News From Apple's iPhone Event

Apple is currently announcing various things about a new iPhone; the CNN Live has coverage as it is happening. Watch for updates as more information comes in. For those of you who like to read instead of watch, PC Magazine is^W was^W is running a live commentary stream (it broke and then unbroke). The New York Times also has a working live stream which seems more reliable. Update: 10/04 19:04 GMT by U L :Unexpectedly, Apple did not announce an iPhone 5, but rather an incremental update. CNet has a decent article about the features of the iPhone 4S. Additionally, all major carriers except T-Mobile will be getting the phone October 14th.

Comments

Wow

[rlthomps-1]

Twitter reports that /. has a thread that says that CNN has some info about some iPhone stuff. A marvel of modern communication

Re:Wow

[recrudescence]

that's true about twitter ... I read about it on facebook (via email).

Re:Wow

[noc007]

Let's not forget about Engadget's liveblog as well as the dozens that are out there. I really don't know why Apple just doesn't stream it live; the media can still do their live commentary on how awesome or boring something is.

Re:Wow

[DuoDreamer]

Engadget's servers have been raped. I'm getting nothing but unavailable messages.

Re:Wow

[ericloewe]

Epically so. I've never seen Engadget go down under pressure, not on E3, not during any Apple event I can remember, not during any other keynote... Are people *really* that excited about the iPhone 5?

Re:Wow

[edremy]

Going up and down fairly gracefully, continue to refresh and it will come up.

Am I wrong for finding this vaguely arousing?

Re:Wow

[Amouth]

from a PR point it makes sense - it makes it had for you to find exact details - makes people look different places.. also gives the perception that it is larger of an even than it is. (if it was so small then a single source could handle the job easy).

it's all part of the Reality Distortion Field Effect.

Re:Wow

[myurr]

And the tragic truth - so far at least it has been a nothing announcement. They've stuck the iPad 2 internals in the iPhone 4 case, and called it the iPhone 4S. Whoopdy doo. Oh and they tweaked the camera a bit...

Re:Wow

[DrVxD]

Yes, but this is post-Taco /., so I doubt you're the only one.

Re:Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

"it makes it had for you to find exact details"

You're from Boston, right?

Re:Wow

[knappe duivel]

yoohoo!

Re:Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep. The thing is over now, so here is the sum total of the announcement:

1. New camera. Has more megapixels. White balance may no longer suck. (That's the tweak.)
2. You can now take pictures using the volume up button. (Really? Not with a camera button? Really: double tap the home button, press the "camera" icon, press the "volume up" button. That's "ease of use," apparently.)
3. Remember how Android has a voice activation feature? iPhone is getting that now. Unlike the old "voice command" this one can now be used to search the web and enter text into text fields. Wasn't this available in Android 1? And as an app for iPhone?
4. "New" processor (it's the iPad 2's)
5. "Better than console game graphics." No, really. Seriously! They said that!
6. Remember how the iPhone tracked your location, and everyone got upset about it? The new one uploads the location to iCloud and this is, somehow, a feature. So you can locate your phone through the cloud. (It's in your house! Thanks, GPS!)
7. Antenna was redesigned. So you might be able to make calls and browse the web while holding the phone.
8. Now supports Sprint.

And that's it. That's everything.

Re:Wow

[NiteShaed]

Now is the time to laugh at all the fanboys that had already sold their iPhone 4s to buy iPhone 5s, but now have to buy new iPhone 4S

I kinda doubt anyone did that.....all they were expected to do today was announce the phones, not actually sell them. Why would anyone sell their phone weeks before the one they want becomes available?

Re:Wow

[Mike Buddha]

Oh and they tweaked the camera a bit...

This is a big deal. I've been using a Droid X since it came out and despite it having a dedicated camera button, when you go to take a picture, it takes friggin' forever to fire up. Being able to fire up the camera in 1.1 seconds is HUGE. Just think of all the opportunistic upskirts and nose picks you'll be able to automatically post to your Twitter account!

Re:Wow

[LucidBeast]

Belly flop?

Re:Wow

[demonbug]

Yep. The thing is over now, so here is the sum total of the announcement:

1. New camera. Has more megapixels. White balance may no longer suck. (That's the tweak.)
2. You can now take pictures using the volume up button. (Really? Not with a camera button? Really: double tap the home button, press the "camera" icon, press the "volume up" button. That's "ease of use," apparently.)
3. Remember how Android has a voice activation feature? iPhone is getting that now. Unlike the old "voice command" this one can now be used to search the web and enter text into text fields. Wasn't this available in Android 1? And as an app for iPhone?
4. "New" processor (it's the iPad 2's)
5. "Better than console game graphics." No, really. Seriously! They said that!
6. Remember how the iPhone tracked your location, and everyone got upset about it? The new one uploads the location to iCloud and this is, somehow, a feature. So you can locate your phone through the cloud. (It's in your house! Thanks, GPS!)
7. Antenna was redesigned. So you might be able to make calls and browse the web while holding the phone.
8. Now supports Sprint.

