iPhone 5s review: Hits and Misses

iPhone 5s

And so it has finally arrived. The phone by which people wanted to judge whether the legacy of Steve Jobs is alive or not. Mostly, till now the reaction is on the negative side, which I might add is completely unjustified. Although I am not an Apple fanboy, rather I am someone who would not buy an iPhone(due to its cost here in India, the Bluetooth limitation, etc.), I still appreciate the phone for what it has to offer. People often judge a product emotionally rather than factually. I have at times recommended the iPhone to people and sometimes dissuaded it, depending on the requirements of the person. It all boils down to what you require and what you don’t.

With the iPhone 5S, I can gladly say that the features are not at all gimmicky(unlike some recently launched devices, *cough S4 cough*), but in fact are features that should be adopted by the industry as a whole. Let us take a look at the specifications and innovations of the iPhone 5S and also see what they missed out on. 

Fingerprint Scanner 

From a consumer point of view, I would rate this as the most important feature of the iPhone, a foolproof(mostly, considering that every device is hackable) security feature which was lacking in the industry. A feature whose applications are innumerable, the one that mostly comes to mind is safety of data and privacy. On a lighter note, this would prevent your sweet little daughter from running up a bill of thousands of dollars on the app store;I referring to a case where a little girl bought apps worth thousands of dollars from her dad’s iPad. She had seen him enter the password. Fortunately, Apple waived off the charges completely. Such a situation would be prevented by fingerprint authorisation for purchasing apps. Imagine this, someone steals your iPhone and so, you activate an app online that would send you the fingerprint information of the next person that pressed the home button. You could easily pass this information to the authorities which would make it easier for them to track your phone.

Better yet, only your fingerprint would give you access to all features of your iPhone, like your inbox, gallery, etc.. No more peering nervously at the phone display when it is in other people’s hands. 

64 bit SOC 

A new fad? A gimmick? I don’t think so. Think of this as the next big step in the evolution of smartphones. Now I know that there is a lack of apps that will use this 64 bit architecture, but then again, without the supporting hardware what would be the point of developing 64-bit apps? Now that the hardware platform is there, you can expect a slew of 64 bit apps in the making.

What is benefit of a 64 bit architecture? In short, It will result in a much faster performance. 

Motion Chip 

One of the major issues with owning a smartphone is a poor battery life. This also prevents people from using the full capability of their phones most of the time as they are not always near a charging point. What good is a smart device if you are limiting its use due to resolvable issue like ‘battery power’? You should be able to use a smartphone when and how you want whether it is intense computing, gaming, watching videos, video conferencing, etc..Some manufacturers/OS developers have solved this issue through software updates, better processors and even by the obvious method of bumping up the battery(Lenovo P780 has a monster of a battery standing at 4000 mah). However, I would say that a combination of all of these would be an optimal solution.

Apple has introduced the Motion Chip called M7 in its latest iPhone which takes care of the various sensor(accelerometer, gyroscope, etc) related data. This can be impact the battery life in a positive way as the sensors won’t then be using the more powerful main processor for the sensor data. Considering that the phone is loaded with a plethora of sensors, this will help in significant battery savings. I someday hope to see a smartphone which will last at least a week(asking for a month would be asking too much) without any compromise on usage.

Apart from saving power, this is a boon for ‘Quantified Selfers’. The M7 chip continuously monitors sensor data which can tell whether you are stationary, running or walking, maybe even driving. Easy to see that this will spawn a lot of Quantified Self apps and maybe a few safety apps that could determine if you are in trouble by detecting unusual movement patterns, etc.. 

Screen size 

Now many people are complaining about the screen size remaining at 4 inches. Ask yourself one question, are you looking for a tablet or a phone? The 4 inch form factor of the iPhone is very comfortable to use and is great for one hand typing(for those who say they can do it with bigger phones, the world also has people whose hands are comparatively smaller). This is perfect as it fits comfortably into the pocket without that bulge. A smartphone should be comfortable to use and this form factor achieves precisely that. 

Apps 

One app grabbed my attention. I would say that making iWork free was a smart move. Microsoft must be sweating by now. I guess the move to make MS Office an exclusive Windows phone feature made it lose a premium market. 

NFC 

Now here is a goof-up or an example of Apple arrogance, that I will leave up to you to deliberate. Not including NFC in a premium device is a big mistake. This actually isolates the iPhone users from using a feature which would have made life very convenient for them(read up on NFC benefits to see what I mean). 

Camera 

When I had read an article about Steve Jobs getting in touch with the inventors of the Lytro camera, I was excited as hell as I was sure that he was planning to introduce a miniaturised version of the Lytro camera into the iPhone. “There is a visionary”, I thought, but alas, all my hopes were crushed after the unveiling of the iPhone. I don’t care about the improvements in the camera, every manufacturer does that. I was expecting something industry shaking. I expected the camera to be the highlight of the phone. I got disappointed there. Still hoping for this in the future versions though. 

Design 

Hmm, well. Yeah, not too excited there. I have seen such brilliant fan-made designs of the iPhone, I mean, those designs are to die for. Why can’t apple just pay these people and use those designs? We’ll never know(perhaps their design dept might not appreciate this move).

