It’s been a busy week for Apple, with the iPhone 5c and 5s hitting the streets today, only days after iOS 7 was finally released. Apple’s never released two new iPhones at once before, opting instead to simply discount the older model, so it’ll be interesting to see how the new strategy fares in the market.
Macs have to wait a bit longer to get Mavericks, but there’s been a ton of interesting stuff written about Apple this week — from AnandTech’s detailed analysis of the new iPhones to USA Today and Businessweek’s interviews with Apple’s leadership. Here’s the best articles from this week to fill up your weekend reading queue.
Apple in the Spotlight
The word on the street is that Apple cannot innovate anymore, new iOS and 64bit A7 CPU and simple fingerprint reading aside. Ive and Federighi would like to have a word with everyone on the street about that. That’d be too difficult, so instead they set down with reporters from both Businessweek and the USA Today this week to talk about what drives Apple and why, among other things, Apple made the iPhone 5c.
You’ll get a bit of the same info from both interviews, but the USA Today one overall feels the most informative. Entitled “Jony Ive: The man behind Apple's magic curtain”, it focuses on how design drives Apple’s culture — and how Ive would like to design cups if he was no longer at Apple. Businessweek’s interview article, “Apple Chiefs Discuss Strategy, Market Share—and the New iPhones”, focused more on the iPhone’s price, Ive and Frederighi’s collaborations at Apple, and includes insight from Cook about Apple’s stock price, among other things. They’re both a great read, though there’s little new you’ll discover about Apple if you already devour anything said by the firm.
The New iPhones
For the geekier reading tastes, there’s a ton of great stuff to read as well — but you’re going to need to set aside a lot more time. You can start off with iFixit’s brand-new teardown of the iPhone 5s, where you’ll find, among other things, that the newest iPhone sports a 3.8V – 5.92Wh – 1560mAh battery and a CMOS-based fingerprint reader.
Then, you can dive into what the phones themselves have to offer, with AnandTech’s extensive overview and testing of everything possible in the iPhone 5s. It’s a mammoth review, but a fascinating one for anyone interested in where Apple’s taking their mobile hardware. For a lighter read, you can check out AnandTech’s iPhone 5c review — far less exhaustive since this phone is practically the same as last year’s iPhone 5. Then, be sure to check out our own Kevin Whipps’ article on the M7 sensor chip and what it might mean for new Apple devices going forward.
That leaves us with software. There’s AnandTech’s extensive iOS 7 review that goes through the geeky parts of the OS, and our own iPhone.AppStorm roundup of the very best new apps for iOS 7. All that power can come at a cost, though, and Ars Technica brought us a detailed look at how iOS 7 performs on the iPhone 4 so you can decide whether you want to upgrade or not.
Back on the Mac, there’s not been much action this week, but we do have a review of the new iTunes 11.1 and iTunes Radio, which gives you something to try out over the weekend. Oh, and there’s the new iCloud Web Apps, which are a beautiful way to get a taste of iOS 7’s style on your Mac or PC. There’s also the new Simplenote for Mac, which has a touch of iOS 7 style combined with old-fashioned Mac goodness.
Have a Great Weekend!
So there you go: that should give you plenty to read this weekend. Enjoy — and we sure can’t wait until there’s this much awesome new stuff to read about the Mac (perhaps in a couple weeks?).
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