October marked one of Apple’s traditionally more significant media events, where they release all their traditionally iPod-centric news for the next year. As the iPod has been declining in popularity due to the prevalence of media player functions in newer smartphones, the event mostly centered around iOS 5 and Apple’s new iPhone, the iPhone 4S.
The iPhone 4S looks almost exactly like the iPhone 4 it succeeds, but features primarily internal upgrades. It has the Apple A5 processor of the iPad 2, enabling it to process graphics about 7x faster and other computing processes about 2x faster than the iPhone 4. It manages to keep the battery life about the same as the iPhone 4, but talk time on 3G has been boosted to 8 hours.
Data speeds have been improved incredibly, as Apple has designed the phone to switch between two antennas to transmit and receive data. This allows for a theoretical maximum download speed of 14.4 Mbps, which is the same level as many phones currently branded as 4G. The phone combines CDMA and GSM capability, which is an improvement over the old iPhone’s independent CDMA and GSM models. Phones that are purchased unlocked, however, must be used on a GSM network. This doesn’t mean much in Canada, where all three major carriers run GSM networks, but in the US, the carriers are fairly split between GSM and CDMA.
The camera has seen some major upgrades as well. The resolution of photos is now 8 megapixels, and to make up for the higher density of the photo sensors, Apple claims the backside illumination on the iPhone 4S can gather 73% more light than the iPhone 4. It also claims photo capture speeds 33% greater, with photos taking 1.1 seconds on average for the first photo and 0.5 seconds for all subsequent ones. The video recording quality has been upgraded to 1080p, allowing for full HD video, and comes with built-in image stabilization and noise reduction.
Internal upgrades arguably pale in comparison to what could be the iPhone 4S’s most intriguing feature, Siri. Siri is a self-described “humble personal assistant” who is aimed to be an improvement on the more rudimentary voice commands found on other phones. Instead of asking it “Call First Name Last Name”, you can speak to it in plain English, such as “Siri, can you call my manager?” or “Book an appointment at 6:30 on Monday to meet with Jacob” and Siri will reply conversationally. Siri replaces the Voice Control commands on the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, which could be activated by holding down the home button for a few seconds. Siri works across iOS, so can be used in all applications. While the commands will lead primarily to Apple’s built-in applications, you can use Siri to dictate into any text field in any application. Siri also connects to Wolfram|Alpha, Yelp, and Wikipedia to answer questions.
Even though the iPhone 4S dominated much of the presentation, the iPod line is still alive and somewhat kicking. The Nano got a new update, primarily presentationally, to fix issues people had with using multitouch on the small screen. The Touch received updates primarily through iOS 5, with Apple pushing its ability to send iMessages and use iCloud, as well as how it now comes in white.
The iPhone 4S was released October 14, and iCloud, iOS 5 and the new iPods were released October 12. I had a chance to play around with iOS 5 and iCloud, and have a pretty positive opinion of each so far. iOS 5 may borrow a couple things from other operating systems, but it does happen the other way more than most would be willing to admit, and there are changes that are arguably much needed, particularly with concern to notifications. iCloud is good in the sense that you don’t notice it working, since almost everything in iCloud is built to work as far into the background as possible.
While I didn’t get a chance to try out the iPhone 4S, initial reviews seem positive so far, but if you read the news about the phone’s release on the day of the announcement, you would have thought Apple was going off the deep end and releasing something so awfully unimaginative that they would be sent to bankruptcy. Stock prices went down and the media flooded the tech world with words like “disappointing” and “failure”, but once the phone was actually released, stock prices rocketed back up and the media was praising the benefits of Siri. Why is there such a swing, and why was everyone so disappointed in the first place? Because of the iPhone 5.
No, there wasn’t an iPhone 5 released this month, but rumour sites were plastered with rumours about this 4G phone with an Android-like large screen, a tapered design with an aluminum backing, a widened home screen and internals made from a bezoar, five snake fangs and a dash of unicorn horn; all naturally backed up by case designs from China and leaked factory photos from Taiwan. When Apple didn’t release this magical phone that the rumours sites built up suspense for, no wonder everyone was disappointed.
The situation is quite similar to the iPad’s release, except that one was built up even higher. When it turned out to be a larger iPod touch with an emphasis on larger applications, everyone deemed it a failure and expected it to go the way of the Newton. Instead, it’s perhaps the most successful tablet in the last decade and seems to be getting more and more popular as more iterations are released. Based on Apple’s record-breaking 1 million preorders for the iPhone 4S, and American carriers AT&T and Sprint claiming record activations for the device, I have a hunch that the iPhone 4S won’t be doing too badly either. Naturally, the iPhone 5 rumours have popped up again already, so it seems next year’s product announcement hype machine is already starting.
The media doesn’t just overhype Apple news, or even just tech news, but in the technology world, it’s surprising how people fall for the same tripe every time websites blow things out of proportion, then when a company announces their real plans, people get disappointed. I know someone who thought that Apple had actually promised an iPhone 5 would come out months ago and was now pulling back on that promise, because the rumour coverage has been that consistent and in-your-face.
RIM seem to suffer from this as well. People have built up expectations of what RIM should announce, and when they don’t, there’s a level of disappointment among observers and investors. It probably hasn’t helped their fragile situation that in the week that their BlackBerry Messenger service went down, Apple pushed out their iMessages service alongside many other competitive product releases.
Next time you read about a device being announced, a rumour about a famous figure or any other unconfirmed information, take it lightly and assume it’s untrue until proven correct. If it’s a new product you’re excited for, you won’t be as disappointed when it doesn’t turn out to run on fairy dust and rainbows. If it’s about a public figure or government overseas, then untrue and unnecessary judgement or bias against said figures will be passed as people won’t buy into the hearsay spread around by the so-called news outlets looking for extra hits on their websites. Maybe then we can truly appreciate what is in front of us and not what we are told to expect.
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