Category General

Sep 10 2014

Apple launches iPhone 6 & iPhone 6 Plus – Beauty, Brains, and Brawn!

iPhone 6 was launched yesterday (September 9, 2014).
It will be available from September 19, 2014 and the pre-ordering commences this Friday (September 12.)

iPhone 6 launched with two models - iPhone6 (4.7 inches) and iPhone6 Plus (5.5 inches). New features and technical specifications in iPhone 6 with new iOS 8

Click to view a bigger image.

 

The most interesting thing about the release was that Apple has finally realized to maintain their lead in the market, they’ll have to change their strategy. In order to stay ahead of the competition they have come up with specifications that place them ahead of their competition. For the last year-and-half, their competitors had been giving them a tough fight through not just their specs but also through the array of devices that filled in the void between a phone and a tablet. I am glad to see that they appear to have come back on track. So far Apple wasn’t offering any wider/longer variations of the iPhone but yesterday when they launched two versions of iPhone – iPhone 6 (4.7″) and iPhone 6 Plus (5.5″), they filled that gap. The new iPhones have the three attributes which are crucial for the success of any device – Looks, Hardware and the Operating System.

(Apple also made an announcement of its wearable i – iWatch which would be made available in near future – but the detailed specs aren’t out yet, so I am stayed focused on the iPhones.)

Looks

The iPhone retains it aluminum body but it has gone sleeker with softly-rounded edges. Several manufacturers in the past had come with thinner models and it was high time that iPhone too got a makeover. I would say that with its aluminum finish it beats all other models in the market. Now others will have some catching up to do. The thickness of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus is 6.9 mm and 7.1 mm respectively.

Hardware

This year, Apple has been working hard on the hardware. With the new iPhone 6, the company has greatly enhanced the technology behind iPhone 6  to deliver more power. iPhone 6 has new A8 chip and M8 motion processors. This has translated into more processing power. According to the release details, the CPU of the new iPhones is upto 50x faster and GPU is 84x faster, than the original iPhone. The new iPhone 6 has WiFI which is 3x faster capable of sustaining download speeds of upto 150 Mbps. The LTE network connectivity is faster with 20 LTE bands (7 more than iPhone 5,) a lot more than what’s being offered by the competition. The iPhone Camera, which was already excellent, has even become better and according to Apple, the new camera will result in great video output, capturing 1080 HD video at 60fps. The camera will also allow 240-fps slo-mo, and time-lapse videos. With all these hardware improvements, I expect it to be very difficult for any of their competitors to outsmart the iPhone 6 hardware specs.

Operating System – iOS 8

iPhone 6 will be sold with the next version of the operating system – iOS 8. iOS 8 offers offers many new features to developers that will enable them to develop more powerful and engaging apps. iPhone 6 has a new technology called Metal, which will enable developers to develop console-type immersive games. Apple has enhanced the existing APIs and also added some new ones. Many exciting applications can now be built using Touch ID, PhotoKit, HealthKit,HomeKit, CloudKit and Camera API. For gaming SpriteKit, SceneKit and Metal offer interesting features. With iOS 8 Apple also launches a new programming language – Swift.

According to the Apple’s site, iOS 8 is:
“The world’s most advanced mobile operating system has made a huge leap, too. iOS 8 has new capabilities and functions that let you do things you could only imagine before, like using Siri to control the devices in your home or using your health and fitness apps to communicate with your doctor.”

Apple Pay (Your Wallet without Wallet)

With iPhone 6, Apple has also announced its own payment mechanism called Apple Pay. It has tied-up with Master Card, Visa and American Express. Soon the iPhone users will be able to map their credit and debit cards in their iPhone and used Apple Pay to make their payments in a more secure way.

 

iOS 8 the new operating system to come with iPhone 6. For iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. New APIs for game developers. Sprite Kit, Scene Kit and Metal to develop console like games. New language Swift

Click to view a bigger image.

 

iPhone 6 Specifications

iPhone 6 Specs:

  • Width: 2.64″
  • Length: 5.44″
  • Thickness: 0.27″ (Yes! that is approximately a quarter of an inch)
  • Screen Display Size (diagonal): 4.7″

iPhone 6 Plus Specs:

  • Width: 3.06″
  • Length: 6.22″
  • Thickness: 0.27″
  • Screen Display Size (diagonal): 5.5″

Specs Common to iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus

  • Chips: A8 with M8 Motion Processor
  • Camera: 8 MP with 1.5 micron pixels, auto focus, image stabilization, f/2.2 aperture
  • Video: 1080HD with 30fps or 60 fps, slo-mo with 120 fps or 240 fps, 3x zoom

 

Important Links

Jul 15 2013

What is this blog about?

There’s no absolutely right answer to this question, as I expect this blog to evolve on its own. As I develop Apps for iPhone/iPad and Mac OS X platforms this blog would present my thoughts and experiences in this area.

I’ve always loved the beauty of clear and precise logic. I prefer the objectivity of Math and Science, and of course, Programming. This is possibly the reason behind my tag-line being what it is – “C-ing it Objective-ly”. Objective C is a language which never ceases to amaze me. There are several things which can be done using this language in a jiffy which otherwise would take lot of code to accomplish in other languages like Java or C#.

Objective C as a programming language and both the iOS Frameworks & Mac OS X Frameworks allow you to build almost every kind of logic that you can dream of while programming your applications. Whether it is creating dazzling animations or implementing complex data structures, these technologies help us achieve it all easily. The frameworks even give you an option to use different alternative approaches which you may select on the basis of your requirements. For example, if you wish to do a simple static animation of images, the UIImageView itself is sufficient to accomplish that. On the other hand if you wish to achieve dynamic animation of images with interactive capabilities with  callbacks, then you have the power of CALayers at your disposal.

In fact, programming in Objective C can be a dream-like experience, except for the fact that the usual step-by-step Help that Microsoft’s MSDN excels in, doesn’t exist for this beautiful language (something that Apple can learn from Microsoft). So, if you are absolutely new to programming or have arrived through a non-C programming language, you’ll take some time to find you feet. Once you do though, the ride is a breeze.

I’ll write more later. If you’ve caught this blog fresh, click the Follow button to help me remind you that my next post is made.