The iPhone 4S

[moti barski]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZSkvwpBBok

[kleinma]

The general opinion so far around this new iPhone 4s is pretty poor. People were expecting more. That siri app that they are making such a big deal about was actually available in the app store for existing iPhones. But they yanked it after yesterday and took down the servers to force people to upgrade to continue using it.

Oh, and they will claim up and down how they revolutionized everything again by creating siri, when the reality is they bought it for somewhere around 200 million back in 2010.

[baja_yu]

I expected someone else would start this thread.

[GaryMazzone]

Try and I'm sure they would be running out to buy one now.

[akhileshbc]

That would certainly help those blind people.

That video reminds me of IronMan Movie, where he talk to Jarvis(a super computer, I believe) and Jarvis does those jobs that he asks to do.

[baja_yu]

Didn't they say that the "new" Siri will be available only on iPhone 4S? Why is that if it was already available in the App Store? And why does a voice recognition system need Internet connection anyway?

[kleinma]

Didn't they say that the "new" Siri will be available only on iPhone 4S? Why is that if it was already available in the App Store? And why does a voice recognition system need Internet connection anyway?

They pulled it from the App store yesterday and shut down the servers for it. So you want to use it? You must buy their new phone.

[dilettante]

To report its analysis of your activities to the NSA, KGB, MSS, etc.

[baja_yu]

I can understand it needs it for weather, traffic, searches etc, but making notes, sending/reading messages, making calls etc... not necessary. They could have easily made it work "offline" and if an action you attempt requires connection it could prompt you to enable it and you could do it by voice as well. Problem solved, seamless operation.

[dilettante]

Well I hear Steve Jobs kicked the bucket.

[Icyculyr]

The general opinion so far around this new iPhone 4s is pretty poor. People were expecting more. That siri app that they are making such a big deal about was actually available in the app store for existing iPhones. But they yanked it after yesterday and took down the servers to force people to upgrade to continue using it.

Oh, and they will claim up and down how they revolutionized everything again by creating siri, when the reality is they bought it for somewhere around 200 million back in 2010.

That's because everyone is disappointed about the rumours of the case redesign, overall the iPhone 4S is a massive improvement over the 4.

The version available on the App Store wasn't anywhere near as advanced as it is on the 4S. They said they had to make a lot of shortcuts to get it to work, unlike on the 4S which is quite powerful.

I expected someone else would start this thread.

Never fear I am here! Due to your disappointment, I shall for you, make a thread about the 4S BUT WITH PICTURES rofl

Didn't they say that the "new" Siri will be available only on iPhone 4S? Why is that if it was already available in the App Store? And why does a voice recognition system need Internet connection anyway?

It was a limited version, the "beta" on iOS 4 is much more powerful. It's integrated with Wolfram Alpha as well as Yelp and there's code both on Apple's servers and in iOS 5 that is being used.

[Icyculyr]

So, to sum it up. The iPhone 4S now has the A5 just like the iPad 2, it boasts up to twice the CPU performance and up to seven times faster graphics than the previous generation iPhone. (The iPad 2 boasts up to nine times.) The battery life is very similar to the iPhone 4, however for some reason it has taken a hit in standby battery life. (From 300 hours to 200.)

They've gone all out with the camera; it's eight megapixels, has a fifth lens, an infrared filter, an improved backlight illumination sensor, a larger aperture, and they claim it has an image signal processor built into the A5 of the same quality as is in a DSLR. It's apparently 33% faster to snap photos as well, in part due to the A5's processor as well as the ISP. You can read about it here. (Scroll to the bottom to see photos, and you can download them at full resolution.)

It shoots 1080p video at 30 FPS and has video stabilisation as well as the improvements as mentioned above. You can read about it here.

And apparently it's the first phone to feature dual antennas (both transmit and receive) and to intelligently switch between them for the best signal strength (even during a call). They also claim that although it isn't a 4G phone, it's capable of the same speeds as its competitors advertising (pseudo) 4G speeds. (14.4Mbps down.)

