IPhone 5s Camera Specifications

As a part of the iPhone 5s announcement today, Apple is eager to talk about the improved camera. It's got a 5-element lens with an aperture of f/2.2 on top of a sensor with a surface area 15 percent larger than the device it replaces (though it's still 8 megapixels). Larger sensors typically mean low-light sensitivity is improved — you can take better pictures with less noise with less illumination.

But when you do need illumination, the new iPhone's "True Tone" dual-LED flash — with different color temperatures on each LED — kicks into action. It's been rumored for quite some time, a possible boon for low-light photographers who dread the washed-out look and unnatural coloration that a typical flash offers.

Like the Galaxy S4, Apple's putting emphasis on the 5s' burst mode and slow-motion capabilities — the phone can take up to 10 shots per second. For slow motion, the video camera can take 720p at 120 frames per second.

The new sensor is perhaps a bigger deal: it's been two generations since the iPhone last got an upgrade in this department (though the 5 featured improved optics).

New M7 processor for enhanced fitness apps

At its keynote today, Apple announced the M7 "motion coprocessor," a key feature in the iPhone 5s, which measures the accelerometer, compass, and gyroscope continuously in the device. The processor identifies user movement and can tell apps if you're stationary, walking, or driving based on what Phil Schiller calls "contextual awareness." Schiller briefly demoed the functionality with a new app from Nike called Nike+ Move that tracks your activity and ties in with Game Center.

Apple frequently shows off its favourite apps that take advantage of new hardware or software features in its upcoming devices. Last year, Apple demoed Real Racing 3's performance on its new A6 processor.

The Apple A7: new iPhone 5S processor >> 64 bit & 40 times faster

Smartphone processors get faster every year, and the new iPhone certainly isn't bucking that trend. The iPhone 5S will come with the Apple A7, a new 64-bit system-on-chip Phil Schiller described as "a leap forward." Schiller said the A7 is "up to twice as fast" as its predecessor, introducing speed gains in both performance and graphics. Apple's iOS operating system has been completely rebuilt to take full advantage of the chip's 64-bit architecture, Schiller said. The company brought Epic Games on stage to showcase the increased horsepower provided by the A7 with its latest title, Infinity Blade III. Schiller said that in certain instances, the A7 offers CPU boosts 42 times faster than the original iPhone, with graphics up to 56 times faster

Working alongside the A7 is a new M7 chip, which Apple describes as a "motion coprocessor." Its sole purpose is to continually track motion data, and Apple says the M7 will enable developers to create "a new generation" of fitness applications for iOS.

 Last year, Apple announced that both the Apple A6 and Apple A6X processors doubled the CPU and GPU performance of their predecessors in the phone and tablet realms. That was a pretty incredible leap for silicon year over year, and yet many were expecting Apple to do the same today, in order to catch up to or potentially even leapfrog the latest chips from Qualcomm, Nvidia, and Samsung. It sounds like that might have come to pass. Rumors also flew that Apple might finally make the move to quad-core, as the A6 and A6X each have only two CPU cores, which doesn't seem to be the case. Rumors did, however, correctly predict the move to 64-bit.

Apple's new iPhone will read your fingerprint

Biometric security has arrived on the smartphone — again. For the first time since Motorola’s Atrix 4G arrived in 2011, a major US mobile device will carry a fingerprint scanner. The iPhone 5s’s new Touch ID sensor, embedded in the home button, will allow for faster and more secure logins, Apple said today at its event in Cupertino. The scanner, which uses technology Apple acquired last year when it bought security company AuthenTec for $356 million, will ship with the new iPhone on September 20th. It will not ship with the iPhone 5c.

The fingerprint scanner allows users to log in more quickly, Apple said, and will help prevent unauthorized access from someone who guessed or stole the owner’s pass code or phrase. It can also be used to make purchases in iTunes. The fingerprint is stored on the device and never backed up to the cloud, the company added.

The scanner is designed to address the fact that about half of iPhone customers don't bother setting up a passcode, Apple's Phil Schiller said on stage today.

This is the gold iPhone 5s

Love it or hate it, the gold iPhone is real. You may be one of the naysayers who calls it tacky, but admit it, you know deep inside that you probably adore it — humans just have an unnatural attraction to gold. What do you need to know about the new model other than the glamour shots below? Well, Apple says it'll be available alongside the slate and silver models, and it's officially called gold, not champagne, if you were wondering. And a fun fact before you check out those photos: the last time Apple made a broadly available device in gold was with the original iPod Mini nearly a decade ago. Gold's back!

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
•