Smart Bezel Could Be The Big, New “Mystery Feature” For the iPhone 5

Apple's patent for the so-called "Smart Bezel." Will it end up on the iPhone 5?

As the tech community endlessly prognosticates on the next big features for the iPhone 5, there’s no doubt that Apple  has kept some of the best bits hidden from the public. But could the recent exposé on Apple’s Smart Bezel patent be the mind-blowing feature that makes the iPhone 5 the smartphone of the year?
Bigger screen. 8 megapixel camera. iOS 5. NFC technology, The A5 chip. Most if not all of these predicted new features for the iPhone 5 are improvements rather than innovations — even NFC technology has already been tried on the Droid platform.
Where’s the magic? Where’s the defining feature for the iPhone 5 that will launch it into greatness? With the iPhone 4, we saw the advent of the front-facing camera, which gave smartphone users a next-generation way of communicating on the go. How will the iPhone 5 deliver a similarly siezmic breakthrough?
Enter Apple’s Smart Bezel.
All this week, tech websites have been parsing a curious Apple patent that reveals plans to develop and deploy a dynamic, gesture-controlled bezel around the iPhone 5‘s screen, giving users a secondary means of navigating games and applications. Fast Company I think has summed up the technological aspect of the Smart Bezel patent the best, explaining that:
“The display relies on printed, segmented electroluminescent units (or similar tech) that would be hidden when not activated. These units would display additional info when needed–we’re thinking games controls, an improvement to the awful messaging/alert system iOS uses, and display-wasting info like battery life bars or a clock.”

                                                                  Just as the old Atari
                                                              joystick gave way to the
                                                      advanced game controls of today,
                                                   so too will smartphones like the iPhone
                                                        5 feature more gesture control.


To be sure, the Smart Bezel would be a bona fide breakthrough in technology, should it deliver on its promise of significantly expanding the gesture control and display layout of the iPhone 5. It’s true that other extended touch surface concepts exist on current smartphones, such as the Palm Pre, but if Apple can push the exvelope with this new innovation, it could revolutionize the way that iPhone users interact with their iPhone; not just an improvement on what already exists, but a true innovation that would send the other smartphone designers into catch-up mode..

And from a more practical standpoint, the Smart Bezel would also give the iPhone 5 an effective alternative to the cumbersome home button, which many believe will be moved or replaced in one way or another.
The idea of the Smart Bezel has been kicking around for some time now. For the most part, the idea of adding more gesture control was initially being ascribed to the iPad 2. Many analysts foresee that tablets and smartphones will continue to feature more and more gesture control features apart from the touch screen itself. Much in the way that the simple Atari joystick of yesteryear has advanced to the complex array of buttons, joysticks, sliders, and gesture control, so too will the chassis of the next generation of smartphones and tablets include bezels, backs, and other interesting nooks and crannies that will give users new vistas of control over their mobile computing experience.
How exciting is it to imagine that it all might begin with the iPhone 5‘s Smart Bezel?



What Exactly is a “Bezel,” and How Can It Be “Smart?”

                                                         An example of a chrome bezel from
                                                            an iPhone 3G. Could the bezel
                                                       on the iPhone 5 be a "Smart Bezel?"

I’ve had several comments stating that folks still don’t understand exactly what the bezel of an iPhone is, and what exactly it would mean for it to be “smart.” To use Wikipedia’s definition, a bezel is “a band of metal containing a groove and a flange (i.e. projecting lip) holding a watch crystal or gemstone in its setting.” Traditionally, bezels have been used primarily in jewelry, however, Apple ascribes the term for the chrome rim that surrounds the iPhone’s touch screen.
To date, this bezel has been little more than a cosmetic feature of the iPhone, as well as a means of securing the touch screen. The idea behind a “Smart Bezel” will be to make it touch sensitive so that iPhone users will be able to control the functions of apps and games. Imagine being able to run your fingers up and down the chrome bezel of your iPhone to control volume, scroll, pan, and control other aspects of your mobile computing experience. The other reason why the Smart Bezel is an innovative idea is that it would allow users to play games and use apps without their fingers having to conceal the touch screen when gesturing. By having gesture control available on the bezel, you could keep the touch screen in full view at all times without having to block the screen with your finger.
Some have suggested that the inclusion of a Smart Bezel would mean that the edge-to-edge screen design would probably not materialize for the iPhone 5. That’s probably true. So, the question then becomes: what would you rather have — more gesture control or an edge-to-edge touch screen?

