Apple unveils iPhone 4S with A5 CPU and 4G-like data speeds - Page 6

By that standard, your 1999 Motorola flip phone was good enough. After all, why improve something that's good enough?

Why should Apple be restricted to fixing things that are broken? Other than the case and screen, almost every item in this phone is significantly better than its predecessor.

Now, you might say "that's fine, but I don't need it" and there's nothing wrong with that. But this endless lambasting of Apple for significantly improving only 98 of the 100 components in the phone is absurd.

Ouch. Hang on tight to that thing. Apple certainly doesn't expect anyone to do anything, they just make and upgrade phones and let the consumer make up their minds, just like car manufacturers do.

Me, I'm going to upgrade (from a broken 3GS) the day my contract is up in mid-November.

It's a phone, it's already real time!!! What company convinced us all last year that a phones specs didn't matter, only the experience does? Apple!

I now fully understand why Steve left, Apple hit it's peak at 12:59 pm today.

So will Siri not be available on iPhone 4 with this iOS update? That will really suck of not. Is there associated hardware?

Why are so many here so defensive? People wanted an iPhone 5 with a bigger screen and Apple had a big press event and didn't deliver. Why get upset that people are disappointed?

Saying Apple did something wrong is not the same as saying you hate Apple.

I get the feeling Apple will still have the last laugh after all is said and done (and the wails of the whiners have died away at last).

I agree. All the people that are disappointed and/or whining are the ones that believed the rumor mills. Hope that is lesson learned. Apple never promised anything. What they did do, is release a totally new phone, minus the case and screen and 30 pin dock connector.

So would everyone be more amazed if it was the same guts they just announced, but with a different case? If so, buy yourself a new 3rd party case. Done and Done.

I like the performance boost, camera, hdmi out, and that's about it.

Good solid update to the iPhone.

Because too many people feel that "Apple didn't deliver" on something they never promised.

Stock is almost back to par. Only $3.31 down now.

One small cool thing for folks who want the 4 not the 4S - the 4 will also be available on Sprint.

By your "logic", McDonalds is a billion times better than Charlie Trotter's.

Your signature suits you well.

LOL. The "insiders" will be cashing in on the idiots who drove that price drop (which was half general market direction anyways)....just watch where the stock is after Oct and Jan earnings calls.

I was quite happy to spend 500 quid again this year for an iPhone 5 and pass on my iPhone 4 to my wife. There is no way I'm going to buy this 4S version. I'll have to wait until next year, thanks to Mr Cook

someone explain why Siri wont be included for all ios devices running 5? seriously, what exactly is the hardware limitation that prevents it from running on the iphone 4? Android has voice capabilities on much slower devices with no problem.

You're going to need 64GB if you're going to be shooting a lot of 1080p video. Full HD Video will eat up your memory

Apples defenders are claiming that this was strategic. It wasn't. They hardly sat down 16 months ( or just after the iPhone 4 was finished design - probably more than 24 months ago - and decided to do nothing for 24 months. They tried something, and it didn't work. Word on the street today was Antenna problems.

Whatever it was, it was not good.

They've shown their lack of enthusiasm with the smaller venue. They underwhelm themselves.

Not sure what people are whining about. It's a decent update. The only thing missing is a larger display.

Apple is 'unable to compete in the phone business' and 'in last place' , while having the best selling phone, by a massive margin, in the industry? Are you insane? Sure, I'm also disappointed we didn't get a new form factor and larger screen, but there's no point spouting factually untrue and sensationalistic statements with no basis in reality, as you just did. iOS5, iCloud, and Siri look amazing, and as far as I can tell more polished and better implemented than anything else in the industry. Whether you like it or no, Apple is still in the lead- by a wide margin.

Forum members who make asinine comments like this should get drummed out of AI.

It wasn't an easy wait (at least at first). I used to be an early adopter, but now I would rather wait for the kinks to get worked out. I'm sure the iphone 5, whenever it comes out, will be tough to resist as well, but it would need to have some game changing features (other than a better screen and better camera) to get me to purchase the first iteration of the product. And by that I mean something that changes the way I interact with my phone - and by that I don't mean Siri, which I see as a gimmick. I'm talking about the ability to use it as an electronic form of currency or something.

