At our house, Netflix is something the kids love and know. The iPad is also that has turned into a learning tool and media consumption iDevice for the kids. While the Netflix app on the iPad is great for the wife and I, the covers on DVDs these days are not children safe by any stretch of the imagination!

Finding true kid appropriate content on any device, TV Channel or movie these days comes with lots of looking around. Well Netflix is trying to fix that! Enter Netflix “Just for Kids”. The button in the upper left corner is all we need!

This new update to the already great app has truly captured my kids and I’s attention. The ease of use, the appropriate shows given as options (minus SpongeBob) allows me to relax knowing that they can only find what is age appropriate.

Check out the quick demo video they put together of the app update below. Update your Netflix app now!

Besides the age appropriate content, the simple navigation, and streaming movies to keep your kids quiet after a long day, it’s FREE as always!

Make sure you grab the Netflix app, now with “Just for Kids” now!

So I woke up this AM as I do every other morning, to that annoying strum from my iPhone at 6am. Yes 6am is the only time I can get up and not have my three little girls jumping up and down on me!

Anyway, my wife kept pushing me to turn off the alarm, and come to find out, my iPhone 4 was stuck on a activation screen. Hmmmm

I turned off the phone and fell back asleep.

When I woke back up I realized that although in the past, yes iOS 5 didn’t require this step, my iOS 6 Beta expired. I HATE when that happens. Well to fix it, really you need not worry, just follow the steps below.

1. Download a copy of the IPSW for your make and model. Google it – sooo many sites have this.
2. Connect your device to iTunes, and use the Option-click (or Alt-click) to pick the IPSW file you just downloaded.
3. Apple will then check your iDevice for the IPSW you just selected and you are good to go!

Make sure you backup your iPhone first, then do the above steps.

It took me about 10 minutes max to complete the steps above!

Did you forget to upgrade? Are you now stuck reading this on your old Motorola Startack?

7 years ago, Steve Jobs and Co. put their hope in a completely new device. The computer company designed and manufactured a mobile device that was introduced as a mobile phone, music player and internet communication device. It was an uphill battle that will have them enter a very competitive, congested and hungry industry filled with companies with deep pockets. Not to mention the constant barrage of headaches dealing with carriers. Something that Apple had never done. This device was named the iPhone.

Today, the iPhone has grown to become the world’s most important device to Apple. Not only have they succeeded in taking over the market, but they have obtained 73% of the world’s mobile operating profits (Samsung being the only other significant company making money – the others are losing money). So with so much pressure to continue outperforming the market, what does the newly released iPhone 5 bring to the market?

Body
When I first opened the box of my iPhone 5 and picked it up, I was amazed at how light it is. The device is 18 % thinner and 20 percent lighter than the iPhone 4S. The attention to detail is phenomenal and you can tell that Apple took great caution into making this device extremely beautiful. You can tell Apple was obsessed in making the aluminum unibody feel very nice in your hand.Top that off with a larger 4 inch retina screen that makes the device bigger without sacrificing the one handed use of the device. It really is the perfect fit.

Display
The display on the iPhone 5 is beautiful. Apple removed one layer of display so that the thinner 30% thinner display provides more clarity. This feels like the icons on the phone are painted on. Very close to your eyes and looks better than the iPhone 4S before it. Also the iPhone 5 has the best and most accurate display on the market (http://www.anandtech.com/show/6334/iphone-5-screen-performance) and provides full sRGB colors.

Speed
The new iPhone has been updated to include LTE networking. The speeds I’m seeing here in New York city are insane. I can get 25Mbps down and 29Mbps up network speeds. That’s faster than most people’s wifi network. In addition, Apple’s A6 chip makes the operating system run smoothly. I have yet to see any hiccups with it. Scrolling is smooth, fast and very responsive. For the first time Apple provides a chip that is faster than that of the latest iPad. Very impressed so far. Even though the phone runs on power hungry LTE and the chip is powerful enough to make the phone scream, the battery life is very good on it. I can leave my home fully charged and by the time it’s 8PM still have 25% of my battery life. This is with normal use (tweets, emails, Instagram, reading and listening to music).

