iPad & iPhone User Issue 87 - 2014 UK.pdf
Transcript of iPad & iPhone User Issue 87 - 2014 UK.pdf
ISSUE 87
BEST 3G/4G
Become an iPhone app developer today!
for iPhone & iPad
Everything iPhone 6:what you need to know about thenext iPhone
The fastest, most reliable network for your iPhone revealed
2 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
Like driving a Ferrari with the breaks on.
That’s how it can feel if you pair a slow
network connection with a slick, futuristic
piece of tech such as an iPhone or iPad. It doesn’t
matter how fast your phone or tablet if the internet
connection on which it relies is slow, slow, slow.
The trouble is that a great network connection
in one area can be a slow dog in another. The
networks themselves all publish coverage maps
based on their own data that are at best optimistic.
So how do you know which is the best network
for your iPhone or iPad? By buying iPad & iPhone
User, of course. We took to the road to test mobile
broadband under real-world conditions over the
length of the UK. We travelled from London to
Edinburgh to discover which 3G and 4G networks
are best for speed, best for reliability.
So the next time you’re looking for a network
contract, be sure to heed our words and take the
breaks off your Ferrari.
Elsewhere, we have reviews of the latest beta
of iOS 8 – the next mobile OS for your smartphone
or tablet. We’ve also got advice for the budding app
designers out there. These days anyone can be an
app coder, you don’t need any experience of design
or software coding. We show you how in this issue.
All that an our usual heady mix of iPhone and iPad
reviews, feature and tutorials. We really hope you
enjoy this edition of iPad & iPhone User.
Welcome...
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We look at beta 4 of Apple’s mobile operating system
Welcome to iPad & iPhone User’s iOS 8
hands-on review, where we’ll be reporting
on our experiences with the latest beta
version of iOS 8. (The fi nal public version of iOS 8
is likely to be slightly diff erent, but rest assured that
we’ll post a detailed review of that as soon as we get
our hands on it.) Following iOS 8’s offi cial unveiling
at WWDC 2014, we’ll look in depth at the host of
brilliant new features, design and interface changes
and new possibilities opened to app developers.
We also consider whether you should upgrade to
iOS 8 on your iPad or iPhone, and detail when iOS 8
iOS 8 beta
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will launch to the public and how you can upgrade
to iOS 8 before then, which iPads and iPhones it will
run on, and other important iOS 8 facts.
Will my iPad or iPhone be able to run iOS 8?
To sum it up: the iPhone 4s and later, the iPad 2 and
later, both iPad minis and the iPod touch 5G will all
be able to run iOS 8. Plus, of course, any new iOS
devices launched in the rest of 2014 – presumably
the iPhone 6, and potentially the iPad 6, iPad Pro
(assuming it doesn’t run Mac OS X instead – that’s
one of the rumours) and iPad mini 3 if and when
these devices are launched.
When will iOS 8 launch?
iOS 8 was offi cially unveiled/previewed to the public
at WWDC, Apple’s annual developer conference, in
June. We got to see what iOS
8 looks like, how the design
has been tweaked from iOS
7 and what new features we
can look forward to in the
new version of iOS. When can
civilians get their
hands on iOS 8?
Initially it will
be restricted to
a beta testing
programme, which
app developers
(or those willing to
claim they are app
developers) can
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pay to sign up to. These betas will be unfi nished
versions of iOS 8 that are likely to contain fl aws,
glitches and design elements that are later changed,
but joining the beta means you can get a good idea
of iOS 8’s broad design ideas and main features
before committing to the fi nal version.
Expect iOS 8 proper to be rolled out to the
public around September or October – most likely
alongside the iPhone 6.
Visual design and interface
After a succession of operating systems that looked
roughly the same, iOS 7 was a stark departure:
brighter, lighter, less skeuomorphic and far more
modern than iOS 6. As we expected, Apple hasn’t
done anything as radical as this for iOS 8.
iOS 8’s broad aesthetic cues are as far as we can
tell almost exactly the same as iOS 7, with the same
clean, minimal icons, and transparency eff ects in
place of iOS 6’s skeuomorphic design elements. It
retains the bold (but very slightly toned down) colour
palette of later iterations of iOS 7, which saw the
bright green of iOS 7.0 darkened a touch.
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iOS 8’s interface is largely the same as iOS 7’s too.
But there are a few changes. Take the app-switching
interface. As well as your open apps, this now shows
circular thumbnails of recently ‘used’ contacts. Tap
one of these and iOS 8 off ers icons that let you ring,
FaceTime or text that person, depending on what
contact details you have available.
However, most of the changes to iOS’s interface
are designed to cope with new features, which we
will look at next.
New features
iOS 8 has a host of brilliant new features, which we’ll
look at one by one in the following section. But it’s
worth remarking before we start on one interesting
aspect to Apple’s presentation: a lot of emphasis
was given to developer-specifi c, highly techie parts
of iOS 8, and the new openness Apple is allowing
in the things that app developers can do within iOS
8. So we’ll divide this into two parts: innate features
that iOS 8 itself can do, and developer features that
will allow apps to do new things.
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Messages
Messages – which Apple software head Craig
Federighi pointed out is the most used app in iOS
– gets lots of handy tweaks.
Group messages are organised far more
conveniently. You can use iOS’s Do Not Disturb
mode on a per-thread basis, such as situations when
a group message thread has got out of hand and
your device keeps buzzing with notifi cations of new
messages. Or, in a more drastic measure, you can
leave a group message thread at any point. If lots of
people in the thread have been posting images or
videos, you don’t need to worry about keeping track
of them all, because Messages organises all the
attachments in a Messages thread at the bottom of
the thread. Finally, you can share your location with
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other members of a thread indefi nitely or for various
limited periods of time.
You can send voice and video messages that
self-destruct (to save memory) after a certain period
of time unless you choose to save them.
Brilliantly, voice messages sent via Messages
appear in the lock screen with a waveform graphic,
and you can listen to the message in question by
simply lifting the iPhone to your ear – iOS detect the
motion and interprets the gesture automatically (as
usual, we look forward to testing this out and seeing
how accurate it really is). You can then reply, again
without pressing any on-screen controls; speak your
reply, then lower the phone and the message is sent.
The Mail app has been updated with gesture
support and a wide range of small but convenient
tweaks and new features.
You can use gestures to delete, fl ag or ‘unread’
messages, swiping across a message to perform the
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chosen action: it’s a single swipe to mark as unread,
fl ick across and tap to fl ag, or drag all the way across
to delete. We’ve seen gesture support like this in
third-party apps but it’s nice to see Apple taking
developments on board.
In a form of in-app multitasking, you can fl ick a
message down to the bottom of the screen, check
or copy material from another message, and then
return to it with a single click. From the demo, it
appeared to be roughly the same as minimising a
window on a desktop OS – highly convenient.
And Federighi showcased the ability of Mail to
recognise an invitation in a marketing email as an
event, and off er to add it to Calendar.
Last of all, a new feature called MailDrop allows
emailed attachments to be stored in the cloud
rather than sent directly with the message, so that
the recipient can read the rest of the message (and
download the attachment separately) even if a full
server would previously have caused a bounceback.
Interactive notifi cations
As you’ll have noticed when we replied to a voice
message from the lock screen, iOS 8 lets you
accomplish far more without leaving the app you’re
in, thanks to more responsive notifi cations.
Facebook, Messages or Twitter notifi cations
pop down into your screen and can be responded
to there and then – you get the option to reply or
Like, accept or decline Calendar invitations and so
on, all from the lock screen or Notifi cation Centre.
Alternatively, notifi cations can be fl icked away.
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Continuity
This could be the biggest attention-grabber of all,
and aff ects Mac OS X Yosemite as well. It’s a very
cool concept.
Continuity is the name Apple is giving to
enhanced compatibility between its new desktop
and mobile platforms, enabling you to for instance
answer iPhone calls on your Mac (a notifi cation will
appear even if your iPhone is downstairs charging),
or continue a message started on iPad on Mac or
vice versa. If you’re composing an email on your
phone and walk up to your Mac, Mail on the Dock
in Mac OS X will prompt you that you’re composing
a message; you can click it to carry on writing the
email on your Mac.
Finally – and much requested – iOS 8’s
Continuity allows you to AirDrop between your
mobile device and the Mac.
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QuickType predictive typing
iOS 8 off ers a major step forward on the keyboards
front. QuickType is a form of predictive typing that
looks far more ambitious than the modest auto-
correct-level predictions in previous versions. We’re
not just talking about completing words you’ve
nearly fi nished typing – in Messages, Mail and
similar contexts, iOS 8 will off er entire words that it
suspects you may wish to use based on context, in
a little palette above the keyboard.
For example, if you type a message to a friend
suggesting dinner, predictive typing might add “and
a movie”. Eerie, no? And naturally this cries out for
exhaustive testing.
Our testing suggests that QuickType is a potential
timesaver that will improve as both the service and
the user learn more about the other. On occasion
we found ourselves able to type out an entire
sentence with single clicks because QuickType was
in a particularly astute mood, but in others it was
eff ectively auto-complete with good PR.
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Furthermore, Apple says iOS 8 will be able to
learn the words you typically use and understand
the context in which you’re typing, such as a
business or personal communication – messages
it sense are intended for business use would see
more formal suggestions.
This sounds amazing, but we didn’t notice a
particularly nuanced grasp of context – although
this may be something else that improves with time.
The best we could say is that QuickType appeared
to sense diff erences in tone on a per-app basis: in
other words, it tended to off er more casual words in
Messages, and was more formal in Mail.
We’d got the impression from the keynote that
it would be more subtle than this (detecting lexical
tendencies relating to specifi c people and specifi c
conversations, for instance), but more testing will be
needed before we can comment on that.
In order to safeguard privacy, all the information
QuickType acquires about your writing style will stay
on the device, Federighi insisted.
Safari
Here’s a small but attractive change to the Safari
interface: on iPad, you can get a ‘bird’s eye view’ of
all the tabs you’ve got open. And the sidebar from
Mavericks is now present in Safari on iOS.
Apple didn’t announce it during the event, but
Safari users will be able to use DuckDuckGo – highly
privacy-focused search engine – as the default
search. This was one of several subtle shots at
Google – whose business model is built around
gathering large volumes of user data – that Apple
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took during the night. In a further nod to privacy
fans, Safari on iOS 8 will enable Private Browsing
on a per-tab basis.
The main changes in the way you use Safari,
however, are likely to be seen in the developer
changes we’ll discuss later – the ability for third-
party apps to share data with Safari and be added to
the sharing pane, for instance. (The examples given
were a Pinterest ‘pinning’ feature and an in-Safari
translator by Bing. Neither of these are innate to
Safari, but third-party apps will be able to create
new optional features that you can import.)
Camera
Apple didn’t discuss this on stage, but there are
some nice updates for the Camera app.
