iPhone 5 Opening Pictures - Wow, It's Thin and Eerily Light

Here are some preliminary pics of my iPhone 5. A couple for comparison with the iPhone 4.







Initial impressions. Wow, is this thing thin. Wow, is this thing light. And it's only a shade thicker than my fourth generation iPod touch.































- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

iPhone 5 Drop Test - Very Good

Source:  Cult of Mac.

I am less than 65 minutes from when I should be getting my iPhone 5 delivered by me by UPS.

Meanwhile, it's good to know that the new iPhone should be able to withstand my clumsiness better than the iPhone 4 or the 4S.

Here is a video of a test from iFixYouri. Each time you see it drop, your heart (in mine in this case) skips a beat.  Not too shabby.

Meanwhile, another site, Android Authority, did their own test. You'd think that because it's an Android-centric website that the Galaxy S III should destroy the iPhone 5 in any kind of best.  Maybe but not their own drop test.

As you can see, the iPhone came out ahead.  Try to see how Samsung would advertise their way through that.

Engadget: iPhone 5 Hands-On

Should I or should I not?  How about you?

There is nothing surprising here.  Bigger screen is a plus but I don't see anything here that could entice iPhone 4S users to upgrade.  Definitely the iPhone, iPhone 3, and iPhone 3GS folks should give this a shot.  Maybe some iPhone 4 owners as well.

Personally, I'm on the fence on this one.  I'm waiting for more news to come out before I decide.  that's just my personal opinion.  The iPhone 5 is a great phone by any measure.  Maybe even the best with the Galaxy S III a close second.

  

Does the above video convince you or not?  

School Starting Soon? Ask The Polar Bears How They Feel About That

I saw this on Facebook so I thought I'd share it with folks still in school.  You know, with school starting soon and all.  It's in Chinese but I'll summarize at the bottom.

Three pictures:

• The first one is during summer break.

• The second one is two days before school starts.

• The third one, you guessed it, is after school has started.

Enjoy!

Green/Mobile: Kickstarter-Based Solar Charger Promises Results As If Plugged Into An Outlet

Source: Mashable.

A solar charger for mobile devices that doesn't suck.  Well, here we have it.  And I don't know it will suck or not but I think I'll be funding this Kickstarter project because it is the closest to the Holy Grail of mobile solar charging that I have ever seen

The SunVolt Solar Power Station charger offers the ability to charge devices via the sun (on a clear day) as quickly as if you had your mobile devices plugged into a regular old socket.  Obviously, others have promised similar performances but results have varied - generally from not working to very slow at best.




What I like to be able to do is to plug this also into a portable battery that I can use as an emergency when I don’t need to charge my devices at that moment. Obviously, having a backup battery would be very useless in many situations. Personally, I thought of a few right away: a wind or rain storm that knocked our our power last November, this past weekend, I was at a Hawaiian fair where electricity was hard to come by at times, and, of course, during a zombie war or vampire infestation when you fear treading out at night.

I suggest you head over and check it out at its Kickstarter page.  I'm looking at the $180 level so I can get two chargers.  And if this works as advertised, I'll get more later for family.

Samsung: Note Success Likely Mean More Successful Tab Penetration

Source:  Information Week, The Droid Guy.

I've seen plenty of promising iPad challengers come and go. If you're even a remotely interested observer of the tablet market or have walked to Staples or Office Depot here in the US and see dust collect on the selection of  Android tablets, you'll know what I'm talking about.

However, Samsung is persistent.  Very.  And with the Galaxy Note 10.1, losing the, perhaps cursed name, "Tab", it could see better success.  Android needs this.  Google needs this until it can come out with its own Nexus 10 to compete with the iPad.  And let's never forget that Surface is just ready to pounce on the tablet market.

The Galaxy Note has done well - to the tune of 10 million sold world-wide.  Perhaps, it could translate into success for the 10"1 version.

And just as this all starts, we're looking for Apple to assault the 7 to 8" tablet segment of the market in a few weeks.  As a mobile fan, we can't wait to see just how Apple, Samsung/Google, and Microsoft fight over for our hard earned money.

iPhone: 3D Mockup of What Next iPhone Should Look Like

Source:  Cult of Mac.

Here's a 3D mock-up of what the next iPhone could look like based on a lot of credible information coming out of very good sources, sources that are traditionally Apple's leaks.



If you're looking for something dramatically different from the iPhone 4 and 4S, you'll be disappointed.  Don't get me wrong, there's plenty to like about the new iPhone if it's anything like what we see in the video. Bigger screen, bigger battery life, improved insides like CPU and perhaps LTE.

It may even be thinner as well.

But from a fashion sense perspective, there is not the change from the iPhone 3GS to the iPhone 4 in terms of the form factor.  But hey, it's probably not gonna stop me from upgrading my iPhone 4 to what is sure to be another insanely great product from Apple.