iCollectApple - Unboxing: iPhone 3GS

The most successful video on iCollectApple is my unboxing of the first generation iPhone, which - at the time of writing - has just under 5 million views on YouTube. About a year ago I unboxed the iPhone 3G during the build-up to the iPhone 7 launch. At the end of that video I announced my intentions to continue unboxing older iPhones, with the next in the sequence being the iPhone 3GS form 2009.

Well, here I am one year later and I have just uploaded my unboxing of iPhone 3GS to iCollectApple. I'm pretty pleased with this video as it's the first time I have used multiple angles, and recorded the audio entirely during post-production. Mostly, this video was a practice run for my unboxings of the products announced last week (which will be coming soon, starting with the Apple Watch Series 3), however I do intend to unbox the iPhone 4 sooner rather than later, continuing on with the series. 

I'd love it if you could check out the video, which I've embedded below. Furthermore, if you want to see more of my videos, be sure to subscribe to iCollectApple on YouTube!

Unboxing: iPhone 3GS on iCollectApple

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The Pre Pre Show - Episode 9: Much To Do About Apple

Much To Do About Apple

This past Wednesday I was fortunate enough to be invited onto ‘The Pre Pre Show’ Podcast to discuss the announcements made during Apple’s September 2017 keynote.

It was a lot of fun and Adam and James are great to work with. Seeing as it was recorded in the aftermath of the announcements we made a few factual errors, but I think we did pretty well. I’ve provided links to the episode below, both for SoundCloud and iTunes - we’d all appreciate if you were to give it a listen.

Finally, I highly recommend checking out the back catalogue of The Pre Pre Show, and if you’re into Podcasts, I’m sure the guys would appreciate if you were to subscribe to the show so that you don’t miss out on any future episodes.

Episode 9 of The Pre Pre Show on SoundCloud

Episode 9 of The Pre Pre Show on iTunes

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Apple Announces iPhone X, iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, Watch Series 3 and Apple TV 4K

It's the iPhone Ten

X is 10 for 2017 - the 10th anniversary of the iPhone. Let me start by saying the only thing I can fault coming out of this event is the lack of ProMotion on the displays of the new phones. I really, really like how much love the cheaper iPhone 8 and 8 Plus received; internally, they pack pretty much the same amount of grunt as iPhone X. All 3 phones feature a six-core (up from four in the A10 Fusion chip) A11 Bionic chip with support for Metal 2 API acceleration and a custom image-signal processor for photography. As usual, no word on RAM but it's rumoured to be 2GB in iPhone 8 and 3GB in iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X. 

The return of Space Grey

iPhone 8 mostly looks like a 7, but with a glass back and aluminium edges. iPhone 8 is available in Space Grey, Silver and a new, previously leaked 'Blush Gold' colour, which Apple simply calls Gold. iPhone X is available Space Grey and Silver - both feature a black front this time around - with black or white backs depending on colour. No 'Blush Gold' for iPhone X which is surprising seeing as it originally leaked as being an option for the X and then became an assumed option for the 8. iPhone X also has a glass back, but with stainless steel edges rather than aluminium.

Super Retina!

iPhone 8 and 8 Plus feature the same 4.7" and 5.5" displays found on their predecessors, with the exception that they now include Apple's True Tone technology - debuted on the 9.7" iPad Pro in 2016. As we all knew, iPhone X features an edge-to-edge display, which Apple is branding as 'Super Retina'. It's a 5.8-inch OLED display, with a resolution of 2,436x1,125 equating to 2.7 million pixels. That's a pixel density of 458ppi. It also supports HDR (both Dolby Vision and HDR10). Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, no ProMotion here. Of course, the Home Button is no more - replaced by swipe gestures. Siri is now invoked via the newly renamed Side Button, as is quick access to Apple Pay. Tap to wake joins raise to wake and Control Centre is now at the top. It remains to be seen how taking a screenshot will be handled.

Touch ID 2013-2017

Face ID has replaced Touch ID, despite persistent, conflicting rumours about the relocation of the fingerprint reader. The A11 Bionic chip features a new neural engine (which is also present on the iPhone 8 for no apparent reason *Update 14/9/17: It's for the Portrait Lighting effects*), and a computer vision array. This allows Face ID to learn your face as it changes. Face data remains in the Secure Enclave just like fingerprints used to. It can be used in lots of different lighting thanks to an IR sensor, and can also be used for apps and Apple Pay just like Touch ID. Apple shared a statistic which revealed about 1 in 50,000 times Touch ID would unlock to the wrong fingerprint. This has improved to 1 in 1,000,000 with Face ID. The new sensor can also be used to create Animoji in iMessage, which are animated Emojis based on your facial expressions.

4K 60 FPS

iPhone X features a new 12MP camera sensor with dual OIS on both the wide angle lens and the telephoto lens, meaning less noise in those zoomed photos. Updates to the Portrait Mode introduced last year on iPhone 7 Plus include 'Portrait Lighting', with preset choices that you can swipe through to get interesting light effects on your subject. Slow-mo video has seen its first update since iPhone 6 in 2014, now recording 240FPS in 1080p HD. Apple made a surprisingly small deal of the fact all three new iPhones can record 4K resolution video at a silky-smooth 60 frames-per-second. This has never been done on a phone before and is usually reserved for pricey cameras. The new selfie camera remains at 7MP but now features Portrait Mode and Portrait Lighting. The 8 Plus has the same camera system as the iPhone X, whereas the iPhone 8 is a single-camera version.

AirPower...

