Gratuitous summary based on the Engadget liveblog: Same case (more or less), unified GSM/CDMA radio section, faster A5 CPU/GPU, new 8MP camera that supports 1080p video, new fancy voice recognition. Also, the iPhone 3GS lives on as a "free with contract" phone. There is no "iPhone 5" as was rumored to have a larger screen, etc.

And, apple.com is currently giving me:

Somebody might want to look into that.

All in all, not bad. The new camera is a definite win. Yeah, sure, my Droid X had an 8MP camera when it came out over a year ago, but the picture quality really sucks, while I imagine Apple's camera doesn't suck at all. Otherwise, the only other part that really catches my attention is the world phone aspect. You can have a phone that does CDMA here in the U.S. and GSM when you visit the rest of the planet. Notably missing is any discussion of LTE or WiMax. Sprint without WiMax isn't very interesting, and of course, a variety of Android devices are available that support these faster networks.

Apple will have LTE when that technology matures enough to be available in more than select pockets of the US. Remember that the first iPhone didn't have 3G and was only available in the US. Even though some Android handsets do support LTE/WiMax, even if you're located in one of the serviced markets, what exactly is there to do with the increased speed? I don't see very much added benefit unless we're talking about tethering a computer or getting into some mobile bit torrent.

When it comes down to things that matter, the 4S seems like a hit to me. On top of everything they've added, they've kept the exterior with the same fit, finish and dimensions, meaning you can re-use all accessories and they can continue to sell into a market that has made the existing iPhone products #1 with a growing margin.

I suspect Apple may eventually offer a larger screen size, though not at large as some of the enormous handsets that can be found today. If at all possible I would like next year's iPhone to grow only insignificantly in exterior height/width while offering perhaps an additional .5" of diagonal screen size.

The new graphics core at about 7x the performance of the already-excellent iPhone 4 is something a lot of people are glossing over. In terms of software, I think Siri is going to revolutionize this market, even if it does require a data connection.

I wasn't planning on upgrading until next year and the next iPhone model, so I can't say I'm disappointed at all. If I were going to jump to a new model this year, my only disappointment would be that the prices didn't come down (64GB model introduced for old 32GB price, etc..) But it's hardly surprising.

Oh, I'm also looking for a huge play on battery tech from Apple which hasn't happened yet in mobile. Those billions should really be put to use defying the laws of physics. The biggest gripe I have with my iPhone 4 is battery life. Like with so many gadgets really.

Apple's stock is taking a beating, but that's probably just sell-off, like with all other events they have, regardless of content. I'm sure it's going to bounce back in a big way (a few days) after their financial results are announced.

If we were to all listen to commentaries at Engadget, we should not be surprised to see Apple fail over the coming year, since this is going to (finally) be Samsung, no Motorola, no, HTC's year. Ok, whatever. I expect iOS to gain market over the next 12 months and the iPhone to widen its lead over everything else.

Personally, I think the smartest thing that Apple did was making the iPhone 4 (not 4S) available at a very reasonable $100 w/ contract and the 3GS available free w/ contract. Those low prices, more so than any feature of the 4S, should have a significant impact on maintaining Apple's market share against the onslaught of cheap Android (and Windows Mobile?) gear, particularly since many of the sexy new features of iOS 5 should work just fine on the older phones.

As to 4G/LTE/WiMax, this basically means that there's a big chunk of spectrum being built out that won't be available to iPhone users. That, of all things, gives me a personal incentive to upgrade my own phone so I can get out of the way of all the iPhones and have more bandwidth to myself.

Assuredly. Did anyone catch any off-contract prices? I expect them to be the same as they've been for the past year, but it would still be nice to see confirmation.

Related question: How long ago must I have bought my 4G, to be eligible for the on-contract price of a 4Gs?

So I wondered this when reading some summary, but you've just reminded me of it: how does it make sense to quote the up-front price of a contract without quoting the rest of the contract? Surely the Iphone 4 is actually available at a wide range of different up-front prices, depending on how much per month the rest of the contract is, and how long the lock-in is? On Vodafone UK, for instance, the up-front price of an Iphone 4 varies from £299 to £0, and of a 3GS from £199 to £0.

Peter

While I think the 4S is a great phone, and my wife will be upgrading to one, I think the tech media is justified in saying that this was a pretty small announcement. My reasoning is that considering this is the first time Apple has had a break between iPhones that was more than a year long, it's a tad surprising that they only did the "S" thing and didn't release a bigger revision to their hardware.

That aside, I think the rest of the let-down is unjustified. The media spends the entire year speculating out of their minds about what Apple is going to release, and the results (as good as they often are) can never live up to the ridiculous expectations. Naturally, Apple is happy to build up the hype, otherwise they wouldn't have these kinds of announcements, but this is what happens.

I do think they should be a little more transparent about their plans. For example, I'm going to be pretty pissed if they release the iPhone 5 in June...

It's going to vary by customer. For AT&T and Verizon users, you can check here. For me, it provided the "on launch day" pricing, along with "will drop to $199 on X date".


From what I understand, it doesn't always use the data connection. For the assistant, it's all local parsing, with data use for questions that require a data lookup (weather, queries that hit Wolfram alpha, etc). Dictation requires a data connection, similar to Android.


My reading of a no LTE/WiMax version is more power related then market availability. Current WiMax and LTE chips are just too power hungry for what Apple wants. The HTC Thunderbolt in reviews tends to average 3-4 hours of battery life. Unless Apple starts making their own cellular radio chipsets, they are stuck waiting on other companies to push the power demands down.

I'm on the fence. I was planning on skipping this generation, but Siri looks pretty useful. I'll probably wait to play with one in stores before I decide to upgrade.

My wife has been jealous of my ability to push a button on my phone and say "note to self: buy milk," and have my phone send me an email with "buy milk" in the subject line. Now, presumably, she'll be able to do that too. I don't think she'll want to do much more than that

*edit*

ps- what's with the microphone icon on the keyboard? That's pretty blatant, or at least as blatant as Apple accuses other companies of being...

The only rumors that didn't pan out, off the top of my head are:

Larger screen
Smaller screen
New all aluminum tear-drop shaped enclosure
Lower prices

The first two cancel each other out. The third would have been a disaster as all the mockups looked like crap. And the final one is technically possible if you're willing to buy last year's tech.

I don't think that anyone that says this is a small announcement is justified. Apple only ever does something positively huge every once in a while. The last time was the original iPad. Before that it was the original iPhone.

