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IPhone 4S: A5 chip, 8MP camera, and Siri voice recognition
- IanDrake 15y agoIt was up for a second... *Update: There it's back. This is the first iphone that made me go "meh".
- bjtitus 15y agoI think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the speed bump. I believe everyone is underestimating just how fast the A5 is going to make this phone.
- gravitronic 15y agoHow does it impact battery life? To be honest I find the existing generation fast enough (and while I do enjoy gaming on my ipod touch 4g, I find 3d graphics completely overkill) but really the battery life is what's abysmal...
- pohl 15y agoGood question. The results in mobile devices seems to be counter-intuitive, to me. A faster processor often means that, according to usage patterns, the work gets done faster and the machine can go into one of the many power-saving states more quickly, leading to better battery life. That probably varies by what you're trying to do, but for a smart phone the sooner it's done and back in your pocket, the better.
- gte910h 15y agoThe CPU bound processes in most apps are tiny portions of the entire app.
- pohl 15y agoDon't take my "back in your pocket" comment too literally. The CPU is going to go into low-power states quite frequently while you're using these I/O bound applications you describe, and the sooner it can, the better. I don't think what I'm saying is controversial in the mobile industry. For example, here's an old article that has a quote about the effects of Intel's Quick Start technology from back in the year 2000 that captures what I'm saying: http://www.anandtech.com/show/2782/2 http://www.anandtech.com/show/2782/2 “"Intel has figured out that it is best to use full CPU power for a split second to finish a task and then put the CPU to idle as this conserves battery life the best. Although one may suspect that when running complex operations the CPU would not have time to go idle, this is not the case. To illustrate this point, Intel used an example of DVD playback. Very stressful on the system as a whole, Intel's quick start technology allows the CPU to "hurry up" and perform the DVD decoding operations and then go idle until the frame is displayed to screen and the next scene needs to be calculated. This saves battery life because, although the system may require 3 watts or so to "hurry up", the power consumption goes down near .25 watts when idle. By averaging these two numbers, one can quickly see how quick start can extend battery life."”
- gte910h 15y agoWhile what you're saying about CPUs is correct, that is not the main battery hog in smartphones (additionally why Apple is staying so far from LTE at the moment) The biggest demon is by FAR the radios. The amount apps and the phone use that is mostly determined 1> by how much the user wants notifications (which are basically implemented by constant polling, even in background notifications), or 2> how network intensive the apps are that a person is using. Additionally, stuff like having bad connections to your cell provider make the radio receiver power have to be turned up (as well as broadcast, but the receiver is the worst part usually), and constantly using bluetooth will kill you as well. The bad thing about the radios, especially if you have stuff like lots of apps doing push notifications, as well as a fast polling interval for your mail, is that you're doing this even when the phone is in your pocket. Second to the radios is technically another radio, but people only do 1 way comms with it and don't really think of it as a radio: THE GPS SYSTEM. Apple vastly improved this (it used to pretty much leave the system on, now it pulses it on and off unless your app requires the older mode for some reason, such as Navigon type turn by turn navigation). Again, this is a part of the phone that optimization did help with (as often time the GPS radio doesn't come on if the phone can figure out your location from other mechanisms), but still, you're generally speaking going to see most GPS heavy apps running while the user is using them. Sure driving faster will get the phone in their pocket faster, but I'm not sure an added hour of battery life is worth unsafe driving. I'm not saying graphics and the like don't eat up huge chunks of power, I'm just saying that a vast majority of people eat most of their power on much more pedestrian things than Infinity Blade.
- yakto 15y agoBattery life is supposed to be better - 8h talk time.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- moe 15y agoAny word on when the real iphone5 will arrive? The 4S seems like a rather pitiful flagship by apple standards.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- justinj 15y ago2 year release cycles - you've got 12 months to sit tight my friend. in consolation the iPad 3 (the real successor to the iPad) should be out within 6m.
- masklinn 15y ago> you've got 12 months to sit tight my friend. 8~9 is more likely, this year's delay was due to iCloud (and maybe a bit iOS5), not iPhone. It's not unlikely they'll snap back to June-July next year, so that the release of the new iPad and the new iOS don't drift 6 months apart.