If you tap the screen to focus on a point in the
frame, a slider appears underneath that allows you
to adjust the exposure compensation on the fl y. The
implementation is a bit odd – it seems more eff ective
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to swipe across the entire screen, when the intuitive
thing would be to move the slider itself – but it’s a
handy extra feature.
Other updates include:
Time-lapse video: Probably the most imagination-
catching of the Camera updates; it’s a surprise this
didn’t get a mention on stage. iOS 8 introduces a
new Time-lapse video mode, whereby the Camera
app will take photos at dynamic intervals to create a,
well, time-lapse video.
Camera timer: Odd this hasn’t been included
before, really. iOS 8 will feature a camera timer.
Burst and Panorama modes get more inclusive:
In iOS 8, graphics optimisations will give users of
older iPhones access to the quicker burst mode
previously only available to the iPhone 5s (other
phones used to get a slower version of this, which
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only snapped images once every half-second or so).
And the iPad gets access to Panorama photos.
Separate focus and exposure controls: You
will soon be able to independently control the
focus and exposure of a scene in iOS 8. There are
several ways the Camera app could implement this,
including tap-to-focus with an exposure slider or two
separate tap-to-focus reticles.
iCloud Drive
This is a sort of Dropbox-esque cloud storage
service with seemingly wide cross-platform,
cross-app compatibility. If you’re in an app like
Sketchbook, for instance, you can bring up the
iCloud Drive pane, and access the fi les there.
Any edits you make are saved back to the
original location. You’ll have access to all of those
documents on your Mac and Windows as well.
There are implications for the Photos apps, too,
which we’ll come to in a bit.
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Health
Health is a new app that brings together a variety
of health and fi tness-related metrics – collated
from fi tness bands and various third-party devices
– that you can monitor easily in a single interface.
Some analysts expected new hardware to
accompany Apple’s health-related software updates
– maybe even a health-monitoring iWatch. Instead,
these features will work with a range of third-party
fi tness bands and health accessories. (Nike and
Withings products were displayed as examples.)
Naturally, that doesn’t rule out some kind of wearable
or health-monitoring accessory in the future.
Related to this, Apple also announced HealthKit,
which will enable third parties to build their own
compatible software. Given the many diff erences
between the healthcare systems in Britain and
the US (not least the corporate spending power
it commands in America), it’s debatable how
much we’ll see the examples shown last night
– a healthcare monitoring system from a private
fi rm called Mayo Clinic – replicated over here, but
it all looks well designed.
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Family Sharing
Family Sharing is a lovely idea, that sounds like it will
be both safe and convenient. You set up as a family
(informing iOS of the various members of your family
and their devices) and it will automatically confi gure
photo sharing, location tracking and the free sharing
of digital media across up to six family members
(they need to share a credit card). It looks simple,
although of course we’ll have to reserve judgement
until we’ve wrestled with the feature ourselves.
In a nice response to some controversies with
high-spending toddlers lately, Family Sharing
includes a parental lock feature for app downloads:
when your kids try to buy an app, they have to get
permission (and a permission request automatically
appears on your device). Federighi didn’t specify
whether this would apply to in-app purchases, but
we would assume so, since that tended to be the
cause of the worst spending sprees.
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Photos
Photos is where iCloud Drive comes into its own.
Photos shot on any iOS device are automatically
saved in the cloud and accessible on all of your
other iOS devices.
To cope with the enormous volumes of photos
this is likely to create on each of your devices, Apple
is talking up the enhanced smart search features
in iOS 8 Photos. Search terms are returned as
locations, times and album names.
You can edit photos within the app (using auto
straightening and cropping, for instance, and smart
editing based on ‘intelligent image analysis’) and the
edits are transferred across to other iOS devices,
pretty much instantly.
All of this worked seamlessly in the demo,
needless to say. Will our mileage vary? We’re also a
little concerned about the free allocation of space
provided with iCloud, which may get used up
quickly. Whether users will be willing to pay for more
storage is debatable – although the pricing schemes
announced tonight do seem quite reasonable.
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Siri
Another new feature we expected
was Shazam, and sure enough, it’s
integrated into Siri: Siri can recognise
songs that are playing nearby, and
then lets you buy them from iTunes.
But that’s not the only upgrade for
Siri in iOS 8.
Car-bound Siri users can now fi re
it up by saying “Hey Siri!” No need
to tap the controls. (Presumably this
means the device is always listening
out for commands? Will this impact
battery life?) And there’s ‘streaming
voice recognition’, which simply
means Siri displays what you’re
saying (or what it thinks you’re
saying) while you’re saying it. If
nothing else, this will be a godsend
for those moments where you say a long question
and then see Siri had absolutely no idea what you
were saying. Last of all, there are 22 new languages
accepted for Siri voice recognition, and 24 new
dictation languages.
Weather
One last – and relatively minor – change relates to
the Weather app. Apple’s weather data was formerly
proved by Yahoo; now, it’s from The Weather Channel.
We looked at the two forecasts on iOS 7 and iOS
8 at the same moment, and it was pretty much the
same – just the odd degree in a few days’ time, and a
diff erence of a minute on that day’s sunset.
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New features for developers
This might not seem relevant to the average iPhone
or iPad user, but the developer-centric updates in
iOS 8 are likely to result in some very interesting
new apps and app features. Its new willingness to
allow app developers more freedom in modifying the
user experience and (with permission) aff ecting the
behaviour of other apps is a new direction for Apple.
A lot of the most intriguing stuff in iOS 8 isn’t
about the features Apple is providing, but the
opportunities it’s creating for third-party app
developers. Widgets, Extensibility, Touch ID API,
keyboards, home-automation APIs – we’ll only
grasp the signifi cance of all this once the developer
community has got its claws into the new kits.
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 21
App Store improvements
First up, Apple announced some changes that will
make it easier for developers to sell their wares
on its store. App bundles are now allowed: if
developers and publishers allow it, you’ll be able
to bundles of multiple apps with a single click (and
presumably a discounted price).
As well as screenshots, devs will be able to post
preview videos on the App Store. And the apps
should be easier to fi nd: Apple says its new Explore
search facility is far better at showing the apps you
want. (Spotlight also now suggests purchasable apps
that fi t your search criteria when you search within
iOS itself, which may lead to a few extra sales.)
Finally, you’ll be able to join beta tests of new
apps using Apple’s TestFlight beta test service.
Extensibility and widgets
Apps can now ‘talk to each other’, sharing
data and modifying each other’s behaviour
in small ways, although Apple was keen to
stress the security measures designed to
safeguard this process – any data transferred
will move via iOS’s own security.
This means, for example, that Pinterest
can share its data with Safari and allow the
user to add a Pinterest entry to the Safari
sharing pane. Or Safari could gain a Bing
translate feature, as seen below. (Interesting
for Apple to be pushing Bing, isn’t it? One in
the eye for Google.)
But doesn’t that sound a bit like... widgets?
Yes! iOS 8 fi nally gets widgets.
22 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
You can download widgets from apps and
customise their position on the Notifi cations screen.
The example Craig Federighi gave was a (rather
brilliant) eBay widget that lets you observe the
progress of your auctions, and make a bid from
the Notifi cations Centre itself. (In general, the
Notifi cation Centre has been empowered to make
far more actions without resorting to the individual
apps’ own interfaces.)
Third-party keyboards
On a related theme, but worth its own entry because
of its signifi cance, iOS 8 is open to system-wide
third-party keyboards. This is huge, and tackles one
of the biggest complaints we had about iOS in the
past – its infl exible and backward-
looking keyboard.
With this change, you’ll be able
to download a Swype-style swiping
keyboard and use it throughout iOS
8. This small, simple feature – Swype
lets you type by moving your fi nger
smoothly across the letters you want
without leaving the screen – is the
single element in Android that we
used to be most envious of.
Between this and QuickType, iOS
8 now has state-of-the-art typing
options. Assuming QuickType is
as good as it looks, typing will be
great out of the box, with a range of
system-wide upgrades available for
power users.
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 23
Third-party Touch ID
Touch ID, the fi ngerprint scanner off ered on the
iPhone 5s (and presumably on further iOS devices
yet to be launched) is now being opened up to
third parties too. So instead of being confi ned to
unlocking your device and a few key preinstalled
apps, you can use your fi ngerprint to log into
banking apps, make secure payments and so on.
As with most of these new developer tools, it
remains to be seen how this will actually aff ect the
user. But we’d be surprised if we don’t see extensive
use of the Touch ID API in third-party apps, because
of its great security and convenience.
Home automation & HomeKit API
The last of the features we predicted, under the
speculative heading of ‘iHome’. Instead it’s known as
the HomeKit API, which will let
devs build home-automation
apps to work with iOS.
One example given was
the ability to say “Get ready
for bed!” to Siri, causing the
system to check that all doors
are locked and lights are
dimmed, but the possibilities
are endless.
Bitcoin and other
virtual currencies
A small one, this, but a change
to the App Store guidelines
may allow virtual currencies
24 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
to be transferred and accepted. The relevant clause
in the “Purchasing and Currencies” section reads
as follows: “Apps may facilitate transmission of
approved virtual currencies provided that they do so
in compliance with all state and federal laws for the
territories in which the app functions.”
Metal graphics system
We’re really getting into developer tech now, but
the nutshell summary of the new Metal graphics
system is quite appealing: more effi cient rendering
of detailed 3D graphics. Obviously we look forward
to testing the fruits of Metal thoroughly and seeing
for ourselves how eff ective it is.
Tim Sweeney, the boss of Infi nity Blade developer
Epic Games, was brought on stage to demonstrate
a new Zen Garden game built with the Metal
technology. He described the new possibilities as
“an order of magnitude increase of detail” – with
10,000 petals at one point being simulated, and
3,500 individually animated butterfl ies.
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 25
You’ll soon be able to see for yourselves how
impressive this all is, because the Zen Garden demo
app will be made available for free on the App Store
in due course. But the real test of the technology
will come in the quality of commercial gaming apps
launched in the next few years.
Swift programming language
Last of all (and exciting the developers in the
audience very much), Apple announced a new
programming language for both iOS and Mac
software, called Swift. After reporting Apple’s (by
this point quite openly technical) announcement
that Swift features “closures, generics, namespaces,
multiple return types and type inference”, our
US colleague Dan Moren pointed out that “the
biggest cheer at this event, you heard it, came at
‘namespaces’.”
Swift is something we’ll be hearing a lot more
about in the future. For now, take a look at our article
Apple unveils Swift, a new programming language
for iOS, Mac for more details.
26 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
How do I upgrade to iOS 8?
Upgrading is easy – once the update is rolled out
to the public. You simply go into the Settings app,
General, then Software Update, and if there’s a new
version of iOS, you can download and install it from
this screen. It will be a free upgrade.
