The iPhone 5c is essentially a repackaged iPhone 5 with a new plastic enclosure. The new device is available in five different colors -- green, yellow, blue, white, and pink.
The phone uses the same A6 processor and rear-facing camera as the iPhone 5, but does contain a few upgraded parts -- such as an improved front-facing FaceTime camera and support for more wireless LTE bands.
The new iPhone 5c starts at $99 (with 2 year contract) in the U.S. and is now available for order from Apple, AT&T, Verizon,Sprint and T-Mobile. Retail stores, such as Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Radio Shack and Target are also offering the iPhone 5c. Initial deliveries of the iPhone 5c will take place on September 20.
How to Buy
Apple launched the iPhone 5c in the US, Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the UK on September 20.
In the U.S., the iPhone 5c costs $99 for the 16GB model and $199 for the 32GB model with a 2-year contract. Non-contract, unlocked devices are available for $549/$649. Pricing for other individual countries should be on Apple'sonline store.
In-store sales kicked off on Friday, September 20, with early pre-orders also arriving on that day. Availability remains solid following the launch weekend, with nearly all models available for shipment from Apple's U.S. online store within 24 hours and the company's retail stores having solid stock of the various models. Customers may also select in-store pickup when placing an online order, with Apple's site listing model availability for each of its retail stores.
On Monday, September 23, Apple announced record-breaking launch weekend sales of nine million units combined for the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c.
UPGRADE ELIGIBILITY
Individual carriers have different rules on upgrade eligibility. In the U.S., customers typically sign 2 year contracts to get the best "subsidized" price. Apple offers an online tool to determine if you are indeed eligible to upgrade your iPhone with your carrier.
Engadget was impressed by the new design in their review of the iPhone 5c: "We're not going to lie. The iPhone 5c is gorgeous -- we'd even argue that it's the most beautiful iPhone since the 4 and 4s. It instantly makes the iPhone 5 and 5s look staid in comparison. Sure, we prefer materials like aluminum and glass over plastic, and we appreciate the intricate craftsmanship that goes into building the iPhone 5 and 5s, but still, we can't help it -- the 5c just triggers some reptilian part of our brains that screams, "OMG, color!" It brings a breath of fresh air to the iPhone lineup and will appeal to consumers at an emotional level. As such, we predict the 5c is going to be wildly popular this holiday season."
The sentiment amongst the other reviews have been the same. Despite being made of plastic, the iPhone 5c feels incredibly sturdy and retains a high quality feel. Otherwise, performance and battery life of the iPhone 5c is comparable to the iPhone 5.
With the introduction of the iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s, Apple has discontinued the iPhone 5, and kept the iPhone 4S as the entry level model -- free with contract -- iPhone. Apple maintains a comparison chartshowing the differences between the models.
In making a decision, much of it depends on how price sensitive a consumer you are, and how important your iPhone is to you in your day to day tasks. At this stage, it is hard for us to recommend the iPhone 4S to anyone more than a very casual and very price-sensitive customer. The 4S has the smaller 3.5" screen, and a slower processor -- it's already 2 year old technology, and will be 4 year old technology when your contract runs out.
The iPhone 5c is based on last year's technology, but with this new refresh, that technology remains far more current. The iPhone 5c also incorporates the same 4" screen as the iPhone 5s and should support all software for the foreseeable future. The $99 starting point makes it a reasonable choice if the iPhone 5s features don't call out to you.
The standout features of the iPhone 5s are the fingerprint scanner, faster speed and camera improvements. For serious smartphone users, these can be compelling features -- but for a $100 premium over the corresponding iPhone 5c model.
Last year's iPhone 5 was the best iPhone we'd ever seen. It met nearly all our wishes and expectations. It added tons of new features. It had LTE. What did Apple do this year as an encore? It added...a few new improvements. Enter the iPhone 5S, which along with the iPhone 5C mark the first time Apple's delivered two new iPhones in one year. But the 5C is really the iPhone 5 in colored plastic. There's really only one new iPhone, and that's the 5S.
We wanted a bigger screen, an improved camera, and better battery life. Apple gave us a fingerprint sensor, an improved camera, and a faster processor. Faster is better, especially when battery life doesn't suffer, but the 5S doesn't feel like a shocking new product.
