iPhone 5 vs. iPhone 4S vs. iPhone 4

 

The budget iPhone: rumormongers have obsessed out the possibility for years. Though Apple hasn't – and likely never will – manufacture a new iPhone just to tackle the economy market, the company has covered that segment nonetheless. The recipe is simple: continue selling previous years' iPhones in decreasing increments of $100.

Rather than complicating its product lineup with an "iPhone Lite," Apple is now selling last year's iPhone 4S for $100 and 2010's iPhone 4 for free (with new two-year contracts, of course). This gives Apple an "in" with economy-minded shoppers and emerging markets – without betraying its premium allure.
So, on store shelves this year, the iPhone 5 is joined by its previous two ancestors. There's no question which phone is the best - the iPhone 5 is a phenomenal smartphone – but is it worth saving a few bucks on one of the older models?
Specs aren't everything, but they can suggest a device's raw capabilities. With healthy grains of salt in hand, let's see how the last three iPhones compare:

Dimensions

Dimensions of the three most recent iPhones

The iPhone 5 is longer and significantly thinner than its identical-looking forerunners. This means that it's more comfortable to hold, and it practically disappears in a pocket. This is only accentuated by its aluminum back: the backs of the iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 are made of glass.

Weight

The iPhone 5 is significantly lighter than its predecessors

The iPhone 5 could have easily been called the iPhone Air. The two older models feel like paperweights after using the incredibly light iPhone 5.

Display

All three iPhones sport 326ppi Retina displays

Though the pixels-per-inch (PPI) are identical, the iPhone 5 display gains an extra half-inch of real estate. This ups the resolution and shifts the aspect ratio to an oblong 16:9. Longtime iPhone users may find it strange at first, but will soon appreciate the extra room for apps, photos, and web pages.
Apple also opted for a thinner display in the new model. Combining a layer of touch sensors also brings those pixels closer to the surface. The company also boasts of 40 percent greater color saturation in the iPhone 5.

Processor

The A6 in the iPhone 5 offers unprecedented performance

There are noticeable boosts of speed in each successive model. The A6 chip in the iPhone 5 is a screamer, breaking smartphone benchmark records. Though the A6 was originally believed to run at 1GHz, 9to5Mac and TLDToday report that it dynamically clocks itself up to 1.3GHz (it may also underclock too, to save power).
The iPhone 4S still performs well for a modern smartphone. The two-year-old iPhone 4 is a bit sluggish for 2012 standards.

RAM

The iPhone 5 doubles the 512MB of RAM in the older models

The iPhone doubles the RAM of its two predecessors. This is another factor in its blazing-fast performance.

Storage

The discounted iPhone 4S and iPhone 4 models offer one option each for flash memory

Though the older iPhones originally shipped in different storage models, the cheaper models sold at present are more limited. The $100 iPhone 4S offers 16GB, while the free iPhone 4 gives you 8GB.

Wireless

LTE comes to the iPhone

The iPhone 5 takes Apple's handset into true 4G speeds, with LTE (where available). Actual LTE download speeds can range from 8Mbps to upwards of 40Mbps, with low latency to boot. It may be faster than your home broadband connection.
The older iPhones are confined to slower 3G speeds, though AT&T likes to label the HSPA+ 14.4 in the GSM iPhone 4S as "4G." I prefer to call it "3G+": faster than other 3G, but not in the same league as LTE.
In the US, Verizon can brag of the best coverage and widest LTE footprint, AT&T promotes its faster 3G speeds and growing LTE network, and Sprint - though its LTE is in infancy - is the only carrier to offer unlimited data.

Battery

Battery life is similar on all three models

Uptimes are similar across all three devices. That doesn't, however, make this category a wash: maintaining battery life while improving performance and adding LTE is no small feat.

Camera

The iPhone 5 camera is a subtle - but pointed - improvement over the shooter in the 4S

The camera in the iPhone 4S was a big leap ahead of the shooter in the iPhone 4. The difference between the iPhone 5 and the 4S is relatively small. Apple did improve a key area in the iPhone 5: low-light shooting.
The front-facing (FaceTime) camera also got an upgrade in the iPhone 5. This was likely done to make video calls look better on the longer screen.