Camera
The iPhone 5 keeps its 8MP camera like the device before it, but it has been enhanced with better low-light performance. Photos taken in darker scenes look better than the previous iteration. Apple also introduced Panorama mode to the camera. You hold your phone portrait and scroll slowly to your left. I was surprised how well it works. I took the following photo from Top of the Rock ( http://d.pr/i/nolJ ) and 9/11 memorial ( http://d.pr/i/iIQU ) so you can see the effect. (on both photos, I didn’t span all the way to the right due to people being in the way, otherwise, it would have been wider). The mode works well and it’s a nice little addition. Video has also been enhanced with better face detection and taking photos while shooting video. Also, the iPhone camera has been fitted with sapphire crystal to protect the surface of the lens.

iOS6
Apple’s new iOS is faster, more stable and introduces some very welcomed additions. I won’t go through each detail, but we have new maps (more on this later), new redesigned app and iTunes stores, improvements to Siri, new iCloud features, passbook, mail and safari improvements, phone app do not disturb features and more.

Maps
The new maps app have been a point of controversy lately and rightly so. Here in NYC maps has worked really great, but this is a big “main” city. People run into issues in places that are not very common. There’s also the quality and quantity of POIs (point of interest) missing compared to Google’s. Apple uses Yelp for POIs which compared to Google’s, it’s not as robust. People wonder why Apple made this move and I come to the following conclusion. Google and Apple are rivals and competitors. Why continue to provide data to your competitor based on their maps? If Apple wants to remain competitive, they HAD to provide their own maps. Even though we all suffer in the beginning for it, the only way to enhance maps data is by users actually using it. One of the premier reasons why Google maps is so good, is based on all the data that us iPhone users have been giving them. We have made Google maps better (in addition to Android users) by using the app. Do you remember Google maps before the iPhone? yeah, it was a mediocre product at best. Apple had to make this move now and not later. If it waited longer, they would have to sign another deal with Google to use their maps and rumors are that Google wanted to fill their app with ads and ask for more data from their users. Apple wasn’t going to comply. It’s a tough decision, but I think it’s the right one. You never want to provide your competitor with data that can become fuel against your own product. I would say that though this is early pains, we will see a very mature product in the future. Make no mistake, location is the future of mobility. Google knows this, Apple knows this, Nokia knows this. Apple was caught between a rock and a hard place and they made the right move. UPDATE: Tim cook today wrote this in regards to Maps: http://www.apple.com/letter-from-tim-cook-on-maps/ )

Conclusion
There’s no denying that the iPhone 5 is the best iPhone in existence. In fact, the iPhone 5 today is the most powerful and well-designed smartphone in the market. It feels great, works great, and though we suffer with a premature maps application, I trust that it will become better month after month. I can say with certainty that if you are due for an upgrade, you would do well to upgrade to an iPhone 5. Oh, and yes, I will continue to use my iPhone 5 naked! #nocase

So some of you out there have had the iPhone 5 now for a few days. Well is it worth it?

The LTE? The updated processor? The new camera? The size, the color, the backing?

With record breaking numbers (more than 2 million in 24 hours) along with a long awaited design refresh, the iPhone 5 is finally here. But is it worth it?

Is it what you really wanted?

I for one am waiting for the upgrade from Verizon. This model is not one I am willing to spend 650 dollars on out of contract. Although I have yet to get my hands on one. I will have one in my hands shortly.

Weigh in and let us know why you upgraded and what the feature that made you do so really is!

Now that some of you are holding your new #iPhone5, what do you think? Return it or keep it? How long until you get yours? R u loving #iOS6?

— Matthew Snider (@geekfori) September 21, 2012

As soon as the iPhone 5 was revealed, you heard the pundits saying that this was a mediocre update that looks exactly like the iPhone before it. They laughed it off and proceeded to mock the device throughout the internets while showing off their plastic devices with 37 inch screens and tweeting about Apple’s failed innovation.

