Tag: Mobile

Why Apple iPhone Business May Die Soon?

jamesg Leave a comment

You may have read the previous post in which I mentioned what Apple as a company must do. They should have done a number of things with the iPhone to refresh the product line. However, they have released an iterative, slightly modified iPhone 5 with iPhone 5S.

It has virtually no improvement to speak about. You will have no idea how Apple is stealing your money with a substandard device, simply by looking at the new iPhone website or the presentation below.

Already you may be seeing a lot of criticism directed at Apple for being stupid about this product. Steve Jobs wouldn’t have liked this.

We have the technical specifications of iPhone 5S here, compared to iPhone 5.

Feature iPhone 5S iPhone 5C iPhone 5
Display LED IPS capacitive touch; 4 inches LED IPS capacitive touch; 4 inches LED IPS capacitive touch; 4 inches
Resolution 640×1136 (16:9); 326 ppi 640×1136 (16:9); 326 ppi 640×1136 (16:9); 326 ppi
Protection Corning Gorilla Glass Corning Gorilla Glass Corning Gorilla Glass
Storage 16/32/64 GB 16/32 GB 16/32/64 GB
Memory TBA although expected is 1 GB 1 GB 1 GB
Card slot NO NO NO
Camera 8 MP; 1.5 µm pixel size; dual LED flash for true tone 8 MP; 1.4 µm pixel size 8 MP; 1.4 µm pixel size
Video shooting 1080p HD @ 30 fps 1080p HD @ 30 fps 1080p HD @ 30 fps
Operating System iOS 7 iOS 7 iOS 6 upgradable to iOS 7
Battery 1570 mAh Li-Po 1510 mAh Li-Po 1440 mAh Li-Po
SoC Apple A7 dual core 64 bit
Apple M7 motion co-processor		 Apple A6 dual core 32 bit Apple A6 dual core 32 bit
Processing power 1.7 GHz 1.3 GHz 1.3 GHz
Dimensions Height 123.8 mm Height 124.4 mm Height 123.8 mm
Width 58.6 mm Width 59.2 mm Width 58.6 mm
Depth 7.6 mm Depth 9 mm Depth 7.6 mm
Weight 112 g Weight 132 g Weight 112 g
Other features
  • Fingerprint scanner, known as touch ID
  • Siri
  • AirDrop
  • GPRS
  • EDGE
  • LTE
  • Nano-SIM
  • iCloud
  • GPS & GLONASS
  • Black/Slate, White/Silver, Gold color options
  • Siri
  • AirDrop
  • GPRS
  • EDGE
  • LTE
  • Nano-SIM
  • iCloud
  • GPS & GLONASS
  • Black/Slate, White/Silver, Gold color options
  • Siri
  • AirDrop
  • GPRS
  • EDGE
  • LTE
  • Nano-SIM
  • iCloud
  • GPS & GLONASS
  • Black/Slate, White/Silver, Gold color options

The prices of iPhone 5S and 5C are as follows.

5S: 16 GB version available for $199; 32 GB for $299; 64 GB for $399
5C: 16 GB for $99 and 32 GB for $199

Unlocked contract-free devices are priced thus:

5S: 16 GB at $649; 32 GB at $749; 64 GB at $849
5C: 16 GB at $549 and 32 GB at $649

I have never seen a bigger rip-off.

What’s In the iPhone?

The question that one should ask is this. Is iPhone the best smartphone out there that you can buy? The answer is No, it is not.

iPhone 5S in different colors

Apple iPhone used to be the best smartphone until iPhone 5 was released last year. After that, immediately enough, a number of Android devices and BlackBerry Z10 came up, and the most important and popular among them include Galaxy S4, HTC One, etc. These devices have great features and power and have managed easily to overshadow the iPhone. Since iPhone 4S, Apple has not done anything significant with the device, and it just is not the best device you can buy in the market today. It is still a great device if the price is appropriate. The current iPhone doesn’t have features to command a price over 400 dollars.

With contract, you can buy really great devices below 299 dollars, AT&T sells HTC One at only 199 dollars with 2 year contract. That phone can kick iPhone at the bottom any day. Also, there are a huge number of devices that you can check out in this page.

