Verizon Becomes The Final Carrier to Offer an iPhone Upgrade Program

Contracts that get you a shiny new iPhone every year are the trendy thing in the world of smartphone financing. Just in time for the latest iPhone launch, Verizon has a new financing plan that will get you the latest iDevice every 12 months.

The new plans start at $27/$31 a month, for the 16GB iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, respectively. That’s a little less than Apple’s new instalment plan, although it doesn’t include AppleCare — and Apple’s plan gives you an unlocked iPhone as well.

Still, Verizon remains the best network to actually use, so if you’ve got the cash (and you want a new phone every year), the new plan is probably work a look.

iPhone 6S Teardown: Smaller Battery, Heavier Display, Kinda Repairable

With the arrival of the iPhone 6S in eager hands around the world today, iFixit has already torn the new phone apart. Here’s what’s inside.

It’s not the first iPhone teardown, but it is certainly the prettiest and likely the most comprehensive. With glass and metal prised apart, the slightly thicker and marginally heavier phone spilled its secrets to iFixit. Here are some choice findings:

• The battery of the phone is indeed smaller, with a capacity of 1715 mAh rather than 1810 mAh.
• In fact, the new Taptic Engine takes up a chunk of space below the battery — which may explain the reduction in capacity.
• Some of the extra weight of the phone comes from the new display: it now weighs 60 grams, which is a 15 gram increase over the one in the iPhone 6.
• The A9 chipset is a little bigger then the old phone’s A8 unit, measuring 14.5 x 15 mm compared to 13.5 x 14.5 mm.

There is, of course, way more detail in the full teardown over on the iFixit website. Once nice finding, though, is that “the battery is straightforward to access. Removing it requires a proprietary pentalobe screwdriver and knowledge of the adhesive removal technique, but is not difficult.”

That was enough to snag the phone a repairability score of 7 out of 10—not bad for an Apple product.

IPHONE 6S AND 6S PLUS DROP TESTS ARE HERE

Apple’s new iPhone 6S and 6S Plus go on sale today in selected markets. Not surprisingly, several drop tests have already been performed on these shiny new gadgets. Looking at these videos, one thing is certain: if you drop your new iPhone facedown, there’s a good chance the screen will crack.

The first drop test comes from YouTuber Keaton Keller of Techsmartt. In his testing, both the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus manage to survive the first two drops, which were performed from the height of his pocket and head (according to Keller, he’s about 180cm tall). However, in both instances, the phones landed on their side and back. In the third drop test, where the phones are dropped from above Keller’s head, the iPhone 6S hit the ground facedown, cracking the display. The 6S Plus, on the other hand, still landed on its back.

As the iPhone 6S Plus is still functional, Keller decided to drop it again from above his head while he was standing on a chair. Surprisingly, even when the 6S Plus hit the ground face first, the display didn’t crack.

However, in another drop test performed by the folks over at PhoneBuff, the 6S Plus didn’t fare so well. Even a drop from waist-level (with the device hitting the ground facedown) was enough to crack the screen. Chances are, what kind of surface the iPhone hits will determine how likely it is to survive a drop.

At the end of the day, you wouldn’t want to drop your brand new iPhone – or any smartphone, for that matter. While a casing does affect the overall look of your phone, it will at least offer some form of protection against accidental drops.

(Source: PhoneBuff via PhoneArena, TechSmartt via Mashable)

Dual-core iPhone 6s obliterates Galaxy S6, Note 5 and other top Android phones in performance tests

The first iPhone 6s benchmarks have emerged from a lucky buyer who received her handset a few days before the official September 25th launch date. The Geekbench 3 tests showed the Apple’s new flagship is significantly faster than last year’s iPhone 6. Even more impressive is the fact that the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus have almost the same scores as this year’s Retina MacBook laptops, both in single-core and multi-core tests.

An iPhone 6s review further shows that the iPhone 6s handsets indeed have stellar performance, obliterating top competitors, including the Galaxy S6, Galaxy Note 5, and other flagship Android handsets from the competition.

Reviewing the iPhone 6s models, Apple blogger Jon Gruber used Geekbench 3 benchmark software to test them, obtaining the same scores. According to Gruber, the iPhone 6s got a 2500 in single-core tests and 4340 in multi-core tests – that’s 1.6x and 1.5x faster than the iPhone 6, respectively.

Gruber also noted that the iPhone 6s is in a class of its own, at least when it comes to single-core performance.

“In terms of single-core performance, there isn’t a single Android phone that beats the two-year-old iPhone 5S,” he said. “Android devices fare better in multi-core benchmarks, because they have more cores (some have eight, many have four — the iPhones 6S still have only two cores), but single-core performance is a better measure for the sort of things you can feel while using a device.”

“Apple is literally years ahead of the industry,” he added. “Even if you don’t agree that single-core performance is the more meaningful benchmark, you can’t deny that iPhone benchmarks don’t look anything like the benchmarks for high-end Android devices.”

Gruber posted the following image that lists Geekbench 3 single-core average scores for this year’s most popular Android devices, including smartphones and tablets. Notably absent, though, is the recently released Galaxy Note 5, but MobileSyrup‘s iPhone 6s review does list Geekbench 3 tests for the new Samsung phablet, and the Note 5 can’t even beat the iPhone 6 in single-core tests (second image below).

