The new iPhone 5: everything you need to know

We reported a few weeks ago that T-Mobile had no intention of letting the iPhone 5's smaller nano-SIM card interfere with its newly-bolstered plans to woo unlocked iPhone owners over to its network, and now we've received confirmation that the carrier's stores have begun receiving stock of the new SIM cards. Several T-Mobile stores in New York City informed us that the diminutive SIM cards were delivered today, but if you're interested in moving your iPhone 5 to T-Mobile you would do best to call your local store first: a couple of locations told us that it would take a day to add the cards to their inventory. Stock also appears to be limited at this point — one store employee said they had ten nano-SIMs available.

T-Mobile's least expensive unlimited data, talk, and text plan for unlocked phones comes in at $69.99 per month, but before you decide to make the switch there are sticking points to take note of. Since the vast majority of T-Mobile's HSPA+ ("4G") network runs on the AWS band — a band which no iPhones support — you'll be stuck at far slower 2G speeds in most of the country. The carrier has begun offering iPhone-friendly 1900MHz HSPA+ service in parts of Seattle, Las Vegas, and the New York metro area, which are the only spots where you'll get faster service. Additionally, you'll need an unlocked device like Verizon's iPhone 5 for service to even function — Apple has yet to sell the latest iPhone unlocked without a contract in the US, and AT&T iPhones ship locked to the carrier. It's all a mess of early termination fees and wrangling with carriers, but the option is available now that T-Mobile stores are beginning to stock the so-far iPhone 5-exclusive nano-SIMs.

Do Apple's three to four-week shipping estimates for the iPhone 5 have you down? It turns out you may not have to suffer through that marathon wait after all — assuming there's an Apple Store nearby, at least. As predicted by 9to5Mac, the company is now letting customers buy its latest handset each night between 10PM and 4AM PST and pick up orders as early as the very next day (technically the same day if you're ordering in the wee hours, we suppose).

How quickly you'll receive a phone will depend on each local store's stock, though with Apple bringing in daily deliveries it shouldn't be long. Again, this is a pre-purchase, not a reservation. Since you're paying up front, you'll want to be sure when it comes to the big decisions of color and storage capacity; having a last-minute change of heart could present a problem. And if you're lucky enough to secure Apple's latest iOS handset, we'd recommend giving it a thorough inspection for physical defects before stepping foot outside the store, just in case.

Apple and Samsung may be in the midst of some legal battles — and smear campaigns — but that doesn't mean that the Korean company's chipmaking arm isn't still producing internals for Apple's latest devices. An in-depth look at the iPhone 5's dual-core A6 processor from iFixit and Chipworks has confirmed that it is an Apple-designed 32nm chip that was produced by Samsung. The teardown has also confirmed what was heavily suspected: that the iPhone 5 has 1GB of RAM, though on the particular unit that was analyzed the part was sourced from Elpida, not Samsung.

We assume that Samsung is producing the A6 at the same Austin, Texas plant that made the A5 and A5X processors. Samsung invested a tidy $4 billion into that facility last month, and, for now at least, it appears that the Korean company will have no shortage of demand for the new processor as the iPhone 5 continues to rack up massive sales. That might not always be the case, however, as Apple has been spotted looking for other chip manufacturers in order to minimize its dependency on Samsung as the two companies continue their patent spat.

Unsurprisingly, Apple's iPhone 5 had a massive first weekend — the company is reporting sales in excess of five million devices over the first weekend of retail availability. That comes a week after Apple announced that two million customers pre-ordered the device after it became available online on September 14th. The iPhone 4S sold four million devices over its first weekend of availability last October, so the iPhone 5 continues to be a record-setting device for Apple. However, it's worth noting that the iPhone 5 went on sale in a total of nine countries, two more than the iPhone 4S did last year. With first weekend pre-orders for the iPhone 5 coming in at twice what the iPhone 4S did, there's a chance that sales of Apple's latest iPhone won't quite match the incredible year-over-year growth that the iPhone 4S drove last year. In fact, Horace Dediu at Asymco pulled together a chart that shows, when normalized by available countries, the iPhone 5 sold the same average amount per country as the 4S.

