Merry iPhone 6s-mas!
Today’s the day Apple’s latest smartphones go on sale in 12 markets around the world, and thanks to some threats I made to the local UPS man last week, my shiny new handset arrived before I’d even had chance to make myself a coffee this morning.
After putting it through its paces for a few hours, here are my first impressions on all that’s new. It’s super-fast, Live Photos are tons of fun, and 3D Touch is a must-have.
Your personal hero now has an S on its chest and, behind it, are some new superpowers. Behold, the iPhone 6s.
But wait: There’s still some money to be spent on a new suit of armor and some other accessories to exploit the talents of the latest hardware out of Cupertino.
Cult of Mac has drawn up a shopping list for you. You could probably squeeze the 6s into the same case and carry on with your current set of headphones, but hey — a new iPhone only comes around once a year.
The iPhone 6s has Apple’s best iPhone camera to date, but just how good is the company’s 12-megapixel marvel?
To give you an idea, Apple recently handed an advance iPhone 6s Plus to documentary and VR makers RYOT. They used it shoot a short documentary about a painter in Haiti, who uses colors to transform his poor neighborhood.
It’s a great demo of the iPhone 6s Plus in action — and a fantastic short film, to boot.
Check it out below.
Although we’re not sure if it did much to damage sales, last year’s iPhone launch was marred slightly by the so-called Bendgate problem — most famously shown off by the man who bent an iPhone 6 Plus with his bare hands.
Given the notoriety that video enjoyed, it’s no surprise that this year’s customers would be willing to put their new iPhone 6s handsets through the wringer to answer the immortal question: Will it bend?
While his testing method isn’t exactly scientific, Australian YouTuber Christian from FoneFox took up the challenge with his brand new iPhone 6s — and the results look very promising indeed.
Check it out below:
Having Apple on your side can, unsurprisingly, be a massive boon to any manufacturer. But don’t try and play hard ball with Cupertino — as the Taiwan-based Largan Precision could be about to find out.
According to a new report, Apple may shift 30 percent of its orders for the lens modules for the iPhone 6s away from current contractors Largan Precision to Japanese rival company Kantatsu, over Largan’s refusal to lower its prices.
iOS 9’s new always-on “Hey Siri” feature promises to be a game changer for iPhone 6s-owning users of Apple’s AI assistant. For the first time ever, these owners won’t have to plug in their handsets in order to use Siri’s new voice activation tech.
So how exactly will this untethered “Hey Siri” improve your life? Let us count the ways…
The new iPhone 6s looks identical to last year’s model, but there are some major differences in the hardware, as revealed by the gadget gurus at iFixit, who have already torn apart Jony Ive’s fabulous new creation.
When you’re lining up for a brand new iPhone on launch day, the last thing you expect to see outside the Apple Store is a whole team of people from Samsung. But that’s exactly what iPhone 6s buyers in London were greeted by this morning.
Samsung sent a flock of people to gatecrash the iPhone 6s launch at the Apple Store on Regent Street to promote the Galaxy S6 edge and S6 edge+, and to hand out free goodies bearing Samsung’s “#NextisNew” slogan.
We figured tonight’s iPhone 6s launch would draw some crowds, and sure enough, they are. Fans all over the world are lining up to be the first to get their hands on Apple’s latest hardware, and we have the pictures to prove it, starting with that massive batch of Hamburgers above.
Here are crowds outside of Apple Stores from across the globe.
If you want to record the smoothest 4K video with an iPhone, skip the 6s and go with the 6s Plus.
The two new iPhones appear to be identical in almost every way except screen size, but in a new 4K video comparing the digital stabilization of the iPhone 6s against the optical/digital stabilization on the iPhone 6s Plus, the new camera on Apple’s bigger-than-big iPhone is clearly superior.
Check it out for yourself:
The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus haven’t gone on sale yet but Apple has already released the first bug fixes for the new smartphones.
iOS 9.0.1 with support for iPhone 6s and 6s Plus was seeded out to users this afternoon, bringing with it a number of improvements for Safari, Photos, alarms, and more. Apple released iOS 9.0.1 to the public yesterday, but it didn’t include support for the company’s newest smartphones. Once iPhone 6s and 6s Plus owners receive their devices tomorrow, they’ll likely need to run a software update to install iOS 9.0.1.
Here’s a full list of the bug fixes:
The new camera on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus have already been put to the test in the fashion world, and on the baseball diamond, and now ahead of the device’s release tomorrow, National Geographic is showing fans what the new 12MP sensor can do when it replaces your entire camera bag.
National Geographic sent Mark Leong to the Chinese city of Sanjiang to retrace the first road trip that set the tone for his career as a professional photographer. Instead of lugging around his DSLR and suitcase of extra gear though, Leong was only allowed to shoot with the iPhone 6s Plus, which he says turned out to be ‘incredibly liberating.’