And that's it. That's everything.

So you're saying that Steve left because he was too ashamed to be part of this announcement, and that whole sickness thing was just a coverup?

Though really I'm not sure what people expected. You know, other than an iPhone 5 instead of 4S. Do you think Apple's marketing department was crapping themselves with all the talk and excitement on the web for iPhone 5, knowing that there would be massive disappointment when they revealed... iPhone 4.1?

Re:Wow

[timeOday]

5. "Better than console game graphics." No, really. Seriously! They said that!

That is becoming increasingly close to feasible. The XBox 360 was released in 2005, the PS3 in 2006. Let's think about that for a minute. This is the top-selling cellphone in 2005, in all its glory. (cite) Even the 960x640 resolution of the iPhone is dangerously close to current-gen consoles (considering they can't support 1080p very well).

Consoles aren't behind yet, but the trajectories of the two cross in the surprisingly near future.

Re:Wow

[masteroffm]

i recently picked up a Galaxy S II on Sprint and one of the things that I really love about it is how quickly the camera fires up. while it doesn't have an option to jump to the camera from the lock screen, I keep a shortcut to the camera on my main home screen. I can hit the power button, unlock, hit camera, and take a picture in under three seconds

Re:Wow

[Toonol]

5. "Better than console game graphics." No, really. Seriously! They said that!

Ugh. This pains me. For the next few years, we can look forward to Apple fans repeating this talking point with a straight face.

Re:Wow

[dave420]

There is a *lot* more to graphics than simply pixel counts! Until a phone can provide as much power as an electrical outlet, it won't happen. Consoles will stay ahead, and phones will lag behind.

Re:Wow

[Cederic]

Hmm, you just made me ponder. My nokia launches its camera app when I slide open the lens cap. Took me 4-5 seconds to go from 'phone on desk' to 'new photo captured' - although that included time for the flash to go through its red-eye reduction.

Compared to the time it takes me to get the phone out of my pocket and out of its case, that's tolerable. Compared to the time it'd take me to use a proper camera (if I had one on me) it's much much faster.

There's a limit to how many reaction shots I need anyway :)

Re:Wow

[tlhIngan]

Epically so. I've never seen Engadget go down under pressure, not on E3, not during any Apple event I can remember, not during any other keynote... Are people *really* that excited about the iPhone 5?

Other sites went down as well. MacWorld died shortly before the show opened. Ars Technica (which contracted with a third party to do the hosting) had periods where nothing made it through (the only option was switch to twitter). The Loop died hard shortly after starting.

The only one I was watching that didn't have problemts was gdgt. The worst it suffered was the auto-refresh failed and you had to manually refresh.

Re:Wow

[johnsnails]

Not to mention there is a reason iphones and android phones only support OpenGL ES. Constraints on the GPU's (i think :P)

Re:Wow

[Anonymous Coward]

Not to mention there is a reason iphones and android phones only support OpenGL ES. Constraints on the GPU's (i think :P)

No, you've got it backwards. OpenGL ES is more or less "cut down the API to reflect what modern hardware actually does", and that includes desktop GPUs, not just mobile GPUs. Legacy GL is implemented on desktop GPUs with giant, complicated drivers which ultimately generate and compile shader programs (i.e. things which fit inside the GL ES API subset). In other words, emulation.

For the mobile space where there is little need to support legacy APIs, it makes a great deal of sense to only support the ES subset, so that programmers can't even make the mistake of trying to use the hardware in horribly inefficient ways through API designs which haven't matched the way any GPU works for years and years.

Re:Wow

[jkcity]

you could get more money by selling a few weeks before as it was still the top of the line model.

Re:Wow

[LifesABeach]

If I were Steve Jobs, and the iPhone5 was not going to be presented today; what would I have done?

Re:Wow

[CrackedButter]

Nobody goes to gdgt that's why it stayed up.

Re:Wow

[demonlapin]

To be fair, the Siri stuff is really, really cool. And it's way beyond what Android offers. The rest is just updating it to meet modern phone standards, true, but something that takes those kind of natural language queries and integrates them into the whole system is amazing. Check out the segment where he's having it read a text to him, does a schedule query, and then replies to the text - all via voice. (If you go to the Apple website and watch the video, that starts around 77:30.)

Re:Wow

[timeOday]

To correct you, the PS3 was released in 2007.

According to Wikipedia, it was released Nov 2006 in Japan. The US version, although released later, was not upgraded.

