Apple can bring all the patent suits it wants against Samsung, not much they can do about this sort of advertising brilliance.

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New body
Firstly the iPhone 5 has a new look and a new design although by looking at it…

It is the thinnest and lightest iPhone ever, 18% thinner and 20% lighter to be exact. That’s quite a lot. Along with a new, slimmer and longer body, they’ve included a 4-inch Retina display, like the one on the iPad 3. The taller body might not seem like a big deal, but it means that one handed typing is as easy, if not easier than on the previous version. This is important, because it’s one of the biggest gripes I had about the Galaxy S III…too fat and not conducive to driving and typing. Don’t judge me, you do it too.

What’s not there
While the phone specs look as expected, there are some notable omissions which must be brought up. Firstly there is no Near Field Communication on the device, something I was really hoping for. Including this sort of tech in a device as popular as an iPhone would have instantly pushed the use and convenience of NFC in to our everyday lives. That being said, it is a tech which is still in its infancy, and hasn’t been tested properly in the wild of South African supermarkets. So perhaps we’re thinking too far ahead?

Also, many were hoping to see wireless charging come in the iPhone 6. It didn’t. It’s coming in Nokia’s new Lumia 820, so why isn’t it in the iPhone?

Design. In a word. Apparently the slimness and size of the new iPhone 6 prevented Apple from including these rather important features in the phone. That and the added cost and bulk that these techs would’ve added to the retail price of the device.

No point in whining over something you can’t do anything about, I suppose.

What’s inside
Inside you’re looking at a lightning quick A6 chip which will be running an all new iOS 6 and facilitating 4G LTE technology. Obviously this means little in South Africa at the moment, but it’ll get here eventually.

The new iOS 6 has over 200 new features including: an all new Maps app with turn-by-turn navigation, something iPhone Maps has lacked for a long time, and a promising new Flyover view. There’s Facebook integration for Contacts and Calendar, with the ability to post directly from Notification Center. And Siri has got some more languages, so finally the Chipowok Eskimos of the Yukon are gonna stop their griping.

All this is going to weigh heavily on the new A6 chip which has a lot of heavy lifting to do with its multi-tasking requirements, twice the CPU and graphics performance, a bunch of new features and a juiced up wireless connection. They’re promising that they’ve improved the battery-life, something all Smartphones struggle with, but only a hands on try will prove that.

Many were hoping that the iPhone 5’s new camera would be 10 or 12MP, but I warned you not to get your hopes up. It sits at a decent enough 8MP but it’s 25% smaller than the iPhone 4S and is bolstered by a panorama feature and video face detection for up to 10 people. They’ve also thrown in the ability to take stills while you’re recording.

The iPhone 5 does, as feared, have a new connection called Lightning and it’s much slimmer and smaller. The reason for this is being explained as due to the thinness of the phone, making the traditional connection impossible. Sadly this new connection is apparently not even adding much speed to data transfer, still running on the USB 2.0 format. But the next gen might change that. So no USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt just yet.

The iPhone 6 becomes available on 28 September internationally and in SA shortly after that. Colors are white & silver or black & slate. Dollar prices below:

$200 for 16GB
$300 for 32GB
$400 for the 64GB

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The inability to right click gets a fisting of note!

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New Form Factor
The iPhone 5 is likely to look completely different to the iPhone 4 or 3 that came before. Through a long line of leaks and internet exclusives, there are any number of ideas of what it might look like. Some even suggesting a two-tone back.

There were rumors last month of an iPad mini, but we hope this has nothing to do with the new iPhone.

Connectivity
There is a rumor going around that the dock connector on the iPhone is going to get smaller to make space for a 3.5mm jack on the bottom of the device. Whether or not this is true, I’m going to say it right here and now: “Please don’t”.

What about all our 3rd party accessories and peripherals we’ve bought over the years? Nothig would surprise me though.

Chip
Could be quadcore, could be dualcore. Either way Apple need to do something to make their battery-life one of the best in the industry. Which by going by other Smartphone standards shouldn’t be hard.

Either way, the chip they use will have implications on the tech crammed in. Tech like NFC.

4G
It’ll be there. If only for the US and UK market, it’ll be there.

Screen
Only time will tell here. We’ve heard about a 4.6-inch Retina display like on the iPad 3, rumors new touch tech in the iPhone 5 and even a curved glass screen because Apple was caught buying a few hundred glass cutting machines.

Isn’t speculation fun? And flippin’ annoying?

NFC and the mobile wallet
The Google Nexus range has it, other high-end Smartphones have it, it would be daft to leave it out of the iPhone 5. This could be the big step up the NFC needs to be fully adopted by the world at large. The days of paying for lap dances with your Smartphone are coming gents.

So more rumors. Until Wednesday. At least the parodiests are on it:

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As always, my most important feature of any phone is interaction lag, i.e. how quick are the phone’s reactions when I swipe, push or input anything?

The Galaxy III runs smoothly on its processor, in app reaction time is flawless. It’s the start-up though that’s a bit annoying. You push a button on the side to get things going and it always takes a second or two for the screen to turn on. This is enough time for you to think you haven’t pushed properly so you push again, turning the screen off. It takes some getting used to and once you do, you’re golden. But the whole time I couldn’t help but think that being the first impression of the phone, it is a bit like letting your dog poop in the entrance hall of your mansion.

