While some were wowed by the fingerprint scanning Touch ID home button on the iPhone 5s others have a tough time feeling safe that Apple won't "accidentally" share their fingerprints with someone not meant to have access to them.
So an Apple spokesman stepped in an said that the iPhone 5s won't store fingerprint images on the device but instead will encrypt the fingerprint data on the phone's A7 SoC.
Even if someone did hack into your device and managed to get inside the A7 chip they likely won't be able to extract the fingerprint information out of it.
Furthermore, Apple requires every fingerprint to be created with an accompanying passcode, which in a scenario when the phone has been rebooted or hasn't been unlocked for 48 hours will be required instead of the fingerprint, which is a nice two-step security verification.
Apple announced a brand new chipset for the iPhone 5s – the Apple A7 – and in traditional Apple fashion proceeded to give very little detail about it. The company promised 2x performance increase over the iPhone 5 in CPU and GPU performance (and 40x over the original iPhone).
There was very little on the GPU front – OpenGL ES 3.0 support was added and the presenters boasted about the improved graphics, but GPU model remains unknown. The Apple A6 in the iPhone 5 had a PowerVR SGX543MP3, so there's a high chance Apple is using a newer PowerVR or at least one with more cores / at a higher clock rate.
A GFXBecnh 2.5 score confirms the performance has indeed gone up, but the test is getting old now (and uses OpenGL ES 2.0) so we're not seeing the full capabilities of the new GPU (like those fancy lens flares in Infinity Blade III).
GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt (1080p off-screen)
Higher is better
Sony Xperia Z Ultra 60
Apple iPhone 5S 56
LG G2 54
Samsung Galaxy S4 (Octa) 43
HTC Butterfly S 42
Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600) 41
HTC One 37
Google Nexus 4 32
Sony Xperia Z 31
Sony Xperia SP 31
Apple iPhone 5 30
Samsung Galaxy S4 mini 17
HTC One mini 15
HTC One X 11
GLBenchmark 2.5 Egypt on-screen
Higher is better
Apple iPhone 5S 53
LG G2 51
Apple iPad 4 41.5
Apple iPhone 5 41.1
Samsung Galaxy S4 (S600) 41
LG G2 33.6
Apple iPad mini 24.3
Apple iPad 2 23.2
Apple iPad 3 21.3
In the 1080p off-screen test, the iPhone 5S shows nearly double the performance of its predecessor. This doesn’t show up in the on-screen test though as the benchmark hits the 60fps screen limit (the test is old and can't stress the GPU at the native 640 x 1136 resolution of the iPhone 5s).
With OpenGL ES 3.0 support on both iOS 7 and Android 4.3 and improving mobile GPUs, we're about to get a lot of eye candy on mobile 3D games.
We may be treated to the first phablet from the Finnish firm before the month is out as word of a Nokia Lumia 1520 release date gets out.
The slip was made via the @evleaks twitter account - a highly rated source of mobile leaks - with a simple message "Nokia Lumia 1520: launches 9/26."
Nokia is yet to reveal whether or not it is indeed working on the rumoured 6-inch Lumia 1520, which is thought to have been codenamed Bandit, but that hasn't stopped the rumour mill going into overdrive.
We've seen various specifications and pictures claiming to reveal the Lumia 1520 from a variety of sources and they all seem to be banging the same drum.
Full of firsts
It's being suggested that the Lumia 1520 will be the first Windows Phone handset to pack a full HD display, and Nokia could well break into a new screen size if the 6-inch reports turn out to be true.
While its name may be similar to the 41MP toting Lumia 1020, the Lumia 1520 is said to arrive with a less brash 20MP snapper as well as a quad-core processor (another Windows Phone first) and the same polycarbonate design we've become accustomed to with Nokia.
There's apparently an update in the pipeline for Windows Phone 8 too, version 8.1, which the Lumia 1020 is hotly tipped to run out of the box.
Now we're not getting too carried away just yet, as nothing is set in stone and Nokia hasn't shown any signs that such a handset is in production. We'll just have to sit tight for two weeks.
