IPhone 4S: A5 chip, 8MP camera, and Siri voice recognition

http://www.apple.com/iphone/#4s

by rads • 15 years ago

66 127 15 years ago

apple.com

IanDrake• 15 years ago

It was up for a second...

*Update: There it's back. This is the first iphone that made me go "meh".

bjtitus• 15 years ago

I 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• 15 years ago

How 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...

moe• 15 years ago

Any word on when the real iphone5 will arrive?

The 4S seems like a rather pitiful flagship by apple standards.

justinj• 15 years ago

2 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.

masklinn5• 15 years 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• 15 years ago

I really don't get it. Why's everyone underwhelmed? Is a new case the only thing people wanted?

tvon• 15 years ago

I don't get it either, it's pretty much what the rumors predicted.

itg• 15 years ago

Seems 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.

lylejohnson• 15 years ago

I imagine that at least some of the disappointment is due to a lack of surprises. We've pretty much known for months that at a minimum the new iPhone (whatever model number it ended up having) would have incremental improvements over the iPhone 4. That is, we expected to see the A5 processor, and a better camera, slightly better battery life, etc. But we were simulatenously hoping that Apple would throw us a curve ball too, something that no one had predicted, whether that was a new form factor or, you know, ... something else. There was no "one more thing".

Toddward3• 15 years ago

Apple failed to manage expectations - rumors ran rampant about a new design, larger screen, iPhone 4S and an iPhone 5, LTE/WiMAX...

In the face of all the rumors of possible updates, an S version of what we already had is underwhelming. In the past Apple has done a great job of strategically leaking info to the press when rumors were getting out of hand (iPad 2 Retina Display is a recent example) - that did not happen this time.

kill-9• 15 years ago

Because Apple did nothing to quash rumors of the iPhone 5. This makes me think that the decision not to launch it was made very late. Usually Apple is better about managing expectations.

colomon• 15 years ago

Speaking solely for my perception after watching the ad linked above: It seems like the features they are highlighting for this phone are either baseline improvements that happen with every single new release (faster processor, better camera) or they are features which appear to be playing catch up with Android (voice recognition, notifications).

It's certainly possible this set of improvements adds up to a terrific phone. But the ad did nothing at all to sell that to me.

Greenisus2• 15 years ago

I 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• 15 years ago

If 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.

gwright5• 15 years ago

I'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?

masklinn5• 15 years 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.

veyron• 15 years ago

Intel does this with their tick-tock yearly processor rollout

All numbers seem to indicate that apple can't even keep up with the iphone4 demand more than a year after the release

protomyth• 15 years ago

The A5, camera, and increased storage are worth the upgrade. I do wonder if the camera API will change based on the keynote.

deweller• 15 years ago

Any word on whether Nitro javascript acceleration will be allowed in local webkit-based apps?

jcampbell1• 15 years ago

The 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.

thematt2• 15 years ago

Anybody else getting "Access Denied"?

You don't have permission to access "http://www.apple.com/ on this server. Reference #18.770d50c0.1317755591.9fc5eb4

samstave• 15 years ago

I am still getting the same. I love shenanigans like this :)

EDIT: it is back up. :(

mauriciob• 15 years ago

I was getting that too. It seems to be fixed now.

Edit: Down again. www.apple.com (i.e. the home page) went down as well.

thematt2• 15 years ago

Anybody else getting "Access Denied"?

You don't have permission to access "http://www.apple.com/ on this server. Reference #18.770d50c0.1317755591.9fc5eb4

Medicine• 15 years ago

yes

RealGeek• 15 years ago

Yes, but I was able to access through Google cache. I clicked around other links on that page; the error disappeared.

starnix17• 15 years ago

Is 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...

functionoid• 15 years ago

Apple's site is back up.

seanalltogether• 15 years 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• 15 years ago

Most 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.

masklinn5• 15 years ago

On 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,.

jesseendahl2• 15 years ago

Well, 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 :(

masklinn5• 15 years ago

Unlocked 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)

mahyarm• 15 years ago

That's not bad if it's unlocked outside of the USA, like the Droid 2 World phone.

antifuchs2• 15 years ago

From footnote 4 in the tech specs at http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html ("CDMA available only if iPhone 4S is sold and activated for use on a CDMA network."), I'm guessing/hoping that if you get a CDMA phone in the US, it will come with an unlocked GSM radio.

dsl• 15 years ago

What this means is that Apple is opting to disable the CDMA radio unless it is sold to a customer on a CDMA network. They avoid paying licensing fees to Qualcomm this way.

r00fus2• 15 years ago

CDMA doesn't use a SIM card, they do EMEI whitelists on their end instead (to prevent devices from authenticating with their data/voice networks that they haven't sold).