Take a look at some of the stunning images he captured:
3D Touch has been the most widely-praised feature of the iPhone 6s in its advance reviews, so it’s no great surprise that savvy jailbreakers would attempt to replicate the technology in older iPhones.
One attempt at this is a new free tweak called ForceTouchActivator, which tries to impersonate 3D Touch by using long presses to expand the functionality of your iPhone.
And as far as free tweaks go, it’s not a bad effort. Sort of.
People are already camping out for the iPhone 6s, but one smart would-be customer from Australia has decided to dodge the queues — by sending a robot on her behalf.
Lucy Kelly dispatched the robot — a remote-controlled tablet attached to a Segway — to wait in line at the flagship Apple Store in Sydney, where the iPhone 6s will go on sale ahead of the rest of the world. It gives her the ability to join in the fun of waiting alongside eager Apple fans, without the negative part of standing around for hours in the cold.
Now why didn’t we think of that?
The Pope touched down in Washington D.C. yesterday as part of hit U.S. tour, and it might totally screw up whether you get your iPhone 6s pre-order delivered on September 25th.
The teen who had his life saved thanks to his Apple Watch heart monitor has received a brand new iPhone 6s and — more importantly — an internship with Apple next summer.
17-year-old football player Paul Houle says he was recovering from his recent medical emergency when he received a very special call from Cupertino.
“I got a phone call from a California number, and [the person on the other end of the line] said ‘Hello, my name is Tim Cook, CEO of Apple,'” Houle says.
Selecting text on the iPhone 6s will be a whole lot easier thanks to the introduction of 3D Touch, which can quickly change your iOS 9 keyboard into a trackpad.
iPhone 6s owners will be able to use two levels of touch to activate the trackpad, and then a deeper push to highlight text. The trick was first discovered by Apple analyst Ben Bajarin while reviewing the upcoming smartphone. TechCrunch’s Matthew Panzarino uploaded a video this afternoon showing off the new feature and it might be the best reason yet to upgrade to the new 3D Touch iPhones.
Check it out in action:
The iPhone 6s is the fastest smartphone on the planet, but according to a new rumor, Apple is planning to make a huge leap with its A10 processor in the iPhone 7 that will turn the device into an unbelievable speed machine.
It seems a bit early to start talking about the iPhone 7’s processor when the 6s hasn’t even gone on sale yet, however, the Apple rumor mill has spit out a rumor claiming Apple’s A10 processor will boast 6 cores.
Despite being sold out online, the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will be available for walk-in purchase on September 25th, except for customers in five unlucky states.
Apple revealed in a press press release that customers in Hong Kong, China, Japan and five U.S.states won’t be able to walk-in to a local Apple Store at 8 a.m. local time on Friday, September 25th to buy the best iPhone Apple’ ever created.
Here are the five states that won’t sell you an iPhone on launch day:
It’s been two weeks since Apple announced its latest iPhones, and the first reviews are in — letting the rest of the world know what we can expect to find this Friday (or possibly before, if you’re an AT&T customer.)
So what do reviewers think? Mainly that 3D Touch is the way of the future, that Apple should concentrate on battery life, and that the iPhone 6s may just be Apple’s greatest handset yet… although the iPhone 7 will be better.
Yep, it’s a mixture of insane expectations coming into contact with an iPhone that was only ever going to be a marginal improvement on last year’s best-selling iPhone 6.
Check out the highlights below:
One incredibly lucky Apple fan, San Diego-based Twitter user @MoonshineDesign, has already received her brand new Rose Gold iPhone 6s — several days ahead of its Friday release date.
Adrienne went on to post a variety of photos of the device, along with videos shot with the camera and even a Geekbench test, confirming the 2GB of RAM for the device.
Apple is still preparing shipments for next week’s public launch of the iPhone 6s, but the folks at Vogue managed to get an early unit to test out the phone’s new picture taking skills at New York Fashion Week.
The new 12 MP camera sensor does not disappoint, according to Kevin Lu who became the first photographer to snap pictures with the new phone.
Here’s what Lu had to say about the new camera after hitting the runways with it:
For the first time ever, Apple fans will soon be able to buy an Apple device directly from the company’s Cupertino headquarters.
Apple’s Company Store at 1 Infinite Loop is set to reopen this weekend, and along with selling special products like shirts, jackets, mugs, pens, the Company Store will now stock iPhones, iPads, and Macs for visitors to purchase.
The projectors are still warm from Apple’s big event revealing the amazing new iPhone 6S, and already there’s a shot to win one for free. Just enter your email address on the sweepstakes website and click ‘ENTER NOW’.
China seems to have a bit of a problem with certain members of the population trying to trade vital organs for Apple’s next-gen iPhone 6s.
Responding to this, a local sperm bank at Renji Hospital in Shanghai is offering donors the cash to buy Apple’s new handset in exchange for a sperm sample.
“No need to sell your kidneys – you can easily have a 6s,” the hospital writes in an online posting.
That’s advice worth living by!
