I've been using the iPhone 4S heavily for about 24 hours now. After finally getting the phone activated on AT&T yesterday afternoon, I've had a chance to use the device pretty extensively.
The iPhone 4S has three main selling points: a faster processor, better camera, and Siri. Here are my initial thoughts and impressions of Apple's newest smartphone...
We've all spent a day or two with our iPhone 4S handsets, and we've been merrily chatting away with Siri, our new best friend. During those chats we've discovered one or two useful little tips that you may not be aware of that can make everyone's use or Siri a little more fun.
Siri, for those who've been hiding in a cupboard or shipwrecked on a desert island, is Apple's latest innovation to come to the iPhone. The idea is to give users their very own digital assistant, which really boils down to voice-activated commands. It is, of course, a little more interesting than that, and the way users can talk to their iPhones in real-world language is, at times, a sight to behold.
Let's get onto the tips...
You know it was coming, so let's not beat around the bush any longer.
Is this ridiculous? Yes. Is this completely stupid? Absolutely. Is this a waste of money? Totally. Will it blend? You already know the answer...
Twelve hours and countless reboots and resets later, I'm glad to announce that Siri is finally working again for me. Since last night, all Siri was able to tell me was "Sorry, I'm having trouble connecting to the network," or "Sorry, I'm not able to connect to the network right now." Quite disappointing for a $400 piece of hardware.
At first, I thought it was a server issue, which I hoped would be fixed by the time I got up today. But when I realized that other users were able to access Siri just fine, it was clear that the problem came from my device. Here is what I did to fix it...
Remember the iPhone 4 antennagate debacle? For those of you who don't, when Apple released the GSM iPhone 4 last year, users began to notice that when the handset was held with the left hand, connecting the two antennas, cell reception dropped significantly (this was dubbed the "death grip"), often resulting in complete signal loss.
Although Apple tried to fix the antenna problem with a software update, the update did not completely rid the iPhone 4 of the issue. Apple then decided to give out free bumper cases, which seemed to prevent the antenna problem from occurring.
Last week, Apple announced the new iPhone 4S, in addition to an improved 8MP camera, Siri, and new A5 processor, included a redesigned antenna...
The iPhone 4S officially went on sale in the US yesterday, and unsurprisingly, it has provided record-setting sales for at least two of the three major U.S carriers that offer the device.
AT&T on Friday confirmed to BGR in an email that it has activated a record number of iPhones and is on track to double its previous record of activations in a single day.
Sprint, which didn’t start carrying the iPhone until this month, reported its best ever day of sales in retail, web, and telesales for a device family in Sprint history, thanks to the launch of the new iPhone 4S and iPhone 4...
Well that didn't take long. Hot on the heels of iH8sn0w's announcement earlier today that Siri wasn't restricted to the A5 processor, we now have concrete evidence that the feature has been successfully ported to the iPhone 4.
Apple's popular personal assistant debuted on the iPhone 4S exclusively last week, and everyone has been raving about its potential. Now it appears that iPhone 4S owners won't be the only ones getting in on the fun...
Which is faster? Well, obviously the iPhone 4S is faster, but you might be surprised at just how much faster.
In certain areas, namely gaming, the iPhone 4S blows the iPhone 4 out of the water. In other areas, the differences are surprisingly less discernable.
We've pitted the former heavyweight champ against the newcomer, and we've documented the results on video. Who wins? Watch and see...
With over a million iPhone 4S units pre-ordered and countless more sold through retail stores today, it's no wonder that carriers' activation systems are crippled. If you've been having problems activating your new iPhone, you're not alone.
We've actually been having quite a few issues ourselves today, and have been searching for workarounds to get our new handsets active. After a lot of digging, I've come up with two pretty good alternatives to the typical activation methods...
Why Apple has limited its new Siri personal assistant feature to the iPhone 4S is anyone's guess. At first it was believed that a lot of the backend of Siri took place on the handset, so it needed the A5's extra power. But that didn't prove to be the case.
It was also thought that the service required 1GB of RAM. But it was later revealed that Apple's new smartphone only contains 512MB, so that can't be it, either. So then why in the world is Siri limited to the iPhone 4S? Well, maybe it's not...
If you're one of the millions of people that pre-ordered an iPhone 4S, or were able to snag one from a retail store, chances are you've been busy today. You've moved your contacts over, synced it with iTunes, and customized its settings to your liking.
Well the folks over at iFixYouri have a different ritual they go through after receiving a new handset. They've pulled out the mini-screwdriver, and have completely disassembled Apple's new smartphone. Find out how easy it is in this surprisingly short video clip...
AT&T has not one, but two worthy competitors ready to battle it out for iPhone 4S supremacy, and this time the playing field is far more level than it's ever been.
No longer is Verizon relegated to playing catchup, and did you hear? There's a new kid in town named Sprint.
How does the iPhone 4S match up on America's three biggest mobile providers in terms of sheer network speed? We'd thought you'd never ask. Tune in as we go head to head...to head.
Yep, we've got three iPhone 4S', running on three different networks, exposed on video...