Apple does this every other year with iPhones -- see the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4S. It's a common occurrence in iPads and MacBooks, too: take a familiar form, and repeat. But, in a phone landscape dominated by rapid change, it can feel frustrating, even for a product we loved just 12 months ago. Even iOS 7, Apple's graphically overhauled operating system, feels different but not really all that shocking. Even the new colors -- gold and "space gray" -- are subtler than you realize.
That doesn't mean there aren't changes, but many of them seem like roadwork for the future; a cleverly ingenious under-the-home-button fingerprint sensor, a clearly better camera, majorly upgraded graphics, a motion-tracking M7 coprocessor, and a new A7 processor capable of 64-bit computing are a lot of under-the-hood tweaks. But, after a week of using the iPhone 5S, it's hard to find situations that currently take advantage of these features, except for the fingerprint sensor and camera.
Check back in two months; after new apps emerge, maybe the iPhone 5S will start seeming like a truly new iPhone. But, for now, it's more of refined improvement. The iPhone 5 has gotten better. How much better depends on how fast apps and services can take advantage of the features...or whether we'll be waiting until iOS 8 to see them truly take shape.
Design: Take the iPhone 5, and add gold (or 'space gray') The iPhone 5 was a somewhat subtle but completely thorough redesign of the iPhone, from screen size to headphone placement. It introduced an aluminum frame, a thinner and lighter build, and came in two colors.
The 5S is a carbon copy, with some new color variations. You can get last year's white/silver color, or "space gray," which matches black glass and a darker gray anodized aluminum. And, yes, there's gold. But it's not like a prop from Liberace's home: it's mellow gold, more a champagne, or a light bronze. Paired with white glass on the back and front, you might have a hard time noticing the gold in the wild unless it was held in the sun. Of the three colors, I liked gray the best: the metal tones might do a better job hiding scratches, too, a problem I saw pop up on last year's all-black iPhone 5.
A year later, the iPhone 5's design still feels sleek and high-end in the 5S, great in the hand, and more compact than most competitor phones. But, it also has a smaller screen (4 inches) than most of its Android cousins. I love using a more compact phone, but competitors have found a way to make larger-screened 4.7-inch phones with excellent feel, like the Moto X, which has nearly edge-to-edge screen across its face. The iPhone 5S has a lot more bezel framing the display, and I couldn't help wondering if that screen couldn't be just a bit bigger.
A larger screen would have really helped this year: not because the competition has it, but because Apple's newest features and apps would put it to good use. I found editing and appreciating the improved photos and video recording, and even playing games, to be challenging; the better that graphics and camera quality get, the more you need a larger screen to appreciate them.
Configurations
There's no 128GB iPhone this year; you'll have to once again pick between 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB, at the same $199/$299/$399 prices. In the US, Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon are the three carriers to offer the iPhone 5S under contract; T-Mobile sells the iPhone 5S in an unlocked, contract-free version that costs $649 for 16GB, $749 for 32GB, and $849 for 64GB.
All versions come with the same A7 processor.
Touch ID: The party-trick tech on the 5S See that little home button down there? It doesn't have a square on it anymore. It's also flat and recessed, not concave. That's practically the only outward-facing indication the iPhone 5S offers to the world, but lurking under the button is the most interesting piece of iPhone tech in quite some time. Unfortunately, it doesn't do as much right now as I wish it could.
"Touch ID" is Apple's fingerprint sensor, a secret sauce of clever scanning technology that amounts to a home button that's now both capacitive and clickable. The fact it does both can be a little disorienting at first, but the clicking is what the home button normally does, while gently touching the sensor activates the fingerprint scan.
Touch ID's simple round button works on a simple press, versus a "swipe" gesture on a lot of previous fingerprint readers. The scanning technology, when it registers your fingerprint, encourages you to press from a variety of angles, so your fingerprint can be read even on its side or on an edge. It's fast: a simple click on the button and the phone unlocks, the scan happening invisibly. Most people won't even know it scanned them, but try another finger and you'll see that it worked.
The good:The iPhone 5S delivers an improved camera, a nifty fingerprint sensor, and a next-gen CPU and motion-tracking chip. Apple throws in the iWork app suite for free. iOS 7 adds some nice step-ups, too, including AirDrop file transfers and the Android-like Control Center.
