When the iPhone 6 Plus launched a year ago, users quickly started noticing that the device would bend when put in pockets and put under moderate levels of pressure. Dubbed ‘bendgate,’ the issue overshadowed much of the iPhone 6 Plus launch and with the release of the iPhone 6s Plus, Apple claims that it has made changes to the device to make it more sturdy…
via <a href="https://twitter.com/iPhonemods/status/647119325090807808" target="_blank">Twitter</a>
While at least one person in the United States has already received their iPhone 6s after pre-ordering with the rest of us, iPhone 6s launch day has officially kicked off on the other side of the planet. The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus go on sale at 8 am local time in a dozen markets around the world. New Zealand goes first at authorized resellers as there are no Apple Stores in the country, then the first Apple Stores in Australia two hours later, followed Japan and China and others before starting in the United States 16 hours from the start.
Earlier this week, all models and configurations of iPhone 6s and 6s Plus became sold out online for pre-ordering with launch day delivery. The larger iPhone 6s Plus models were among the first to sell out for launch day, although that may be in part due to display production issues and not just demand. Still, Apple Stores and carriers alike will have limited launch day inventory if you’ve waited and decide to take a gamble at getting the model you want.
Do you plan to queue up outside your Apple Store for the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus this year or did you send your robot instead? Send your launch day photos to tips@9to5mac.com and check out the scenes below as you await your new iPhone.
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Ahead of the launch of the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus tomorrow, National Geographic today published a set of photos shot on the new device. Apple’s SVP of Marketing Phil Schiller pointed us to the article, which follows photographer Mark Leong reflecting on his history of shooting with various devices in China over the last 25 years. Head below for a look at the photos shot on Apple’s new flagship iPhone…
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The carriers really are getting carried away trying to sell you an iPhone 6s as they respond to Apple’s own Upgrade Program. T-Mobile got the ball rolling with a $125 discount on an 18-month plan, before later offering an iPhone 6s from just $5/month if you trade in your iPhone 6 as part of the deal. Sprint has now responded with a similar deal for just $1/month.
This new offer is part of Sprint’s iPhone Forever program, which allows new and upgrade-eligible Sprint customers to get the newest iPhone as soon as it is available.
Of course, the old adage applies: if a deal seems too good to be true, it is too good to be true …
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Apple has started sending out shipping notifications for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, right on schedule for Friday delivery. The shipment notifications are likely rolling out over the next few hours so don’t worry if you haven’t gotten your dispatched notification just yet. Unless your iPhone is delayed by the Pope, you should be just fine getting your iPhone on launch day — September 25th.
The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus launch is right around the corner and today we’re taking a closer look at Apple’s new Leather Case and Lightning Dock. These accessories are about as simple as it gets, but keep that Apple vibe going on if that’s what you’re going for…
T-Mobile CEO John Legere has tweeted that iPhone 6s preorders are more than 30% higher than those of the iPhone 6 last year. While there have been a number of clues that the iPhone 6s launch was going to be big, this is the first sign of any hard data.
Apple said a week ago that it was ‘on pace’ to beat last year’s opening weekend record of 10M sales, Phil Schiller later adding that customer response had been “incredibly positive.” We’ve also seen that the first batch of both 6s and 6s Plus are sold out worldwide for delivery by Friday …
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Pixelmator today released the latest version of its photo editor for iPhone and iPad, Pixelmator version 2.1. The update brings full support for iPad iOS 9 multitasking, the ability to import and edit 8K resolution images, Open-In-Place document management across iOS and more.
As part of general improvements for iOS 9, such as adoption of Apple’s new system font (San Francisco) in the UI, the primary change is the addition of the iPad multitasking support. This means Pixelmator can now be docked to the side of the screen using Slide Over. On more recent iPads, you can also pop Pixelmator into Split View for true 2-app side-by-side multitasking.
The reviews for the iPhone 6s came out yesterday and it was generally agreed that 3D Touch is a substantial advancement in the iPhone’s UI and interaction experience. However, most reviewers focused on how you can use the pressure-sensitive display to bring up quick actions on the Home Screen or peek at content in apps without navigating all the way in. These are good examples (and certainly the ones Apple touts the most on its website) but 3D Touch has the potential for many more custom uses within apps and games.
Though the vast majority of advance iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus reviews spoke only superficially about the performance of Apple’s latest cameras, several reviewers have spotlighted major performance improvements over the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus that weren’t obvious from Apple’s marketing materials.
Much of the pre-release attention has been focused on Live Photos, higher megapixel counts, and the ease of 3D Touch access to the cameras, all noted by Apple during its September 9 media event. But there are other points to consider…
Spigen’s first round of affordable new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus cases were ready to order even before Apple’s September 9 special event. Now that the iPhones are about to hit stores, Spigen has a new collection of slim protective cases ready, and you’re going to love them.
The lineup starts with a minimalist sub-$10 case that can magnetically attach to your car’s dashboard. Next, for under $15, you can get a shock-absorbing clear case that shows your new iPhone’s “S” badge or rose gold color. Or if you want to add wireless charging and a drop-proof case to your iPhone for under $30, you can. Below, you’ll see how Spigen has covered all of those bases, and more…
The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus are launching in just four days time and right on schedule the embargo on reviews have been lifted. Apple is touting the new phones as major updates over the 6 and 6 Plus, with 12-megapixel camera and 4K video recording, ‘3D Touch’ pressure-sensitive display to enable quick actions across the OS, Live Photos and more. We’ve already seen an early hands on with the iPhone 6s thanks to an early delivery but now the official tech reviews are live.