So, why is the iPhone costing as much? Simply because Apple has its ego and it cannot ever command a low price for its creations. In 2007, when Steve Jobs released the iPhone, it was the best smartphone you could buy in the world. It used to be that awesome on all subsequent versions and iterative updates, tagged ‘S’ for ‘Speed’—iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone4S, iPhone5, and now iPhone 5S. The tradition stopped at around the time when iPhone 5 was released with a small screen, processor, battery, etc., to compete with smartphones eons ahead of its time.

In 2012 and this year, we have seen such a great development with Android that iPhone can no longer stay strong without some significant innovation. New operating systems have emerged; Windows and BlackBerry still hold a very low percentage of the smartphone market. At this point, coming up with a substandard device is going to kill Apple’s credibility.

64 Bit, A Marketing Hype?

If you ask the straightforward question, whether 64 bit computing incorporated in iPhone 5S is a marketing hype or has some level of significance, the easy answer is it is just a marketing hype. It has absolutely no significance whatsoever, in the current market, that is.

Let me clarify.

Apple iPhone 5S is the first ever smartphone to introduce 64 bit computing. What about Android? Android OS, the current Jelly Bean and upcoming Kit Kat are still in 32 bit edition. You will not be seeing an Android 64 bit any time soon. Samsung has already announced an upcoming 64 bit smartphone right after Apple iPhone 5S launch.

What is 64 bit computing? In desktop computing, we started off with 8 bit systems, and then moved on to 16 bit, and then 32 bit, and now 64 bit with almost all desktop operating systems. In 2005, Microsoft upgraded the OS to 64 bit, and Apple changed the Mac OS X to 64 bit in 2009. This is an upgrade to the basic computing architecture in which the computing power can be enhanced significantly by incorporating more resources, such as RAM.

However, the catch is the applications running on the operating system should also be capable enough to take advantage of the architecture. In the current app market, and also in the foreseeable future, there is no way you will be inundated with 64-bit apps. You are going to take advantage of and use only 32 bit apps until developers have managed to create 64-bit versions.

Apple A7

In such a world, Apple’s A7 processor is not going to bring you any computing advantage. You will of course see a speed boost in loading your 32 bit regular apps because this A7 processor is 1.7 GHz dual core as compared to 1.3 GHz A6 on iPhone 5. However, the Android competitions, HTC One with Snapdragon 600, LG G2 with Snapdragon 800, Galaxy S4 with Exynos, will continue to overwhelm you in performance. There is no way Apple iPhone 5S is going to match the performance benchmarks of those devices.

Also, Android is soon going to upgrade to 64-bit computing in the very near future. In such a time, what Phil Schiller said about the architecture is mindless marketing gimmick at best.

Other Stuff

Apple has the other stuff on the iPhone, including the iPhone’s touch ID sensor. It is a clever implementation of fingerprint security. It is one feature that is worth bragging about. It makes the device be tied to your bioinformatics, making it ultra-secure. And they have implemented it perfectly too, by putting it right behind the home button at the bottom of the phone. This is something that we will get to see on upcoming Android devices.

Camera on iPhone 5S is another thing that they bragged about in the keynote, given below.

The camera in fact is not that advanced as compared to the shooters on any other device, such as HTC One or Galaxy S4. The camera uses the larger pixel concept revolutionized by HTC One. iPhone 5S camera uses 1.5 µm pixels, while iPhone 5 has pixels as large as 1.4 microns. HTC One is still the king in pixel size with nearly 2 micron pixels.

With other major features, including Optical Image Stabilization, HTC One’s camera is far superior than iPhone 5S’s. Also, it has to be mentioned that the best camera in the market today has 41 megapixels. It belongs to Nokia 1020. Other devices, Lumia 925, 920, etc., also have better cameras than the existing iPhone 5. iPhone 5S does not improve a lot on the camera side, although Apple makes you believe it does.

One thing that I have to mention is the dual LEDs on iPhone 5S camera that help in maintaining proper lighting on poorly lit scenes. It is a perfect improvement over iPhone 5 camera. It does indeed help in making the images better when the LED flash option is turned on.

iPhone 5S camera flash

Another improvement is the new processor supplement known as motion co-processor, M7. It is also a clever way iPhone 5S can measure and adapt to motion. This co-processor is a weak supplement to the A7 chip that measures just the motion data, from such sensors as the gyroscope, accelerometer, and compass. Since these sensors are controlled by M7, A7 is not engaged to rotate the display and measure the distance traveled when running. This helps you run fitness apps better on iPhone 5S.