Re:Wow

[Scoth]

Not sure if serious... but for me on, say, my 3GS I have to hit the home button, slide to unlock, put in my access code, find my camera app (which isn't hard, mind), and load it. Even if it takes 1.1 seconds to load the app, the rest of the process makes the matter of a second or two difference mostly irrelevant.

Probably getting a Samsung Galaxy S II soon.

Re:Wow

[sonicmerlin]

Don't forget the facebook posts referencing the twitter tweet that reports the /. thread talking about CNN having info on the iPhone.

Re:Wow

[Totenglocke]

So it's a slight improvement over what Android's had and probably something that they already have in the works and Apple will try to file another bogus lawsuit against them to inhibit competition.

Re:Wow

[AmiMoJo]

My Android phone has this in some apps, e.g. Google Translate. It works well in a quiet environment, but if there is a lot of noise or you are in a room with a bit of reverb it fails. Plus you look like a massive cock when using it, worse even than the people who walk down the street talking to their Bluetooth headset.

Re:Wow

[demonlapin]

I'm an Android fan, but Siri goes way beyond the simple voice-to-text-plus-a-few-commands that Android offers. Watch the video, it's pretty cool: "Remind me to call James on Wednesday morning."

You do still look like a total douche doing it, but if you're in the car...

Re:Wow

[lordholm]

What phone did you use that had context sensitive voice control? I have not seen one yet. The only stuff I have seen is voice command like "call mom". If Siri tells you you have received a text with "your mom just texted you", you can reply with "call her". With "her" being interpreted based on the context.

I would say that it seems that Siri is just plain voice control with wolfram alpha searches and context sensitivity. In my humble opinion, the context sensitivity may actually make the voice control useful.

Re:Wow

[lee1]

bringing back metamod would be a great start

What do you mean? I just metamoderated.

Re:Wow

[multisync]

I just metamoderated.

Are you sure? Did you actually agree or disagree with a previous moderation, or just click thumbs up or down on the comments?

I currently do not have "willing to moderate" checked, so I don't know whether or not they have returned to the old system of actually reviewing previous moderations. If they have, I stand corrected with regard to my previous comment. If they are still simply asking people to register their approval or disapproval comments, in my opinion, that's not metamoderation.

While the new system gives Slashdot a sense of what visitors of the site think of some of the comments, it does very little to identify and address bad moderations. And I think the frequent occurrence of abuse demonstrates that.

But please let me know if they've returned to the old system. I might make the time to participate in moderation again if that's the case.

Re:Wow

[lee1]

Metamoderation is now accomplished by a system that takes the form of voting on comments - but the system uses your votes to judge the previous comments' moderation. it's the same thing with a different interface.

Re:Wow

[lee1]

Also, why are you complaining if you are not even willing to moderate? I'm also not thrilled with the quality of many of the comments and certain tendencies among the moderators, but at least I moderate to try to make it a little better.

Re:Wow

[multisync]

See my previous comment. I don't agree that voting thumbs up or down accomplishes the same thing as the old metamoderation system does. I may not agree with or see value in a comment, but that doesn't necessarily mean it deseverves a "troll" mod, as was the case with the comment I originally responded to.

The old system asked a more direct and, IMO, more relevant question - was the moderation applied to this comment fair?

You believe the new system is just as effective as the old one, and you are entitled to that opinion, but I don't agree with it.

Re:Wow

[lee1]

Actually, the new interface allows you to click on a moderation modifier as well as voting '+' or '-'. So you are indicating how you would have moderated the comment, and since the system presumably knows how the comment was actually moderated, it can use your input as metamoderation. It's not exactly the same, no, but seems to be nearly equivalent to the old system, but with a different interface. I think the new design may introduce less bias and do a better job of gathering metamoderation data, since you don't see how the moderator voted.

Re:Wow

[multisync]

I have moderated and metamoderated many times over the years, and may possibly do so again at some point in the future. I don't always have time to read/moderate Slashdot, and rather than have points expire unused, I have unchecked the box so the points can go to others, like yourself, who are willing to give it the time and consideration it takes to do right.

Given the current system, I don't see it as a good return on the time invested. If Slashdot returns to a more direct way of dealing with moderator abuse, that would go a long way toward promoting my willingness to moderate.

I'm sorry you feel I was "complaining." At the time I and others pointed out what we believed was an abuse of the moderation system, the comment in question was two hours old, and was rated -1 Troll. Perhaps because we drew attention to the comment, others later moderated it Informative, reversing the earlier abuse.

Drawing attention to abuses of the moderation system are in a sense a more direct way of "metamoderating." It makes it possible for the inappropriate moderation to be reversed - and the comment seen by people who filter low rated comments - while the story is still fresh.

