iPhone 5: What to expect

While no one outside of Apple's inner circles know what it will be called — iPhone 5, newiPhone or something else altogether — all signs point to a new device on the market by the third week of September.

Between leaked photos out of Asia, patent filings, Foxconn CEO comments (the Chinese manufacturer responsible for building Apple's products), cellular carriers clearing stock of the iPhone 4S (and telling employees not to take a vacation between Sept. 21 through 30), it's pretty certain the iPhone 5 — let's just call it that for the time being — will be available in a month's time.

The new phone is expected to be officially announced on September 12, when preorders would also start, and available about a week later.

And let's face it: there's a lot riding on this release for Apple — now the most valuable company in history at more than $619 billion — to keep its momentum going in the right direction. By some analysts' predictions, Apple could be the world's first "trillion-dollar baby" if the new iPhone, a possible iPad mini and an iTV product all succeed.

OK, so what's the iPhone 5 going to have, you ask? A lot, by all accounts -- and we're not even referring to what's confirmed to be in the upcoming iOS 6 operating system. Let's take a look at what we know and what we think we know.

Bigger screen

It's not likely to be as big as the Samsung Galaxy S III's 4.8-inch display, but iPhone 5 will likely have a bigger screen than the 3.5-incher we've been staring at on the iPhone since it launched in 2007. According to photos leaked to MacRumors.com a few days ago, the new iPhone might be about 14 percent bigger, up to 4 inches in diameter. That's not a significant bump up in size, mind you, but certainly better for web browsing, messaging, ebooks, GPS navigation, games and video (in fact, the increase will likely change the aspect ratio from 3:2 to a widescreen 16:9). Apple will also pack more pixels on the taller screen, to ensure it's still a "Retina" display -- meaning its pixel density is so high the human eye is unable to distinguish individual dots.

Thinner body, bigger battery & new connector

The new screen — likely to be one of the biggest features in the iPhone 5 — will also be thinner, contributing to an even svelter smartphone. Apple was recently awarded a patent related to integrating touch sensors with the actual display circuits, opposed to placing the touch sensors on top of the LCD screen (currently, the way it's done). This will result in a thinner display, expected to trim the entire iPhone's depth by about 1.2mm.

On a related note, rumor has it the iPhone will have an all-new housing with a full metal back, replacing the breakable glass on the iPhone 4S.

As for the connectors, it seems the headphone jack has been moved from the top left of the phone to the bottom left, beside a small connector — 8- to 19-pin, allegedly — compared to the wide-mouth 30-pin connector in the current suite of iOS devices (iPhone, iPod touch, iPad) and the Apple nano, too. Unless there's an adaptor in the box to support the many thousands of accessories on the market, such as speaker docks, this change might frustrate current Apple customers. Apple is changing to this smaller dock connector on all future iOS products, various sources say.

On the subject of hardware, it's no secret the iPhone 4S battery is less than ideal for all of the phone's power-draining abilities. A leaked photo acquired by 9to5Mac points to a bigger battery in the iPhone 5 — but not by much. The current iPhone 4S sports a 1,430mAh battery (up from 1,420 mAh on the iPhone 4), and this photo shows a slightly better 1,440mAh battery, and upping to 3.8 volts from 3.7.

Let's just hope the new battery doesn't get as hot as the new iPad -- or take as long to charge it up.

New wireless tech

Speaking of smaller, there's talk (and photos) of a new nano SIM under the hood of iPhone 5 to give the iPhone cellular connectivity. Apple has been pushing for this as a standard for some time, so we'll soon see if iPhone 5 is the first to house this new SIM card.

Other changes to its wireless capabilities include 4G/LTE data speeds which take full advantage of the faster wireless networks available in select markets. For the uninitiated, "Long Term Evolution" cellular speeds rival if not exceed broadband Internet connections at home thanks to download speeds that top 72 Megabits per second -- though this number is "theoretical" opposed to slower "real world" performance. In areas without LTE support, the iPhone 5 would revert to HSPA+ (up to 21 Megabits per second downloads) or depending on the carrier, dual-carrier HSDPA for download speeds of up to 42 Megabits per second.

Already in the new iPad, LTE support in the iPhone 5 is extremely likely. That, and the Korea Timessays Apple has been in discussions with two Korean mobile carriers (SK Telecom and KT) to include iPhone 5 on their LTE networks.

While not as likely as LTE, the iPhone 5 might also include near-field communication (NFC), a small wireless radio that essentially turns the smartphone into a digital wallet. This would allow iPhone users to tap-and-pay at supporting retailers and vending machines. Similar to Google Wallet, an iWallet app would be linked to your credit card or bank account. There are other applications for NFC-based smartphones, too, such as easily exchanging information with another smartphone, swiping to access information or media (such as poster of a movie to download a trailer) and to get on a bus or in your condo.

