Apple pundits, prior to the release of the new iPhone 5 yesterday, were saying that the new device would be no big deal because Apple had nothing to add in the way of features. In a way, that's true; there is nothing like the iPhone 4S release of Siri, the voice input software. But Apple kind of busted through the old engineering joke: "Quicker, cheaper, better: pick any two." Apple has managed, with the iPhone 5, to offer a phone that is faster, lighter, and thinner: customers get all three! Apple is saying this is the best iPhone they have ever built, and I believe them. Not only did they make the phone and the screen bigger and brighter, they also managed to make the phone thinner and lighter. That's quite an achievement. And it is truly a world phone; it supports just about every cellular wireless protocol on the planet. They speeded up the processor, speeded up graphics, and speeded up WiFi networking.
My iPhone 4S is barely a year old, and I'm already looking longingly at the iPhone 5.