Additionally, Apple said that over 100 million customers have upgraded to iOS 6 — a number that represents 25 percent of all active iOS devices. Apple was able to hit that milestone less than a week after iOS 6 became available. Sales may not be slowing down any time soon, either — 22 more countries will start selling the iPhone 5 on September 28th, and Apple's online store is currently showing three to four week shipping delays.

When Apple VP Phil Schiller took the stage on September 12th to talk about the company’s new iPhone 5 hardware he went on at length about the exacting level of precision that goes into its manufacture. But despite Apple's insistence that its tolerances are measured in microns, several iPhone 5 owners are reporting that their new devices are arriving with a variety of scuffs and scrapes out of the box (myself included, pictured above).

The company’s record-breaking sales numbers certainly don’t make it easy to guess at how widespread the issue is, but an informal poll in the MacRumors forums indicates that out of some 1260 respondents, more than a third are reporting some kind of damage. The source of the scuffs (pictured below) is anyone’s guess, but as All Things D points out, the iPhone 5’s case is made out of anodized (i.e., coated) aluminum, which, while being lighter than the stainless steel used in the iPhone 4 and 4S, is also softer and appears to be more susceptible to scratching. It's worth noting that HTC used a comparable oxidized finish for its One S handset — a phone whose users reported having similar cosmetic issues.

To accompany today's launch of the iPhone 5, Apple has posted a new series of commercials showing off the device. The three ads, which sound like they're narrated by The Newsroom's Jeff Daniels, each focus on a specific element of the new phone: its thinner profile, the panorama photo feature, and the new screen. A fourth spot, simply entitled "Ears," is devoted to the EarPod headphones.

In July, Apple debuted a suite of commercials during the London Olympics that seemed to be a marked departure from the company's usual advertising style. With their focus on the iPhone itself, these new ads appear to be a return to the "product as hero" strategy that has served Apple so well in the past.

New owners of the Verizon iPhone 5 are being met with an unexpected but welcome surprise today: the device comes fully unlocked out of the box. That will come as great news for customers that travel overseas and it even allows you to insert an AT&T nano-SIM if the desire strikes you. We've been able to confirm that the Verizon iPhone 5 is fully compatible with AT&T's 3G network — though differing LTE bands will prevent you from achieving high-speed connectivity. You should also be able to hop on T-Mobile's 3G network in areas where the carrier has refarmed its spectrum, though we've yet to test this firsthand. We've reached out to Verizon for comment on the rare unshackling.

Update: Those considering purchasing the Verizon model on the basis that it ships unlocked should do so with caution. Last year, the Sprint variation of the iPhone 4S also shipped unlocked, but after a subsequent update, users were tied to the company's nationwide network.

Thousands of people across the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK have started lining up for Apple's iPhone 5. The queues, with some people camping out for days, mark the beginning of Apple's latest global rollout. After more than two million pre-orders within the first 24 hours of availability and record breaking AT&T sales, the iPhone 5 has continued a trend of consumer excitement for Cupertino's smartphone.

Year on year, countless numbers of Apple fans queue for hours at a time — often in the dark — to be one of the first to experience the latest must have gadget. This year is no different, despite a controversial Maps change in iOS 6 and a underlying feeling that the iPhone 5 could be a little boring. Moderate Wall Street predictions see Apple shifting five or six million iPhone 5's this weekend, while others say the company could sell 10 million by the end of the month — either way, it's likely to be the most successful iPhone launch yet.

Just as we figuratively broke the iPhone 5 open in our exhaustive review, the folk at iFixit have begun to do so for real. Their teardown of Apple's latest and greatest reveals exactly how easy the device will be to repair (with this being a particular source of controversy for previous Apple products) as well as revealing the source of certain components.