If Apple has an agreement with all major CMDA networks in the USA (i.e., Sprint and Verizon) then the 4S will NOT work on those networks unless you buy it from the carrier.

This results in more money for the carrier (and presumably Apple). Unfortunate, since I wanted a world phone where I could actually use it in multiple countries with multiple SIMs.

kenjackson4• 15 years ago

This 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• 15 years ago

You 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.

kenjackson4• 15 years ago

iOS 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.

euroclydon• 15 years ago

There was an article posted here a while back comparing Android's screen painting to IOS. Basically, Android behaves like every other OS's screen painting API, where when the screen needs to scroll, the whole thing must be re-rendered, but iOS renders the whole screen and uses a view camera to pan the screen beneath, hence fast scrolling.

(Please forgive my poor use of terminology. I'm sure someone else can do a much better job of explaining this.)

jberryman• 15 years ago

Sorry, what is mango?

chetan51• 15 years ago

Windows Phone OS

Toddward3• 15 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Phone_7.5

Steko3• 15 years ago

Windows Phone 7 RC 1

clistctrl3• 15 years ago

I would guess they're banking on LTE for the iPhone 5... so in that step up you'll see a much bigger upgrade, but as a technology LTE is probably a bit immature for Apple's standards.

evilduck• 15 years ago

Unless data caps get overhauled with LTE rollouts (hahaha, right), it's impossible for me to get excited about stupid fast connections you can only use at full throttle for about 45 minutes per month.

Sprint just capped their WiMax phone tethering and modems, they'll surely cap the phones themselves when load increases.

gte910h6• 15 years ago

LTE is still ridiculously power hungry in every device that has it. I'd like to see them avoid it until it gets a bit more under control

Steko3• 15 years ago

"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."

I'm pretty sure the SGX543MP2 blows everything else out of water currently:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4686/samsung-galaxy-s-2-intern...

The offscreen numbers are resolution independent and as far as I can tell the 4GS should be near identical with the ipad.

Basically no one is going to surpass the 4GS hardware until Q2 2012 when 28/32 nm phones are shipping and the iphone 5's chip will already be on display in the ipad 3.

A lot of people expected the 4GS/5's A5 to have one GPU disabled but I guess they can just turn it off dynamically for battery and somehow handle the heat when it's needed.

wmeredith2• 15 years ago

With Apple, it's not about specs, it never has been. It's about the UX and I've not seen anything on Android that can match the iPhone 4 much less the 4S. The iPhone 4's specs may be 16 months old, but the iPhone 4 UX is from 2015.

illumen• 15 years ago

Hi,

You are completely right.

You have not tried a 4S, so you're just making stuff up. Like your comment about time travel. I'm sure that time travel can not be done by the apple people, unless they know Michael J Fox. Which I guess they may know him, considering Steveo (he hates it when I call him that) wears a black turtle neck some times. He also really loved a drink before, but not so much now after that whole incident with the 12 livers he had to take from interns.

In summary, your prophetic ideas are astounding and wise past your years. Well, wise past the years of anyone in our generation, and the previous five generations before.

One more thing...

Steve does wear cool specs though. I think the success of apple is at least 46.34% to do with the CEOs specs. The new vice president in the video didn't put on a good pair for this showing. They were kind of too thin, and not thick and black enough. Really, he should take some fashion classes, because he would have gotten a D- for his outfit this time.

tptacek8• 15 years ago

The iPhone 4 is (apparently) Apple's most successful product launch ever. It has been for me their most useful product ever. I am rarely without it. It's my phone, my music player, my camera, my alarm clock, my kitchen timer, my only game system, and often my web browser. It is also the most solid-feeling, elegant, understated thing Apple has ever sold me.

Apart from "faster", "better at connectivity", and "better at taking pictures", where does Apple have to go with this thing? A new chassis design? Why?

I agree that this was a boring keynote. But I think it's boring because Apple has got this particular product design nailed. It may not be the best phone we'll ever see, but they're holding 20 and the dealer is showing 6.

kenjackson4• 15 years ago

Apart from "faster", "better at connectivity", and "better at taking pictures", where does Apple have to go with this thing? A new chassis design? Why?

And that's my fear. The first decade of the 2000s' Apple would answer this question with something you didn't think you needed. But it was a gamechanger.

I could imagine Steve Jobs walking out on stage and saying:

"We did the Retina Display. We changed displays forever. The iPhone4 is the best display on any phone, and it's been almost a year and a half since we released it. But there's a huge glaring problem with it -- it's 2D." At this point you begin to hear the audience pick up in anticipation.

