The iPhone has once again received high marks on J.D. Power's 2014 U.S. Wireless Smartphone Satisfaction Survey, getting the highest satisfaction rankings of any device at the four major U.S. carriers. Both Apple and chief rival Samsung were ranked "Among the Best" at Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile, and were well above the average ranking at three out of the four.

Price is becoming an increasingly important factor when purchasing a device. More than one-fifth of smartphone owners now say that price is main reason they chose their current device. However, customers reported lower levels of satisfaction with devices purchased for their lower price, and were less likely to purchase from that manufacturer again than if they had purchased the device for product-related reasons, like operating system.

What was your main factor in picking up an iPhone? Are you likely to stick with it the next time you buy a phone? Let us know below in the comments.

Source: J.D. Power

After a bit of teasing earlier this year, United Airlines has gone live with their iOS app update which enables in-flight movie and TV watching on your iPhone or iPad. The service is only available on certain flights, so be sure to check yours a day before you head out before counting on being able to enjoy it.

This is great. Generally the displays in just about every plane are fuzzy and ancient in comparison to what you can get on an iPhone or iPad. It's great to see new mobile-friendly services beyond in-flight Wi-Fi and QR ticketing, too. Recently we've seen some movement on airport use of iBeacons, but what else would you like to see airlines taking advantage of when it comes to your iPhone and iPad? Which airlines do you usually fly with?

• Download now - Free

Yesterday, we reported that several iPhone and iPad users in Australia were locked out of their devices. Apple issued a statement today clarifying that the iCloud service, which forms the backend for the Find my iPhone service, was unaffected, and that users impacted by the hack should change their Apple ID passwords.

"Apple takes security very seriously and iCloud was not compromised during this incident. Impacted users should change their Apple ID password as soon as possible and avoid using the same user name and password for multiple services. Any users who need additional help can contact AppleCare or visit their local Apple Retail Store."

The remote hack was carried out using the Find my iPhone service, with affected devices showing a message that read, "Device hacked by Oleg Pliss."

Apple did not offer any explanation as to how the hacker was able to retrieve user data. The hack was originally localized to Australia, but users from other New Zealand, US and Canada also reported being locked out of their devices on Apple's official support forums.

In addition to changing your password, we also suggest enabling two-factor authentication for your Apple ID to secure the service against future hacks.

Source: ZDNet

Due to its tremendous popularity, the iPhone has no shortage of third-party accessories. In fact, it's got to be the smartphone with the most accessories available out there for pretty much anything one could think of — and then some. This includes several camera accessories to make the best out of the iPhone's already impressive camera, either by mounting it perfectly to get the right angle, or adding an external lens to get DSLR-like results.

However, most of these accessories are mere hardware extensions, without any intelligent side to them that adds more functionality to the device. That doesn't mean no such smart camera accessories exist. What we are about to see is a collection of five such smart camera add-ons for your iPhone that will take your photography experience beyond what's achievable with mere mounts and lenses.

Galileo

When capturing a breathtaking scene around you, a single standard photo doesn't often do it justice. That's why people love capturing panoramas and full 360° spherical shots. Though keeping your phone steady can be a real pain while doing so, and even tripods can't help with that. What if there was a device that would let you remotely spin your iPhone in perfectly smooth motion to capture absolutely flawless panoramas and even photo spheres? Galileo does just that, and then some.

All you have to do is mount your iPhone or iPod touch into it, and Galileo will let you control its motion both horizontally and vertically using its iOS app from your iPad (or another iPhone), or even from the web using any browser! Available in both Bluetooth and 30-Pin variants, Galileo can handle any iPhone or iPod touch supporting Bluetooth 4.0 via Bluetooth, and the iPhone 4 and 4S via the connector.

In addition to capturing panoramas and photo spheres, Galileo can work in unison with several popular photography apps for other purposes as well, such as creating dynamic timelapse sequences, face and motion tracking, snapping photos upon face detection, and controlling it from your Pebble smart watch, and much more! You can even view a live video stream from your iPhone's camera while being able to spin it in any direction and angle from anywhere in the world. To top it all off, Galileo can even be mounted on any standard tripod stand. And when you're not using it for its robotic angular motion, it can serve as a great-looking desktop mount.

Unfortunately, Galileo doesn't support any other devices at the moment, though by the end of this year, you'll have the ability to access and control Galileo from your Android phone or tablet. A variant of Galileo for Android is also in the works, slated for a 2015 release.

• Galileo (Bluetooth)— $149.95
• Galileo (30-Pin)— $99.95

Veho MUVI X-Lapse

Let's admit it, not everyone would want to spend $150 on a camera accessory for an iPhone that cost them just $99 (on contract). If all you're looking for is a way to keep your phone stable while capturing panoramas or sweeping timelapses, take a look at Veho MUVI X-Lapse.

So, how does it work? Simply mount your phone on Veho, twist it to the desired angle, start capturing the panorama using the app your choice, and let go. Veho will automatically spin the phone to finish the panorama for you, ensuring it's stable and free of any glitches. It works similarly for capturing those sweeping timelapses; just remember to spin it 90° for 15 minutes of capture, 180° for 30, 270° for 45, and 360° for a full hour. In case you were wondering, yes — it works just like an egg timer.

Strictly speaking, Veho isn't an iPhone-specific accessory; in fact, it can support any smartphone that can fit into its mount. Furthermore, you can even remove the phone mount (which uses a standard camera mount screw) and use it with your point-and-shoot or DSLR! And if you have a tripod stand, you can mount Veho on it too using the standard screw! Such versatility along with its simplicity makes it great value for money at just over $20.

• Veho MUVI X-Lapse— $20.21

Muku Shuttr

So you finally found the perfect mount for your iPhone for taking pictures, but how do you get yourself in the shot without having to stretch your arm out? One way is to simply use the volume buttons on your earphones, but even that only allows for just a few feet of space between you and your iPhone, and for full body shots, you'll be seen holding the earphones in the resulting picture. Another solution is to use the volume buttons on a Bluetooth headset, but unless you already have a pair, you wouldn't likely want to buy one for just this purpose (I wouldn't!) That's why I got super-excited when coming across Muku Shuttr— a brilliant little accessory that you use as a wireless remote for triggering your smartphone's camera shutter from a distance. No more stretched arms, no more half-body shots when you were aiming for full ones, and no Bluetooth headphones or earphone cables barging into your photos uninvited.

At the hardware level, Muku Shuttr is minimal and unobtrusive. It can be hooked to a keychain, ensuring you have it on you when out and about without having to worry about carrying yet another tool. Staying true to its single-purpose nature, it only features one button, making it a no-brainer to use. Since it uses Bluetooth for connecting with your phone, it doesn't even require a line of sight for operation, meaning you can keep the remote concealed in your pictures and just appear natural.

In addition to iOS devices, Muku Shuttr also supports Android devices running 4.1 Jelly Bean or later. On iOS and many of the latest Android devices, it works with the native Camera app, meaning you don't even need to install anything additional on your phone, while for other supported Android devices, Muku offers a dedicated app for the purpose. In addition, it's also compatible with a whole bunch of popular third-party camera apps on iOS.

• Muku Shuttr— $39

Nova

You've got the perfect mount, as well as a way to remotely trigger your phone's camera, but how about the most important aspect of photography i.e. lighting? Even a rookie photographer know that the natural lighting from our surroundings isn't always adequate to capture the perfect shot, and while smartphone cameras have evolved significantly to offer better results in low-light conditions, the size constraint alone keeps them quite handicapped in this department. You can use your phone's flash, sure, but that in itself creates three more problems.

Firstly, the flash triggers only when you hit the shutter, so you can't tell from the viewfinder how the results would be before the image is actually captured. Secondly, you can't control the amount or temperature of light produced in the flash, resulting in images that often appear under- or over-exposed. And lastly, you can't position the flash anywhere else to shed better light on the subject without taking the camera there too, and that might not be your desired angle. Co-developed by an ex-Googler, Nova is a smart external flash that aims to help you with all of that.

