Live Coverage of Apple's 'Let's Talk iPhone' Event

[grovertdog]

And regardless of what your context refers to, this is most definitely a mild update. Everything that was updated was the minimum that Apple could have done. While the 4S is definitely a solid update, it's not ground-breaking, and it's not a significant update.

Interesting debating style you have. Firstly, you misunderstand my post, then you make false arguments to positions I've never even made. Please show me exactly where I termed the 4S "ground-breaking"? As to your other assertion, let's just agree to disagree, as the 4S will be the ONLY platform on the planet that takes full advantage of the best mobile OS there is- and in that perspective, it IS a rather significant update, as millions of 3GS owners will demonstrate agreements with their wallets.

As far as image quality goes, I've seen plenty of smartphones that perform rather well. I don't know what the pool of phones you look at, but just going through various samples on sites such as GSM Arena, the iPhone 4 isn't astronomically superior or anything.

I don't even know what "astronomically" means, but I'll say my friends SG2 has a cam with more optical distortion but sometimes slightly better image quality but FAR worse 720p video quality, than my wife's year old iPhone4, and this new "insignificant" 4S has definitively superior optics, processing and sensor design than does the 4.

Optical zooms aren't necessarily difficult to implement, but it can't be done in an ultraslim phone..

Yes... That was my point...

 

[CWT1965]

Siri is just a gimmick though, sure it will be fun for a couple of days, sure it will be good to have drunk conversations with it when you get home from the pub, sure it will probably have a use inside the home or in the car but at least in the UK if you go around talking to your phone in public people automatically think there is something wrong with you mentally, I just don't see many people overcoming that barrier and walking down the street talking to Siri, the novelty of Siri will quickly wear off. Not to mention the fact people will start getting pissed off when you tell Siri to call someone and it calls someone else or you ask it to "Siri text the wife to say I love her" and it texts someone completely different.

 

[grovertdog]

Siri is just a gimmick ...if you go around talking to your phone in public people automatically think there is something wrong with you mentally, I just don't see many people overcoming that barrier and walking down the street talking to Siri, the novelty of Siri will quickly wear off.

Excellent point, I would have NEVER thought of that. Who in the world TALKS into a phone?

 

[Whaditis]

1 minute of silence for the death of apple

Make it 2.

----------

The 16GB iPhone 4 is only $99 on a 3 year contract in Canada. So they are downgrading it to an 8GB iPhone 4 for the same $99!!!

Better go get one today if you are thinking about buying an iP4

Yep, picked one up with Bell a few days ago. Looks like what theyre offering after that is a downgrade. What a way to get appled.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Excellent point, I would have NEVER thought of that. Who in the world TALKS into a phone?

In a few weeks, everywhere you go people will be talking to their new iPhones. Won't it be magical?

 

[burtba]

In a few weeks, everywhere you go people will be talking to their new iPhones. Won't it be magical?

or Talking to their new Galaxy........

 

[burtba]

I'll be honest, I was expecting some rather big announcements today but there was more new features and services unveiled than I had expected, which of course is a good thing.

For example, I certainly wasn't expecting to hear about Siri, in all honesty I hadn't even heard of that technology until today. There were a lot of cool updates and announcements at today's keynote but Siri, at least in my opinion, was by far the most advanced and impressive of them all. I know it's still in BETA but I'm in awe at the capabilities it has. It's scary intelligent almost.

How do you guys think Tim Cook did overall? It was odd not seeing Steve Jobs there, but I think the new CEO did a great job nonetheless.

One thing I was disappointed about was that there is no LTE option for iPhone 4S, and this isn't so much a disappointment but I was expecting to hear about the iPhone 5, but iPhone 4S is still nothing to frown upon I suppose.

Lots of peeps & investors were expecting bigger.
You havent heard of Siri?? Been a reasonable amount of talk on it. Great application, but really after all this time and still in Beta?? wtf?? AND it only works on one iPhone, the 4S. Great app, but very lame release(4S only & beta)
Tim Cook has apparently received a LOT of hate mail today. Not very good really considering none of this was his incarnation. Never the less he IS the new CEO and regardless was always going to take the wrap.
Considering the disappointment from several reports, its really no surprise Steve Jobs didnt make an appearance. I wouldnt have wanted to either.

 

[CWT1965]

Lots of peeps & investors were expecting bigger.
You havent heard of Siri?? Been a reasonable amount of talk on it. Great application, but really after all this time and still in Beta?? wtf?? AND it only works on one iPhone, the 4S. Great app, but very lame release(4S only & beta)
Tim Cook has apparently received a LOT of hate mail today. Not very good really considering none of this was his incarnation. Never the less he IS the new CEO and regardless was always going to take the wrap.
Considering the disappointment from several reports, its really no surprise Steve Jobs didnt make an appearance. I wouldnt have wanted to either.

