Things are different without Steve. But, it is what it is.  Truth told,  I have been hoping that somehow, Apple would be haunted by the ghostly genius of Jobs in Cupertino and release a ground breaking, insanely awesome new iphone.  This has been their history.  The first iphone set the bar and was untouchable for years.  The 3G, still held it down. The 4/4S was gorgeous and still, pretty much untouchable. The 5 came with longer, faster and with a few...ehh new features.  Still a great phone but it didn't quite meet everyone's expectations, including mine.   Android devices have finally caught up over the last few years and the iphone's lead over over all has been significantly reduced.  Samsung has got some good stuff and I actually think the HTC One is a hot phone.   I will say,  the iphone, to me and iOS in general is a much smoother and overall better working system than Android.  It just...works better and Apples eco system is far superior.  But that's just me.  My iphone 5 is jailbroken, pimped out and still absolutely does exactly what I need it to do and then some.  I've tried the GS4 and a few other of the latest greatest iphone "killers" out there.  They're fun and great phones.  But they have nothing I don't already have or would want.  What's most disturbing though,  is I find that the mobile phone manufacturers have turned to the American fast food business model for everything - BIGGER! SUPER SIZED! MORE GIMMICKS TO LURE YOU IN! It's  a step in the wrong direction.  Remember the time when mobile phones were designed to be svelte, sleek, gorgeous and gadget gawking worthy devices?  Some of the Nokia phones come to mind and of course, the Motorola Razor. Probably one of the biggest selling phones of all time.  Now the phones are being made larger with bigger screens at the expense of becoming bulky, cumbersome devices.  Then there are the so called "wow" features of some of these new phones -Waving your hand to answer it.  Really? Looking away from the screen to pause video. Really?  That's all well and good but....really....it's just silly stuff that panders to a few kids and not to people who use a phone as a phone.  My phone should be mature, sophisticated and neatly slide into a suit jacket or a pair of jeans.
 Seeing as how my ipad mini is my go to device for most of my applications and on the go computing,  my phone needs to do only a few things - Make calls, get calls, handle email and texts.  There are few other features I rely on , but for the most part, that's it. 

NOW, with all of that said,  let me just get to what this is really all about.   The new iphone 5S.  Pretty much an iphone 5...with an S in front of it.  Wow.  At first I thought "What? No new design? Some new colors and the new ios7...that's it?" I wanted Apple to come out and blow everyone's minds.  I wanted the old Apple back.  But then, I suddenly felt relief.  Relief that Apple DIDN'T go bigger.  They didn't try and make some massive device to compete with the current crop of behemoths.  They kept it smooth, simple and gorgeous.  In all of that competition over the years, no one has ever denied the iphone it's beauty crown, and now, the new gold color adds to that.  I won't get into all of the new features and the upgrade of iOS7, but I will point out a few of the more relevant features that make the new phone that much sexier.  It's faster - Always a good thing.  The fingerprint scanner- Coolness. Period. Who can deny that one?   As for the camera improvements,  Apple did exactly what most others neglect to do - they increased sensor size and allowed for a lower aperture (f2.2) which improves the camera's low light performance.  This is a big deal and will definitely make the camera that much better.  The other companies seem keep pushing onto the unknowing masses more MEGA PIXELS.  Well, as any camera savvy person will tell you, more megapixels don't translate into a great camera.   In conclusion,  I'm looking forward to getting a new 5S.  I typically like my phones black or some kind of metal/silver...but may just have to go with the gold.

http://www.apple.com/iphone-5s/?cid=wwa-us-kwg-iphone-com