Conclusion

Other than a few minor improvements, Apple has done nothing with iPhone to be able to command a large price tag. In essence, it is a substandard phone by today’s standards, and it deserves no attention from the consumers. This is a faltering step by the company, and if it doesn’t remedy immediately by bringing out an innovative device sooner, Apple’s iPhone business may soon be in jeopardy.

MIM & MIIM Diodes: How Do They Work?

jamesg Leave a comment

What drains power in today’s electronics, what causes high temperatures and costs in today’s electronic equipment, could be behind extreme electronics of tomorrow. Our world is gearing towards a better tomorrow, where the supercomputers will be millions of times faster than today’s. Processing will be remarkably faster, and high level applications will run in nanoseconds.

What will help us achieve this for our future? The technology known as MIM diodes and its successor, MIIM diodes (Metal-Insulator-Insulator-Metal diodes). Let’s check them out in detail.

What Is MIM & MIIM?

diodesA diode is one of the most basic electronic components of any circuit. It is used to conduct electrons in one direction, like a valve. Advanced diodes are capable of modifying the current as well, such as sine wave to square wave, AC to DC, etc.

Diode is such an important component in today’s electronics that without them nothing would be possible—no cellphones, tablets, PCs, display technologies, speakers, storage systems, servers, clients, automobiles, or anything.

These electronic components—diodes, transistors, ICs, etc.—are developed with some kind of semiconductor, and the most widely used of them is Silicon. Other semiconductors are also there, such as Germanium, Gallium Arsenide, and certain organic semiconductors. However, Silicon is the one major semiconducting material we use in all kinds of electronic equipment.

Today’s technologies, however, are pushing the limits of what Silicon-based diodes and ICs can achieve in terms of speed and performance. In a world like that, a better technology that transforms electronics as we know it today is the prime solution. A research to find such a solution resulted in further developing an already existing technology, MIM diodes.

MIM stands for Metal-Insulator-Metal diodes. These are sort of like capacitors in which thin metal plates are separated by an insulator. Here’s the basic structure of a MIM diode. See how the insulator separates metal strips.

MIM diode structure

Oregon State University (OSU) has been working on MIM diodes for such a long time. In 2011, there was a paper published by researchers in this particular area.

Douglas KeszlerIn 2010, OSU finally managed to create the first ever MIM diode. Douglas Keszler, chemist and one of the leading materials science researchers from OSU, said then:

Researchers have been trying to do this for decades, until now without success. Diodes made previously with other approaches always had poor yield and performance. It’s a basic way to eliminate the current speed limitations of electrons that have to move through materials.

Here’s the first ever MIM Diode:

first MIM diode

Now, OSU has gone further and created the next level of MIM, MIIM diodes. Here, instead of a layer of insulator, there are two.

Here’s an image. The material has four layers—ZCAN (Amorphous Zirconium), Hafnium Oxide (HfO2), Aluminum Oxide (Al2O3), and Aluminum (Al).

MIIM diode

As I mentioned earlier, the technology is not new. The MIIM diodes are a type of ‘tunnel diodes’ that were in existence since the 60’s, known for the technology behind it, ‘quantum tunneling’. It has never been researched further and developed for mass production.

SanDisk 3D LLC, a subsidiary of the flash storage memory maker, SanDisk, has a patent on MIIM diodes with a trench structure. The patent dates back to 2008, although no work has been done by the company based on the technology.

What Is Quantum Tunneling?

Quantum Tunneling is the technology behind MIM diodes. As we mentioned, the tunnel diodes are called so due to this reason.

Normally, we know an electron beam is unable to go through an insulator. However, when the insulating material is extremely thin at less than 3 nm, a special phenomenon known as quantum tunneling can happen. This phenomenon can only be explained with quantum mechanics, not classical mechanics. This is the reason why it is known as ‘quantum tunneling’. This concept has a more extensive reach than MIM diodes. For instance, the energy production in the Sun actually has a lot to do with quantum tunneling.