(Bear in mind that in theory you will only be able
to upgrade to the absolute latest version of iOS at
the time of upgrading. If iOS 8.1 has come out by
the time you upgrade, for instance, you’ll be able to
get that one, not iOS 8.0. But occasionally iOS users
have found themselves forced to upgrade via an
intervening version. That’s not supposed to happen,
but doesn’t seem to cause any long-term problems.)
Will I be able to downgrade
from iOS 8 to iOS 7 (or iOS 6)?
Based on past behaviour, probably not – so beware.
iPhone and iPad owners who signed up to the iOS
7 beta, and therefore got access to the operating
system before it offi cially launched, could go back to
iOS 6 if they didn’t like it. This downgrading process
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 27
was relatively simple. Now, it’s possible that Apple
will run things diff erently with iOS 8. We hope so; it
would be nice if Apple let members of the public try
iOS 8 and then go back if it wasn’t for them. But this
would be a surprise.
How should I prepare for the iOS 8 launch?
Before you upgrade, it’s a good idea to save your
handset’s SHSH blob. This is a cryptographic key – a
small bit of saved data – that Apple uses to control
the version of iOS you can install on your iPhone or
other iOS device. Each one is uniquely generated for
a specifi c device, so you can’t use someone else’s.
Jailbreakers commonly save these blobs locally so
that in future they can trick iTunes into restoring their
devices to an earlier version of iOS. For more on
SHSH blobs read our article at tinyurl.com/qhtn335.
Ultimately the best plan for the iOS 8 launch is
to frequently check tech sites you trust, such as
Macworld for details of new features and design
changes from iOS 7, and then if possible (and if
one of your friends takes the plunge) try the new
software on a friend’s device. Make your mind up
as far as possible, then upgrade.
iPad & iPhone User’s verdict
The fourth beta of iOS 8 has a host of small but
convenient tweaks (particularly in Messages, Mail
and Photos, but throughout the system), and opens
up new possibilities for app developers to get
creative. Widgets are a big addition, third-party
keyboards are a huge addition, and we can’t wait to
see what games developers do with Metal.
28 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
What can we expect from Apple’s next fl agship model
The iPhone 5s is rapidly approaching its fi rst
birthday, after being launched by Apple
in September 2013. That means Apple is
preparing to launch its next iPhone, presumably
called the iPhone 6. But what will the diff erence
between the iPhone 5s and 6 be? We investigate the
rumoured new features to help give you an idea of
what to expect.
Screen size
First things fi rst let’s talk about screen size. Expect
bigger from the iPhone 6, that’s for sure.
iPhone 5s vs iPhone 6
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 29
The 5s has a 4in display, which for a fl agship
smartphone in 2014 is actually pretty tiny. Even
mini versions of fl agship phones from Samsung, LG
and HTC have displays bigger than 4in. It’s widely
expected that the iPhone 6 will have a 4.7in display.
There’s also talk of a second new iPhone coming
this year, this one dubbed iPhone Air with a 5.5in
display. The screen of the 6 could also be higher
resolution than the 5s. The 5s has a 326ppi display,
but it’s possible that the 6’s display could have a
pixel density of up to 538ppi like the LG G3.
Design
Not only is the iPhone 6 expected to have a bigger
screen, it’s also expected to have a signifi cantly
diff erent design to the iPhone 5s. The 5s has straight
edges, but it looks like the iPhone 6’s edges will be
rounded, a bit like the iPad Air and iPod touch. It’s
also expected to be thinner than the iPhone 5s’s
7.6mm. Apple could achieve this thinner and lighter
30 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
design through the use of super-durable sapphire
glass for the display, combined with lightweight and
strong Liquidmetal, which Apple has exclusive rights
to use. This means that, not only will the iPhone 6
be lighter and thinner than the iPhone 5s, it should
also be less likely to scratch, crack or shatter.
Several allegedly leaked photographs of the
iPhone 6’s back seem to suggest that it will have an
illuminated Apple logo on the back. The iPhone 5s’s
Apple logo is made of metal. It’s thought that the
iPhone 6’s power button might be on the side of the
device instead of on the top like it is in the 5s.
Features and specifi cations
In addition to the changes we can expect to see on
the outside of the iPhone 6, you can also expect
signifi cantly improved internal specs. The iPhone 5s
has a powerful A7 processor, so we’re expecting an
even better A8 processor in the iPhone 6. There’s
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 31
an M7 coprocessor in the iPhone 5s that’s expected
to carry across to the iPhone 6, and both iPhones
will share the Touch ID fi ngerprint sensor. We’ve
heard rumours about a bigger and better battery in
the iPhone 6, but some of that extra power could be
used up by the iPhone 6’s bigger display.
Other additions that we could see in the iPhone
6 include wireless charging, an NFC chip, 802.11ac
Wi-Fi and a new 128GB option, none of which are
available in the iPhone 5s.
Camera
The camera in the iPhone 6 is likely to represent a
signifi cant improvement over the iPhone 5s. The
iPhone 5s has an 8Mp camera with an f/2.2 aperture,
but rumour has it that Apple is planning on boosting
that to a 10Mp camera with an f/1.8 aperture and an
improved fi lter. Image stabilisation and other image
editing enhancements are expected, too.
Price and availability
The iPhone 5s is available to buy from Apple
now, with a starting price of £549. The iPhone 6 is
expected to become available in September, and
will probably have a similar starting price.
32 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
How do the two compact tablets measure up?
Samsung has unveiled its Galaxy Tab S
8.4, a compact Android 4.4 KitKat tablet
with an 8.4in screen. Here we compare
the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 and key rival the
Apple iPad mini 2 (aka Apple iPad mini with Retina
display) to fi nd out whether Apple or Samsung
makes the best compact tablet.
Price and UK availability
Apple’s iPad mini 2 is already on sale in the UK,
priced from £319 for the base model with 16GB
of storage to £659 for the 128GB model with 4G
connectivity.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 vs iPad mini 2
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 33
Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S 8.4 will go on
sale in the UK on 4 July, matching the
iPad mini at £319 with 16GB of storage,
or £419 with 4G LTE connectivity. A
32GB model will also be available. Full
details are available in our Samsung
Galaxy Tab S 8.4 release date, UK price
and specs article. Also check out its
bigger brother in our Samsung Galaxy
Tab S 10.5 hands-on review.
When the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4
was fi rst announced we were surprised
to learn it was to be more expensive
than the iPad mini. Yes, more expensive
versions of the iPad mini 2 are available,
but at their comparable points – 16GB
with and without 4G connectivity – the iPad was to
come in £30 cheaper. But as we said at the time:
“Whereas the iPad mini will retain its price until the
next version is unveiled by Apple, Samsung’s Galaxy
Tab S 8.4 will quickly fall in price – even by its 4 July
launch it could well be available at a lower price
than the iPad mini.” Indeed, a week before its 4 July
launch Samsung has matched Apple’s pricing.
Design and build
Apple’s iPad mini 2 is available in Space Grey and
Silver, while the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.4 will
come in Titanium Bronze and Dazzling White.
Despite featuring a larger 8.4in screen, Samsung’s
Galaxy Tab S 8.4 is the more compact tablet, both
thinner and lighter than the 7.9in-screen iPad mini 2.
It’s just 6.6mm thick and 294g (298g with 4G) to the
34 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
iPad’s 7.5mm and 331g. The iPad mini 2 is also wider,
at 134.7mm versus the Tab’s 125.6mm, but the Galaxy
tablet is taller, at 212.8mm versus the iPad’s 200mm.
Display
Apple is well known for the quality of its amazing
Retina displays, the idea behind which is that they
are suffi ciently high-res that the human eye is unable
to distinguish between individual pixels and there is
no need to go any higher. Actually, LG proved at its
recent LG G3 launch that we can tell the diff erence,
and its Quad HD screen is more true to life than
anything we’ve seen from Apple.
But back to Apple and Samsung. Apple has fi tted
its iPad mini 2 with a 7.9in IPS multitouch panel with
2048x1536 pixels, which equates to a pixel density
of 326ppi. Samsung instead plumps for a Super
AMOLED panel in its Galaxy Tab, but it’s both larger
and higher in resolution: 8.4in, 2560x1600, 359ppi.
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 35
Processor and memory
It’s diffi cult to compare the performance of the
Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 and Apple iPad mini with
Retina display without getting them into our lab and
running some benchmarks, particularly given the fact
the two are running diff erent operating systems.
Whereas the iPad mini 2 is fi tted with the 1.3GHz
Apple A7 chip, the same 64-bit chip with motion
co-processor featured in the iPhone 5s and Apple
iPad Air, Samsung has fi tted its own Eynos Octa-core
chip, which pairs four 1.9GHz cores with four 1.3GHz
cores. Samsung also supplies 3GB of memory to the
iPad mini’s 1GB. Note that this does not necessarily
mean the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 will be faster –
software plays a huge part in performance.
Storage
Apple might win on the storage
front in terms of how much usable
storage is available out of the box,
but Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S 8.4
features a microSDXC slot that
lets you add cards up to 128GB
in capacity. And we’re pretty sure
it won’t cost you £240 to buy a
128GB memory card, which is the
price diff erence between Apple’s
16- and 128GB iPad minis.
Connectivity
Both iPad mini 2 and Samsung
Galaxy Tab S 8.4 feature
Bluetooth 4.0, 802.11a/b/g/n/ac
36 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
Wi-Fi with MIMO and GPS, and
are available in versions with 4G
LTE connectivity. The Samsung
also supports IR and Wi-Fi Direct
but, more importantly, uses the
industry-standard Micro-USB port
for charging or connecting to a
PC; Apple uses its proprietary
Lightning port. Plus, the Galaxy
Tab S has a fi ngerprint scanner.
Cameras
The Samsung Galaxy Tab’s
cameras off er more megapixels
both front and back, although
we’re unlikely to make use of
either tablet’s 5- (Apple) and 8Mp
(Samsung) rear cameras. Even if they
do both support full-HD video recording at 30fps,
and the Galaxy Tab benefi ts from an LED fl ash. Let’s
face it, we’d look pretty stupid.
More likely is we might want to use the front-
facing camera for video chat – probably Skype
on the Tab, and both that and FaceTime on the
iPad. Here the Samsung’s camera is slightly better
on paper, at 2.1Mp versus the iPad’s 1.2Mp iSight
camera. Of course, neither will take mind-blowing
photos, and both will do the job.
Software
Right now the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 runs
Android 4.4 KitKat and the iPad mini 2 runs iOS 7.
Both will be upgraded when the next versions of
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 37
each platform are released – Android possibly later
this month at Google I/O, and iOS 8 is expected in
September.
The software each tablet runs is likely to be the
most important factor in which device you choose to
buy, so it makes no sense to brush over it here. Read
more about Android KitKat, and what you can expect
from Android Lollipop (or whatever it ends up being
called), iOS 7 and the forthcoming iOS 8.
Battery life
We can’t properly measure battery life until we
have the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 8.4 in our lab. All
we know is that it’s fi tted with a 4,900mAh battery.
