10 days with iPhone 5

Better battery

It's true, iPhone 5, promises a better battery life over iPhone 4/4S. Officially Apple states...

Talk time:
Up to 8 hours on 3G

Browsing time:
Up Up to 8 hours on 3G (+2 hours)
Up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi (+1 hour)

Standby time:
Up to 225 hours (+25 hours)

Talk time:
Up to 8 hours on 3G
Based on Apples comparison between iPhone 5 and 4S. Interesting to note, no change in talk time battery length between 4S and 5. In fact iPhone 4 claims the best stand by time at around 300 hours. Personally I haven't been able to verify the stand by times as I can't put my 5 down, in addition it's mainly used for browsing, apps, games, ect. Rather than an actual phone.

I have found the battery does pretty much last the day now, even lingering on the low 20%'s for what seems like ages. Which I great, as presently I have only one lighting cable and on 30 pin dock connector.
Overall battery 9/10

Faster

Apple claims...Faster CPU performance.
With the new A6 chip, just about everything you do on iPhone 5 is noticeably faster — up to twice as fast compared with the A5 chip.

So apps launch, web pages load and email attachments appear almost instantly.

Faster graphics.
The A6 chip also offers graphics performance that’s up to twice as fast as the A5. So you can power through graphics-intensive apps and games. And enjoy higher frame rates for smoother, more realistic gameplay.

Several sites have performed a tare down of the A6 chip (Apples latest chip to power the iPhone) and what has been discovered is its a dual core processor additionally with three Graphic Processing Units (GPU). Meaning its quick, really quick to launch apps and load web pages (signal dependant) and for graphics intense games or maps animations butter smooth.
9/10

Passbook

Holding off giving you my thoughts on passbook as UK comparable apps is a bit scarce. Looking forward to a Starbucks and or Costa integration, so I have an excuse to spank the caffeine juice.

Current UK Passbook compatible apps

Lighting connector

Apples posts...
Making iPhone 5 thinner and lighter required a pivotal change: replacing the 30-pin connector with something newer, smaller and better. Introducing the Lightning connector. It features an all-digital, eight-signal design that’s significantly more durable than the 30-pin connector. Another brilliant feature of Lightning: it’s reversible. Which means there’s no wrong way to plug in the cable.

My experience with lightning has been fine. I really like the fact it's smaller and best of all, it's reversible, meaning there's no wrong way up. Handy when your tired and trying to connect your iPhone in a dimly light bedroom, trying not to wake your partner by turning the big light on! At first, I was a bit apprehensive it seemed like it might easily snap, but its just because I was so used to the old 30 pin style.

I would have really liked an adaptor to be included, it what is the first change to connecting and charging iPhones and iPods since they were invented. Even if adapters could have been supplied with this, the first device to use lightning and purchased separately going forward.

Overall 7/10

Siri

I upgraded from an iPhone 4 to the iPhone 5, I didn't have an iPhone 4S, like my sister does. So Siri is new to me. Sometimes Siri surprises me in a good way, I get the info I was looking for quickly and well presented. Like when I ask "when is my dad's birthday?", ask Siri the same question, but for my mum and Siri stumbles, offering a web search. I would have I thought though, because Siri knows a birthday (you may have to tell him first time around) and because Siri know today's date, a question like "How many days to my wife's birthday?" Would have been answerable. I feel Siri is very useful for quickly finding out about the weather, us Brits are obsessed. Apples says Siri spent the summer learning sports, I would say some sports translates to premier league, no F1. In my limited experience unlocking Siri's potential lies in correctly wording your questions to him. When I first asked for films showing at my local cinema, I was provided with results for a cinema across the Thames, Siri has learnt my local picture house and now prioritises these results first. Much more helpful.
Overall 6/10

Free Turn by turn

Much has been said about Apples new maps app. Actually I would be more accurate to write, all that can be said has been said. Sp lets explore turn by turn instead. I really like this feature, it's simple and easy to use. Clear motorway style signs and Siri's voice to guide you. I trialled navigation serval times as a passenger, in conjunction with a dedicated Tomtom sat nav. I have to say the iPhone faired very well, ok the detail in maps maybe a little sparse in places. It terms of going off route, the iPhone recalculated much quicker than my Tomtom unit, which has on certain trips spent the whole time just on the splash screen! Once the iPhone had recalculated it didn't spend the next few miles trying to turn us around, it seemed to accept our changes and we both moved on.
Turn by turn with Siri 8/10

Earpods

Here's what Apple has to say...Just like fingerprints, ears are unique parts of the body. Which means earbud headphones fit differently on everyone. So rather than use the speaker as the starting point for new headphones, Apple designers and engineers started with the ear. They tested over a hundred prototype designs on hundreds of people. All with the goal of creating earbuds that rest comfortably inside — and stay inside — a variety of ear types, while also producing quality sound. The result is a breakthrough for earbud headphones: Apple EarPods. They’re unlike anything you’ve ever seen or heard.

I feel they are the most comfy in ear headphones I've tried, after an hour or so with older style Apple earphones it would actually be a bit uncomfortable. With earpods, once you get used to the very different design the fit is snug and comfortable and the sound bright. I tested them extensively by listening to The Killers, Battle Born, while composing this post. Since releasing them from their neat travel case I haven't managed to successfully to re home the pods. I'm not the only one right?
Overall 9/10

Mapping our final destination

Even before iO6 was officially announced the Internet had inklings of a new maps application. When Scott Forstall took to the stage, in early June, at this years WWDC, it was confirmed. Apple had built from the ground up, a new native maps application using vectors for seamless navigation.

WWDC Maps Announcment

This was the first official look at the new maps app. The demo of course, is slick, very slick. The audience appear audibly impressed by the way the labels rotate along the maps rotation.
We were introduced to 3D maps, flyover and Siri guided free turn by turn directions.

Journey forward four months, to the official iOS6 released date and iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users get thier first chances to try maps, for real. On the Friday of that same week, I had my first destination maps, when I purchased my iPhone 5.

The inter-web has been awash with photos and comments, as you would expect. I have read many articles on people's take on Apple's maps. There's been a lot of wooha about missing places, wrongly titled cities, warped roads, blocky trees and bushes and Bonsai beaches extension.

Let's up this into perspective, Google maps launched in February of 2005 and as such has had 7 years of improvements. An application like maps, isn't the sort of thing that can be developed solely in a tech lab, it needs customer and developer feedback.

These crowd sourcing improvements are a feature of Tomtom's devices, users can make map improvements straight from their sat nav. With an app like Waze, which it totally community created, when it first came to the UK, it didn't even have motorways. When I joined a helped map parts of the A13 and its adjoining roads.

Maps will only get better, I promise. No sat nav is perfect and road networks are continually changing (15% of roads change every year suggests Tomtom)

Tonight I used turn by turn navigation on my 30 minute approximate commute home. I was a passenger so I could completely test the app safely. I found Siri's directions simple, timely and clear. I found the maps themselves clear to, the places of interest were a little scarce. When we strayed from the route Siri quickly recalculated, without fuss (much quicker than my Tomtom device) and gave new directions. What was great was not hearing "turn around when possible."

Traffic was light tonight, and I would like to see how well traffic problems were flagged on another run. Next time a think I would plug my iPhone into the in car charger, as like most sat nav units using GPS (and 3G data services on a phone) it does gulp down your battery. Although I am finding my battery does properly last the day now, yay!

On the overall I was impressed with maps on iOS 6. It's clear instructions and clean visual layout were smooth and easy to use.

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