iPhone 4S: everything you need to know
After months of building anticipation, Apple's released the iPhone 4S, which packs a new dual-core A5 processor, a much better 8 megapixel camera, and Siri voice control into a case virtually identical to the iPhone 4.
Apple
Virgin Mobile to offer prepaid iPhone in US on Sprint's network
The Wall Street Journal reports today that Virgin Mobile (owned by Sprint) will become the second carrier to offer the iPhone in the US on a prepaid plan. Cricket became the first to do so when it announced that it would start selling the iPhone 4S and 4 off-contract, beginning on June 22nd. Apple and Virgin have yet to confirm the news, but the WSJ says that the iPhone will be available on the carrier "as soon as" July 1st, citing "people familiar with the company's plans."
It's not yet...
Apple
In a triumph of marketing, AT&T upgrades Apple's iPhone to '4G'
As he was introducing the iPhone 4S last October, Phil Schiller took care to note that while the device had dramatically improved cellular data speeds, Apple wasn't yet calling it a "4G" device. "This is what the majority of our competitors claim when they talk about 4G performance," he said, comparing the iPhone's data speeds to a number of AT&T smartphones listed as "4G" despite their lack of next-generation LTE radios. "We're not going to get into a debate in the industry about what's 4G...
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iPhone 4S to launch in India on November 25th
Indian phone network Aircel announced that it will be carrying the iPhone 4S as of November 25th. Its competitor, Airtel, has also said that it will be launching the phone soon, but has not provided a date as of yet. Pricing hasn't been confirmed either, but based on the iPhone 4, it's expected to be between 35,000 and 40,000 Rupees (about $690 - $790) on contract.
Apple promised to make this the fastest iPhone rollout so far, which explains why Indian customers only have to put up with a six...
Mobile
Unlocked iPhone 4S now available in the US
The Apple Store has now added the online option to purchase an iPhone 4S unlocked and off-contract, fulfilling Apple's launch promise of November. The non-carrier version of the phone costs $649 to $849 depending on storage capacity, and will only work on GSM networks, leaving Sprint and Verizon users out of luck. Much of the rest of the world obtained the unlocked version of this phone in late October, but this marks its first official availability in the USA.
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iPhone 4S launches in Hong Kong, South Korea, and Eastern Europe on November 11th
Apple has just revealed the launch day for its Siri-assisted iPhone 4S in 15 new markets, including Hong Kong and South Korea, two of the most smartphone-crazed locales. Friday, November 11th, is the long-awaited day they'll be able to get to grips with the latest iOS flagship phone, and they'll be joined by buyers in Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, El Salvador, Greece, Guatemala, Malta, Montenegro, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Portugal, and Romania. Most of these new countries will open...
Apple
iPhone 4 and 4S users reporting dramatically decreased battery life
2010 brought us antennagate. Will late 2011 be the season of batterygate? Apple acknowledges that standby battery life for the iPhone 4S trails the iPhone 4, but there may be a bigger issue at hand — Apple's support forums are filling up with posts from angry iPhone 4S owners with devices that can't make it through a day, even with battery-draining features like Bluetooth and location services disabled.
Speculation on the cause is running rampant; some people blame a location-based...
iPhone 4S now available unlocked around the world
Apple's latest iteration of the iPhone has just started its second wave of international availability. However, unlike the US, these new releases are being sold SIM-free. This means that customers in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland can now buy their new handset direct from Apple without being tied to a...
iPhone 4S gives easy access to Siri on password-protected devices
In Apple's zeal to make Siri available all the time, the company set a default behavior you may not expect: Siri's active even when your password-protected phone is locked. Without needing to enter any password, anyone that has access to your iPhone 4S can use the service to text, email, or pull up contact information. Happily, there's an easy fix: go to Settings > General > Passcode Lock, and turn the Siri slider off. Yes, it'll make using Siri a little less convenient, but your data will be...
Mobile
iPhone 4S pre-orders now live in 22 more countries
Fresh from an opening weekend where the iPhone 4S topped 4 million sales, Apple is now setting its sights on 22 more countries, including Austria, Spain, Mexico, and Denmark. While Cupertino's latest will be available to them on October 28th, the online stores for those countries are now giving the option to pre-order the device. One thing to note is that the delivery date for the device is estimated to be one to two weeks, meaning that those who pre-order will likely not get their phones...
iPhone 4S coming to regional carrier C Spire
Sprint isn't the only new addition to Apple's stable of US carriers — Cupertino is continuing its push to get the iPhone downmarket by bringing it to C Spire Wireless, a Mississippi-based regional network (formerly known as Cellular South) with under a million subscribers. An iPhone 4S "Coming Soon" graphic now dominates C Spire's home page, and clicking through lets you sign up to be notified when more details are available — though no date is offered just yet. It's possible that this...
Apple
iPhone 4S sells 4 million over launch weekend
It's been only hours since the iPhone 4S' launch weekend ended, and Apple's wasting no time in announcing sales records. According to a press release, the company's newest flagship smartphone has sold 4 million units worldwide in its first three days of availability. Just to give some perspective, Apple's iPhone 4 sold 1.7 million in its first weekend last year, and the iPhone 3GS just 1 million over launch a year prior.
Apple isn't breaking down the figure by country or carrier, so for...