Apple iPhone 6S release date, rumours and everything you need to know

It's been a couple of months since Apple introduced the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus handsets, so that means it's time to look toward the future and speculate about what the company might have in store for the next iPhone.

Will the next-generation iPhone be called iPhone 6S or iPhone 7? Will it feature an entirely new camera along with overhauled camera software? The rumours have already begun to pop up, and so haven't a few design concepts.

Here's a look at the whole gamut and everything you might expect to see.

Name

What's in a name, right? Well, to Apple fanboys/girls, everything. They'll dice you up into little pieces through their online comments if you dare to guess the name of the next iPhone. That's said, we're still going to discuss it.

What's in a name, right?

Apple typically names each generation of products by either a flagship feature or a design change, according to Tim Cook, the company's CEO. The iPhone 6 Plus, for instance, has a larger screen, so it received a Plus moniker for having a plus-sized screen. If you go way back, theiPhone 4S got the S moniker because it debuted with Siri.

For the next iPhone to have an S name it will have to sport something that makes it standout, but if it stands out too much, sort of like the iPhone 6 handsets do, it'll get a new name like iPhone 7. There are rumours however that claim Apple wants to drop the S name altogether because it carries a mediocre connotation.

We're not fortune tellers though. At the end of the day, it's all speculation, right? So, until Apple confirms otherwise, we're going to call the next iPhone... iPhone 6S.

Release date

It's not hard to pinpoint when the next iPhone will launch, as Apple seems to have settled into a pattern.

Apple seems to have settled into a pattern.

Launches usually occur in September, and for quite a while, Apple has released major updates to the iPhone every other year. In between those years, Apple launched minor updates to the iPhone. It launched the iPhone 5 in September 2012, for instance, followed by the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C in September 2013.

The iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were then launched last September. If you're not catching on yet, that means September 2015 will likely bring the launch of another iPhone. Maybe the iPhone 6S (and even an iPhone 6S Plus).

Design

The design, again, all comes down to the name. If Apple releases an iPhone 6S, it will likely only feature internal changes and may look a lot like the iPhone 6. If Apple releases an iPhone 7, you can expect it to look like an entirely new phone.

Magical Apple products made of Liquidmetal

Display

Apple patents could reveal what Apple has in store, though don't hold your breath. Apple has a patent from May (spotted by Apple Insider) that shows a side-mounted wraparound display on a future iPhone. The display, which runs the circumference of the phone, could be used to add virtual buttons to the edges and replace physical controls.

Sapphire glass

If Apple used such a display on it's next iPhone, it might include Sapphire glass for the display and Liquidmetal for the chassis. Apple added Sapphire to the display of the Apple Watch, after all. Keep in mind however that Apple's primary Sapphire glass supplier is currently seeking to end its “oppressive and burdensome” contract with Apple.

The Wall Street Journal reported that sapphire manufacturer GT Advanced Technologies will close two plants in Arizona and Massachusetts, costing 890 people their jobs. GTAT also filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, indicated it is bleeding money after opening a manufacturing plant with Apple, and wants to finally end its relationship with Apple.

Force Touch

Another screen technology that is likely to be used on the handset or handsets is Force Touch. The pressure sensitive haptic tech knows how light or hard you are pressing or tapping the screen to open up an all-new level of interaction. It is being used by Apple on its Apple Watch and new MacBook, so makes sense that it will look to introduce it to other devices, including iPhone.

The Wall Street Journal cites "people familiar with the matter" as saying exactly that.

Liquidmetal

Going back to Liquidmetal for a moment, Apple has an exclusive arrangement for a metal alloy dubbed Liquidmetal. And for the last four years, many rumours about magical Apple products made of Liquidmetal have popped up. In reality, Liquidmetal is very unique, difficult to work with, and likely too expensive to produce in large quantities.

In other words: the next iPhone could have a wraparound display, Sapphire glass, and a Liquidmetal chassis, but nothing is confirmed at this point and it all sounds a bit like wishful-thinking.

Oh, and according to The Wall Street Journal, Apple is considering a pink version this time around too.

Features

Camera

The next iPhone will feature the “biggest camera jump ever” - and it'll even compare to DLSRs in terms of image quality, according to John Gruber, a blogger and podcaster who is notorious for having inside sources at Apple.

'Birdie of a birdie'

“The specific thing I heard is that next year’s camera might be the biggest camera jump ever,” he said in a recent podcast. “I don't even know what sense this makes, but I've heard: it's some kind of weird two-lens system, where the back camera uses two lenses, and somehow it takes it up into DSLR-quality imagery.”

Gruber cited his source this time around as a “birdie of a birdie”. He also brought upSony's new 21-megapixel image sensor, called the Exmoor RS, and that Apple has used Sony sensors in the iPhone.

Concepts

Yes, there are iPhone 6S and even iPhone 6C concepts already out there. Designer Martin Hajek, who at this point could be dubbed an official concept-maker of Apple products, has published concepts through Business Insider.

Here's one of his better mock-ups:

Anything else?

That's it for now, but keep checking back for all the latest. We promise to update as more and more rumours surface.