In The latest iteration of the worlds most iconic phone has been released to the public. It does come as a surprise that Apple has not chosen to call it iPhone 5, but there is a precedent. A couple of years ago the company introduced the iPhone 3GS, which made modest improvements over the iPhone 3G. By the end of October, the iPhone 4S will start selling in more than 31 countries around the world.
The sci-fi app called Siri
The most standout feature of the new iPhone 4S is the presence of a voice command personal assistant app, which goes by the name Siri. According to Apple, Siri will be unlike anything else seen on a smartphone thus far. Siri can find restaurants, movie times, concerts, sporting events, read text messages and calendar events.
While demonstrating Siri to the public, Scott Forstall, Apple's senior vice president in charge of all iOS software, said, It's your intelligent assistant that helps you get things done just by asking. He asked Siri, What is the weather like today?
Promptly Siri replied, Here's today's weather," and up popped the weather forecast. Forstall then went on to ask other questions, which too got answered with remarkable accuracy. Using Siri, the phone can set an alarm clock with the command Wake me up tomorrow at 6 a.m. or provide a stock market quote if a user asks, Hows the Sensex doing today?
At first sight Siri seems more like a sci-fi upgrade. It is reminiscent of Hal 9000, the intelligent computer system in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. One cant be sure how useful the Siri app will be to a professional user.
Limited number of improvements
From the outside the iPhone 4S is completely indistinguishable from the earlier model, but under the skin quite a few changes have been made. There is a much better 8-megapixel camera capable of shooting 1080p video. The camera seems to be a nice effort, but that's about the only difference visible from the outside. For instance, we still have a front-facing VGA-quality (i.e. low-quality) camera.
The device includes a more powerful chip, the A5, the same microprocessor that is the brains of the iPad, for producing better graphics and other improvements. The 4S will also feature a new antenna system that promises to offer 4G-like download speeds while maintaining a 3G-like battery life of about 8 hours of talk time.
October 12 will mark the launch of iOS 5, which will power the iPhone 4S and also the earlier models. The looming iCloud services may prove to be the most impressive part of the new phone. As of now the updates can only happen over WiFi at the moment, likely because they would seriously test current 3G network performance.
Perhaps, the importance of the iPhone models and of iCloud services will be greatly enhanced once LTE or 4G networks become functional in all parts of the world.
Are Apple fans disappointed?
Many iPhone aficionados are definitely feeling be let down by the fact that the iPhone 4S wasn't a new device called the iPhone 5, complete with the rumoured new form factor or larger screen, while others in the blogosphere seemed to be focused more on what's on the inside of the new iPhone than its name or looks.
The new iPhone 4S uses a good battery, which is part of the phones system. Apple sill hasnt found a way of offering users the convenience of a removable battery. IPhone users have been dreaming of a Flash enabled device for years, but the iPhone 4S does not support Flash. Apple has been stepping up its rhetoric against Adobe Flash, calling it an unreliable power-hog, prone to crashing and messy with resources.
Apple got a bit of a mixed reaction in the stock market as well, with shares falling as much as 5% during day trading but ultimately closing down just 0.6% to $372.50 per share.
Add new comment