Cumulatively this is a good upgrade. A wolf in sheep's clothing as it were. I wouldn't be surprised to see an iPhone 5 in June, but it will probably be next September/October. iOS and the iPhone are still a good 2-3 years ahead of anyone else.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osborne_effect

Small problem with transparencies on http://www.apple.com/iphone/ when viewed with FF 7.0.1.

Not evident on IE 8.0.something

Anyone have more information on this? I was just getting caught up on my feeds when I came across the attached story bite from This is My Next. But when I click on it I get a 404 and it seems they pulled the story from their site.

Not in the US, at least. A $99 iPhone 4 is a $99 iPhone 4, whether you sign up for a $50/month plan or a $200/month plan. A 2 year contract is standard now across all carriers in the US, as well.

(Note: I believe T-Mobile had a few plans with sort of a varying subsidy like that, but they don't have the iPhone, so that's sort of irrelevant to this discussion.)

thisismynext.com apparently got trolled on that and yanked the story after a few minutes. That's what I can gather from Nilay Patel's twitter, at least:

http://twitter.com/#!/reckless

Yes, T-Mobile had that but they got rid of it a little while ago. I'm still grandfathered in on it with my unsubsidized Nexus One.

Peter, nobody in the US buys phones unsubsidized. The carriers charge one price and that's what you pay.

Well, almost nobody in the UK buys phones completely unsubsidized either. But people can and do buy at a wide variety of different points on the "razor vs blades" curve. If it's big news that an Iphone 4 is now $99 on contract, whether it's a $50/month or $200/month 2-year contract, surely someone can attract customers by offering their $200/month contract for $204.12/month with a free Iphone 4? Or are there regulatory reasons why not, like maybe guaranteed early exits from the contracts?

Peter

That's totally untrue. You could make the case that anyone buying a prepaid phone like the Motorola Triumph, Straight Talk Nokia e71, or LG Optimus is buying an unsubsidized phone, but these phones are still locked to a carrier in some way. I guess because of this, the phone might cost less with a Virgin Mobile logo on it than if you bought it straight-up retail. But, it doesn't take a genius to figure out a $300 Virgin Mobile phone with $35/month plan is a much better value in the long run than a free iPhone 3GS with $100/month plan over 2 years. I don't know about where you are, but the acceptance of these 2nd-tier carriers like Virgin, Metro PCS, Boost, etc is really blowing up.

Also, Apple sells unlocked iPhone in the US. Best Buy even has a section of their retail stores dedicated to unlocked GSM phones. I don't think those two would bother if nobody was buying them. Over the past year, I've purchased at least 5 unlocked phones for myself. I'm considering buying an iPhone 4S, but it would only be unlocked/unsubsidized. I'd probably stick it on H2O's $60 unlimited plan.

I know I wasn't the first to buy an unlocked and unsubsidized iPhone 4 here in Canada. and by the time I did, I'd already read plenty on the net about others dong the same. So much so that I knew what to check for on the receipt to make sure they didn't process the incorrect serial number with my purchase, thus locking the phone.

He was being a little hyperbolic, as (I'm pretty sure) he bought his Nexus One out of contract.

The point is, if you ask a random person on the street, changes are that they aren't going to have any idea where to buy a non-subsidized phone, and almost as high that they're not going to be aware you can do so at all.

Whether people are familiar with the term/concept or not, most prepaid phones are unsubsidized. They're not unlocked, but you can walk into a store, pick a phone off the shelf without a sales agent helping you, and pay anonymously with cash. You can then choose to activate the phone, or let it sit in the box for eternity with no further payment or penalty incurred.

This is my main argument against the statement that nobody in the US buys a phone without some sort of service agreement.

I have employees (factory workers) here that could never afford a free iPhone. But they can afford a $35 flip phone on Boost Mobile 10¢/minute pay as you go plan. Someone I know recently bought some prepaid Verizon dumbphone for $10 at Best Buy. It's being used on a $1/day plan where you only pay $1 on the days you use it.

Not everyone is fortunate enough to have credit or the ability/desire to pay for a 2-year cellphone contract. There are more people out there with unsubsidized phones than Engadget or Mac Rumors would have you believe. It's only recently that you've been able to get data and a reasonable smartphone on these no-contract carriers.

And you can count myself among those people. I used a Virgin Mobile phone for years, and my wife still does.

I think it's pretty clear that those phones are subsidized, too, albeit perhaps not as much. Lots of the cheaper ones you can get for free. You might be able to make the argument that some of those phones could be made for less than their retail prices, but you cannot make the argument that they can be made for free.

Yeah, it's a grey area I suppose. Because it's locked to a particular network, the phone is of little use to the general population for anything other than its intended purpose. Maybe it costs $20 to manufacture and distribute a dumbphone. I guess the carrier can gamble on offering it for free to get asses in the seats?

In general, however, the phones are freely purchasable with no commitment. You don't even have to activate them before walking out of the store.

This might be the incentive I finally need to kick AT&T to the curb. I'll have to do more research later to see how the numbers line up. Would be nice to get out of paying for so many unused minutes. How does it work if I get an unlocked iPhone 4GS if I choose a CDMA provider beyond Sprint or Verizon? Do you just call up and register with their customer support?

You should probably call your other CDMA provider and ask them.

Out of curiosity, what other providers are there? Is there a local one near you or something?

Page Plus is a popular Verizon MVNO if you don't consume a lot of data. They're known to activate Verizon-locked iPhones on their network if you get the right CSR on the phone.

It's too bad the iPhone 4S doesn't support T-Mobile USA's AWS 3G bands. Otherwise, the upcoming Walmart/T-Mobile plan would be really attractive for this device. $30/month for 5GB of 3G data, unlimited text, and 100 minutes of voice would be ideal for me.

This may seem impossible, but it works this way with GMS phones on AT&T MVNOs also. For example, you can buy a Straight Talk Nokia e71 which is elegible for the $45/month unlimited data/text/talk plan and stick its SIM in your AT&T-locked iPhone without a problem. The only issue you encounter is not being able to change MMS settings on an AT&T-locked iPhone. If you want to send and receive MMS on a locked iPhone with Straight Talk, you need to jailbreak (but not unlock).

The same thing works with H2O which is another AT&T MVNO. However, they actually encourage you to jailbreak/unlock your AT&T iPhone on their website.

Cox did start offering service in my area, likely as an MVNO. It's one of the providers I want to investigate.

Rob's comments basically lit up the idea, now I need to do the research and crunch the numbers. I'm much more comfortable with the idea now then I was a few years ago, mostly due to Apple offering unlocked iPhones in the US. I don't have to worry about the potential support issues with an imported device, nor do I have to jailbreak either. Being able to support both CDMA and GSM is also a big plus, since it opens up a lot more possibilities.