Courtesy of yet another brilliant insider's info by notorious leakster evleaks comes today's info that Nokia will be announcing its next Lumia smartphone on September 26.
According to a new tweet, the next phone in the pipeline is no other than the Lumia 1520 (formerly known as Bandit). It was not long ago that we saw the first official image of the phone, courtesy of the same source.
The Lumia 1520 is rumored to have a 6-inch 1080p screen, presenting a substantial development, with both being firsts in the Windows Phone ecosystem.
We've also recently seen a leaked live image of the phablet, which clearly shows how it compares in size to the current gen of Lumia phones.
It isn't easy being a smartphone fan, especially if your timing's bad: no sooner has the ink dried on that two-year contract for the Uber Mega X than it's rendered obsolete by the slightly thinner, slightly faster Uber Mega Y.
And that got us thinking: are there patterns here? Should we be buying Samsungs in Spring and Nokias in November? Is August ever a good time to buy an iPhone? Let's look at the history and see what patterns emerge.
The most obvious pattern that emerges is the dwindling power of trade shows.
The big one for mobiles was always Mobile World Congress, which many manufacturers use to launch their most exciting products.
Increasingly, though, smartphone manufacturers prefer to host their own, separate events for their flagship phones to maximise publicity. Shows such as MWC and IFA are still important, but the biggest hitters are usually announced elsewhere.
The other pattern that you'll see is annual releases, so if you're a keen early adopter it's a good idea to get your existing handset on eBay or sent to a reputable trade-in firm a month or so before.
Leave it too late and you may see the value of your phone plummet as it goes from next big thing to last year's model.
Apple
Predicting a new iPhone launch is easy: for the first four years we saw new iPhones every summer, but in 2011 that schedule changed from summer to autumn and Apple's stuck to it ever since.
The iPhone 4S shipped in October 2011, the iPhone 5 shipped in September 2012, and Apple launched the iPhone 5S and 5C this week.
It's a pretty safe bet we'll see the iPhone 6 this time next year.
It's worth remembering that Apple is on a major/minor release schedule now: major revisions of the iPhone happen every two years, with relatively minor upgrades - the S models - in between.
Current flagship: iPhone 5S
Launched: September 2013
Current estimated price (SIM free): £529
Expected iPhone 6 release date: September 2014
HTC
The HTC Desire was launched in February 2010, the Desire S in February 2011, the One X in February 2012 and the newest flagship, the HTC One, in February 2013.
HTC is one of the few companies that still likes to do things around MWC, although this year it decided to hold its own launch before the big trade show. It still took a while to get the thing onto shop shelves though, so a launch date doesn't necessarily mean a new phone will be in your hands any time soon after.
There's also the fun issue of the name: HTC seems to think it will be able to call all its flagship phones the HTC One. We prefer to think it will be called the 'Old HTC One Two', in homage to boxing parlance.
But if we were betting people, we'd be sticking a portion of our wages on a new HTC flagship the next time the month rhymes with "mebruary".
Current flagship: HTC One
Launched: February 2013
Current price: £489
Expected HTC One 2 release date: February 2014
Samsung
Samsung loves variants - for every Galaxy there are eleventy-three variations to cover niches such as "smartphone owners who live under the sea" and "smartphone owners who don't believe Mars exists" - but the big ones follow a fairly predictable pattern.
All given the 'S' suffix, the Samsung Galaxy S was announced in March 2010.shipped in June, the Galaxy S2 was announced in February 2011 and shipped in May, the Galaxy S3 shipped in May 2012, and the Samsung Galaxy S4 was announced in March 2013 and shipped the following month.
Samsung's clearly working to an annual upgrade cycle here, with its launches timed for shortly after Mobile World Congress is over to ensure it gets the headlines all to itself.
Current flagship: Samsung Galaxy S4
Launched: March 2013
Current price: £549
Expected Samsung Galaxy S5 release date: March 2014
Nokia
If there's a pattern to Nokia's release schedule it's the kind of pattern only Jackson Pollock could divine: since betting the farm on Windows Phone the Finnish firm has apparently been planning launch dates by throwing darts in the vague direction of a calendar.
