Are you considering having your wedding at a particular bed and breakfast inn? Bed and breakfast inns are known not only for having an intimate setting but also for their special services.
Are you considering having your wedding at a particular bed and breakfast inn? Bed and breakfast inns are known not only for having an intimate setting but also for their special services. If you are considering having your wedding at a particular inn, then here are some tips that you should keep in mind.
Choose an Inn Based on Your Personality as a Couple
There are literally hundreds of bed and breakfast inns you can choose from. Some inns are located in the country while some are located near a beach. If you are lucky, you may find a bed and breakfast house near a lake. Alternatively you may want inns located in the mountains which usually provide breathtaking views of nature or historic mansions for couples with unique interests.
Consider Your Guests
If you chose a bed and breakfast inn as the location for an event, then you should also consider the number of guests that are coming with you. You need to do this so that you can book enough rooms for them. While these inns can provide a fabulous setting for an event, they are usually located off of the beaten path. You may need to make some arrangements then so that your guests can stay with you at the inn prior to the event.
Check the Grounds
If you are planning to hold the ceremony and reception in a particular bed and breakfast house, then you should check if the grounds can accommodate your guests. Also, look for particulars such as a gazebo or a place for a stage that can provide a nice touch. These will make sure that the place can accommodate everything before the big day.
Think about your Honeymoon
These inns usually provide a honeymoon suite which you can use before and after the event. While these rooms are useful to accommodate guests, you can also stay there for your honeymoon. With the special treatment that these houses give to couples, you may even get some free treats and flowers in the process.
Ask about Catering
You may save some money and headaches from dealing with outside caterers by having your wedding food created in-house. You may need to talk with the owner of the house to work this out but this is often easier than arranging it separately. Just be sure to taste the food in advance. Ask for samples and if you want them to cook a particular recipe, tell them in advance so they can make some arrangements.
Flowers and Decors
If you are going to hold your event at their location, you can ask them if they can set up the place for you. They may charge an additional fee but try to work out a deal that can work for both of you. Also, be sure to talk to them about your wedding theme if you decide to hire them.
Bed and breakfast houses will always remain an attractive setting for weddings. With their focus on romance and special treatments, they will continue to be home to many happy memories.
By: Jonathan Davis
These tips can help you find a great bed breakfast in Toronto for the most special day of your life, your wedding. Visit BantingHouseInn.com for more information.
Veteran sportswriter and Euroleague.net collaborator Vladimir Stankovic has been following the best basketball on the continent longer than almost anyone journalist, writing for decades about the sport in major publications in both Serbia and Spain. Now, he is in London covering his seventh Summer Olympics and blogging about the men's basketball tournament for Euroleague.net.
Expectations were met, and as the British might say, they were met splendidly. The gold-medal game of the 2012 London Olympics was played by the United States and Spain, the best two teams in the tournament, and was a testament to how well basketball is played on both sides of the Atlantic. Spain was a more-than-worthy rival that forced the American stars to their limit. The final score of 107-100 proved to be the smallest difference in the 14 finals on which the USA has won the gold. All of the USA's previous opponents had fallen by between 11 and 32 points. Spain had to settle for its third silver medal, after 1984 and 2008, but each of them has shined a little brighter for demonstrating that this sport is consistently more global and more exciting.
The final in London was pretty similar to the one between the same opponents in Beijing 2008. Four years ago the score at the break was 69-61, an unbelievable 130 points. In the end, the Americans won by 118-107. In London, after the first 20 minutes, the score was 59-58 and the USA lead was only one point after 30 minutes, 83-82. The game was solved in the last 10 minutes, especially thanks to individual plays by Chris Paul, the long-range shooting of Kevin Durant and the virtuosity of LeBron James.
Taking a look at the stats, the better three-point shooting by the American team, 15 made to just 7 for Spain, was decisive. In other aspects of the game, Spain was as good, or even better. In assists, for instance, the final result was 22-13 for Spain. With the likes of Pau and Marc Gasol, plus Serge Ibaka, Spain had strength in the paint. Also, with Turkish Airlines Euroleague stars like Juan Carlos Navarro (19 of his 21 points in the first half) and Rudy Fernandez, Spain also had good long-range threats. With Jose Calderon and Sergio Llull there was no lack of direction and speed...
Spain played a great game. Spain was a great team in the final, but the United States were a little greater. I hope that in Rio de Janeiro, four years from now, we will be able to witness a similar game. I also hope that the Americans keep on bringing their best players. Otherwise, they will surely lose their domination and it will also hurt this tournament , which was enjoyed by anyone and everyone who loves basketball: fans, players and experts alike. The joy with which the USA players celebrated the gold medal confirms that they want to take part in the Olympic Games. As Paul afterward: "There's nothing that can be compared to participating in the Olympics." He also criticized the idea of limiting the age of the players to 23, saying: "If this rule was effective right now, it wouldn't be such an excellent experience as this one."
In the end, the medals were for the best three teams. Russia is definitely back to the world elite, confirming its rise with the bronze. Argentina, with its own golden generation, could not end with a medal but they had a solid performance with options to the last seconds. I think that, in general, the tournament was pretty good, but the final was something to remember.
Ettore Messina, CSKA Moscow head coach and Sky Italy TV commentator, said: "The final was one of the best games I have ever seen and remember, and the tournament very good. I think that the medals have been fair but I am a little sad for Manu Ginobili, who could not say farewell to his national team with another medal. Maybe two bronze medals should be awarded."
The only problem I have seen in London 2012 is that no new young talent took center stage. Some, like Jonas Valanciunas (Lithuania), Alexey Shved (Russia) and Sergio Llull (Spain) are young, indeed, but well known already. I think that what was missing here were players like Ginobili at the Athens World Championship of 1998, Navarro in Sydney 2000, Luis Scola in the Indianapolis World Championship of 2002, Ricky Rubio in Beijing 2008... Super young players with a clear projection to become superstars.
In the end, we have to keep hope that this Olympic tournament has pushed basketball a little higher in Britain, most of all looking into the near future next May, when the Turkish Airlines Euroleague Final Four will visit The 02 in London for the final event of the season, the Final Four. Most of Europe already knows the excitement that a Final Four generates, and now London has had a taste of the same in these truly satisfying Olympic Games for the sport of basketball. I can?t wait to return next May!
ScienceDaily (Sep. 28, 2012) ? Scientists at the University of Rhode Island's Graduate School of Oceanography have made the first observation of a predator avoidance behavior by a species of phytoplankton, a microscopic marine plant. Susanne Menden-Deuer, associate professor of oceanography, and doctoral student Elizabeth Harvey made the unexpected observation while studying the interactions between phytoplankton and zooplankton.
Their discovery will be published in the September 28 issue of the journal PLOS ONE.
"It has been well observed that phytoplankton can control their movements in the water and move toward light and nutrients," Menden-Deuer said. "What hasn't been known is that they respond to predators by swimming away from them. We don't know of any other plants that do this."
While imaging 3-dimensional predator-prey interactions, the researchers noted that the phytoplankton Heterosigma akashiwo swam differently in the presence of predators, and groups of them shifted their distribution away from the predators.
In a series of laboratory experiments, Menden-Deuer and Harvey found that the phytoplankton not only flee when in the presence of the predatory zooplankton, but they also flee when in water that had previously contained the predators. They found only a minimal effect when the phytoplankton were exposed to predators that do not feed on phytoplankton.
"The phytoplankton can clearly sense the predator is there. They flee even from the chemical scent of the predator but are most agitated when sensing a feeding predator," said Menden-Deuer.
When the scientists provided the phytoplankton with a refuge to avoid the predator -- an area of low salinity water that the predators cannot tolerate -- the phytoplankton moved to the refuge.
The important question these observations raise, according to Menden-Deuer, is how these interactions affect the survival of the prey species.
Measuring survival in the same experiments, the researchers found that fleeing helps the alga survive. Given a chance, the predators will eat all of the phytoplankton in one day if the algae have no safe place in which to escape, but they double every 48 hours if they have a refuge available to flee from predators. Fleeing makes the difference between life and death for this species, said Menden-Deuer.
"One of the puzzling things about some phytoplankton blooms is that they suddenly appear," she said. "Growth and nutrient availability don't always explain the formation of blooms. Our observation of algal fleeing from predators is another mechanism for how blooms could form. Amazingly, looking at individual microscopic behaviors can help to explain a macroscopic phenomenon."
The researchers say there is no way of knowing how common this behavior is or how many other species of phytoplankton also flee from predators, since this is the first observation of such a behavior.
"If it is common among phytoplankton, then it would be a very important process," Menden-Deuer said. "I wouldn't be surprised if other species had that capacity. It would be very beneficial to them."
In future studies, she hopes to observe these behaviors in the ocean and couple it with genetic investigations.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Rhode Island, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
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Journal Reference:
Harvey EL, Menden-Deuer S. Predator-Induced Fleeing Behaviors in Phytoplankton: A New Mechanism for Harmful Algal Bloom Formation?PLoS ONE, 2012; 7(9): e46438 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0046438
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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
BP is pushing forward with plans to expand the Tangguh LNG plant. Namely, the company announced that they have submitted a Plan of Further Development.
The company wants to build third LNG train, as part of Tangguh plant expansion. The new train would have 3.8 million metric tons production capacity per year.
The LNG processing plant currently consists of two LNG trains, producing at least 7.6 million metric tons of LNG a year.
With 37.16% interest in the project, BP Indonesia is the operator of Tangguh under a production sharing contract with BPMIGAS (Indonesia?s regulatory body for oil and gas upstream activities).
?We only have one item left to be discussed, as such, we are hopeful that the approval for the POFD can be reached next month?, said Hadi Prasetyo, BP spokesman.
The Project involves the tapping of six fields to extract combined proven reserves of around 14.4 trillion cubic feet of gas. Two normally unmanned offshore production platforms located in Bintuni Bay will collect gas from the reservoir, then send it through sub-sea pipelines to an LNG processing facility on the south shore.
