2012 was a momentous year for the iPhone and iPod. The hardware improved, 200,000 new apps hit the App Store, and third-party developers were forced to transition quickly from Dock Connectors to Bluetooth wireless and Lightning adapters. Between the devices, their software, and their accessories, a lot has changed, and it looks like Apple’s just getting started.
Tonight, we’re soft-launching our 2013 iPhone + iPod Buyers’ Guide, a comprehensive look at the year’s best Apple devices, accessories, apps, and games. The official release date is tomorrow, but as always, we’re linking to it here first, so that loyal Backstage readers can get access to it before our servers get slammed. (Thank you, readers, for the millions of downloads our last two Guides received. We really appreciate your continued support!)
Rewritten from top to bottom, this year’s edition has 208 pages, divided up into sections looking at Apple’s hardware, third-party accessories, and software, as well as a few other things worth pointing out. Some really cool pages contrast all the current iPhone and iPod touch cameras, along with iPad and Canon standalone camera results, as well as color comparison charts for all of the iPod shuffles, nanos, and touches against historic models.
There’s a large preview of the upcoming iLounge Pavilion at the 2013 CES, which will host over 450 developers this year, with 12 spotlighted developers across six different areas of the massive show floor.
We’ve expanded the iGlossary, which will help new and recent users learn 200 different marketing and technical terms Apple is using these days, and we’ve also created new camera and color comparison charts for the latest iPhones and iPods.
One other thing that you might or might not have noticed in prior guides is our massive “Buy or Sell – Used” section, which we update every year with current fair market value pricing for every discontinued iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV model. Did you know you could actually sell a second-generation Apple TV for more than it cost brand new? That iPod values are beginning to show serious declines this year, as Apple continues to focus more on new iPhones and iPads?
So yes, there’s a lot to learn inside the 2013 iPhone + iPod Buyers’ Guide. It’s the product of many early mornings and sleepless nights, so we hope you enjoy it. Grab your choice of twin-page (iPad/computer), single-page (iPad/iPhone/iPod) or mobile (iPhone/iPod-only) versions from the links below. Every version is a free PDF, which can be opened with iBooks or Safari on an iOS device, and most web browsers or Adobe Acrobat on computers.
And please tell a friend. We made this Guide available for free to help as many people as possible, so it would be great if you could tweet, share it on Facebook, or otherwise spread the word. Thanks!