With the new iPhone launching tomorrow I thought I'd make HoFo your place for all things iPhone 5. Here are some links to fun iPhone 5 related threads:

Who's getting an iPhone 5
Pre-order shipping thread <- mine's is coming tomorrow!
who's waiting in line tomorrow <- I was going to but Apple Canada isn't selling unlocked one's on launch day.
AT&T or Verizon iPhone 5?
Does the iPhone 5 have hidden LTE bands?
iPhone 5 on Sprint
iPhone effect on Verizon's LTE network's
Using the iPhone's nano SIM in a Galaxy S III

For iPhone 5 users:

Post your iPhone 5 first impressions and reviews
Post your iPhone 5 case
Now that you have an iPhone 5 what are you doing with your old one?
Post your iPhone 5 wallpapers. [Some may be NSFW]

Now Android users will probably think that HoFo has become some sort of iPhone fanboy (fanboi) site. To balance our coverage, here's a link to a 'Stupid iSheep' thread. You can go there to talk about how awesome your Galaxy S III/HTC One X is or maybe brag about how many custom ROMs you've loaded on your Galaxy Nexus or maybe you just want to laugh at iPhone users (like me... though I'm also an Android user).

Oh, there's one more thing... I'm getting TWO iPhone 5's tomorrow (to make an iPhone 10). You know what that means... I'll be giving one away! So stay tuned for a giveaway! ...

*9/18 update* No change, GoDaddy is still waiting for Aust Domains to respond. I wonder if Aust Domains normally takes this long to respond to other kinds of requests. Please! Give us back our stolen domain!

*9/17 update* I asked GoDaddy for an update today. They're waiting for Aust Domains, the registrar with the stolen domain to get back to them with some information. It's been more than 24hrs so I hope Aust Domains acts soon. Please! Give us back our stolen domain!

Hi everyone and welcome to our temporary domain. As I'm sure you've noticed HowardForums is currently located at the temporary domain www.howardforum.com (no "s"). In case you can access this on some of your computers and not others, it will take a few hours for the changes to propagate throughout the internet.

In the meantime, do not access the site via www.howardforums.com unless you hear otherwise from me.

Unfortunately, our domain was stolen over the weekend and I'm currently working with my registrar, GoDaddy on getting it back. While I initially thought GoDaddy wouldn't do anything till Monday, after a a few hours they got back to me. Since then, they have been working with me to get the domain back so kudos to them helping me on the weekend.

Our stolen domain was transferred away to http://www.austdomains.com.au/ so GoDaddy is waiting for them to respond. Hopefully things will go smoothly so we can get our domain back.

In case you're wondering our forum data is unrelated to the domain so it is safe.

How did this happen? My GoDaddy account is attached to a family member's email. I did this so that our domains would be safe in case anyone ever tried to break into MY email. While the family member's email is used for other things it doesn't have anything else to do with the forum besides the domain. Last week, we were forced to log into this email at a hotel business center in order to print out something. Normally, I know better but we were in a bind. I suspect our thief was able to capture our email and password using a keylogger then.

The theif used the email to reset our GoDaddy account and then transferred the domain away. Before they did this they setup filters to automatically delete subsequent emails from GoDaddy. This would keep us from realizing our domain was about to be transferred away plus it would create the illusion that everything is okay.

Regardless, I apologize to all of you for our downtime and thank you for your support. I'll let you all know more as the situation unfolds.

Howard Chui ...

Today Apple announced the new iPhone 5. I was a little surprised that most of the leaks about the new iPhone 5 were correct. I remember everyone was sure that there would be 2 iPhones when the 4s launched. I guess Apple's security isn't what it used to be.

Anyways, the 5 biggest changes about the new iPhone are that it has a taller (longer) screen, a new A6 processor, LTE support, a new proprietary accessory connector named "lightening" and a new SIM card format.