LNG World News Staff, September 28, 2012; Image: BP
Well, Facebook shareholders sure like the sound of Gifts. Around Wall Street's close yesterday, the company launched a much anticipated e-commerce initiative that lets Facebook users send real, physical gifts to friends and family on birthdays and special events like engagements and weddings. It gives the company a third business model beyond advertising and payments revenue. Shares have jumped by 6.6 percent today to $21.66. So what could Gifts mean for Facebook's bottom line? Let's do some guesswork.
MEDINAH, Ill. (AP) ? Keegan Bradley made Friday at the Ryder Cup feel like the best day of his life, and it wasn't too shabby for the rest of the Americans.
Bradley led a strong performance by rookies on both teams at Medinah by teaming with Phil Mickelson for two wins against Europe's best two partnerships. Even with Tiger Woods getting shut out on opening day for the fourth time, the United States took a big step toward regaining the cup with a 5-3 lead.
Next up for Woods is a session on the sideline.
Sticking to his plan of not wanting his players worn out by the end of the week, U.S. captain Davis Love III decided to bench Woods for the first time in his Ryder Cup career, ending his streak of playing 31 consecutive matches.
As for Bradley? His energy is boundless.
Mickelson took Bradley under his wing last year for a series of money games at the majors to prepare the 26-year-old from New England for a stage like this. And did he ever deliver. He was into every shot, cocking his head to the side to read putts, charging up the gallery and Mickelson in a command performance.
"This is literally what I've dreamt about since I was a little kid," Bradley said. "I got to do it next to my idol all day."
Bradley holed a 25-foot birdie putt in morning foursomes to hand Luke Donald and Sergio Garcia their first loss ever in Ryder Cup foursomes. Next up were Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell, and the Americans won the first three holes. Mickelson wasn't there only for support. Right when Europe was trying to rally, the four-time major champion closed it out with a 7-iron to 2 feet that was conceded for birdie.
"Phil is a smart guy," Love said. "He knows how to pick partners."
It was a day Bradley didn't want to end.
"Oh, baby, I wish we could go 36 more," Bradley said.
He wasn't the only rookie to shine on a mild day in the Chicago suburbs. Nicolas Colsaerts, the 29-year-old from Belgium, helped Europe avoid getting shut out in afternoon fourballs by single-handedly taking down Woods and Steve Stricker.
Colsaerts made eight birdies and an eagle ? a 10-under 62 if he was keeping score on his own. He teamed with Lee Westwood, who was just along for this amazing ride for a 1-up victory that ended 11 hours of enormous cheers and plenty of American red on the leaderboard.
"I don't think there has ever been a better debut than that," Westwood said.
Woods and Stricker also lost to Ian Poulter and Justin Rose in morning foursomes, making this the fourth time in the seven Ryder Cups that Woods has played that he lost both matches on the opening day.
There was nothing Woods could do against Colsaerts, the biggest hitter in Europe who isn't too bad with the putter, either.
"Nicolas probably had one of the greatest putting rounds I've ever seen," Woods said, high praise coming from a 14-time major champion.
Woods turned in a mixed performance. He missed a 6-foot birdie putt on the 15th to fall 2 down, and then came back with a bending, 25-foot birdie putt on the 16th and a shot into 4 feet on the 17th that looked as if it might square the match. Instead, Colsaerts rolled in a 25-foot birdie putt for a halve. Woods had a 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th to halve the match, only it caught the left lip.
"We ran into a guy who made everything today," Woods said. "I don't know what he shot. He was like 7 under through 10. I quit counting after that."
Love said he told Woods and Stricker they would be sitting out the foursomes matches Saturday morning, "and I can guarantee you, neither one of them are very happy about it. Not because they are sitting out; because they have to wait till tomorrow afternoon to come back."
Both captains made sure all 12 of their players got into the game early, though European captain Jose Maria Olazabal set himself up for second-guessing when he sat out Donald, Garcia and Poulter for the afternoon matches. They have a combined 31-13-5 record in the Ryder Cup.
Olazabal put Donald and Westwood together for Saturday morning, while Colsaerts will play with Garcia. McIlroy and McDowell will play for a third time, although the Spanish captain said the pairings were not the problem.
"I'm going to make it clear to the boys that they need to step it up," he said. "They need to play better golf, simple as that. There is no secret about this game. You have to make more birdies than your opponent. And if you don't do that, you're going to struggle."
Mickelson set an American record by playing in his ninth Ryder Cup, and he won his opening two matches for the first time in his career. Mickelson came up with some big putts and amazing shots, and the 42-year-old felt about 10 years younger playing alongside Bradley.
"It could be the best day of my life," Bradley said.
Europe has won six of the last eight times in the Ryder Cup, and it wasn't about to hang its head after one day. It was leading all four of the opening matches early Friday under a gloomy sky. The sun came out, and the Americans came to life.
"There's a long way to go in this tournament," Rose said. "There's ebbs and flows. Obviously, there's momentum for the U.S. team right now, but that could all swing back in our favor tomorrow."
Even so, the Americans headed to their team room full of confidence. It won five of eight matches without getting a point from Woods, and they picked up a little extra momentum when Mickelson and Bradley took down McIlroy, the No. 1 player in the world.
The Ryder Cup again lived up to its billing as the most exciting tournament in golf with relentless action, huge swings in momentum and endless cheers.
Bubba Watson asked the crowd to keep chanting and cheering when he stepped to the tee for his afternoon fourballs with Webb Simpson, and the Masters champion belted his drive down the middle, raising his driver to play to the crowd. Then, the Americans did a number of Paul Lawrie and Peter Hanson, going 6 up through eight holes and closing them out on the 14th hole.
Matt Kuchar ran off four straight birdies as he and Dustin Johnson built an early lead against Rose and Martin Kaymer.
The only rookie who didn't deliver a point was FedEx Cup champion Brandt Snedeker, though it wasn't from a lack of effort. Snedeker and Furyk were 3 down through 12 holes against McIlroy and McDowell in the morning when they put together a furious rally, with Furyk carrying the bulk of the load. They squared the match going to the 18th when Snedeker hit a drive toward the hospitality tents well right of the fairway, and Furyk couldn't convert a 20-foot par putt to halve the match.
But it was a sign of the American fight.
Bradley turned into a rock star at Medinah, especially on the par-3 13th, perhaps the toughest tee shot because it was long and into the wind, requiring a hybrid. He hit it to 15 feet left of the flag, and as the crowd chanted, "USA! USA!" Bradley nodded at them repeatedly.
Mickelson, who first played in these matches in 1995, smiled and gently patted him on the back to let him soak up the moment. Lefty then holed the birdie putt for a 2-up lead, and Garcia missed a 3 1/2-foot par putt on the next hole. It was the Spaniard's first loss in 10 foursomes matches dating to 1999.
Bradley was so into the moment that his focus was broken walking up the 15th hole when he spotted fans holding a large American flag on the left side of the gallery. He jogged over to them for high-fives, waited for Mickelson to play a wedge into the green, and then holed the 25-foot birdie putt.
His caddie, Steve Hale, swung the flagstick around like a baseball bat until Mickelson's caddie reminded him to put it in the hole for Donald to play a bunker shot.
"There's a simple reason why Keegan is perfect for the Ryder Cup," Mickelson said. "The more pressure the situation, the better he plays, the better he sees the shot, the better he focuses. And the better the result. As a player, you feel more pressure and intensity during these matches than you do at any other event.
"And that's when he's at his best."
Jason Dufner, another American rookie, actually showed some emotion with a tiny fist pump when his 15-foot birdie putt on the ninth stopped next to the cup, then dropped in the left side. Dufner made birdie on the next hole for a foursomes win with Zach Johnson over Westwood and Francesco Molinari.
Poulter holed a bunker shot, a long birdie putt and a clutch par putt from 7 feet on the 16th hole that carried he and Rose to victory over Woods and Stricker. Poulter has lost only three times in 12 matches in his Ryder Cup career. Two of those had been to Woods.
"I never wanted to have another one," Poulter said.
Next up is another long day of foursomes and fourballs, a chance for Europe to get back in the game going into the Sunday singles.
Love could not have asked for a better start, particularly from his rookies ? and especially from Bradley.
"I felt young," Mickelson said. "And it felt great."
Referral marketing on the internet is incredibly easy. This is especially true if you have a blog or high content website that is dishing out quality information each and everyday. People will gladly revisit your website and recommend your site or blog to their friends and colleagues - simply because your information is so good.
If you want to get more referrals to your website sales page or opt-in page, the key is valuable information. Nobody wants to recommend a site to someone whose content and information (or product) isn?t very good. So if you want to get more new referrals, focus on quality information, and good customer service.
Yes, I said it. GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE. Apparently this is a forgotten art in the world of online business. Many vendors who hide behind their computer screen aren?t very interested in helping their customers achieve a goal or solve a problem. They?re just in it for the money, and in it to remain elusive as they receive more and more sales.
But you can?t run a business this way. 80% of your total business revenue will come from sales on the backend (selling to existing customers). And if you?re not being attentive and helping your customer to be more efficient with what they want to do, they will find somebody else to ask their questions to, and eventually, your competitors will scoop your customers right out from under you.
I pride myself on good customer service. Sometimes refunds are a must, but that shouldn?t stop you from continuing on and going out to get more sales. Here?s a true story: In the past, I used to get a ton of sales, and then when 1 refund out of 30 sales came in, I would rearrange EVERYTHING simply because of that 1 refund.
I would change the price, tweak my sales letter, add more ?bells and whistles? to the page, and etc. And I did this because I was young and didn?t realize the reality of refunds in my business. But now that I know better, I don?t let refunds faze me. I keep going, keep getting more sales, and keep earning the money that I know I deserve to make.
So how does all of this tie in with referrals? It?s simple. You can wind up getting a referral from someone who asks for a refund from you!
I used to be an Ebay Powerseller and Top Rated Seller. I remember one time I received a refund request from a customer and in return, I gave her the refund and showered her with 3 free bonuses just for trying out some of my products. The next day she emailed me with great gratitude and told me that I was the best Ebay seller that she has ever done business with. Then she stated that she was going to tell her friends about me.