Intangibles

Each option brings something different to the table

You could call the iPhone 5 the Rolex of smartphones. Its combination of lightness, thinness, performance, and beautiful design make it a significant upgrade.
One key upgrade that the iPhone 4S offered over the iPhone 4 was Siri. In addition to the faster speeds and improved camera, the virtual assistant is the top reason customers chose the 4S over its older sibling. iOS 6 adds to Siri's capabilities, letting it book dinner reservations, check movie listings, and get sports scores.
The only reason to choose the iPhone 4 over its successors is to save money. Considering that in September of 2011, you could have argued that the iPhone 4 was the best smartphone on the market, free in 2012 isn't a bad buy.

Summing Up

So do you splurge for the latest and greatest, or save a few bucks with Apple's older budget iPhones? That's your decision, but remember that the upfront cost is merely a fraction of what you pay during a two-year contract. Also consider that buying the iPhone 4 today means you'll be rocking a four-year-old smartphone when your contract ends.
It may be wise to start by playing with the different models in a store. Apple Stores always have working iPhones on display, and you can also often test-drive them at retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Target.
Source : Gizmag
Elements of images sampled from  Rolex, MomsGetReal, Wikipedia [1] [2] [3], BiggTech, Garrett on the Road, and Apple

Lamborghini unveils the Gallardo LP 560-4 and the LP 570-4 Edizione Tecnica

 
Lamborghini took its turn at the Paris Motor Show last week as it introduced two new “baby Lambos,” the Gallardo LP 560-4 and LP 570-4 Edizione Tecnica. Showing off refreshed stylings that should appeal to purists, the additions to the stables brings the Gallardo line up to six models.
Stylistically, the LP 560-4 is all flash and very sharp lines with new front and rear ends. These are dominated by triangles and trapezoids and long air intakes. It can’t help but draw attention to itself since is looks like its trying to slice the air into bits and then scoop it up for dinner.
Individually, the elements that make up the LP 560-4 are a mess. It should be horrible. It’s nothing but angles and sharp edges all wrapped up in a overpowering, aggressive package tinged with madness. It shouldn't work, but the amazing thing is that it does. Somehow, the whole package looks like a Lamborghini should.

While the LP 560-4 might take a second glance to dispel the “What the...?” first impression, that isn't the case with the LP 570-4 Edizione Tecnica. Designed along more traditional Lamborghini lines, the LP 570-4’s Nero Nemesis paint job, or matt black as the rest of us call it, with orange pillars and front air intakes has a strong Dark Knight feel, though tinged with a bit of Adam West from the 1960s. It’s sleeker than the LP 560-4 with a lighter touch that suggest that it’s trying to slip through the air rather than cut it to ribbons.
However different the LP 560-4 and the LP 570-4 may look on the outside, they are almost identical under the skin. Both have an aluminum space frame and an aluminum body with thermoplastic "hang-on" parts. They have aluminum double-wishbone front and rear suspension system, power-assisted rack and pinion steering, aluminum alloy wheels and ceramic brakes.

Both models share a 5.2 liter V10 with continuously variable valve timing, permanent four-wheel -drive with a viscous traction system, a six-speed paddle shift transmission with optional robotized sequential system and a limited-slip differential with asymmetrical locking. In the speed stakes, they’re a tie at 325 km/h (202 mph).
Where the two new Gallardos do differ performance-wise, it isn't by much. The LP 560-4 has an electronically controlled rear spoiler instead of a fixed one like the LP 570-4 and while the LP 560-4 has 550 HP (405 kW) and does 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.7 seconds, the LP 570-4 puts out 570 HP (419 kW) and makes 0 to 100 km/h in 3.4 seconds. This isn't surprising, since the LP-570-4 is 70 kilograms (154.32 lb) lighter at 1,340 kg (2.954 lbs) versus 1,410 kg (3.109 lbs). Fuel consumption is almost identical – 13.7 liters per 100 km (16 mpg) for the LP 560-4 versus 13.5 liters per 100 km (16 mpg) for the LP 570-4.
The Gallardo LP 560-4 and LP 570-4 Edizione Tecnica go on the market in November.
Source:Gizmag via Lamborghini

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Nokia Lumia 920 Specs

Well here it is, announced the typical Nokia style (no pricing or launch country details) , but with some really kickass specifications, the new Nokia Lumia 920..... and seriously, taking off the "I love Android" or "Apple is the Best" or "Nokia is just a goner" kindof biases , this thing is actually (acc to the specs ) the best thing currently on or in line to come into the smarthphone markets.