If you consider that complaining, frankly, I'll happily do that regardless of whether or not I'm currently willing to moderate. Being willing to moderate doesn't grant you special privileges; everyone is entitled to complain to their hearts content. Whether others are willing to listen to it is up to them.
 

Re:Wow

[multisync]

That sounds interesting. Maybe I'll check the willing to moderate box and have a look.

I use the classic discussion system, so I'm not sure all of the features would be available to me. I seem to recall having issues with some aspects of Firehose, but it's been a long time since I used it so I may be wrong about that.

Thanks for the tip on the modification modifier.

Re:Wow

[lee1]

I use classic as well; this does not seem to affect the metamoderation or moderation interface.

shocked

[w_dragon]

I'm shocked, utterly shocked. Oh, not about anything in the presentation, I'm shocked that Slashdot actually got this story up when the event was happening and didn't link to a recording three days from now.

Re:shocked

[Penguinisto]

Give it a couple days, then everyone can scream "dupe!"

Re:shocked

[jmichaelg]

Wow! I would have been *very* impressed had the link gone to a recording three days from now. CERN only managed to get the neutrinos in 60 nanoseconds ahead of now.

Live?

[amicusNYCL]

Maybe we could wait until the announcement is finished for the story to get posted.

Re:Live?

[idontgno]

I'm holding out hope that they'll wait for the announcement to be finished before they post the dupe.

I'm not holding out hope that the dupe will actually contain any of the additional information. I'm pretty sure it'll just be a dupe.

Re:Live?

[noc007]

Because it's, like, live and happening now and stuff...

Re:Live?

[GameboyRMH]

The Apple fetishists are more than happy to see the reveal in slo-mo.

To me, Apple product announcements are like Hollywood movie trailers: There's no need to seek them out, they'll be shoved down your throat even if you try to avoid them.

Re:Live?

[Anonymous Coward]

But then I'd miss things like them announcing you can take pictures using the "volume up" button on the iPhone!

Yep. The "volume up" button. Rather than add a proper camera button like every other phone in existence since cameras were added to phones, you use the "volume up button."

But since Apple's doing it, it must be intuitive and user friendly! ...Wait, isn't the camera on the same side as the volume controls? So wouldn't using that button mean you have to hold the phone such that you're covering the lens?

Oh, right, Apple never makes mistakes like that. Instead everyone's just holding the phone wrong.

No, really, I'm not making this up, they announced that the "volume up" button will be the new camera button. And this was important enough to be the highlight of the talk so far!

Re:Live?

[ackthpt]

Maybe we could wait until the announcement is finished for the story to get posted.

Why? Speculation is where all the excitement and fun are (aside finding the flaw, like the antenna one, later.)

Once I see it has nothing I really need and the price (and plans) are excruciating, I go back to making tea.

Re:Live?

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Why? We didn't come here for news, we're here to argue!

Re:Live?

[knappe duivel]

To me, Apple product announcements are like Hollywood movie trailers: There's no need to seek them out, they'll be shoved down your throat even if you try to avoid them.

something tells me you're not trying hard enough

Re:Live?

[Dixie_Flatline]

No, the camera is on the back, and the volume controls are on the side. It really takes no effort in particular to use the volume button.

I've been running iOS 5 beta for a while on my iPhone 4 for a while. You'll note that the iOS 5 upgrade doesn't magically upgrade my hardware, so re-using the volume button on the phone is actually pretty nice. And for the sake of consistency, you may as well use it on the new phones, too. And that means no dedicated shutter button that may actually never be used, or accidentally pressed while someone is using their phone. You won't get a picture of the inside of your pocket.

I had a Sony camera-phone for a few years, with a dedicated shutter button. The experience isn't markedly better than using the volume button.

Re:Live?

[mcmonkey]

Rather than add a proper camera button like every other phone in existence since cameras were added to phones, you use the "volume up button."

These are the folks who brought you a music player without volume controls. Why would you be surprised by a camera without a shutter button?

Re:Live?

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

The Apple fetishists are more than happy to see the reveal in slo-mo.

The other half are the haters that need a few minutes to cook up a rationalization of why each new feature isn't really a big deal. "7x the processing power for a device whose major selling point is the App Store? Pftbt lame."

Re:Live?

[wintercolby]

These are the folks who brought you a music player without volume controls. Why would you be surprised by a camera without a shutter button?

It's actually the fact that they removed the volume button on a previous device that makes it ironic that they find a second use for it now.

Re:Live?

[mcmonkey]

I had a Sony camera-phone for a few years, with a dedicated shutter button. The experience isn't markedly better than using the volume button.

Most phones I've seen use the volume up/down for zoom in/out when in camera mode.