And then there's Siri, which is going to be pretty awesome if it's accurate enough. I watched the Keynote, and the demo of it was pretty impressive, you can read about some of the commands available right now here. The 4S is also obviously going to include iOS 5, which is going to be pretty awesome. I'm looking forward to iCloud! I've been running iOS 5 Beta for quite a while, and it's a pretty solid update. Haven't touched iCloud yet though.

To anyone who wants to check out the demo of Infinity Blade 2 running on the 4S, you can do that here (54:26-57:50). They've got some pretty insane graphics there.

Here's some photos from the camera (click to download full res):




I'm looking forward to Anandtech's review and benchmark of the 4S. I'm definitely going to upgrade from my 3GS

[namrekka]

Well I hear Steve Jobs kicked the bucket.

Ahum....I guess its the other way arround.

[baja_yu]

So, to sum it up, you're a pain in the gluteus maximus.

[Icyculyr]

So, to sum it up, you're a pain in the gluteus maximus.

I can see your truly hurt that I didn't post about this earlier, I just never knew how much you missed my posts, I'll make sure never to forget about posting Apple products here again

Rofl...

[baja_yu]

The version available on the App Store wasn't anywhere near as advanced as it is on the 4S. They said they had to make a lot of shortcuts to get it to work, unlike on the 4S which is quite powerful.

It was a limited version, the "beta" on iOS 4 is much more powerful. It's integrated with Wolfram Alpha as well as Yelp and there's code both on Apple's servers and in iOS 5 that is being used.

So you're saying the reason Siri is only available on 4S is that iPhone 4 is not powerful enough to run it?!

[techgnome]

all I see are letters and numbers, in a format that appears to resemble words and possibly sentences... but all I read is "Wha whahahwha, wha wha wha whahahahaahhwhahahawhahh. Blah, blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah."

Now... when the iPhone can make me a cup of hot coffee that doesn't taste like swill... perhaps I'll be impressed.

-tg

[Icyculyr]

So you're saying the reason Siri is only available on 4S is that iPhone 4 is not powerful enough to run it?!

It's impossible to know for sure, but that's quite likely. The iPhone 4S is really much, much more powerful than the 4. Maybe the 4S even has some unique hardware to help specifically with Siri. The question is, will the iPad 2 which has slightly more powerful hardware than the 4S, get Siri? We'll see soon enough the answers to these things when reviews come out.

[baja_yu]

It's impossible to know for sure, but that's quite likely. The iPhone 4S is really much, much more powerful than the 4. Maybe the 4S even has some unique hardware to help specifically with Siri. The question is, will the iPad 2 which has slightly more powerful hardware than the 4S, get Siri? We'll see soon enough the answers to these things when reviews come out.

Oh yeah, voice recognition is so processor intensive... That's a load of bull right there. It's not coming to iPhone 4 because without it the new iPhone doesn't have pretty much anything new appart from the new CPU. Yes it has a new camera but the current one is great so it wont be a reason for users to buy the new one. But I'm sure you can explain all of this with some iLogic.

[Icyculyr]

Oh yeah, voice recognition is so processor intensive... That's a load of bull right there. It's not coming to iPhone 4 because without it the new iPhone doesn't have pretty much anything new appart from the new CPU. Yes it has a new camera but the current one is great so it wont be a reason for users to buy the new one. But I'm sure you can explain all of this with some iLogic.

You're actually very wrong. This isn't simple voice recognition, Siri is very advanced and capable of understanding context and processing reasonably complex commands. I'd suggest you read up about what it can actually do before you go insisting it's capable of running smoothly on a 4. If you insist on saying otherwise, I shall wait to be proven right when it's fully tested.

Additionally, you seem to be totally clueless about what's changed in the 4S to say that the there's not much new aside from Siri. Oh, and sure the 4's camera is good but the 4S leap frogs it, and does the same for video recording too.