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iPhone 4S disassembled, 512MB of RAM confirmed
Every day when we wake up we tell ourselves "this will be the last day I'll care about totally meaningless teardowns for new gadgets," but every day we're lying. iFixit has mercilessly torn into a new iPhone 4S and we're predictably all ears. Inside they found a slightly larger battery (which isn't compatible with the iPhone 4) and of course the A5 chip and that new global-roaming-friendly Qualcomm baseband. iFixit also confirms that the phone only has 512MB of RAM, and assumes the reason...
Apple
Siri says some weird things
Look, I'm not going to go into great detail about what I've been doing with Siri during my testing period, but I will tell you this - Siri says some crazy stuff.
Hit the gallery below for a look at a number of bizarre items the AI-powered / voice-recognizing "intelligent assistant" lays on you on the new iPhone 4S.
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iPhone 4S review
Reviewing the iPhone 4S is in many ways a lot like reviewing the original iPhone 4, except that it's not. The device, which was just announced at a special event on Apple's campus, is very much the same phone the company released in June of 2010 — but it's also something completely new.
While much of that sameness comes from an identical physical appearance, and nearly identical specs (in some places), there's much that's fresh here. Besides packing the successor to Apple's custom A4 CPU...
Sprint sells out of 16GB iPhone 4S on first day of pre-orders
Sprint has sold-out of pre-orders for the 16GB version of the iPhone 4S. As its website notes, however, Sprint will still have stock in stores for launch day on October 14th.
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AT&T racks up 200,000 iPhone 4S preorders in first 12 hours
Calling it "the most successful iPhone launch we've ever had," AT&T has announced that it has taken in over 200,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 4S in the first twelve hours it was available. We'd seen plenty of reports of early-morning trouble with pre-orders as well while both Apple and AT&T ramped up their e-commerce sites for the new iPhone, which makes the number all the more impressive.
There's no word yet on whether or not stock is limited at this point, so you should still be safe to get...
Mobile
AT&T 'working with Apple' to show 4G indicator in iPhone4S status bar (update: confirmed)
AT&T and T-Mobile have led the charge over the past year to brand their upgraded HSPA+ networks as "4G," even though such networks historically don't fall into the "4G" definition -- and considering that AT&T is in the process of rolling out LTE concurrently, it can be a confusing message for customers to hear. That said, there's no sign of AT&T's network branding effort slowing down, but here's a bit of a shocker: the carrier is apparently "working with Apple" to change the indicator in the i...
Apple
iPhone 4S pre-order starts on October 7th at 12:01AM PT/3:01AM ET
Apple just released pre-order details for its brand new iPhone 4S, and you'll be able to sign up this Friday, October 7th on Apple.com at 12:01AM PT / 3:01AM ET. Users in the US, France, Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan and the UK will get online purchasing access on Friday, and the 4S will roll out to 22 additional countries by the end of October. If you can't wait for delivery, the 4S will be in stores at 8AM on the 14th. With a two-year contract on AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, the 16GB 4S...
Apple
Verizon announces iPhone 4S for October 14, pre-orders October 7
Sure, we knew it was coming, but that doesn't make it any less exciting. Verizon has announced that the iPhone 4S is hitting shelves on October 14, with pre-orders beginning this Friday (October 7th) at 3:01 AM EDT. Pricing starts at $199.99 for the 16 GB model, $299.99 for the 32 GB model, and $399.99 for the 64 GB model on contract. If you're looking for a deal, you'l be able to snatch up the first iPhone 4 for $99.99.
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Apple iPhone 4S gets FCC approval
Apple is particularly talented at making sure that FCC filings for new products don't hit the government's database until the day of announcement, and the company has pulled the feat off once again with the iPhone 4S. As expected, a single filing encompasses radiation reports for both GSM and CDMA (in addition to Bluetooth and Wi-Fi), a testament to the fact that the 4S is being offered in a single set of SKUs capable of working on both types of networks around the world. For Sprint, Verizon,...
iPhone 4S hands-on impressions
We just got finished with the Apple live event and I had some brief hands-on time with the new iPhone 4S, so I thought I would share my thoughts. This isn't a review or really even a preview, because there wasn't much time to really get a good impression of the phone as a whole. However, I did get a chance to use the new Siri features, as well as get a feel for the performance of the phone — read on below to hear my thoughts.
Hardware
There's nothing really notable, physically, about the...
Apple
iPhone 4S announced, available October 14th starting at $199
Apple has just officially unveiled the new iPhone 4S at its "Let's Talk iPhone" event in Cupertino today, capping a longer-than-usual product cycle with a relatively mild refresh of the original iPhone 4. As expected, we're getting a dual-core Apple A5 processor that's up to twice as fast and graphics that are seven times faster - same as the iPad - and the camera is up to 8 megapixels with a faster sensor, f/2.4 aperture, 1080p video capture with image stabilization and noise reduction, and...
iPhone 4S confirmed by Apple Japan with October 14 release date, images appear on Apple Store servers
Well, there's going to be something called the iPhone 4S announced today -- it was just mentioned being available on October 14 on Apple's Ginza, Japan retail store page, and two images labeled "iPhone 4S" have appeared on the Apple Store servers. The images are fairly interesting -- they show what looks just like an iPhone 4 running iOS 5, but the antenna design is the same as the CDMA version and the ambient light sensor is faintly visible on the black model -- it's been invisible on...
