Wesley's Tool-Box

Apple had a big product release day just a few hours ago, with new OS X, iPads, and Macs coming out. While it was left out of the announcement, iOS 7 also had a new point release just after the presentation at Cupertino ended. iOS 7.0.3 lists a lot of changes and fixes, and among them is a mention that the accelerometer calibration was fixed. I personally checked on this issue earlier. What better way to verify the fix than actually seeing it for myself?

As you can see, the problematic horizontal tilt measurement of iPhone 5S is now in agreement with the other iPhones. I can also hold the device up and see that it's reporting fairly accurately. Same can be said for the other measurements, which you can see if you decide to keep reading below.

It seems Apple didn't make an independent patch for this problem and instead lumped it together with other fixes since it wasn't a critical one. At least it came out just a month after the first release and before the release in Korea, so I'm glad the Korean users wouldn't have to be concerned from the get-go.

There has been some talk about the sensor (accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass) readings of iPhone 5S being inaccurate, and since those are handled by M7, some are blaming the chip for the problem. I can't verify this claim, but I have multiple iPhones, so I can tell you if iPhone 5S strays far from the norm.

First of all, the compass seems to be doing fine. As you can see here, 5S is getting the same reading as 5, and not far from 4S's. As I moved these devices around, the readings from 4S, 5, and 5S were basically within 5 degrees of each other. 3GS was the actual standout, giving noticeably different readings from the rest of the devices. This could be due to the device's old age.

I should note that putting two phones close to each other, as some people have done to show the differences, is not a good idea. The phones affect each other's magnetic readings from the electromagnetic noise that they generate, making both units' compass deviate. It's akin to putting a magnet next to a real compass. This is why I gave the phones a bit of room. I would disregard any reports of compass error that show the photos of phones being right next to each other.

But what about the measurement of tilt as detected by gyroscopes and accelerometers? Let's take a look at those, too.

These screenshots tell you about the reality of SKT (Korea's #1 mobile carrier by subscriber count) LTE network working on iPhone 5S.

First of all, the so-called "wide band" LTE does work on it. In the "Serving Cell Info" within Field Test app, "Download Bandwidth" shows 20MHz, which is twice as wide as the regular LTE service. "Freq Band Indicator" says 3, which means it's operating at Band 3 (1800MHz). This is SKT's secondary LTE frequency, as well as where the wide band service is provided.

SKT's cell towers with Band 3 support, let alone being wide band, is currently limited largely to Seoul metropolitan area. In fact, these screenshots were shot at Samseong subway station in Gangnam district (yes, THAT Gangnam), the area which can arguably be called the central business center of Korea.

SKT has just started bringing wide band support to Band 3 towers last month, with 10 districts (out of 25) in Seoul getting the treatment as of today. Nationwide deployment is said to be done by mid-2014. So while SKT is blasting away advertisement about how it has both LTE-A and wide band LTE, the people who can enjoy them is pretty limited, to say the least. KT (#2 carrier) is said to be slightly ahead, as it claims full deployment in all of Seoul at the end of last month.

The screenshot on the right shows the speed measurement, showing 33.1Mbps down and 5.30Mbps up. iPhone 5S can do 100Mbps downstream given the wide band support, but it only gets 1/3 of that. Of course, getting this much speed in the bustling commute of a large business zone is not unimpressive. But unless conditions are perfectly met, you won't see anything like the speeds that the ads are so proud to show you. Of course, you knew that already.

What it also means is that the maximum speeds that wide band LTE can supposedly provide, 150Mbps, isn't really going to be missed by iPhone 5S supporting "only" 100Mbps max. So prepare to enjoy your iPhone 5S - Apple says it'll be coming to Korea on October 25th.

Over the past four years, I have bought all the iPhones that had been officially released in Korea on the first day of domestic availability, starting with iPhone 3GS. iPhone 5S is the first one that I didn't wait. Of all those phones, iPhone 4 is currently on leave (dad is using it), so I have 3GS, 4S, 5, and 5S for simultaneous performance testing.

This may be something a lot of people would be curious about and I hope to give you a good basis in considering an upgrade for your previous generation iPhones. Read on and let's get started.

Probably the biggest new feature in the iPhone 5S that is completely hidden to an outside observer is Apple M7 (NXP LPC18A1), the motion coprocessor that handles a variety of sensor inputs (accelerometer, gyroscope, and compass) independent of the main processor, A7. Its main potential use is for health and fitness apps, and rightly so, they are the first apps to take advantage of it. Argus (Sept. 20) and Strava Run (Sept. 24) were updated right after iPhone 5S release to use M7. I see it as a big feature because this would enable a lot of apps to poll sensor data without draining battery much at all.

Interesting enough, when you run an app with M7 support, you'll be asked to allow access to motion activity. This is a good sense on Apple's part because these data can be easily used to track user's habits. GPS data merely tells you that a person was there. Motion activity data tells you how you were moving around there very precisely. Let's take a more careful look.