[Icyculyr]

all I see are letters and numbers, in a format that appears to resemble words and possibly sentences... but all I read is "Wha whahahwha, wha wha wha whahahahaahhwhahahawhahh. Blah, blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah."

Now... when the iPhone can make me a cup of hot coffee that doesn't taste like swill... perhaps I'll be impressed.

-tg

You could ask Siri, but she'd probably say do it yourself.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I want a phone that weighs less than 4oz and has a battery life of 5-7 days at normal use. Can the iPhone do that?

[techgnome]

But it still can't make a cup of coffee... there's no slim jim for when I lock my keys in the car... no pliers, no toothpick... and have you tried to carve something with it? the edge is so dull, it's useless.

[baja_yu]

Oh yes. How could I have been so blind, just because it understands context it needs a Cray supercomputer to run. And the new camera, even if it's as good as a $5000 pro DSL, it's still a phone. The one in 4 is way better than what I actually need.

If you insist on saying otherwise, I shall wait to be proven right when it's fully tested.

Ah, and I love this type of people: what I say has to be taken as correct until proven otherwise, while everyone else has to prove what they say.
And even though neither of us has seen or used (let alone tested) the new phone, somehow I'm the only one talking out of my gluteus maximus.

[SJWhiteley]

What I find iconic is that if Apple don't revolutionize the world on each iteration then Everything is Terrible, whereas when Microsoft announce their next cycle it's success is based on whether we can do what we can already do.

the 4S isn't a monumental upgrade as far as feature set - and bear in mind that Apple have had failures, just that the market was so small that no-one noticed. But again, here we have Apple unable to meet/beat their own bar with a single app - a failure, I suppose. The hardware, however, looks like a significant upgrade, but maybe that's too early to tell.

[baja_yu]

What I find iconic is that if Apple don't revolutionize the world on each iteration then Everything is Terrible, whereas when Microsoft announce their next cycle it's success is based on whether we can do what we can already do.

the 4S isn't a monumental upgrade as far as feature set - and bear in mind that Apple have had failures, just that the market was so small that no-one noticed. But again, here we have Apple unable to meet/beat their own bar with a single app - a failure, I suppose. The hardware, however, looks like a significant upgrade, but maybe that's too early to tell.

Actually that's not the problem. What you describe is perfectly fine. The problem is that even when the case is such, they (Apple and Mactards) still praise it like it's the second (or this time fifth) coming of Jesus. It was the same thing with iPhone 4, "video calls, this is going to completely change how we look at phones"... No it's not, video calls in general suck, and we had those 15 years ago, I had it on my Nokia N70 6 years ago and unlike iPhone mine worked over the carrier (2g/3g) not just WiFi and it worked with all other devices (other manufacturers) that supported it, not just a few iOS devices. So that's the problem, every time they act like they've invented fire and the wheel.

[techgnome]

no... only iFire and iWheel....

-tg

[kleinma]

What I find iconic is that if Apple don't revolutionize the world on each iteration then Everything is Terrible, whereas when Microsoft announce their next cycle it's success is based on whether we can do what we can already do.

the 4S isn't a monumental upgrade as far as feature set - and bear in mind that Apple have had failures, just that the market was so small that no-one noticed. But again, here we have Apple unable to meet/beat their own bar with a single app - a failure, I suppose. The hardware, however, looks like a significant upgrade, but maybe that's too early to tell.

Maybe it is just the way they need to hold a huge secret press conference after total silence about their next product to build insane hype to those interested. Then when people find out its just a faster phone with some piece of software you can talk to and a better camera, they feel a bit let down after all the hype that Apple built around "revolutionizing everything all over again".

Don't forget siri was an app that you could get on your iPhone previously (up until they announced it to be part of the 4s, which is when they yanked it and turned off its servers for the existing users).