Time Warner Cable was trialing something like that with Sprint a few months back. I'm not a customer of theirs, so I haven't really investigated it. Basically, they wanted to get you to do a quadruple-play under their brand name.

I'm still in contract with AT&T for another few months, but there is no doubt I will be moving on once that's over. I've been playing with all kinds of devices and SIMs over the past year including Straight Talk and T-Mobile prepaid. I don't have any experience with H2O since their unlimited service just started last month, but they're the front-runners now. Their SIMs are sold at Best Buy, so even though their website looks a bit lame, they look like a legit company.

Right now I have an unlocked Samsung Galaxy S II i9100 (international). From a hardware perspective, it's a fantastic device. Definitely the best Android phone I've ever had (G1, HTC Aria, LG Optimus, Dell Venue, & Nexus S prior), but the software just isn't up to the polish that iOS has. I also think iOS has better push reliability which has become more important to me.

I did have an LG Quantum C900 very recently, which ran Windows Phone 7 Mango. I really, really liked everything about the OS aside from the lack of apps. Perhaps in 2012 Microsoft will gain momentum with the help of Nokia, but for now I'm deciding between the iPhone 4S or sticking with the Galaxy S II and checking out Ice Cream Sandwich.

Either way, AT&T is getting dumped.

I've been using a locked iPhone3 with a Pay As You Go SIM for the past few months, voice calls only, 3G is turned off on the phone. AT&T hasn't said boo about it yet. I'd like to pick up a second smart phone for my wife - but doubt I'll get as good a deal, this one cost me $100.

My wife has a similar situation, except her iPhone3 is unlocked, but the only sim card she could find worked until the minutes ran out and she couldn't add more time to it. Where did you get your sim card?

tanstaafl.

My SIM card came from the local AT&T owned wireless store, zero hassle, zero questions about a phone. Additional credit is added to it via www.paygonline.com, I think a $100 credit will keep the account active for 365 days.

I guess it depends on what neighborhood you're in and how you ask. Maybe if you use the term "burner" some people will know what you're talking about. Or "prepaid" - available at 7-11 among other similar locations.

I'm willing to bet that every drug dealer in the US has at least one such phone if not three or four. Dozen.

I can almost guarantee that's what you do. I'm comfortable enough that I would easily bet money on it.

While other names providers won't have a subsidized iPhone for sale to lock customer to their network, they'll be more than happy to sign you up for service with your own phone. I've never heard of anyone turning away a customer bringing their own compatible phone in the US or Canada.

Also, locked phones may work (all I've tried have worked) on the network they're locked to, generally even through an MVNO, including with PayAsYouGo or any other plan. Phones can be network locked, not simply provider/brand locked which they'd do with a SIM lock for GSM. And definitely not plan locked. It's just when you buy new you're usually restricted to a set of specific plans - but even there you have wiggle room sometimes as long as you're committing to an equivalent contract term.

Up here that means SpeakOut Wireless and Petro Canada (MVNOs) work with ROgers network, etc.

Oddly, it looks like the CDMA portion of the phone is not usable unless sold with Verizon or Sprint service. Perhaps it may even be disabled on unlocked and European phones?

Rob, that footnote is about the iPhone 4, so it might not apply to the 4S or it's an oversight they weren't more specific.

The unlocked iPhone 4 is GSM-only. From what I gather they will also sell the CDMA-only iPhone through Verizon and Sprint, which is locked.

Everything in the keynote indicated the 4S would be "world" capable which implies fully functioning CDMA and GSM radios compatible with all CDMA and GSM carriers using the same frequencies. At least when sold in an unlocked state.

I don't think it's been made clear yet if the 4S is actually carrier locked at all, or if it's only carrier locked on the radio which your current carrier uses, or if it's carrier locked only within the country you bought it in, etc.

Ah, I see now. I guess we'll have to wait to find out.

My speculation was incorrect. I've found clearer language on the specs page:



So it appears that the only "world" phone is one originally activated on a CDMA network. Now the question is whether the GSM radio is unlocked on such phones. If it's not, I'd argue a serious case of false advertising and that the phone is not in any way a world phone. They shouldn't be advertising it as such anyway because of this restriction.

I'm having a hard time coming up with any reasoning for this move since I can't imagine they're actually producing two SKUs of a phone with otherwise identical specs. From what I understand they've standardized on the new chip that does both CDMA/GSM, so the difference would only be in the baseband software.

It may be something to do with SIM usage. Possibly the CDMA carriers issue SIMs that doesn't do CDMA authentication (that bit being done by another set of IDs which are not stored in the SIM) - the SIMs they issue only being for GSM roaming.

It'd make it harder for a general phone to roam onto CDMA if there are no suitable credentials in the SIM.

However, I managed to avoid CDMA when I was at apple and so don't know the technicalities of this. I've not seen any world-phone providing GSM carriers talking about their phones roaming onto CDMA either though.

Huh? Where are you at now, and when did that change??

Thx!

I left back in May, and went to the Google chrome team. However, that didn't work out for a few reasons and I'm working on my own startup now.

Can't say much more about it apart from it's something that's needed doing properly for many years, and we are doing it properly

Yay a new in car mp3 player

Wait, you're running the U.S. Government? That seems a bit outside of your normal skillset . . .

This is all too much like the hitchhiker's guide and the guy who actually runs the universe

According to these guys, Jobs' death was simply marketing genius at work. Disrespectful of both the living and the dead.

http://sanfrancisco.ibtimes.com/articles...-steve-jobs.htm

It's a stupid article, and they do say seem to imply that the increased sales had an emotional push, but I don't think they're coming off as badly as you say they are.

My thoughts are that his death did draw a great deal of attention to the launch. Do you think that didn't contribute a little to the sales? It's not offensive to observe a cause and effect.

But I think that the biggest contributor to the sales numbers was the longer time between product releases, thus bringing people closer to their contract renewal periods, so in that way I disagree with the starting hypothesis of the article.

I think that one part of the reason for the iPhone success and large 4S preorders is how Apple is focused a little differently then some of the other vendors. Right from the start, Apple didn't just aim at the smartphone market, or the enterprise market. They aimed at the phone market as a whole. It was very clear messaging from day one, this is a phone for everyone. Not a push e-mail device aimed initially at businesses (Blackberry), or the classic IT smartphone (Windows Mobile 6 and below/ Palm Trio). Android reaimed at the consumer prior to launch, but after the iPhone and with a weaker initial start.