With a camera using the volume controls for shutter, how do you zoom?

Re:Live?

[VisceralLogic]

Why? We didn't come here for news, we're here to argue!

No, we're not!

Re:Live?

[dakameleon]

With a camera using the volume controls for shutter, how do you zoom?

Pinch, or an on-screen zoom bar with touch controls. iPhone 4 has demonstrated this for a while now.

Re:Live?

[sonicmerlin]

Yeah the GPU blows everything else right now out of the water. The A5 is a monster, and deriving the kind of battery life Apple manages out of it with a sub 1500 mAh battery is just amazing. A lot of self-proclaimed technies don't really appreciate the design genius of Apple's engineers.

Re:Live?

[SuperKendall]

only an Apple fetishist would believe that HALF of people are Apple fetishists and that ALL the rest are haters.

No one believes that - about the general populace.

Slashdot users? Anyone who doesn't like the products is absolutely a died-in-the-wool hater. Not much indifference on Slashdot, and I've not seen any for years in regards to Apple. Point me to one message that is indifferent about Apple.

Re:Live?

[AmiMoJo]

That's because they didn't do most of the design. The Arm architecture and CPU/GPU designs are not Apple's, they just merged them into a single chip with some on board memory. Pretty much the same way as nVidia, Samsung and Ti have been doing, and with similar performance and power consumption.

There is a reason the iPad 2 only has a 1024x768 screen, rather than the 1280x1024 or higher on similarly priced competing models. Also don't forget that an iPad can't take SD cards, which naturally require power to operate. When you compare like-for-like there is nothing magical about Apple's hardware, they just benefit from having absolute control over every aspect and making some decisions that their competitor's customers wouldn't tolerate.

Re:Live?

[Double Drop]

Which of course is totally retarded because using an on-screen zoom bar is horrible for proper tactile control and makes the screen wobble like fuck. Another Apple win.

Re:Live?

[666999]

the same way as nVidia, Samsung and Ti have been doing

It's clear (battery life tests and real-world use) that Apple has done a far better job of getting those components to work together than Samsung or any other competitor. It would seem that it's not as simple as you make it out to be to "merge them and add some memory" if all these competing tablets can't run for more than a few hours vs. iPad's 10+.

an iPad can't take SD cards, which naturally require power to operate

You are sorely mistaken about SD support. Apple sells a box with 2 adapters, USB and SD, with no power source required other than the iPad's internal battery. In other words, the iPad supports SD.

Hopefully you're not spreading this lie elsewhere.

There is a reason the iPad 2 only has a 1024x768 screen, rather than the 1280x1024 or higher on similarly priced competing models

What is the reason, in your carefully considered opinion?

Re:Live?

[AmiMoJo]

It's clear (battery life tests and real-world use) that Apple has done a far better job of getting those components to work together than Samsung or any other competitor.

Actually there are plenty of high end phones that out perform the iPhone for battery life, and that is with Apple's built in advantage of not having to properly multitask. Considering that they control the hardware and software completely, unlike my Galaxy S which runs Android, I was actually somewhat surprised when comparing battery life with some work colleagues revealed they needed to charge up every day.

Don't forget that Samsung used to make the CPUs in the earlier iPhones too, and then always made sure their phones had a better one which probably contributed to Apple deciding start designing their own (or rather buy a company that could design them and slap an Apple label on it). There is nothing magical about Apple processors.

all these competing tablets can't run for more than a few hours vs. iPad's 10+.

The ASUS Transformer and Galaxy Tab 10.1 are both capable of that in real world tests. In fact I don't think there is a single major tablet than can only run for "a few hours". Most netbooks can easily get more than that.

Apple sells a box with 2 adapters, USB and SD,

I wouldn't call hanging and SD card reader on the end of a table attached to the flimsy dock connector a way to expand the iPad's memory. Most tablets and phones have an internal SD card slot for permanent use, e.g. my phone has 8GB internal memory and a 16GB SD card in socket under the back cover. In contrast an iPad or iPhone is stuck with the amount it comes with when you buy it, and while Apple charges £100 for 8GB of memory a high speed 8GB SD card costs about £10.

What is the reason, in your carefully considered opinion?

Well, actually there are three. The first is that the GPU is not as fast as the ones in some competitors tablets, so the reduced resolution makes up for that a bit. It still doesn't match the performance of some of Samsung's tablets, but it looks like Apple decided to make that trade off to get a slightly thinner case (less cooling) and longer battery life.

App compatibility is also a big issue. If they upgraded the iPad 2's screen older iPad apps would have to scale and look bad unless they were updated. Unlike their competitors Apple has encouraged apps to design their UIs for a particular resolution, rather than with scaling in mind.