Basic specifications sheet for the iPhone 5s:

Display	4-inch LCD (1136 x 640)
RAM	1GB LPDDR3
WiFi	2.4/5GHz 802.11a/b/g/n
Bluetooth	BT 4.0
Storage	16GB/32GB/64GB
Battery	1570 mAh
Dimensions	123.8 x 58.6 x 7.6 mm
Weight	112 grams
Camera	8MP Rear Facing, 1.2MP Front Facing
Video Recording	1080p HD video recording, 30 fps
Sensors	Fingerprint identity sensor Three-axis gyro Accelerometer Proximity sensor Ambient light sensor

Cloud Computing for Dummies

Imagine this, you are a really amazing programmer and you are on a vacation in Hawaii. Suddenly, your phones rings with the tune you set for the last person you want to hear from on your vacation, your boss. He says that it’s an emergency and that a very big problem has come up with that critical software you made for the client.  It will only take a few hours for you to fix it but for that you have to cancel your vacation and go back all the way to India. What do you do? Well, until a few years ago you had no option but to do just that.

Image Courtesy: Wikipedia

Introducing the cloud, the solution that saved your vacation. Now all you have to do is log on to a computer anywhere and use a cloud computing system's interface software (which can also be a web browser) to access your office files and the software that you need. You complete the work and Walla, your vacation is saved and you, your boss and your client live happily ever after.

Now that you know that cloud can save your day, let me explain what it is and how it works.

Plain old definition: 

                                             "Using a network of remote servers located on the internet to store, manage and process data, rather than a local server."

(source: Wikipedia.com)

Simple explanation: 

Instead of buying expensive machines to install software, save data and do your computing. You can simply buy less expensive machines and avail the service of a cloud computing service provider and have them install the software at their end and let them do all the hard work. All that you need to do is use their interface software to access all the software and data that you need over the internet. This interface software could also be a web browser.  There is less load on your systems, you don’t have to buy multiple licenses and you don’t have to invest in expensive machines. It’s a win-win situation.

Let me give a simpler explanation. If you use services like Microsoft SkyDrive or Google Drive, you are already using cloud based service. They make the same data available to you no matter from where you log on.

Want an even simpler explanation? Ok, if you use any web based email, then you are using cloud computing service where the email software is running on the company's server and you are just using the browser as an interface for your e-mail requirements like sending and receiving email. The company's server does all the hard work.

A cloud system does not necessarily have to be over the internet. A company can have a company level cloud to centralise  all their requirements if they do not wish to avail a third party service. No more headaches of installing new software on a machine when new recruits arrive. However, it is not recommended if the company is new to cloud computing as it is again an area that requires expertise.

Now that we have demystified the fancy jargon called cloud computing. Let us see what are the different types of cloud computing service that are available.

Types of Cloud Computing services:

• Infrastructure as a service:
  As the name implies, the cloud computing company provides physical or more often virtual machines as services(there are many more services but lets stick to these for simplicity's sake). In this kind of a system, the user maintains the software and the operating system on the virtual machine.
• Platform as a service:
  Here, the cloud service provider may offer you an operating system on the cloud and other applications that can be installed on it for your work.
• Software as a service:
  In this type of a cloud computing environment, you are provided access to software installed on the cloud. You usually access this software through the browser or a cloud company provided software.

This is by no means the complete list of services available on the cloud. As technology advances, many more services will become available on the cloud. 

What are the advantages? 

• Anywhere, any time access to data and software. No more limitations with data portability.
• Reduced hardware cost because companies would not need to buy powerful machines for their computing needs.
• No need to buy software licenses every time a new employee joins the company. They just have to pay the cloud service provider a small fee to access the software. This fee could be usage based or time based.
• It is much cheaper to use a cloud computing system's immense processing capability than build one of your own. 

Is there any disadvantage?

Not really, but there is an area of concern which should be looked at carefully before jumping into the cloud computing bandwagon. In a cloud computing environment, all your data will effectively be on the computers of the cloud computing company.  So before you select a provider make sure that they follow satisfactory security procedures.

Want a taste of the cloud?

Try the following services to get a taste of the cloud:

Cloud based storage: 

• Google Drive
• Microsoft Skydrive
• Cubby 

Cloud based Operating System:

• Joli OS
• Glide
• Lucid Desktop

 References:

• http://mobiledevices.about.com/od/additionalresources/tp/The-Risks-Involved-In-Cloud-Computing.htm
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing
• http://www.wikinvest.com/concept/Cloud_Computing
• http://cloudtimes.org/2013/01/06/cloud-computing-around-the-world-india/
• http://www.infoworld.com/d/cloud-computing/what-cloud-computing-really-means-031?page=0,0
• http://computer.howstuffworks.com/cloud-computing/cloud-computing.htm/printable

Upcoming Posts

Hello readers,

                       The following topics will be the next two posts. If you want to see anything specific in them, do comment.

1. Cloud Computing
2. Near Field Communication

Regards,Sanket Chaukiyal