I was delighted by this gesture.
I know how to take care of my customers, and you should learn how to take care of your?s also. When your customers have a problem, be there to help them out. When your customers ask for recommendations, be sure to help them out. Anything that you can do to make your customers happy, do it.
Take these referral and refund tips and use them to have alot of success in your internet business. Keep these online marketing gems in mind the next time you encounter a refund, or are looking to spur a referral.
Good luck with making your internet business a huge success.
For more internet marketing secrets, simply visit the website below: http://www.internetmarketing-rules.com/internetmarketing.html
When I started my meditation practice I was a full blown smart-phone addict. One of the hardest earliest barriers to get over was the idea of sitting idle for 30 minutes. Somehow mindlessly browsing reddit was okay but just sitting and watching my breath was not. I'd get flooded with all kinds of thoughts about how I should be doing something productive and typically that was accompanied by anxiety.
At some point I had to stop and ask myself, who exactly do I think is judging my behavior? Why do I even feel like I need to justify what I'm doing with my personal time? Of course the realization came that it was all me, all my mind, and I let go of the habit.
Now I meditate regularly and still use my smart phone. I look forward to sitting and knowing I get time to just be. I'm comfortable with that and reap the benefits. I'm significantly less stressed during the day and my mind is calmer. I understand myself and my actions better. I still use the phone, but sometimes I don't. Sometimes it's nice to just be with your own mind.
I wouldn't say smartphones have only banished boredom though. They, like many of our modern baubles, have also lowered the bar for when boredom sets in.
An aside I feel is related I can't remember the last time I had a good meaningful conversation with a group of friends or even one on one. Hell, even meaningless conversation with depth seems to have left. It seems like on average things are being reduced to one or two sentences on a topic and topics which require multiple layers of thinking just don't come up.
I find it paradoxical as someone who was a loner in school I can look at my life now and see more friends, supportive family, great co-workers, technology like facebook, SMS, and smart phones to be always connected and yet I feel more alone than I ever have. I feel lacking in community.
Jim Bell, an executive producer at?Today, wants you to know that "it was absolutely" his "call" to fire Ann Curry, throwing himself in front of the criticism Matt Lauer was getting from Curry fans.?Even though Today's ratings have been sagging? ?and the ,?nothing too terrible has happened?the show hasn't ended, the cheeriness is still there, Kathie Lee is still drinking before noon?and now Bell has come forward to claim responsibility for the call. "It was definitely not Matt?s call," . ...
DUBAI (Reuters) - Ageing fixed-line infrastructure is to blame for Kuwait's low broadband penetration, and price cuts ordered by the government this week will do little to boost subscription numbers, an executive at a top Internet provider told Reuters.
The Ministry of Communications is the de facto regulator in the absence of an independent watchdog, and also ultimately owns and operates the country's fixed-line infrastructure, with the four major Internet service providers (ISPs) paying the government to use this.
But the largely copper-based network cannot carry sufficient bandwidth to satisfy consumer demand, according to Essa Al-Kooheji, general manager at Qualitynet, which is 44 percent owned by Bahrain Telecommunications (Batelco) and has an estimated 45 percent market share for fixed Internet.
On Tuesday, the Ministry ordered the ISPs to cut prices by at least 40 percent, slashing the price of an annual subscription for a 1 megabyte per second (mbp) connection to 48 Kuwaiti dinars ($170), while 8 mbps will now cost 200 dinars.
That means Kuwait is considerably cheaper than other Gulf countries; in Bahrain, for example, Batelco charges 120 dinars ($320) annually for a 1 mbp line and 360 dinars for 8 mbps.
But that will do little to improve fixed broadband take-up, said Qualitynet's Kooheji, with Kuwait's penetration of about 5.5 percent half that of the United Arab Emirates.
"We receive lots of calls from customers who want to upgrade and take the maximum speed for the price available, but they cannot do so," said Kooheji. "The government should put more effort into improving the telecom infrastructure rather than cutting prices."
Many businessmen and analysts in Kuwait believe the country's political environment is partly to blame for weak state investment in infrastructure. Friction between the cabinet and parliament over the last several years has prompted frequent changes of government and slowed or blocked the passage of economic development plans.
Kooheji said only about 15 percent of fixed broadband connections in the country used fibre, with the remainder on copper lines.
"The price cuts do not bode well for the sector, because it needs a lot of investment and the government hasn't come up any significant investment plans for next generation technologies like fibre-to-the-home (FTTH)," said Kenechi Okeleke, a senior analyst at Business Monitor in London.
"Other Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar have invested in FTTH - Kuwait is behind its peers in terms of broadband services."
Average connection speeds in Kuwait are 1.82 mbps, Okeleke said, while the UAE's are almost 5 mbps and developed markets 6-9 mbps.
Many Kuwait residents have opted for mobile broadband instead, which is provided by the three mobile operators Zain, Qatar Telecom subsidiary Wataniya and Viva, an affiliate of Saudi Telecom Co.
However, "although Kuwait's wireless broadband network providers have rolled out advanced technologies, limited investment in fibre-optic backhaul will likely reduce network speeds," said Okeleke.
Kuwait has about 150,000 fixed-line Internet subscribers and around 557,000 broadband connections in total, serving its 2.8 million residents.
ScienceDaily (Sep. 28, 2012) ? Royal Society University Research Fellow Dr Edward Taylor, from the University of Lincoln's School of Life Sciences, is carrying out research on bacteriophage that play a role in flesh-eating disease.
Dr Taylor spent the last ten years at the University of York where he was awarded a Royal Society University Research Fellowship in 2006. He has chosen to continue his research at the University of Lincoln, with funding continuing for a further two years.
Bacteriophage (often called phage) are viruses that infect bacteria. These are extremely common and mostly harmless; however some play a role in diseases such as diphtheria, cholera, dysentery, botulism, necrotizing (flesh-eating) pneumonia, toxic shock and scarlet fever.
Phages are nature's "genetic engineers," frequently swapping genes between bacterial strains. This happens by the phage attaching itself to the surface of the cell, making a hole and then injecting its own DNA into the bacteria. Occasionally this DNA becomes integrated into the bacterial chromosome where it lays dormant, but more commonly the phage is active straight away. The bacterial metabolism is hijacked, the DNA de-coded and new phages are produced in great numbers. Finally the bacterium is burst open and the new virus particles escape.
This inactive/active life style allows the phage to cleverly separate its outbreaks over long periods of time. Some phage which infect harmful bacteria carry toxin and other genes which when decoded interact with our immune systems, tying them together, giving the phage and bacteria a better chance of survival. Some phages also destroy bacteria.
Dr Taylor works on a particular phage which infects a flesh-eating bacterium called 'Streptococcus pyogens'. This carries a toxin and DNase genes, which when expressed go on to damage the immune system causing scarlet fever, "toxic shock" and more invasive necrotizing forms of infection.
Dr Taylor said: "This research will allow for a fundamental understanding of bacterial pathogenicity and the role of viruses in disease processes. The overall aim is to carry out an in-depth structural study on one phage that prompts Streptococci to become toxigenic. I am studying complexes of the viral proteins using a technique -- known as X-ray crystallography. This enables me to "see" the individual atoms within a protein. I am particularly interested in the mechanism of enzymes which break down DNA. These have been shown to help the Streptococcus pyogenes evade capture by the immune system and promote more invasive necrotizing forms of infection. I am studying these enzymes by making small changes to the protein structure and seeing what effect this has on the way the enzyme works. Through these changes I hope to gain a better understanding of the disease process."
It was through focused research with Professor Gideon Davis during his time at the University of York that led Dr Taylor to develop his own interests in the interplay between certain pathogenic bacteria and their compatible bacteriophage.
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BANGKOK (AP) ? Hopes that the global economy might see some improvement after Spain announced far-reaching steps to fix its ailing economy helped keep oil prices on the upswing for a second day.
Benchmark oil for November delivery was up 47 cents to $92.32 per barrel at midday Bangkok time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.87 to finish at $91.85 per barrel on the Nymex on Thursday.
Brent crude gained 32 cents to $112.33 on the ICE Futures Exchange in London.
"Risk appetite improved yesterday on the Spanish budget," analysts at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong said in a market commentary. "With the Spanish budget paving the way for an official bailout request ... renewed concern about the Eurozone crisis has eased."
After three straight days of declines, oil posted gains in Asia on Thursday, helped by expectations the People's Bank of China will soon take more steps to stimulate the world's No. 2 economy. Spain later announced severe budget cuts intended to convince the world that it can meet deficit-reduction targets.
Still, oil analyst Stephen Schork said he expects "high volatility" as oil contracts for October expire.
In other Nymex trading:
? Heating oil rose 0.7 cent to $3.158 per gallon.
? Wholesale gasoline gained 0.8 cent to $2.905 per gallon.
? Natural gas fell 0.1 cent to $3.296 per 1,000 cubic feet, a high for the year.
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The California man behind a crudely produced anti-Islamic video that has inflamed parts of the Middle East was arrested Thursday for violating terms of his probation, authorities said.
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, has been on probation for a 2010 federal check fraud conviction that brought a 21-month prison sentence. Under terms of his probation, he was not to use computers or the Internet for five years without approval from his probation officer.
Nakoula was taken into custody Thursday, said U.S. Attorney's spokesman Thomas Mrozek.
A U.S. District Court hearing was scheduled for Nakoula on Thursday afternoon. It was closed to media and the public.
Protests have erupted around the Middle East over a 14-minute trailer for the film "Innocence of Muslims" that depicts Prophet Muhammad as a womanizer, religious fraud and child molester. Though the trailer was posted to YouTube in July, the violence didn't break out until Sept. 11 and has spread since.
Nakoula, a Christian originally from Egypt, went into hiding after he was identified as the man behind the trailer.
The full story about Nakoula and the film still isn't known.
The movie was made last year by a man who called himself Sam Bacile. After the violence erupted, a man who identified himself as Bacile called media outlets including The Associated Press, took credit for the film and said it was meant to portray the truth about Muhammad and Islam, which he called a cancer.
