted Todorov]

So speaking of Maps -- how does one report bad data to Apple? I keep reading about people reporting stuff, but no one mentions where.

Worst iOS 6 issue so far: freaking Passbook -- I scanned in my Walgreens (ex Duane Reade) card in and now it appears on my lock screen whenever I am at home, because my local Walgreens is half a block away. No way to disable it -- I turned off Notifications for both Passbook and the Walgreens app -- still does it. I guess I have to change my favorite store or delete the app altogether. It is a definite software bug -- the GPS shows accurately where I am -- so either they've entered the wrong GPS coordinates for the store, or enable the thing for some absurdly large radius around it.

 

[Nelson Au]

I'm curious about your iPhones 5's, are they cosmetically as perfect as Apple products usually are? I ask because I was surprised to see on the local newscast today of some complaints of brand new iphone 5's with nicks on the metal, very visable on the black models. While customers are being interviewed outside the Palo Alto Apple Store, one guy found nicks while being filmed amd the Apple geniuses quickly came out and took care of him withbanexchange.
Mine is surprisingly 1 week ahead of the original projected delivery date, so I'll have mine late this week.
I would not be surprised to see people find imperfections. The factory is churning these out at light speed. Black may have been a bad idea for the metal. But I'll be taking my usually anal retentive care of mine, but accidents happen. A white one might be a good idea, if the metal gets a nick, at least it's not as bad. I'll bet well start seeing customized black ones with the black sanded off the sides and polished.

 

[Carlo_M]

I've read the same reports. Luckily my black 64 came to me in perfect condition. I know apple prides itself in qc but I do wonder about the pressure of delivering 10 million units in a weekend and the likelihood that they wouldn't be able to maintain qc for that many units in such a short amount of time.

 

[Todd H]

Mine is perfect. No scratches.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[DaveF]

Tried the new Maps app on my iPhone 4. I'm pleased to find that it does do (no voice) Turn By Turn directions. (You have to make sure the GPS in set to current location (tap the arrow to be purple or compass-oriented). It's easier to read than the old design was, with the big street-sign style notices. But it's not as informative as, say TomTom, since the distances are fixed, not decreasing as you approach. Still, I think this will be handy to me. TomTom has fallen behind in usability, with a slow, clunky map experience. For small trips, like find a restaurant on business trips, this could be my preferred map tool. But for vacations, and other big drives, this isn't yet a replacement to me for TomTom.

As for the quality of the map: the local stuff I tried last night was fine, though the particular description of routing felt a little odd, but not wrong. My wife may have over-reacted to her initial experience. Losing metro stops is a problem; we can't trust the app for visiting DC. And that adds new doubts: where else might the app be wrong that we don't know about?

But in simple use locally, it worked fine, was responsive, and has some new tricks the old maps didn't. I haven't spent enough time to understand the new features and differences yet.

And so far, iOS6 feels almost identical to iOS5. No noticeable slow downs. In fact, it's so modest in most ways, that I think you could upgrade Joe User's iPhone or iPad and they'd never notice. This is a "Mountain Lion" upgrade, not a "Leopard" upgrade (or iOS3 & iOS4 upgrade)


I still have no idea what Passbook does. I downloaded the United App, but nothing changed in Passbook. Maybe I actually have to login in and book a flight? ANd I'm not keen on having to add a bunch of apps I don't otherwise need to make Passbook do anything.


Why does Reminders now have pink-eye? I don't remember that weird pink background before.

I'm hopeful the Facebook integration will be useful, but the one app where I could use it hasn't been upgraded in a while MobileRSS). Maybe I should try Twitter again, to use that integration?

I'd like some sub-controls over notifications to modifications to share calendars. It's all or nothing: I get an ongoing series of modal alerts (interrupting me) as my wife adds and edits our "family" calendar, or I get nothing. I like the idea, but it needs finer grained control to be useful. Fortunately, with that turned off, there's still the little notices inside Calendar itself. I like the idea here, but it needs more granularity.

 

[Carlo_M]

Dave I think the maps app acts differently for different hardware. On the 5 it does do voice over turn by turn (just used it this morning) and the distances do decrease as you move. In fact I found its performance this morning to be comparable to my dad's garmin.

 

[DaveF]

I knew I wouldn't get voice directions. I was pleased to see that, unlike the last version, it does do live turn-by-turn. I didn't know that mode behaves better, like a full GPS, on the newer phones .

 

[Sam Posten]

This guy is about to be rich. Until he gets Watsoned:
http://thetransitapp.com/