Well said!

The reason I didn't sell off my iPhone 4 was because I was afraid that they would update the design and I love the design of the 4. I did not want a phone with a screen larger than 3.5" (I think the dimensions of the screen and phone are perfect).

Damn.

BUY MORE IPHONES.


There is none. They want you to buy a new device.

When the quarter report with this phone shows it to be the best selling phone ever, eclipsing the last iPhone, and the iOS side of Apple alone is the single most valuable company on earth, do you think any of these whiners will feel stupid about what they said or take it back?

Yeah, right.

It would be funny if it weren't so sad and predictable. We have been hearing this since the first iPod. "Non-event, doesn't matter, device X is way better, this thing will never sell, people will recall this as the first day of Apples downfall."

I don't even think most of these posts are typed. Pretty sure they are a form you just update a few terms in...

Stock is down due to the upcoming Quarterly report and the concerns of Global Austerity. By the way the stock is back up to $372.50.

By the time the iPhone 4S, iPod Touch, iPod Nano, iOS 5 and the Quarterly Report comes out it will be well over $400.

Don't worry for Mr. Tim Cook. He's not.

there isn't really any limitation, it's just a trick used by Mr Cook to lure people into buying this damp squib of an upgrade

Apple is down about .57% right now. Compared to the NASDAQ they're down about 3.5% from where they roughly might have been if they simply followed the market today. Definitely some negative reaction from stockholders but not a whole lot (there was a decent buying opportunity there, though, barring unpredictable shifts in the market as a whole).

This is not a big deal.

As for your 'down $60' figure, you should probably strive to understand the stock market a little before you throw out knee-jerk comments like that about it. The whole stock market has been plunging to to economic concerns and Apple has been sliding down with it.

Yes, there's this much whining and moaning after everything they announce. There was this much whining and moaning after the iPad 2, as a recent example.

+++ Very well said!

It must be sad for those persons who expect to get everything they want, when they want it and at low or no cost or inconvenience...

Seeking instant gratification -- yields constant dissatisfaction!

1) Yeah, a processor, GPU and its interconnects that can do more in less time is a good thing for many reasons. If you don't understand that then it would be pointless for me to explain.

2) You honestly don't how faster internet speeds could help with anything other than torrenting? Perhaps battery usage efficiency being able to use the cellular chips less often. Or perhaps being able to render webpages and data in apps faster, like streaming of video. You really think waiting is a good thing here?

3) It wasn't a problem, but neither was it a problem with any other iPhone before it. Apple makes their stuff better. Why does this seem so alien to you?

4) It's improved in several good ways according to event data. I'm not one to use a camera but I can certainly see why better quality photos, that are better stability and especially in low light settings are a good thing of those that use it.

5) It has been seen. What part of the Siri/Nuance Assistant do you think won't be as good as the voice recognition in iOS 4.x?

6) Again, why pooh-pooh improved software because Apple is offering it to other devices. I'm sure you'd complain if Apple oddly didn't give the iPhone 4S new SW features so why complain when they do. You should at least leave it as a null value.

7) For the most part you are right; this won't affect many users right away. This also could be the reason for this extra long delay since getting a world mode chip in a smartphone with this many bands has never before been done, especially in such a small smartphone. However, this does open the door for the US finally being to get legislation to get carriers to unlock devices after your contract is fulfilled. Why is that a bad thing?

8) Prove to me they could have put these 64GB chips in the number of iPhones sold in the last 16 months. What were the yields of these chips then compared to the assumed upper-tier iPhone 4 sales? What were its cost per unit? How much power did they use? How fast were the chips? How was the reliability of these chips? Last I had read a year ago was they weren't as fast and had a significantly lower number of read/write sessions that made them unlikely to find their way into the iPhone until 2011. Reading about a new tech on Engadget doesn't mean it's ready for mass production in the most popular devices on the planet.



Had the same TV, same stereo system, but got the newest AppleTV and new TiVo HD. Made the experience considerably better because core devices made accessing my media better, faster and more enjoyable. Buying a new TV just because the black plastic border is a little difference would not have made a difference.

This isn't comparable to the iPod. It's not revolutionary.

Fact is until the last week, or so, no one expected apple to release an update with the same form factor.