- guywithabike 15y agoI really don't get it. Why's everyone underwhelmed? Is a new case the only thing people wanted?
- tvon 15y agoI don't get it either, it's pretty much what the rumors predicted.
- itg 15y agoSeems like it. The two biggest gripes I've seen is they wanted a bigger screen and redesign. The bigger screen would have been nice, but is it really bothering so many people that it looks the same? I'm moving on from a 3GS so I plan on getting the 4S.
- timr 15y ago
- Greenisus 15y agoI was hoping for an iPhone 5 with a new design, but I'm still very excited about this. The extra processing power combined with the low level speed improvements in iOS 5 are going to be HUGE for app developers. The only letdown for me is seeing Apple do things that compete with their app developers: the new Cards app, Reminders, etc.
- nasmorn 15y agoIf you develop an app that is so universally useful that everyone would want it on their phone, Apple will copy it. You are picking up nickels in front of a bulldozer but in exactly this kind of apps some people managed to pick up lots of nickels before the bulldozer got them.
- gwright 15y agoI've been having a hard time understanding all the clamor for a new form factor. The 3G to 3GS bump was all about performance and software. It makes sense for the 4 to 4S to also be about performance and software. The next form factor change will be the iPhone 5 in the same way that the iPhone 4 was a form-factor change. This seems like a reasonable allocation of R&D dollars to me. I don't think the form factor has to change every year. Apple's next earnings call will be interesting. I'm curious as to why the product cycle for the iPhone changed this time around with the fall intro rather than summer. Was it component supply? engineering delays? market timing strategy with the holidays? milking the existing iPhone 4 demand? all of the above?
- masklinn 15y ago> This seems like a reasonable allocation of R&D dollars to me. I don't think the form factor has to change every year. Even more so because their audience cycles with 2-years contract (or so they believe, at any rate), so it makes sense to keep designs for 2 years.
- Greenisus 15y agoyou guys make a good point on the design not needing to change. the iPhone 4 chassis design is essentially perfect as far as I'm concerned. the letdown, i think, is in the excitement of something that looks new, just like the excitement of seeing the original iPhone and seeing the iPhone 4 for the first time. however, aside from aesthetics, i think the case is in need of some new features. for one, the home button is overloaded in ways that multi-touch could fix. double tap on the lock screen to get the fast camera button, double tap when unlocked for fast app switching, etc. fast app switching is awkward and not easily discoverable; it would be much nicer if i could swipe left or right on the bottom bezel to switch apps. also, with the new Notification Center, it would be nice if i could swipe from the top bezel instead of the screen, thus causing less interruption to third party apps. as far as people wanting a bigger screen, i disagree. the Retina Display was brilliant in that it kept the exact same aspect ratio as the original iPhone. no app had to change to support it (aside from offering larger graphics assets). anyway, that's my $0.02 :)
- protomyth 15y agoThe A5, camera, and increased storage are worth the upgrade. I do wonder if the camera API will change based on the keynote.
- phoenix24 15y agoseems like apple.com is down
- deweller 15y agoAny word on whether Nitro javascript acceleration will be allowed in local webkit-based apps?
- jcampbell1 15y agoThe latest news was that iOS 5 only adds Nitro for homescreen web applications. At least tabbed browsing is now in Safari, so there is less reason to use 3rd party browsers, though that is little comfort to mobile app developers using webkit.
- thematt 15y agoAnybody else getting "Access Denied"? You don't have permission to access "http://www.apple.com/ http://www.apple.com/ on this server. Reference #18.770d50c0.1317755591.9fc5eb4
- thematt 15y agoAnybody else getting "Access Denied"? You don't have permission to access "http://www.apple.com/ http://www.apple.com/ on this server. Reference #18.770d50c0.1317755591.9fc5eb4
- starnix17 15y agoIs their DNS hacked? From whois apple.com: APPLE.COM.WWW.BEYONDWHOIS.COM APPLE.COM.WAS.PWNED.BY.M1CROSOFT.COM APPLE.COM.MORE.INFO.AT.WWW.BEYONDWHOIS.COM APPLE.COM.IS.OWN3D.BY.NAKEDJER.COM APPLE.COM.IS.0WN3D.BY.GULLI.COM APPLE.COM.BEYONDWHOIS.COM APPLE.COM.AT.WWW.BEYONDWHOIS.COM APPLE.COM EDIT: This is completely false and untrue (well the DNS hack part). See this Superuser thread for more details: http://superuser.com/questions/37954/how-to-use-command-line-whois-for-spam-infected-domains-like-apple-com http://superuser.com/questions/37954/how-to-use-command-line...
