Wesley's Tool-Box

Over the past 30 days of using the iPhone 5S, I've written several reviews of the phone on various aspects, as one of the first person to use it in Korea. I believe all the major points have been covered, and since the phone has been officially released in Korea last Friday, Here's a quick summary and link to each of the aspects that I took a look at.

1. Exterior [Click to Read]
Almost identical to iPhone 5 except the home button, flash, and colour.
The packaging box is smaller due to smaller charger.

2. Network Compatibility [Click to Read]
Unlocked iPhone 5S bought overseas will fully work in Korea, including LTE.

3. "Wideband" LTE Compatibility [Click to Read]
Yes, it's compatible.

4. Camera Speed [Click to Read]
At least twice as fast as iPhone 5. Slo-mo and burst modes work well.

5. Camera Quality [Click to Read]
Smoother photos, improved low light performance, and more natural flash.

6. Biometric Feature [Click to Read]
Convenient, fast, and moderately secure. Works with several body parts.

7. Motion Coprocessor [Click to Read]
Tracks your movement well without battery penalty. Great for fitness apps.

8. Performance Tests [Click to Read]
Twice as fast as iPhone 5 in CPU and GPU tests. LTE speeds remain the same.

9. Sensor Issues [Problems in iOS 7.0.2] [Fixed in iOS 7.0.3]
Accelerometer had calibration problems, but it was fixed in iOS 7.0.3.
Other sensors worked fine within margin of error.

10. Battery Performance [Click to Read]
Lasts slightly longer and charges slightly faster than iPhone 5.

There was another bright pass of International Space Station over the sky this evening. I set up my Canon SX50 HS camera on a nearby park and tried my best to take photos of them.

As always, photographing a tiny object moving at 1 arc degree per second at 50x zoom fully manually isn't really going to work out very well. Even if I somehow catch it at the edge of the frame, it'll exit it in about 1.6 seconds. It only took about 3 minutes for the station to go across the sky and I've only managed to get four shots of it, two of which I'm showing here. They're crops magnified by 2x.

Compared to my first attempt with the same camera, the shot on the left do show the solar panels on the station more distinctly. As the ISS streaked from west to east, its orientation as visible from the ground changed, as is evident between the two photos. It seems that it would be best to try photographing it as soon as it started becoming visible, as the shape looks more recognizable.

Photo 1(Left): 1200mm - ISO 200 - 1/400s (-3.1 mag.)
Photo 2(Right): 1200mm - ISO 200 - 1/200s (-3.9 mag.)
Camera: Canon SX50 HS
Location: Suwon, Korea

Even with excellent performance, lackluster battery life will tarnish the usability of a phone. It's thus natural to see if iPhone 5S has made any improvements with battery usage from the previous generation. Apple has targeted it to be at least as good as iPhone 5, so I wanted to see how the two really compares in real life use.

The official capacities are 5.45Wh (3.8V 1440mAh) for iPhone 5 and 5.92Wh (3.8V 1560mAh) for iPhone 5S, an 8.6% difference. So 5S could use a little more power and still stay even. The iPhone 5 I have has seen use for about two months, while iPhone 5S has been with me for a month. So both have relatively fresh batteries close to these original capacities.

With these in mind and full charge, I started using the two devices, which were running iOS 7.0.3 now, in the same manner throughout the day. This meant opening the same app and taking the same actions at the same time. It's an interesting experience, and because apparent responsiveness of the two devices are similar at casual use, it wasn't too difficult to carry out.

To even the playfield further, push notifications, push data and automatic app updates were disabled, while screen brightness was fixed to 33%, which is good for indoor use. WiFi and Bluetooth were both enabled, but not used, so LTE was responsible for data. Other settings like GPS and visual effects were kept on by default. So how did the draining of the battery turn out?

I've been wary of installing new OS upgrades on the server because it can easily mess up the custom configuration I set up. In fact, that was primarily the reason why my old iMac that ran my websites (including this one) until early this year ran Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) for 3 and a half years until it broke down. I passed upgrading to Lion (10.7) or Mountain Lion (10.8 ) all that time. I ultimately moved to Mountain Lion only because the new Mac mini that replaced the iMac required it.

This time was different. I had simplified the server configuration and kept track of the modifications. Basically, it was down to a couple of configuration files for built-in Apache server, and a separate MySQL installation. Downloading Mavericks (10.9) from the Mac App Store was what took most of the time. It was released as a free upgrade from anything that ran Snow Leopard and up, so there was a huge demand. Once the download was complete, I ran the installer, and it took about half an hour to complete.

I noticed that the websites were broken after the installation, as expected. However, checking the changes revealed that I only needed to fix the main Apache server configuration file. A couple of minutes of fiddling with the file later, the websites came back working properly. This was easily the fastest and the most trouble-free transition to the new major OS X version ever.

As a bonus, Apple had decided to make iWork upgrades to the just-released latest version for free, regardless of whether it was bought on DVD or on Mac App Store. My old copy of iWork '09 installed from the disc got properly upgraded, and the apps now show up in purchases list. Free OS and office suite upgrade, and smooth server transition. Apple has spoiled me.

While waiting for Apple to announce new products (the event took place on 2AM in Korea Standard Time) for 2013 holiday season, I tried another shot at taking photos of Jupiter with SX50 HS while its Great Red Spot was facing Earth. It's still not very discernible even after post-processing, but I think the wrinkle at the right-hand edge is likely to be it.

Incidentally, Io and Europa were visually close together, but the camera was able to distinguish between the two. Maybe I should try to take the photos while Jupiter is higher up in the sky - it should have less atmospheric disturbance. You can see the stacked photos of the planet and the satellites before composition if you keep reading.