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Dueling iPhone 5 Release Rumors; It’s Like Daisy Petal Picking

It’s coming in June; it’s coming in June – not; it’s coming in…..
Appleinsider’s Neil Hughes says that rumors of a later-than-usual iPhone model revision for 2011 are being fueled by notoriously secretive Apple being even more secretive than usual in its dealings with overseas suppliers subcontracting to build the devices and their various components as regards the iPhone 5.
Hughes cites a note to investors by Ticonderoga Securities analyst Brian White, who is on a tech company visit sweep through Taiwan and China, commenting last Friday that “Apple is keeping its iPhone 5 cards extra close to the vest on this launch to avoid a falloff in iPhone 4 demand ahead of a refresh, especially given the February launch of the CDMA iPhone 4 with Verizon.” However, White guesses there’s still room for the iPhone 5 to still launch in June or July, consistent with Apple’s usual calendar envelope for major iPhone announcements and revisions, and noting that there’s really no solid evidence supporting either that postulate or a later iPhone 5 release in the fall.
TheStreet’s James Rogers agrees with White, suggesting that with iPhone 5 rumors “ping-ponging” back and forth, the chatter, and in some instance angst, over a significant iPhone 5 release delay may be getting overblown.
On the other hand, Rogers notes — as I too have here previously — that Apple’s press release for the June Worldwide Developers’ Conference (WWDC), which in recent years has been a venue for iPhone revision announcements, made no reference to new hardware, a seemingly pointed omission, and affirmed instead that this year’s WWDC will be focused on unveiling the future of iOS and Mac OS. Of course, we can’t discount the possibility of a Steve Jobsian “one more thing” surprise announcement of the iPhone 5 at the keynote climax, whether or not the ailing (and we hope mending) Mr. Jobs is there to deliver it.
My takeaway is that while Apple’s new and revised product releases are at least roughly predictable more often than not, attempting to pin them down to a precise time frame is a mug’s game and an exercise in frustration and futility, compounded by the fact that from the moment the iPhone 5 (launch of which is inevitable at some point in the not too distant future) is announced, new speculation will ramp up focusing on iPhone 6. Indeed, the iPad 2 announcement was still weeks in the future when prognostications about an iPhone 3 began circulating.
Waiting out anticipated product announcements can be frustrating, or part of the fun, depending on how you choose to look at it, but the upside is that current iPhone 4 is an excellent device that will do a fine job for you if you really need to make a purchase in the short term.

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Patents Reveal That iPhone 5 and iPod May Support USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt

Apple's Dock Patent for the USB 3 and Thunderbolt. Will it show up on the iPhone 5?

New Apple patents that feature inventions and technologies for future iPhones sometimes have to be taken with a grain of salt. But a recent patent for a new dock connector could end up on the iPhone 5 — and make syncing and data sharing lightning fast! Read how every iPhone user should hope this new technology ends up on the iPhone 5.
A recent article from AppleInsider takes a look at Apple’s most recent patent filing, which outlines the possibility of a groundbreaking new dock connector that would work in conjunction with iOS devices. What is particularly noteworthy about this filing from Cupertino is the curious language in the patent’s diagrams, which state that:
“Some embodiments of the present invention can provide support for one or more new high-speed communication standards.”
The high-speed standards that the description in the filing refers to is USB 3.0 and DisplayPort. The latter, which was recently re-branded as “Thunderbolt” by Apple and Intel, is their answer to USB 3.0, which has up this point remained unsupported by any hardware.
While it is true that patents often take years to be implemented into new technologies, this one might be an exception. Here’s why:
Apple’s decision to include the USB 3.0 protocol in the dock connector is most likely to support the multitude of new PCs that are now being designed and manufactured with USB 3.0 ports — a trend that we have seen for nearly a year now — while the Thunderbolt technology will remain exclusive to Apple  for the remainder of 2011. This means that older Apple devices — which would basically include everything outside of the newest MacBook Pro — will need to install a USB 3.0 card on their MacBook Pros to plug in to this new technology,
Or, you can simply upgrade to a newer MacBook that features the Thunderbolt port when it finally becomes available.
What does all of this mean for the iPhone 5? In short — speed. By equipping the iPhone 5 with faster connectors like the Thunderbolt, we could be looking at lightning-fast sync times: syncing time could be cut in half or more in the upcoming iPhone 5 as well as the next iterations of iPods and iPads. Another possibility could be that users of the current and past iDevices would be able to tap into these faster connections and sync times simply by purchasing a new cable.
Sven Rafferty is a writer for the iPhone 5 News Blog and the Editor In Chief of SvenOnTech.com, a leading technology news source and blog.