The next day, the AP determined there was no Bacile and linked the identity to Nakoula, a former gas station owner with a drug conviction and a history of using aliases. Federal authorities later confirmed there was no Bacile and that Nakoula was behind the movie.
Before going into hiding, Nakoula acknowledged to the AP he was involved with the film, but said he only worked on logistics and management.
A film permit listed Media for Christ, a Los Angeles-area charity run by other Egyptian Christians, as the production company. Most of the film was made at the charity's headquarters. Steve Klein, an insurance agent in Hemet and outspoken Muslim critic, has said he was a consultant and promoter for the film.
The trailer still can be found on YouTube. The Obama administration asked Google, YouTube's parent, to take down the video but the company has refused, saying it did not violate its content standards.
Meantime, a number of actors and workers on the film have come forward to say they were duped. They say they were hired for a film titled "Desert Warrior" and there was no mention of Islam or Muhammad in the script. Those references were dubbed in after filming was completed.
Actress Cindy Lee Garcia has sued to get the trailer taken down, saying she was duped.
The Balancer plug-in provides a cartoon character that indicates the balance of your browsing, from conservative red to liberal blue.
By Alan Boyle
If you were told that your online reading habits lean toward the conservative or liberal side of the political spectrum, would you seek out more diversity? Or would you stick with the sources who agree with your point of view? Inquiring researchers want to know ??and to find out, they've created Balancer, a free plug-in for Google's Chrome browser.
"The top question that I'm most interested in is, can having real-time feedback about your online news reading habits affect the balance of the news that you read?" said Sean Munson, an assistant professor of human-centered design and engineering at the University of Washington.
Balancer determines whether your reading diet is fair and balanced by recording your visits to websites on a "whitelist" of 10,000 news sources and blogs. Each website has a rating on the liberal-to-conservative spectrum, typically based?on previous research ? for example, the studies that University of Chicago researchers Matthew Gentzkow and Jesse Shapiro have conducted on media bias and slant. (One of their studies, from 2010, rated the San Francisco Chronicle as the most liberal U.S. newspaper and the Washington Times as the most conservative.) Munson developed ratings for additional news sources, based on the other websites they linked to. (Yes, Cosmic Log is on the list, along with every other news website you've probably ever visited.)
When the Balancer plug-in is installed, a button is added to the browser bar that shows you a cartoon character balancing a conservative-red and a liberal-blue block on a stick. The comparative size of the blocks serves as an indication of how balanced your news diet is. If the stick is tilted way to one side, the cartoon will suggest websites from the other side that would bring your score into balance.
Some of the participants will get the verdict from Balancer right away; others will have to wait for a month while the plug-in gathers control data. That way, Munson and his colleagues can gauge the effect of real-time monitoring.
Personality profile There's one more data-mining twist: When you sign up for the plug-in, you'll be asked a set of questions about personality attributes: Do you consider yourself liberal or conservative? Are you the life of the party? Do you often forget to put things back in their proper place? The answers to such questions add a dimension to Munson's research.
"It's possible that different personality attributes predict reading behavior, as well as how amenable someone is to being persuaded to change reading habits," he told me. "We have found that some people do in fact seek out diversity, but there are also some people who are 'diversity-challenged' when it comes to online news reading."
The plug-in was developed at the University of Michigan, where Munson earned his doctorate, and works only with the Chrome Web browser. It misses out on anything you read via other browsers, including mobile apps. Funding for the project came from the National Science Foundation.
When Munson put his own reading habits to the test, he was surprised to find out how slanted his news diet turned out to be. So he's curious to find out how inclined other people might be to change their ways. "Even self-discovery is a valuable outcome, just being aware of your own behavior," he said in a news release. "If you do agree that you should be reading the other side, or at least aware of the dialogue in each camp, you can use it as a goal: Can I be more balanced this week than I was last week?"
Of course, most people probably think they're already fair and balanced, no matter how their political views look from the outside. So far, a few dozen people have signed up for the Balancer experiment, but Munson and his colleagues hope to sign up many more between now and the November elections.
Eventually, Munson's findings may influence the design of online search engines and recommendation websites. Today, your browser may ask if you're "feeling lucky." Someday, it just might ask if you feel like hearing a different opinion.
But wait, there's more: By now, you're probably asking, "What about privacy?" A browser plug-in that keeps track of your reading habits and matches them up with your personality may sound like a big wet kiss for Big Brother. Munson's aware of the concern: He said the plug-in has been designed to anonymize all the data coming in, and will only keep track of the sites on the 10,000-website whitelist. Any other data ? including records of your visits to the naughty parts of the Internet???will go no farther than your own computer, he said.
"We did that partly to minimize the traffic on our servers, and also to protect privacy," Munson told me. "We've tried to collect as little data as necessary for the study."
Do you trust him on that? What do you think about the idea of tracking your Web browsing for research purposes? (Let's face it: That's being done all the time for commercial purposes.) And what do you think about the idea of fair and balanced news browsing? Feel free to go on the record with your comments below.
More about politics:
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's?Facebook page, following?@b0yle on Twitter?and adding the?Cosmic Log page?to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out?"The Case for Pluto,"?my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
In this video, Minnesota attorney Aaron Hall speaks with Travis Van Slooten. Travis? company, TVS Internet Marketing, provides local SEO services to small businesses.
Aaron Hall: I?m Aaron Hall, attorney at Minneapolis. I?m here with Travis Van Slooten. He provides local SEO (search engine optimization) to small businesses throughout the country. Travis, can you tell us a little more in what you do?
Travis Van Slooten: Yes. I provide local SEO services to small businesses throughout the United States, and what entails is getting small businesses visibility and most importantly, sales via the Internet. We do that through a number of things I do with businesses.
Aaron Hall: What is the most common problem that a client has which brings that client to you?
Travis Van Slooten: Well, the most common problem I have is?the businesses I work with typically don?t have a website, or they have a website but it?s poorly designed, and it?s nowhere to be found. I?m working with businesses that are really at that kind of entry level in terms of the Internet marketing.
Aaron Hall: How do you help them once they start working with you? What?s the process?
Travis Van Slooten: The main thing I do is I always ask the small business, ?What are you goals?? because everybody?s going to have different goals as to what they want to accomplish with their website or their Internet marketing. The first thing I always ask them is, ?What are the goals?? and of course, the inevitable answer is ?We want to make money, and we want to make it through the Internet.? That?s a little too broad. We want to be more specific so a lot of times, it?s sitting down with them and drilling into what it is they do. Are there certain aspects of their business they want to concentrate on more in terms of gaining sales and leads from the Internet? An example of that is I was working with a construction company down at Florida, and he does remodelling. He builds homes. Does a number of things. After talking to him, we discovered for him, he wanted to concentrate on his remodelling services, his remodelling business. Once we have the goal in mind, then from there, we can construct a strategy to achieve that goal.
Aaron Hall: Are there any common misunderstandings that new clients have when starting to work with you?
Travis Van Slooten: Yeah. The biggest thing is this misconception that SEO is inexpensive and easy to do. It always surprises me. I work with a small business, and a small business owner will spend thousands of dollars a years in print ads, radio ads, billboards without batting an eye because it?s traditional. They know but when you start talking to them about SEO and the difficulties of SEO with the recent updates that Google came out, SEO is becoming increasingly harder to do, and it?s becoming more expensive as a result. The misconception is that SEO is cheap and when you start talking prices about SEO even though it?s in line with radio, billboard advertising, and things that they?re comfortable with, they?re shocked that it would cost ?that much.? That?s the biggest challenge I have. Educating small business owners on what SEO is, what it takes, and what it costs to do effectively.
Aaron Hall: It?s interesting that in the early 2000?s, late 90?s, you could put up a website and it would just start getting traffic but these days, the businesses online are so competitive. Your client?s competitors are spending a lot of money in SEO, and I imagine that ups the ante for what is required for them and the competitiveness and the strategy that they need to use.
Travis Van Slooten: It?s that and as I?ve just briefly mentioned, it?s Google is really making it more difficult for the small business owner to do SEO on their own. With the recent updates, the penguin updates, the panda updates, most small business owners have no idea what that is but suffice it to say, SEO?s requiring almost a full-time job, and small business owners just simply don?t have the time to deal with it. It?s the competition that increasing and it?s also Google making things a little bit more difficult so all of that together is becoming increasingly difficult. It?s actually coming to a point now where a small business owner either has to get an in-house SEO person or outsource it. It?s almost impossible on their own now.
Aaron Hall: We talk about the small business. Can you give me some examples of small businesses you?ve worked with as far as what type of businesses are they?
Travis Van Slooten: I concentrate exclusively on the service based businesses. We?re talking about the roofers. I have a gutter contractor down at Florida. Construction companies, fencing companies, dentists, chiropractors, and even some law firms.
Aaron Hall: Interesting. I know that services provide a unique challenge from a website standpoint because it?s not ecommerce. It?s not just selling a product that you can just describe. You?re talking about the individuals and what services they provide. I understand a lot more what goes behind the scenes in planning that out.
Travis Van Slooten: Yes. Definitely, there?s that. When you?re selling a product, the product a lot of times sells itself because people know the product. When you?re selling a service based business, you have to sell that customer on that person a lot of times because I?m dealing typically with a lot of business owners. When somebody comes to the website, you have to sell them on that person so that means providing them testimonials, the better business accreditation badges, and things like that. Also, pointing them to other outside resources as social proof that this guy is good and is an honest, ethical business person and that type of thing. Those are the things you don?t have to do when you?re selling a product because typically like I said, people know it. Sells itself.
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today (times in EDT):
1. WHO'S DEBUTING AT THE UN
Egypt's first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi, and Yemen's new leader, President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, will make closely watched speeches, starting at 9 a.m.
2. IRANIAN LEADER PUSHES NEW WORLD ORDER
Ahmadinejad, no friend to the U.S., tells the AP in a wide-ranging interview that it's time to end American "bullying" and domination.