Yeah I don't think the fact Steve never bothered showing up is necessarily a sign that he is in bed dying I think it is a case more that he wanted to let Cook carry the can for the *****torm that he knew was going to erupt from the 4S, Steve's reputation is still intact, even Phil Schiller looked bored last night in the keynote.

I don't think it is a bad phone it is still better than a Galaxy or Nexus but it is a lazy effort from Apple, they have just put a few iPad 2 internals in, bought out a couple of novelty apps and a slightly better camera and put it on sale, no great innovation.

A lighter, thinnner iPhone 4S with a bigger screen I would have queued outside my o2 shop for hours for but not this lazy effort.

 

[rocknblogger]

Siri not coming yet

I hope you guys realize that Siri is still BETA and will not be included in the first version of iOS 5 and the 4S. The the one thing they neglected to mention is the expected release date. It's possible that it may be area months before we see it.

And to all you skeptics, unless you've used a full version of Dragon which has Siri technology you can't appreciate how good it is. I've been using Dragon for a couple of years and it's absolutely amazing. And as good as it is, it looks like Apple has improved upon it and even incorporated artificial intelligence.

Yeah I was a bit disappointed that no bigger screen, but you will look back on this day as the start of a new era. Siri has application potential that you haven't even thought of yet. This isn't the voice recognition that's built into android. This is a completely different beast.

 

[CWT1965]

I hope you guys realize that Siri is still BETA and will not be included in the first version of iOS 5 and the 4S. The the one thing they neglected to mention is the expected release date. It's possible that it may be area months before we see it.

And to all you skeptics, unless you've used a full version of Dragon which has Siri technology you can't appreciate how good it is. I've been using Dragon for a couple of years and it's absolutely amazing. And as good as it is, it looks like Apple has improved upon it and even incorporated artificial intelligence.

Yeah I was a bit disappointed that no bigger screen, but you will look back on this day as the start of a new era. Siri has application potential that you haven't even thought of yet. This isn't the voice recognition that's built into android. This is a completely different beast.

But how is the typical buyer of an iPhone going to see it as anything more than a gimmick to have a laugh at after a few beers ?

If I wanted Neil Armstrong's wiki profile all I have to do is go to the wiki app and I have it in 10 secs how is it going to change my life ? if I want to know the pizza places in my area again I could find them in 10 secs without the need for Siri, sure I see a market as a novelty app and kids getting it to come up with rude sexual things for a laugh but I fail to see how Siri is a life changing experience.

It does nothing that fingers can't do in a few seconds, a novelty gimmick thats all.

 

[kevinof]

its not really how good or bad Siri is - it's will the average user actually use it. It can have all the bells and whistles you like and work very well but how many people will actually use voice commands in real life?

I've had vlingo and google voice commands (?) on my android for the last year or two and they are both very very good. However the ONLY time I ever use them is in the car when driving (ie handsfree - navigate to ... or send text to ...). They work great but I only use them about 5% of the time. Don't think I'd sit in a cafe or on a train yelling instructions into my phone

Don't see Siri as a compelling reason to buy or upgrade a phone.

I hope you guys realize that Siri is still BETA and will not be included in the first version of iOS 5 and the 4S. The the one thing they neglected to mention is the expected release date. It's possible that it may be area months before we see it.

And to all you skeptics, unless you've used a full version of Dragon which has Siri technology you can't appreciate how good it is. I've been using Dragon for a couple of years and it's absolutely amazing. And as good as it is, it looks like Apple has improved upon it and even incorporated artificial intelligence.

Yeah I was a bit disappointed that no bigger screen, but you will look back on this day as the start of a new era. Siri has application potential that you haven't even thought of yet. This isn't the voice recognition that's built into android. This is a completely different beast.

 

[rocknblogger]

You should probably shop for 32GB Micro SDHC cards with decent speed, pretty close to the same price. And, of course, there are no 64GB Micros, yet.

Actually there are 64GB micro sdhc cards but their not cheap.

 

[CWT1965]

its not really how good or bad Siri is - it's will the average user actually use it. It can have all the bells and whistles you like and work very well but how many people will actually use voice commands in real life?

I've had vlingo and google voice commands (?) on my android for the last year or two and they are both very very good. However the ONLY time I ever use them is in the car when driving (ie handsfree - navigate to ... or send text to ...). They work great but I only use them about 5% of the time. Don't think I'd sit in a cafe or on a train yelling instructions into my phone

Don't see Siri as a compelling reason to buy or upgrade a phone.

