The Announcements

If you were hoping for revolutionary, and were disappointed by the evolutionary announcements from Apple on September 10, take a break from hype and the haters to see it for what it is. I'm not going to describe every feature and curve of the phone, Apple are masters of that, so start by having a look at their website if you missed what's new.

A7 64bit Processor

64bit processors matter where you're dealing with math that can't fit into 32bit. The obvious winner from this is the iPhone 5S and later owner. This would seem to indicate that Apple is serious about security since one of the key benefits is cryptography.

Another key benefactor of 64bit architecture is graphics. There will be a new iPad soon and having better gaming graphics was highlighted in the iPhone keynote. Harmonizing 64bit apps across the top sellers makes perfect sense.

Touch ID

Apple's mysterious new fingerprint scanner to unlock your phone and purchase items from the App Store, some have commented is one of few innovations in this latest generation of iPhone. On the surface, it definitely sounds as though Apple has taken the time to do this properly out of the gate.

Security-wise, it stores your impression as an encrypted hash. This is good, as it means that even if someone were to somehow gain access to the stored information representative of your fingerprint, it would be useless to them.

Although it's early to make a call, many who understand biometrics are claiming that simply analyzing a print without measuring temperature leaves the iPhone 5S open to spoofing by lifting prints and copying them on a 3D printer. Once the phone is in the hands of the public, we'll have the answer, because you just know there's a line up of hack attempts waiting for it.

Still, the fact that Apple is putting their money where their mouth is by allowing purchases from their store, says a lot about their confidence in this new feature.

The M7 coprocessor

This power saving addition has had very little mention versus the 64bit architecture, Touch ID and what the phone doesn't have. But even though Phil Schiller only mentioned fitness uses for the M7, this isn't to say that it won't have strong benefits to mapping and navigation. Trying to navigate in areas with spotty GPS coverage can be helped tremendously by a low powered coprocessor that can continue to report direction, movement and orientation even durning a loss of coverage.

What's most interesting about the M7 chip is not the stated use, but the potential uses from constantly tracking how an iPhone is oriented and what direction its facing. Is the phone moving and if so, how fast? This is significantly important realtime data.

True Tone Flash

I'm personally an iPhone user and strong admirer of the great innovations in Android and the phones that are challenging Apple to keep their composure. One thing that has kept me content with iPhone is the exceptionally good photos (for a phone anyway).

There's no question that Phil Schiller caused an outburst from many photographers by stating the iPhone 5S camera was in anyway DSLR level. Every iPhone is said to have a better camera than before, higher this and bigger that.

But what is exceptionally important is the idea that we can now have smartphone cameras that will balance flash photography before taking the picture. This is a big deal, since up to this point, smartphone flash photography has been a dismal effort.

iOS 7

Let face facts, the real changes are coming with iOS 7. Borrowing from Android, features like control center to put common settings in one panel will make the iPhone easier to use.

Another long awaited improvement is the ability to store passwords on the iPhone. Perhaps Apple just wasn't satisfied with their previous security capabilities, but it's been odd to have this feature only exist in MacOS until now. Regardless, you won't find me personally giving up the security and convenience of LastPass unless the NSA forces them to shut down.

AirDrop for iPhone makes perfect sense as a simple way to share photos between iPhones. This has been a wonderful feature to use since it was introduce to MacOS. Emailing or sharing via the cloud is not at all difficult, but AirDrop trumps it in terms of easy to use sharing with other iPhone users in close range. Unfortunately, you will need to have at least an iPhone 5, 4th gen iPad, iPad mini, 5th gen iPod Touch and iCloud to take advantage of AirDrop in iOS 7.

iTunes Radio, while seemingly a me too product to competing services like Pandora, Spotify, Rdio, etc., some have pointed out that they are only being served music related ads, which helps with discovery of even more music.

What's missing?

Let's face it, haters are going to hate, so let's put it all out on the table.

NFC

There's no NFC (Near Field Communication) for paying at designated stores and coffee shops. I really wanted this feature when it first stated to appear in the Google Nexus phones, but the adoption in North America has been so slow that technologies like Geo-fencing, used by Square and others have made it almost obsolete before it's really even taken root.

It's rumored that Apple is testing low energy Bluetooth radio as an alternate mobile payment system and will bypass NFC altogether.

5G WiFi

Apple skipped adding the new, faster WiFi known as 802.11ac or 5G. Possibly because of its effect on battery life. I tested a Samsung S4 for 802.11ac performance with the latest Archer C7 router from TP-Link. While the speed was nice, I didn't find that it was a significantly better experience than similar phones with only 802.11n. While my testing did not involve battery capacity, users of the first two phones with 802.11ac, the HTC One and Samsung S4, have complained that their phones need charging more frequently than the previous HTC One and Samsung S3.

Bigger Screen Size

Although many were still hoping to see screen sizes like the Android phones are getting, it was pretty obvious that if the leaked images were true, as they turned out to be, then the next iPhone screen would not grow in size, and that turned out to be accurate.

Apple has no need to follow the other phone manufactures in widening their screen size. While it seems an attractive feature, many don't want a phone that fills their pocket more or feels larger in their hand. I've heard as many complaints as praises for the size of these larger phones. Many think it's what they want until they start using the phone regularly and discover it's larger than what is comfortable for them.

While I'm not betting against Apple eventually increasing the iPhone screen size, I wouldn't be surprised to find that they resist increasing it longer than expected.

What are your thoughts about the iPhone 5S? Has Apple missed the mark or are you planning to purchase when they're available beginning September 20?

What features were you hoping for that you'll now have to wait and see if they appear in iPhone 6?

Please leave me your comments or send me a Tweet @dougkrug