The third reason is that when there is downward pressure on price from competitors Apple usually installs a cheaper screen in its low end models. Since all iPad 2s have the same screen they all get the lower resolution. This practice goes back to their early OS X laptops which had 1024x768 16bit screens. The only other company that goes for lower than usual screen resolutions was IBM (before Lenovo bought their laptop business), but they never used 16 bit panels, which you may remember caused Apple legal difficulties.

Re:Live?

[Dixie_Flatline]

You shouldn't be zooming at all, actually, since it's all done in software, and like most small cameras, there is no optical zoom.

Take the picture at the normal size and crop it later. All the zoom bar does is pre-crop the image for you.

Additionally, who zooms WHILE taking the picture? Zoom, then click. The screen wobble problem is a complete non-starter.

One thing's for sure...

[RightSaidFred99]

Sales of ironically overlarge non-functional fashion glasses, skinny pants, and funny hats will concomitantly go up in direct proportion to iPhone 5 sales.

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[mr1911]

Yeah, Apple has to be a bunch of idiots to drive the smartphone and tablet markets like they do. And everyone who would use such a product is clearly retarded.

Dr. Bob missed a perfect opportunity to inform us how chiropractic can cure the ills of carrying a giant chip on your shoulder.

Ugh, a report about a future report

[Anonymous Coward]

When I said I wanted faster news for slashdot, it didn't mean (non)news about future news. This post is just an advertisement for CNN coverage of the event rather then any relevant information about the iphone (other then a gathering of useless iphone rumors to make it seem like an actual article).

Re:Ugh, a report about a future report

[mrxak]

People who care enough to read live commentary on the event already know where to find that. I don't understand why we're getting this non-article telling us exactly nothing, when waiting an hour means you could have actual information to report.

Re:Ugh, a report about a future report

[Atzanteol]

Man, you people are worse than my wife trying to determine where she wants the couch.

"Over there. No not *there*, there! No I don't like it there. How about over there?"

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[AliasMarlowe]

But why oh why must there be a slashvertisement for a media event to build hype and excitement? Whatever the product, let's wait until a few facts can be gleaned and the hype-blurb safely ignored.
We might as well just demand equal hype for Dr. Bob's iChiropractic iApp for iOS which will iChange your iLife for the iBetter. It would be as reliable and accurate as the typical media event surrounding the launch of a mass-market consumer product.

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[neoform]

Quick! I need to click the link for the Apple story, then post about how I don't care! This is a great use of my time!

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[Duradin]

/. should really be covering that auction of crumbs that fell from the One True Beard of RMS [pbuhb] instead.

Re:Who gives a hoot

[Hijacked Public]

You seem to be having a difficult time with that.

Streams are hosed.

[Picass0]

It seems to be all of them. Gizmodo, Ars, PCMag...

A dull event covered poorly. Yay!

Re:Streams are hosed.

[Anonymous Coward]

It seems to be all of them. Gizmodo, Ars, PCMag...

So either there is a great amount of people interested in Apple's event, or there is a vast number of Android fanbois trying to censor Apple through DDoS.

Re:Streams are hosed.

[ackthpt]

It seems to be all of them. Gizmodo, Ars, PCMag...

A dull event covered poorly. Yay!

Well there is one thing to follow - how well Tim Cook fills Steve Job's shoes. Better believe the show is more about the show and how Apple appears in it than the product(s).

Re:Streams are hosed.

[desdinova 216]

I'm thinking the former

Re:Streams are hosed.

[geekoid]

Yeah, filling Steve Jobs place, and NOT having a Major announcement is tough. To me it indicates the transition is happening sooner then expected.
When you have a 'new' guy, you want him to come out and blow everyone away. Instead it was a serious of 'meh' announcements.

news?

[vlm]

The only place I can find a working text report of whats happening is Mike Elgan who seems to be liveblogging on G+.

Octoshape Grid Delivery Enhancement?

[Relayman]

Apparently, to get the live CNN video feed, I have to install the Octoshape Grid Delivery Enhancement to Flash. No thanks. If I don't install it, I get the stream starting at the beginning.

Re:Octoshape Grid Delivery Enhancement?

[CmdrPorno]

I'd install it if they had named it "Octopussy Grid Delivery Enhancement to Flash."

Oh exploitable

[Haedrian]

"The camera app is now accessible from the lock screen. Double-tap the home button and you can go directly to the camera app, no password or anything required."

Hmmmm......

Re:Oh exploitable

[shutdown -p now]

How exactly are you going to exploit it?

Re:Oh exploitable

[FatAlb3rt]

Ever heard of exhibitionism? Apple even bragged about time-to-first-picture.

Re:Oh exploitable

[knappe duivel]

"The camera app is now accessible from the lock screen. Double-tap the home button and you can go directly to the camera app, no password or anything required."