Design


With the best display in the market (a cool 336 pixels per inch) , this 4.5 inch PureMotion HD+ display, with Corning Gorilla Glass 2 and a super sensitive touch,   is surely going to be a delight to work on. It feels really sturdy and solid with the one-piece polycarbonate body, and surely has some vibrant colour options to choose from.

Hardware




Supporting Bluetooth 3.1 , 4G LTE, and an innovative wireless charging capability, this Dual Core 1.5Ghz Snapdragon S4 powered smartphone is really something to look out for. With 1 GB of RAM , and 32 GB of internal storage ( + 7GB of storage in Skydrive) , this may not be equal to the Galaxy Note 2 (which has 2 gigs of RAM and expandable upto 64 gigs of memory), but still is quite enough to support the windows 8 and all its whims. xD

Internet and Navigation



It can be used as a Wi Fi hotspot for upto 5 Wifi enabled devices, runs a Internet Explorer 10 and supports XML, CSS 3, HTML 5, HTML 4.1 and CSS. It provides the feature of offline maps and City Lens as well along with some neat other features for aiding navigation into the unknown .... ;)

Camera


Here we have another amazing part to really look out for - the 8.7 MP Camera , with Pure View Technology and Carl Zeiss optics, and short pulse dual LED, autofocus (of course), Full HD recording capabilities and a number of modes as well as sharing options to choose from. It also comes with a  secondary camera with a resolution of 1280 x 960 pixels .

 Entertainment




Supporting a tonne of codecs and formats for both video and audio ( credits to microsoft OS ), Lumia 920 really looks to be awesome with its Full HD display .

So overall, it is the best phone as far as the specs on the official site show, and unless there is some real blunder in the phone making, i dont expect a 'not worth buying' status for this at least. Although the pricing is something that needs to be waited and watched out for, as that may be another thing to jolt out the competitors of Nokia.

Source : Nokia

Scientists announce new treatment for type II diabetes

According to the World Health Organization, there are currently 347 million diabetics worldwide, with 90 percent of those people having type II diabetes specifically. It occurs when fat accumulates in places such as muscles, blood vessels and the heart, causing the cells in those areas to no longer be sufficiently responsive to insulin. This insulin resistance, in turn, causes blood glucose levels to rise to dangerous levels. Ultimately, it can result in things such as heart disease, strokes, blindness, kidney failure, and amputations. Fortunately, however, an international team of scientists has just announced a new way of treating the disease.
Currently, one of the main ways of treating type II diabetes involves switching the patient to a healthier diet and increasing the amount of exercise they get – the disease is most often caused by obesity. Additionally, oral medication can be used to increase insulin production and the body’s sensitivity to it, or to decrease glucose production. For approximately 30 percent of patients, however, such medication ceases to be effective after a few years, and they end up having to receive regular insulin injections.
The new treatment focuses on VEGF-B, a protein within the body that affects how fat is transported and stored. Using an antibody/drug known as 2H10, the scientists were able to block the signaling of VEGF-B in mice and rats, which subsequently kept fat from accumulating in the “wrong” areas of the animals – namely their muscles, blood vessels and hearts.
In one experiment, rodents that were bred to develop diabetes were given the antibody before onset of the disease. As a result, they never did develop type II diabetes. In other experiments, regular rats and mice were made to develop the disease, through obesity caused by a fat-rich diet. After receiving 2H10, however, progression of the disease was halted and reversed.
“We discovered VEGF-B back in 1995, and since then the VEGF-B project has been a lengthy sojourn in the wilderness, but now we're making one important discovery after the other,” said Prof. Ulf Eriksson of Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet, which is leading the initiative. “In this present study we've shown that VEGF-B inhibition can be used to prevent and treat type II diabetes, and that this can be done with a drug candidate.”
A number of other institutions are also involved in the project, including the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and the Australian biopharmaceutical company CSL Limited, which is developing the drug.
A paper on the research was published this Wednesday in the journal Nature.
Source:   Gizmag via Karolinska Institutet

