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.

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!

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The iPhone 5s: fingerprint sensor and improved camera

As expected, Apple's just announced the iPhone 5s, its latest flagship smartphone. It runs iOS 7, and looks almost exactly like the iPhone 5 but comes in different colors: silver, a new "space gray," and gold — as was heavily rumored. The standout feature is Touch ID, which is an integrated fingerprint sensor in the new sapphire home button that scans your "sub-epidermal layers" at 500 points per inch to read your fingerprint and unlock the phone. You can also authenticate purchases, so buying apps, music, and movies in iTunes and the App Store just got a lot easier. There's a capacitive ring around the home button that activates the sensor, and it can read your fingerprint in any orientation. You can also have it authenticate multiple fingerprints, so you can share your phone with specific family members without having to reveal your passcode.

Importantly, fingerprints are encrypted and stored locally on the A7 chip in the phone itself — Apple says fingerprints aren't available to apps, nor are they sent to any servers or shared with iCloud.

The iPhone 5s will start at $199 for the 16GB model on a two-year contract, with 32GB for $299 and 64GB for $399. It'll go on sale September 20th, and Apple says the 5s will reach 100 countries and over 270 carriers by December. To help with that international expansion, the company has built in support for 13 LTE bands, which it claims is the highest number found in any smartphone.

A NEW TOUCH ID FINGERPRINT SENSOR AND M7 MOTION COPROCESSOR

As for internals, the iPhone 5s has a new A7 chip, which Apple says is the first 64-bit chip in a smartphone; iOS 7 and the built-in apps are all 64-bit optimized. That all adds up to what Apple claims is up to a 40x bump in CPU speed and a 56x bump in graphics performance (compared to the original iPhone), as well as support for OpenGL ES 3.0. Apple demoed Infinity Blade 3, which looked pretty astounding.

The 5s also has a new M7 "motion co-processor," which continuously measures motion data from the accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass — it's there to enable "a new generation of health and fitness apps." It works with a new CoreMotion API in iOS 7 that identifies user motion. It sounds a lot like the dedicated motion core in the new Moto X.

Apple iPhone 5s and 5c: everything you need to know

Apple’s iPhone event on Tuesday brought us the two new devices we expected — and not much else. At a comparatively subdued and small event, the company replaced last year’s iPhone 5 with two models: the iPhone 5c, a colorful plastic phone that starts at $99, and the iPhone 5s, a high-end device that includes a 64-bit A7 chip, an enhanced camera, and a fingerprint sensor called Touch ID. Not seen today: iPad, iPod, or the mythical iWatch. The new phones arrive September 20th. Here’s what you can expect in the new models.

iPhone 5s

The heavily leaked iPhone 5s is official — and yes, it comes in gold. Though the new color schemes are flashy — you can get the phone in silver, gold, or a darker “space gray” — the biggest changes are internal, with a new A7 chip that’s been reengineered for 64-bit architecture. Apple claims this will make the 5s several times faster than its predecessor. The camera has been updated with a new, larger Apple-designed sensor and a host of other features, and as rumored, the home button is now also a fingerprint scanner. The iPhone 5s is competing against its cheaper, “unapologetically plastic” counterpart, starting at a heftier $199 on contract for a 16GB model. But Apple’s hoping to make it worth the money withhigh-end design and a laundry list of fancy specs.

iPhone 5s camera

The iPhone has always had one of the best smartphone cameras, and Apple is hoping to keep that primacy. While the 5s still bears an 8-megapixel camera, Apple’s new f/2.2 aperture sensor is 15 percent larger than the previous one, and a redesigned flash can blend its two LED lights to preserve a scene’s natural color balance. Apple has paired the hardware with a series of software features, adding things like a 28-megapixel panorama creator and a “burst mode” that captures a series of pictures and picks the best one. Apple may not be emphasizing camera quality quite as heavily as competitor Nokia, but if today’s demos are any indication, it’s still significantly upping the ante.

Touch ID

Apple has also confirmed the weirdest rumored feature of the iPhone 5s: a fingerprint sensor built right into the home button. Called Touch ID, it’s a substitute for the traditional PIN or password, with a thin capacitive sensor layered on top of the button. While the obvious use is unlocking your phone, it can also be used to verify purchases and can handle multiple fingerprints from different users. In light of the current fears about data security, Apple’s promising the fingerprint will only be stored locally; the company says you’ll never see it uploaded to iCloud or any other Apple server, though that’s unlikely to completely quell privacy concerns.

iPhone 5C

The long-rumored iPhone 5c starts at $99 on a two-year contract, and marks Apple’s return to color. The multicolored iPhone is built from a single piece of polycarbonate, and is available in green, white, blue, red, and yellow — Jony Ive described the phone in his trademark way, noting that it’s “beautifully, unapologetically plastic.” The phone features a 4-inch Retina display, A6 chip, and an 8-megapixel iSight camera (the same as the iPhone 5), as well as an improved FaceTime HD camera on the front . Also available are custom, soft-feel rubber slipcases for $29 each based on the iOS7 color scheme. Though it is indeed a cheaper iPhone, the difference is more dramatic on contract; if you want to buy it unlocked, it starts at $549, in comparison to the $649 5s.

iOS 7

Most of iOS 7’s features were revealed at WWDC back in June, and there weren’t any big surprises this time around. But we did get one very important date: September 18th, the day that customers with existing devices can get the latest version. Anyone with an iPhone 4S, iPad mini, second-generation or newer iPad, or fifth-generation iPod touch will have the option to upgrade, and Apple’s throwing in a free set of its productivity apps for new iOS device buyers. iTunes Radio, the Pandora-like streaming music service, will also roll out on the 18th. This release date is a couple days before the iPhone 5s and 5c come out, but nobody’s really getting a sneak peek here — plenty of early adopters have been experimenting with the beta for months.

iPhone 5S photos