Qi wireless charging is available on all the 2017 iPhones thanks to the glass backs. This should finally be a solution for people who still complain about last year's removal of the headphone jack as now you can charge and listen at once. At launch Apple will sell Belkin and Mophie charging pads in their stores and online. However, in 2018 they will be launching AirPower, a branch of Qi that charges iPhone 8/8 Plus, iPhone X, Apple Watch Series 3 and even AirPods via their newly-updated wireless charging case. Charging shouldn't be an issue anyway because Apple claims battery life improvements of an extra two hours over iPhone 7 on iPhone X.

Pricing and release

Pre-orders for iPhone 8 and 8 Plus go live on Friday 15th September, releasing the following week on Friday 22nd September. 

iPhone 8 64GB - £699/$699

iPhone 8 256GB - £849/$849

iPhone 8 Plus 64GB - £799/$799

iPhone 8 Plus 256GB - £949/$949

Pre-orders for iPhone X go live on Friday 27th October, releasing the following week on Friday 3rd November.

iPhone X 64GB - £999/$999

iPhone X 256GB - £1149/$1149

iOS 11 will be released on 19th September.

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Series 3

Apple's third-generation Watch is here and it has overtaken Rolex to be the most popular watch in the world. Externally, the Watch looks the same and remains the same thickness, crushing rumours of a redesign this year. The big feature this year is cellular support - initially rumoured for Series 2 last year - making the Watch more independent than ever. It features an embedded eSIM that mirrors your phone number and the antenna is built into the display to save space. Cellular models are only supported by certain carriers and to use it your iPhone must be on the same carrier. This isn't great for me as in the UK it will only be supported on EE yet my iPhone is on 3. All cellular models feature a red digital crown to externally differentiate them, and the pricier stainless steel models are only available in the cellular variety.

Performance

Series 3 features an updated S3 dual-core processor for a 70% performance increase over Series 2. They also feature a W2 wireless chip for faster Wi-Fi and of course, cellular. Also included is a Barometric sensor for improved accuracy when measuring elevation gain during workouts. The cellular model has also seen a storage bump to 16GB, up from 8GB previously. 

Pricing and release

Pre-orders for Watch Series 3 go live on Friday 15th September, releasing the following week on Friday 22nd September. 

Cellular models start at £399/$399 and non-cellular models start at £329/$329. 

watchOS 4 will be released on 19th September.

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Apple TV: Take 5

The 5th-generation Apple TV is finally here with both 4K and HDR support. It also has a new name: Apple TV 4K. It supports both of the current industry HDR standards, Dolby Vision and HDR10. It's an absolute beast - it has the same A10X Fusion chip as the 2017 iPads Pro. Games should run smoothly as will 4K content, which by the way, requires a minimum internet speed of 15mbps to stream. Any HD movies purchased previously from iTunes will receive a free upgrade to 4K/HDR (thank you Apple!). In addition to 4K movies on iTunes, Netflix, and soon Amazon Prime Video will have support for 4K content on Apple TV. The TV app will now feature live sports and news - speaking of which - the TV app will be expanding to seven new countries including Canada and Australia later this month, followed by France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, and the UK by the end of 2017.

Apple TV 4K will start at £179/$179 for 32GB, shipping on September 22.

tvOS 11 will be released on 19th September.

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Oh and last but not least, macOS 10.13 High Sierra will be released on 25th September.

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Apple to announce iPhone X in less than 48 hours

This is my first post on my new site, partially because I needed content

Welcome to Blueinkcode! I’ve been working on this website since April and my ideas have finally come to fruition. I’m Jack and I’m not really much of a blogger, but I need somewhere to get my thoughts out so that’s what this is for. I’m from the U.K. and I love tech. I’m unashamedly an Apple fanboy but I’m also Windows veteran and I have dabbled in Android too. I talk about Apple a lot and that will be the primary focus of this blog.

I’m also into coding and making videos, so this site also serves as a launchpad for my other projects. I primarily code in Apple’s Swift language, a product of this is my app - Freezr, which you can find more info about on the site. I’m also a fan of JavaScript and I have created skills for the Amazon Echo.

Apple will announce iPhone X in less than 48 hours

On 12th September Apple will announce their 2017 iPhones, along with a bunch of other cool products in the Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park in Cupertino. I was actually lucky enough to be in Cupertino last week and Apple Park is spectacular as the sun sets.

Obviously the 10th anniversary iPhone will be the highlight of the event. Up until now it’s been tentatively named as iPhone 8, and to be honest no one with tech knowledge actually expected it to be called that, but in the leaked iOS 11 Golden Master, it appears the phone will be called iPhone X. 

‘X’ was an early rumoured name and personally it was the one I liked the least. X, the Roman numeral for 10, makes sense to mark the anniversary, but doesn’t make sense when following Apple conventions. For example, in 2016 Apple renamed OS X to macOS, because the X was a product of the early 2000’s and wasn’t as elegant as it once was. Furthermore, if it is actually pronounced ‘iPhone Ten’ then what happens when the iPhone 9 comes out next year? (replacing the cheaper iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus variants also due out on Tuesday). 

To me ‘iPhone X’ as in 10 makes very little sense, whereas if it were to be pronounced ‘ex’ that makes more sense. It would highlight to consumers how vastly different this phone is compared to the numbers and S’ that have come before it. 

Either way all will be revealed on Tuesday, alongside the glass-backed iPhone 8 and 8 Plus (up until now known as 7s and 7s Plus), the cellular 3rd generation Apple Watch, a 4K/HDR Apple TV and revamped AirPods. Personally I am looking forward to all of them, and I shall be looking to purchase most of them. Anything I do purchase, however, shall be unboxed on iCollectApple.

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