At just the size of a standard credit card, Nova is portable enough to be carried in your wallet. When you're ready to use it, just pull it out and hold it at the best angle for your desired shot. Though that's just the beginning. Nova pairs with your phone via Bluetooth and offers its own app to let you control the temperature as well as the intensity of its light, thanks to its 40 diffused warm and cool LEDs. The result is smooth-toned, natural-looking photos with soft shadows and a sense of depth nearly impossible to achieve with the phone's flash.

Nova works with all devices with cameras running iOS 7 or later, as well as several modern Android devices running 4.3 Jelly Bean or later and featuring Bluetooth 4.0 LE.

• Nova— $59

Luxi

All of the accessories that we just saw above have one thing in common - they use your phone's camera for the actual photography, while themselves enhancing the experience in one way or the other. Luxi is different in this regard, in that it isn't primarily meant to use your phone's camera. Instead, it turns your iPhone into an accessory for your camera to help you capture great pictures.

Photography is all about capturing the light reflected from your subject, which in turn depends on the light shining on your subject. Your camera, however, can only detect the former. DSLRs, high-end point-and-shoots, and even some advanced smartphone camera apps allow you to change a lot of advanced exposure settings to get the desired results, and knowing the nature of light shining on your subject can help you determine that. That's why many serious photographers carry an external light meter (also called a diffusion dome) to measure that. However, those devices are usually quite expensive, and may at times just give you data on the incident light, leaving it up to you to figure out the best settings to use in your camera based on that. Luxi is a Kickstarter-funded tiny diffusion dome that's easy on your wallet and attaches to your iPhone to measure the incident light. The information is then relayed it to its iPhone app, which does all the calculations for you and shows you the best settings to use in your camera.

Luxi is the perfect camera companion for those of us who just use the Auto mode on our cameras due to the lack of understanding of all those complex settings. And even for professionals, it spares them the hassle of figuring out the best settings on their own. All you have to do is hold it next to your subject, open its app to get the perfect settings, enter them into your camera, and start snapping. And once you start seeing the results, using Auto mode will become a thing of the past.

Luxi fits iPhone 4 or later and requires iOS 6.1+, and is currently not compatible with Android. However, the developers are running a Kickstarter campaign for Luxi for All — a variant that will fit any smartphone or tablet, along with an Android app to make it usable with Android devices. The funding has already reached its minimum goal, meaning Luxi for All will go into production. Though the campaign still has over a month to go, so you can back it on Kickstarter right now and get Luxi for All at a discounted rate before it hits the shelves.

• Luxi— $30

So, there you have it — our five favorite smart camera accessories for the iPhone. If I were to pick my most favorite one among these, it'll have to be the Muku Shuttr. How about you? And did we miss out on your favorite smart iPhone camera accessory? Do tell us and our readers about it by leaving a comment below.

Image credit: Photojojo

Apple's suppliers will reportedly begin mass producing the next-generation iPhone 6— which will allegedly be available in a 4.7-inch and a 5.5-inch variant — in the month of July, with an estimated shipping date set for September. Although not new information, it is consistent with other rumors and the timeline fits what Apple's established over the last couple of years. According to Bloomberg:

The new iPhones will also be rounder and thinner than previous models, said one of the people. Production of the 5.5-inch model is more complicated than the smaller version, resulting in lower production efficiency that must be overcome before manufacturing volume can be increased, said the person.

Also reiterated is the presence of a curved glass screen, which allows manufacturers to "taper the edges of the screen where the bezel meets the frame of a smartphone." This is a direction that's been talked about since Apple went with bezel gestures in iOS 7.

Would you be interested in a 5.5-inch iPhone? Let us know in the comments.

Source: Bloomberg

If a simple 4-digit passcode isn't secure enough for you, you can choose to protect your iPhone or iPad Lock screen with a longer, stronger alphanumeric password. That greatly reduces the chances that anyone can guess or brute-force their way into your device and access your data without your permission. What's more, Apple makes it easy to set up.

How to protect your iPhone with a long, strong alphanumeric password

1. Launch Settings.
2. Tap Passcode (or Touch ID & Passcode).
3. Enter your existing 4-digit passcode if you have one.
4. Scroll down and toggle Simple Passcode off.
5. Re-enter your existing 4-digit passcode if you have one.
6. Enter your new long, strong alphanumeric password.
7. Re-enter your new long, strong alphanumeric password.

If you only use numbers, you'll still get the bigger, easier to use passcode entry interface. You'll just be able to enter more than 4 digits.

If you do go for full-on alphanumeric, and need help choosing a long, strong password, check out this article from AgileBits:

• Toward Better Master Passwords

That's it! The next time you want to unlock your iPhone or iPad you'll have to enter that strong alphanumeric password and any time someone else tries to break in, that's what will hopefully stop them dead in their tracks.

What are you using to secure your iPhone or iPad? Touch ID? Passcode? Password? Nothing at all? Let me know what you've chosen and why!

Note: Originally published October 2011. Updated April 2014.

Samsung's latest Galaxy S5 ad takes square aim at iPhone users, particularly as they're huddled around the few wall outlets scattered around an airport. Meanwhile, smug S5 owners can switch on ultra power saving mode or pop in an extra battery pack.

Samsung has had some ads in the past along the same vein, and even the more recent ads still put Apple squarely in their sights. Even if these are well done (and many argue they're not), there are still plenty of people that are perfectly happy with their iPhone battery life. Funnily enough BlackBerry CEO John Chen called iPhone users wall huggers back in March, as pointed out by Jordan Kahn.

What do you guys think of the ads? Are they effective, or remotely true to life? Are you satisfied with your iPhone's battery life?

Recording a fashion show with an iPhone seems easy compared to what a team of students from a school in Britain have done. With just a helium balloon, a GPS and a flight computer, they have managed to record incredible footage of the Earth. The project, which took over two years to fundraise and plan, resulted in over two-and-a-half hours of footage.

Students from Giles Academy outfitted an iPhone with a custom-built craft that included a helium balloon, GPS navigation unit and a flight computer to track the altitude. The phone reached 18 miles above the surface of the Earth and was able to capture more than two-and-a-half hours worth of footage before the balloon burst, after which the craft made its descent safely back to the surface with a parachute.

With the help of the GPS unit, the students were able to retrieve the iPhone and access the footage, which you can view at the source link below.

Source: Yahoo News

T-Mobile is offering a $100 rebate, in the form of a MasterCard pre-paid card, if customers purchase an iPhone and iPad from the wireless carrier on the same day and include a mobile Internet plan with a minimum of 1GB of data.

Here are the exact terms of the deal:

To qualify, you must have both devices on an active account in good standing. Qualifying postpaid plans required; a Mobile Internet plan with a minimum of 1GB of data is required on the iPad. Devices must be purchased on the same day and receipts uploaded to www.t-mobile.com/promotions using promo code AppleBundle3Q4 within 30 days of purchase. Rebate cards may not be combined or used with any other rebate card offer, free, or other promotional offers. Reward cards will be mailed to your current T-Mobile billing address. Valid reward card requests take six to eight weeks from receipt to process.

The iPhone-iPad bundle deal won't last forever; T-Mobile will end this promotion on September 2. What do you think about this latest attempt to offer a stealth price cut on two of Apple's iOS products?

Source: T-Mobile via Tmonews.com

Tesla are the premium electric auto mobiles available for those who not only wish to save some money on purchasing fuel, but also to have the latest toys available. The software running the Tesla vehicles is set to be upgraded to version 6.0, which will bring numerous features, including the ability to start the Tesla with nothing more than an iPhone.

It's already possible to connect the cars with a Pebble and Android Wear. Support for the Apple iPhone joins new navigation and calendar apps. Oh, and now it's possible to give the car a name, just in case calling it Nigel silently in your head when approaching the doors wasn't enough. Do note that this new functionality requires the iPhone mobile app.

Are you looking forward to connecting your Tesla to an iPhone?

Source: Electrek

Leading up to the iPhone 6 event we're updating and expanding our series on the history of the iPhone, continuing with the faster, less expensive iPhone 3G

At WWDC 2008 on June 9, after finalizing the details of the upcoming App Store, and summing up the original iPhone's achievements, the late Steve Jobs dove into the next challenges Apple had to face, the next mountain they had to climb. On the surface, they were obvious even before Jobs bulleted them on stage — 3G, Enterprise, third-party apps, more countries, and more affordable. The software changes came as part of iPhone OS 2.0. The hardware, iPhone 3G.