3. WHY IOWA'S POLLING PLACES ARE UNIQUE
Anyone who gets 100 signatures can choose a specific place for early voting, leading Romney and Obama supporters to request favorable locations.
4. WHAT'S INSIDE J.K. ROWLING'S NEW BOOK
AP's Deepti Hajela reviews "The Casual Vacancy," finding unlikable characters but a story with real heart.
5. COMING SOON TO CALIFORNIA: DRIVERLESS CARS
Self-driving cars could be on the roads in 10 years; a new law establishes regulations to test and operate the vehicles.
6. WHO WEILDS A PADDLE IN TEXAS SCHOOLS
One school district expanded its corporal punishment policy ? allowing both men and women to swat students ? after two girls complained of bruising.
7. SOMALI PIRACY HEYDAY MAY BE OVER
AP reporters find pirates who once owned vast villas now living in unfurnished rooms, after dramatic drop in the number of vessels they seize.
8. SCORE-SETTLING SEEN IN LIBYA
A young rebel credited with helping capture Gadhafi dies after being kidnapped, beaten and slashed.
9. WHERE OBAMA, ROMNEY FIND COMMON GROUND
Following a disputed call that cost the Packers a win, both say it's time to bring the "real refs" back to the NFL.
10. HOW THE NEW NOOK MEASURES UP
The tablets are getting lighter and will have HD screens, presenting a tough choice for holiday shoppers looking for a cheap option to the iPad.
The definitive guide to Apple's taller, thinner, faster, lighter, brighter iPhone 5
The iPhone 5 was, is, and remains inevitable. An iPhone, new to be certain, but still an iPhone. Some say this is a sign Apple has lost their drive for innovation. Others, a sign Apple has kept their sense of focus. Both are facets of a single truth -- that through craft something is revolutionized, refined, and one day, replaced. The question then becomes, where is the iPhone 5 along this continuum? Is it a boring, uninspired, end-of-line update that should have Apple desperately seeking to once again "think different", or is it iconically, deceptively, insanely great enough to delight customers, inspire developers, and once again drive the entire industry forward?
Previously on the iPhone...
A lot of the features found in the iPhone 5 can also be found in earlier generation iPhones. Rather than repeat any of it, here are our previous iPhone reviews:
Gone is the sandwich of chemically treated glass and stainless steel of the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4. And in their place the iPhone 5 offers an aluminum unibody, accented by glassed, that houses not only a new, all-digital Lightning connector, fast LTE 4G networking, a monstrous Apple A6 processor, but for the first time, a taller, in-cell display.
iPhone 5: The design
The iPhone 5 doesn't offer a radically new shape, but the shape is about the only thing that's not radically new this year. Measuring 123.8 mm high, 58.6 mm wide, and 7.6 mm deep, the iPhone 5 rises higher than the iPhone 4S but no wider. It's also 18% thinner and 20% lighter. It's so light and thin that it almost feels fake, like a dummy phone at a carrier store. Almost. Apple claims it's both bigger and smaller, that there's both more and less of it. And that's absolutely true. In fact, it takes a moment -- an awkward, giddy moment -- to adjust to the sensory paradox. Because the overall volume of the iPhone 5 is 12% less than its predecessor, it feels like it's gone from a short, substantial slab to a long, lithe slice.
With a chassis carved from anodized 6000 series aluminum, hardened Gorilla Glass on the front, and inlays of ceramic or pigmented glass on the back, the iPhone 5 has been compared both favorably and ludicrously to precision, luxury time pieces. Hyperbole aside, the manufacturing process literally does have to be seen to be believed.
Hardware buttons on the iPhone 5 are laid out the same way they were on the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4. You have the On/Off (Sleep/Wake) button on the top, the ring/silent button on the left, and the volume up (camera shutter) and volume down buttons beneath it. While the iPhone 4 Home button was nowhere near resilient enough to stand up to long term usage, the iPhone 4S fixed that problem with a better support system. The iPhone 5 feels even better than the iPhone 4S. The Home button feels "clickier" but more solid than before.
The iPhone 5 still only comes in two colors, but this year those two colors are also two-toned. There's black and slate, and white and silver. The black is Darth Vader black, and can all but disappear on a dark surface in low light. The white is Storm Trooper white, its crystalline diamond-cut chamfers brighter and shinier than ever. While the blackout look of the anodized aluminum on the black and slate iPhone 5 is more singular, more monolithic, it will also show chips, scuffs, and scratches more readily than the naked aluminum of the white and silver model. Neither, however, are immune to that particular phenomena.
I exchanged my first iPhone 5 after noticing a chip in the bezel, but the new one has held up just fine under normal, careful use. Unfortunately, there's no adamantium/vibranium super metal in the real world. The iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S had glass backs that were susceptible to shattering with sufficient impact. The iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS had plastic backs that were susceptible to cracking along the edges. The iPods had and have stainless steel backs that have always been susceptible to scratching and scuffing with normal use. If maintaining a mint-condition iPhone 5 is a concern, look into getting a case or skin.
Back to the shape. Yes, the iPhone 5 is every bit the flat, rounded rectangle the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 were before it. That's intentional. It might be boring or unimaginative to some, and that's a fair point. But Apple's not playing at dice. They're not spinning fashion. They're making an iPhone. Apple is making an iPhone that looks like an iPhone the way a Lamborghini looks like a Lamborghini, and a MacBook Pro looks like a MacBook Pro -- the way any product from any high end brand looks like and embodies that brand.
Apple conceived of this iPhone form back in 2005 and has been working inexorably towards it ever since. They're closer this year than any year past, achieving an unprecedented level of thinness and lightness, a screen that dominates the front as never before, and they've finally been able to return to aluminum for the back, albeit with glass still lingering at the top and bottom.
In that regard, the leap from the iPhone 4S to the iPhone 5 is no less significant, ambitious, or impressive than the leap from the original MacBook Pro to the unibody MacBook Pro in 2008. In both cases, it wasn't about making something that looked radically different but about making something that worked radically better. That's how it should be. That's what great design is all about. And if there's one thing Apple nails more consistently and constantly than any other company in modern memory, it's great design.
The real question is, once Apple fully realizes this vision of the iPhone, once they've gotten as close to perfecting it as technology allows, what will they do next?
iPhone 5: The 16:9 display
The 4-inch, 16:9 aspect ratio, 1136x640 resolution, 326ppi in-cell display is the iPhone 5's most obvious, most visually impressive new feature. Up until now, every iPhone has had a 3:2 aspect ratio display. The original iPhone, iPhone 3G, and iPhone 3GS all had 3.5-inch, 480x320 resolution, 163ppi displays. With the iPhone 4 in 2010, Apple switched to the Retina display. It was still 3.5-inches, still 3:2 ratio, but the density doubled to 960x640 at 326ppi. That made the pixels essentially disappear.
With the iPhone 5, for the first time, Apple has changed not only the screen size, but the aspect ratio as well. They've made it taller but not wider, bigger but no less dense. Retina was all about the quality of what you see. 16:9 is about the quantity.
The reason for the screen size change was likely competitive, at least in part. Some percentage of the market was choosing a bigger screen instead of an iPhone. By switching to a bigger screen, Apple has increased their addressable market, and now people can choose an iPhone with a bigger screen. At the same time, Apple wants to maximize content and minimize distractions like bezels and casing. Given LTE 4G and the new, thinner design, Apple couldn't decrease the screen-to-casing ratio by staying with a 3.5-inch display. They can -- and did -- by switching to a larger, 4-inch one.
So why 4-inches and 16:9 and not any bigger or the least bit wider? Likely because Apple didn't want to reduce the pixel density of the Retina display, impede the one-handed ease of use of the interface, or sacrifice the pocket-ability of the iPhone.
Personally, I would have have liked to see Apple prototype a 4-inch, 3:2 ratio display. It would give up some pixel density, staying at 960x640 but reducing the ppi to 288, and it wouldn't have increased the amount of information that could be displayed, like the 1136x640 resolution does. It would, however, have made everything bigger, including text, and it would have maintained app compatibility.
For some, any change from the original 3.5-inch screen will be too much. For others, anything less than 4.5-inches or more is too little. Apple typically ignores the fringes and aims squarely at the mainstream middle. This year 4-inches at 16:9 was the first and biggest compromise Apple was willing to make, and the best one in their opinion.
In addition to making the iPhone 5 display taller, Apple has also made it thinner. To do this, they used in-cell technology. This allowed Apple to combine the touch sensor into the LCD display, turning what were previously 2 discreet layers into a single layer that's 0.5mm thinner. That might not sound like a lot, but when you consider the iPhone 5 is only 7.6mm to begin with, it's significant.
The iPhone 5 display is still an LED-backlit LCD, so it's still bright and beautiful. It's remains IPS (in-plane switching) so the viewing angle remains tremendous, but in-cell makes the iPhone 5 display even better. If the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 looked like traditional cell animation, with images painted right below the glass, the iPhone 5 looks like those images are painted right into it. Once again, it looks so good it almost seems fake, like a sticker instead of a screen.
It also makes the iPhone 5 easier to use on a sunny day. Not exceptionally so, not even at a high brightness level, but better than previous generations. Add to that a 44% greater color gamut, and blacker blacks, and you have richer, truer images for everything from interfaces to avatars, photographs to videos. It's stunning, even when compared to the already stunning iPhone 4S display.
4-inches at 16:9 is a compromise, one that avoids turning the iPhone into a tiny tablet, or losing the density and the specific type of usability Apple values. The in-cell Retina display itself is not. As of right now, it might well be the best display in the business.
iPhone 5: Apple A6 performance
Apple says that the iPhone 5 is twice as fast as the iPhone 4S, which sound impressive enough. Apple doesn't typically talk in GHz or RAM when it comes to iOS devices. They prefer to bring experience to a spec fight. But specs drive the experience. They're the engine in the meticulously appointed car. They're stats behind the championship team. They're the science behind the art.
