AppLe Iphone 5

Apple on Wednesday has finally revealed a new phone that's taller and has a bigger display. iPhone 5 comes in either white and silver or black and slate, and will be available in the US for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) for the 16GB model and $299 (US) for the 32GB model and $399 (US) for the 64GB model.

iPhone 5 will be available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK on Friday, September 21, and customers can pre-order their iPhone 5 beginning Friday, September 14.iPhone 5 will be available from the Apple Online Store (www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores, and through AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless and select Apple Authorized Resellers.

iPhone 5 will roll out worldwide to 22 more countries on September 28, including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

What makes it unique?

Even though it's taller than the iPhone 4S, it's lighter. The bigger screen - 4 inches measured diagonally - creates room for another row of icons on the screen and lets widescreen movies fit better. Previous iPhone models carried 3.5-inch screens.

Even video and photos look more lush on the iPhone 5's bigger and better screen. The device is also speedier because of a more powerful processing chip and upgraded wireless technology that accelerates Web surfing.

Apple also has equipped the iPhone 5 with a superior sound system, courtesy of the new headphones that the company says it spent three years developing. The headphones, called "EarPods," are a vast improvement on the ear buds that Apple has been giving away with its devices for more than a decade. The new headphones actually stay in your ears and make it seem as if the sound is playing inside your head. The EarPods come free with the iPhone 5, and they sounded as good as $100 headphones sold by a variety of other companies.

The new iOS also offers a feature called "Passbook," where digital coupons, airline tickets and gift cards can be conveniently stored in one location. This, too, is going to be popular.

iPhone 5 tech specs:

- Display: 4-inch (diagonal) with a resolution of 1136 by 640 pixels.

- Memory capacity: 16, 32 or 64 gigabytes, depending on price. There's no way to expand it with memory cards.

- Price: Starting at $199, for 16 gigabytes of memory.

- Size: height: 4.87 inches; width: 2.31 inches; depth: 0.30 inch (124 x 59 x 7.6 mm)

- Weight: 3.95 ounces (112 grams)

- Cameras: 8-megapixel camera on back, 1.2-megapixel on front.

- Video recording: high-definition (1080p - comparable to the resolution of a 40-inch flat panel TV) up to 30 frames per second with audio

- Battery life: talk time is up to 8 hours on 3G. Internet works for up to 8 hours on LTE and up to 10 hours on Wi-Fi. Up to 10 hours of video playback. Battery can be replaced by service personnel only.

- US wireless carriers: Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint Nextel and others.

- Network compatibility: 3G networks worldwide, plus 4G LTE networks in the US, Canada, Japan, Germany, UK, Australia, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore.

- Operating system: Apple's iOS 6 (will also be available for download to older iPhone models)

- Near-field communications: Not available.