So what’s the verdict? We’ve rounded up the highlights below from those lucky enough to get the phones early …
Ahead of the official launch on Friday, Apple has now sold out out of all iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus on Apple.com in the US and worldwide, twelve launch countries in total. The earliest delivery quote you can now get for a new iPhone is September 29th. The iPhone 6S Plus has been sold out for about a week now and now the 6s has followed suit, four days ahead of release.
How does the upgraded camera on the iPhone 6s Plus perform under real-world conditions? Today we get our best look yet thanks to a photo gallery of a recent MLB game shot by photographer Brad Mangin for Sports Illustrated.
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Like iPhone 6s, the iPhone 6s Plus will also have a smaller battery than its predecessor. Chinese website Apple.Club.TW has obtained photos of the iPhone 6s Plus battery that clearly show a capacity of 2750 mAH (milliampere hour). This is compared to 2915 mAH battery in the iPhone 6 Plus, about a 5% reduction. This mirrors the already-known battery capacity reduction in the 4.7 inch iPhone 6s, which has a 1715 mAH battery. This is also 5% smaller than the 1810 mAH battery in the iPhone 6.
The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus won’t hit shelves until 8 am Friday morning, but Apple Stores have already been offering both leather and silicone cases from Apple’s new collection.
If you stop by a retail store to buy one of the new color options for your iPhone 6 or 6 Plus or for your new model coming on Friday, you’ll notice a new approach to packaging the official iPhone cases.
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Apple has confirmed launch details for the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus — unsurprisingly the new phones go on sale Friday at 8 AM. Apple says that customer response to the iPhone 6s has been “incredibly positive” although the company is yet to release concrete preorder figures.
Apple also announced that iOS 9 has the fastest rate of adoption of any previous iOS release, with 50% of devices already using iOS 9, which was released last Wednesday.
Update 2: Apple has now released iOS 9.0.1 which — according to Apple — fixes the stuck ‘Slide to Upgrade’ problem for good.
Update: Apple has now added more steps to try and get your iPhone unfrozen …
Apple’s iOS 9 release went pretty smoothly all things considered, apart from initial server glitches and some performance issues on older devices. There was one big bug however, affecting a lot of people. After updating, the iPhone, iPad or iPod touch would freeze or get stuck on the ‘Slide to Upgrade’ screen. There was seemingly no way to get around it. Apple has now acknowledged the issue and published a fix … here’s the solution:
Update, Sept. 19: Vogue originally posted the wrong photos. They’ve now been updated with the correct images shot on iPhone 6s Plus.
Apple’s new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus won’t officially arrive for customers until September 25th, but Apple is giving the upgraded camera on the devices a real world test drive at New York Fashion Week. It appears Apple handed over a few of the unreleased phones to Vogue and they enlisted photographer Kevin Lu to shoot the show entirely with the new iPhone.
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Along with the new features, iOS 9 promised an improvement to the ‘foundation’ of iOS with performance boosts and battery usage improvements across the system. However, as always seems to happen with new versions of iOS, not all users are satisfied. There have been many reports that iOS 9 is causing lagginess, especially on older hardware such as the iPhone 5. Some phones are getting stuck on the ‘slide to upgrade’ screen and users are frozen out of their devices completely.
Seeing as iOS 9 supports all the same devices as iOS 8, it’s quite important that the OS runs well on all iPhones and iPads, not just the recent Apple devices with the faster A7 or A8 processors.
How has the iOS 9 affected your iPhone? Is it slower than before the update … or maybe it’s actually faster? Let us know with the following poll …
iOS 9 has now been out for 24 hours now and the first usage data is in. According to analytics from Mixpanel, iOS 9 has crossed the 12% adoption mark of all iOS devices one day after launch. Although 12% is a good figure, it is actually down a bit from last year’s rate of adoption of iOS 8, which managed 16% device penetration during the same period. This is despite iOS 9 actually being easier to update due to lower storage space requirements, but it’s possible that early server hiccups led some users to delay updating. Mixpanel says iOS 9 and iOS 8 are currently reporting similar upgrade paths:
iOS 9 has received 12% adoption in the last 24 hours and is being adopted similar to iOS 8 last year. However, one issue for it being substantially slow compared to iOS 7 is that servers are having trouble keeping up right now as people update.
iOS 7 continues to dwarf both iOS 8 and iOS 9 in terms of initial adoption, reaching over 20% penetration in its first day of availability. Data from 9to5Mac’s audience is more impressive with over 50% of readers already on iOS 9.0. Obviously, our data has a tendency to be heavily biased upwards because of our audience demographics.
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Update: LiquidSkin are currently selling a great screen protector for only $0.50 for both iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus. Add these to your cart and use the following promo codes:
The 3D-Touch pressure sensitive features in the new iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus is invisible to the eye but — at some level — its based off sensors in the screen that detect levels of pressure. This led some people to worry if plastic screen protectors and glass screen covers would impact the sensors, perhaps even prevent 3D Touch from working completely.
However, it turns out this is not the case. 3DTechtronics asked Apple SVP Phil Schiller about this issue in an email. Schiller responded and says it’s not a problem: “screen overlays that follow our guidelines will continue to work with 3D Touch”.