Just one year after launching the iPhone, we're launching the new iPhone 3G that is twice as fast at half the price. iPhone 3G supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync right out of the box, runs the incredible third party apps created with the iPhone SDK, and will be available in more than 70 countries around the world this year.

More Gs for less Cs

The iPhone 3G, codenamed N82 and model number iPhone1,2, had the same 3.5-inch screen at 320x480 and 163ppi as the original. The cellular radio, however, received a significant update to support 3G UMTS/HSPA networks. That allowed for a much faster — theoretical — 3.6 mbps data transfer. Jobs claimed it was faster — 36% faster — than other leading 3G phones of the time, including the Nokia N95 and Palm Treo 750, even while rendering a better version of the web.

The Dock connector remained, but Apple changed some of the pins so it no longer supported charging over FireWire, which rendered some accessories incompatible. It had the same Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR and 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi as well, but added an aGPS (assisted global positioning system) chip for more precise location services.

As the model number suggested, however, Apple didn't consider the iPhone 3G as full, next generation update. It was the first model, take two. That was probably due to the chipset remaining the same, an ARM-based Samsung 1176JZ(F)-S processor and PowerVR MBX Lite 3D graphics, with 128MB of RAM that was already showing its age and limitations. So were storage options, at 8 and 16GB for NAND Flash. Sensors and camera likewise stayed the same. Curiously, the battery dropped to 1150 mAh, though not at the expense of battery life.

There was still no CDMA and EVDO Rev A model, which meant still no possibility for Verizon or Sprint. Since Apple remained exclusive to AT&T, though, so it didn't much matter in the U.S.

There was, however, a big change to the design.

Instead of the original, aluminium casing with plastic buttons, Apple went with a polycarbonate casing with metal buttons. That let them improve RF transparency, which made for better reception, and also to offer the iPhone, for the first time, in multiple shades. The front plate remained uniform black, but for the 16GB model, the back was made available in both black and white. It didn't look quite as high-end as the original, and had some issues with hairline cracks around the cutouts, but it did manage to be both sturdy and reliable. It was also rounded instead of flat on the back, allowing Apple to call it thinner at the edges. It also improved audio and "fixed" the headphone jack, making it flush and hence, more compatible with more headphones.

However, the biggest difference, 3G and GPS aside, was the price. Jobs said that, according to Apple's research, 56% of potential iPhone customers didn't buy because of the price. Yet the value of the iPhone — it's ability to drive adoption of premium services — had been proven to carriers. So, Apple was able to convince them to subsidize the price. It dropped from a whopping $499/$599 on contract to a much friendlier $199/$299.

Apps for that

iPhone OS 2.0 added several new features. None were as big or as important as the App Store. Steve Jobs had previously announced web 2.0 apps as a way for developers to get onto the iPhone. It wasn't enough. Apple discussed discussed using WebKit as an interface layer, but ultimately went with UIKit. And so Henri Lamiraux's team, fresh off the forced-march required to launch the original iPhone, went on another one to get the software development kit (SDK) ready for iPhone OS 2.0.

The march was successful. Steve Jobs and then head of iOS software Scott Forstall announced it at a special event in April, and Apple shipped it along with the iPhone 3G.

The iPhone many people had been waiting for

The iPhone 3G launched on July 11, 2008, and it launched internationally. By the end of the year, it reached 70 countries. Apple also launched iPhone OS 2.0, the App Store, and MobileMe (now iCloud) on the same day, something that overwhelmed so many servers for so long Apple has since switched to releasing software updates a couple days before hardware.

That didn't slow sales, however. Over a million people bought the iPhone 3G the first weekend alone. Steve Jobs said, via Apple:

iPhone 3G had a stunning opening weekend.It took 74 days to sell the first one million original iPhones, so the new iPhone 3G is clearly off to a great start around the world.

Reviews were likewise enthusiastic, even with some reservations. Ed Baig of USA Today:

It's cheaper, faster and a lot friendlier for business. Apple's blockbuster smartphone already had nifty features such as visual voicemail, a splendid built-in video iPod and the best mobile Web browser I've ever used. With GPS newly added to the mix, this handheld marvel has no equal among consumer-oriented smartphones.

Jason Snell of Macworld:

If you've been cautious and waited a year for the second generation of iPhone, your patience will be rewarded. The iPhone 3G improves on the original iPhone's audio quality, offers access to a faster data network, and sports built-in GPS functionality. You'll also be getting in on the ground floor of the exciting new world of third-party software written for the iPhone. And business users will appreciate the iPhone's new Exchange syncing features.

Those who bought the iPhone 3G that first weekend, and those who updated their original iPhones, could not only launch Safari or SMS, but could download and use Facebook, play Super Monkey Ball, and so much more.

The App Store is what would drive the iPhone for years to come, but the price drop is what would drive its sales. Both began with the iPhone 3G, and with it, Apple began the mainstreaming of the smartphone.

Keystone competitors and poisoned partners

The existing, entrenched smartphone vendors of the time, Microsoft, Palm, RIM (BlackBerry), and Nokia spent 2008 as obliviously as they'd spent 2007. They talked a lot, but none of them showed a single sign that they realized the iPhone had absolutely changed everything on the market. BlackBerry's Mike Lazaridis:

I couldn't type on the [iPhone] and I still can't type on it, and a lot of my friends can't type on it. It's hard to type on a piece of glass.

Verizon's Ivan Seidenberg:

Steve Jobs eventually will get old . . . I like our chances.

Yet Verizon was pressuring BlackBerry into building their so-called "Apple Killer", which eventually came to market as the lackluster BlackBerry Storm. It did so poorly, as did its successor, the Torch, that Verizon would have to eventually come to terms with Apple.

Microsoft's Steve Ballmer:

I agree that no single company can create all the hardware and software. Openness is central because it's the foundation of choice.

Olli-Pekka Kallasvu, former CEO of Nokia:

He said Apple's vertically integrated model, where its hardware and software are tightly controlled by the company, further fragmented the market. And he added that what is truly needed is more openness in developing applications.

Windows Mobile 6.5 was hitting the market, a release so unimpressive Microsoft would have to rip-and-replace it with Windows Phone 7. Eventually. Nokia's Symbian was likely falling so far behind that Kallasvu's replacement, Stephan Elop, would declare it a burning platform and turn to his former employer, Microsoft, and their rebooted mobile OS in hopes of putting out the flames. If anything, they intensified, and Microsoft ended up buying Nokia, and now makes — wait for it — the hardware and software.

Google, an original iPhone launch partner, however, was far more perceptive, and more agile. They'd already bought Danger, the next generation phone platform created by Sidekick mastermind — and former Apple employee — Andy Rubin. They'd originally focused on making a Windows Mobile/BlackBerry-style competitor, determined to make sure Microsoft could never dominate the market and cut them out of the mobile future they so clearly recognized would be the next big thing.

Then the iPhone happened, and Eric Schmidt, who was then on the Apple Board of Directors, realized Microsoft wouldn't dominate in mobile at all. Apple would. So Google, much to Steve Jobs' consternation but to their credit, spun around and refocused Android at the iPhone.

When the iPhone was announced, Andy Rubin was shocked, since Google hadn't told them they'd given Apple their services, including Maps and YouTube. When Android launched Steve Jobs was furious. He'd been assured Google wouldn't go head-to-head with the iPhone.

The effects weren't immediate, but Apple and Google's relationship would never be the same, and the iPhone, which had a shot at market share leadership thanks to the paralysis of BlackBerry and Nokia, would never attain it in a post-Android world.

Two years later

By June of 2009, the original iPhone was gone but the iPhone 3G had sold somewhere around 20 million units. At that point, it dropped down to $99 on contract, and became Apple's first less-expensive iPhone.

More on the history of the iPhone

Leading up to the iPhone 6 event we're updating and expanding our series on the history of the iPhone, continuing with the more powerful iPhone 3GS

Steve Jobs didn't give the WWDC keynote on June 8, 2009. He was away on medical leave. So, a team of Apple executives soldiered on without him. That included Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Phil Schiller, who's task was to fill the biggest New Balances in the business for what was becoming Apple's biggest business. Schiller started off quoting Time Magazine's praise for the last generation, "the phone that has changed phones forever." He'd go on to make that phone more affordable forever, while also introducing its successor. It boasted twice the speed, both for processing and data networking. It was the iPhone 3GS.

iPhone 3GS is the fastest, most powerful iPhone yet and we think people will love the incredible new features including autofocus camera, video recording and the freedom of voice control. And with a breakthrough price of $99, we are thrilled to get iPhone 3G into the hands of even more users who want them.