Meanwhile, Apple claims that its iPad mini 2 will last
10 hours of web browsing.
iPad & iPhone User’s verdict
It’s diffi cult to decide which tablet is best without
having both devices in our lab for thorough testing. I
am an iOS user, we would always take the iPad over
the Galaxy Tab. Samsung’s tablet is still a very good
device, it’s just that Apple’s is better.
38 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
We put the UK’s 3G and 4G networks to the test
Choosing a smartphone or tablet is just the
start. In this world of constant connectivity,
the quality and speed of your chosen
network is critical to your ability to work and play
on the hoof. But which mobile network is best?
Connectivity can vary from locale to locale, and day
to day. Visit the websites of the major players and
Mobile networks
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 39
they will tell you that they have great coverage,
everywhere. The truth is more nuanced.
So in the interests of providing excellent
independent data, we teamed up with Broadband
Genie and set out to test mobile broadband under
real-world conditions over most of the length of
the UK. We travelled from London to Edinburgh to
discover which 3G and 4G networks are best for
speed, and for reliability.
We tested 3G- and 4G mobile broadband on
the four main networks, with a selection of tasks
designed to emulate actual usage and push
performance to the limit.
The contenders, and how we tested
The major mobile broadband providers who
agreed to take part in our test were: 3, EE,
O2 and Vodafone. EE incorporates Orange
and T-Mobile, so we tested all of the UK’s
nationally available networks.
40 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
We asked each vendor to furnish us with a 3G
and a 4G dongle, and over the course of two days
we took a train from London to Edinburgh and
back, carrying out 39 tests along the way. Each
network was evaluated by a dedicated individual,
so each test took place at exactly the same time, in
the same location.
Our tests fell into three categories: speed, video,
and download and upload times. Speed tests
are straightforward: at the appointed time each
connection was put through Broadband Genie’s
own speed test, and the results recorded. For
video, we streamed a range of clips from a variety
of sources, recording what point in the clip each
connection allowed the viewer to reach, if they
allowed them to play at all. And for the fi nal category
of tests, each network was used to down- or upload
a specifi ed fi le to or from the internet. In each case,
we recorded whether the network succeeded or
failed, and if the latter how far it got.
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 41
UK’s best mobile network of 2014
We can reveal that 3 is the UK’s best mobile
network of 2014. Both on 3G and 4G, the provider
completed more tests than any other network. It was
the fastest, with excellent average and peak scores
in our speed tests up and down the country.
This year’s runner-up was EE. It wasn’t as reliable
as 3 as we traversed the country at high speed,
but it completed more tests than any of the other
providers. Moreover, as we shall see over the
following pages, it’s a fast network.
UK’s fastest 3G and 4G network 2014
Speed isn’t everything, of course, but being able to
surf the web, and download and upload at speed
is the mobile connectivity dream. Seventeen speed
tests were run across both legs of the route, at
speed and at many diff erent locations.
Three is the UK’s fastest mobile network, on
4G and 3G. Its 4G dongle managed an average
42 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
download of 6.19Mb/s and an upload speed of
1.54Mb/s, and gave us the single fastest speed test
result of the entire Road Trip with a rapid 19.53Mb/s.
The provider’s 3G service was also extremely
impressive thanks to an average 4.48Mb/s download
and 1.4Mb/s upload speed. That’s not only faster
than every other 3G network, but quicker than
almost all the rival 4G networks, too, with only
Vodafone’s 4G beating it on average upload speed.
Three’s 3G also recorded the second fastest top
speed (for both 3G and 4G) of 15.41Mb/s.
EE was once again the runner-up, being the
second fastest 3G and 4G network in the UK. EE’s
tested averages of 3.99- and 0.62Mb/s for 4G and
2.62- and 0.91Mb/s on 3G were consistent, and
peaked at 7.64Mb/s on 3G and 12.34Mb/s for 4G.
O2 isn’t far behind EE. The provider’s 4G
averaged 4.13Mb/s up and 0.89Mb/s down, while its
3G network scored 2.03- and 1.24Mb/s. In our tests,
we found that it peak speeds were slightly lower:
11.83Mb/s was the best on 4G, 4.27Mb/s for 3G.
Unfortunately, coverage issues adversely aff ected
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 43
O2’s speed scores – we could complete only seven
of the 17 speed scores. So although it’s possible O2
is faster than our results show, you need to be able
to get online in the fi rst place to measure speed.
Last but not least of the UK’s best 3G- and 4G
networks is Vodafone. Its 4G successfully completed
eight speed tests for averages of 3.2- and 1.49Mb/s,
with a top download of 7.92Mb/s and the overall
fastest upload of 7.23Mb/s. Not bad at all on 4G,
then. Unfortunately, it’s behind on 3G. Average
scores of 1.21Mb/s download and 0.66Mb/s upload
are disappointing. Just two successful speed tests
is poor. The average speed of all networks this
year was 3.48Mb/s download and 1.09Mb/s upload,
which is a big improvement on the average 1.24- and
0.72Mb/s of 2013.
UK’s best 3G and 4G network coverage 2014
We measured coverage and reliability based on
how many of the download, upload and video-
streaming tests each network completed. Three
came out top, fi nishing 90 percent of all tests – a
staggering result when you consider that most of
the time we were travelling through rural areas
at speed. We also found 90 percent completion
across both its 3G and 4G networks.
EE was again our runner-up, fi nishing a decent
total of 73 percent of the tests. Its 4G achieved 79
percent, while its 3G service enjoyed slightly less
coverage with a 67 percent success rate. A notable
diff erence between the two is that on tests where
both services failed, EE’s 4G almost always came
closer to fi nishing thanks to its faster speed.
44 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
There was then a big drop to O2
and Vodafone. 02 completed just
18 out of a possible 78 tasks. There
were no signifi cant diff erences
between 3G and 4G – both scored
23 percent and experienced long
periods with no connectivity at the
same time. Down at the bottom is
Vodafone, with a disappointing 17
percent completion rate. Its 3G was
only able to fi nish just four of 38 tasks,
and its 4G was marginally more successful with 23
percent. Both providers struggled outside of heavily
populated areas such as London and Edinburgh.
UK’s best 3G network 2014
Of the four 3G networks on test, 3 demonstrated
the best performance. We recorded an outstanding
top download speed of 15.41Mb/s, and average
speeds were 4.48Mb/s down and 1.4Mb/s up. The
provider maintained a connection throughout much
of the journey to complete 90 percent of all the
tests. A great 3G network.
EE was not as good, getting a reasonable average
download speed of 2.62Mb/s and a less impressive
0.91Mb/s average upload. It also had the second
fastest 3G result of 7.64Mb/s. Completing 67 percent
of tests on 3G is a decent result, too.
02’s 3G dongle gave a strong performance,
with an average 2.03- and 1.24Mb/s, and a peak
download speed of 4.27Mb/s. Again reliability was
an issue, with only nine out of 39 tests successful.
But at least it was better than Vodafone’s 3G
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 45
off ering, which completed just 10 percent of all the
tasks. The average speed was a meagre 1.21Mb/s
down and 0.66Mb/s up, with a top speed of just
1.95Mb/s down.
UK’s best 4G network 2014
Guess what: 3 was the best 4G network, too. It
completed 90 percent of tests, with average speed
test results of 6.19- and 1.54Mb/s. The provider’s 4G
top speed of 19.53Mb/s was also the single fastest
result recorded, and its peak upload of 2.89Mb/s
was impressive.
EE wasn’t able to match 3 on speed or coverage,
but still performed well. A success rate of 79 percent
in tests was good, as was an average download
time 3.99Mb/s. The 0.62Mb/s average upload
was disappointing, though, it managed a peak
downstream rate of 12.34Mb/s.
O2’s 4G beat EE in average speeds, as our speed
testing recorded 4.13Mb/s download and
0.89Mb upload. It also came close on
top speeds with 11.83Mb/s download.
Unfortunately, with only a 23 percent
test completion rate it appears
O2’s network lacks the reach of EE.
Vodafone 4G made up for the weak
results of the 3G service by hitting an
average 3.2Mb/s down and 1.49Mb/s
up, and peak speeds of 7.92- and
7.23Mb/s, which was the fastest
upload speed overall. Unfortunately,
it struggled to hold on to a signal and
managed just 23 percent of the 39 tasks.
46 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
Is it worth buying an older iPhone?
Although Android and Windows phones are
every bit as good as iPhones, for many
smartphone users the word ‘iPhone’ remains
a potent label. For a time ‘iPhone’ was to high-end
smartphone as ‘Hoover’ is to vacuum cleaner. And
that means that there is still good resale value in
older iPhones, right back to the iPhone 3G and the
iPhone 3GS. We examine this, fi nding out how much
it costs to buy an iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, and
then assessing what sort of value that off ers in the
smartphone world of 2014. Here’s our iPhone 3G
and iPhone 3GS buying advice.
iPhone 3G and 3GS
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 47
iPhone 3G price
Some research online shows that you can pick up a
used or refurbished iPhone 3G for around £50-£100.
Some stores will charge you around £100-£150 for a
new SIM-free 16GB or 32GB iPhone 3G. We do have
to ask, however, that where are these ‘new’ iPhone
3G’s coming from? This phone was discontinued in
2009, after all.
It’s also worth noting that there is no solid
accepted price for the iPhone 3G, so shop around
for a bargain and don’t accept the fi rst deal you see.
Other things to consider: you could buy a
brand new Lumia 520 or Moto G for £80 or
£150 respectively, so you’d have to really want
an iPhone to shell our similar amounts for a six-
year-old spec phone.
iPhone 3G display
Age does not treat well smartphone displays.
The iPhone 3G sports a 3.5in TFT capacitive
touchscreen, with 16M colours. It has
what now seems a paltry 320x480-pixel
resolution. That makes for a 165ppi pixel
density. Compared to similarly priced
modern budget phones this is not an
impressive display.
iPhone 3G performance
Again we see that
performance has moved
on, a lot, since 2008. The
iPhone 3G sports a 412MHz
ARM 11 chip and just 128MB
48 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
RAM. This would be laughed out of town in a new
phone for 2014 – the Moto E has a Dual-core 1.2GHz
Cortex-A7 and 1GB RAM. And that phone costs
just £80. You can see the aff ect in the iPhone 3G’s
performance. A single-core GeekBench 2 score of
140 would look good on a 2014 phone only with a 0
on the end. One other hardware specifi cation that
puts the iPhone 3G into perspective: you get a 2Mp
camera. That was quite impressive in 2008.
iPhone 3G software, compatibility
Here’s the real problem with buying an older
generation smartphone. Current iPhones are running
iOS 7, and looking forward to the full release of iOS
8. The iPhone 3G came with the original iOS, that
was in time upgradable to iOS 4.2.1. To put it bluntly,
without jailbreaking your iPhone 3G you will be able
to install virtually no apps.