Imagine a ball rolling up a hill. It will not be able to cross the hill if the energy it already has is not enough. However, if you are thinking of a ball in the quantum scale (which is infinitesimal), the ball can no longer be regarded as an object, but as a wave. In such a state, it can be expected that the ball crosses to the other side of the said hill if the other side has a slope where the ball can stay without expending much energy.

The same concept applies to electrons in MIM diodes. When the electron reaches the barrier, the insulator in between the metal strips, it absorbs energy from the surroundings in order to pass through the insulator. In doing that, a part of the electron beam passes through the barrier, but another part reflects back. However, due to the energy absorption, the reflected electron beam has far more energy than it originally has.

quantum tunneling with electrons

The electron beam that traverses the barrier does not follow the normal laws of conduction as it is going through an insulator, which does not help in conducting electrons. Due to this reason, the energy the beam absorbs makes it travel at ultra-high speeds. The speed is much higher than that on a normal conductor or a semiconductor like Silicon.

Also, when we visualize electron beam as a wave, quantum tunneling can be seen in action below. Quantum tunneling happens in the form of a ripple effect you see at the barrier. Also, after that, the passing beam and the reflected beam have lower altitude (height) and higher wavelength.

Quantum tunneling visualization

This tunneling phenomenon is what causes the extreme speed on MIM and MIIM diodes.

Ironically enough, as mentioned at the beginning of the article, quantum tunneling is a major reason behind power drain and extreme temperature in current electronic systems, but that is unwanted quantum tunneling.
John Conley Jr.

Extra insulator layer helps enhance an MIM diode. Dr. John Conley, Jr.,  of OSU that was part of the research into MIIM says:

This approach enables us to enhance device operation. It … moves us closer to the real applications that should be possible with this technology.

 

This extra insulator layer causes something known as ‘step tunneling’ that allows highly precise control of the asymmetric diodes.

Advantages

Quantum tunneling and MIIM diodes have only advantages.

  • They are as easy to manufacture as Silicon based electronic components.
  • They are inexpensive.
  • They can form extremely fast electronic components as compared to any available technology today—imagine terahertz of processing power in place of gigahertz we have now.
  • They will find application in all kinds of electronic technologies—smartphones, tablets, LCD displays, TVs, consumer electronics, automobiles, etc.

Conclusion

I am not an electronics expert, but when it comes to technologies that will enhance what we have today in smartphones and tablets, I do take high level of interest. We do not have infrastructure today to make MIIM diodes on large scale. However, when it happens in the near future, we will all have extremely powerful smartphones and tablets. We will have in our hands devices better than the biggest and the most massive of today’s supercomputers.

[Image source: BSN, Wikipedia]

What Apple Really Needs to Do With iPhone 5S and 5C?

jamesg Leave a comment

We have news that iPhone 5S and a possible mid-range version, iPhone 5C will be launched by the tenth of this month. There have been numerous rumors of these devices already. It’s Apple, and iPhone’s the most prestigious smartphone ever made; hence, there definitely will be rumors floating around year round. However, we know pretty well how Apple has been losing its market to competitors, Samsung, LG, and others in the last two or three years.

smartphone market share 2Q2013

 

In the tablet market, Apple still has its strong hold. iPad 4 and Mini are still at the top of tablet market, but the competition is growing strong as we speak. iPad Mini has not been impressive for us.

tablet market share Q2, 2013

 

In such a market, the most important and most prestigious product of Apple, iPhone has to come with some improvements in order to help the company stay on top of the competition. Let’s analyze.

iPhone 5S and 5C

 

Here’s what we have in news about these devices.

  • It’s possible that the devices will be released by 10th of this month.
  • It’s expected that there will be three variants of iPhone 5S, light golden color, graphite, and black.
  • The iPhone 5C will be coming with a plastic back with various colors.
  • Hardware specifications of iPhone 5S: dual-core CPU, quad-core GPU, 2GB RAM, IGZO screen (a Sharp technology that helps in power consumption), possible 12 MP camera, NFC and fingerprint scanners are also expected.
  • iPhone 5C will be a replacement for iPhone 5, and it will be priced low.
  • Both phones will come with iOS 7, the latest version of iOS.