Schiller recounted how the iPhone had captured 65% of mobile browsing, and how the App Store had grown to feature 50,000 apps. Then he launched into the "same great design, all new insides" segment that would be the theme for the iPhone 3GS (and for subsequent S-class iPhones to come).

S is for Speed

The iPhone 3GS, codenamed N88, and model number iPhone 2,1, was the third iPhone, but the second generation. Confusing, perhaps, especially since it sported an almost identical design to the previous year's iPhone 3G. The 3.5-inch screen was the same 320x480 and 163ppi as the last two iPhones, but Apple added an oleophobic coating to the screen to help it better resist finger prints and other oils.

Turns out, however, Apple cares more about the guts than the casing, and the insides of the iPhone 3GS had far more striking differences. The cellular radio was updated again, this time to a twice-as-fast UMTS/HPSA 7.2 mbps. Wi-Fi stayed the same at 802.11 b/g, as did aGPS, but Bluetooth got a bump to 2.1 + EDR.

The chipset, however, got a big bump to the also twice-as-fast ARM Cortex-A8-based Samsung S5PC100 CPU and PowerVR SGX535 GPU that included support for OpenGL ES 2.0. RAM was doubled to a better-if-still-anemic 256MB. Storage got an increase, with the addition of a 32GB model. Battery, to power it all, jumped to 1219mAh, and significantly increased battery life.

Speed wasn't just a factor of hardware, but of software as well. Thanks to Apple's integrated model, both the new processors and iPhone OS 3.0 made everything from app launching to web browsing 2-4 times faster. T

Apple added a magnometer (digital compass), which brought directional and rotation data to the mix. Combined with the existing accelerometer, it was a huge boom for precision and accuracy, especially for gaming. Nike+ was also integrated, as was hardware encryption for added security.

The camera had become so popular on sites like Flickr, and Apple finally started to pay attention to optics as well. It went to a slightly-less-terrible 3 megapixels with auto-focus, auto white balance, and auto exposure, and macro. Thanks to the better processing power, it could also record video at 30fps... if only at 480p VGA resolution.

The iPhone 3GS also added voice control, a very early, rudimentary precursor to Siri. Activated by a long press of the Home button, it could handle calls and music playback, among select other things. Likewise, Accessibility gained a Voice Over option, and more.

For the third year in the row, there was still no CDMA and EVDO Rev A model, so still no iPhone for Verizon or Sprint in the U.S., but the iPhone was still exclusive to AT&T in the U.S., so it still didn't matter.

Like the casing, the price stayed the same, though you were getting a much faster phone with double the storage for the same $199/$299 on contract.

Scratching the surface

The iPhone 3GS launched on June 19 in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and several European markets. It reached 80 countries by the end of the year. iPhone OS 3.0 came with it. Steve Jobs shared the news that, once again, over a million were sold the first weekend. Apple:

Customers are voting and the iPhone is winning. With over 50,000 applications available from Apple's revolutionary App Store, iPhone momentum is stronger than ever.

Apple didn't mean for the iPhone 3GS to be a compelling upgrade for iPhone 3G owners. They were, more sensibly, targeting original iPhone owners whose 2-year contracts were up, and the much larger pool of people who didn't yet own an iPhone. Not all reviewers got that, of course. Some judged the phone by its casing. (Something that would haunt Apple again and again.) Still, reviews were mainly positive. David Pogue of the New York Times:

All of these changes make it much harder to resist the iPhone on intellectual, feature-counting grounds. The new iPhone doesn't just catch up to its rivals — it vaults a year ahead of them.

At this point, the usual 10 rational objections to the iPhone have been whittled down to about three: no physical keyboard, no way to swap the battery yourself and no way to avoid using AT&T as your carrier.

In short, the substantially improved, still elegant iPhone 3G S makes it dangerously easy for your heart and your head to agree.

Anand Lai Shimpi for AnandTech

Honestly, if you have the original iPhone then this is absolutely the one you'll want to upgrade to - you'll feel like you've been swept off of your feet one more time (assuming you did like your iPhone). Upgrading from the 3G is also a good idea in my opinion, just because of the tremendous increase in performance.

Yours truly on iMore:

Apple had me at speed. The minute I saw the performance potential of the new hardware, I had to have it. Video is nice and I'll likely use it a lot, but just cutting that much overhead off my day to day usage is priceless.

With the iPhone 3GS, the hardware finally caught up to the software.

Palm tried, Droid did

2009 saw the introduction of the most novel smartphone since the iPhone — the Palm Pre. Run by former Apple SVP Jon Rubenstein, built by former Apple engineers and designers who, perhaps, thought Apple erred in going with UIKit over WebKit for the apps, it featured a gorgeous interface, elegant multitasking metaphor, excellent Synergy messaging system, and... terrible hardware. It was also locked on Sprint, which proved to be far, far worse than being locked on AT&T. For all of its HMTL5 app ambition, poor business decisions, inept marketing, lack of funding, and a conspiracy of other events meant it never gained the traction it deserved. Which was a huge pity. Roger McNamee, one of Palm's principle backers through then-owners Elevation Partners, didn't do them any early expectational favors either:

You know the beautiful thing: June 29, 2009, is the two-year anniversary of the first shipment of the iPhone. Not one of those people will still be using an iPhone a month later.

And:

Our product is just going to run rings around them on the web. If you want to go the web, it's going to be a million time faster, well, not a million times, several times faster and that's a huge deal for most people.

Ironically, one of the biggest complaints about webOS at the time was speed. The calendar app, for example, could take 20 seconds to load. As to the other claim, one month later more people than ever owned iPhones. Palm, wisely, took away his microphone.

Microsoft, still lost in the weeds with Windows Mobile, largely sat out the year. Steve Ballmer, of course, did not.

The truth of the matter is all the consumer market mojo is with Apple and to a lesser extent BlackBerry. And yet, the real market momentum with operators and the real market momentum with device manufacturers seems to primarily be with Windows Mobile and Android.

And:

Windows Mobile 6.5 has touch on it. The way Apple does touch drives cost. [The] way they do it on the iPhone is not an inexpensive component. We'll do it in a way that you can afford to do it on most phones.

And, of course:

Let's face it, the Internet was designed for the PC. The Internet is not designed for the iPhone. That's why they've got 75,000 applications — they're all trying to make the Internet look decent on the iPhone.

Apple manufactured their own phones, of course, so it's uncertain what kind of momentum they could have with other manufacturers. Operators would soon show what kind of momentum Apple had with them, however, to the tune of billions of dollars of upfront payments. As to capacitive vs. resistive screens, Microsoft's Windows Mobile couldn't yet support them, so he was playing the hand he himself had so poorly dealt. However, the market apparently understood the difference between cost and value. They also understood the value of apps that fed off of the internet. Deeply.

RIM (now BlackBerry)'s Storm hadn't fared well for Verizon, and Mike Lazaridis was contrite about it. Sort of.

We're finding — if you look at the surveys, you can see that large amount of the customers that have purchased touchscreen devices in last two years, they intend to get a device with the QWERTY keyboard on it now, right. I mean, they've got into a point where they've realize that a touchscreen alone is not enough; so that's important.

That's our first touch product, and you know nobody gets it perfect out the door. You know other companies were having problems with their first releases.

Unfortunately, Apple did. They nailed the touchscreen, and the multitouch experience, out of the gate. The physical keyboard market never recovered, and BlackBerry took far too long to understand that sea change.

Google's Eric Schmidt, meanwhile, was forced to resign from Apple's board of directors. Steve Jobs, likely through tightly clenched teeth, said via Apple:

Eric has been an excellent Board member for Apple, investing his valuable time, talent, passion and wisdom to help make Apple successful. Unfortunately, as Google enters more of Apple's core businesses, with Android and now Chrome OS, Eric's effectiveness as an Apple Board member will be significantly diminished, since he will have to recuse himself from even larger portions of our meetings due to potential conflicts of interest. Therefore, we have mutually decided that now is the right time for Eric to resign his position on Apple's Board.