The iPhone 5 appears to do well on the repairability front — iFixit says that it "may be the most repairable iPhone we've seen in a while." The phone is easily opened from front-to-back with a suction cup, meaning that the glass shouldn't be too difficult to replace for most, and both the battery and display assembly are also easily removed. Another pain point for iPhone 4 and 4S owners was the home button, which often became less responsive over time, but that too seems to be easier to replace on the 5. It's also housed in a metal support bracket, which iFixit believes will make it less likely to break in the first place.

Ah, to review the iPhone 5; what a blessing, and what a curse. It's actually funny to think that there was a time not that long ago that the iPhone wasn't even a thing, let alone an iconic part of pop culture. A time when an Apple-made phone was just a fantasy; a blogger's fever-dream; a secret glimmer in the eye of Steve Jobs and his team of engineers and designers.

But the iPhone has become very real. In fact, it's grown up, moved out, and taken over the world. Well, half the world anyhow. These days the iPhone isn't just components on a breadboard in a lab in Cupertino, it's the device by which all others are measured. And that makes for some interesting measuring indeed.

A review of iOS 6 is not a review of revolution, but of refinement. iOS has been the gold standard for smartphones and tablets since the day it was first introduced, and Apple's resisted the urge to make any radical changes, instead slowly polishing it with each successive version. That means iOS 6 is recognizably the same basic operating system that shipped on the original iPhone in 2007, while its biggest competitor, Android, looks completely different from what Google started with in 2008.

That rigorous consistency has led some to feel that iOS has become a little too familiar, but through the years the iterative updates on top of a rock-solid base have led to a platform that's second to none as a balance of features, usability, and capability.

The Blue Danube. Fragments suspended in air. An iPod speaker dock spontaneously explodes in slow motion, capacitors, speaker drivers and chunks of plastic slowly spinning away from the wreckage. Philips, Sony and Logitech creations, ripped to shreds. Jawbone proclaims: "The dock is dead."

The video is a self-serving jab at rivals, but the wireless audio vendor has a point. Last week, Apple did away with the nine-year-old Dock Connector, replacing the ubiquitous 30-pin jack with a new "Lightning" design. It’s far from the first time Apple has tossed out an old technology in favor of a new one (remember FireWire, and floppy drives?) but Apple’s popularity has grown so much over the last half-decade that a tremendous number of people will be affected this time.

The iPhone 5 has set a new pre-order record for AT&T, the carrier announced today, selling faster than any previous iPhone. The phone became available to order on September 14th and quickly sold out of its initial stock bound for launch on the 21st, with Apple's site soon telling customers to expect a wait of around 2 weeks. AT&T isn't sharing specific numbers with us, but is already calling this the "most successful iPhone launch ever." Apple, for its part, has been "blown away by the customer response."

Despite widespread leaks rendering Apple's latest flagship announcement a somewhat less exciting event than it perhaps could have been, it doesn't seem that many purchasing decisions were affected. AT&T notes that the iPhone 5 has moved more overall units at this point than previous models, too, nullifying any suspicions that possible supply constraints may have accounted for the quick sell-through.

When it comes to secrecy, Apple isn't so much doubling down as it is multiplying by zero. The iPhone 5 is a handset of many firsts for the Cupertino company — it moves to a larger screen, an all-new Lightning dock connector, and in-cell touchscreen technology, among other innovations. But it's also the first device to bear the name iPhone whose spec sheet we knew almost in full ahead of its unveiling.

Initially, we learned about the 4-inch display. That came from The Wall Street Journal on May 16th, got reaffirmed by Reuters on May 17th, and was reiterated by Bloomberg on May 18th. By May 19th, even if you had a legitimate mole inside Apple's supply chain, it simply wasn't worth "leaking" the screen size of the next iPhone. It was as close to fact as you could get after three of the most scrupulous news sources reported it as such.