1080p HD infrared spy camera fits your keychain – and also your budget

Is there a black cat in that pile of coal, and if so, what's she doing? A new way of finding out is the USBGeek Infrared Night Vision HD Spy Cam Car Key, a tiny video camera with an infrared LED providing illumination for 1080p HD videos taken in the darkest of rooms.
This amazing little gadget measures 63 mm x 36 mm x 18 mm (2.5 x 1.4 x 0.7 inches), about the size of a remote car door controller, and the unit weighs in at 25 grams (0.8 oz).
Perhaps more important to the overall appeal of the Spy Cam Car Key, it doesn't look like a camera, even on fairly close inspection. The opening for the lens is about three millimeters (1/8-inch) in diameter, and the control switches are typical of a remote car key.
Some of its other features include:

• 8 GB memory built in, video recorded as AVI
• Rechargable battery
• USB interface for transferring videos and battery recharging
• Takes regular and IR videos and pictures, as desired
• Motion-detecting record activation
• Records audio

 <iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/px-GBts2Cv0?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Source: Gizmag

Incorruptible Data storage from Hitachi - made in glass

Hitachi's prototype quartz glass memory device (Photo: AFP/Yoshikazu TSUNO)

Back when compact discs were first coming out, they were touted as being able to store data “forever.” As it turns out, given no more than a decade or so, they can and do degrade. According to an AFP report, Hitachi has unveiled a system that really may allow data to last forever – or at least, for several hundred million years. It involves forming microscopic dots within a piece of quartz glass, those dots serving as binary code.
The idea is that eons after the dots are applied to the glass, a person (or whatever’s around then) should be able to easily read them using nothing more than an optical microscope – no medium-specific device, such as a CD player, will be necessary. Hopefully, the concept of binary code will still be understood.
The current prototype measures two centimeters (0.8 inches) square by two millimeters thick, and incorporates four layers of dots. It currently has a memory capacity of 40 megabytes per square inch, which is roughly equivalent to that of a music CD. The researchers believe, however, that adding more layers to boost its capacity should be doable.
The glass square has withstood exposure to high-temperature flames along with various harsh chemicals, and survived being heated to 1,000º C (1,832º F) for two hours. Not surprisingly, it is also unaffected by radio waves or immersion in water. Of course, glass is breakable, although quartz is known for being particularly hard.
According to Hitachi, the technology may see its first practical use in storing information for government agencies, museums or religious organizations.
This is not the first time that glass has been experimentally used for super-long-term data storage. Scientists from the University of Southampton have been working with monolithic glass space-variant polarization converters, that are read using a laser.
Source: Gizmag via AFP via PhysOrg

Review: The Sims 3: Supernatural

 

If you have been enjoying The Sims, but have a hankering for a more unusual neighborhood, then perhaps it is time to upgrade your game with the Supernatural expansion pack. Do this and your new neighbors will make the Munsters look positively boring! The expansion pack is set in the decidedly spooky village of Moonlight Falls and while there are "normal" residents to be found, the place is also overrun by a variety of mythical and supernatural creatures. Best of all you can join their other worldly ranks.
You may have enjoyed playing as a ghost or genie when the opportunity arose in previous Sims expansion packs, but this time around experimenting with these characters is easier as you can play as them from the outset of a game rather than changing into one during a game. You can also play as a werewolf, wizard, fairy or, most menacing of all, a vampire.
This is because the “create a Sim” feature now allows you to design a vampire or fairy of your own fancy. The game also features a multitude of new clothing options and appearance modifiers to help you customize your fiend too. As you'd expect, these have a pretty dark, gothic look to them. Also, each character class has its own unique advantages and drawbacks, which certainly change the way the game plays.

Big brash and ugly

Those wanting to make a big first impression might opt to play as a werewolf. The "beast man" is amusing enough at first and his ability to shock and scare others with his transformation from man to hairy marauder is a decent party trick. However, before long you’ll discover the limitations of this class and the truth that the lycanthropes in this expansion pack make Michael J. Fox in Teen Wolf look cool!

One advantage of playing as a werewolf is their skill at hunting for rare items as they can sniff them out. As such, they make great companions for wizards who can often use such items when making special potions. However, werewolves are also seriously handicapped by their unwelcome propensity for sprouting hair and going on a rampage every time the full moon makes an appearance.

This happens regularly in the game and the lunar cycle does have an impact on other creature types too, but the werewolf is most hamstrung by it. Being in the middle of a task as a “normal” untransformed Sim and going on a crazed rampage in werewolf form can really put a dint in your day. Worse, it will often interfere with relationships you have with other unaffected Sim citizens too. The werewolf just doesn't give you much in the way of cool special powers and, apart from howling and causing havoc, there isn't a lot of payoff when you are in full fanged flight.