Plus to use Siri you have to keep the homescreen button pressed down so it is not like it is going to be a total hands free experience while driving.

 

[rocknblogger]

But how is the typical buyer of an iPhone going to see it as anything more than a gimmick to have a laugh at after a few beers ?

If I wanted Neil Armstrong's wiki profile all I have to do is go to the wiki app and I have it in 10 secs how is it going to change my life ? if I want to know the pizza places in my area again I could find them in 10 secs without the need for Siri, sure I see a market as a novelty app and kids getting it to come up with rude sexual things for a laugh but I fail to see how Siri is a life changing experience.

It does nothing that fingers can't do in a few seconds, a novelty gimmick thats all.

its not really how good or bad Siri is - it's will the average user actually use it. It can have all the bells and whistles you like and work very well but how many people will actually use voice commands in real life?

I've had vlingo and google voice commands (?) on my android for the last year or two and they are both very very good. However the ONLY time I ever use them is in the car when driving (ie handsfree - navigate to ... or send text to ...). They work great but I only use them about 5% of the time. Don't think I'd sit in a cafe or on a train yelling instructions into my phone

Don't see Siri as a compelling reason to buy or upgrade a phone.

You both missed my point. I didn't mean that Siri should be enough of a compelling reason to buy the 4S. You wouldn't get it yet anyway. My point is that it is going to change how people use their phones. You're looking at it from a very narrow and short term perspective. It also wasn't meant to be used on a train platform or in a restaurant. Today's demo was just an introduction and in the future there will be applications for it that you haven't thought of yet. It could (will be) a multitasking juggernaut once it matures. The reason people haven't adopted voice recognition much is because it's been unreliable. Siri will change all that but not overnight. My point is that one day you will look back on this day and realize how important it really was. And lastly it's not a gimmick. I've used Dragon for two years and it's amazing. I can do almost anything with my PC without touching my keyboard or mouse. It's that good. I occasionally do google searches from my couch while watching TV to start researching something I had just seen on TV. I routinely shut my computer off using voice. When I dictate letters it very rarely makes mistakes.

And Siri will be better. I hope the technology trickles down to Dragon.

 

[chatin]

Already done the S thing.

iPhone 5 was needed for the new team to get out of Steve's shadow. A product lineup like iPhone 3,4 and 5 would keep Android deep in the bargain bin.

 

[CWT1965]

You both missed my point. I didn't mean that Siri should be enough of a compelling reason to buy the 4S. You wouldn't get it yet anyway. My point is that it is going to change how people use their phones. You're looking at it from a very narrow and short term perspective. It also wasn't meant to be used on a train platform or in a restaurant. Today's demo was just an introduction and in the future there will be applications for it that you haven't thought of yet. It could (will be) a multitasking juggernaut once it matures. The reason people haven't adopted voice recognition much is because it's been unreliable. Siri will change all that but not overnight. My point is that one day you will look back on this day and realize how important it really was. And lastly it's not a gimmick. I've used Dragon for two years and it's amazing. I can do almost anything with my PC without touching my keyboard or mouse. It's that good. I occasionally do google searches from my couch while watching TV to start researching something I had just seen on TV. I routinely shut my computer off using voice. When I dictate letters it very rarely makes mistakes.

And Siri will be better. I hope the technology trickles down to Dragon.

As standard iPhone contracts are 2 years in the UK I have a choice of getting this one, buying out rest of my iPhone 4 contract and taking out a new 2 year one or waiting till next year and getting the iPhone 6 and there is just not enough compelling reasons for me to upgrade now as opposed to wait a year for the 6 which will have to have a radical redesign if Apple are to compete.

Siri will probably be in the iPad 3 which i will be getting too so I can test it out then

 

[chen23]

I hope you guys realize that Siri is still BETA and will not be included in the first version of iOS 5 and the 4S. The the one thing they neglected to mention is the expected release date. It's possible that it may be area months before we see it.

are you absolutely sure about that?

If that's the case the apple site is being very misleading in the way in which it's advertising the 4s; from there it totally looks like the new phone comes fully loaded with Siri

 

[rocknblogger]

are you absolutely sure about that?

If that's the case the apple site is being very misleading in the way in which it's advertising the 4s; from there it totally looks like the new phone comes fully loaded with Siri

I'm pretty darn sure. At the keynote towards the end of the demo you see in big red letters the word Beta on one of the slides. Also the Gold Master was released yesterday and there's no sign of Siri.

 

[cwwilson]

To be honest, if Siri was built into iOS, I'd not be interested at all upgrading to a 4S. But that's the main selling point to me (and the 1080p/8MP camera). Now I might have to find out a way to get this bad boy, though it'll come between that or an iPad 2 since they'll cost about the same (middle of contract).