It’s also worth pointing out that Apple’s proprietary
connector has changed since the iPhone 3G, too.
There’s no Lightning cable which, perversely, is good
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 49
for older peripherals of which there are many that
require Lightning adaptors. But that is not so good
for newer, current devices and cables.
Remember that you have a Mini SIM, too, not a
Micro- or Nano SIM.
iPhone 3G: what we said in 2008
“The iPhone 3G improves on the original iPhone’s
audio quality, off ers access to a faster data network,
and sports built-in GPS functionality. You’ll also be
getting in on the ground fl oor of the exciting new
world of third-party software written for the iPhone.
And business users will appreciate the iPhone’s new
Exchange syncing features.
“If you’re an existing iPhone user, the fact that
your current phone will be able to take advantage
of all the iPhone 2.0 software features, including
Exchange syncing and third-party applications,
blunts some of the excitement of
this upgrade. If you live in an area
with a 3G network and fi nd yourself
chafi ng at the comparatively slow
speeds of the EDGE network all
the time, it’s probably worth the
upgrade. But if you don’t mind
the internet experience on your
current phone, you’d be better
off installing the 2.0 software
update and holding on to
your existing device.”
Not that much better than
the original iPhone, which is
now a museum piece.
50 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
Overall then? I wouldn’t be shelling out more than
£50 for an iPhone 3G. And even then it would be
mainly for curiosity value, or to use it as an iPod.
iPhone 3GS price
We can fi nd the iPhone 3GS for sale online for
around £130-£190. These are mostly used or
‘refurbished’, but again we see some ‘new’ iPhone
3GS handsets. Intriguing.
As with the iPhone 3G there is no accepted
price for these handsets so shop around to fi nd
the cheapest. As we mention above you could
buy a brand new Moto E, Lumia 520 or Moto G for
between £80 and £150. So how does the fi ve-year-
old 3GS match up to current budget phones.
iPhone 3GS display
Stop me if this sounds familiar: the iPhone 3GS’
display is a 3.5in TFT capacitive touchscreen, with
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 51
16M colours. It is a 320x480-pixel display with a pixel
density of 165ppi. Not brilliant.
iPhone 3GS performance
Things have improved a little from the iPhone 3G
to the iPhone 3GS. You get a Cortex-A8 chip now
running at a faster 600MHz. This is paired with a
still less-than-respectable 256MB RAM. Again the
benchmarks show how far we have gone, with a
GeekBench 3 (single core) score of 150, GeekBench
2: 288. Don’t expect super fast performance from a
fi ve-year-old phone.
Other improvements Apple made between iPhone
3G and 3GS included the upgrading of the camera
to 3.2Mp from 2Mp.
iPhone 3GS software, compatibility
Again you are restricted to a Mini, rather than Micro-
nor Nano-SIM. The iPhone 3GS fi rst came with iOS 3,
but is upgradable to iOS 6.1.3. It can’t of course run
iOS 7, so lots of apps won’t work. But you’ve got a
better chance with the iPhone 3GS than you do with
the iPhone 3G, which will run very few apps.
Again there is no Lightning cable – good for older
peripherals – not so good for newer devices.
iPhone 3GS: what we said in 2009
“The iPhone 3GS addresses most of the
fundamental weaknesses of the previous models,
adding raw speed, voice-activated phone and music
navigation, an improved autofocus camera, and
video-recording features. With two major revisions
in the past year, the iPhone platform has also
52 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
progressed a long way. Beyond the wide variety of
third-party apps, the base system has added copy-
and-paste support; support for Microsoft Exchange
calendars, contacts, and email; built-in voice
recording; and search capabilities.
“All of it works together to produce a more refi ned
iPhone that fi rst-time buyers will love and upgraders
will appreciate.
“If you’re upgrading from the iPhone 3G, you’ll
appreciate the speed, although unless you qualify
for a discount or have a friend or family member
to give your iPhone 3G to, the upgrade price might
make you consider waiting for what Apple’s
2010 iPhone might have to off er.
“Users of the original iPhone will be
fl oored by the speed of the phone and
of the 3G wireless network, though they
may fi nd the phone’s shiny plastic back
a step down from the original, elegant
brushed-aluminium edition.
“If you’ve never had an iPhone
before, but are considering the
purchase of a smartphone for the
fi rst time, you will not fi nd a better
internet-connected phone than
the iPhone 3GS.”
Or, at least, that was the
case in 2009. These days
there are far better iPhones
out there, as well as the
upcoming iPhone 6, so we
recommend taking a look at
these new models instead.
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 53
Strange ways to kill your iPhone
We take our smartphones everywhere,
so it’s no wonder that they end up in all
manner of sorry states when we drop
them, leave them in a taxi or plain old lose them.
However, there are some extraordinary tales leading
to some rather amusing insurance claims.
Water damage
Electronics’ number one enemy is liquid: water
and iPhones do not mix. It’s not too surprising that
gadget insurer Protect Your Bubble says that almost
10 percent of claims in 2013 were for liquid damage.
One of our very own offi ce iPhones died when
its owner (who shall remain nameless) dropped
Extraordinary tales
54 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
their 4s into the toilet bowl. It’s a more common
insurance claim than you might imagine – the
books or magazines we used to read on the throne
are quickly being substituted by their electronic
equivalents.
It isn’t just water that’s a problem, though. One of
Protect Your Bubble’s customers claimed:
“I was decorating our living room and had my
phone in my breast pocket. As I leant over to dip a
brush in a fi ve-litre pot of paint, the phone fell out
and into the bottom of it.”
Forgetfulness is one of the main reasons that
smartphones get drenched and destroyed:
“I was on holiday in Egypt and I decided to go for
a swim in the ocean, forgetting I had put my mobile
phone in my cleavage for safekeeping. I didn’t notice
until I’d been in the sea for 10 minutes, and by that
time my phone had stopped working.”
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 55
But phones can also be trashed by distraction.
“I jumped into a swimming pool to escape a wasp,
unfortunately with my mobile in my hand,” one
reader told us, while revealed that “I dunked my
phone in my tea because I got distracted and
thought it was a biscuit.”
It’s important to put your gadgets out of reach of
children and pets, too:
“I couldn’t fi nd my phone indoors anywhere. I
went into the garden later on to fi nd that my dog had
put it in the birdbath.”
Beer and smartphones don’t mix, but it isn’t
always the situation you’d expect. While a fair few
handsets get accidentally dunked, one phones
arrived in a plastic bag for inspection at US-based
insurer Worth Avenue Group after someone who had
too much to drink vomited on it. Urgh.
Smashed screen
Glass screens are the norm these days, which is
slightly baffl ing given how easily they shatter when
dropped. Some people use screen protectors,
while others – reassured by the improved scratch
resistance on modern LCDs – don’t.
One hapless customer managed to destroy his
iPhone’s screen after owning the handset for just
six days: “I went to see Tottenham play at White
Hart Lane. Gareth Bale scored and I jumped up to
celebrate while grabbing my phone to text my wife,
dropped it and smashed the screen.”
Pets (again) are a threat to your smartphone’s
health. One Worth Avenue Group customer made
a claim which started with an iPhone and a cat
56 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
sitting peacefully on a table. The iPhone was in
silent mode. When the iPhone received a message,
it began vibrating. The surprised cat swatted at
the iPhone, sending it fl ying across the room and
shattering the screen.
Total annihilation
Not everyone claims for a damaged smartphone,
with plenty of people – 16 percent according to
Protect Your Bubble’s data – making do with a
cracked screen or a scratched or dented device.
Sometimes, though, there’s no option but to get
a new phone, as was the case for these unfortunate
customers. “My grandson thought it was not right for
my phone to be left out on a cold day on the kitchen
table, so he put it in the microwave to warm it up. He
set the microwave on full power for an hour but it
blew up long before that.”
“My little brother took my mobile phone and
destroyed it with a hammer.”
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 57
One particularly careless owner put their phone
on their car’s roof and absentmindedly drove off .
That’s happened to the best of us, but she went one
better: she realised what had happened when she
heard it hit the road, tried to turn the car around and
promptly drove over it. Game over, iPhone.
Yet another clumsy customer was taking photos
during a hot air balloon ride when they lost their
grip and dropped their smartphone over the edge
of the basket. Needless to say, it wasn’t a happy
ending for the phone.
Finally, you should always put your phone on
silent when it would otherwise be a distraction.
The consequences of failing to do this can be
catastrophic. “I was out shooting one day when my
mobile phone rang. The gamekeeper confi scated it,
threw it into the air and gave it both barrels of a 12-
bore shotgun,” one reader told us.
58 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
Is it the end of the road for Apple’s ‘c’ smartphone
In September 2013, Apple launched not one but
two new iPhones, its fl agship iPhone 5s and the
new, cheaper, plastic-backed 5c. The success of
the 5c is the subject of much debate, and therefore
begs the question: will Apple ever make an iPhone
6c? Here, we explore the evidence to decide
whether an iPhone 6c is coming in 2014.
Will an iPhone 6c come out this year?
Everybody is talking about the upcoming iPhone
6, and it’s looking likely that a September release
date is on the cards. There’s talk of another double
iPhone launch, but this time it’s thought that Apple
will be releasing two new sizes of iPhone, both
iPhone 6c rumours
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ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 59
bigger than the iPhone 5s’s 4in. But there’s very little
talk of a successor to the 5c, and that’s why we don’t
think there’s going to be one this year.
Ahead of the launch of the 5c last year, we
saw numerous leaked parts showing off the new,
colourful chassis of the device. This year, we’ve
seen nothing of the sort. We’ve been inundated
with iPhone 6 leaked parts and dummy models, but
nothing colourful or plastic that could be destined for
the iPhone 6c.
However, there are several theories about what
Apple is planning to do with the iPhone 5c. After
all, during Apple’s Q3 2014 earnings call on 22 July,
Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that the iPhone 5c
has seen the highest growth in the mid-range iPhone
market, so it’s certainly not a failed product. Right
now, Apple’s iPhone line-up looks like this:
60 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
Low-end model: iPhone 4s
Mid-range model: iPhone 5c
Flagship model: iPhone 5s
The iPhone 5c replaced the iPhone 5 completely,
which came as a bit of a surprise, but if you look
closely, the iPhone 5c is pretty much an iPhone 5 a
new exterior.
When Apple releases the iPhone 6 later this
year, what will the line-up look like? The two main
theories are as follows:
Low-end model: iPhone 5c
Mid-range model: iPhone 6c (iPhone 5s with a
plastic exterior)
Flagship model: iPhone 6
Flagship model #2: iPhone Air (5.5in iPhone)
OR
Low-end model: iPhone 5c
Mid-range model: iPhone 5s
Flagship model: iPhone 6
Flagship model #2: iPhone Air
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 61
The problem with the fi rst theory, which would
mean Apple launches a successor to the 5c this
year, is that the 5c and 6c will look almost identical.
