Just a brief note here on the big Apple event today where the new iPhones were announced (along with a few other details concerning iOS 7). For the first time, Apple will be offering two new versions of its phone at the same time: the 5C (c is for color, NOT cheap) and the 5S (for speed, most likely). Color and speed are pretty much the biggest differences between these two models, although price also differs. The 5C will come in 16 and 32 GB flavors ($99 and $199 on contract, respectively), in green, blue, yellow, red or white. Molded single piece plastic back and full touchscreen front. It does have a 4″ retina display as well, along with a 8 MP camera. It is essentially a colorful plastic version of the iPhone 5.

The 5S packs a lot more brainpower, as well as color choice. The cool with this one is a new 64 bit A7 mobile processor. It is claimed to be the first of its kind. It will also feature a mobile “coprocessor” to better read and track device movement. It will then use the better motion knowledge to feed you the information you want – driving directions while in a car and walking directions while on foot. New dual flash to improve picture quality, and a fingerprint identity sensor, which “snaps a pic” of your print and will then let you unlock and authenticate with iTunes using only your print. You can use multiple prints on the phone. The camera has a larger image sensor and aperture and increase in light sensitivity. There are all sorts of support features for the camera for stability and image improvement and a slow mo mode for video. You can live zoom the video while recording. With a nod to Instagram, you can also employ square format and filters on your photos within the app. Better Facetime now with an HD Facetime camera. You can get it in gold (ugh), black and grey / silver, for $199 on contract for the 16 GB,  $299 for the 32 GB and $399 for the 64 GB, on contract.

iOS 7, not surprisingly, is built to fit the 5S – it is now a 64 bit operating system. I won’t go into exhaustive detail on it, as I did discuss it already in another post here. I will add though that the Apple apps that have been paid to date (iPhoto, iMovie, Keynote, Pages, Numbers) will be free on at least these new devices and iOS7 compatible devices. Now THAT is cool.  iOS 7 will be available on September 18, 2013 and it is anticipated the phones will be available within a couple days thereafter.

Will I buy one? I am not sure. My iPhone 5 is still more than serviceable. I am thinking I will wait and see how well iOS 7 runs on it. If it gets laggy, I might consider the upgrade as I have little patience for slow phones. Will you buy one? What do you think? Does Apple still have the shiny? It will be interesting to see the sales numbers and whether Android really has taken a chunk of Apple’s territory.