 

[grovertdog]

I hope you guys realize that Siri is still BETA and will not be included in the first version of iOS 5 and the 4S. The the one thing they neglected to mention is the expected release date. It's possible that it may be area months before we see it.

Please cite your source. You seem to be correct in that the first iteration of Siri will be beta, but all indications are that it will be baked into iOS5 as shipped with the iPhone 4S. I could be wrong, but I'd think Apple would have an obvious disclaimer if an advertised feature was not going to ship.
----------

Also the Gold Master was released yesterday and there's no sign of Siri.

That is likely due to the fact there is no Siri compatible iPhones available yet. Apple has made it clear this version of Siri is limited to the A5 powered 4S and future models.

 

[rocknblogger]

Please cite your source. You seem to be correct in that the first iteration of Siri will be beta, but all indications are that it will be baked into iOS5 as shipped with the iPhone 4S. I could be wrong, but I'd think Apple would have an obvious disclaimer if an advertised feature was not going to ship.
----------

That is likely due to the fact there is no Siri compatible iPhones available yet. Apple has made it clear this version of Siri is limited to the A5 powered 4S and future models.

Have you ever in the entire history of Apple see them release anything that is still in BETA? Is that Apples m.o.? Google is a perpetual BETA machine, but not Apple. They are not going to release it until it is 100% perfect. At the keynote when they were about to start the demo he even made a remark about "Keep in mind it is BETA" as if to warn that it might not go perfectly. Of course it did go well as I'm sure they knew it would. If it was ready for release there is no way in hell they would admit that it was still a BETA version. I could be wrong but everything I heard and saw tells me it will not be in the first release of iOS5.

I think once the 4S is released the BETA will be released to developers a month to six weeks before they think it will be ready. But when that's going to be I don't know. I just know that as of now it's BETA and Apple does not release BETA anything.

 

[grovertdog]

Have you ever in the entire history of Apple see them release anything that is still in BETA? Is that Apples m.o.? Google is a perpetual BETA machine, but not Apple. They are not going to release it until it is 100% perfect.

You really think so? 100% you say?!?

Well, let me introduce you to "MobileMe". It never fully achieved functionality better than Beta, and is finally being left for dead. The same can be said for the first versions of AppleTV. Apple VirtualPC anyone? Final Cut X???

I understand you "feel" that Siri won't be coming out with iOS5 running 4S phones. Unfortunately, you haven't convinced me you're right. Care to make a casual wager?

 

[rocknblogger]

You really think so? 100% you say?!?

Well, let me introduce you to "MobileMe". It never fully achieved functionality better than Beta, and is finally being left for dead. The same can be said for the first versions of AppleTV. Apple VirtualPC anyone? Final Cut X???

I understand you "feel" that Siri won't be coming out with iOS5 running 4S phones. Unfortunately, you haven't convinced me you're right. Care to make a casual wager?

I hear you loud and clear but, none of those produbts was released as BETA. They may not have been good and that is an entirely different conversation, but they were all out of BETA status. And what I meant about 100%, when Apple decides it's as close to perfection as possible.

But sure I'll make a casual wager. What do you propose?

----------

You really think so? 100% you say?!?

Well, let me introduce you to "MobileMe". It never fully achieved functionality better than Beta, and is finally being left for dead. The same can be said for the first versions of AppleTV. Apple VirtualPC anyone? Final Cut X???

I understand you "feel" that Siri won't be coming out with iOS5 running 4S phones. Unfortunately, you haven't convinced me you're right. Care to make a casual wager?

It seems I am wrong and you are right. I called sales and the guy told me it will ship with the phone. I am very surprised and still a bit skeptical. They have been known to be wrong in the past. But as of now looks like we will get it when the phone is released .

 

[grovertdog]

I called sales and the guy told me it will ship with the phone. I am very surprised and still a bit skeptical. They have been known to be wrong in the past. But as of now looks like we will get it when the phone is released .[/QUOTE]
Cool, thanks for going straight to the source...

 

[flux73]

Ya know, there was an easier way to figure this out. If you open up the current Siri app, it states,

I've been replaced! The new Siri is even smarter and better-looking than me, and waiting for you on the iPhone 4S. I'll be leaving for home Oct 15th.

Until then... how can I help you?

Seems pretty clear to me, it's shipping with the 4S.

----------

So I'm thinking about finally switching from AT&T to Sprint b/c I'm sick of dealing with very inconsistent signal quality from AT&T. Sprint is supposedly much better here in Portland.

Am I correct in thinking that the Sprint iPhone 4S will be limited to 3G speeds? HSPA+ is a GSM tech, right?