Apple recently acquired AuthenTec, a digital security company that makes, among other things, fingerprint sensors used in laptops. MacDailyNews suggests the fingerprint reader could beembedded in the Home button. Cool.

With all of these unknowns, here's one think you can bank on: whatever the new iPhone will be called, whenever it'll be available and regardless of what it can do, this will be the biggest tech event of the year -- and perhaps propel Apple towards being the first thirteen digit company. iOutstanding.

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Police Embracing Tech That Predicts Crimes

For Something That Predicts The Future, The Software is Deceptively Simple Looking. 

A map of a city is marked up with small red squares, each indicating a 500-by-500-foot zone where crimes are likely to take place next. A heat-map mode shows even more precisely where cars may be stolen, houses robbed, people mugged.
The program is called PredPol, and it calculates its forecasts based on times and locations of previous crimes, combined with sociological information about criminal behavior and patterns. The technology has been beta tested in the Santa Cruz, California police department for the past year, and in an L.A. police precinct for the past six months, with promising results.
Predictive-analytics software is the latest piece of policing technology working its way into law-enforcement stations around the country, although it's going up against tight budgets, bureaucracy and a culture still clinging to its analog ways.

We had to try something because we were not being offered more cops," said Zach Friend, a crime analyst with the Santa Cruz Police Department. Last year, Friend contacted researchers working on the algorithm -- originally used for predicting earthquake aftershocks -- after reading an article in the LA Times.>>


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At the time, his city had experienced a 30% increase in crime and a 20% decrease in police staff. He knew they had to try something.
At first the Santa Cruz police department used the software to estimate where home, car and vehicle burglaries might take place, handing printouts of the maps to officers at the start of their shifts. Later it expanded it to bike thefts, battery, assault and prowling. The city has seen a 19% reduction in burglaries over the past year.
While these kinds of experiments are promising, most police stations are still a far cry from the futuristic headquarters we see on TV shows like CSI. Real police departments lag behind your typical American teenager when it comes to technology -- some police cars still record video on VHS tapes, and it's not uncommon to fill out a police report on carbon paper.
Last month, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee announced plans to develop a smartphone app that would allow officers to file police reports from the field. But SFPD chief information officer, Susan Giffin, told the Bay Citizen the department doesn't have the budget to buy smartphones on which to run the app. (San Francisco police officers only got e-mail addresses for the first time last year.)
Thankfully for crime fighters, it's not all landlines, beepers and fax machines. Cool new crime-fighting technology is still being developed and tested by agencies around the country. There are gadgets such as Taser's small wearable cameras for police and other security professionals. The units can mount on a pair of Oakley sunglasses or a shirt collar, and they have accompanying Android and iOS apps.
In Southern Florida, many police departments are using portable fingerprint scanners to ID suspects and bring up any outstanding warrants on the spot. The smartphone-sized devices cost $2,500 apiece.
A ShotSpotter system uses microphones positioned around a city to detect gunshots and triangulate their location within 40 to 50 feet. A human at ShotSpotter's headquarters confirms if it's a gunshot and alerts the police. The system starts at $40,000 for every square mile of coverage.
Some of the more widely adopted tech is decidedly low-budget. Police can Google suspects and check their Facebook profiles to gather information. Friend says the Santa Cruz department has had more luck posting photos of wanted suspects to the official department Facebook page than through traditional police channels. (The unusually tech-savvy department also has a Twitter account, blog, and YouTube channel.)
Now predictive policing software is picking up steam, thanks to a few well-publicized test cases, low overhead and impressive drops in crime rates that, while they can't be directly tied to any one initiative, bode well for the maps.
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PredPol is new to the field, but IBM has been testing predictive policing software since 2010, using databases of past crimes and information like timing and weather to identify trends and map out predictions. The company has worked with police departments in Memphis, New York City, and most recently Charleston, South Carolina.
A final hurdle for all types of new technology is getting the officers themselves to adopt and use it.
"Law enforcement agencies historically are conservative in their approach to change. That includes to adopting all kinds of technology, from computers in the cars to even radios," said Friend. A new generation of police who have grown up immersed in technology will likely help ease the transition by communicating to older officers that the new tools only enhance what they already know.
Seasoned patrol cops rely on their instincts, developed over years of experience walking the same streets and patrolling familiar neighborhoods. Experts say this new technology can cut down on paperwork and make policing more efficient so the police can focus on what they do best.
"It doesn't replace what they do," said Friend of PredPol. "When they get into those locations, they still need to be good cops."
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Source: cnn.com


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