So even if its been refined and tweaked, to say it can only run on the next gen iPhone is probably not accurate, since it was running on iPhone 4 and iPhone 3 up until 2 days ago.

[moti barski]

I wonder if siri's voice reco is half as good as in the video or maybe she has a limited vocabulary that ups the recognition accuracy.

[baja_yu]

It does have a limited vocabulary when it comes to commands, but it also takes dictation for writing notes, messages etc. But they do note it gets better with time as it "learns" your voice and speech style which is fine.

[Justa Lol]

has a battery life of 5-7 days at normal use.

if your normal usage is not using it at all... probably

[moti barski]

what is the very best of the best speech reco for a pc that you have tested for yourself ?

[GaryMazzone]

I just want a phone not all this extra c... I just want to make a phone call on the thing. Why should I pay for a data plan its way more then I want to spend. Is this marvolus iPhone 4s a phone or a small computer I don't want or need to carry.

Not all of us want to stay connected 24*7

[baja_yu]

Never tried any. I don't really care for it.

[Shaggy Hiker]

I'm with Gary. My phone is a phone. What I want is to be able to make calls and not have to charge the thing every day. It also has to be light enough that I would be willing to carry it. As far as I can tell, every smart phone has a battery life of less than a day with heavy use, and not more than a day if it is used only as a phone.

I have lots of colleagues with Android phones, and they have shown me all kinds of neat apps for them. There is only one problem: The apps are neat, not useful. Everybody seems to use their phones for voices, texting, and e-mail, but the rest of the stuff is rarely, if ever, useful. I had the same problem when I was working with PDAs. I could write programs for them, I just couldn't think of a program that I would actually use. The one thing I did use it for was to keep a shopping list, but that PDA went away four years ago, and I haven't missed it. It was just one more thing to forget when I went to the store. I can forget a scrap of paper with some ink on it, I certainly don't need a multi-hundred dollar piece of paper to forget.

Many people would be able to point to one or two other programs that they use often, and most people don't go as off the grid as I do when on vacation (I can't even get good sat phone or GPS coverage, let alone cell phone), but is the gadget worth the money? Is the 4S so much better that you will jettison the 4 that you have to rush out and get a new one?

Stop the madness.

[Icyculyr]

Oh yes. How could I have been so blind, just because it understands context it needs a Cray supercomputer to run. And the new camera, even if it's as good as a $5000 pro DSL, it's still a phone. The one in 4 is way better than what I actually need.

Sigh... There's more to it than that.

I wasn't suggesting you upgrade? To each his own, I've been stuck on a 3GS for ages so I'll be getting this.

Ah, and I love this type of people: what I say has to be taken as correct until proven otherwise, while everyone else has to prove what they say.
And even though neither of us has seen or used (let alone tested) the new phone, somehow I'm the only one talking out of my gluteus maximus.

That's not what I said. I said, I'll be proven right when its benchmarked. Well, I've watched the Keynote and read up about it plenty.

What I find iconic is that if Apple don't revolutionize the world on each iteration then Everything is Terrible, whereas when Microsoft announce their next cycle it's success is based on whether we can do what we can already do.

the 4S isn't a monumental upgrade as far as feature set - and bear in mind that Apple have had failures, just that the market was so small that no-one noticed. But again, here we have Apple unable to meet/beat their own bar with a single app - a failure, I suppose. The hardware, however, looks like a significant upgrade, but maybe that's too early to tell.

What do you mean by feature set? Not specs, I take it? Aside from the case I don't know what else they could do.

Maybe it is just the way they need to hold a huge secret press conference after total silence about their next product to build insane hype to those interested. Then when people find out its just a faster phone with some piece of software you can talk to and a better camera, they feel a bit let down after all the hype that Apple built around "revolutionizing everything all over again".

Don't forget siri was an app that you could get on your iPhone previously (up until they announced it to be part of the 4s, which is when they yanked it and turned off its servers for the existing users).