Behind the scenes, Jobs was far less cordial:

We did not enter the search business, Jobs said. They entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won't let them, he says. Someone else asks something on a different topic, but there's no getting Jobs off this rant. I want to go back to that other question first and say one more thing, he says. This don't be evil mantra: "It's bullshit." Audience roars.

Unfortunately, Verizon, still lacking the iPhone, hurting from the Storm's failure in the market, and spurning the Palm Pre, went all in on Android. Licensed from Lucasfilm by Verizon itself, Droid was a new line of Android phones that finally made the world stand up and take notice. Their marketing campaign, filled with quasi-pornographic metaphors, was aimed squarely at young men and squarely against the iPhone, highlighting numerous features that Android had, and the iPhone at that time lacked. While Android was just as immature in its own way, and Google hadn't yet gotten serious about user experience — they'd do that later, ironically, by luring Matias Duarte away from Palm — it began Android's ascension to the top of the market.

Three years later

By June of 2010 the iPhone 3G was being cleared out, the iPhone 3GS had outsold all previous iPhones combined, and what's more, it had been joined by another iOS device — the iPad. Yet the hardware was ripe for innovation, and we'd see it sooner than even Apple intended...

More on the history of the iPhone

Leading up to the iPhone 6 event we're updating and expanding our series on the history of the iPhone, continuing with the biggest thing to happen since the original — the iPhone 5

WWDC 2012 came and went without any new iPhone announcements, re-affirming that that 2011 hadn't be a fluke and that fall was the new summer. So it was that Apple announced another iPhone event for September 12, 2012. There, Apple senior vice president of worldwide marketing introduced the biggest thing to happen to the iPhone since the original iPhone. Big as in tall. Big as in light. Big as in LTE. Big as in the iPhone 5.

iPhone 5 is the most beautiful consumer device that we've ever created. We've packed an amazing amount of innovation and advanced technology into a thin and light, jewel-like device with a stunning 4-inch Retina display, blazing fast A6 chip, ultrafast wireless, even longer battery life; and we think customers are going to love it.

Loving it was easy

iPhone 5, codenamed N41/N42 and model number iPhone5,1, was the fourth major redesign and the second major improvement to the iPhone's display since the original. It was the fist time, however, Apple changed aspect ratios. All previous iPhones had been 3:2. The iPhone 5 was a more cinematic 16:9. It meant movies and TV could be shown with less or no letterboxing, and apps could take advantage of an extra row of content. That's because Apple had simply added pixels to take the iPhone from 3.5-inches to 4-inches, they'd kept the same 326ppi density and gone from 940x640 to 1136x640.

Apple also switched to in-cell technology, which let them combine the touch sensor and LCD into one layer. If the pixels of the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s looked like they were painted beneath glass, the pixels on the iPhone 5 looked like they were painted inside the glass. It reduced reflections and made everything look better. There were some issues with rapid, changing, diagonal swiping, but overall Apple had succeeded in once again making the best, if not the biggest, display in the business.

Although the screen got bigger, paradoxically the iPhone 5 itself got smaller. 12% smaller by volume than its predecessor. That meant it was so light people picking it for the first time could mistake it for a hollow shell. It required a manufacturing process with precision and at scale never seen before. According to Apple senior vice president of design, Jony Ive, they now measured in microns.

Though the overall rounded-rectangle shape of the iPhone 5 stayed the same, Apple rebuilt the casing from the atoms on up. Instead of a glass back and stainless steel band, they went back to the aluminum of the original iPhone. This time, however, they made it a unibody that covered the back and sides and included diamond polished chamfered edges. Ceramic/pigmented glass was still used on the top and bottom for RF transparency, however, resulting in a two-tone effect. Apple offered both white and silver (Stormtrooper) and black and slate (Vader). The silver was clear-coated aluminum. The slate was anodized. Dark colors, especially black, are incredibly hard to anodize and that did cause some issues for Apple when it came to scratching and chipping.

The iPhone 5 also debuted Apple's first truly custom processor. Previous Apple A-series processors had been based on existing ARM reference platforms like Cortex A9. For the Apple A6, Apple licensed the ARM v7s instruction set and made their own design — a 32nm CMOS dual-core CPU that can run from between 800MHz and 1.2GHz and was codenamed Swift. They topped it off with a triple-core PowerVR SGX543MP3 GPU and 1GB of RAM. It was roughly twice as fast. Again. There was no new storage option, however, so 64GB remained the max. The battery did creep up to 1440mAh and that, along with new efficiencies, increased useful battery life.

The Apple A6 image signal processor (ISP) added spatial noise reduction as well as increased speed. Because of the 25% thinner body, Apple wasn't able to include a better physical camera (cameras love depth) but they somehow managed to squeeze a camera into the iPhone 5 that was just as good as the iPhone 4S. Re-branded under the old "iSight" name, Apple did add a new, dynamic low-light mode which they claimed was up to 2 f-stops better. Apple also claimed the 5-element lens has been aligned with even greater precision for even greater sharpness. Also, the surface of the iSight was switched to sapphire crystal to make it more scratch resistant. The front, FaceTime camera went 720p, becoming FaceTime HD.

Making a camera that was as good if not slightly better than the iPhone 4S fit into a body as thin as the iPhone 5 was, no doubt, a miracle of engineering. However, it did raise questions about the need for ever-thinner iPhones. Could Apple not have left the depth the same and made the camera even better? Added even more battery? What was truly the most important — more functionality or less weight? Apple clearly believed the latter.

In their efforts to fit everything into the smaller-by-volume space, Apple once again went to a smaller SIM card. This time, the nanoSIM. Thanks to Qualcomm's MDM9615 and RTR8600 chipsets, they added 4G LTE support with a maximum theoretical speed of 100mbps. These were next generation chips at the time and, because Apple had waited to go to LTE until they were ready, the iPhone avoided all the battery life and bloating issues faced by earlier adopters.

Since LTE doesn't support simultaneous voice and data, the GSM iPhone 5 had to drop down to HSPA+ while making or taking calls. Since EVDO Rev. A also doesn't supported simultaneous voice and data either, the CMDA iPhone 5 had to drop data entirely. To be clear, this was and remains a Verizon and Sprint problem. They never rolled out EVDO Rev. B, which does support simultaneous voice and data, nor did they switch to HSPA, like their CDMA counterparts in Canada, Bell and TELUS, did.

That meant, in order for Apple to provide a "world phone", Apple has to include CDMA support in every iPhone. Not only was that a more complex radio model to solve, it was a more expensive one — Qualcomm owns CDMA and they take a hefty royalty for its use. And, again, to provide a world phone, that's a higher royalty Apple had to pay on every iPhone.

Apple could have worked around the simultaneous voice and data issue by adding a second voice radio to the iPhone 5, but while they were willing to pay more for every iPhone because of Verizon and Sprint's technological debt, they drew the line at increasing size and decreasing battery life. Verizon and Sprint customers would have to wait until their carriers went all-in on Voice over LTE (VoLTE).

For areas without LTE, Apple added DC-HSPA+, and it's still impressive theoretical 42mbps capacity. Wideband audio was also added for the few carriers that actually supported it. There was still no NFC, not even with Passbook along for the ride. Bluetooth was already maxed out at 4.0, but thanks to a Murata Wi-Fi module, which included the Broadcom BCM4334 chip, the iPhone 5 gained 802.11n on 5GHz as well.

Apple also added a 3rd mic for better noise cancellation and beamforming. Thanks to FaceTime, Siri, and other, newer technologies, we didn't just talk into our phones any more. We talked at them and from all around them.

The iPhone 5 was also a turning point in another major area. After 10 years of 30-pin Dock connector, Apple swapped it out for the smaller, more flexible, more advanced Lightning connector — 80% smaller and offering 8 all-digital signals to be precise. It caused a lot of pain for a lot of people who'd accumulated a lot of Dock connector-based accessories over the years, and Apple dropped the ball in a major way by not having their adapters on the shelves — never mind in boxes — in anything approaching a reasonable amount of time. It was a necessary and good change, however, and over time the conversion pain diminished.