The upcoming quarterly results should be interesting, since it will have numbers on how many iPhone 4 sold during the "dead" quarter when everyone was anticipating a new iPhone 5. My hunch is that it was still one of the better iPhone quarters in the history of the product.

That would imply that iPhone 4 sales were dropping up to the release of the new model, when in fact the opposite is true. Remember that the new product was expected for WWDC and sales up until that point had also been on the rise with a record quarter.

It always amazes me that people come up with these elaborate theories and explanations. Can't it be as simple as the iPhone is a well-liked product by a large number of people? Yeah, I suppose that's preposterous. The iPhone can't possibly do as well as it has been simply because it's a great product.

I don't think Jobs's death had any bearing whatsoever on iPhone 4S sales.

Both you and Tom seem to be applying my comments to all prior iPhones for some reason, even though I didn't say anything to imply that. I was only talking about the 4S.

Yes, it could be because the 4S a great product, but why is this phone selling so many MORE units than others did? The average consumer doesn't see it as a major update because it looks the same. They don't know about A4 vs A5 (aside from "it's one better, right?"), and while Siri is cool, I doubt any of them really understand it all that well.

Tech-friendly people like us might understand the advantages of the phone's new features, and I'm suggesting that the longer period between device releases played a factor in the significantly larger sales growth.


You're still taking this too personally. It's not his death that increased sales, it was the coverage his death received. It was front page news all over the country. The networks interrupted shows like Jeopardy to announce the news, give a quick summary of the man's life, and briefly mention things like "...Apple, which announced their new iPhone this week..." You honestly don't think that drew attention to the product?

I'm sure the 4S would have sold just as well or better than the 4 did over the same time span, because the smartphone market is growing as a whole. I was merely trying to speculate why this model was selling beyond what might have been expected, considering it's not the leap in design that some people - justified or not - might expect.


You seem to be hearing all my statements as "if Jobs hadn't died Apple would have sold 200 units of the iPhone 4S." I never said anything of the sort.

The simple answer as far as the UK is concerned is that those people who bought the 3GS on contract (probably 18 or 24 month as that is what most phone operators were offering) will now be out of contract or in the "we want to retain" you period at the end of a contract, they will be accounting for a large proportion of sales.

I don't know the average length of a contract in the US, so I can't really comment about your side of the pond.

I am due for a new phone due to my contract being up (I have a 3GS) and I was waiting for the new phone to come out because of this. I actually have decided not to but a new one because I'm perfectly happy with my phone and I don't want to shell out the cash at this time (even with a contract, I'd still have to pay to get a big enough phone to contain my music library).

You read into things too much My comments were intentionally both about the 4S and the iPhone in general. Too many people seem to be tied up in the nitty gritty details, instead of looking at the complete picture. In general, iPhones are continuing to rise in popularity, and this means whatever current model is going to be what sells more then previous models*. This is why I pointed out the 5% marketshare graph. There is 95% of the mobile phone market sitting as potential iPhone switchers.

If I had to guess looking at the 4S only, it may be partially influenced by the availability on Sprint. Their customers seem to have a bit more loyalty to the carrier first, and were likely less inclined to switch to Verizon or AT&T.

*Though now having an iPhone 3GS, 4 and 4S for sale may complicate this a bit.

The story has been the same for previous iPhones, but I'm not attributing your comments to those versions. I'm just saying that for all versions, there have always been these elaborate explanations - or better yet, excuses. I'm also not saying that you're the one making them up.



Many possible reasons. The iPhone now has more than 4.5 years of press and marketing behind it, therefore greater public awareness, both in the US and globally. It's now available on the three largest carriers in the US versus just ATT only a year ago. The new model is twice as fast as the previous model and blows away all handhelds for graphics abilities. There are more apps today than ever before, with many getting some good press. You can talk TO your phone! And it answers back. That's huge.



Totally incorrect, in my experience. The average consumer only knows that it looks as good today as it did yesterday. The iPhone 4 physical design is the pinnacle of mobile handset design. The iPhone 4 was already the best selling handset model. Now you have a new release that looks just as good. Most of the people I know are not techno junkies by any stretch of the imagination. However, when Apple releases a new iPhone, I'll usually get hit up for info from most of them. These people seem to be up to date about iPhones and iPads, but that's as far as it goes. Never once have I heard anyone complain about a new iPhone looking too much like an older one.



I think "you can talk to your phone" is pretty easy to understand. By your reasoning, Porsche should/could have failed long ago because all their cars have essentially always looked the same. I do agree that the subtle details of the new offering will be lost on most people initially - that goes for some tech pundits as well however. But I maintain that the iPhone is a huge draw without knowing the secrets to every feature.



But that only works if you also suppose that iPhone 4 purchasing slowed or was otherwise being held back. Because if it wasn't, it either means new customers or people buying multiple phones. Neither case supports the delay theory.



I know what you meant, you don't need to explain that part to me. Any press is good press, but the iPhone 4, even without the extra press attributable to Jobs' death, was going to get covered on the front page of everything in the world.



I don't think it had any bearing on anyones decision to buy the phone, no.




Apple isn't in the smartphone market however. As Tom pointed out, they're simply in the mobile handset market. And they have a lot of room to grow.



I do suppose some people weren't expecting it. But a lot of people, myself included, were. iPhone 4 was already the top handset, there was little to no reason to think the 4S would be any different. Coupled with wider availability it would no doubt sell in higher quantities.



That last most significant leap in mobile handsets was in 2007 when Apple showed the original iPhone. This device is immensely significant because of the voice recognition, but it pales in comparison to the revolutionary introduction of the original, yes. But everything needs to be looked at in context. No other mobile product has had even a fraction of the significance since 2007.



I know you've echoed what had already been expressed by a number of other sources, but I was commenting on much of the press coverage in recent years. There's always some angle, some convoluted theory, about why the iPhone does well. While Jobs was alive it was some magic mind-control he had over "iFans" now that he's dead it's sadness that's driving people to take out their wallets. Or it's the extra 3 months on the release schedule compared to previous versions - everyone has just been waiting for the 4S and not buying phones all summer. And now that the 4S is here, even though it's a let-down, they're all climbing all over themselves to buy it.

One random data point: my father has a 3GS and is looking for what to do next. I'm pushing him to wait until Android 4.0 and the new Samsung Nexus Prime whatever phone are announced. He's ready to buy something right now and it bugs him no end that he has to wait some unspecified time between now and the end of the month to make a decision.

Does he like the 3GS? If so, tell him he should pre-order a 4S. It's going to please him to no end. Android just isn't going to cut it unless he is already dissatisfied with iPhone/iOS.