Impressed by the iPhone 5's hardware design, and unconcerned by the conservative software? You'll want to head over to Apple's site, then, where the phone should now be available for pre-order. It's available right now from the iOS Apple Store app, Verizon, and AT&T. The time of 12.01AM PST should be effective in all of the iPhone 5's first wave of launch countries, including the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, France, and Germany. If you're in the US, check out our comprehensive buying guide which gives plan breakdowns by carrier along with alternative places to buy the phone itself.

Update: While early pre-orders showed a September 21st ship date, Apple's UK and US stores are now showing an available to ship date of two weeks.

Decided to invest in Apple's latest and greatest handset? That's the easy part — now you need to decide how and where to buy it, and on what carrier. Here's the full rundown.

If you're upgrading rather than signing up for a new line of service, the first thing you'll want to do is check to confirm whether you're eligible for upgrade pricing. To do that:

There's been some confusion as to what Apple's new all-digital Lightning connector will be capable of, but the company has just cleared some of that up. An Apple spokesperson told The Verge that Lightning to HDMI and Lightning to VGA cables "will be available in the coming months."

Originally, the fact that the $29 Lightning to 30-pin adapter doesn't support video output led to worries that the Lightning connector itself was to blame, and that Apple would steer customers who wanted to share audio and video towards wireless technologies like AirPlay. In truth, you should be able to connect an iPhone 5 directly to a second screen with a new Lightning video cable once they arrive, but you'll need one of those cables due to the 30-pin adapter's limitations. Still, Apple says the 30-pin adapter does support analog audio out, as well as USB audio, syncing, and charging.

US customers looking to pick up an iPhone 5 unencumbered by a carrier's contract will have to put those dreams on hold — at least for a little bit. We spoke with several Apple Store customer service representatives today, who informed us that US customers won't be able to sign up for the unlocked variant of Apple's new flagship phone when pre-orders start early tomorrow morning. The unlocked version also won't be available from either the US online or brick-and-mortar Apple Stores when the iPhone 5 launches on September 21st. Canadian customers, however, will be able to get in on the action right away when pre-orders begin (all of the iPhones solds from the Canada Apple Store are unlocked).

As first noticed by TechCrunch, Apple's website already lists the pricing of the unlocked iPhone 5. In the US, the unlocked model — when available — will be offered in the traditional 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB sizes, priced at $649, $749, and $849, respectively. In Canada, they're priced at CAD $699, CAD $799, and CAD $899.

It happens every year. Apple announces a new iPhone and iOS, and developers have about a week to update their apps to work on the new hardware and software. Most years, the process isn't too difficult — but some years, Apple updates the iPhone's display and developers need to put in extra legwork to prevent their apps from looking pixelated. In 2010 it was adapting to the retina display, and this year it's adapting to the iPhone 5's taller screen. No one wants their app enveloped by ugly black letterboxes, which will be especially obvious when displayed on a white iPhone 5. Fortunately, developers say that updating apps for the iPhone 5's 4-inch screen won't be as tough as you might expect. But is taller better?

"Apps have always had to support flexible heights because of the 'In-Call' indicator" that pops down while you're on a phone call, one prominent iOS developer told The Verge. "If the developer was hygienic and didn't sprinkle in too many hard-coded values, the implementation [of a taller app] should be pretty straightforward," he added. Even with more screen real estate to work with, many developers will likely follow Apple's lead and simply make apps "taller," like the Mail, Safari, and Messages apps the company demoed at its keynote. "I bet some people will add an extra set of buttons [in the navigation bar] as a gimmick, but I don't see most people doing it. It fragments the UI's you'd have to support," he says. "For the apps that do it the 'right' way and use standard UI elements, it should be stupid easy," Dark Sky developer Adam Grossman concurs. "It's probably about a day of work for us and then testing, but that's what this weekend is for," Lickability co-founder Matthew Bischoff says.