Only in America do we call a device a disappointment when everything about it has been greatly improved. Just to put things into perspective:

1. LTE: To many, this will be faster than people’s wifi connection. Yes, Android had LTE before, and no, they didn’t invent it. I guess people were expecting Apple to introduce LTE+ or something that doesn’t exist?
2. Updated, beautiful, industrial design. If you take a look at the photos and the materials that were used for the iPhone 5, you know you are dealing with quality, attention to detail and beauty. You have the steel antenna polished perfectly to show a beautiful diamond cut edge, Aliminum unibody case (which is lighter than the previous glass) and provides a smooth feel to the phone that happens to be 20% lighter than the iPhone 4S. Think about that for a second. You make the phone larger, include LTE chips, updated processors and lots of technologies and the phone is actually lighter than the previous version. This alone is a technological feat. What phone in existence increases screen size and internals and makes the device lighter? None! The optics are updated and include sapphire crystal for durability to avoid scratches and keep photos clear and perfect.
3. A6 chip: The chip which powers the iPhone 5 with lots of power and which actually provides better battery life than the previous iteration (considering LTE is a hungry beast, this is impressive). We don’t know much about this chip yet, but word is that it makes iOS 6 scream!
4. Screen. Apple is a master of making their devices feel “perfect”. Unlike many of these beasts devices that exist with huge screens, Apple increased the size of the screen while not sacrificing the one handed use of the iPhone. It’s just the right size that provides more room for innovation on behalf of app developers to see what can be done with the extra pixels. I’m interested to see how they will use this additional space. They also kept retina resolution and made the screen 44% greater at saturation.
5. iOS6: Still the best, most stable, consistent and easiest mobile operating system to date with new enhanced maps, Panomarama, shared photostreams, enhanced Siri, Passbook, Built-in Facebook and more.

Personally, I think anyone has the right to like or dislike any device. It’s our right as customers, fans and human beings. But like all things, we can’t look at this device and say that Apple got lazy with it. Everything about it says that they took time, and an a careful eye to make this new iPhone a better device. From the hardware to the software. I’m certain once you hold it in your hand, you know you are holding more than a phone. You are holding a work of art, with carefully chosen materials made to fit perfectly for a mobile device. Nowhere can you find the quality of materials used in a smatphone.

Apple has become the company that paved the way for innovation in the smartphone space. You can’t deny this. So I’ll end this post by rewriting the famous words of Colonel Jessep in A Few Good man:

“You don’t want to hate on Apple because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you want them in this industry, you need them in this industry. Apple uses words like innovation, quality, precision. They use these words as the backbone of a smartphone device that has changed the way we communicate. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to people who rise and sleeps under the blanket of the very innovation that Apple has provided, and then questions the manner in which they provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a device that is built on better quality and attention to detail, and lead the industry. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think about the iPhone 5.”

Unless you live under a very big rock in the Badlands of South Dakota you probably heard about Apple’s iPhone 5 event yesterday.

Yet again, Apple did not disappoint.

First things first, you can pre-order the iPhone 16GB version for $199 starting Friday, September 14th. Or you can wait in line with other Mac fanatics on September 21st and try to battle crazed consumers for this beautiful device at your local Apple Store.

Unfortunately, I am a cheapskate by necessity and picked up the 8GB iPhone 4 for $99 last fall when the 4S was announced. Alas, I won’t be enjoying another iPhone until the 5S (or 6) is released next fall. However, that doesn’t mean drool wasn’t dripping down my chin during the event yesterday. I had a roll of paper towels handy for the occasion.

A recounting of the event would be redundant, but here is the video introducing the iPhone 5 with John Ivy kicking it off (with his voice I really think he should record audio books).

Here are 5 big iPhone 5 features worth noting:

1. 4 inch screen
2. Enhanced iSight camera
3. A6 processor
4. LTE
5. Metal & glass hardware

You check out more sweet features including iOS 6 directly on the Apple iPhone 5 web page HERE.

Question: Will you be getting the iPhone 5? Are there any additional features you were hoping for?