In the meantime, he can update that 3GS to iOS 5 to see if he likes the new additions/changes to the OS. I'm personally waiting for an untethered jailbreak before I press the update button.

So here's the latest "world phone" info from everything I've been able to source, including official statements from Sprint and Verizon.

Sprint have debunked a rumor stating their phones would have an unlocked GSM SIM slot. Their phones will come with a SIM and the phone will be locked to that SIM. A so-called "roaming SIM" that will be used when you're traveling, the same way an ATT SIM would be used.

Sprint will not be unlocking phones and further claim that the SIM is non-removable. I doubt this last part, but have no reason to doubt that the phone is fully locked down. Quite possibly forever.

Verizon claim that they will "international unlock" any phone, including the iPhone, after 60 days have passed of "good standing" on your account. There is no way this unlocked state will work with other carriers in the US. Their phones may also be forever locked out of using other US carriers.

Buying a Sprint or Verizon phone gives you the possibility that one day it *may* be unlocked for GSM/UTMS , but it will always be locked to the original CDMA provider. There has been no news to indicate you will ever be able to move a specific phone between Sprint and Verizon's CDMA networks.

Clearly, buying an UNLOCKED iPhone 4S from Apple is not the same thing as buying a Sprint or Verizon phone, whether they unlock at a future date or not. The factory-unlocked phones do not have any CDMA capabilities. You will never be able to use them on Sprint, Verizon or any other CDMA carrier in the world. They are strictly GSM/UTMS phones, the same as iPhone 4. The Sprint/Verizon phones may never be able to use other US-based networks at all. As far as I know, there is no mandate to force carriers to provide unlocking capability/service.

EDITED: Sprint re-states SIM slot usability. John Gruber posts image of Sprint phone with ejected SIM:

http://daringfireball.net/misc/2011/10/sprint-sim.jpg

All of this is why I'm just going to wait for people to get the unlocked ones in November and report hands on experience. The photo and what even Sprint reps are saying doesn't fully line up yet, so lots of bad/misinformation out there already.

It's too bad that Google's own voice recognition feature gets such short shrift in the press. For fun, I just spoke "open the Pod bay doors, Hal" to my phone and it offered to redirect me to the IMDB page with quotes from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Not bad, eh?

That appears to be the "I'm Feeling Lucky" result for that Google search. I think what elevates Siri in attention (beyond being tied to Apple and the associated brand hype) is the attempt to go beyond recognition and into conversational interactions with a computer using natural language.

And that's very impressive and it appears to work very well...

...but both platforms will suffer from the problem of people being too embarrassed to use it. I know I only use my voice commands when I'm at home or in the car. They're great to have, but I just can't use them with strangers around...

*edit*
And on the flip side, I'm sure there will be plenty of people using voice commands on their phones and being very obnoxious about it. It'll be a whole new area etiquette, like the people who talk on their phones in public with the speakerphone on

I'm not sure how you call up the feature on an Android handset, but on an iPhone 4S you can apparently put the phone up to your face as if on a regular phone call, which activates Siri. This is in addition to pressing and holding the home button.

Not too shabby for a phone that looks the same as it did last year...

First weekend numbers, 4+ million. iPhone 4 did 1.7 million in the first weekend.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/10/17iPhone-4S-First-Weekend-Sales-Top-Four-Million.html

Anyone here pick one up? Initial thoughts?

I sold my 4 and bought a 4S.

It definitely feels "snappier" (to use that well known mac performance metric) although how much of that is down to the fact that I was without my 4 for a week.

Siri is pretty good, I was actually pleasantly surprised given how dire "voice control" was ("What time is it?"......"Calling Sarah...Mobile"). I had a chip in the screen of my iPhone 4 which was irritating, it was "just" over the display and because I knew it was there, my eyes were always drawn to it.

I'd have ended up paying £140 for a replacement, so I figured I may as well sell the phone on and upgrade to the 4S.

Haven't played with the camera yet. The smaller "shift" key on the keyboard due to the voice functionality requires a bit of operator retraining to hit the right key.

Biggest gripe is that the siri localisation changes both the voice recognition and voice, it'd be nice to be able to select the female US voice because it's much nicer than the UK voice, which just makes me think I'm listening to something from xtra-normal.

Heh.. On our recent month-long tour of Europe, we took with us a Garmin Nuvi 3790 satnav. Great device. But our choice of voice on it was the UK "Sally" voice. Aside from getting used to "take slip road" (instead of "take ramp"), she was just SOOOOooo much nicer to our ears than the American English female voice. That latter one sounded like a smarmy overworked short-order waitress.

Cheers

The main problem is that the UK siri voice is male and not a very nice sounding male at that! I guess I'm just used to hearing a female voice with the sat nav, it just sounds right somehow. Male voices just remind me of "Greetings professor falken".

Yea, I got one on Friday. It was more a matter of the home button almost failing on my iPhone 4 and the fact I want to swap tariff that coincided with the 4S coming out. I filled out the preregistration on three's website a few days before and it turned up with the postman on Friday morning, no queues or drama for me.

If I was to make a brief review, I'd say it's not worth the upgrade to the average user. In the UK Siri is very limited at the moment and is a gimmick that kept me amused for all of 20 minutes, I don't think I'll be talking to my phone very often.

In terms of signal it does seem to have improved. I have also swapped network so it is a little difficult to make a direct comparison. I can hold the phone however I like now, which is nice!

The extra storage of the 32Gb was most welcome but I guess I could have done that with the 4. So in summery, it's an iPhone and does what an iPhone has always done. I'd say it's more of a revision than an earth shattering upgrade.

Cheers

Cris

I do hope your are taking the old one with the dodgy button back to the Apple store to get it swapped for a working one ?

In Canada apparently you can't even ask Siri the time. Well, you can, but you'll just get some cheeky reply instead of the actual time. Strange, I don't know why this would have anything to do with locale. I though this would be one of the local queries that didn't hit the network or use location at all.

Out of warranty. Sold it to one of those mobile phone recycling companies for £280, I've used them before so I know they are good for it. The button works, it just sticks a little when you double press it. My old 3GS did this and when I took it in for a swap they told me it's common and as soon as it starts I should swap it out. I'm not paying what ever it is to swap to a refurb.

I did the maths and even though I won't actually save any money I am about even after the swap of tariff, sale of the old one, cashback deal I got and not having to pay for a swapped iPhone 4.

I just asked Siri the time and he told me. So I assume it will work everywhere outside of the US too. The only useful thing I have found for Siri is setting alarms and reminders, that and "Play me some Johnny Cash please" in the car. That is quite useful. If I am polite to Siri he is not polite back, so saying please and thank you makes no difference to the attitude. I think this is a bit of an oversight as it would be much more human if he was polite back.