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Why Apple Should Put The Brakes on 3D Technology For the iPhone 5

A schematic in Apple's patent for a 3D camera. Could it end up on the iPhone 5?

A recent Apple patent for a 3D camera and other rumors suggest that Apple might be toying with 3D technology for the iPhone 5. Read why Apple and Steve Jobs should be careful about wading into the 3D waters with their next big iPhone.
You may have heard some faint rumors of 3D camera technology someday coming to the iPhone by way of some mind-blowing Apple patents that have surfaced over the past year or so. It’s no wonder that Apple would be exploring 3D technology in its research and development efforts: we continue to see the application of next-generation 3D technology in motion pictures, such as James Cameron’s Avatar, as well as the new Nintendo 3DS. In addition, television and computing sectors are beginning to invest vast resources into deploying 3D effects into a wide range of different media outlets.
Apple has two intriguing recent patents that focus on 3D: a 3D screen that would allow users to see the effect without 3D glasses, and a small 3D camera, which, by way of three separate camera sensors (see schematic to the left) would allow users to actually create and render 3D images themselves. Once deployed in a mobile device like an iPhone, this tandem of 3D inventions would most certainly turn mobile computing on its head: combined with gesture control as seen on the iPhone and iPad, it could even allow users to navigate their gadgets in a third dimension. That’s some futuristic stuff!
Whether or not 3D technology could show up on the iPhone 5, however, remains to be seen.
I have postulated for the past few months that the iPhone 5 may in fact offer a groundbreaking new feature that few if any of us have even speculated on. Could this pairing of 3D technologies — the 3D screen and 3D rear-facing camera — be the hook that boosts the iPhone 5 into legendary status? After all, given Steve Job’s ill health, for all we know, the iPhone 5 could be his swan song. He may be inclined to make the iPhone 5 a total game changer in mobile computing.
However, given the recent intelligence on the increasing possibility of an 8 megapixel camera for the iPhone 5 — served up by the folks at Sony — it would seem unlikely that Apple would be able to keep the lid on the additional components needed to construct a 3D camera. It could be possible that the iPhone 5 could debut its 3D screen without the pairing of a 3D camera — Nintendo 3DS already has a 3D interface, after all — but it should also be noted that, just because Apple has a patent for a 3D screen doesn’t mean that the technology itself is imminent: it can take years for new ideas to become reality, as highlighted in this other article about a possible changeable topography touch screen for the iPhone 5.
And then there’s also the possible dangers of 3D technology as a whole.
3D Technology Is A Possible Health Hazard
For as much as 3D technology seems like the wave of the future, Apple should be wary of deploying it in the iPhone 5. Ever since the debut of Avatar, 3D has been fraught with averse, well-documented side-effects that call into question whether man was meant for 3D technology. Remember: this isn’t the 3D technology of old, complete with the funny-looking 3D glasses. Next-generation 3D technology renders images in holographic fashion by projecting images in staggered frames, so that each eye is processing images at different intervals, thus creating a three-dimensional image in the brain.
When Avatar was released, the use of 3D imagery, together with the larger-than-life, computer-generated landscapes, drove a portion of viewers to experience a broad scope of side-effects, from short-term nausea and dizziness to more serious long-term side-effects like depression and suicidal thoughts. TechRadar has an article that documents the phenomenon, with writer Marc Chacksfield reporting on how the realism of the film, combined with the utopic landscape of Pandora, left many moviegoers feeling empty and depressed. This combination of realism with other-wordliness has been attributed to 3D imagery.
In short, James Cameron opened Pandora’s Box.
Cameron and other filmmakers tried to shrug off the early criticism of the dangers of 3D technology, but newer news of the ill effects of 3D in Nintendo’s 3DS has corroborated the claims that not enough is understood about the effects of 3D imagery on the brain. A recent article in the Sun reports on how sickening side-effects have plagued Nintendo’s wondrous new portable game console, reporting on Nintendo’s damage-control disclaimer that “the console is not safe for under-sevens and advised playing in 3D mode for less than 30 minutes.”
Considering that the whole point of buying the 3DS is to play games in 3D, this development should give Apple pause if they were thinking of releasing the iPhone 5 with any kind of 3D technology.
The fact of the matter is, the research on the effects of 3D has not yet caught up with the actual technology. It is a temptation to think that as humans, if we can build it, then it must be safe. After all, there are plenty of human developments over the past century that are both groundbreaking and unwieldy (nuclear energy and that scary supercollider in Switzerland immediately come to mind). Apple is most likely looking to hit a home run with the iPhone 5, but they should be careful playing with 3D tech right now — it is an unknown quantity.
And if the iPhone 5 does end with a 3D screen and/or camera, my advice would be to consider waiting to see the effects on users first before buying it.

