Wednesday, October 2, 2013

9 Apps Optimized for the iPhone 5s' A7 Processor - PC Magazine

9 Apps Optimized for the iPhone 5s

Apple’s recently released iPhone 5s is the only phone on the market with the all-new A7 processor. The Apple A7 is a 64-bit, 1.3GHz, ARMv8, dual-core CPU chip, which makes it twice as fast (according to Apple) as the A6 found in iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c. It’s only available on iOS 7, which is the operating system that ships on the iPhone 5s. Apple also claims the chip is capable of twice the graphics power as its last generation, which comes into play for high-end games and other apps that work hard to churn out high-quality visual effects.

What’s also interesting about the A7 is what it’s missing: the processing capabilities of the accelerometer, compass, and gyroscope. These have been moved to a motion co-processor in the iPhone 5s, where they can now run just as they did before but now using much less battery power.

The A7 might be even more enticing a feature than the home button with a built-in fingerprint scanner (also unique to the iPhone 5s), but you have to see in action to appreciate it. A handful of apps have already been redeveloped to take advantage of the A7′s oomph, including the eight on this list.

Five of the nine apps on this list are free, so you can get a taste of the A7′s power without dropping any money. The others cost between $ 1.99 and $ 6.99. Surprisingly, only two of the apps are games, while several others are what I’ll call “creation” apps, or programs used in making art, music, and other creative works. And one is a fitness app that uses the motion co-processor to replicate an activity tracker.

Even if you don’t have an iPhone 5s, you can still read on to learn a little about each app and exactly how it is optimized for the A7 chip. For more iPhone app recommendations, see

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