"The world isn't in 2D. You can't appreciate the vibrance of a 3D world fully when projected onto a 2D surface. People have tried 3D though." Steve pulls out a the red/blue paper glasses from his pocket. Tosses it on the floor. The modern 3D TV glasses from his pocket, tosses it on the floor. Pulls out an EVO 3D. Looks at it for a second. Tosses it on the floor.

"You don't do something, unless you can do it right. We figured out how to do 3D right."

Maybe next year.

landhar2• 15 years ago

My concern is that even Apple doesn't think this phone is innovating enough to be a real successor to the iPhone 4.

I've been waiting to buy an iPhone for half a year, because I assumed that getting the iPhone 5 would be worth the wait. Oh, well...

sambe• 15 years ago

No doubt this upgrade will get bad press for lacking "wow" factor. Buy the phone, sell the shares.

But really, do people care so much about a redesign? Near field what? 3D?! Come on... For 3GS owners like me this is an enormous upgrade, for 4 owners it will still be very noticeable. When you add the iOS 5 improvements & cloud mobile life will be much smoother. Very much like when the 3GS came out.

jsz0• 15 years ago

If the 4S is using, more or less, the same GPU as the iPad 2 it has at least one major hardware advantage. (there seems to be about 8 different models of Galaxy S so possibly one of these random models has a better GPU than the other?)

john2x2• 15 years ago

I'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• 15 years ago

Those prices are only available on two year contracts.

flyosity• 15 years ago

That'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.)

john2x2• 15 years ago

:( aww.. Got a bit excited there.. I knew it was too good to be true.

But has the price gone down compared to previous releases?

keltex• 15 years ago

Free means free with a 2 yr. subsidized contract.

alexg02• 15 years ago

AT&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?

tptacek8• 15 years ago

Wait 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.

gwright5• 15 years ago

This 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?

alexg02• 15 years ago

Really, they let me upgrade from 3G to 3GS to 4. And I waited to get 3G few month after it originally came out.

See this article on from 2009: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10266781-37.html

update: Based on my recollection, with 3G and 3GS, AT&T only asked for 1 year contract, not two. When new iPhone was released, sometime in June or July, anybody with contact renewal through October was marked as elegible to sign new contract, and received contract pricing on the newly released model if iPhone.

joebadmo3• 15 years ago

As 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.

masklinn5• 15 years 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.

joebadmo3• 15 years ago

Yes, 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.

WiseWeasel4• 15 years ago

I'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.

gte910h6• 15 years 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.

WiseWeasel4• 15 years ago

While 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.

tptacek8• 15 years ago

I drop my iPhone onto hardwood floors at least once a week. I have a small visible scratch in the middle of the front and that's it.

I know the phones do shatter, and I've seen it happen, but I'm rough on mine and it has not been fragile.

The 64GB pricing is nickel-and-diming; storage is their pricing segmentation mechanism, so taking the highest storage option is never going to feel good; you're opting for the "I'm price insensitive" bucket.

WiseWeasel4• 15 years ago

Wood is softer than glass, and it's normal that the glass doesn't shatter in that case.

krishna2• 15 years ago

The cost of 16GB memory is apparently $8. They are making a killing out of this.

r00fus2• 15 years ago

I'm in your shoes.

I'll be going for 64GB, as I've maxed out my iPhone storage for over a year (Apps alone are 8GB), and have had to put quotas on my media just to get some stuff in there.

$100 more over a 2-year TCO is a small fraction of the total. If you assume just the data plan alone, 24mo x $20 (VZ 1GB) = $480 and with voice, all told, it's over $2k...

Yeah, I'll pay 5% more over 2 years for double the storage.

WiseWeasel4• 15 years ago

I hate to give them the satisfaction, but I'm still debating. I'll see how much I can get for my 3GS; maybe that'll influence me.

The fact that I can now stream all my music to myself with iTunes Match frees up a good deal of space. My current 32GB 3GS is also filled to the brim, but there are a lot of apps that I never use which could be cleaned out.

Kilimanjaro• 15 years ago

A5, iOS5, why not iPhone5??? Huge marketing miss. Everything else being perfect.

checker• 15 years ago

Oct 4 ... besides that, I agree.

MrFoof• 15 years ago

For those in the US curious about their upgrade eligibility, use this link: 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.

zokier2• 15 years ago

8 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.

zokier2• 15 years ago

Argh, 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• 15 years ago

It does have an f2.4 lens, so it should be good in lower light.

rdl• 15 years ago

How can I get a Verizon CDMA 4s which is gsm unlocked for international travel?

schiffern• 15 years ago

People 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_%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.

IPhone 4S: A5 chip, 8MP camera, and Siri voice recognition

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