The screen retains it's 326pixel per inch density but it's now 4" and has a resolution of 1136x960. It has the same horizontal resolution as the 4 and 4s but now the aspect ratio is 16:9. So now there's room for another row of icons.

Personally, I like the width of the iPhone 4 and 4s. They're the perfect size for me to use the iPhone with one hand since my thumb can reach across the screen easily. It's very difficult to do this on my Galaxy S III's. So I'm happy that Apple kept the same width and just made the screen taller.

Otherwise the screen retains the same 800:1 contrast ratio and 500 cd/m2 brightness of the 4s.

Physically, the 5 measures 7.6mm thick and weighs 112g. To compare the Galaxy S III (which is a substantially bigger phone) measures 8.6mm thick and weighs 133g. The thinness should make the 5 a great phone to be put in a case.

It's available in 2 colours, Black/Slate and White/Silver. Both have aluminum backs, the Black one is anodized while the White isn't. The metal backs should make the new iPhones very tactile though I always though the 4 and 4s' glass backs were pretty nice too. The parts of the back that aren't covered with aluminum are covered in glass.

There are actually 3 versions all of which support LTE. There are 2 versions for GSM carriers and one version for CDMA carriers. The 2 GSM versions differ in which LTE bands they support. Basically there's one for here and one for overseas.

The iPhone 5 will have both voice and data from a single chip. Most LTE phones have separate chips for this. Not a big deal to the end user but it's worth mentioning.

The WiFi now supports dual bands (2.4 and 5Ghz), the 4s didn't support 5Ghz.

The new A6 processor is supposed to have 2x the graphics and CPU performance as the older A5 chip.

There'a new accessory connector called 'lightening'. It's 80% smaller than the older connector though it looks bigger than a microUSB connector. Don't you just love proprietary connectors? Apple is selling a old style to new style accessory connector.

The camera resolution is still 8MP but the software supports panoramas. Apple was showing off a 28MP panorama. I'm not sure if the 4s also had this but the 5 has a sapphire crystal lens. That's the same glass you find on luxury watches. Sapphire crystal is extremely hard and doesn't scratch easily.

The iPhone's camera software can finally walk and chew bubble gum at the same time I mean you can shoot video and take pictures at the same time.

The front facing camera now supports 720p facetime so I'm guessing is either a 1.3mp camera or maybe the less impressive 720x640 camera from the iPad 2.

I'm not happy that Apple is introducing a new SIM Card format with the 5. While most companies are now using MicroSIMs the 5 takes a nano SIM. As someone who switches phones regularly I hope that there will be adapters available so that I can use nano SIMs in other devices.

Apple didn't discuss how much RAM the new iPhone 5 has. Part of me assumes it will have 1GB of RAM though the other part tells me "don't say anything if you have nothing good to say". So maybe it has 512MB like the 4s did. 512MB isn't a deal breaker but it would have been nice. I'd be able to switch between more apps and games without having to relaunch them.

They also didn't discuss the battery's capacity. Not sure what to make of this one. I'm sure it will be bigger than the 4s' 1400mAh battery though I have no idea how much bigger.

The mapping software now supports navigation. I've been using the new maps on my 4s which is running OS6. On my 4s the maps app is obviously not complete but it does look very nice. What effect this will have on navigation provider's stock prices remains to be seen.

Apple will be taking pre-orders on Sept 14th. It will be available in-store on the 21st. Pricing for Americans will be $199/$299/$399 on a 2 year contract for the 16/32/64GB versions. Canucks will be paying $699 for an unlocked one. I'm guessing contact pricing will be similar to what Americans will be paying but with a 3yr contract. Frankly I'm surprised and a little annoyed that Apple is raising prices slightly. On the other hand, them raising prices gives Android makers some breathing room. If the 5 started at $599 unlocked it would mean that most Android phones couldn't cost more than that which would really hurt their profit margins so I guess kudos to Apple for throwing their competition a bone.