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iPhone 5 Coming In June After All? Don’t Be Holding Your Breath In Anticipation

 

Charles Moore sorts out the conflicting reports about the iPhone 5 release date.

When it comes to the iPhone 5 release date, who are you going to believe? U.S. sources and Wall St. say it will come in late summer/early fall. Asian sources say the iPhone 5 is on track for June. How can you sort it all out? Charles Moore explains:
I’ve been following Apple new product releases attentively for nearly 20 years now, and I’ve concluded that the only certainty about them is that nothing is certain until the official announcement. Consequently, I think the best policy is to be interested, but not too impatient, or put much serious stock in rumors.
And so it is with the iPhone 5. Everyone knows it’s coming, but no one, except Steve Jobs and his coterie of closest confidants knows when. Indeed, it’s possible that even the Cupertino inner circle doesn’t yet know the precise release date, which may be partly contingent on renewed supplies of components that had been sourced in Japan prior to the earthquake/tsunami disaster.
Until about a month ago, it had been widely anticipated that Apple would introduce the iPhone 5 at the annual Worldwide Developers Conference that starts June 6 at Moscone West in San Francisco. This seemed a relatively safe guess based on past history, since iPhone releases and updates have been a tradition (if you can call anything that’s only been in place since 2008 traditional) at the WWDC over the past few years. However, this year maybe not so much.
As noted, about a month ago, some of the rumor mills began pulling in their horns a bit and suggesting that the iPhone 5 might be might not be ready in time for the WWDC after all, and that its release date might be pushed back until late summer or even into October or November. In any case, the arrivedat general consensus for the past couple of weeks has been pretty much that the iPhone 5 won’t be coming in June, especially after Apple posted a press release on March 28 saying that at this years five-day conference Apple will unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS, including demonstrations of the new kinds of apps developers can build using Apples advanced frameworks, and more than 100 technical sessions presented by Apple engineers.
At this years conference we are going to unveil the future of iOS and Mac OS, Philip Schiller, Apples senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing commented in the release. If you are an iOS or Mac OS X software developer, this is the event that you do not want to miss.
Nothing on the agenda about the iPhone 5 or any other hardware. That’s more unequivocal than Apple usually gets about conforming or denying major product releases and events. the inference I draw from it is a pretty categorical no iPhone or any other major hardware announcements at the WWDC, although it’s not completely beyond the realm of possibility, however remote, that Steve Jobs might be planning one of his patented one more thing surprise announcements in a keynote. I wouldn’t bet on it though, and it’s more likely that the ailing Mr. Jobs might not even show up at the conference.
However, on Tuesday, several news sites linked to a report on the Korean site ETNews.co.kr, declaring that Steve Jobs had confirmed a direct public iPhone 5 release coming at an Apple special event during the 4th week of June depending on how you parse the translation. My Korean is non-existant, and even Google Translate seemed to have difficulty producing coherent prose from the report. you can check it out for yourself here: http://bit.ly/gzTxtE
Anyway, the rumor mills cranked up, even though it would be peculiar, to say the least, for Apple to “confirm” a release date for the iPhone 5 to a Korean Website before announcing it in the U.S. In counterpoint, The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple, a former MacCentral and Macworld staffer who is well-connected in the Apple orbit, posted a categorical rebuttal, declaring that his sources tell him that rumors of an iPhone 5 release at the end of June are completely false.
I have no insider insights to relate, but based on experience and deduction, I’m in Jim Dalrymple’s camp on this one. Speculating about unreleased Apple products is fun, and Oriental news vendors, being closer to and better connected with the actual production sites, are often sources of leaked information about forthcoming Apple hardware that turns out to have been accurate, or at least in the ballpark, but they’ve also been known to be spectacularly wrong at times, and it’s prudent to take anything they report about unreleased Apple products with a big grain of salt.

