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Everything you need to know about the iPhone 4S
Brandon Davenport
Go ahead… say it: Yesterday’s Apple iPhone press event was one of the biggest let down’s in the company’s recent history. We were all expecting a full on upgrade to the iPhone — y’know, something along the lines of the iPhone 5, but that’s not what we got by a long shot. What we did get was an in-between device, much like that of the 3GS. Though you could say the iPhone 4S is a whole new phone besides the outside look, that still doesn’t change the fact that Apple’s stock fell 5% after the announcement. Know why? Cause everyone wanted the iPhone 5.
iPhone 4S at a glance
So, the general consensus is that iPhone 4S isn’t what everyone was hoping for. No crazy new look, groundbreaking features or over the top announcements were shown at 1 Infinite Loop yesterday, but the announcement didn’t come without a few surprises. So let’s take a look back and round-up yesterday’s iPhone 4S announcement.
Performance upgrades
Last year the iPhone 4 was announced and it quickly became one of Apple’s most controversial successes, and the thing that got people’s attention was the sheer speed of the device, and the quality of the display. In the iPhone 4S, the retina display is back and is now paired with a dual-core A5 chip (1Ghz) to shove the iPhone 4S on par with many up and coming Android dual-core handsets. The new iPhone also features a new 8 megapixel camera for taking photos and recording 1080p video along with a dual antenna system that doubles speed when using 3G (HSDPA) up to 14.4Mbps. So let’s dive deeper into the iPhone 4S.
Battery life has also been given a look over, offering 200 hour standby time, 9 hours of internet use (6 hours on 3G), 10 hours of video playback, 40 hours of audio playback and 8 hours of talk time on 3G (14 hours on 2G). The iPhone 4S also supports Airplay mirroring.
The new 8mp/1080p camera
8 Megapixels for a smart-phone camera isn’t too extravagant, but Apple seems to have put some effort into making a camera that really performs in all situations. You could say they wen’t a bit over-the-top to make this a really great camera.
Behind the lens
The iPhone 4S rests a pretty impressive camera that boasts 5 lenses and an improved CMOS sensor to produce great photos in low light conditions, as well as provide better color accuracy.
Photos on the iPhone 4S
You can now take a photo from the lockscreen and use the volume button as the shutter button to snap a photo. The iPhone now supports facial recognition when taking a photo and you can edit photos quickly after snapping the button. Photos auto sync to your PC or Mac using iCloud.
Taking 1080p video
The iPhone 4S can record 1080p video at 30fps thanks to the new A5 chip. The video footage itself looks pretty impressive, and the gyroscope in the iPhone is now used for image stabilization.
Also with the bump from 4 lenses to 5 lenses, a new back lit CMOS and a widend aperture, low light performance should be very solid on the new iPhone 5.
Your pocket companion, Siri
If you remember, there was a company last year that had an app which blew people away. It was called Siri and it essentially brought the future closer, faster than every before. Now it’s available on the iPhone 4S (Only available on iPhone 4S) and it replaces voice control. Hold down the home button and you can ask a question, tell your iPhone to do something or perform a multitude of other tasks (email, texting, music etc.)
Siri on the iPhone plugs into different services like Wolfram Alpha, Yelp, Google, Wikipedia, Yahoo and others so it can natively make useful information bubble up to the surface. It can also interface with your calendars and Reminders app and intelligently understand each piece of data. Apparently, Siri also learns about you after time, so down the road you won’t have to refer to your Wife as “Hannah”, you could just say “my wife” and Siri should be able to make the connection after time. This is some pretty awesome stuff.
Odds and ends
So as we said, there isn’t a whole lot to talk about when it comes to the iPhone 4S that hasn’t been announced already, but the things that were announced are pretty awesome. Of course the iPhone 4S is faster, it has a better camera and has pretty wicked battery life, but it seems as if the announcement was a little dull without adding in all the crazy stuff launched at WWDC. So lets point you in the right direction to read about that.
Read more - Everything to know about iCloud
Read more - Everything to know about iOS 5