Cheers

Cris

Isn't there a line somewhere in Douglas Adams about someone who's always polite to his robots, because he's afraid that if he isn't, he'll get out of practice at being polite to other humans?

On the other hand, there's definitely a line in Terry Pratchett somewhere where the new owner asks a robot to be less polite, because he can't bear the idea of such an intelligent mind being so servile to him.

Peter

Here's some video shot on an iPhone 4S. The video quality and stability of the device are impressive, but the people who put these samples together also have talent, so you can't discount that either.

http://vimeo.com/16048559

http://vimeo.com/30578363

The warranty is irrelevant, sale of goods act trumps that. Next time take it back.

Recently had my iPhone 4 swapped out for a new one despite being over 14 months from initial purchase. Even got a new one rather than a refurb, as it wasn't the first failure I'd had.

Yea, I did this with the 3GS. To be honest I hate the idea of going to see a feckin' "Genius" in Manchester at the best of times, but especially when it's over a button. It's just not worth it to me.

At the stage it's at I wouldn't call it faulty as such as you can get it to work most of the time. Anyway it's gone in the post now

Cheers

Cris

This video has to be one of the most pointless I've ever seen on the internet...

http://vimeo.com/30606785

A comparison of a 5D MkII and an iPhone 4S. Really ???

Cheers

Cris

I saw the same or a similar video earlier - kind of pointless in general, but especially so without some kind of motion. SidexSide as a thumbnail is kind of irrelevant, pretty much anything is going to look half-decent. I would expect the iPhone 4 to look just about the same.

This is better, from PCWorld: http://www.pcworld.com/article/241955/smartphone_camera_battle_iphone_4s_vs_the_android_elite.html

I'm getting that too, and so is my girlfriend on hers.

I suspect if you take 2 or more phones to an Apple store exhibiting this problem, you'll have a much better chance of getting something done about it than you would with one. Even without any warranty left. If you do have warranty or AppleCare, then definitely take them back.

I thought I'd read something about free loaners recently (this year) but a quick google only turned up something about a $30 loaner from back in 2007. Worth a call to Apple Care at least.

I had three iPhone 4s in a row develop a dodgy home button. First two were replaced without question.

On the third one we had a bit of discussion on how maybe it was me and not the phones (which is fair enough, it did seem like the most likely explanation). But in the end they decided I wasn't happy so replaced it.

Those replacements were inside Apple UK's 12 months warranty. I then had the radio and GPS start to fail on my fourth phone, a couple of months outside the warranty.

Of course the law in the UK is very different to the US. The law expects and requires something like a mobile phone to last without defect for a lot longer than 12 months. So when I took the fourth phone back I was confident of my rights for a repair or replacement.

Of course having legal rights and enforcing them are two different things.

In the end I didn't have to kick up a fuss at all. They replaced it without question. I did ask whether I could get a new one rather than a refurb, given that I had had 3 failed refurbs in a row. They granted my request.

I couldn't be happier with Apple UK when it comes to replacing faulty iPhones. Would have been nice if I hadn't had four failed phones in the first place though.

It would be interesting to see if the 4S exhibits the same moire and line skipping artefacts as the 5D.

Or rolling shutter on the video...

Looks like regional carriers in the US are getting in on the iPhone too this time around: http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/19/is-c-spire-getting-the-iphone-4s-its-website-says-so/

Meanwhile, the Samsung/Google Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0 was announced yesterday. It's a very impressive phone. About the only mystery is what the exact radio specs will be for the CDMA/LTE phone to be released in the U.S. They've said a huge lack of anything about whether it will be a world phone or not.

Have you seen images of the new Nexus next to an iPhone? It looks just a tad bigger than huge.

When I upgraded from my iPhone 3G to a Droid X, I really enjoyed the larger screen. I had a silicone sleeve on my iPhone, which made the resulting package fit comparably into my pocket with my uncovered Droid X.

It's an interesting question whether you'd want to put a cover on the Galaxy Nexus.

This fixation with ever smaller, ever lighter has always puzzled me.

Already these devices are so Lilliputian that they can only be comfortably used with keyboard programs like Swype to correct the inevitable mis-typings. Would your ultimate phone be some fingernail-sized item that you needed a magnifying glass and a needle for input?

I don't own a smartphone, or any cell phone for that matter, so my opinion is probably worthless. But SWMBO has an iPhone, and it seems to me that it would be a worthwhile tradeoff to double the thickness in order to, say, quadruple the battery life. It would still fit into any pocket, and be easier to hold onto.

But what do I know?

tanstaafl.

I wouldn't mind the iPhone getting a little bigger, first and foremost to allow a bigger battery. However, the thickness is currently just about perfect. I would go wide and taller, by only about 5mm each. The other benefit of course is to fit a slightly larger screen. In all honesty, it looks like they might be able to cram a slightly higher capacity battery into the current iPhone, especially if it weren't for that SIM slot. This is probably one of the reasons Apple were talking going go SIM-less with some carriers over the past couple of years.

With the iPhone's auto-correct you can type pretty fast, making all kinds of egregious mistakes, without it adversely affecting the actual output. I'm a total iPhone typing novice yet I can still get by quite well, even with the phone in portrait orientation.

I prefer typing on the iPhone to the iPad- but I understand that when I upgrade to iOS 5 on the iPad I will be able to thumb type better.

I don't mind typing on the iPhone at all.

As for thickness, if you want that you can get it. There are third party cases that add extra battery life to the phone at the cost of thickness.

I know the iPhone keyboard feels like it should be unusable, but it simply isn't. You just need to suspend your disbelief and keep typing.

It works very, very well. Far easier to type on than any similar sized physical keyboard that you can fit on a phone.

And no, the ultimate phone (for me) wouldn't be any smaller. For me the iPhone is about the right size, I don't want it to be any bigger or smaller.

Ended up buying an unlocked 4S last night. The trick appears to be the terminology at this point. If you ask for an AT&T phone off contract, they hand you the phone and never scan it in their system. The first time it's attached to iTunes, it confirms it's unlocked. There is a pretty lengthy thread I found talking about this, with confirmation from people putting in various non AT&T SIMs and finding they worked fine. This includes T-Mobile, but as in the past, the phone drops to edge only. If something changes, I still have a 30 day no questions asked return period.