So even if its been refined and tweaked, to say it can only run on the next gen iPhone is probably not accurate, since it was running on iPhone 4 and iPhone 3 up until 2 days ago.

It's more so that the version available on the App Store which was there for how long? Maybe a year? Was greatly dumbed down to work on the devices it did. What's running on the 4S isn't anything like what Siri was on the App Store.

>>>

There's this article about trying to port Siri to iPod touch 4G: http://cydiahelp.com/port-siri-on-iphone-4-under-work/

If it's possible, they'll probably be the first to know. Anyway, amongst my searching I found someone who wrote this:

Unless they can come up with a clever work-around, no, it won't. The fourier comb amd Markov filter -- essential to turnning a stream of words into a tiny handful of contextually-cogent bytes -- runs in one of the two PowerVR GPU cores that is in the newer A5. The 4S has extra links between the GPU output and the baseband chip so that the Siri application has its own dedicated connection to the cloud processing farms (currently, just the one in Philadelphia), piggybacked on the primary stream to and from the cell.

I've no idea if its true or not yet, but it's certainly a possibility. I'm not saying this is the reason, rather it might be. Will cite references if I get any. Hopefully the iPad 2 will get Siri.

[Icyculyr]

I want a phone that weighs less than 4oz and has a battery life of 5-7 days at normal use. Can the iPhone do that?

The 4S is fat I'm afraid. It's 4.9oz, and I've no idea about the battery life.

I just want a phone not all this extra c... I just want to make a phone call on the thing. Why should I pay for a data plan its way more then I want to spend. Is this marvolus iPhone 4s a phone or a small computer I don't want or need to carry.

Not all of us want to stay connected 24*7

That's fair enough. It's more a small computer than it is a phone, I guess.

I'm with Gary. My phone is a phone. What I want is to be able to make calls and not have to charge the thing every day. It also has to be light enough that I would be willing to carry it. As far as I can tell, every smart phone has a battery life of less than a day with heavy use, and not more than a day if it is used only as a phone.

I have lots of colleagues with Android phones, and they have shown me all kinds of neat apps for them. There is only one problem: The apps are neat, not useful. Everybody seems to use their phones for voices, texting, and e-mail, but the rest of the stuff is rarely, if ever, useful. I had the same problem when I was working with PDAs. I could write programs for them, I just couldn't think of a program that I would actually use. The one thing I did use it for was to keep a shopping list, but that PDA went away four years ago, and I haven't missed it. It was just one more thing to forget when I went to the store. I can forget a scrap of paper with some ink on it, I certainly don't need a multi-hundred dollar piece of paper to forget.

Many people would be able to point to one or two other programs that they use often, and most people don't go as off the grid as I do when on vacation (I can't even get good sat phone or GPS coverage, let alone cell phone), but is the gadget worth the money? Is the 4S so much better that you will jettison the 4 that you have to rush out and get a new one?

Stop the madness.

I'd say spec-wise, the 4S is a quite a massive upgrade from the 4 and thus worth it if you're interested in any of that. However, I own a 3GS, so I'm definitely upgrading.

[baja_yu]

I've no idea if its true or not yet, but it's certainly a possibility. I'm not saying this is the reason, rather it might be. Will cite references if I get any. Hopefully the iPad 2 will get Siri.

I have the latest iOS 5 GM (build 9A334) on my iPad 2, and there's no Siri. I doubt anything will change in the next 5 days until it's released publicly. So there you have it.

[Icyculyr]

I have the latest iOS 5 GM (build 9A334) on my iPad 2, and there's no Siri. I doubt anything will change in the next 5 days until it's released publicly. So there you have it.

I'm also running the beta on my iOS devices, and yeah it's quite possible that's going to be the way it goes, which would be disappointing to say the least.

Do you have the multi-touch gestures working on the iPad 2? They're not enabled on the iPad 1.

[penagate]

Very impressive sunlit photos. I wonder what the sensor's like in low light.

Don't care for any of the other stuff.


I merged the threads.