The iconic earbuds were also updated for the iPhone 5, becoming EarPods. The shape of the EarPods was a significant divergence — instead of being uniformly round, the EarPods were asymmetrically shaped and, according to Apple, ergonomically designed to better fit a wider range of ears. EarPods also featured a new, multi-port design. The main EarPod speaker directed sound into your ear. The port on the back was tuned to mid-range frequencies and intended to improve consistency of experience. Ports in the stem were meant to improve bass. Air channels reduced pressure on the speaker so it could concentrate on providing greater low-frequency sound. They still weren't high-end and weren't meant to be, but for in-the-box headsets, they were an improvement.

Pricing was unchanged at $199, $299, and $399 on contract.

Bored all the way to the bank

The iPhone 5 launched in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK on September 21, 2012. By the end of the year it was available in 100 countries on 240 carriers. Apple also launched iOS 6 with it. They sold 5 million the first weekend. Tim Cook, via Apple:

Demand for iPhone 5 has been incredible and we are working hard to get an iPhone 5 into the hands of every customer who wants one as quickly as possible. While we have sold out of our initial supply, stores continue to receive iPhone 5 shipments regularly and customers can continue to order online and receive an estimated delivery date. We appreciate everyone's patience and are working hard to build enough iPhone 5s for everyone.

The iPhone 5 was a completely new design with a completely new manufacturing process, but thanks to the familiar silhouette button layout, especially the iconic Home button, some people and pundits called it uninspired. They called it boring. It made no sense to people who understood what went into making it. It made no sense to anyone familiar with all the other iterative designs from all the other manufacturers.

But perception is reality, and manufacturers disregard it at their peril. Add in the extremely troubled iOS 6 Maps launch that came with it, and gripes abounded. Still, reviews were positive.

Tim Stevens of Engadget:

The iPhone 5 is a significant improvement over the iPhone 4S in nearly every regard, and in those areas that didn't see an upgrade over its predecessor -- camera, storage capacity -- one could make a strong case that the iPhone 4S was already ahead of the curve. Every area, that is, except for the OS. If anything, it's the operating system here that's beginning to feel a bit dated and beginning to show its age.

Still, the iPhone 5 absolutely shines. Pick your benchmark and you'll find Apple's thin new weapon sitting at or near the top. Will it convince you to give up your Android or Windows Phone ways and join the iOS side? Maybe, maybe not. Will it wow you? Hold it in your hand -- you might be surprised. For the iOS faithful this is a no-brainer upgrade. This is without a doubt the best iPhone yet. This is a hallmark of design. This is the one you've been waiting for.

Jim Dalrymple of The Loop:

My experience with the iPhone 5, iOS and the EarPods has been great. The iPhone is everything Apple said it would be and with iOS 6 built-in, it's clear to me that Apple has another winner on its hands.

I can't think of any good reason why anyone wouldn't upgrade or purchase the iPhone 5.

Yours truly for iMore:

The danger of being overly focused is that you lose sight of the periphery. The key is to be fixed but not fixated. It can be a razor-fine line, and one Apple often seems to cascade down with reckless abandon. [...] One day Apple will come to the end of this iPhone line and they'll have to re-imagine or replace the iPhone the way they have the iPod. But it won't be this day or this iPhone.

Taller, thinner, faster, lighter, brighter; the iPhone 5 represents nothing more nor less than the latest, relentless iteration on the Platonic ideal Apple has been striving towards for almost a decade. Redesigned in every way but shape, compromised but true to its purpose, the iPhone 5 is once again the best iPhone Apple has ever made, and one of the best phones ever made. Period.

It felt the closest yet to the original Project Purple concept Jony Ive had been working on since 2005. It felt like the pinnacle of that hardware line.

Six years later

Microsoft had launched Windows Phone 7 and then called a mulligan and launched the similar looking but not binary compatible Windows Phone 8. It did, finally, unite Microsoft's platforms under the NT kernel, however, so it was an improvement. Nokia, the principle Windows Phone manufacturer started to make noise about Android and even started to launch low-end Android phones under the Nokia X label. They'd been so devalued under the leadership of former Microsoft executive and current Nokia CEO Stephen Elop that Microsoft decided to simply buy Nokia and get into the hardware business Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer had previously said made no sense to them. Ballmer, however, was already on his way out. He resigned and left the future of Microsoft in mobile to his successor, Satya Nadella.

BlackBerry had ditched their dual CEOs and replaced them with Thorstein Heins, and finally launched BlackBerry 10. It had some interesting ideas but was too late to market for new customers and too different for existing ones. Neither the full screen Z10 nor the hardware keyboard Q10 could find much traction.

Samsung and Motorola remained in litigation with Apple, the former leading in marketshare and rapidly gaining in profit share, the latter taking the first careful steps towards a Google phone. Competition from Android had never been more fierce. Some in the media and in the markets began to run with the Apple is doomed meme, and Apple's ability to innovate and excite was called into question.

At WWDC 2013, however, Apple began to strike back. iOS 7— a radical reconceptualizing of what it meant to be mobile software — was coming. But what would come with it?

More on the history of the iPhone

The definitive guide to Apple's reinvention of the phone: From the original iPhone to what comes next!

Apple introduced the original iPhone back in 2007, instantly obsoleting every other smartphone on the planet in every way that mattered. Over the next two years, with the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, Apple increased functionality while simultaneously lowering price, taking the smartphone fully out of the niche and making it mainstream. The iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S continued that evolution, bringing support for broader carriers and faster speeds, better displays and new, natural language interfaces. The iPhone 5 took manufacturing to new levels and the screen to new heights, but most importantly it set the stage for what's coming next — iOS 8, the iPhone 6, the iWatch, and more. Before we embark on that brave new future, however, we're going to take a look back. This is the story of Apple's revolutionary phone. Of Steve Jobs' phone. Of the iPhone. And for many of us, our phone.

Note: For length reasons we've broken this piece into separate articles and sections. You can jump to a section via the links below, or read through for an overview and individual links below.

