BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
"The clock is ticking," said Joshua Hon, vice president of Tern Bicycles, the company behind the Biologic accessories brand. Biologic makes, among other things, handlebar-mounted smartphone cases, including for the iPhone. Yesterday’s announcement of the longer, thinner, jewel-protected iPhone 5 means another SKU for Biologic.
"The basic design is already done but it’ll take maybe two months to get tooled up," said Hon, adding in a very Apple-like way "we’ve also got some interesting tweaks to the design."
iPhone 5 will ship with the iOS6 operating system, which will also be available as a download for other iPhones next week. This souped-up OS is more hi-res than previous versions and has many under-the-hood features that developers can use to create faster, richer apps.
Apple apps – such as Calendar, Keynote, Pages, Numbers, GarageBand, iMovie, and iPhoto – will be fully-optimized for the new, longer display on the iPhone 5 and for changes in iOS6. Third-party apps that aren’t updated will display letterboxed with black bars to fill the rest of the screen. This will mean ‘old’ apps will quickly appear dated.
The industry-owned Bike Hub cycle satnav app will be getting refreshed within the next ten days and will include optimisation for iOS6 and the new iPhone.
This video shows the app in action and also shows a number of iPhone handlebar-holders, including the Biologic. iPhone handlebar holders from Magura and NC-17 grip the iPhone from the side rather than nest the handset: these holders will work with the iPhone 5 without modification.