Of course, that hasn’t stopped Apple from launching
a new phone that looks almost identical to its
predecessor before. The 4s looked just like the
iPhone 4, and the 5s looked very similar to the
iPhone 5 aside from the new gold colour option and
the Touch ID fi ngerprint sensor.
But we still think that the second theory is more
likely. The people buying Apple’s 5c aren’t early
adopters or keen technology enthusiasts looking for
the best possible specs, which is where they diff er
from the fl agship iPhone buyers. They’re Android
switchers, young people, and smartphone buyers
who simply want a good-looking phone that can do
all of the things they want it to. They don’t need the
fancy fi ngerprint sensor or extra processing power,
so it would seem like a strange move from Apple.
Plus, by going with the
second theory, Apple would
be leaving two 4in iPhones
in its line-up that appeal
to diff erent markets. Not
everyone is a fan of the
colourful iPhone 5c design, so
having the aluminium design
of the iPhone 5s in the line-up
would make more sense.
Apple has always focused
on ensuring that the iPhone
can be used one-handed, and
there are many Apple fans that
62 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
aren’t keen on the idea of the iPhone getting bigger,
so keeping the 5s available for those who don’t want
a 4.7in or 5.5in smartphone would be wise.
With the iPhone 5c continuing on into 2015, it’s
possible that Apple will turn the internals of the 5s
into a 6c in 2015 when it launches what we presume
will be called the 6s.
iPhone 6c rumours
While there’s no solid evidence to suggest that an
iPhone 6c is coming, or isn’t coming as the case may
be, that hasn’t stopped analysts and Apple watchers
from talking about the possibility.
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 63
In fact, some suggest that the iPhone 5c is going
to be discontinued this year. “I would expect them
to cancel the product after the iPhone 6,” said Piper
Jaff ray analyst Gene Munster. “Price cuts are not
what Apple does. They build products they are
passionate about and then charge accordingly.”
We’re not sure we agree with Munster here,
particularly when he talks about price cuts. Recently,
Apple has reduced the price of several of its Macs,
and also the Apple TV.
He said: “Demand [for the iPhone 5c] has not
been good. [Apple] will discount it and use that as a
lever to improve unit growth. I don’t think they will
get rid of it completely.”
In January, The Wall Street Journal published
a report that suggested that the iPhone 5c would
be ditched this year, too, with the plastic design
being removed from Apple’s line-up when two new
iPhones arrive in September.
We’re not convinced that Apple will ditch the
iPhone 5c completely, but we certainly think a
price cut is on the cards to make it the low-end
smartphone off ering from the company.
64 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
Why Sapphire screens could be Apple’s next big thing
Many years ago, when Apple’s idea of a
smartphone was the Rokr and the company
wasn’t yet racking in billions of dollars by
the bucketful, a friend of mine came to me with a
rather unique problem: The plastic screen of his iPod
classic – back then, still just ‘an iPod’ – had melted.
A few pointed questions revealed that this was
actually my friend’s second iPod; having grown
frustrated with the scratches on the front plate of
his fi rst unit, he decided to pawn the latter off to his
teenage daughter, buy a new one, and use a bit of
clear packing tap as a makeshift cover to protect the
music player’s screen from being damaged.
Eventually, the tape, too, got scratched; to boot,
when my friend tried peeling it off , it left a nasty
The big screen
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 65
residue that resisted every cleaning fl uid he would
throw at it – until he tried paint thinner, and ended
up with an iPod that would have looked perfectly at
home in a Salvador Dalí painting. I helped him fi nd a
reputable repair shop, and, after a few stern words
of warning, he was back in business with a brand
new aftermarket screen plate.
The plastic not so fantastic
As it turns out, the problem of plastic screens getting
too easily damaged was, at the time, on the mind
of another man – none other than Steve Jobs. As
Apple was readying its plans for the launch of the
fi rst-generation iPhone, Jobs realised that a phone
would spend most of its time jiggling around its
users’ pockets alongside keys and change, all of
which would, in short order, turn a plastic screen
into an unreadable mess of dents and scratches.
Readily available and easy to manufacture in
just about any shape, plastic is so versatile that
it’s become the material of choice for all kinds of
mass-produced electronics, from wall clocks to
portable music players. Plastic is also very fl exible
and tends to bend, rather than break, when
subjected to the abuses of everyday life.
This same fl exibility is also its Achilles heel. On
the Mohs Scale, which is used to measure the
hardness of materials, the most commonly used
polycarbonates clock in at a meagre value of three,
about as hard as copper, but three times softer
than iron or nickel, both of which are materials you
are likely to fi nd, in the form of coins and keys, in a
person’s pocket.
66 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
Through the looking glass
Jobs knew that to avoid scratches Apple would have
to turn to glass, a material that is, in many ways,
the opposite of plastic. Its relatively high hardness
translates into much better scratch resistance, but at
the cost of much lower fl exibility. At Mohs values that
reach as high as six, a glass-plated screen can easily
survive alongside other trinkets in a pocket, but will
shatter in a hundred pieces when subjected to the
slightest bump or fall.
This problem is traditionally solved by making
glass thicker, or – ironically – interleaving it with
panes of plastic, as is the case, for example, with
most modern car windshields. This approach,
however, wouldn’t help much in the case of a
smartphone, since nobody would presumably want
to carry around (or buy) a device protected by a one-
inch pane of heavy glass.
As told in Walter Isaacson’s biography, Jobs’s
quest for an iPhone-worthy glass took him all the
way to Corning, a small city of 12,000 in south-
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 67
central New York state that was named after the
railroad tycoon who funded most of its original
development in the nineteenth century – and is also
home to a glass manufacturer that shares its name.
Corning (the company) knew a thing a thing
or two about making glass tough. It had built
the windows for the Space Shuttle, and spent
decades researching and developing special glass
that would retain high degrees of strength even
when laid out in thin sheets for applications like
car racing and aerospace manufacturing, where
weight comes at a premium.
Gorilla on a diet
At Corning, Jobs found – and eventually convinced
CEO Wendell Weeks to mass produce – a material
that the company had dubbed ‘Gorilla glass’. As
clear as plate glass, Gorilla sported a higher Mohs
value and much better strength, making it perfect
for Apple’s upcoming family of smartphones.
Gorilla glass begins its life with a composition
that is similar to regular glass: a brew that
includes aluminium, silicon, oxygen, and
alkali like sodium is melted together into
a substance that lacks a specifi c overall
structure – what chemists call an
amorphous solid. This is
then cooled and fl oated into
sheets of arbitrary thickness.
Unlike regular glass,
however, Gorilla undergoes
a further chemical
process, during which it is
68 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
submerged in potassium nitrate – a salt you may
better know as one of the compounds that give
bacon its pink colour and keep it from spoiling into
a cesspool of harmful bacteria.
This is no ordinary brine, however: The nitrate
is heated to more than 300Cº, at which point it
melts. When the plain glass comes into contact with
the molten salt, a process known as ion exchange
causes the sodium ions inside the glass to be
replaced by the potassium in the nitrate.
Because potassium atoms are much bigger than
their sodium counterparts, when the glass cools
down again, they push harder against each other,
creating a layer of compression stress in the fi nished
material that helps prevent cracks from forming,
thus making Gorilla glass more shock resistant
while retaining the imperviousness to scratches
that makes glass screens more desirable than
those made of plastic.
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 69
Jewel in your hand(set)
Since the introduction of the iPhone, Corning has
made a number of improvements to Gorilla glass,
which Apple reportedly still uses in today’s devices.
The third version of the material, for example,
was designed with a process that models its
composition down to the atomic level, and results,
according to Corning, in more than three times
more resistance to damage than the original.
Still, if you own an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad,
chances are that cracks and scratches are still very
much on your mind – which, perhaps, explains the
healthy number of cases and screen protectors that
are widely available from third-party manufacturers. If
you’re like me, you may have even taken to carrying
your phone in a dedicated pocket, cramming your
change and house keys in the other just so that the
two don’t accidentally come into contact.
It’s likely this fact hasn’t escaped Apple’s design
team, either, which may have led the company to
look beyond glass and into the manufacture of a
diff erent medium for its screens: sapphire.
Although its name may evoke the image of
beautiful blue gemstones – the colour is the result
of iron and titanium impurities –pure sapphire is
actually transparent, and an excellent conductor
of all the wavelengths that make up visible light.
Made primarily of aluminium and oxygen molecules
arranged in a crystalline structure called corundum,
it sports a Mohs value of nine, making it the third-
hardest known material after diamonds and an
exotic mineral called moissanite – both of which are
far too expensive for use in a mass-market product.
70 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
Time and pressure
Alas, Apple can’t go mining ‘natural’ sapphires big
enough to cover an entire iPhone screen – even if
they did exist, they would likely present any number
of defects and impurities that would make them
completely unsuitable for mass production.
Instead, Apple has built a facility in Arizona that
will allow the company to manufacture synthetic
sapphires; although the exact process used by
Apple isn’t known, sapphire production usually
involves either ‘growing’ it from a seed crystal
(a technique for which the company already
owns a patent), or forming it by subjecting its
base components – aluminium and oxygen – to
extremely high pressure from all sides until they
coalesce into the fi nished material.
Interestingly, sapphire is actually heavier than
Gorilla glass – given two panes of the same
thickness and size, the former will weigh roughly 60
percent more than the latter. However, because of its
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 71
higher strength, one needs far less sapphire, which
could make devices that use it both lighter and
thinner.
Sapphire is already widely used in a number of
common applications; for example, the front plates
of many high-end watches are made with it, and
even Apple has been employing it to cover the
camera lens of recent iPhone and iPad models,
as well as the Touch ID sensor on the iPhone
5s. As a material, it adapts without problems to
industrial automation and its characteristics have
been widely researched.
Still, it’s too early to say whether Apple will
switch to all-sapphire screens for any of the
models in the iPhone’s sixth generation; certainly,
there are a number of indicators that the company
is, at the very least, investing heavily in the
gemstone: In addition to the aforementioned
factory, Apple has fi led a number of patents that
cover everything from sandwiching glass and
sapphire together – a combination that would
give future devices the protection of the latter at
a fraction of the price – to covering a sapphire
screen with a special oleophobic coating that
repels fi ngerprints and smudges.
Leaks and early reports notwithstanding, we
will likely have to wait until the offi cial launch of
the iPhone 6, which is widely expected to happen
sometime this fall, to fi nd out whether gemstone
screens are in our future. Until then, we’ll just
have to continue to be extra careful whenever we
pocket our phone or lay it down on a fl at surface
– or suff er the, uh, scratchy consequences.