 

What is IGZO technology that we are talking about? It’s a display technology, quite similar to others like AMOLED, TFT, etc. IGZO is expected to give quite a bit of power saving. Check it out here.

The image shows power saving of LCD vs. IGZO when displaying the same image.

IGZO power consumption

 

What Should Apple Do?

 

As you can see, the information that we already have doesn’t point to anything spectacular. Already, Android phones come with all kinds of technology. Samsung has given S4 that comes packed with features. HTC has One, which is amazing too. LG has G2 with super-packed features and a really fast processor, Snapdragon 800.

Android phones have revolutionized the mobile technology already, by driving the processing power to over 2 GHz, display sizes to over five and six inches, and lots and lots of technological innovations. Apple is still in 2010’s, which is kind of like saying ‘a person’s fashion is still in the seventies’.

Their best product that competes with Galaxy S4 and HTC One is iPhone 5, and its specifications are: 1.3 GHz CPU as opposed to 1.9 GHz of S4 and 2.26 GHz of LG G2; 8 MP camera as opposed to 12 MP and 13 MP ones found in the Android market; 1 GB RAM only; 4 inch screen as opposed to 5 inch, 5.2 inch, 6 inch, 6.3 inch etc., in Android market. iPhone 5 has a Retina display, whose allure is long gone; it is not even HD. iPhone’s battery is 1440 mAh only, while S4 has 2600 mAh battery and LG G2 has a whopping 3000 mAh battery, which is more than twice that of iPhone 5. iOS has a million apps and it still leads the app market, but Android is very close behind.

It does indeed seem that the Android phones best iPhone in every way possible. Still, Apple is hell-bent on insisting iPhone is the best smartphone out there. I say iPhone is the most productive still, due to the fact that it has so many apps, and so many gadget manufacturers make iPhone accessories and gadgets. The phone’s technology is still outdated and is in dire need for a definitive upgrade.

Upgrades Suggested

 

Apple has been slacking off in iPhone department for quite some time. They are overwhelmed by the developments happening in the Android world, but they are steadfast in not admitting that. Apple’s top management seems to have lost those innovative capabilities, and they are now struggling more than ever. You can actually see that in action when you watch any Apple top executive speaking.

I used to have utmost respect for Apple as a company, but now it really needs some kind of smart move for damage control. Here’s Apple’s stock performance since the time it has been adjudged as the highest valued company in the history of the world.

Apple stock, click to enlarge

 

Apple stock has fallen from its top of nearly 700 dollars by more than 200 dollars.

Let me suggest a few things that Apple do in order to continue as a highly profitable company.

  • First of all, Apple needs to innovate and become that company that first introduced iPhone in 2007. Come up with an innovative edition that is simply better than any other smartphone in the market. If Apple wants to be the company that makes the best device, it simply has to make the best device.
  • Display: Upgrade and come up with a larger, full HD IGZO panel that consumes less power.
  • Battery: We know iPhone is well optimized to last for a day of heavy usage with the battery it is coming with, but let’s say people need ‘a week’ of heavy usage. Optimize the battery for that.
  • Processing power: People need quad-core processing power, and Apple app store has apps that require better processing power and memory.
  • Support MicroSD
  • Give support for outside technologies and standards. One of the most important one is Near Field Communication (NFC).

     

  • Design and develop interfaces that supports data transfer between all other operating systems, through generic standards, such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
  • If Apple is not willing to do any of these, reduce the price of the device, so that it is reasonable.

These are only some of the things that Apple can do to make the device better. The only thing that prevents Apple from coming up with a good product in this market is that their ego doesn’t allow them to incorporate technologies from other companies and organizations, even if those technologies are open source, easily licensable, and better than Apple’s own technologies.

Apple has had a stronghold for a long time, but the market has changed drastically now. Without innovative ideas, Apple’s future is doomed. BlackBerry once was very big in smartphone marketplace. It no longer is. It’s a lesson. General public aren’t stupid and they do not stick with a company that makes substandard products. If Apple’s trademark is innovation, they have to continue doing that. If it’s not happening, the company’s future will be at risk without question.