In looks though, the Galaxy III is alone in its glory. It’s slimmer than a supermodel with a 4.8-inch AMOLED screen that’s bright enough for you to navigate in broad daylight. Personally I had a few issues with the size of this screen; I have quite small hands y’see.

One-handed operation and typing on the QWERTY keyboard was quite impossible and reaching the far end of the screen with your thumb (while holding it in your left hand) a bloody trawl. If you’re a driver/typer I wouldn’t suggest this phone. But maybe the fact that you can’t type and drive comfortably is a good thing. Did you do that on purpose Samsung?

Thus you’ll need to give this phone your full attention, and that means no multi-tasking. Sadly ladies, that means I wouldn’t recommend this phone for you. Not ‘cos you can multitask, but because most of you will probably have hands as small as mine.

Once you’re in the phone though and your chosen task is clear in your mind, there are few phones on the market that can rival the Galaxy III.

Foremost, thanks to the Android Ice Cream Sandwich, this phone is far more customizable than the iPhone is, and you’ll actually have fun doing it. Loads of home screens await, every app you can imagine is available in Google’s Play Store and Samsung have stocked this phone with so many lifestyle features they run the risk of alienating the hardcore business users reading.

They’re pushing a principle called Natural Interaction in the Galaxy III, and in a nutshell it’s the ability of the phone to not only detect your fingers inputting commands on the screen, but also your face, voice and motions. While this may address my gripe above about the input for small hands being so troublesome, I still stand by the assertion that most of us are going to rely on our fingers to input commands like “write an SMS”, “make a call” or “check my email”. As advanced as technologies like Apple’s Siri and Samsung’s S Voice are, I still think we’re a while away from the day that we can complete a full task on our phone while we simply talk to it as it sits in our pocket. We’re getting there, but for the moment, we still prefer to have the phone in our hand when we talk to it.

Still, the Natural Interaction does afford the user some very impressive and gimmicky lifestyle features that you won’t find anywhere else, at least not in one package.

The 1.9MP camera on the front for example manages multiple tasks at the same time. Smart Stay recognizes how you are using the phone – reading an e-book or browsing the web for instance – by having the front camera identify your eyes; the phone maintains a bright display helping you in your task. It’s this camera that also keeps the phone screen on when you’re reading an especially long website for example. Too many phones assume since you haven’t touched the screen in 20 seconds that you’re done and can turn the screen off. This is nifty.

Galaxy III’s S Voice feature had a lot to live up to against Apple’s Siri, and I’m glad to say that it’s in the same ballpark. Simple instructions like “make a call” and “send an email” are picked up even without any settings tweaking and surfing the net with the utterance of a phrase is also quite sweet. Still, these are tasks I’d rather do on my own. I do have trust issues though.

I was especially impressed with the media features of the Galaxy III, starting with the 8MP camera on the back.

Samsung haven’t even bothered with a shutter on this phone, you push the button and that’s the picture you get. Photographers are going to whine about this I know, and I’ll admit it takes a bit of getting used to, but once you’ve got the hang of it, it makes complete sense on a mobile camera like this.

The Galaxy III also addresses another huge peeve of mine; having to close a video I’m watching because an SMS or email comes in. On this phone you can continue to watch a video anywhere on the screen while continuing other tasks. This is a true multi-tasking experience.

Battery-life on the Galaxy III is no better or worse than the iPhone, but there was one feature I picked up on that I bet you haven’t even considered in terms of battery: how long does it take to recharge from zero?

Sadly the Galaxy isn’t tremendous in this regard. While I can get my iPhone from 10% to about 40% in the drive from JHB CBD to Fourways on the N1, the Galaxy III could only get up to about 20-25% in the same time. It matters when you live a mobile life and are constantly plugging in and out.

And finally, the last major selling point of the Samsung Galaxy III, sharing. Well more specifically the inclusion of Near Field Communication technology in Samsung’s S Beam.

This is truly the future of sharing ladies and gents. It’s what Bluetooth was to Infra-red, simple tapping of the two devices together this time. No syncing, no pairing, no hassles.

I would have loved to have made the most of this technology, for example they’re toting instant payments as a big plus side to this tech. Sadly in South Africa (and actually in the rest of the world too) it’s just too early days to fully appreciate the wonder of NFC. None of my friends had a NFC device for me to practice fully on. I landed up doing a few test runs on the Sony Ericsson Xperia S.

Each day more and more gadgets are getting fitted with the glory of NFC though, and devices that talk to mobile phones are being fitted to check-out counters and store fronts world-wide. Devices like this Mp3 dispensing gum-ball machine in Germany.

It’s just going to take a little while before we’re relying 100% on NFC to pay for our groceries or set our PVR to record the show we want it to.

There you have it. The most anticipated phone since the last iPhone. And speaking of which the wait begins for iPhone 5.

But in the meantime we have the Galaxy III to enjoy. It’s phenomenally specced, glorious to behold and stacked with enough gimmicks and apps to ensure it’s a safe purchase. And at R8 000, you want to be sure you’re getting a phone you’re going to be happy with.

Get it: www.samsung.co.za
For: R8 000

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Decent crack at the concept of the iPhone 5 by film makers at Adney Films.

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