Personally, since the iPhone is sort of in the driver's seat right now it doesn't need to smash the competition feature-wise. That said aside from the LTE support and I suppose the slightly bigger, higher resolution screen it's not a huge upgrade from the 4s.

I'm disappointed that there's no support for NFC but at the same time, while NFC is becoming more useful it's not quite a "must have" feature just yet. My guess is by the time the next iPhone rolls around it will have NFC support then.

LTE is a nice new feature. I tell people that LTE support is important not because they need their phones to transfer at 100mbps but because LTE networks (at least the ones here) tend to be less congested than their HSPA counterparts. Given that the new iPhone is probably going to set new sale records I'm uncertain what effect this will have on LTE network congestion...

So, who's getting ready to line up now? While I love my Android phones (two S3's a One X and a Note) I also love my 4s so I'll definitely be getting one.

-Howard ...

Here's my report on Nokia's Lumia 820 and 920 launch.

I'm here in New York where Nokia is launching 2 new Windows Phones. The Lumia 920 and Lumia 820.


The Lumia 920 is the higher end phone with a 4.5" 1280x768 600 nit IPS LCD, 8.7MP Pureview camera with optical image stabilization, a polycarbonate unibody and a 2000mAh battery. I noticed during the demo that Joe Belfiore's 920 was connected to LTE whereas someone else who looked like they were from Europe had 4G. According to the Forum Nokia page the 920 supports LTE Band 1 (2100), LTE Band 20 (800), LTE Band 3 (1800), LTE Band 7 (2600), LTE Band 8 (900). Not sure if this one version of the 920 supports all these LTE bands or if they're mentioning all the bands the different 920 variants support. Note that LTE on AWS isn't listed - so I'm guessing those specs are for the 'Euro' variant.

Powering all this is a 1.5Ghz dual core Snapdragon S4 processor (like some Samsung GS3 and HTC One X variants along with the Motorola ATRIX). You get 1GB of RAM and 32GB of storage. The storage is not expandable.

The screen has a brightness level of 600nits. Just for reference the Xperia ION (another extremely bright phone) measures 500nits so the 920's screen will probably work amazing even in direct sunlight. ...

Stephen Elop is coming to the stage

18 months ago, Nokia unveiled their new strategy. They realized it's gone from a war of devices to a war of ecosystems.

In 6 months Nokia brought the Lumia 800 and 710. Reminds us that the 800 is the first 'real' Windows Phones.

They helped Microsoft expand to lower points and into new markets. Apparently China is the biggest Windows Phone market.

Here in the 'States they brought the 900 and 710 to AT&T and T-Mo respectively.

over 100,000 apps in the marketplace. now growing 3x faster than before Nokia joined.

Now talking about Asha, trying to use those to connect another 1B users to the mobile phone market.

Mentions that Nokia has stabilized their phone business in the last quarter.

Now talking about the 3rd part of their business - their future disruptions. Maps, optics, etc.

Nokia maps will be embedded into Windows Phone.

Jo Harlow, Executive Pres of Nokia is now up.

They're now showing a pretty epic video of a new Lumia device. Couldn't help noticing it has a Snapdragon processor.



The new Lumia is called The Nokia Lumia 920.

Includes Pureview camera

Nokia City Lens

Nokia Pure motion HD Plus

Built in wireless charging

"This is Nokia, and it's time to switch"

Now talking about PureView. 2012 will be the year the number of pictures taken with mobile phones will surpass those taken with regular cameras.

Talking about how slow shutter speeds result in blurry pictures. The Pureview camera captures 5x to 10x the amount of light that competitors does. The camera has 'floating lens' technology to help reduce blur (I'm guessing she's talking about image stabilization).

Yes, it's IS. It's used in videos too.