72 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
How Apple continues to beat the competition
If you judge Apple’s performance by what analysts,
industry observers and some reporters say, you
might think that the company is failing. Of course
we know that Apple is more successful than ever
and the future remains bright. Here we look at the
products that mean the most to Apple right now and
assess whether the company is in trouble.
iPhone market share
Apple has just reported that it sold 35.2 million
iPhones in the quarter ending 30 June 2014. That’s
an increase of 3.962 million compared to the same
Market share
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 73
quarter last year, 13 percent growth and a new
third-quarter record. iPhone sales are also quite
a revenue spinner for Apple, generating $19.751
billion in revenues in the quarter, compared to
$18.154bn in the same quarter a year ago.
Of course this doesn’t stop reports suggesting
that iPhone sales are in decline, that Apple is
losing market share, and that Apple is too reliant
on the cash cow that is the iPhone and failure
to innovate in the smartphone space will be
detrimental to the company’s future.
We all expect that Apple will launch a new
iPhone 6 soon, and that the newest iPhone will
feature the much called for bigger screen. If the lack
of a big screen is the reason why Apple’s growth has
slowed, then this new iPhone should address the
issue. Indeed, there is said to be pent up demand for
this larger iPhone, so sales are expected
to be high in the run up to Christmas.
Despite this, the latest smartphone
data from July 2014 suggests that Apple
is still in the lead, regardless of calls
for bigger iPhones. Apple’s biggest
competitor, Samsung, has been missing
analyst expectations, and sales of the
fl agship Galaxy S5 phone are lagging.
In the UK the iPhone 5s is the best
selling phone, according to research
from Counterpoint. In May, sales of the
iPhone 5s accounted for 11.1 percent
while the iPhone 5c sales were 11 percent
while the just-launched Samsung Galaxy
S5 saw nine percent.
74 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
Looking at Counterpoint’s worldwide data, the
iPhone 5s is still out in front, although the Samsung
Galaxy S5 moves into second place above the
iPhone 5c. According to ComScore, Apple has a 41.9
percent share of US cellphone users while Samsung
has 27.8 percent. LG is in third place with 6.5 percent
and LG has 6.3 percent and HTC with 5.1 percent.
Despite suggestions that the iPhone 5c has been
a ‘fl op’ it has proven to be a popular alternative
to the iPhone 5s and iPhone 4s. Apple revealed
that the strategy of selling what is essentially a
repackaged iPhone 5 in a new season’s colours has
been successful, with Apple seeing more sales of
the iPhone 5c than it saw of the iPhone 4s last year
when that was the alternative to the iPhone 5.
Mac market share
The most interesting revelation in Apple’s fi nancial
results for its quarter that ended on 30 June wasn’t
iPhone sales (Apple sold 35.2 million iPhones, that’s
3.962 million more than the same quarter last year.
The day that iPhone sales decline year-on-year
will be the day that everyone starts to predict
Apple’s downfall, although that hasn’t stopped
some observers predicting that…)
No, what was really interesting was the fact
that Mac sales are continuing to increase, and
that while iPad sales are seen to be declining
slightly, compared to the same quarter of 2013,
it you clump Mac and iPad sales together, as
some analysts do, Apple is the
leading vender of PCs, and it still
has plenty of room to grow.
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 75
I’ll start by focusing on Mac sales, which according
to Apple, are on the up. Apple said it sold 4.413
million Macs in the quarter just gone, compared to
3.754 million in the year ago quarter.
It was, according to Apple “A record June quarter
for Mac sales,” amid: “growth of 18 percent year-
over-year in a market that is shrinking by two
percent according to IDC’s latest estimate.”
Speaking in the conference call with analysts
that followed the results announcement, Apple’s
CEO Tim Cook stated that Apple: “Achieved strong
double digit Mac growth across many countries,
including the US, Canada, Mexico, the UK, Germany,
France, Australia, China, India and the Middle East.”
Indeed, in China, Mac sales increased 39 percent,
according to the company.
Apple’s claim that it saw double digit growth for
Mac sales in the US, contradicted both IDC and
Gartner’s fi gures from earlier that week, which
suggested sales had fallen year-on-year, calling into
question the analyst house’s methodology.
According to IDC’s fi gures, the top 5 US PC
vendors in the second quarter of 2014 (that’s the
same as Apple’s fi scal third quarter) were: HP with
76 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
27.3 percent market share in the US, Dell (25.7
percent), Lenovo (11.5 percent), Apple (10 percent),
and Toshiba (6.1 percent).
IDC states that Apple shipped 1,676,600 Macs
in the US during the quarter. On the basis of its
fi gures, IDC claimed that Apple had lost Mac
market share compared to the previous year. “In US
shipments, Apple slipped to become the number
four PC maker, dropping from the number three
spot to come in at 10 percent market share, a 1.7
percent decline,” claimed IDC.
According to Gartner, the top 5 PC vendors in
the same quarter were: HP with 27.7 percent market
share in the US, Dell (25 percent), Lenovo (11.5
percent), Apple (10.6 percent), and Toshiba (6.4
percent). Gartner says Apple shipped 1,681,600 Macs
in the second quarter of 2014 (Apple’s third quarter).
There is one thing to bear in mind when looking
at these fi gures (apart from the fact that Apple’s
own fi gures suggest that IDC and Gartner’s data
is wrong): as pointed out by Apple Insider, when
calculating their PC market share both IDC and
Gartner include netbooks and hybrid two-in-one
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 77
devices and Windows tablets (IDC even includes
Chromebook web browser devices). Neither fi rm
includes iPad sales in their PC sales fi gures.
If IDC and Gartner included iPads and other
tablets in the fi gures, Apple would be the largest
computer maker by some margin, notes Apple
Insider, referring to Canalys’ fi gures, which includes
tablet sales in their PC worldwide shipment fi gures.
According to Canalys, Apple was in fi rst place in
the fi rst quarter of this year; indeed, Apple has been
in fi rst place since the last quarter of 2011.
Canalys fi gures showed Apple to be in fi rst
place with 20,486,640 unit sales in the fi rst quarter
of 2014, compared to 23,443,350 in the same
quarter of 2013. In second place was Lenovo with
14,978,320 in Q1 2014, compared to 12,337,550 in
the same quarter the previous year; in third was HP
with 12,939,750 in 2014 and 12,183,280 in Q1 2013;
and Samsung was in fourth with 11,225,800 and
12,572,690 in 2013.
78 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
It’s interesting to note that both Apple and
Samsung saw a decline, year-on-year, while Lenovo
and HP saw an increase. These fi gures are from
the fi rst quarter of 2014, rather than the quarter that
Apple reported on, in which, according to CEO Tim
Cook, Apple saw increased interest in the MacBook
Air following the price drop in June.
In the battle for PC market share, including tablet
sales, Mac sales seem to be making up for any
retraction in iPad sales.
iPad market share
Are iPad sales declining? Amid the increase in Mac
sales, there was disappointment that iPad sales were
down compared to the same quarter of 2013. Apple
shipped 13.276 million iPads during the quarter that
ended on 30 June, compared to 14.617 million iPads
in the same quarter of 2013.
During the third quarter fi nancial
results announcement Cook
noted that iPad sales are
declining, and admitted
that: “iPad sales met
our expectations, but
we realize they didn’t
meet many of yours.” He
added that: “Our sales
were gated in part by
a reduction in channel
inventory, and in part by
market softness in certain
parts of the world. For
example, IDC’s latest
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 79
estimate indicates a fi ve
percent overall decline
in the US tablet market
as well as a decline in
the western European
tablet market in the June
quarter.” This contrasts
somewhat with the
worldwide tablet market,
which, according to
IDC fi gures, has grown
11 percent year-over-year, with worldwide tablet
shipments totalling 49.3 million units.
Despite the apparent declines in market share,
Apple is still the world’s leading vendor of tablets.
IDC research suggests that in the second quarter
of 2014 (Apple’s fi scal third quarter) Apple was in
fi rst place with 26.9 percent of the tablet market,
down from 33 percent in the same quarter last year.
Samsung was in second place with 17.2 percent,
compared to 18.8 percent last year. According to
IBC’s fi gures, Apple sold 13.3 million iPads in the
quarter (not too far off Apple’s fi gure), down from
14.6 in the same quarter last year, while Samsung
sold 8.5 million, up from 8.4 million last year.
This is where it gets interesting. In third place
was Lenovo with 2.4 million sales (4.9 percent of
the market) and in forth, Asus with 2.3 million (4.5
percent market share). Acer sold 1 million tablets for
two percent market share. IDC’s categorisation of
tablets includes slates and two-in-one tablets, but it
isn’t clear about the companies it is including in the
Other category that saw 21.9 million sales and 44.4
80 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
percent of the market. Another reason to be weary
of analyst fi gures.
It is worth noting that the iPad’s drop was not
Samsung’s gain. Apple sold 1.3 fewer iPads in the
quarter than it did at the same time last year, but
Samsung only sold 100,000 units more than last
year. Both Apple and Samsung lost market share.
The biggest gainer was Lenovo, which shipped
2.4 million units, compared to 1.5 million last year.
The company’s Android, Windows and two-in-
one convertible PCs are being counted in this
category, suggesting again that the distinction
between tablet and PC diff ers depending on the
manufacturer (and perhaps the clients that the
analyst house is representing.
During the conference call with analysts Cook
addressed concerns about slowing iPad sales,
noting that Apple is seeing increasing growth
internationally. Cook noted that the market for iPads
is: ‘Bifurcated’ or divided. He noted that there has
been growth in “emerging countries” especially
BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China).
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 81
Who is buying/isn’t buying iPads?
If Cook is correct then these emerging countries
are responsible for much of the current growth –
although price may be a factor against Apple in
these markets. Indeed, if this is where the growth is
coming from then cheaper tablets are likely to mop
up most of the market share here.
Luckily, while it looks like sales may have
plateaued in western markets including the US
and UK, this appears to be because people aren’t
purchasing new iPads every other year in the way
they would a smartphone. If that is true then as the
early adopter’s iPads reach four years old, it is likely
that they will be looking to update. Even those with
a pre-Retina iPad model may be looking to update
to the next iPad, especially if the new unit brings
features such as the Touch ID fi ngerprint scanner.
Of course not everyone owns an iPad yet, and
according to Cook, 50 percent of the iPads being
sold are to fi rst time buyers.
Another factor slowing sales of iPads is the high
numbers of low cost tablets available, some of which
are being given away to entice people to sign up for
various services. It may also be the
case that while a smartphone
is very much a personal
device, a tablet can be
shared by a whole family.
This not only means
fewer units sold, but
if a second tablet is
bought, it may be
a cheaper version
82 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
for the kids, and that’s where the cheaper tablets
come in. Apple is unlikely to address this market
with a low-cost iPad.
The other factor slowing tablet sales is the rise
in large-screen smartphones. Some of the bigger
phablet-style phones are on a par with the iPad
mini and it looks like some consumers are opting
for a phablet rather than a tablet. Should the
rumours prove true and Apple launches a bigger
iPhone, there will be even less reason to buy an
iPad mini. It will be interesting to see how Apple
markets the two devices.
iPad Halo eff ect
Rather than worrying about whether sales of a larger
iPhone will cannibalise sales of the iPad, we’ll get
back to wondering whether iPad sales will slow
down Mac sales, or if the opposite is true.