Hmmmm......

what, does your nikon or canon require a password?

Re:Oh exploitable

[Capt.DrumkenBum]

How exactly are you going to exploit it?

I have a few ideas. ;)

Re:Oh exploitable

[shutdown -p now]

In the age of goatse, I can't think of anything here that's worth worrying about.

Re:Oh exploitable

[geekoid]

My nikon doesn't call, and look things up when I take a picture of a barcode.

Not that the iPhone 4s does, but I would like to experiment with it.

Re:Oh exploitable

[scream at the sky]

nope...

But, my d90 also isn't network enabled...and it sure doesn't have any contact information on it...

I'm not saying that this WILL be exploited, but it definitely COULD be, by someone way smarter than me...

And i care because?

[tesdalld]

I do not care, its another iphone...

Re:And i care because?

[ackthpt]

I do not care, its another iphone...

Ah, but the rumour is - you can actually make calls with this one!

Re:And i care because?

[Grizzley9]

I do not care, its another iphone...

The fact that you're posting indicates otherwise.

Re:And i care because?

[knappe duivel]

I do not care, its another iphone...

you do care, you took the trouble to post here

Re:And i care because?

[pmontra]

Actually it looks like it's got on spec-parity with the Samsung Galaxy SII, give or take some software and a smaller screen (which might be a good or bad thing according to tastes). Apparently it's still the old thick iPhone 4 case, when all the leading Android phones got releases with a thinner case last Spring. I'm a little disappointed because an iPhone that doesn't clearly beat the competition could mean that the Android manufacturers will slow down their race to better features.

The single feature that could rehabilitate this iPhone is this Siri assistant, but It must be really good. It must be also really good at understanding languages other than American English. That could be a great feature or a great failure. I'll wait and see.

Re:And i care because?

[Thud457]

Goddamit, can't you trolls at least use the canonical " I could care less " form?!!
geeze, best practices, people!

Re:And i care because?

[geekoid]

logically fallacious. You don't have to care about something to talk about it, or even to bring up that it's ho-hum.

Re:And i care because?

[narcc]

Hasn't Siri been available for a while now? I seem to recall it being an alternative to Vlingo -- which has had it's own virtual assistant product for nearly a year now (on iOS, Android, and Blackberry).

How does this Siri differ from Siri last week -- and how is it different from competing products?

Re:And i care because?

[sonicmerlin]

The A5's GPU is far superior to the SGS2's.

Re:And i care because?

[bingoUV]

Do you have source for this information?

thanks

Re:And i care because?

[sonicmerlin]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4760/arms-mali400-mp4-is-the-fastest-smartphone-gpufor-now

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

Heh. It's extra funny when you consider that Slashdot is ad-supported and they pay attention to which stories generate more comments.

Cue appleheads

[Antisyzygy]

Cue Apple-Head orgasms following the foreplay that is this long drawn out and annoying event.

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[mr1911]

No one forced you to ready the story. You clicked on it.

So, Slashdot brought you a story you wanted to read, which just happened to be created by the marketing department at Apple.

You complain about it, but here you are.

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[Tsingi]

Whatever the product, let's wait until a few facts can be gleaned and the hype-blurb safely ignored.

Didn't they have a "Leave one in a bar then send goons to recover it and rough people up" event for this release?

Re:My prediction

[LoonyMike]

Not really, tha name has just been announced and I assume this is meant to be used in a radically different way than the previous ones. Note that it's called "iPhone 4S".
Then again, some people might have been using it that way already.

Re:Who gives a hoot

[no-body]

You seem to be having a difficult time with that.

Not at all... it just gets boring after a while. Reading the headline "ALL EYES ON APPLE" triggered it.
Looks like crowd behavior what's happening there. Trying to find missing identity in following a hype/crowd and feel good for a while.
Quite common.

question

[n8k99]

are they announcing the release of their latest Zune-phone clone?

Re:question

[Yert]

What's Zune? Isn't it that iPod-like device that failed after 5 years of abysmal sales?

Re:My prediction

[Archangel Michael]

You forgot the "Lame" at the end of your post.

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[E IS mC(Square)]

>> So, Slashdot brought you a story you wanted to read, which just happened to be created by the marketing department at Apple.

Exactly, and I as a reader do not give fuck what Apple PR has to say. Slashdot is for technology, not for shills. If I feel so, I can say so.

Besides, it's funny how your logic is self-defeating. Why did not you just not ignore earlier comment if you did not like it?

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[desdinova 216]

he has suprisingly quiet lately. is he OK?

Re:FAIL

[Oswald McWeany]

Did they really include an antenna? Why has noone thought of this before. Jobs is a genius!