History of iPhone at a glance

	iPhone	iPhone 3G	iPhone 3GS	iPhone 4	iPhone 4S	iPhone 5	iPhone 5c	iPhone 5s
Code Name	M68	N82	N88	N90	N94	N41	N48	N51
Model Name	iPhone 1,1	iPhone 1,2	iPhone 2,1		iPhone 3,1	iPhone 4,1	iPhone 5,1	iPhone 5,3 | iPhone 6,1
Launch OS	iPhone OS 1.0	iPhone OS 2.0	iPhone OS 3.0	iOS 4	iOS 5	iOS 6	iOS 7	iOS 7
Screen Size	3.5 inches	3.5 inches	3.5 inches	3.5 inches	3.5 inches	4.0 inches	4.0 inches	4.0 inches
Screen Resolution	480x320 (163ppi)	480x320 (163ppi)	960x640 (326ppi)	960x640 (326ppi)	1136x640 (326ppi)	1136x640 (326ppi)	1136x640 (326ppi)	1136x640 (326ppi)
Screen Type	IPS LCD	IPS LCD	IPS LCD	IPS LCD	IPS LCD	IPS LCD	IPS LCD	IPS LCD
System-on-a-chip	Samsung S5L8900	Samsung S5L8900	Samsung APL0298C05	Apple A4	Apple A5	Apple A6	Apple A6	Apple A7
CPU	ARM 1176JZ(F)-S	ARM 1176JZ(F)-S	600MHz ARM Cortex A8	800MHz ARM Cortex A8	800MHz dual-core ARM Cortex A9	1.3GHz dual-core Swift (ARM v7s)	1.3GHz dual-core Swift (ARM v7s)	64-bit 1.3GHz dual-core Cyclone (ARM v8)
GPU	PowerVR MBX Lite 3D	PowerVR MBX Lite 3D	PowerVR SGX535	PowerVR SGX535	PowerVR dual-core SGX543MP4	PowerVR triple-core SGX543MP3	PowerVR triple-core SGX543MP3	PowerVR G6430
Co-processor	none	none	none	none	none	none	none	M7 Motion
RAM	128MB	128MB	256MB	512MB	512MB	1GB	1GB	1GB DDR3
Storage	4GB/8GB/16GB	8GB/16GB	16GB/32GB	16GB/32GB	16GB/32GB/64GB	16GB/32GB/64GB	16GB/32GB/64GB	16GB/32GB/64GB
Cellular Data	EDGE	3G 3.6	HSPA 7.2	HSPA 7.2	HSPA 14.4	LTE/DC-HSPA	LTE/DC-HSPA	LTE/DC-HSPA
SIM	Mini	Mini	Mini	Micro	Micro	Nano	Nano	Nano
Rear Camera	2MP	2MP	3MP/480p	5MP/720p, ƒ2.8, 1.75µ	8MP/1080p, ƒ/2.4, BSI, 1.4µ	8MP/1080p, ƒ/2.4, BSI, 1.4µ	8MP/1080p, ƒ/2.4, BSI, 1.4µ	8MP/1080p, ƒ/2.2, BSI, 1.5µ
Front Camera	none	none	none	VGA	VGA	1.2MP/720p, BSI	1.2MP/720p, BSI	1.2MP/720p, BSI
Bluetooth	Bluetooth 2.0+EDR	Bluetooth 2.0+EDR	Bluetooth 2.1+EDR	Bluetooth 2.1+EDR	Bluetooth 4.0	Bluetooth 4.0	Bluetooth 4.0	Bluetooth 4.0
Wi-Fi	802.11b/g	802.11b/g	802.11b/g	802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz)	802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz)	802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz, 5GHz)	802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz, 5GHz)	802.11b/g/n (2.4GHz, 5GHz)
GPS	none	aGPS	aGPS	aGPS	aGPS, GLONASS	aGPS, GLONASS	aGPS, GLONASS	aGPS, GLONASS
Sensors	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass, gyroscope	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass, gyroscope, infrared	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass, gyroscope, infrared	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass, gyroscope, infrared	Ambient light, accelerometer, proximity, compass, gyroscope, infrared, fingerprint
Mic	Single	Single	Single	Dual	Dual	Triple	Triple	Triple
Connector	30-pin Dock	30-pin Dock	30-pin Dock	30-pin Dock	30-pin Dock	Lightning	Lightning	Lightning
Height	4.52 inches (115mm)	4.55 inches (115.5mm)	4.55 inches (115.5mm)	4.54 inches (115.2mm)	4.54 inches (115.2mm)	4.87 inches (123.8mm)	4.91 inches (124.8mm)	4.87 inches (123.8mm)
Width	2.40 inches (61mm)	2.43 inches (61.8mm)	2.43 inches (61.8mm)	2.31 inches (58.6mm)	2.31 inches (58.6mm)	2.31 inches (58.6mm)	2.33 inches (59.2mm)	2.31 inches (58.6mm)
Thickness	0.46 inches (11.6mm)	0.48 inches (12.3mm)	0.48 inches (12.3mm)	0.37 inches (9.3mm)	0.37 inches (9.3mm)	0.30 inches (7.6mm)	0.35 inches (8.97mm)	0.30 inches (7.6mm)
Weight	4.72oz (135g)	4.69 oz (133g)	4.72oz (135g)	4.83oz (137g)	4.94 oz (140g)	3.95oz (112g)	4.66oz (132g)	4.30oz (122g)
Battery	1400mAh	1150mAh	1219mAh	1420mAh	1440mAh	1440mAh	1510mAh	1560mAh
Colors	Black and aluminum	Black/White	Black/White	Black/White	Black/White	Slate and black/Silver and white	Blue/Green/Pink/White/Yellow	Space gray and black/Silver and white/Gold and white
Launch Price	$499/$599 on contract (no subsidy)	$199/$299 on contract	$199/$299 on contract	$199/$299 on contract	$199/$299/$399 on contract	$199/$299/$399 on contract	$99/$199 on contract	$199/$299/$399 on contract
Release Date	6/29/2007	7/1/2008	6/19/2009	6/24/2010	10/14/2011	9/21/2012	9/20/2013	9/20/2013
Availability	4 countries, 4 carriers by year-end 2007	70 countries, 16 carriers by year-end 2008	80 countries by year-end 2009	90 countries, 185 carriers by year-end 2010	70 countries, 100 carriers by year-end 2011	100 countries, 240 carriers by year-end 2012	100 countries, 270 carriers by year-end 2013	100 countries, 270 carriers by year-end 2013

History of iPhone: Apple reinvents the phone

On January 9, 2007 the late Steve Jobs put sneaker to Macworld stage to give one of the most incredible keynote presentations of his life - a life filled with incredible keynotes - and in the history of consumer electronics. There, he said he would be introducing a wide-screen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough internet device. But it wasn't three products. It was one product. We got it. It was the iPhone.

• Read the complete history of the original iPhone

History of iPhone 3G: Twice as fast, half the price

At WWDC 2008 on June 9, after finalizing the details of the upcoming App Store, and summing up the original iPhone's achievements, the late Steve Jobs dove into the next challenges Apple had to face, the next mountain they had to climb. On the surface, they were obvious even before Jobs bulleted them on stage - 3G, Enterprise, third-party apps, more countries, and more affordable. The software changes came as part of iPhone OS 2.0. The hardware, iPhone 3G.

• Read the complete history of the iPhone 3G
• Read the iPhone 3G review

History of iPhone 3GS: Faster and more powerful

Steve Jobs didn't give the WWDC keynote on June 8, 2009. He was away on medical leave. So, a team of Apple executives soldiered on without him. That included Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Phil Schiller, who's task was to fill the biggest New Balances in the business, for what was becoming Apple's biggest business. Schiller started off quoting Time Magazine's praise for the last generation, "the phone that has changed phones forever." He'd go on to make that phone more affordable forever, while also introducing its successor. It boasted twice the speed, both for processing and data networking. It was the iPhone 3GS.

• Read the complete history of the iPhone 3GS
• Read the iPhone 3GS review

History of iPhone 4: Changing everything - again

Steve Jobs returned to the WWDC keynote stage on June 7, 2010. He'd introduced the iPad earlier in the year, and kicked things off with an update on how it, and the App Store had been doing. Then he turned his attention to iPhone, and after recapping Apple had done to date, he began on what would come next. It had over 100 new features. It has an all-new design, an all-new camera, and an all new screen resolution. It was hot. It was the iPhone 4

• Read the complete history of the iPhone 4
• Read the iPhone 4 review

History of iPhone 4S: The most amazing iPhone yet

Nothing about 2011 was normal for Apple. Tim Cook had introduced the Verizon iPhone 4 at the beginning of the year and Apple had finally shipped the white iPhone 4 by spring. But unlike previous years, WWDC 2011 came and went with nary a mention nor a glimpse of a new iPhone. Steve Jobs went on medical leave again, and in August resigned as CEO. He passed away on October 5, 2011. Just the day before Apple's new CEO, Tim Cook, SVP of Marketing Phil Schiller, and other executives valiantly took the stage at a special media called "Let's Talk iPhone". There, under tremendous emotional strain, they introduced the most amazing iPhone yet. The iPhone 4S.

• Read the complete history of iPhone 4s
• Read the iPhone 4s review

History of iPhone 5: The biggest thing to happen to iPhone

WWDC once again came and went without any new iPhone announcements, re-affirming that that 2011 hadn't be a fluke. Fall was the new summer. So it was that Apple announced another iPhone event for September 12, 2012. There Apple SVP of worldwide marketing announced the biggest thing to happen to the iPhone since the original iPhone. Big as in in thinner and lighter. Big as in screaming fast LTE. Big as in a taller screen. Big as in the iPhone 5.

• Read the complete history of iPhone 5
• Read the iPhone 5 review

History of iPhone 5c: The most colorful iPhone yet

The invitation for Apple's 2013 iPhone event played off the dot motif from the whimsically animated video Tim Cook had shown off at WWDC, the one that expounded on Apple's core values and beliefs, and what they're willing to put their signature to. But unlike the stack black and white of the video, the invitations dots were in bright, bold color. So it was that on September 10, 2013, when Tim Cook took the stage, he announced that unlike almost every year previously, Apple wasn't going to lower the price of the previous year's black- and white-cased iPhone 5. That year the business had grown so large, Apple was going to replace with something new. With something fun. With something colorful. With the iPhone 5c.