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Did Sony CEO Howard Stringer Spill The Beans About An 8MP iPhone 5 Camera?

Will the iPhone 5 have an 8-megapixel camera?

We’re recently reported that very few new features appear to be solid for the iPhone 5. But a recent slip-up by the Sony CEO suggests that an 8-megapixel camera might be a definite upgrade for the next iPhone. read Charles Moore’s new article:
MacNN, Appleinsider,, CNET, and several other Apple-watcher sites reported over the weekend that Sony CEO Howard Stringer may have inadvertently revealed that Apple is gearing up to equip the iPhone 5 with an eight-megapixel camera.
9To5Mac’s Seth Weintraub, who attended the event, reports that Stringer, in a Talking Tech with Sony event interview with The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall in New York, commented that his company’s camera sensor plant at Sendai, Japan, is among 15 of the company’s facilities damaged by last month’s catastrophic earthquake and tsunami, and that the supply interruption will delay shipments of sensors to Apple. Since Sony sensors are not used in the iPhone versions 4 and 3GS, which employ 5-megapixel and 3.2 megapixel OmniVision camera sensors respectively, it’s not a major deductive leap to infer that the higher-resolution CMOS sensors sourced from Sony would most likely be destined for the next revision iPhone 5.
A PhoneArena blog from six weeks ago notes that OmniVision shares nosedived last summer when a rumor spread that due partly to complaints about a yellowish color shift in still photos shot with the OmniVision sensor camera, Apple might be moving to Sony for its next generation iPhone camera sensors — possibly Sony’s Exmor R sensor unit that is used in the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc and Xperia neo. That 8MP sensor is backlit to help it finesse low light conditions, similar to the way the iPhone 4′s 5MP OmniVision sensor does. Indeed, rumors of Apple dropping OmniVision in favor of Sony as its iPhone camera supplier are longstanding.
PhoneArena also reports that OmniVision has announced that it has an 8MP camera sensor of its own coming, the OV8820, which incorporates the same low-light performance enhancements, plus HD video at 60fps, and Full HD at 30fps, and which had been projected to begin mass production in March, but that production problems have occurred.
Not everyone agrees that Apple will use Sony CMOC camera sensors in the iPhone 5. Analyst Yair Reiner of Wall Street’s Oppenheimer & Co. is quoted by Appleinisider isaying he expects OmniVision to remain Apple’s camera supplier for the fifth-generation iPhone, corroborated by checks with contacts in Apple’s supply channels, dismissing the notion an Apple-Sony hook-up as “rather silly.”
Whatever, regardless of whether the iPhone 5‘s camera supplier is to be OmniVision or Sony, it looks like camera sensor supply problems may be a significant factor in Apple’s evidently postponing the iPhone 5 introduction from an anticipated Worldwide Developer’s Conference release until some time later in the year. With the iPad 2′s camera performance being that unit’s most unanimously panned feature in reviews, Apple will want to get the camera right in the iPhone 5, where it is arguably a much more important feature than it is with the tablet product.
Also, with Sony Ericsson rumored to be getting 12MP+ camera equipped phones ready for summer release, Apple will need at least the 8MP sensors to remain even ballpark competitive in that context.

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Will Apple’s A5 Processor Be Enough To Satisfy iPhone 5 Users?

Will the A5 chip be enough to propel the iPhone 5 to greatness?