Now to figure out if the CDMA piece is indeed completely shut down. Though for my possible transition to prepaid service or to a different provider, I'll probably look to stick with one using AT&T's network. For data, their speeds still exceed what most people are seeing with the 4S on Verizon or Sprint by a noticeable amount. My primary use is data, and the motivation to switch payment/providers is to drop my mostly unused voice part of the bill.

In Canada at least last year, the unlocked phone was sold with a different/specific ICCID (SIM serial number) input at purchase time. The box is the same, but they punch it up differently when you pay for it.

The ICCID is input as a series of 1's which I suppose flags their system for the unlock. So when you connect to iTunes, which then hits Apple's servers, your phone isn't locked to a provider.

The receipt also clearly stated: "No Contract SIM"

Just before buying mine I read stories of people having walked out of the Apple store to find out their phones had actually been locked - the employee had punched in the SIM number instead of 1's - the rest of the receipt was the same, including the unlocked price.

When I bought mine I checked this specifically and even mentioned it to the employee, and she confirmed that a few at that store had also been previously punched in wrong, but that they were being extra attentive to that now.

Wonderful! I'm glad about that. I think the manufacturers need to focus on making a better variety of screen sizes, but I'm glad I have the option of getting a phone with a large screen. I saw a freind's "Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch Plus Other Extraneous Names" last weekend, and the screen is stunning.

Screen size preference is subjective, IMO, and for that reason I think Apple would do well to increase the size on the iPhone 5. 3.5" is proving to be the minimum for a useful smartphone. That's not to say that the iPhone's screen isn't usable. I agree with what others have said about the keyboard, and I've always been shocked at how well the keyboard works. It's certainly harder to type on some Android phones even with another half inch on them. I think this is because of the superior screen hardware the iPhone has over most Android phones.

I'm sure it's no surprised to anyone here that I'm excited about the Galaxy Nexus, but mostly just because I'm tired of my Nexus One. I'm looking forward to the advancements made in Android 4.0, too (except the face unlock - that looks a little useless).


I wanted to make one last point about screens. Screen size is not as important to me as two other dimensions: bezel width and distance from the glass. The second factor, which I think Android manufacturers and Apple have only just recently fixed, is how far away from the glass the LCD is. This is especially noticeable on my Nexus One, where it looks like my screen is in a museum in a glass-encased exhibit. When I hold my phone at an angle with the screen on, it looks like nearly 2mm of depth from the glass. The 3GS is nowhere near as bad, but you can still see it.

But on the 4/4S and the Galaxy S II phones, it looks like there's zero space there, and that makes it look so much more impressive and clearer. That's just as exciting to me as the larger screens.



Oh, one more thing: I think we can all agree that the real loser this week was Motorola. Who's going to buy the RAZR? It's hideous, the OS won't get upgraded until early next year, and the Galaxy Nexus is just a better option in almost every way! I keep reading that people felt bad for Motorola because the Samsung announcement came ~12 hours after theirs. Well, I think they were lucky, because going by the initial plan, they would have come out a whole WEEK after everyone had moved on to 4.0 as the exciting new thing. This way they at least got ~12 hours

I've seen mentioned that the new GNexus pentile-based display isn't as good as the GS2's.

Android 4 is looking super slow and unresponsive, hopefully they'll address that - though it's an issue that has been around since the first Android version.

Face detection is one of the best features of the whole release - once it's working properly. I didn't watch the video for this part to see how responsive it was, but not having to type a passcode is pretty cool. I hate typing passcodes and would much prefer to just be able to slide the unlock button on the phone while it analyzed my face to determine whether it should actually unlock or not. I wish iOS 5 had introduced this.

Screen size can be evaluated quantitatively however. There are certain things you can and can't do given a certain sized screen. The importance of the interaction to any one individual is definitely subjective however. But that doesn't matter when you're designing a product that you would like to sell millions of.

I hope the iPhone 5 comes out with a slightly bigger form-factor and larger screen, but I sincerely hope all those rumored dimensions and models go in the trash bin. I'd like the next phone to be as brick-like in design as the iPhone 4. In fact I'd love to see precisely the same design cues, simply adjusted for size. No scallops nor curved backs. No difference in height between chin and forehead.

On the iPhone 4/4S it looks like zero, because it is zero. The glass is bonded to the LCD.

http://www.slashgear.com/android-face-unlock-might-be-fooled-with-a-photo-20189642/

This was my first thought when I read about the face detection unlock.

I'm not so worried even if a photo could be used. Most people who would happen to pick up my phone wouldn't have an 8x10 headshot of me lying around.

Without knowing exactly how it works and what limitations it places on how the photo is taken, it seems feasible that somebody could snap you on another phone and then use said picture to unlock your phone showing the picture either on the phone that took the picture or a tablet, laptop etc.

I'm assuming that you'd have to show it video, it probably takes a few images and checks that they're somewhat different (fft or something).

Just wagging around a picture is probably enough to fool a simple "did it change" detector. To do this sort of thing "properly", you'd want to make it a "challenge-response" biometric, in the sense that it asks you to do something and then you do it. Maybe that's a pattern of blinking your eyes. Maybe it's a pattern of where you look. Etc.

Oh that's a given, unless we move back to CCDs or Orthicons, it's here to stay.

Part of it is subjective, yes. But part of it is what works best for how people use the product. Screen size on a computer only really matters for one sense, our vision. Screen size on a touchscreen though starts to matter for two senses, touch and vision. Careful thought went into picking 3.5 inches, beyond just the vision aspect. This was an image someone made to point out one of the touch considerations. If you hold a phone in one hand, where can the average sized thumb touch?

I'm not saying Apple will never move away from 3.5 inches on the screen, nor am I saying 3.5 is absolutely perfect and everything else is wrong. Instead, I'm just trying to show some of the thought that goes into the decision. For Apple, they make one phone product, so they need to ponder the average user much more then a company like Samsung who releases many different phones every year. If Apple ships a fatally flawed product, they impact their business in a major way. If Samsung does the same, they simply bury it, burning just a few customers, and promote other phones more to make up for the mistake.


Part of it is likely the hardware, specifically in the resolution and quality of the touch screen digitizer. Android phones have been improving in this regard, but it's still hit or miss depending on the phone. The other part is software though. Apple has a huge advantage with there vertical integration. They can work as one company to optimize everything. From the silicon in the SOC design in the CPU (A4/A5) through the firmware for the touch screen, the OS, and the hardware. If it's something that has to be created, Apple will tend to do it, instead of compromising greatly. Apple engineered the machining process needed to build unibody laptops, and in turn the same process can be adapted to building the metal structure/antenna of the iPhone 4/4S.

I sooooo mis-read that.

