iphone 5

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(Credit: CNN) Apple on Wednesday announced the latest version of the iPhone. The iPhone 5 looks similar to previous models but has a larger screen and is lighter and thinner than the iPhone 4S. The company says the larger screen will make it easier to check and send e-mails and to view Web pages with the phone in your hand.

“This is unlike anything we or anyone else in our industry has made before,” Apple’s Phil Schiller said.

The phone also comes with a new, faster processor called the Apple A6; and it connects to mobile carriers with a 4G LTE connection, making for speedier Internet browsing.

The iPhone 5 is 18% thinner and 20% lighter than the current version, the iPhone 4S. It has a 4-inch screen, measured diagonally, compared to a 3.5-inch screen on previous versions of the phone. It is the same width as the iPhone 4S, but is taller than that phone. The iPhone 5 also is made entirely of glass and aluminum.

An Apple press conference is ongoing in California. For many tech fans, the fall Apple press event is the highlight of a season filled with gadget announcements and releases. Last week, Amazon unveiled its latest Kindle Fire tablets, and Nokia and Motorola announced new smartphones. HTC has an announcement scheduled for later in the month.

The companies are rushing to get their products our in time for the holiday season, where they will battle it out for consumer dollars in an increasingly crowded mobile device market. Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone six years ago on a stage just one block away in the Moscone Center. Since then the iPhone has taken off, selling around 244 million units around the world. According to research firm IDC, the iPhone and it’s iOS operating system makes up 16.9% of the worldwide smartphone market, coming in behind all phones running the Android operating system, which accounts for 68.1% of the world’s smartphones. This is Apple’s sixth iPhone model, though if Apple follows the same naming conventions it has used so far, this new phone would be called the iPhone 5. The winning streak has carried over to Apple’s stock price, which hit an all time high of $683.29 a share last Friday.

Apple details new iPhone 5 dock connector: It’s called Lightning and it’s 80 percent smaller

The new iPhone deserves a new dock connector. Say hello to the reversible, 80 percent smaller, Lightning. The likes of Bose, BLW and B&O are already working on new compatible docks while the new connector itself is now easier to connect, more durable, all digital, with an adaptive interface which warrants some closer inspection. Naturally, an adapter will also be made available for your existing iPhone peripherals and it sounds like it should pair well with that Thunderbolt connection, right?

Apple details iPhone 5′s new camera: 8MP, same as iPhone 4S but thinner

Apple’s got a new camera in its brand new iPhone 5: 8-megapixels with a 3,264 x 2,448 backside-illuminated sensor, five-element lens, and f/2.4 aperture sits on the rear of the new device. “Same as the iPhone 4S, but thinner.” 25 percent thinner in fact, to match the now slimmer iPhone. The branding remains the same — it’s still the iSight — but a few new bells and whistles have been added alongside the thinning. A new dynamic low light mode, for one, and a fancy sapphire crystal cover. The phone’s new A6 processor also helps out, offering a “smart filter” for better color matching, as well as speedier capture and still capture during video.

In terms of functionality, there’s a new panorama mode, that allows picture stitching for multiple images into one larger shot (a whopping 28 megapixels in total). Photo sharing is also getting expanded, adding more social functionality — images can be shared with multiple friends or family members, and then those folks can comment.

But you only care about video, don’t you? You’ll be glad to hear that it’s getting expanded as well. The rear camera still offesr 30fps 1080p HD capture, albeit with better image stabilization. The front facing camera now features 720p video for all your extreme close-ups. Speaking of FaceTime, it will be available via LTE on the iPhone 5. But on all mobile networks? We’re not so sure just yet.

A6 chip in iPhone 5 has 2x CPU power, 2x graphics performance, yet consumes less energy

Every new iPhone needs a new engine, and Tim Cook has just made some bold claims about Apple’s latest silicon creation: the A6 processor. He hinted at a significant shrinkage in transistor size, allowing the chip to be 22 percent smaller than the A5 and hence more energy-efficient, while at the same time — he says — doubling all-round CPU and graphics capabilities. By way of practical benefits, the Apple CEO promises the Pages app will load up 2.1x faster than before, while Keynote attachments will hit the screen 1.7x faster. At this point we’re lacking any further detail about cores or clock speeds or indeed who actually fabricated the A6 (still Samsung, after all that bitterness?), but Apple does tend to be close-lipped on such things. In the meantime, bring on the benchmarks!

Next page: iPhone 5 vs. iPhone 4S: what’s changed?