A bit underwhelming for me. I’ll probably end up buying a regular iphone 4 (which is now available at $549, down from something like $749 (unlocked).
The most interesting thing to me was the Siri voice assistant. It actually seems to understand not just your words, but the meaning behind them.
Some pics I grabbed at the press conference.
I suspect camera nerds will be impressed as well, but I’m not sure exactly why since I’m not one 
For some reason, I feel like I would be more impressed if it was exactly the same thing, only called the iPhone 5. I recognize how irrational that is, but it’s still true.
Steve Jobs and Apple are masters at managing secrecy, but I think it backfired this time. Everyone was expecting the iPhone 5 and even if the new phone has all of the same features, people are still going to be disappointed.
Patty, do you know the unlocked price for the iPhone 4s? I’m thinking about whether I should buy the new phone with a new two-year contract, or buy it unlocked.
They didn’t mention anything about an unlocked 4S, but it’s available on three carriers now - AT&T, Verizon and now Sprint.
Oh, and IOS-5 had a lot of neat new features but I don’t think you need to upgrade the device to get them ('cept for the camera stuff of course).
I think it gets a little confusing about what are new features of iOS-5 and what is a feature of the new phone. Siri is apparently only available on the 4s, though there doesn’t seem to be a hardware based reason for that. It seems like they needed to find something that would be a feature improvement and not just a performance improvement.
I would be tempted to upgrade for the quality of the camera. I use the phone to take photos and videos of the family more than the point and shoot since it is always there in my pocket, so I welcome any improvement there. The shortest possible time from OFF to first picture can be pretty important at times.
Fat-fingering the passcode is what gets me every time. But I think I recall from the conference that camera is now available without having to enter the device unlock code now. There’s a camera icon just to the right of the unlock slider in IOS-5 now, so you can go straight to the camera.
Thing is, will it actually be an improvement or is it just a “more megapixels” thing? If the lens is the same tiny little thing, packing more pixels onto the sensor is just going to create more noise. The iPhone 4 camera already has plenty of resolution for most purposes - the pixels aren’t the limiting factor in image quality.
Hmm, OK on looking into it, Apple claim the sensor will gather 73% more light and has an f2.4 aperture. That’s a good thing that should help cut down on noise in low light. But everyone just jumps on the pixel count, as usual. Five megapixels is enough for anybody, unless you’re blowing up your prints to cover whole walls.
Yeah isn’t that great when somebody sends you an email with a 9.5 MB attachment that turns out to be a photograph of a bug taken from 12 feet away? :mad:
BTW. why were you at the press conference? Do you work for Apple? Do you work for a media organization?
Siri is cool but overall a pretty disappointing iPhone update. In terms of hardware the 4S is decent but still not quite as good as the Samsung Galaxy S2 which has been out for several months. And Samsung, HTC and others will probably take Android phones to a whole new level in the next few months starting with the Nexus Prime.
I didn’t mean to imply that I was there. Those pics were screen shots from the streaming video feed. I guess that link should have said “some pics I grabbed [del]at[/del] from the press conference”.
My feelings exactly. I was looking forward to buying the 5. The 4S I’ll probably pass on. Illogical, but there it is.
But… but… 64 gigs! And a better camera! Plus, 64 gigs!
I’d be happier with 128, if we have to have powers of 2. My iTunes library is over 40GB, and it would be nice to have that much again for videos etc.
Being able to carry all your music with you everywhere without worrying that you’re using up all the storage would be good. But I suppose, with the cloud and stuff, that could become less of an issue soon - you won’t need to have your music stored on the device, because you can stream it directly over the ethertubes.
I’m pretty disappointed that they kept the “old” case. I still have my 3g, and I like the smooth edges better than the 4. Maybe next year.
Why only one camera? Or did I miss something? IP2 has two.
To tell the truth, I might might buy this one after all. I do like that Siri feature. I’ll check how much time is left on my contract.
Freakin’ Apple. Reminds me of my ex-wife. :mad:
Peace,
mangeorge
As a klid who used to drool over Dick Tracy’s wrist phone in my teens, I’m still pretty amazed at what we have now. 
I agree about the case. I had a 3GS (until it fell in the toilet 
) and the 4 case is nowhere near as nice. Also, I find the antenna issue to still be annoying.
I miss my 3GS.
My wife is looking at getting a new iPhone, so I was keeping an eye on the new phone. (Her 3G is locking up and generally crapping out after three years of use, and I’m looking to leave AT&T, so it’s win-win.)
I’m surprised they’re calling it a 4S rather than a 5, but that’s marketing for you. The processor gets a huge upgrade, making it competitive with the current top-of-the-line Android processors (note: not better or even tied with the best, but competitive). Camera gets a major upgrade, but in pixels and ISO. The OS gets a major upgrade, including the personal assistant. It appears that the PA will only work on the 4S and not the 4, which is disappointing to anybody not looking to get the top of the line model. This seems to be a much bigger upgrade than the 3G to 3Gs. The only reason to keep the old number seems to be the form factor.
I don’t see anything that’s going to draw me back to iOS from Android, but Apple raised the bar. Maybe (just maybe) NFC would have tipped the scales, but I think my next phone will end up being a Galaxy S II on Sprint (I’m pissed off at AT&T, so the NFC on their version isn’t an option). My wife will want the iPhone 4S. My father (also on my family plan) only wants something that can do what his current phone can. I had to explain that his hand-me-down iPhone did practically anything a phone can do.
Oops, I forgot the “S”. My 3GS is still a nice phone. I’m waffling. I also like the stablization feature on the new one. that’s a pretty cool feature for us shaky oldsters.
I’m waiting till next time and see what they come up with. They still need to ease Steve out, I think.
I don’t think people are spending much time on the front-facing camera, but I believe the iPhone 4S will have a front-facing camera. The iPhone 4 does already, and it’s hard to imagine that back sliding. I don’t think Apple intends to do away with Face Time.