In this case, they're the Apple A6 system-on-a-chip (SoC), the first custom processor to grace the iOS platform. Previous versions of Apple's A-series, including the A4, A5, and A5X, all ran existing processor designs like the ARM Cortex A9. This year, instead of sticking with the Cortex A9 or moving on the new ARM A15, Apple zigged instead of zagged. They licensed the ARM v7s instruction set and rolled something uniquely their own -- a 32nm CMOS dual-core Apple CPU that can run from between 800MHz and 1.2GHz. Likewise, instead of going with the dual-core PowerVR SGX543MP2 graphics chip found in the iPhone 4S, or the giant quad-core PowerVR SGX543MP4 found in the iPad 3, Apple went with the triple-core PowerVR SGX543MP3 GPU. And they topped it all off with 1GB of RAM.
Storage isn't any bigger or any faster this year -- you have the same 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB options you had before -- but everything else about the iPhone 5 feels perceptively faster, and it's almost all because of the custom Apple A6. I didn't think Apple would go the custom CPU route for another year or two, but clearly they're investing heavily in chipset architecture and its paying off. Existing between the ARM Cortex A9 and A15, and between dual-core and quad-core PowerVR chips, freed Apple to find the best balance of performance vs. power consumption. What's more, Apple laid out the processor manually. Which is to say, by hand. That's almost unheard of these days, and shows just how seriously Apple is taking every bit and atom of the iPhone's design.
First, the numbers. While Geekbench and Sunspider are the perfunctory performance metrics, they're neither scientific measures nor real-world indicators. There's simply no way to account for the differences in architectures and "optimizations" across platforms. Likewise, HTML5test measures only iOS 6 Safari's compatibility with standards, and nothing iPhone 5-specific at al. Still, for what they're worth, here they are:
Real world performance is more important, however. How long it takes the iPhone 5 to boot, to launch and app or game, to render a website, and to resolve things like location and dictation are what really matter to real people.
In that regard, both the iPhone 4 and the iPad 3 bear the burden of being the first devices of their class to have to run Retina displays, and that drained performance away from the overall system. With that already "paid" for, the iPhone 4S flew, and the iPhone 5 flies even faster. It's so fast now, especially when combined with the new network connectivity (see below) that the mechanics really, truly disappear. Apple nailed the 1:1 multitouch tracking with the original iPhone, but some lag and stutter and delay has always lingered around the edges of the OS. Not any more, at least not that I encountered. With the iPhone 5, you're not waiting for pixels to push or on-device data to load or system processes to catch up. You're just doing. And you're doing it flawlessly enough that you don't even notice.
Apple sought to make the iPhone 5 twice as fast as the iPhone 4S and they've succeeded brilliantly. The Apple A6 is an absolute beast.
iPhone 5: LTE 4G and the radios
Apple has significantly upgraded wireless networking on the iPhone 5. While 802.11n Wi-Fi has been an option for a while now, the iPhone was previously restricted to more the crowded 2.4GHz frequency. Thanks to a Murata Wi-Fi module, which includes the Broadcom BCM4334 chip, the iPhone 5 can use 802.11n on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz. Bluetooth 4.0 has been carried over from the iPhone 4S, and while its low-power, instant pairing holds the same promise today that it did last year, we're still waiting for the accessory industry to catch up and make good on that promise.
What there isn't is NFC (Near-field Communications), which is used for commercial transactions, rapid checkins, and other, similar, touch-and-go data exchanges. Apple doesn't seem to believe NFC is the solution to any current mainstream problem, at least not yet. There are other technologies Apple can and is using for similar purposes, like the mobile checkout option on the Apple Store app, but it'll likely be a while before Apple thinks the market is ready for a full-out Apple NFC or NFC-like solution. It's chicken-and-the-egg, of course, but Apple has traditionally been conservative when it comes to radios. They waited until the second generation iPhone to add GPS and 3G, after all, and until now to add LTE 4G.
LTE 4G (Long Term Evolution) provides for a theoretical maximum of 100Mbps, which is faster than many home-based ISP connections. The iPad got LTE 4G support back in March, and performed incredibly well with it. The iPhone 5 adds newer, more advanced radio chipsets -- the Qualcomm MDM9615 and RTR8600. It also keeps Apple's dynamic antenna design, so it can switch to provide the best connection possible
LTE 4G support is split over three models, two GSM and one CDMA, in order to meet the needs of different international carriers on different bands, and segments of those bands. According to Apple, current iPhone 5 LTE 4G supports:
Model A1428: UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (AWS, 700b MHz) for AT&T, Rogers/Fido, Bell/Virgin, and TELUS/Koodo
Model A1429: CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B (800, 1900, 2100 MHz); UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (2100, 1800, 850, 700c, 1900 MHz) for Verizon, Sprint, and KDDI
Model A1429*: UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (2100, 1800, 850 MHz) for Deutsche Telekom, EE, Optus/Virgin, Telstra, Softbank, SK Telecom, KT, SmarTone, M1, and SingTel.
LTE 4G is particularly important for Verizon and Sprint customers. While the iPhone 4S could reach a theoretical speed of 14.4Mbps on the HSPA networks used by AT&T and other GSM carriers, Verizon and Sprint iPhone 4S customers were stuck on EVDO rev A's meager 3.1Mbps. So, customers were forced to choose between fast (AT&T) and reliable (Verizon) or unlimited (Sprint). Verizon had the first and fastest LTE 4G roll out in the U.S., so not being able to take advantage of it, especially considering how slow EVDO is, was especially irksome. No longer. The iPhone 5 on Verizon is now a first class data speed citizen.
My tests of LTE 4G performance have been a little strange, however. Given current tower loads, I average 30Mbps on the iPad 3 on the Rogers network. I spike at 30Mbps with the iPhone 5, but average 15Mbps. Tethering my iPad or my Mac to my iPhone 5, however, averages 30Mbps, just as I would expect. I'm inclined to chalk this up to some aberration on my phone or my carrier, however. Our community iPhone 5 speed test results show a much more normal, much more expected pattern of LTE 4G results.
Technical details aside, the iPhone 5 on LTE 4G is fast. It's so fast you may forget you aren't on Wi-Fi. For that reason, just as with iPad 3 LTE 4G, you're well advised to keep an eye on bandwidth caps, especially if you're streaming a lot of video or doing a lot of tethering. (The iPad 3 is still a better choice for tethering given that it's battery is much, much bigger, and if you drain it, you aren't without your phone.)
There are compromises here as well, however. Because Apple is prioritizing battery life, they're doing everything on a single radio with a single process, and because no carrier yet supports VOLTE (Voice Over LTE), the iPhone can't handle simultaneous voice and LTE data connections the way phones that use dual radio connections can. That means, if you're using LTE data and a voice call comes in, you'll drop down to HSPA data on AT&T and other GSM networks. And -- you guessed it! -- because Verizon and Sprint don't offer HSPA/GSM data, unless you're on Wi-Fi, you'll drop completely off of data while you talk, just like EVDO rev. A on the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.
The good news is, in addition to LTE 4G, the iPhone 5 supports speedy DC-HSPA (Dual Carrier HSPA) and HSPA+ data, with a theoretical maximum speed of 42Mbps. Also, unlike early LTE 4G phones, the iPhone 5 seems to handle the drop down to HSPA and return to LTE 4G with incredible speed and grace. It works well enough in my tests that I doubt most GSM users will even notice the change.
Because of LTE 4G, every iPhone now has a SIM card slot and tray, even on Verizon and Sprint. And just like the iPhone 4 switched from mini-SIM to micro-SIM, the iPhone 5 switches to nano-SIM. It's the same chip, just absent almost all the plastic surrounding it. You'll need one to use the iPhone 5, and most carriers are supplying them now. If you buy an unlocked iPhone 5 with the intention of traveling and using local SIM cards to save on roaming, you might have trouble finding them, especially on pre-paid/pay-as-you-go plans. At least for now. (Buying a mini- or micro-SIM and cutting it down is an option.)
In addition to telephone service, with iOS 6, Apple and the carriers have mostly gotten FaceTime enabled over 3G/4G. Mostly. Some carriers -- like AT&T -- are only allowing it on certain plans, which is a move composed of utter cattle refuse. Be that as it may, it's not a feature specific to the iPhone 5 but it is a feature made better by the iPhone 5's LTE 4G networking.
As far as I know, Apple still hasn't lived up to their promise to release the open-standards based FaceTime protocol as an open standard, so other platforms beyond iOS and OS X can implement it and make it truly, universally useful. If you are all in on Apple's ecosystem, however, it works incredibly well of LTE 4G. Again, well enough that you don't even realize you're not on Wi-Fi.
And when it comes to LTE 4G, that's exactly what you want.
iPhone 5: The iSight and FaceTime cameras
On paper, it doesn't seem like the iPhone 5's rear-facing iSight camera got much of a boost this year. It reads as the same 8 megapixels, backside illuminated, hybrid IR filtered, 5-element, f/2.4 aperture camera as last year's iPhone 4S. And, even though the iPhone 5 now has a 16:9 screen, still photos remain 4:3 at 3264x2448px. Likewise, the LED flash seems to look and work the same as last year.
Apple does list some improvements to the iPhone 5 iSight, however. There's a new, dynamic low-light mode that combines pixels together for what Apple claims is up to 2 f-stops better performance. Apple also claims the 5-element lens has been aligned with even greater precision for even greater sharpness. Also, the surface of the iSight is now made out of sapphire crystal to make it more scratch resistant.
The Apple A6 chipset lends a hand here as well, with a new image signal processor (ISP) that allows for spatial noise reduction by looking at surrounding pixels to better detect and remove noise, especially in low-light conditions, while at the same time preserving large areas of contiguous color. It also makes getting to the camera, both through the fast camera swipe on the Lock screen and the Camera app itself, much quicker, and increases the shutter speed to make taking a photo faster as well. Apple says 40% faster, but regardless of the exact number, it's a perceptible increase.
Most impressively, Apple has done all this in a camera that's 25% smaller than the one in iPhone 4S. Camera lenses dislike thinness, but humans like thinner phones. While some other manufacturers have resorted to adding crude bumps to allow large cameras on the backs of their otherwise thin phones, Apple's compromise here was to keep the same quality camera, enhance it slightly, but engineer it into the 18% thinner iPhone 5 body. That's a remarkable feat of engineering.