Apple isn't "responsible" for anyone's "problems", but we are talking about a device requiring using one's eyes, often quickly/on-the-fly. If you don't like the phone, don't buy it, and theoretically then it becomes Apple's problem if enough people don't buy the phone because of their "vision problem". True, reading glasses are cheap and easy to come by, but it's also true that just about everyone over 45 years old needs them, and is annoyed at having to put them on just to use their smartphone to send a text message. I just got my first pair of reading glasses, after 49 years of perfect vision, and I'm on the very tail end of the baby boom generation (= biggest market in the U.S.) and a smart smartphone maker would do well to cater to this market to some extent at least. Plus peasant-hands fingers have made the fairly narrow iPhone screen not much fun. Slightly bigger screen woulda been nice, but all the comments here about how it's a great internals upgrade are spot on; I'll be buying.

Sprint 4G coverage expanding alongside release of EVO 4G:
- 06 May 2010
http://www.neowin.net/news/sprint-4g...ease-of-evo-4g

The 4G coverage perhaps was initially small, but that time HTC released the future proof phone, not the obsolete one. Here we are: 1.5 years later Apple finally matching the specs (partially).

Meanwhile HTC and Samsung are not sleeping: Super AMOLED HD screens with a resolution of 1280x1024, 1.5-2.0GHz dual-quad core, LTE. And they offer any screen size you wish: 3.5"-4.0"-4.3"-4.5"-4.7"-5.3"
http://www.phonedog.com/2011/09/16/s...etails-emerge/

Siri? Are u frkn Siri- ous?
16 months for something no one wanted or needs? If the screen were larger you wouldn't need a fembot to spell things out to you anyway!

And this should once and for all end any speculation that the iPhone's 4 antenna is in fact flawed. If it were fine Apple would have left it alone.

Well, not sure how I feel...frankly a little numb.

I suppose she has a new artificial heart. A new glass eye and a bionic hip but the ol' girls body is still showing her age! I'm waiting for a complete transplant.

I think NFC will be saved till next year. And that's a smart move. Google is doing a lot of heavy lifiting now, working with the credit card companies, banks, phone makers to get NFC infrastrcuture. When Apple launches it next year, there will be lots of places a digital wallet can be used.

Next year: LTE/WiMax and NFC

As for turn-by-turn, I doubt it. Apple can't be bothered when there are navigation apps for sale in the App Store.

Where do you live, the 3GS has been free on contract in Canada for a long time now. IPhone 4 has been at 99$ on contract for a month or so now. So pricing remains the same, phone is all iOS5, which we already knew all about.
Now we know why Apple chose a small venue.
I personally would have bought an updated exterior with the same or similar components. I mean, dual core in a phone, what the heck are people doing with their phones? We learned 5 years ago that any PC does the internet and email just fine, hence now we have tablets, why are they boosting the internals on frickin' phones?
Imagine if they could have slimmed down the size, gotten rid of the easily breakable glass back, increased the battery life and given it a nice new iPad like look.
Te big problem is that now, next year we're going to get our new iPad like iPhone but it will have come out more than year after the actual iPad 2 form factor was around, it will be JUST as disappointing then.
I mean, you'd think their marketing groups could have told them that no one gives a rats ass about 3 more megapixels, faster, faster what?, and, well that's it, the rest is software and is being given away for free to everyone, including those that don't have the iPhone 4s.

Now, Siri for Mac? Why don't we already have that?

Give me a break. The processing power needed to run Siri is only available on A5 devices like the new phone and the iPad 2. The same sorts of limitations on software existed for users of the original iPhone.

I think people who are disappointed in this new phone are crazy. For me, this will be as important a jump in performance as the original iPhone to the iPhone 3GS was (I skipped the iPhone 3G).

I think the biggest unknown is Siri. I was less than impressed with it as a stand alone app. If Apple can duplicate the user experience seen in the video or the demo today this will be huge for a lot of users.

I think that the requirement to run Siri well is based on the higher performance CPU and GPU cores. Siri is a form of artificial intelligence and requires a lot of compute power to provide acceptable performance.

Apple, likely, could run Siri on an A4 -- but the performance would be marginal and defeat the purpose.