Flit about

The fairy is a much more interesting option. These critters are fast, have amazing abilities that they develop over time, and can perform some impressive magical tricks. At the most basic level, fairies have auras that add to their abilities too. For example, they have a permanent “green thumb” ability that renders them incredibly good gardeners.

This might not sound like much of a big deal, but being able to help your garden flourish is actually quite tough in the game as roaming zombies, (which we'll talk about in more detail later), can trash any garden quicker than a horde of backpacking tourists on a big night out. Fairies can also perform pranks like making the toilet flush up out of the bowl to catch others by surprise. At higher levels, fairies can make people cough up money, burp involuntarily and they love to brag about their wings to their mates.
Fairies are even able to generate auras that help them learn faster or repair items. These winged pranksters are versatile, but not nearly as powerful as wizards or as malevolent as vampires.

Fangtastic

Speaking of which, the vampire is a seriously sinister option well worth trying on for size. As you'd expect, vampires can bite unsuspecting Sims, “turning” them and creating a crew of bloodsucking pals. However, they can do far more than this. Vampires can beguile other Sims, (that's glamouring for you True Blood aficionados), controlling their minds, or zooming about the place as they are insanely fast. This can be perfect if you fancy a spot of sinister unseen lurking.
Also, while vampires were a bit hamstrung in the previous Sims expansion pack to feature them, (Late Night), you can now overcome this to some extent with "vampiric sunscreen." This lets you play during the day, even if you “sparkle” somewhat unpleasantly. Vampires are powerful in that you can manipulate and control other folks, but they still pale in comparison with the wizard class, as spell casters can perform far more grandiose feats than this.

Abracadabra

The humble wizard (or witch, if playing as a female) may be a slow starter in the game at first. He (or she) has no natural magical ability and can only cast a few minor spells. That said, with training, a talented thaumaturgist can harness the elements themselves, firing blasts of fire at other spell casters in duels and turning unsuspecting Sims into ugly toads.
Wizards can also raise or banish undead and even transmute collectible items into other (more desirable) collectible items. As a final bonus, they are adept at riding about on brooms at breakneck speed.

Magic users are by far the most powerful class in the game, as many of their spells render the basic day to day chores of a Sim unnecessary. Why bother to tidy up a house or feed yourself when you can cast spells that care for both needs easily and in far less time?
Wizards, with their zombie controlling abilities, can also be very useful when the full moon wreaks havoc and wakes the dead who then roam the area trashing gardens and making a huge mess.

For the slow movers out there

Finally, you can also become a zombie by being bitten by other undead or if you are stupid enough to drink a "zombification" elixir. This is far from a rewarding option as you are limited to shambling about trashing the neighborhood and trying to bite people. Playing as a zombie gets boring fairly quickly and there is no real point to it, so you feel like you are being punished when it happens. Thankfully, it is usually temporary as you can be cleansed of your affliction and revert to your usual state.
Supernatural also features a completely new career option. You can choose to become a fortune teller. As was the case in previous games, this is yet another of those jobs you'll be able to select, but then never really get involved in as it happens when your Sim is away at work.
There are some after work interactions and you can choose to be either a genuinely gifted clairvoyant or a charlatan, but the new career arc is simple. If you are after a more engrossing exploration of work life you are much better off with the Ambitions expansion pack, which is more focused on the world of work.
Supernatural is one of the better expansion packs for The Sims 3. There are tons of new items and buildings for you to play with as well as the new characters.
That said, the lunar cycle can really interfere with the flow of the game. For us, the neighborhood goes a little too berserk when the moon is full. As a result you can spend a lot of time repairing the damage with no actual reward. So you tend to dread the full moon as an inevitable nuisance with no upside. It would have made more sense to reward you with skill development or mood domain bonuses when you cope more effectively with the lunar mayhem.

Too radical a departure?

More serious is the fact that Sims fans may also find that some aspects of this expansion pack tend to override the core game experience. Certainly, many of the magical feats now possible in Supernatural render the more mundane skills, usually so treasured in the core game, somewhat irrelevant.