- functionoid 15y agoApple's site is back up.
- seanalltogether 15y ago"And iPhone 4S is a world phone, so you can use it almost anywhere. Whether you’re a GSM or CDMA customer, you can roam GSM networks in 200 countries around the world." The term 'roam' is throwing me off there, does that mean you can't swap in your own sim card? That you have to use the roaming feature on whatever your current carrier is?
- Xuzz 15y agoMost likely. Most iPhones are sold locked to a specific carrier. Only recently (this summer) were you even able to buy unlocked ones inside the US.
- masklinn 15y agoOn the other hand, it was always possible to unlock the phone with third-party tools or in countries with better consumer protection than the US,.
- jesseendahl 15y agoWell, so far there is no pricing available for an unlocked version of the iPhone 4S, and I assume the contract versions will carrier locked within the USA :(
- masklinn 15y agoUnlocked phones are available in most countries which are not the US. They're... not cheap. On the french store, the unlocked 4S is advertised as starting from 629€ (which would be for the 16GB version)
- jesseendahl 15y agoYeah, I realize they are available in most other countries, just not historically the U.S. Which is why I was super excited when they finally started selling unlocked iPhone 4's in the U.S. this past summer. I seriously hope they don't go back to only selling locked phones again. Thankfully, it does look like an unlocked version will be available. If you go to the Apple Store Online, then to the iPhone 4 page, on the right hand side you see a section titled "Get answers before you buy," and below that "About the unlocked iPhone." Clicking on that gets you to this page: http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone/iphone4/about_unlocked http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iph... which reads: "The unlocked iPhone includes all the features of iPhone but without a contract commitment. You can activate and use it on the supported GSM wireless network of your choice, such as AT&T in the United States.* The unlocked iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S will not work with CDMA-based carriers such as Verizon Wireless or Sprint."
- kenjackson 15y agoThis is a pretty underwhelming release. At least for waiting 16 months since the last phone. I sincerely hope Apple isn't about to do a replay of the Mac. Great introduction with incredible technology. But a few years into it, begins to stagnate. HW wise this nothing like the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 was a far superior device over the Galaxy S phones. The Galaxy S II though is pretty close to this. In terms of the raw HW I think I might call it a draw now. The camera is superior on the iPhone I suspect, but the small screen size negates that win. Based on this trend, unless Apple has some aces in its sleeve, over the next year we'll see Android phones clearly pull ahead in HW. SW though iOS still kills Android. Mango and iOS seem to be the ones that have the fundamentals down. I almost think someone needs to throw Android out and start from scratch. The inability for that OS to be stable and the fact that its still sometimes jerky on SGII HW is embarrassing.
- dmix 15y agoYou lost me at Mango and iOS being in the same category - and then you want to "throw Android out and start from scratch"?... what? Android is not quite iOS but its a very close second and better than what anyone else has been capable of creating.
- kenjackson 15y agoiOS and Mango are in the same class in fundamentals. Use a device with iOS, Mango, and Android. Honestly, try it. The iOS and Mango device respond very similarly to basic things like swipes, pinches, etc... Android is a lot more jittery, even on the SGII HW. The odd thing with Android is that it's not a LOT less jittery on the G1 (although it is). Android is second best in apps. And #1 in terms of market dominance. But if you jump back and forth for a week between the iPhone for and Nexus S, you'll feel a huge difference.
- MatthewPhillips 15y agoI personally don't see much of a difference between the OSes in terms of lag. I know there is a meme that iOS doesn't lag but my iPad lags all the time (and always has). If I do a big sync I have to restart the device because it's unusably laggy. My Nexus One with Gingerbread rarely lags at all. * I don't really like Android that much (or iOS).
