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Hi, this is Mobile Network Comparison. Hopefully you've been enjoying our countdown of the
top ten tech stories of 2013 over the last couple of weeks.
We're working with Scottie Ladeux from the Fortress of Nerditude on this series. If you
haven't checked out his channel yet, it's definitely worth a look as he has a bunch
of great videos including lots of ROM install tutorials. In his last video, Scottie talked
about Twitter's IPO and he's also made a really informative and funny video about iOS 7 and
the new iPads. Now we've reached the FINAL THREE, the countdown
is getting pretty serious. Today we're going take a slightly different look at one of the
most exciting announcements in the mobile world last year - the release of iOS 7 and
Apple's new iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C. iOS 7 is the new version of Apple's mobile
OS and we first got a look it on June 10, 2013 at the WWDC.
It has been hailed as the most revolutionary iteration yet but to understand why, we need
to back up a bit and revisit some Apple history. In case you don't remember, there was a backlash
from users when Apple replaced Google Maps with their own app in iOS 6. It was an inferior
app but was also rushed out and riddled with glitches and errors.
These ranged from the humorous - such Dublin zoo being positioned in London - to the downright
dangerous after Australian police released an official warning than some errors were
potentially life-threatening. Following this fiasco Scott Forstall was dismissed
from his post and Jony Ive was put in charge of the interface. Forstall and Steve Jobs
have long been proponents of a design philosophy called skeuomorphism and were responsible
for all the realistic user interface elements in iOS such as the the plasticy 3D buttons
in the calculator and the yellow lined paper in the Notes app. iCal's leather-stitching
effect was apparently based on a texture Steve Jobs's private jet!
In contrast, Ive thinks this produces an inconsistent look and feel between different apps and is
a proponent of flat design. He was supported by senior Apple UI designers see skeuomorphic
design as unnecessary "visual ***" and said
"skeuomorphism was getting totally out of hand, particularly where the UI metaphor started
limiting functionality" After Ive took over, the look of iOS7's interface
is strikingly different. Gone are cluttered wood grains and paper textures, and instead
you get minimalist icons and a clear, bold palette.
This turned out to be rather controversial as many professional criticised iOS 7 as too
childish and generally badly designed. There were also usability concerns as many clickable
regions were now just plain sans serif text and no longer look like buttons which seemed
to go against Apple's easy-to-use ethos. As a result, new features were rather forgotten.
But, while there was barely any functionality added to core apps, iOS 7 did pack in many
enhancements such as finally introducing a usable Control Centre, tweaking the camera
app, improving the multitasking ability, and adding more notifications as well as a nifty
faux-3D parallax effect. The Safari web browser also gained the ability to open more than
8 tabs, thank goodness. But iOS 7 was just the beginning - Apple's
biggest news was the new handsets. Unfortunately for tech fanatics, by the time they were officially
announced on the 10th September there wasn't anything new or unexpected for Apple diehards.
Predictions based on leaked photos and Apple's Apple's £225 million acquisition of mobile
security firm AuthenTec turned out to be correct and the iPhone 5S sported a new fingerprint
sensor. The other news was that the it had a phenomenally-powerful 64-bit A7 CPU as well
as an integrated M7 motion co-processor that would continuously monitor data from the accelerometer,
compass, and gyroscope. There were also slight improvements to the
camera hardware but what seemed to get people most excited was the new gold (or "champagne") colour option.
The other "new" handset was the iPhone 5C
which was effectively a rebranded iPhone 5 with a new plastic shell.
It seemed aimed at shaking off the top-end reputation of the iPhone brand to be more
appealing in emerging markets. However, the price still seemed high at £469 or $549 for
the 16GB version and an even steeper £549 or $649 for the 32GB version. Analysts were
disappointed that it didn't make the £300 price point especially as we know from the
parts list that Apple makes about 100% profit just on the hardware.
Both phones were released on the 20th September last year with the official public release
of iOS 7 two days earlier on the 18th. Unfortunately, within days of the release, the highly-touted
Touch ID fingerprint scanner was cracked by the Chaos Computer Club, a German hacking
collective. They've since refined the method but to start
with they simply photographed the fingerprint at 2400 dpi, digitally cleaned up the image,
and then laser printed it at half that resolution onto a transparent sheet using as thick toner
as the printer was able to produce. By applying a layer of standard PVA glue,
the toner left an indent producing a fake fingerprint that just needs some damp breath
applied to break into an iPhone 5S. Of course, despite this, the sales figures
of both phones has been very impressive-- within just days of the launch in September,
Apple had shifted almost ten million iPhones landing them a new sales record. So another
iPhone launch and another massive success for Apple.
The only downside would be the relatively poor sales of the 5C so far. Despite Apple
artificially-constricting the supply of the 5S , the 5C is selling three times slower.
Nevertheless, there's evidence it's making inroads into its target markets and even seems
be winning over new customers with about half its buyers switching from competing brands.
So that was story number three. What's your thoughts on iOS 7 and do you own an iPhone
5C or 5S? What do you think is going to take the top
two spots in our countdown from last year? Please do drop comments on this story and
your predictions for what's coming next. And thanks so much for watching - if you've
made it this far we've got some really exciting news. In February, Mobile Network Comparison
will be running an extra special giveaway. This deliberately blurry footage is a big
clue so see if you can work out what's up for grabs. And make sure you're subscribed
so that you don't miss the next story in our 2013 countdown so that you're the first to
hear about how to win this mystery item...