The Lumia 800 and 710, Nokia's first Windows Phones, were unveiled in November 2011; their successors, the 900 and 610, turned up the following April - and their successors appeared in September 2012. Since then we've seen launches in December (the Lumia 620), May (the Lumia 925) and July (the Lumia 1020 and 625).
Microsoft's purchase of Nokia's phone business could mean price cuts, even on flagships: the Lumia 1020 has just dropped by $100 in the US.
Launched: July 2013 (UK release expected September 2013)
Current price: £550 (estimated)
Expected Nokia Lumia 930 release date: Your guess is as good as ours
Google
Do you prefer your Android unadorned, its skin unsullied by TouchWiz or Sense? If the answer is yes then it's Google's Nexus range for you, and so far that appears to be sticking to a reasonably predictable schedule.
The first Nexus, the Nexus One, may have been a January launch back in 2010, but since then Google has aimed to launch its Nexus phones early enough for the lucrative Christmas shopping season.
The Samsung-made Nexus S was launched in December 2010, the (Samsung again) Galaxy Nexus was unveiled in November 2011 and the LG Nexus 4 was released in November 2012.
That annual release schedule may be changing, however, or at least moving forward a little bit: in late August the Nexus 4 got a massive price cut, bringing it down to just £159 for the 8GB version.
That and the Nexus's sudden disappearance from UK retailers such as Carphone Warehouse suggests that the shelves are being cleared for a newer version, and the timing indicates that it might be coming much sooner than November – although don't be surprised if Google holds off to make the most of the holiday season rush.
Current flagship: Nexus 4
Launched: November 2012
Current price: £159
Expected Nexus 5 release date: October / November 2013
We have been hearing about a notification center in the upcoming version of Windows Phone for quite some time now. These new leaked photos give us a look at what that might look like.
Windows Phone 8.1, as it will allegedly be called, will have a live tile as your notification center. The tile, it seems, will simply show you the number of notifications that are pending without specific details.
The Windows Phone live tiles were originally a means of conveying notifications without having a separate notification center but it made easy to miss a notification from an app that you don’t have on the homescreen. This new notification center will give you one place to see all your notifications even if you missed them or don’t have a corresponding live screen pinned.
The Windows Phone 8.1 update is still some way off but Microsoft will be releasing a GDR3 update in the interim.
When Apple unveiled the iPhone 5S yesterday, the standout feature was undoubtedly its Touch ID fingerprint sensor that unlocked the smartphone through biometrics.
That immediately led to privacy-concerned individuals to start pointing fingers in the company's direction, and not in order to test out the smartphone's innovative fingerprint scanner.
Apple, anticipating conspiracy theories, reiterated today that the iPhone 5S won't actually store users' fingerprint images on the device, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Instead, Touch ID keeps fingerprint data encrypted within its A7 processor. It's locked away on the device itself, not on Apple's servers or iCloud.
Touch ID data encryption
Fingerprint data, according to yesterday's presentation, includes a fingerprint's arch, loop or whorl classification and individual ridge details smaller that the human eye can see.
The Touch ID system goes as far as capturing minor variations in ridge direction caused by pores and edge structures.
Because there isn't a stored fingerprint image on the device, it's unlikely someone could reverse engineer your fingerprint even if they cracked the the A7 system-on-a-chip, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The other fear is that the iPhone 5S fingerprint sensor won't work consistently or at all for people with impairments.
Apple admitted to the paper that testers with sweat and moisture-laden digits were incompatible with the Touch ID system in some cases.
Likewise, the fingerprint sensor may be unable to pick up on fingers scarred by accidents or surgery.
The solution here is to use the still-available four-digit passcode - the other kind of digits. It's not going anywhere, according to Apple.
In fact, setting up a backup passcode is required when enabling Touch ID and only this code works after a reboot or 48 hours of inactivity, preventing hackers from buying time to find a way to circumvent the fingerprint scanner.
Even if Apple hasn't put to rest these two chief fingerprint sensor concerns for you, it's always possible to opt for the plastic iPhone 5C. It has just as much Touch ID technology as aluminum. Meaning none at all.