- john2x 15y agoI'm confused. It's priced at $199. That's the same as the iPod Touch. Has it really gone down that much? Or am I missing something? And what's with the "Free" 3GS?
- gamble 15y agoThose prices are only available on two year contracts.
- flyosity 15y agoThat's the price if you sign up for a 2-year contract. This is typically how they show the prices of iPhones since most consumers in the U.S. have no idea what a phone costs before the subsidy is paid by the carrier (and wouldn't pay it.)
- keltex 15y agoFree means free with a 2 yr. subsidized contract.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- alexg0 15y agoAT&T has consistently let it's best customers upgrade to new iPhone releases without enforcing the contract -- charging subsidized prices to upgrade to newer iPhone models. Will Sprint and Verizon done the same, or is switching to Sprint now will commit one to sit out next iPhone?
- tptacek 15y agoWait what? I've been AT&T since the original iPhone and AT&T has never let me upgrade, despite the massive amount of money I spent on my mobile plan.
- gwright 15y agoThis doesn't make sense. When you near the end of your 2-year contract AT&T will subsidize your purchase of your next phone (e.g. the $199, $299, $399 price points for the 4S announced today). If you aren't near the end of your 2-year contract then you are basically still paying off the purchase of your original phone and so AT&T (and other carriers) aren't going to give you the subsidy to purchase a new phone although they might pro-rate it. How has your experience been different?
- tptacek 15y agoYes, when I'm near the end of my contract, AT&T is happy to offer me subsidized iPhone pricing. But they haven't offered me any breaks earlier than that.
- gwright 15y agoYou seem to think that someone else got a break that you didn't get but then you describe a situation that sounds exactly like what everyone else has experienced. I'm not sure why you have an expectation that any carrier would subsidize a new phone before you've effectively paid them for the previous phone. Obviously there is room to haggle on the margins of the contract but the entire business model of subsidized phones and 2-year contracts is designed around the idea that the 2-year contract is there to pay off the initial equipment subsidy. TANSTAAFL
- joebadmo 15y agoAs an Android user and admitted Google fanboy, there's a secret part of me that always hopes the new iPhone will be so much and so unequivocably better that I'll want to switch. I really like the iPhone 4/4s ID, but I am a bit disappointed that there's not a shiny new chassis with something to blow me away. No doubt the camera (now even more so) is better than anything on any Android device, probably by a lot. The pixel density, contrast, and surface proximity of the screen is fantastic. Hardware-wise, the only thing I can ask for is LTE (hell on the battery, I know) and a bigger screen (impossible to maintain pixel density, I know, but I love the 4.3" screen on my Droid X, I don't think I could go back). Software-wise, with the new notification system, I think the only major feature I want now is something like Locale or Tasker, background apps that allow me change phone settings according to different criteria, e.g. when I'm at home, my ringer and wifi turns on, when I leave home they turn off.
- masklinn 15y ago> I want now is something like Locale or Tasker, background apps that allow me change phone settings according to different criteria, e.g. when I'm at home, my ringer and wifi turns on, when I leave home they turn off. Yeah a more integrated Reminder, which can handle switching settings: it has geofenced tasks and todos, system hooks would be pretty cool.
- joebadmo 15y agoYes, exactly. But, unfortunately, it's the kind of fiddly sort of feature that I don't expect to be high priority for Apple. I.e. the lack of it in no way stops me from recommending the iPhone to the vast majority of people that ask me which phone to get.
- WiseWeasel 15y agoI'm a 32GB 3GS owner on a lapsed ATT contract, and I'll be pre-ordering a Verizon 32GB 4S model on Friday. Two things bother me, but weren't deal-breakers: 1) It sucks that it still has the iPhone 4's flawed design, with glass going right up to the edge of the front and back, requiring a case so it can survive a fall. I've always preferred to keep my iPhones naked. 2) $400 for the 64GB model with two-year contract? Really? No storage capacity upgrade since last year's model (the entry level $200 model still ships with 16GB storage), with memory capacities ever-increasing and prices falling, feels like nickel-and-diming. I guess I didn't really need 64GB after all. Other than that, the new Siri Voice Assistant looks sweet, the 8MP/1080p camera also looks nice, and I'm looking forward to the improved performance.