Although many new features for the iPhone 5 have been speculated on, few seem to be set in stone — with the exception of the A5 processor. but if the A5 turns out to be the “crown jewel” of the iPhone 5 upgrade, will that be enough to excite iPhone users?
There’s no doubt that the most talked-about piece of news concerning the iPhone 5 has to be the release date. But a close second is the swirling debate about which features the iPhone 5 will boast. There has been a steady stream of reports about a wide range of different purported features, such as a larger screen, 8 megapixel camera, NFC technology, a non-existent home button, aluminum chassis, and more.
However, there seems to be no agreement on whether any of these features will actually materialize on the iPhone 5 — they seem to “here one week and gone the next.” Even the next iOS 5 operating system has been called into question as to whether or not it will appear on the iPhone 5, with analysts suggesting that it might not be ready until the Fall of 2011.
The only new development for the iPhone 5 that all of the reports and tech pundits seem to agree on is the A5 chip.
And this, of course, is the easiest feature to predict, since it has already seen mainstream application in this year’s new iPad 2. Thus far, the A5 processor has gotten rave reviews from analysts and users alike: tech-oriented folks appreciate the bold power of the A5 and foresee it as a trailblazer for even better things to come, while the average iPad 2 user just feels the improved speed and functionality.
That being said, there was more to the iPad 2′s successful launch than just the A5: the addition of a front- and rear-facing camera, cool gyro feature, industry-leading price, and a thinner and lighter chassis all contributed to the robust sales that the iPad 2 continues to enjoy. The A5 was the “under the hood” improvement from the original iPad, and one could argue that, while it is a key upgrade to the iPad, it isn’t the most “marketing friendly” feature for un-geeky tablet users.
With this mind, what if the A5 chip turns out to be the only significant upgrade for the iPhone 5? Will that be enough to energize iPhone users to the point where they’ll shell out big money to upgrade?
Probably not.
No matter how powerful the A5 processor may be, without some accompanying “bells and whistles” on the iPhone 5, few mainstream iPhone users will see the point in putting to rest their iPhone 4. This reality is precisely why Ferrari, Lambourghini, Porche, and other exotic car manufactuers put a beautiful body on their high-performance sports cars; if their cars looked like a Prius on the outside, no one would buy them at their price point, no matter how big their engines are. (And apologies to all you Prius drivers out there.)
Truth be told, iPhone users will be looking for one big feature to get excited about. Last year, it was the addition of the front-facing camera on the iPhone 4 that excited people. Apple was able to recycle that feature on the new iPad 2. But for the iPhone 5, the A5 processor alone won’t be enough to propel it past this year’s Droid offerings — and at this point, the A5 is the only feature we can bank on.
Let us know what you think about the A5 chip, and if it would be enough to get you excited about buying an iPone 5!

What You Need To Know About the A5 Processor
One way to get excited about the iPhone 5 — even if its only major upgrade from the iPhone 4 turns out to be its chip — is to fully understand and appreciate the power and performance of the A5 in its glory. First, some of the basic stuff: the A5 chip follows in the tradition of all Apple’s mobile processors in that it is a a package on package (PoP) system-on-a-chip (SoC). This means that the whole operating system fits on the chip itself, as compared to personal computers, where the OS is stored and runs off of the hard drive.
The A5 chip is manufactured by top-notch Samsung, and although Samsung has allowed Apple to keep their production costs down, all indications are that the A5 chip is pretty pricey to make. While Apple seemed willing to eat the extra cost of the A5 processor on the iPad 2, it remains to be seen if that will be the case for the iPhone 5 — it could see an uptick in its price point at the expense of a faster mobile computing experience.
The other cool thing about the A5 is that it is a dual-core processor. This means that the CPU has two independent cores that are integrated on one circuit. What does that mean for the layman? The dual-core set-up lets you multi-task at greater speed and fluidity — it’s like having “two computers in one.”
Speaking of speed, the A5 has lots of it. It has been rated at  1 GHz on the iPad 2. However, the chip can dynamically adjust itself to save battery life. The result is that the A5 processor is basically twice as fast as the old A4, and said to be nine times faster than the A4 on graphics. So if you love your graphics on the iPhone 4, wait until you see them running on an A5-powered iPhone 5!

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