You can return your town to a more normal state by turning off the supernatural characters while keeping all of the new items if you are wanting to indulge in more traditional play from time to time. However, by doing so you have proven to yourself that, for you at least, the expansion pack really doesn't work well as a part of the original game. So in essence, Supernatural will please some Sims fans while annoying many others. It depends on how much change you are willing to accept when looking at the game's original blueprint.
If you like the sound of a really nutty experience with as many hilarious horror movie clichés as possible then Supernatural is unique and entertaining. That said, some might find it is just too weird.

Score 7/10

All images provided courtesy of Maxis
source : Gizmag

Milky Way's hot gas halo could solve "missing baryon" mystery

An international team of astronomers has combined data from NASA's Chandra X-ray observatory, ESA's XMM-Newton space observatory and Japan's Suzaku satellite to suggest that our galaxy may be surrounded by a halo of hot gas extending in all directions for hundreds of thousands of light-years. The finding also offers clues as to why more than half of the ordinary matter in early galaxies has seemingly disappeared without leaving a trace.
Protons and neutrons are classified as "baryons," a type of subatomic particle that interacts strongly to form the nuclei of atoms. Taken together, baryons make up nearly all of the ordinary matter in our universe.
But if you were to tally the number of atoms in the universe, you'd find that something doesn't quite add up. Astronomers have observed that entire galaxies seem to lose over half of their atoms compared to when they first formed. All of this matter couldn't have simply disintegrated, so where has it gone? This decade-old question is known as the problem of the "missing baryons."
Now, a team of astronomers led by Dr. Anjali Gupta may have just found the answer, at least for our galaxy. The baryons, says Gupta, haven't disappeared from the Milky Way. Rather, a mass of up to sixty billion suns – well in excess of the matter contained in the entire galactic disk – is spread out over a halo of hot gas stretching all around us for hundreds of thousands of light-years, reaching temperatures in the millions of degrees, and with a density so low that, even if it were present in other galaxies, we would probably have no way of detecting it.
We already knew that the Milky Way and other galaxies are embedded in warm gas with temperatures reaching one million °C (1.8 million °F). More recently, scientists have discovered the presence of even hotter gases in their midst; but now, the scientists determined that these recently-discovered "hotspots" are much more massive than the warm gas we already knew about – with a mass so large, in fact, that could very well account for all of the missing baryons.
"With reasonable assumptions, our observations imply a huge reservoir of hot gas around the Milky Way," said co-author Smita Mathur of Ohio State University in Columbus. "It may extend for a few hundred thousand light-years around the Milky Way or it may extend farther into the surrounding local group of galaxies. Either way, its mass appears to be very large."
While there are still considerable margins of errors to be dealt with, this development is helping scientists understand more about how galaxies came to form, as well as offering a solution to a long-standing problem in astrophysics.
A paper detailing the study was published on The Astrophysical Journal.
Sources: Chandra X-Ray Observatory, NASA

The future of iOS

You have to love the evolution of technology. You can call it Moore's Law, returns on investments, or simply progress … but the pace of consumer tech's maturation is breathtaking. This change happens on a hardware level (just look at 2005's smartphones compared to today's), but just as exciting is the progress of software.

iOS is a prime example. In 2007 it was essentially a slick, polished way to do about ten things. Today iOS – along with Android and Windows Phone – is narrowing the gap between mobile and the desktop.
Now that iOS 6 is here, with its revamped (but flawed) Maps, Facebook integration, and the new Passbook app, we're left wondering where iOS will go next? As the laundry list of obvious upgrades (multitasking, folders, notifications…) has been exhausted over the last few years, the next steps aren't so clear.
Let's explore a few possibilities, using Apple's core philosophies and tendencies as our guide:

Improved Maps

You have to feel bad for Apple: it's promoting its Google-less Maps update as the sexy marquee feature of iOS 6, but that's blown up in its face. Flyover is beautiful, and turn-by-turn directions put it on par with Android's navigation, but most see iOS 6 Maps as a big step back. The highlight has become the butt of jokes.
Will improved Maps be another big feature in iOS 7? It's possible, but it will more likely be a series of quiet improvements on the backend. Flaunting incremental improvements in accuracy would only draw attention to the fact that it's trailing Google Maps in that respect.
As Apple uses the millions of iOS 6 devices in the wild to crowdsource data, Maps can improve rapidly. Still, after the furor over this initial release, Cupertino is under the gun to do something.