It seems likely that the two may complement
each other; with a purchase of a Mac following a
purchase of an iPad, and vice versa. The launch
of Yosemite and iOS 8 with the Continuity features
will serve to amplify this.
Equally, iPads are becoming increasingly popular
in the enterprise, where they are being used to run
custom apps, and these enterprises are buying Macs
as a platform on which to develop these apps.
Expect to see even more demand from the
enterprise in the next quarter, following the Apple
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 83
and IBM partnership. In the call with analysts, Cook
noted that Apple’s partnership with IBM should help
Apple grow iPad penetration into big business and
corporate market, through which Apple will win
back market share. Apple and IBM announced in
July that they have struck a deal to jointly sell
the iPhone and iPad to big businesses. This
appears to be Apple’s strategy for winning
back market share.
One last thing: We often focus on
the number of units sold but there is
an interesting story in the revenue
generated by the sales. From those
4.41 million Macs sold in Apple’s
fi scal third quarter of 2014, Apple saw
$5.5bn in revenue. That’s close to the
$5.9bn in revenue from the 13.3 million
iPads sold in the same quarter. Steve
Jobs may have predicted the demise
if the PC, but in this post-Steve Jobs
world there is still plenty of money to
be made from Mac sales.
Apple is selling more tablets and
with higher margins than anyone
else. Still, according to Cook the tablet
is “in its infancy” and Apple intends
to bring “signifi cant innovation” to
the category. It may be a product in
its infancy, but Apple has sold 225
million iPads since it launched in 2010,
that’s not far off the number of iPhones
Apple sold in the fi rst fi ve years after the
iPhone launched (250 million).
84 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
How to deliver an app to the App Store
Apple’s new Swift development language,
and the impending release of iOS have
reinvigorated app developers. Once again
it’s going to be a great time for app developers.
There’s a lot to be said for iPhone and iPad
app development. Unlike building a website you
get much better access to the full features of the
iPhone and iPad, and Apple is opening up even
more of the iPhone and iPad to developers in iOS
8. More importantly, you can charge for apps. Build
a good app, and you could strike gold (or at least
make a good living).
Create an iOS app
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In this feature, we’re going to look at fi ve steps to
get started with app development. Building an app
isn’t easy (although it’s going to get easier with
Apple’s new programming language, Swift) but it is
worthwhile.
Step 1:
Sign up with Apple Developer Connection
The fi rst thing you need to do is to head over to
the Apple Developer Connection and click Member
Center and Register. Registering as an Apple
developer will give you access to support materials,
and enable you to register iOS devices with Apple
so they can run your test apps. You can sign in with
your own Apple ID (recommended if you’re a single
developer), or you can Create an Apple ID just for
the developer account (recommended if you are
developing for a company).
86 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
You don’t have to pay Apple to register as a
Developer. You can sign up and gain access to all
the developer tools for the current retail version of
iOS. The basic registration is fi ne for developing
and testing an app, although you will need to sign
up with Apple for Membership (£69 per year) if you
want to sell apps. Apple Developer Membership also
give you access to beta versions of software such as
iOS 8 and Xcode 6.
Step 2:
Have a plan before you create your app
Before you dive into app development, it’s important
to plan out the app. While there isn’t any set way to
build a plan for the app, here are some things you
(and any other people involved) should put in writing:
The goal: What is the app ultimately designed to
do? Keep it as simple and to the point as possible,
The Camera app takes photos, enables simple
edits, and shares them. The Music app plays
music from iTunes Match (or synced with iTunes).
Write down a single sentence that describes what
the app does
The scope: Agree on all the features that the
app is going to include. Beware of feature creep
(putting in new ideas) as you go. Decide what
features are in, and what are out, before you start
Theme and strategy: What’s the app’s theme and
strategy going to be like? Is it a happy, friendly app;
or a stark and effi cient business tool. Decide on
your marketing strategy, and ensure that the app
style matches your strategy up front
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Sketch out the interface: It’s vital that
you sketch out each display and map out the
interaction of each button
Gather assets: Apple provides a lot of stock
buttons and icons (you should use these) but you
will need logos, graphics and maybe audio assets
Think about the technologies you need: Can
you just get by on Xcode and the App Store? Or
will the app need server and other technologies.
You need to think this through fi rst
Step 3:
Coding your own app
If you’re looking to move into app development
then you may want to code your own app. How
easy this is for you depend on your level of coding
88 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
experience. Apple is set to lower the barrier with
iOS 8 and the new Swift programming language.
You create Apps for iPhone and iPad using a
Mac program called Xcode. Xcode is Apple’s own
IDE (Integrated Development Environment). Paying
for Apple Developer membership will enable you
to download the Xcode 6 beta which supports
Swift. Otherwise, you can start using Objective-C
(the current programming language) or wait until
September (when Xcode 6 is expected to be
offi cially released).
Step 4:
Hiring an app developer
If you don’t fancy yourself as a developer, then
you can either hire (or team up with) a developer.
Hiring professional developers to build apps can be
expensive (prices typically start from around £20k
up). But if you have an interesting enough project
it can be worth teaming up with a developer who
wants to hone their skills.
It’s worth using a site such as Meetup (tinyurl.com/
k9a8y5L) to fi nd where coders are meeting up in your
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 89
area, and then heading over to say hello. You can
also use a service like LinkedIn to fi nd developers,
although this is more useful if you have fi nancial
backing for your project. There’s some good advice
on Mashable for hiring a lead developer.
Step 5:
Submitting your app to
the App Store with iTunes Connect
Once you app is ready you can submit it to Apple
via iTunes Connect. You sign up for iTunes Connect
separately from the Apple Developer Membership.
It’s worth noting that Apple often rejects apps for
one reason, or another. Typically because they use
undocumented SDK features, or because of worries
about nudity and pornography. There are some
technical issues to watch out for, though. The iMore
blog (tinyurl.com/L737j4d) has a good list of rejected
apps and the reasons behind their rejections.
90 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
Upload a preview video of you app to the App Store
One great new feature announced by Apple
in iOS 8 is the ability to add video previews
of apps to iTunes Connect. The addition of
video to screenshots will allow users to see what
your app looks like in action, hopefully leading to
bigger sales.
If you are an app developer, we think you should
already be preparing a good sales video for your
app. We believe video previews will be a big feature
for driving the sales of apps. In this feature, we’re
going to look at how to record a video of your app
and upload it to iTunes Connect.
App Store video
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 91
Record a video preview
The fi rst thing you should do is record a video
preview of your App. If you’re running the OS X
Yosemite preview you can attach your iPhone to the
Mac, and record a video using QuickTime Player.
Note that the iPhone or iPad device needs to be
running iOS 8. Here’s how to record a video of
your app in Yosemite:
Connect an iPhone or iPad to the computer using
the Lightning cable
Open QuickTime Player
Click File → New Movie Recording
Click the small Select icon (to the right of the red
Record button)
Choose your iOS device from the Camera section
of the list
Click record to start recording the screen
92 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
Now as you use your app, QuickTime Player will
record a video of it. Click Stop to end the recording
If you are running OS X Mavericks, or want a
direct capture of the video you should invest in
a device like the Elgato Game Capture. You can
connect your iPhone to the Elgato Game Capture
using an Apple HD adaptor.
While you can just upload a video demonstrating
gameplay, it’s probably a good idea to talk people
through the features of your app. You can also add
some titles and annotations (often called Lower
Thirds) to the app.
The easiest way to add these eff ects is to
use iMovie (or Final Cut Pro if you’ve got editing
experience). Here are some tips for creating a
demonstration video of your app:
Write a script. Some games can be demonstrated
visually, but for other apps you should write a script
and record a voice-over.
Create a concept. Do you want to just show
your app in action? Or would you rather add an
informative voice-over? Do you want to create a
fast-paced advert; or soft and emotional narrative?
Do you want to tell the story behind the app, or do
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 93
the hard sell about features? Take some time to
think about the kind of video you want to make.
Sketch out a storyboard. You don’t have to be an
artist to sketch out the things you want to show.
Just create rough boxes from A to B to C that go
over the features you want to cover.
Add a voice-over. You can click the Microphone
icon in iMovie to quickly add a voice-over to your
movie. Or you can use the New Audio Recording
option in QuickTime Player to record a voice track.
Consider background music. You can fi nd royalty
free music on sites such as PremiumBeat.com.
Submitting your preview
video to iTunes Connect
When you have fi nished the video, you will be able
to upload it to iTunes using iTunes connect. When
you submit your app you are able to correctly upload
screenshots, prior to the launch of iOS 8 Apple will
include the video option here. When Apple switches
on video upload, you will be able to add a video to
iTunes Connect. Here’s how:
Go to iTunes Connect (tinyurl.com/6Ltndu)
Enter your Apple ID and password and sign in
Click Manage Your Apps → View Details → Edit →
Choose File
Select a fi le and click Choose → Save
Apple hasn’t announced what format videos
will be accepted, but we expect they will be in the
standard iPhone or iPad resolution and QuickTime
.MOV fi le format.
94 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87
Permanently delete Instagram from your iPhone
If you’ve decided that the funky eff ects of
Instagram are no longer for you, or that iOS now
does the eff ects for you, then you might want to
delete your Instagram account.
Permanently deleting your Instagram account
is easy, just follow the right steps. Here is how to
quickly and fully delete your Instagram account.
Back up your photos
Before you delete Instagram, you should decide
whether you want to backup all your photos. You
can login to the Instagram website and drag your
photos one at a time to a Finder folder, but there is
Delete Instagram
ISSUE 87 iPAD & iPHONE USER 95
also a website called Instaport.me that automatically
downloads all your photos. Follow these steps:
Open Safari and log on to Instaport.me
Click Sign In with Instagram
Enter your Instagram username and password,
and click Authorize → Start Export
The Instaport site starts gathering all of your fi les.
When it is fi nished click Download Only.
Delete your account from the website
Sadly there is no way to delete your Instagram
account directly from the iPhone app. Instead you
need to open a web browser on your Mac and
delete your Instagram account from there. Here are
the steps you need to take to delete Instagram:
Open Safari and visit Instagram.com
Enter your username and password and log in
Click on your name in the top right-hand corner
of the screen and choose Edit Profi le
Click I’d like to delete my account
Choose an option from the Before You Go,
Please Tell Us Why option
Enter your password in the To Continue,
Please Enter Your Password fi eld
Click Permanently Deactivate My Account → OK
That’s it. Your Instagram account is now
permanently deleted. All of the photos you have
added to this account have been deleted, and there
is no way to reactivate your account.
96 iPAD & iPHONE USER ISSUE 87