The bad:External design is identical to that of the iPhone 5, including a 4-inch screen that looks downright tiny next to Android competitors. For now, the fingerprint sensor only works with Apple apps. The 64-bit A7 processor and M7 motion-tracking chip don't have killer apps yet. iOS 7 differences are potentially jarring for longtime iPhone users.
The bottom line:The iPhone 5S is not a required upgrade, but it's easily the fastest and most advanced Apple smartphone to date.
With the evasi0n iOS 6 jailbreak out and already on millions of devices it’s time to check out the best Cydia apps available for iOS 6.
The following Cydia apps will allow users to tweak, customize and do more with their jailbroken iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. All of these Cydia apps should work in on iOS 6 an iOS 6.1.
Most of these Cydia apps are aimed at the iPhone, and several are specifically designed for the iPhone 5, but we have a few great iPad cydia apps as well.
Unless noted, all of our best Cydia apps are available by searching Cydia without adding any extra repos.
Auxo – An Awesome Switcher
Auxo is one of the best Cydia apps available for iOS 6. Auxo replaces Apple’s tired old Switcher with one that shows a card for each open app for a nicer looking switcher. User can also end and app with a swipe down, or end multiple apps at once by swiping down with more than one finger.
Swipe left to right in Auxo for a larger easier to use music control app and again for access to quick settings and a screen brightness toggle like the iPad.
Auxo is compatible with iOS 5.1 through iOS 6.1 and is iPhone only. Auxo costs $1.99.
WinterBoard and ayecon Theme
Jailbreaking the iPhone or iPad is a great way to customize the look of the device, and Winterboard is the best Cydia app for giving your iOS device a new look.
WinterBoard is a free Cydia app that allows users to download and install themes that customize the look of the iPhone icons, status bar and much more.
Users can search for a number of great Winterboard themes for the iPhone and iPad, but ayecon is a standout theme that users should check out right off the bat. Ayecon, pronounced icon, is a $2.99 WinterBoard theme that includes over 120 new icons that automatically replace stock and third-party icons.
FullForce for iPhone
Most iPhone apps are updated to run on the iPhone 5′s larger screen, but not all of them are quite ready. Full Force for iPhone is a 99 cent Cydia app that forces older apps to use the full screen on the iPhone 5.
The app works on most apps without any issue, though occasionally an in-app ad may show up higher than it should. The biggest reason for installing this is to keep the iPhone 5′s keyboard from getting pushed up form the bottom of the screen.
f.lux
F.lux is one of the essential Cydia apps for users who use the iPhone or iPad at night or early in the morning. The app adjusts the temperature of the display to prevent the super-bright display from messing with your ability to fall sleep.
IntelliscreenX
IntelliscreenX is a lock screen Cydia app that puts the Notification Center, Facebook, Twitter, News and more on the lockscreen so it’s easy to see what’s going on without unlocking the iPhone.
IntelliscreenX is $9.99 for new users and a $4.99 upgrade for existing users. The app comes with a free trial.
LowPower Banner
If you hate those annoying low battery popups that interrupt whatever you are doing to tell you that battery life is at 20% or 10% left, grab the free LowPower Banner cydia app.
Ban big battery alerts with this free cydia app.
LowPower Banner lets users customize the actions and sounds when the phone is charging, and when battery power is low. Most importantly it makes the pop up alert for low battery life an unobtrusive banner.
Nitrous
Safari can load pages faster than other apps, but with the Nitrous Cydia app users of the iOS 6 jailbreak can speed up Chrome and browsers built into other apps like Alien Blue.
Th Nitrous Cydia app speeds up browsing.
Nitrous lets third-party browsers use the Nitro Javascript engine that is normally reserved just for Safari, speeding up browsing across the board. Nitrous is 99 cents in Cydia.
Springtomize
Springtomize is an app that lets user take control of many iPhone and iPad settings. The $3 Cydia app allows users to put more icons in the dock, create more rows of icons and perform other icon related tweaks.
Springtomize 2 delivers control of many iPhone tweaks.