Now talking about navigation. It's supposed to be one of the reasons why people choose a Lumia. They're bringing their navigation products together into an integrated Location suite. Mentioning offline maps - not just cached maps. Daily commute feature will tell you how long it will take to get to work. It will tell you what time you have to leave. Nokia Transit includes how much time it takes to get to the next stop and how much time you have to spend at statioin



Nokia city lens is an augmented reality apps. Nokia maps will also get augmented reality.

This is cool, set a route in Nokia maps and use the augmented reality feature to see where you have to go. No more having to figure out which direction to go.

Nokia Pure Motion HD Plus is the name of the display. 4.5" curved glass display with 'better than HD resolution'.

The colour tone (and brightness) adjust automatically in bright sunlight.

2000mAh battery, Qualcomm S4 Snapdragon processor. Up to 30% more efficient that 'quad core alternatives'.

Wireless charger. One accessory is the 'fatboy wireless charging pillow'. It's based on the Qi wireless charger standard (woohoo, standards)

Virgin Atantic will place charging plates at their lounge in Heathrow. Coffee Bean will also place charging plates in their stores.

Joe Belfiore is now on stage talking about Windows Phone 8.

You can now take screenshots with Windows Phone 8 (finally)

The camera apps supports lenses from WITHIN the camera. Basically, instead of using a separate app that controls your camera you can select the app from within the camera app.

There's tap to share via NFC.

Kevin Shields

920 introduces new colours: Yellow, Red, Grey in addition on Black and White.

920 is stronger than the 900. Strong body and glass. Polycarbonate body is good for RF. Nothing to block RF.

Strip on the back where the camera is doesn't scratch easily now.

It looks like a giant Lumia 800 (that's a good thing).

It's a LCD display. They say it's the fastest LCD display available (fastest pixel transition) and brightest.

WXGA resolution (1280x768).

The display has super sensitive technology. You can use it with gloves (good for the winter). It has 2 modes, bare skin and with gloves on.

Nokia Music is coming to the 'States. Try downloading it now.

Cool NFC/wireless charging accessory from JBL (I'll upload a video of it later).

Now talking about exclusive apps that come with the Lumia. Out of the box location apps.

New Rovio game called Angry Birds Roost coming to Lumia.

Now talking about the camera 'lenses' again. Cool! say you're at a gallery and want to take a picture of someone. Your subject stands in the center of the frame while random people are walking around. You can use this lens to REMOVE the other people. < applause > Very, very cool

Nokia Lumia 820 just announced. Polycarbonate unibody, Carl Zeiss lens, 4.3" clearback display, NFC.

the back shell pops off, 1650mAh battery. (how is it a unibody?)

Yellow, red, blue, purple, grey, white and black shells

Also have wireless charging shells (optional).

Steve Balmer is on stage now.

I'll have a hand-on and some demos later. ...

The verdict is in. A jury has found Samsung guilty for infringing on Apple's patents. They've been ordered to pay $1,051,855,000 (at $600 a shot that's around 1,753,090 Galaxy S III's) in damages to Apple.

FYI Samsung's 2011 net income was ~$12 billion USD. ...

Just got word that the 32GB Apple iPhone 4s will be $199.95 while the 64GB will be $299.95 on a 3 year. The deal runs from ...

This morning I've woke up to a lot of great information with in WIND. First off there is another "resignation"-cough- at WIND that will immensely be beneficial to the Retail Level. It's not a known name around here, but it's a good thing he's gone from the role so the retail teams can be better supported, by a true leader who has industry insight and knowledge. The previous guy's been there since launch and probably responsible for most of the worst hirings.

Next on to the good stuff, the Q2 update.

Okay guys, here's the scoop from WIND this morning. ...

Has anyone the privilege of participating in the beta program? Can you if your YouTube app is now removed too? It appears to no longer be there on my installation on both iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S.

Looks like we're going to have rely on an official app from Google in the near future... which is fine by me, but Apple just started incorporating the share features in iOS 6 that were once missing.

If you discover any other new features or missing old ones, share them here.

...