• Read the complete history of iPhone 5c
• Read the iPhone 5c review

History of iPhone 5s: The most forward thinking iPhone ever

Apple's event on September 10, 2013 was unique in their history — they introduced not one but two new phones on stage that day. The first was a re-imagining of the previous year's model in a new, more colorful form. It was the past made present. The second was all about the future. It was, as Phil Schiller called it, the most forward thinking iPhone ever. It was the iPhone 5s.

• Read the complete history of iPhone 5s
• Read the iPhone 5s review

The iPhone 6 and what's next...

Apple will be holding its annual fall event - now an iPhone event - on September 9 in Cupertino, California. There, it's widely anticipated they'll announce their next generation iPhone 6 in at least its 4.7-inch incarnation and perhaps its 5.5-inch one as well. It should have a new, more rounded design to better make use of bezel gestures, near-field communications (NFC) to tie into its new mobile payment solution, new optics for its camera, and perhaps some other new features. Despite a steady stream of rumors and leaks, nothing is official until an Apple executive holds it up on the keynote stage.

• iPhone 6: Everything you need to know!

The UK government published a new report highlighting mobile theft in the country. According to the statistics, iPhones are more likely to be targeted in a theft, followed by BlackBerry smartphones and Samsung's offerings.

Analysis of hundreds of thousands of data points describing theft in London from 1 August 2012 to 5 January 2014 shows that over 50 per cent of all phones stolen were Apple iPhones. The brand with the next highest percentage of mobile phones stolen is Blackberry, followed by Samsung.

The government's research indicates that most handsets are stolen through pick-pocketing, or when a handset is left unattended for a short amount of time. London seems to witness a majority of smartphone-related thefts, with the city bearing witness to over 100,000 thefts last year. Handset manufacturers are actively looking to curtail mobile-related thefts by introducing activation lock and data deletion features, and while such services are not yet mandatory in the UK, the government is advising all smartphone users to register for these utilties.

Head on to the source link below to read the UK government's findings in full.

Source: UK Government; Via: BBC

Radio Shack will help to launch the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus with a special offer that includes giving a free $50 iTunes gift card for most new iPhone purchases until September 27.

We say "most" because there is one exception to this offer in the email that Radio Shack sent to iMore. Anyone buying an iPhone with with a new or upgraded two-year Verizon contract will be eligible to get $50 towards buying gear at NFLShop.com instead.

As with many other retailers and wireless providers, Radio Shack will begin to take pre-orders for the new iPhone 6 models on Friday in its stores and will begin selling the phone on Friday, September 19. The company added, "Best of all, customers trading in a working iPhone 5 will receive a minimum of $100 and up to $300 off their iPhone 6 total through RadioShack's Trade & Save program."

Is a free $50 iTunes gift card enough of an incentive to get you to buy the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus from Radio Shack?

It looks like the 64GB and 128GB iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus could be coming with more pre-installed apps than usual. Apple's iLife and iWork app suites will reportedly be available on the two larger sizes of both phones when they launch this Friday, September 19.

In addition to apps like iMovie and Pages, iTunes U will also be included, according to 9to5Mac:

This includes iMovie, GarageBand, Keynote, Pages, Numbers, and iTunes U. Owners of the 16GB models of Apple's newest smartphones will still have access to these apps for free, but they must be manually downloaded from the App Store. It remains unclear as to whether or not GarageBand in-app purchases will also be available at no additional cost.

How do you feel about Apple pre-installing these apps on your phone? Sound off in the comments.

Source: 9to5Mac

NSFW is a weekly op-ed column in which I talk about whatever's on my mind. Sometimes it'll have something to do with the technology we cover here on iMore; sometimes it'll be whatever pops into my head. Your questions, comments and observations are welcome.

iOS 8 has been out for a few weeks now, and I've been hearing a similar complaint come from quite a few users: They can't install it because it's too big. Is that their fault, or is it Apple's?

It's a problem that's trivial to work around if you have a Mac or PC with iTunes on it: Simply plug in your phone to the computer, launch iTunes, and tell iTunes to update the phone. The computer does the heavy lifting for you instead.

But that's not an intuitive way to do it, especially for the many (millions) of iPhone users who have never once connected their device to a computer. That includes many users who are actually afraid to connect their iPhone to a computer, thinking it will instead cause problems. (Will a virus or malware infect my phone? Will I lose my pictures?)

It would have at least helped if iOS told you somewhere along the way that you could do this, but to the best of my recollection, it doesn't. iOS 8 has rather more hefty installation requirements than iOS 7 did, which seems counterintuitive: After all, iOS 7 was the big physical makeover — shouldn't it have been the bigger download?

Nope. Apple rewrote a lot of underlying code in iOS 8. Because iOS 8 is such a major change in the way that iOS actually works,, its initial installation is rather more sizable than its predecessor.

When you do an over the air update, the iPhone needs to download it all, decompress it, and stage the installation so you're not left with a brick afterwards. And this takes up precious storage space on the phone.

For many of us, that's more storage space than we have available. We've filled our iPhones to the hilt with photos, videos we've shot, music, apps, and movies. The idea of keeping 5 GB free on a 16 GB phone (or in some cases, an 8 GB phone) seems absurd.

I'm sympathetic to the complaints, I really am. We have a natural tendency to fill up our spaces, virtual and real, with stuff. I don't blame Apple for its ambition, however, and sometimes that progress costs a bit of momentary discomfort for the rest of us. If Apple bears any responsibility at all, it's that they should do a better job of informing iOS device users of what their upgrade options are, instead of making it a binary situation: Either free up the space or GTFO.

Do you get mad at Toyota because your Corolla can't carry as much lumber and sheetrock as a pickup truck? It's equally unreasonable to expect that your 8 GB or 16 GB iPhone is going to download and install a huge operating system upgrade the same way that a 32 GB, 64 GB or (now) 128 GB iPhone can manage. People who buy iPhones with low storage capacity need to understand that their devices are inherently more limited in some operations than devices with more storage capacity.

Apple, for its part, should do a better job of letting people know what their options are, but in the end, this is squarely a case of caveat emptor: Let the buyer beware. Buy an iPhone with more storage capacity than you need, and be prepared to either offload the stuff you've put on the phone temporarily or find another alternative like iTunes when big updates happen.

Did you get caught without enough free space to install iOS 8? Did you dump stuff or go the iTunes route to get it installed? Sound off in the comments — I want to hear from you.

Finland's prime minister Alexander Stubb has said that Apple could be responsible for the recent downgrade to Finland's sovereign debt rating. Stubb says that Finland's weak economic development was primarily due to the demise of Nokia, as well as the troubles of the country's paper industry. These developments he attributes to the rise of Apple's iPhone and iPad, Stubb told CNBC:

"A little bit paradoxically I guess one could say that the iPhone killed Nokia and the iPad killed the Finnish paper industry, but we'll make a comeback."

Nokia was famously purchased by Microsoft, a deal which officially closed early this year. Finland's paper industry faces competition from cheaper producers of paper, such as China.

What do you think of the prime minister's statements? Sound off below in the comments.

Source: CNBC

Home Depot's security breach that left 56 million credit card numbers and 53 million customer email addresses vulnerable was blamed by a Windows vulnerability. When executives at the home improvement retailer learned of cause of the breach, those executives were quickly given replacement MacBook laptops and iPhones

According to a report on the WSJ, hackers gained access via a Windows vulnerability, allowing them to target 7,500 self checkout terminals:

Once inside Home Depot's systems after gaining credentials from the outside vendor, the hackers were able to jump the barriers between a peripheral third-party vendor system and the company's more secure main computer network by exploiting a vulnerability in Microsoft Corp. 's Windows operating system, the people briefed on the investigation said.

The vulnerability had since been patched by Microsoft, but still came too late.

As Home Depot was investigating the breach, their IT team bought senior executives iPhones and MacBooks:

Four days after the company had been alerted, Home Depot's investigators discovered evidence that malware had been deleted from a store computer. The company was able to confirm a breach, but it couldn't be sure its critical business information was out of danger. An IT employee bought two dozen new, secure iPhones and MacBooks for senior executives, who referred to their new devices as "Bat phones."

Source: WSJ