Springtomize also allows users to put a custom carrier in the upper right corner, and much, much more. Check out Springtomize on the Cydia app store to see everything it can do.
Users who like the look of the BlackBerry 10 keyboard, with on key word suggestions and the ability to flick a word up to the text entry box, will like the Octopus Keyboard.
The Octopus Keyboard is like a BlackBerry 10 keyboard for the iPhone.
Octopus Keyboard is a $5 keyboard replacement that users will love or hate. The app takes some getting used to, so it would be nice if there was a trial, but at $5 it’s worth a shot for users who want a different typing experience on the iPhone.
Activator
Activator is a free Cydia app that allows users to set up gestures to take the place of button presses. The app is one of the first Cydia apps available and it remains a must have Cydia app.
Activator is a free Cydia app that brings more gesture control to the iOS 6.
In addition to the built-in functions, users can also download third-party Activator extensions to do even more.
BeeKeyboard
BeeKeyboard is a Cydia app that is best suited for the iPad or iPad mini as it allows users to set up custom Bluetooth keyboard gestures.
SBSettings or NC Settings
SBSettings and NCSettings are two Cydia apps that put quick controls in the Notification Center or with a swipe on the status bar.
NCSettings offers fast access to iPhone settings toggles.
Both of these apps offer fast access to toggles for Bluetooth, re-springing, brightness and more. SBSettings and NCSettings are free in the Cydia app store.
BiteSMS
BiteSMS is a message replacement Cydia app that offers a lot of added functionality to users who want to to quick reply to messages, auto-forward and other features.
Dashboard X
Dashboard X is a great Cydia app that lets users put widgets on the iPhone home screen, like Android users can. The app can let users widgets like NCSettings on the home screen and widgets to tweet or calendars.
MapsOpener
If you prefer to use Google Maps over Apple Maps, MapsOpener is a Cydia tweak that will force the iPhone to open map links in Google Maps automatically.
Plugication is a nice small Cydia tweak that automatically starts playing your music when you plug your headphones in. This is handy for users who rely on the iPhone or iPad for music and audio books, and a great way to get your music started back up when plugging into an AUX in a car. Plugication is free.
Zephyr
Jailbreak users looking for more gesture control can install Zephyr to control the iPhone with multitasking gestures like those found on the iPad.
For example, users can swipe up to reveal the switcher and swipe from the side to switch apps. Zephyr is $4.99 on the Cydia app store.
Quasar
Quasar is a window manager for the iPad that allows users to use multiple apps at once, kind of like the Galaxy Note 2, but with more flexibility. Users can open apps in windows side by side as shown in the video below.
TetherMe
TetherMe is a Cydia app that promises free tethering for iPhone users without paying their carriers’ monthly fees. The App claims to hide tethering activity, but it is likely against your terms of service so use it at your own risk.
TetherMe uses the same Personal Hotspot feature that is built into the iPhone for WiFi, Bluetooth and USB tethering. TetherMe is $4.99 in the Cydia app store.
3G Unrestrictor
3G Unrestrictor is a Cydia app that removes the limits Apple puts on downloads, letting users download large apps, HD movies and more while on 3G and 4G LTE.
3G Unrestrictor is $3.99 in the Cydia app store. Users should be cautious of going over their mobile data plan limits.
iBlackList
Do you constantly get phone calls from an ex or from a debt collector? If so iBlackList is a great Cydia app to install. After installing iBlackList, the iPhone will block calls, iMessages, texts, photo messages and FaceTime calls from unwanted people and companies.
iBlackList blocks calls, texts and more on the iPhone.
iBlackList is a available as a free trial with a $12 purchase option.
Retro Gaming Emulators
Nintendo won’t likely ever bring old gaming classics like Mario to the iPhone, but with a jailbreak and the right Cydia apps it’s possible to play NES and Super NES games on the iPhone with an emulator. Users can also pair a controller for a better experience.
Password Pilot
Password Pilot and Password Pilot Pro are Cydia apps that remove the need to enter your iTunes App Store password when you buy an app or upgrade in iTunes.
This is not recommended if you share your iPhone with others, or don’t use a PassCode as anyone who has your phone will be able to make purchases. Password Pilot is Free, Password Pilot Pro includes more options and is $1.9 in Cydia.