Conclusion

 

These are only a few things I mentioned about iPhone. There are other major things to discuss about other products—iPad, iPad Mini, etc. These products also need a drastic upgrade, not an iterative one. The time has long gone for iterative upgrades. Now, only significant product launches can help Apple.

HTC Butterfly S Has Been Unveiled In China

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HTC Butterfly S

In an event in Taiwan, HTC unveiled the next big device in its Butterfly series (you probably know it as Verizon’s Droid DNA). Droid DNA and its international edition, J Butterfly have been two of the most exciting and high-end smartphones developed by HTC. Here is Butterfly S, which comes with similar features and a whopping large screen of 5 inches, the largest that HTC has ever made.

Engadget China has managed to get its hands on the device here. Here is the promo video of the device:

Technical Specifications

 

Here is the technical specifications of Butterfly S in comparison to two other devices, HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S IV.

Feature HTC Butterfly S HTC One Samsung Galaxy S IV
Display Super LCD 3; 5 inch 1080p (441 ppi) Super LCD 3; 4.7 inch 1080p (469 ppi) Super AMOLED HD; 4.99 inch 1080p (440 ppi)
Protection Corning Gorilla Glass 3 Corning Gorilla Glass 2 Corning Gorilla Glass 3
Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 (quad-core) 1.9 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 (quad-core) 1.7 GHz Samsung Exynos Octa (quad-core 1.6 GHz or quad-core 1.2 GHz); LTE Model has 1.9 GHz Snapdragon 600 processor
RAM 2 GB 2 GB 2 GB
Camera 4 UltraPixel; 2.1 MP front-facing 4 UltraPixel; 2.1 MP front-facing 13 MP; 2 MP
Operating System Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean Android 4.1.2 Jelly Bean Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean
Storage 16 GB with MicroSD card slot for up to 64 GB 32/64 GB no card slot 16/32/64 GB with card slot for up to 64 GB
Battery 3200 mAh 2300 mAh 2600 mAh
Connectivity HSPA 42 Mbps; no LTE version HSPA 42 Mbps; LTE Cat 3 100/50 Mbps HSPA 42 Mbps (model I9500); LTE separate version (I9505) with LTE cat 3 100/50 Mbps
Dimensions Height 144.5 mm Height 137.4 mm Height 136.6 mm
Width 70.5 mm Width 68.2 mm Width 69.8 mm
Depth 10.6 mm Depth 9.3 mm Depth 7.9 mm
Weight 160 g Weight 143 g Weight 130 g
Additional Features
  • HTC BoomSound
  • Beats Audio
  • HTC software technologies: BlinkFeed, Sense, Zoe, etc.
  • Dedicated Image chip for camera with Optical Image Stabilization technology
  • Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
    Bluetooth 4.0
  • NFC
  • Dropbox 25 GB free
 The same as Butterfly S
  • Samsung technologies: Dual shot, Group play, Smart Scroll, Smart Pause, Air View, Story Album, WatchON (TV remote), S Health, S Translator, etc.
  • Bluetooth 4.0
  • NFC
  • Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac
  • Dropbox 50 GB storage

 

As you can see, Butterfly S is a power-packed smartphone and is the most high-end device from HTC’s range. Although HTC’s flagship model is One, Butterfly S has slightly bigger screen than that. The only problem is that Butterfly S is not yet in the US, and there is no LTE version.

Apparently, Galaxy S4 zaps the competition easily. It has the best features of the three. However, there are a few aspects that Butterfly S excels over it—processor, display, build quality, and battery life.

Firstly, the processor. Snapdragon 600 is the fastest processor in the world of mobile devices. Samsung Galaxy S4’s Exynos Octa is definitely not as powerful as Snapdragon 600. Although Octa has eight cores, it is actually made of two four-core processors, and only four cores work at a time. When intensive tasks are being done, 1.6 GHz 4-core processor comes into play, while the other 1.2 GHz version works when there are no intensive tasks and the power needs to be saved. However, S4 has an LTE version which comes with the exact same processor on HTC One and Butterfly S. They hence provide identical performance.

On the build side, HTC Butterfly S has a slightly better build quality than Galaxy S4, although with plastic, doesn’t measure up to One.