So, boiling it all down, photos are much faster to take on the iPhone 5. Standard photos look great, though about as great as you'd get on the iPhone 4S. They do seem much, much better on screen, however, but only because the iPhone 5's display is so much better. HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos show marked improvements, and so much so that if you're taking landscapes you'll want to turn it on and leave it on. Sadly, while low-light has also improved and noise has been reduced, it's not by much and blur will still occur if and when your subject moves. Happily, Apple seems to have fixed the problem with focus that plagued macro shots on the iPhone 4S. You can now get really close without worrying that your subject will elude capture.
If you're looking for the highest end glass you can hang off a phone, however, Apple's not on that particular bleeding edge. Nokia recently grafted a 41 megapixel lens on a Symbian camera just to show they could. Sure, it looks like it's face-hugging the body, but it shoots amazing pictures. Likewise, the upcoming Nokia Lumia 920 will use a much less pornographic version of the same PureView system, including an optical image stabilization system that actually floats the lens hardware, allowing the shutter to stay open longer and capture a better photo. Both Nokia and HTC are fielding f/2.0 lenses now as well. But the Nokia Lumia 920 is 10.7mm thick compared to the iPhone 5's 7.6 mm. That's the tradeoff for someone who values a light, thin phone that can also shoot really good photos.
While not unique to the iPhone 5, iOS 6 also has a new panoramic photography mode built-in. It uses the iSight in standard mode, so you don't get many of the benefits of the iPhone 5's specific iSight camera, but it still lets you make remarkably good looking panoramas at up to 240 degrees and 28 megapixels (~10800x2332px), with remarkably little effort.
The front-facing FaceTime camera is still meant more for videos than stills, but since it's been upgraded from 0.3 to 1.2 megapixels and given backlight illumination and face detection, if you need a new avatar or profile pic, you'll get a much better one with the iPhone 5 than you would have with any previous model. For anything else, you'll still want to use the iSight on the back.
Video likewise remains 1080p and 30 FPS on the iPhone 5 iSight -- there likely won't be, nor will there need to be, a 4K camera on a mobile device any time soon. Unlike still photography, however, video recording benefits greatly from the 16:9 aspect ratio. Apple drops away the menu bar when in video mode, switching to a translucent interface that really lets you see the full frame
Previously, if you wanted to capture a photo while recording video, you had to press Home and the On/Off button at the same time to grab a screenshot, either while you were filming, or later, while you were playing it back. Now you simply tap the Camera button and a photo gets taken while video continues to record. And with excellent shutter speed too.
There is a compromise, however. Photos captured while recording video are only 1920x1080px resolution. That's significantly smaller than the still camera's 3264x2448px. For most situations, however, the convenience eclipses the pixel cost.
Like with stills, lowlight performance has been nominally improved for iPhone 5 video, though it varies from slightly to unnoticeably depending on the specifics of any scene. Either way, there'll still be grain. Video stabilization, however, has been more noticeably improved, though it can still shimmer at times when motion is minimal. Face detection for up to 10 faces, previously available on the iPhone 4S for still photography only, is now also available for video as well on the iPhone 5.
The front-facing camera has had a more significant update, with Apple finally bringing the same 720p FaceTime HD capability to iOS that they brought to the Mac over a year ago. It works great, especially compared to the profoundly lackluster VGA camera that preceded it, and is now more than good enough for a video call or a YouTube-style chat-at-the-world video.
Back when Apple introduced the iPhone 4, they added a second mic to the top. With the iPhone 5 they've added a third mic, nestled between the iSight camera and the LED flash on the top back. Along with the traditional mic at the bottom, all three are multifunctional, now in recognition of the multifunctional ways we now use our phones. Having all three spread out the way they are means that whether you're using your iPhone as a phone, as a speaker phone, for a FaceTime call, to record a video, or to use Siri or Dictation, there's a greater likelihood you'll be heard. It also means there's a greater chance one of the mics will be well-positioned for noise-cancellation. Having three mics also means Apple can do beamforming, allowing Siri and Dictation to better discern words from the noise around them.
Apple has also -- finally -- paid some attention to the main speaker at the bottom of the iPhone. With the iPhone 5, it now has a five magnet transducer, up from the two magnet transducer in previous models. Apple says that gives a better frequency response, even though the speaker itself is now 20% smaller. In our tests, the speaker did sound louder and slightly clearer, but not blow-your-hair-back better. While I certainly wouldn't want gimmicks, it would be nice for Apple to continue do everything they can to improve external speaker quality -- they are the company that brought us iTunes + iPod, after all. For everything from conferencing to hands-free to FaceTime calls, when you don't have a headset handy, the main speaker simply has to deliver.
The iPhone 5 earpiece speaker has gotten noise cancellation now as well, which aids in removing ambient sounds and makes conversation cleaner and clearer. Apple has also added support for wideband audio (HD Voice being a popular brand thereof), which uses a compression method that better fills out the frequency spectrum to make voices sound more natural, and pulls them out from surrounding audio to make them more distinct. (Would that Music.app could apply it to undo the effects of AutoTune...) However, wideband audio requires carrier support and compatibility, and not all carriers support it yet, and of those that do, not all are compatible with the iPhone. Apple did say they had 20 carriers ready with wideband audio at launch, including Deutsche Telekom and Orange, but that's few enough that it should still be considered more of a bonus at this point than a standard feature. In other words, it's a big mess, and we'll probably have several more generations of iPhone released before most of us see the benefit of it.
Anecdotally, however, calls I've made with the iPhone 5 do sound much better and sometimes much more human than any cellular phone I've used before.
The 3.5 mm headset jack on the iPhone 5 has been moved to the bottom of the device, similar to where it's always been on the iPod touch. This isn't great news for people who liked to put their iPhone in a dock while listening to music or making calls using a headset, but it'll be welcomed by those who frequently pocket their iPhones while doing just that. Apple isn't even selling a dock for the iPhone 5, so their numbers probably tell them the latter group is more common than the former.
Included in the box with the iPhone 5 is a pair of Apple's brand new EarPods. (They're also available separately for $29.) 3 years in development, they're Apple's attempt to improve upon the ubiquitous but not well loved little white earbuds that previously shipped with iOS devices. The EarPods come in a proper package, similar to the one Apple's offered with their higher-end in-ear headsets for years, which is a great way to prevent tangles or damage in pockets, purses, and bags.
The shape of the EarPods is a significant divergence from the original earbuds. Instead of being uniformly round, the EarPods are asymmetrically shaped and, according to Apple, ergonomically designed to better fit a wider range of ears. No one product could ever truly fit every shape and size of ear, however. The original earbuds wouldn't stay in my ears for more than a few moments, and I've even found high end in-ear headsets challenging to keep in. The EarPods are much better than the earbuds ever were in that regard, though still not perfect, at least not for me.
Sound is noticeably improved with the EarPods, however, especially clarity and bass. A large part of that is due to their new, multi-port design. The main EarPod speaker directs sound into your ear. The port on the back is tuned to mid-range frequencies and is intended to improve consistency of experience. Ports in the stem are meant to improve bass. Air channels reduce pressure on the speaker so it can concentrate on providing greater low-frequency sound.
The remote and mic functions the same with the EarPods as it did with previous iPhone earbuds, allowing you to control both music and phone calls. The in-line remote is larger now, though, making it much easier to fumble for and use in real-world situations.
The new Apple EarPods won't replace your $100+ in-ears or cans, much less your high-end custom jobs, but they're a fantastic replacement for the generally poor earbuds that came before.
iPhone 5: The Lightning connector
After almost 10 years and who knows how many cables, Apple has officially retired the fat, thick, unidirectional, 30-pin Dock connector and introduced a new, small, thin, ambi-copular interconnect for the next decade. Branded Lightning, it's 80% smaller and offers 8-signals that are all digital.
Apple couldn't use their new desktop connector, ThunderBolt, because iOS devices don't have the required PCI architecture to support it. That means, yes, Lightning is not as fast as ThunderBolt. It also means that, while Lightning is all new on one side, it's still stuck on chunky, unidirectional USB 2 on the other. (It's possible Lightning may support USB 3, though the read/write speeds of current NAND Flash memory will at some point become a bottleneck.)
With the advent of technologies like AirPlay, which wirelessly streams video and audio, Wi-Fi Sync which wirelessly exchanges data with iTunes, AirPrint, which wirelessly sends jobs to printers, Bluetooth 4.0 which will -- eventually -- enable a new generation of wireless accessories, and iCloud which cut the cord to the PC, why not just eliminate the Dock connector entirely?
Because wired connectors still remain useful for more quickly moving large files around and, critically, for charging. Unlike Palm, Samsung, and Nokia, Apple doesn't yet see wireless charging as viable mainstream feature, and even if they did, it would be years before it could replace wired charging completely. So, the cable has to stick around and, instead of eliminating it, Apple's making it smarter.
Because it's digital, Lightning can be adaptive and provide the right signal for the accessory you're plugging in. (The old 30-pin Dock wasn't, and so needed those 30-pins for everything from USB to HDMI to serial to line-in to component and composite video to... you get the idea.)
For legacy accessories, Apple is currently offering 30-pin Dock to Lightning adapters, both with and without a short extension cord. To comply with European Union regulations, Apple is also offering a micro-USB to Lightning adapter. These don't support video-out, unfortunately, though Apple has said HDMI and VGA adapters will be available at some point.
Analog video and serial breakouts for older TVs and scientific instruments probably aren't on the agenda, though, and while it's possible they may appear in some form in the future, changes to Apple's licensing that coincides with Lightning might make it more difficult for small suppliers to manufacture niche cables and accessories, "encouraging" the move to modern video standards and Bluetooth 4.0 for connectivity.
I only ever plug my iPhone in to charge any more, and Lightning really makes no difference for that, at least not yet. It requires new cables or adapters that cost money, however, which is annoying. Inarguably, Lightning is better and more modern than 30-pin as an interconnect, but there's no compelling new accessories to "sell" that yet.