The "crappy digitizer" issue is no small thing. Since Samsung "worked with" Google on the Galaxy Nexus, it's entirely possible that somebody at Google might have pushed back on this topic. It's not like we haven't known about this mess for years.

Tom, let us know how the 4S camera works indoors in the evening under various lighting conditions including dim.

IMO, the camera in the iPhone 4 is decent as far as phones go, but it sucks compared to any P&S camera at any price point. Real P&S anyway, so excluding things like those Fisher Price kids cameras.

This is just lamination; the first iPhone was laminated (LCM laminated to touch glass laminated to front glass). 3G and 3GS went to air gap - between the LCM and the touch panel, the touch was still laminated to the front glass. 4 and 4S are laminated again.

Lamination is more expensive, because if it fails you have to throw out a known good touch panel and LCM as well as the front glass, but it's thinner and looks waaaay nicer - the image appears to be on the front surface of the glass.

The actual distance from the pixels to the top of the front glass isn't really so different, it just looks it due to the refraction at each boundary.

So far it does seem improved over the 4 by a good bit. I managed to get some good shots at Blizzcon recently, and HDR indoors helped too. One particular shot that turned out well was of the bright screens, and the dark crowd watching the Starcraft II finals.

I can't say for certain if it's improved enough for your very high end and picky tastes, but I'm happy with the upgrade

*edit* attached the unmodified JPG from the phone, with HDR. Yep, it's still pretty grainy, but some of that is also probably the fog crap in the air. (Blizzcon has this weird need to use fog machines heavily). Being that this was taken from a device I always have in my pocket to remember an amazing matchup, I'm happy with the results.

A few months out now, and I still find the 4S to be a worthy upgrade choice. I use Siri multiple times a day, and it continues to surprise and amaze me. I'm looking forward to future enhancements to it to make it even more capable.

One of my tests tonight after seeing a movie was to try and find some place that served cake. It did expose a limit in the system, but handled it well "I need cake at a place open after 10pm". Siri searched for places that served cake, returning 20 results nearby. It also apologized for not being able to determine opening and closing times.

The reminders still remain my primary use of Siri. "Remind me about this at X time" or "Remind me about that other thing when I get home" has been immensely useful. It's a situation where everything was possible before, but the method now is much improved, to the point it becomes second nature to just use it. Down to the little details such as the reminder alert offering to dial if I asked it to remind me to call someone.

I should add, after months of using Siri, I could personally care less if someone else judges me for using it in public. One handy feature though that does help in public is the ability to just raise the phone to my ear and talk as if I'm on a call. Siri will automatically recognize I raised the phone, and talk through the private earpiece. It also uses the same noise canceling system used during phone calls, allowing use in noisy environments.

I do keep etiquette in mind at times though. For one, I don't dare try to use Siri at the Alamo Drafthouse

Interesting. I have the totally opposite experience.

I find Siri to be a pretty cheap gimmick, and I never use it. It was fun for the first few weeks. It's scope outside the US is currently very limiting, and I find I can't speak naturally to it. I somehow feel like I am barking commands at it as there is little point in being human with it.

I am also finding the build quality of the 4S to be somewhat lacking compared to the 4. There is a rattle coming from inside the phone now and it's lost that block of glass feel. I'm not sure if it's a fault or not but it's certainly starting to feel a little hollow to me.

Cheers

Cris

I'm still using Siri and am looking forward to getting the rest of the functionality in the UK. I find it works pretty well, right up until the point when I try to demonstrate it to someone...

My 4S also has a rattle, but then so did my 4. Still feels solid to me.

I wish battery life was a bit better on wifi, with moderate use at home I find the battery only lasts 24 hours or so now. However with wifi off it goes back to more like 48+ hours.

I am having to charge the 4s much more than the 4 as well. Seems to be getting worse actually.

I can squeeze the phone a little and it creeks, then when I top it the rattle goes away. When I am next passing one, I'll drop into the Apple store as I can hear it a little when talking now.

Cheers

Cris

I have seen it have some pretty bad issues with some accents, and they even called this out in the 5.0.1 update in regard to Australian accents. We tried it out at work, and did see an improvement with one of our down under folks. Over time it should hopefully improve. I can speak pretty naturally to it without too many issues.

It wil help as they expand what it integrates with in each country. For now, the location search parts seem to be US only.

Some of the other common things I use it for is weather info and light texting duties. One advantage Siri has for me over just using normal apps is the accessibility even when the phone is PIN locked. I can do some basic things just by holding the home button down, vs the typical slide, type, type type, search for app, run then relock. (And for the security concerned, Siri can be turned off completely until the device is unlocked).

My 4 has developed a flaky home button. Hope they've fixed that on the 4S. I'm considering the upgrade, mostly just to fix that particular problem.

Blast, I went ahead and ordered it. I figure I've got until October before the 5 comes out and I regret the purchase. Maybe. I'll look forward to a functioning homebutton again.

I'm curious to hear if you've had any issues with it failing. My wife gets a failed search fairly often. By failure I mean that there's clearly an overloaded server issue, not a connectivity problem.

Not often enough for me to really commit each time to memory. Most of the time I'll encounter Siri issues due to the phone wanting to hang onto a distant WiFi router instead of transitioning back to the 3G network. The way Siri reports this is the same as if the server is actually down, but trying it again when the phone swaps to 3G has generally worked.

Not really making an excuse for Apple per say, but they did indicate Siri is beta. I imagine they said this due to the inherent issues with voice recognition and needing lots of usage to iron it out. Along with Apple's weakness in server scalability compared to someone like Google. For me, the occasional downtime and issues aren't large enough to diminish the overall benefits it has brought.

They also advertised the hell out it too though of course

You certainly wouldn't guess from the adverts that it is beta.

Agreed, I wasn't aware it was beta, and I'd guarantee that the majority of iPhone users have no clue either.


That's definitely not what we're seeing (that's a pretty specific scenario).

I'm not saying it's down all the time, but she has noticed issues. Of course, the worst was the period right around Christmas, when everyone was getting their new phones and trying Siri out

It's rather obviously NOT in beta.
They're just doing like google, and labelling anything new as "beta" to preempt/deflect bad reviews.

Or are they simply the first (well, second) company in existence to properly label early software releases as "buggy" (aka. "beta") ?

Ah, it's nice to have a working home button again.

Siri is fun. Ask her if she knows Eliza.

I didn't realize until I got the phone that the voice recognition features were available for all text input fields. That's pretty nice. And it's fun to try to throw linguistic curve balls at the VR and see it actually work via context. (I.e., "Their friends are over there" works.)

I've switched Siri off, sounds like I should give it ago