We already knew that online pre-orders for the iPhone 5 were going to start on September 14th, but now Wired has confirmed that Apple will begin accepting your money at exactly 12:01AM PT / 3:01AM ET. If you prefer going directly through the carriers, new and existing customers can pre-order the iPhone 5 from Sprint at the same time and Verizon will be jumping the gun a minute earlier at midnight. AT&T has not announced its plans, although it will likely line up pretty closely with the other carriers. Alternatively, Apple retail stores will open their doors at 8:00AM local time on September 21st for those looking to celebrate the launch of the new 4-inch iOS device with like-minded individuals. Keep in mind, Apple will be limiting pre-orders and in-store purchases to two phones per customer.

Another in-store option for potential buyers this year is Walmart — for the first time ever, the retailer will be taking iPhone pre-orders for all three major carriers starting at 8:00AM in US stores, and it'll be doing so at a discount. The entry-level 16GB iPhone 5 will sell for $189.97 with a two-year contract, about $10 less than the phone's standard price. RadioShack has stated via Twitter that it will also be accepting pre-orders at local stores tomorrow.

The weather icon on the iPhone's homescreen always reads a pleasant 73 degrees and sunny. It has since the original iPhone was released, a comfortable, inoffensive temperature that matches the comfortable, inoffensive homescreen on iOS.

The prevailing opinion after the iPhone 5 announcement is that it's boring, but still pretty great. The hardware is without a doubt impressive from a technical and engineering standpoint, but iterative on previous designs. The software is as competent as we've come to expect from Apple. Together they make for a product that's not surprising — and therefore a little boring.

Cricket Wireless has become the first US prepaid carrier to announce availability of Apple's recently-unveiled iPhone 5, with the company planning to sell the device from September 28th. While the carrier has not yet released pricing information, and Apple itself has not released US pricing for unlocked devices, it is likely to fall in line with that of the 16GB iPhone 4S, which sold for $649 unlocked, or $499 with Cricket's subsidy.

When Cricket secured the iPhone 4 and 4S back in June, it became the first US prepaid carrier to offer any of Apple's handsets, but the 4S's June availability date fell more than six months after the device's original release. Contract-averse customers will welcome the carrier's new speediness, likely a sign of closer co-operation with Apple — whether other prepaid carriers will announce availability in the coming days and weeks remains to be seen.

One of the new iPhone 5 hardware features announced yesterday was support for wideband audio — or HD voice — which increases the fidelity of voice calls. In the US, the only carrier that has publicly announced support for the HD voice protocol is Sprint, but Phonescoop has learned that the iPhone 5 won't work over Sprint's version of HD voice. As for the technical details, Sprint's HD Voice protocol runs over its 1x CDMA network, whereas the iPhone 5's HD Voice support uses GSM-based WCDMA technology.

WIthout support for Sprint and no current support for wideband audio from Verizon or AT&T (though Verizon tested it last year, and had hoped to launch it at some point in 2012), it seems that no US carriers will be able to use the iPhone 5's new HD voice support when it launches. Given that Apple only announced 20 carriers supporting HD voice (out of the 240 total that will sell the iPhone 5), the odds weren't in the US carrier's favor — but it's still unusual to see a headlining iPhone feature unavailable for stateside users. We've reached out to Sprint to get more details and will update if we hear anything.

As iOS 6 features such as turn-by-turn navigation and Siri become increasingly localized, it can be difficult to keep track of exactly what is available where. To help ease confusion in the wake of the iPhone 5 announcement yesterday, Apple has published an official list, navigable by feature, showing availability from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

The most restricted aspect of the OS is the new Maps app's 3D Buildings functionality, which, according to Apple's list, is only available in the US. Standard mapping functions have extremely broad support, and most of Siri's localization features function across North America, Australia, and Western Europe, but more advanced features such as restaurant reservations are only supported in the US, Canada, and Mexico.