That might make it sound like all Lightning gives us is pain and turbulence right now, but there is one killer new feature that Lightning did immediately enable -- a thinner iPhone.
iPhone 5: The battery life
The iPhone 5 has a lithium-ion battery that can be charged via the included Lightning cable connected to a powered USB port or an AC adapter. The iPhone 5's battery is 1440 mAh, which is up 10 mAh from last year's iPhone 4S. Talk time on 3G is rated the same 8 hours as the iPhone 4S, though standby time has increased by 25 hours and now reaches 225 hours. (There's no voice over LTE yet, so no LTE talk time.) Internet use time is also up, increasing 2 hours on 3G and 1 hour on Wi-Fi to 8 and 10 hours respectively. The iPhone 5 is also rated for 8 hours on LTE. Audio and video playback remain 10 and 40 hours respectively.
In our tests, Apple's numbers have proven roughly accurate. Leaving an iPhone 5 for extended periods of time, for example overnight, has resulted in minimal battery drain, and with moderate use the iPhone 5 has easily lasted a day. With heavy use, like a day on the road or at a conference, you'll need to re-charge, perhaps more than once.
Carriers and signal quality have traditionally also played a huge part in iPhone battery life. With previous iPhones, when I've left Rogers and roamed on AT&T, my battery life has taken a huge hit (I could literally watch it drain as the radio screamed, trying to get a signal.) We've seen similar results with a Rogers iPhone 5 roaming on AT&T -- significantly lower battery life. This review covers the iPhone 5 on a good carrier with a strong, consistent signal. Anything less and battery life will suffer.
Because of all the push, location, and iCloud services in iOS, and the speed of LTE data, you can hit the iPhone 5 really hard if you try. If you restored from a previous iPhone, you could also have problems at the system level that reduces battery life. If you set up as a new iPhone and are still having issues, check with Apple. On an iPhone 5 that was set up as new, and running a decent amount of push, location, iCloud, and other services, my battery life has been excellent.
Otherwise, until battery packs and battery cases are updated for Lightning and the new design, you'll need adapters and maybe some McGyver skills.
The iPhone 5 ships with iOS 6, which boats over 200 new, customer-facing features including an all new Maps app, new Siri functionality, deep Facebook integration, shared Photo Streams, Passbook, new capabilities for Phone, Mail, and Safari, FaceTime over cellular, enhanced Accessibility, and improved support for China.
Unlike previous years, where video recording, FaceTime, and Siri were all exclusive to the new hardware, almost none of the new features in iOS 6 are exclusive to the iPhone 5. Make of that what you will.
For a complete look at iOS 6, including all of the features mentioned above, see our definitive guide:
The major difference for iOS 6 on the iPhone 5 is the change in aspect ration from 2:3 to 16:9, and in pixel count from 960x640 to 1136x640. That means everyone from Apple to App Store developers have an extra 176x640 pixels to play with.
For Apple, 16:9 allows for an extra row of icons on the Home screen and in folders, an extra list item in Mail or in Music, and a bigger display area in Maps and FaceTime. Since, unlike the iPad, the iPhone is based on a single-column interface, the lack of additional width is seldom if ever an issue in portrait mode. Curiously, Apple isn't vertically centering album art on the Lock screen with the iPhone. Hopefully that's a bug scheduled for imminent squash-age.
In landscape mode, 16:9 allows for most HD video content to fill the screen with nary a letterbox in sight, and Camera's translucent video recording interface makes excellent use of the aspect ratio (see screen shots in the display and camera sections, above). Calendar can now show 5 full days in week view rather than just 3.3 and Apple has enhanced Safari with a full-screen mode which, like the new, icon-based Share Sheets minimize the perceptive loss of vertical height and, frankly, the ridiculously long horizontal interface elements. (Except for the landscape keyboard, that's wider and thicker, but not much better.)
What Apple hasn't done, however, is take any advantage of the bigger screen on the system level. Banners still overlap and obscure menu bar buttons instead of elegantly pushing them down, and notifications still don't present any actionable interface for quickly replying to a text or adjusting an alarm. And there's no bonus number row on the portrait keyboard. Apple has used those extra 176x640 pixels merely to add more content, not add more functionality.
Hopefully it's early days still, and future versions of iOS will do something more interesting with the space.
For third party App Store apps, developers have to add support for the 16:9 display and signal it by including a special PNG file in their build. Many developers have already updated their apps. Most of these are list-based (UITableView) or grid-based (UICollectView) or use new, flexible methods (AutoLayout) that allow for relative positioning regardless of screen size. That's important, because they still have to support 3:2 on older devices still on the market and still being sold. Likewise, games that use OpenGL can go 16:9 but could still have interface elements that require work to get right.
Apps or games with a ton of custom graphics will have to be redone, and redone in a way that lets them properly fill the screen, regardless of which screen they have to fill. That'll take time. Until then, Apple will letter-box them (or pillar-box them in landscape mode), centering them on the screen and filling the empty space with black. On the new black and slate iPhone, it's almost invisible. On the white and silver, it's more visible.
A bigger problem is system overlays. On letter-boxed apps, the status bar and the keyboard still render relative to the app, not the the phone. So the status bar is lower than you'd expect at a glance, and the keyboard, higher. It's awkward and takes some getting used to. It might have looked funny if Apple bound them to the absolute top and bottom of the screen, but it might also have worked better. Also
Unlike Apple, some App Store apps are offering different interfaces on 16:9 displays. Given the fat status of binaries already, what with universal apps that support iPhone and iPod touch interfaces and separate iPad interfaces, in standard and Retina (@2x) densities, one of the last things download sizes need is another interface to cram in there. Other apps are simply revealing extra content areas -- opening on 16:9 what is closed on 3:2, or adding something in wide screen that's not there in standard.
No doubt we'll be seeing a lot more from developers and designers when they've had a chance to really work on the new hardware.
This might seems like a strange combination for a review section, but if you've ever had a problem with your iPhone, it'll make perfect sense. When you buy an iPhone 5 at Apple Retail, they'll help you choose it, set it up, and teach you how to use it. And if you have a problem with it, they'll often go out of their way to fix it for you.
Contrast this with non-Apple devices, where your problems are left to the mercy of big box or carrier customer service reps who, even if they're inclined to help you, typically need to mail your device away, a process that can take days or more. And when you get the replacement, while some information can be resynchronized over-the-air or via cable, it's often not an easy or complete process.
On launch day, my original iPhone 5 had a chip in the bezel. I returned to the Apple Store, was greeted, explained the problem, and immediately received a replacement iPhone. Then I entered my iCloud ID, and walked out with everything setting, app, piece of content, and bit of data exactly the same as I'd walked in with. A brand new phone, but exactly my phone.
No matter how you want to parse it, that's a feature of a phone, one Apple gets right, and one few if any competitors can or will match.
iPhone 5: App and accessory compatibility
The iPhone 5 is compatible with all of the hundreds of thousands of iPhone apps in the App Store, though not all of them have yet been updated to support the new 16:9 display (see Interface, above).
The iPhone is not compatible with most previous iPhone 5 cases due to differences in physical dimensions (see Design, above). Some large pouch or bag cases might fit. Most won't.
The iPhone 5 may be compatible with some accessories built for a 30-pin Dock connector, including cradles and stereos, provided the current 30-pin to Lightning connector adapters provide the right signals and can be properly attached. Anything that uses composite or component video out is not currently compatible, though Apple says HDMI and VGA adapters are in the works. (See Lightning connector, above.)
Headsets are compatible, and Bluetooth accessories should be compatible, though we've gotten reports of bugs with some car systems which may require a software updates from the vendor or Apple to rectify.
iPhone 5 pricing remains the same this year as last:
$199/16GB, $299/32GB, $399/64GB on contract
$649/16GB, $749/32GB, $849/64GB off contract
In what might well be Apple's most ambitious iPhone roll-out to date, they promised availability in 100 countries and on 240 carriers.
Available now: U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and the U.K.
Available on September 28: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
iPhone 5: Buyers guide
If you don't happen to like iOS or the iPhone at all, there's nothing in the iPhone 5 to change your mind. Get something else. There are severalgood options already, and maybe more to come.
If you've previously been interested in iOS and the iPhone, but the lack of a bigger screen or LTE made you hold off, then go check it out. Chances are you'll like, if not love what you see. It's still the default phone I recommend, and the one that will appeal most to most users.
If you currently have an iPhone 4 or earlier, the iPhone 5 is an excellent upgrade. It's everything you love about your current iPhone, only better. Much better.
If you currently have an iPhone 4S, unless you really want the bigger screen and the LTE networking, there's little reason to upgrade. The iPhone 4S is still a great device, and iOS 6 does pretty much everything on it that it does on iPhone 5.
Apple may have revolutionized the smartphone in 2007 but they're not the only ones bringing their A-game in 2012. There are now a wide range of highly competitive devices available in most markets, with different form factors, feature sets, and focuses, each of which will appeal to a different type of smartphone users.
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. Some say Apple is trapped by designs and ideas of the past, obsessed with aesthetics and compromised by self-interest, at war with one-time partners, and oblivious to user pain and competitive pressures. Others, that Apple is better than any other company in the world at determining what exactly the market wants, at pushing the boundaries of manufacturing and technology to make the future manifest now, at taking calculated risks that pay off over years rather than months, and at following precisely-timed revolution with indefatigable evolution, even if it costs them parters, and sometimes customers, over the short term.
Elements of both are likely true. 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.
Leanna Lofte, Ally Kazmucha, Georgia, and Anthony contributed photography, videography, research, testing, and large amounts of time and effort to this review
Well, Facebook shareholders sure like the sound of Gifts. Around Wall Street's close yesterday, the company launched a much anticipated e-commerce initiative that lets Facebook users send real, physical gifts to friends and family on birthdays and special events like engagements and weddings. It gives the company a third business model beyond advertising and payments revenue. Shares have jumped by 6.6 percent today to $21.66. So what could Gifts mean for Facebook's bottom line? Let's do some guesswork.