All of those technologies that HTC has brought with One are there in Butterfly S too. HTC BoomSound, with front-facing speakers, which use Beats Audio enhancement technology, gives Butterfly S a better sound quality than Galaxy S4. There are also HTC Zoe, BlinkFeed, OIS on camera, etc., on Butterfly S.

The display is amazing. Butterfly S has the largest display of all HTC phones, and it comes with Full HD resolution. With much higher pixel density than Apple iPhone, it is sure to give extremely sharp images. You may remember in our early comparison of the best display, HTC Droid DNA (Butterfly J) was ranked number one. It is the same here. I would prefer SLCD 3 to Super AMOLED due to certain reasons outlined here. This makes Butterfly S’s display the best among the three.

In the battery department also, Butterfly is the king, leading with 3200 mAh battery, which delivers up to 25 hours of talk time on WCDMA as compared to 17 hours given by Galaxy S4.

Another advantage over HTC One is that this phone has a MicroSD expansion slot supporting up to 64 GB. This well compliments the puny 16 GB storage provided. Android takes up a chunk of that storage, remember.

What about the price? Well, that information is already available. The price given is in New Taiwan Dollar, NT $22,900, which roughly comes to  USD 760.

Conclusion

 

It definitely looks like HTC has made a wonderful device here. It is not known when this one will come to the US market and whether it will be the successor to Verizon’s Droid DNA. The device will be released to the Taiwanese market in July. We may be able to publish a more detailed review once the device hits the market. In the meanwhile, check out this device gallery, given by Engadget China.

Butterfly S in various colors

 

Butterfly S three colors

 

Back of HTC Butterfly S

 

Micro USB port

 

Butterfly S from the top

 

beautiful orange back of Butterfly S

 

phone from the side

 

The huge display of Butterfly S

 

HTC Butterfly S smartphone

Parts of the Upcoming Apple iPhone 5S: A Gallery

jamesg Leave a comment

Popular tech blog BGR has recently shared with us the images of certain parts of the upcoming iPhone 5S, the next iterative (probably not!) update to iPhone.

Since that day in 2007 when iPhone got a cult following, people like us in the tech world have been watching Cupertino from every corner. This is the result. Thirsty geeks always get leaked images through some means. While we don’t know the origin of these images, we have asked BGR about it. Let me show you these images.

1. Speaker Bracket

 

iPhone 5s Speaker bracket

 

5s Speaker Bracket

 

2. Wi-Fi Flex Cable Ribbon

 

iPhone 5S Wi-Fi Flex cable ribbon

 

3. iPhone 5S Vibration Motor

 

5s vibration motor

 

4. Sim trays

 

iphone 5S sim tray 1

 

iphone 5S sim tray 2

 

iphone 5S sim tray 3

 

In another recent development, iDownloadBlog shared what is supposed to be iPhone 5S assembly line images. Here they are.

Apple iPhone 5S in factory

 

iPhone 5S in factory

 

assembly line of iPhone 5S

 

assembly line images of iPhone 5S

 

Over the last few days, there have been quite a number of rumors regarding this upcoming smartphone. How great iPhone 5S will be, only time will tell. Since iPhone 5’s Maps debacle, the then chief of design, Scott Forstall had to resign from Apple. He used to be the head of development in iOS and close to the former chief, Steve Jobs. After his departure, the hardware design chief of Apple, Sir Jony Ive has been given reins of the software design as well.

Since Apple iPhone, the original, its design has been inspiring people all over the world. All those designs, also those of the iPad, iMac, iPod, and all other iDevices, came from Ive. Since he is heading iOS design also now, we will not only get to see a revamp in the hardware, but also in the software. iOS has long been regarded as stale and uninspiring after Android OEMs like HTC and Samsung have developed their own skinned OSes.

In Conclusion

 

We cannot expect to see the next iPhone any time soon, as it requires a lot of design and development in software side as well. Those assembly line images that cropped up may or may not belong to 5S. The World Wide Developers Conference of Apple (WWDC) is slated to start on June 10th. This is one event we need to look forward to. Also, in the WSJ All Things Digital’s D11 conference that kicked off yesterday, Apple CEO Tim Cook shared some information about the upcoming plans.

We will get to know only when the device comes to the market.