- gte910h 15y ago>requiring a case so it can survive a fall. I never really understood this position. First off, I've dropped my phone several times, somehow it's not even scratched that I can find Secondly, gorilla glass is considerably harder than most internal components. I can't imagine what you'd be doing to the inside of a plastic phone you're dropping that hard.
- WiseWeasel 15y agoWhile it may survive drops on relatively soft surfaces like wood or carpet, I can only assume that materials such as ceramic or concrete will win over glass. I say that as someone who has worked with glass, albeit not with Corning Gorilla Glass in particular. My naked original iPhone and 3GS phones have been dropped many times on hard surfaces (like concrete), and have only had minor dents and cracks in the plastic and metal, which I'm totally fine with. Having the glass shatter is not OK, hence the need for it to be recessed behind a protective rim, or failing that, the entire phone enclosed in a protective case, which adds to the device thickness and makes it ugly.
- gte910h 15y agoWhile I've certainly dropped it on hardwood floors for most of the drops, I've dropped in into ceramic, shut a car door on it, dropped it on concrete, on asphalt, on granite, and even onto my macbookpro, which was on the floor. (I'm not especially klutzy, I'm an iOS developer, so am constantly handling the phone and plugging and unplugging it from the cord) That little sucker is hardy.
- Kilimanjaro 15y agoA5, iOS5, why not iPhone5??? Huge marketing miss. Everything else being perfect.
- checker 15y agoOct 4 ... besides that, I agree.
- MrFoof 15y agoFor those in the US curious about their upgrade eligibility, use this link: https://buyiphone.apple.com/WebObjects/IPACustomer.woa/wa/IPAToolAction/springboard https://buyiphone.apple.com/WebObjects/IPACustomer.woa/wa/IP... I'm finding that I'm eligible for the fully subsidized price after only about 17 months from getting my iPhone 4.
- zokier 15y ago8 megapixels, but on how large sensor? Not surprisingly, all sample images are taken in bright sunlight. I doubt that the camera will perform anywhere near Nokias N8, or reasonably priced point'n'shoot. Well, I guess that people should be lucky that Apple didn't put in something silly like 16MP 1/2.3" sensor in it.
- zokier 15y agoArgh, I hate when I get downvotes without explanation. The fact is that sensor size affects image quality as much, if not more than megapixel count, and if the camera is marketed with statements such as "With 8 megapixels and all-new optics, this just might be the best camera ever on a mobile phone." I feel that both inquiring a major factor of image quality and comparison to current market leader are justified.
- cschmidt 15y agoIt does have an f2.4 lens, so it should be good in lower light.
- rdl 15y agoHow can I get a Verizon CDMA 4s which is gsm unlocked for international travel?
- schiffern 15y agoPeople seem to be missing the point about Siri. When compared to the free app released two years ago, it's been neutered. Where's OpenTable? StubHub? TaxiMagic? We've seen WolframAlpha and Yelp, but that's it. Wikipedia still has a full list. I count 19 services. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Siri_%28software%29 https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Siri_%28softw... Siri promised to organize not just your phone, but the world outside your phone. Apple has integrated first-party apps beautifully, but heard not a peep about third-party services. Neither web services nor native apps can disclose their offerings to Siri. The easy answer is that Apple doesn't want Siri competing with their app market. I don't think it's so simple, and I don't think Apple is so short-sighted. After all, if someone's going to make your business obsolete, you want it to be you. Everyone and their grandmother has an app store now. What makes Apple's store distinctive is not only the quality of the apps, but the depth of the apps. Fart apps are obviously shallow (they're semantically non-existent), but a native port of a web service is pretty shallow too. How many verbs are required to interface with craigslist? How many kinds of nouns exist on Yelp? These apps have the capacity to be supplanted by Siri integration, but Apple missed the boat. I'm comforted by Apple's admission that this is "beta" software. iOS didn't ship with any SDK (despite the obvious potential), and the reason turned out to be as innocuous as "it wasn't ready." We've glimpsed the post-app world. Don't mess it up, Apple.