iPhone 4S hands-on!
It’s not an iPhone mini or anything, but it’s the first iPhone with Siri. And that has to count for something, right? Right? While it’s no iPhone 5 (not even close, really), the iPhone 4S is far from being “last year’s iPhone,” and the greatly enhanced camera, bolstered A5 dual-core processor and inbuilt voice command should provide plenty of reason for folks to upgrade if they’re near the end of their contract. Furthermore, having the option on Sprint — despite Apple almost announcing it as an afterthought — is bound to make folks already entrenched on the Now Network think twice about what their next phone will be come upgrade time.
We were able to spend a few quality moments with the refreshed iPhone 4 here at Apple’s campus, the Sprint flavor no less, and as you might expect… it’s an iPhone 4. But S-ier. Much in the same way that the 3GS improved the overall experience of the 3G, the 4S does likewise compared to the existing 4. The dual-core A5 chip is a laudatory improvement, and whisking about pages, loading the camera application and launching — well, just about everything — just feels zippier. As it should. The other major change, the antennas, weren’t readily different at a glance, but as Mr. Cook stated, you’d have to be iFixit to notice (and we’re sure they will).
The most impressive part was the demo of Siri, the new assistant that lets you do just about anything you can do on your phone — but with your voice. We tried to psych it out with a bunch of random requests, including the history of Chester, Vermont (a lovely town) and the best Ramen places in San Francisco. Siri never faltered, never missed a beat. It worked as well as Scott’s demo up on the stage. There’s nothing better to say than that. We even sent ourselves a few text messages, which Siri transcribed to a T. Of course, the lady on the other end still sounds eerily robotic, but we’re hoping for smoother responses from the alien within in a future update.
The 8 megapixel sensor doesn’t look any different from the outside, but we’re trusting that Apple’s re-engineered the interior. We snapped a few photos in the demo room to test and not a one came out as great as the retina-bursting contrasty pictures of balloons and flowers we saw in the demo, but then again, we didn’t have any balloons or flowers to capture.
As for weight and feel? Just like the old king. We’ll be updating this post with our impressions live from Cupertino, and are working to get you some better pictures to look at. Hang tight — they’re coming!
iOS 5 beta 3 already jailbroken, new features come to light
Who needs sleep, right? Rather than putting in the tried-and-true “eight hours” that your mum still insists that you get, you’re going to be doing something a bit more adventurous this evening. Something involving a “jailbreak” of your recently updated iPod touch, iPhone or iPad. Just hours after Apple pushed out iOS 5 beta 3 to its developers, the folks at iPhone Dev-Team have confirmed that a Sn0wbreeze update will support jailbreaking on that very build. Sadly, it’s still tethered for the time being, and the iPad 2 remains unsupported, but those with nerves of steel (and gobs of vacation days) can hit the source links to get started. Furthermore, we’re just starting to see what kind of wacky tricks beta 3 has up its sleeve — things like custom alerts for text messages and what appears to be a shattering of the app grid on the iPad. For more on that, hop on past the break; for more on the jailbreak, we’d encourage you to talk amongst yourselves in comments below.
via iOS 5 beta 3 already jailbroken, new features come to light — Engadget.
Apple starts selling unlocked iPhone 4 for $649
Not that it’ll do you much good in the US — an unlocked iPhone 4 will still only work on AT&T’s 3G bands — but Apple has just started selling its prized smartphone without any carrier partiality on its US online store. The big attraction is, of course, being able to take the phone abroad and switch MicroSIMs to your heart’s content, an experience that most other nations are already well accustomed to. Additionally, though the $649 (16GB) and $749 (32GB) levies may seem rather steep for American buyers, they’re quite a bit more affordable than the unlocked pricing elsewhere. You can have yours within three business days if black’s your color, or three to five if you’re after the snow white one.
via Engadget.
Apple iOS 5 hands-on preview
iOS 5 won’t be ready for the masses until this Fall, but lucky developers — and eager tech bloggers — are able to get in on the action right now. We just got done downloading the 730MB BETA, and have decided to turn our iPhone 4 and iPad 2 into guinea pigs for all the newness. Apple says that there are over 200 new features baked into the updated OS, and we’ve run through the biggies from Notification Center to Twitter to that oh-so-convenient split keyboard for you — all you need to do is click after the br
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