Improved Siri

The backlash over iOS 6 Maps has made all the snickering about Siri look mild. But Siri was released as a beta feature, and many iPhone 4S owners quickly discovered why Apple applied that tag. Inconsistent connectivity, redirecting many questions to a web search, and an inability to play with third-party apps and services have limited the assistant's scope.
Despite all the criticism, Siri still has a world of potential. Apple is in this for the long haul, and, although no single year may bring revolutionary changes to the virtual assistant, five years from now, Siri should blow away what we have now.
Right now, when Apple says "ask Siri anything," what they really mean is "ask Siri about a handful of topics that she has access to. If she can't help you, she'll help you to search the web." But with Siri tapping into more databases – and possibly third-party apps – you may eventually be able to ask Siri anything, and get a quality answer or solution 80-90 percent of the time.
Siri is Apple's answer to Google Search, so Cupertino is determined to make its scope as wide as possible. I can't wait.

Growing role for Passbook

The iOS 6 version of Passbook lets you store gift cards, tickets, boarding passes, and more in one convenient place. Apple decided that Near Field Communication (NFC) wasn't worth adding to the iPhone 5, so that's the present limit of the new app. Passbook as an NFC payment system could, however, come at some point.
Even if Apple never adds NFC, though, the app still has potential for growth. Buy an item or service with a third-party app, store its ticket or confirmation in Passbook, and flash the barcode when you redeem it. It's not much more complicated than NFC would be, and – since businesses already have barcode scanners – there's no need for a worldwide deployment of new technology. Passbook could soon become one of the most-used apps on iOS.

Keyboard evolution

iOS still uses the same keyboard found in the first iPhone. As far as tap-only keyboards go, there's nothing wrong with it; but Android has shown us that there are other options.
Swype isn't for everyone, but it (and other trace keyboards) can make touchscreen typing a breeze. We could potentially see something similar come to iOS. Since Swype was bought last year by Nuance – who partners with Apple on Siri – a licensing agreement wouldn't be unheard of (but don't bet on it, as Apple could build its own trace keyboard if it really wanted to).
Apple has shown that it prefers to keep its keyboard scheme simple, and will likely continue in that direction (voice dictation solves many of the same problems anyway). But there could be potential for something new.

Forget widgets

You often hear complaints that iOS doesn't have home screen widgets. I don't see this happening, because a) they're too geeky (your average customer doesn't want or need them), b) they clutter and complicate, when Apple's goal is to simplify, and c) they can hurt battery life.
We may someday see an OS X-like dashboard residing somewhere on the iOS home screen, but that would only happen if battery life didn't take a hit. Besides, is it that much harder to simply open a weather or messaging app to see the same information? The faster that iOS devices get (the iPhone 5 is already the Usain Bolt of smartphones), the quicker those apps will open, and the less benefit from geeking it up with widgets.

Convergence with OS X?

Mobile and desktop operating systems are converging. For evidence, look no further than Mountain Lion/iOS 6 and Windows 8/Windows Phone 8.
The only catch here: so far we've mostly seen OS X get more iOS-like, with barely any OS X-ification of iOS (the iLife and iWork suites are about as far as that goes). This is likely how it will always be.
What desktop features would iOS pick up? Finder? Forget it - we're more likely to see file system access disappear on Macs. The ability to install apps from outside the App Store? No way. I'm at a loss for any OS X features that iOS would benefit from (at least in Apple's eyes).

iCloud

Though we aren't likely to see much OS X on our iPhones, we will see more effortless syncing between mobile and desktop. iCloud is still young, and isn't always the instant, seamless solution that Apple wants it to be. There's room for both expanding its abilities and refining what's already there.
Perhaps one day you'll be able to play Grand Theft Auto VI on your Mac, pause, and instantly pick up where you left off on your iPhone. As mobile devices become more powerful and iCloud expands, it could happen.

iCloud gaming?

Speaking of gaming, perhaps Apple will one day dive headlong into it and create its own cloud gaming service, a la OnLive. Consider this a long shot, though, as a game that requires a persistent, fast, and low latency internet connection doesn't sound very Apple-like. Wireless carriers' shift to capped data plans in the U.S. also doesn't improve the odds.

What else?

While we're having fun with wild speculation, in what ways do you see iOS evolving? Let us know in the comments!
Max Payne 3 base image via Rockstar Games, other base images via Apple, via Gizmag