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[semi-extrinsic]

As an AAPL stockholder, you should be pissed off, as their stock just tanked. Down 3% during this press conference, and it has been steadily going down for the past few months.

Re:Apple's next product.

[DrVxD]

+1 ROTFLMAO!

Re:For something far more rewarding...

[ynp7]

Or unless you like watching people say the name of some product or service, tell you two sentences about that product or service, and then say "and that's [name of product]." If that's your jam, you can't beat watching an Apple product announcement.

Re:My prediction

[blackfrancis75]

you're so cool and jaded!

No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[ad454]

A year and a half later, all that they can offer is a slightly better camera, faster CPU, and universal (GSM+CDMA) mobile. :(

Most people including myself were hopefully for the thinner design, larger edge-to-edge 4 inch screen, metal back, NFC, 3D glassless display, 4G wireless data, etc. that were mentioned in the iPhone 5 rumours/hype. What a huge let down. No innovative must have features offer! Definitely not worth an update over the popular iPhone 4.

It also sucks that you still can't play video podcasts in the iPod Nano like you used to 2 generations ago!

In fact this entire iPhone+iPod refresh really is a big disappointment for me. I guess Apple does not think that hardware innovation is important anymore! What a great way to disappoint your fans, and have them look at other platforms that at least have some more frequent hardware improvements.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[shutdown -p now]

The good news is that the original iPhone 4 is now cheaper.

If you want new features this year, I think October 11 (Google/Samsung launch party) is the place to be.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[Nerdfest]

Most people including myself were hopefully for the thinner design, larger edge-to-edge 4 inch screen, metal back, NFC, 3D glassless display, 4G wireless data, etc. that were mentioned in the iPhone 5 rumours/hype.

You're in the wrong place. Try the Android section.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[rjstanford]

4G wireless? You're right about that one point. Maybe the current chipsets are too power-hungry for Apple's taste.

Even with this ... really? Downloads are now available at 2X the speed of the iPhone 4, now up to 14mbps... other than downloading HD video to your phone (not streaming it, downloading it in bulk to watch later), isn't a 14mpbs speed still faster than most of the cel networks can reliably deliver? Its certainly faster than a lot of people's internet access over their DSL/cable modems.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[MLCT]

I guess Apple does not think that hardware innovation is important anymore!

They do - just very iteratively. Why bring out one new product with new features when you can get there via three intermediaries that you can sell on to the "must have" crowd for hundreds of dollars a time.

It is Apple tactic No. 1, and Cook is full square behind it. They haven't become the highest value tech company by being nice! Apple are having their cake and eating it - huge profit margins on products that they can "update" by making tiny changes to it and a significant proportion of their loyal fanbase will go out and buy it all over again.

I also wonder if this was a bit of a dry run for Tim Cook - he can get a feel for the stage walk presenting with a low risk iterative launch - much easier than a high stakes new product launch where he could fluff and cause problems.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[MrCrassic]

Most people including myself were hopefully for the thinner design, larger edge-to-edge 4 inch screen, metal back, NFC, 3D glassless display, 4G wireless data, etc. that were mentioned in the iPhone 5 rumours/hype. What a huge let down. No innovative must have features offer! Definitely not worth an update over the popular iPhone 4.

While all of this is true, the refresh will still sell like mini-hotcakes. There are the people that jump at any new revision Apple puts out, the people that can finally have an iPhone on Sprint (there are still a LOT of people on Sprint) and the folks that actually are interested in the new features it provides. This will probably be like the iPhone 3Gs release in that its announcement was a bit less bombastic as its predecessor, but still enough of a worthy upgrade for many people.

The two problems I see with this in today's climate is that (a) it's certainly faster, but not that much faster than iPhone 4 like the 3Gs was to the 3G and (b) Android is a LOT more mature, both technically and professionally, than it was during the time of the 3Gs. It was well ahead of any other phone out there, though they were slowly catching up. The 4Gs, on the other hand, caught up to the Samsung Galaxy S II...and they are about to release a new Nexus phone soon. This is even more pressing given the much wider selection of apps available on the Market and Google's cloud offerings to date.

The iPhone still has the edge on user experience, but today's (comparably dull) conference left me wondering if that's the only edge they have left.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[harperska]

The whole "4G" thing is such a joke. First, there's what the official standards body is calling 4G, which is about 100 times faster than the existing 3G networks, but completely unrealistic to get working in the next decade. So since consumers no longer saw 3G as cutting edge, the networks had to release something called 4G to satisfy the masses. Sprint was the first of the US carriers, using WiMax. Verizon followed by using LTE. Both WiMax and LTE were supposed to be really freaky fast, but in the real world weren't nearly as fast as advertised. So T-Mobile and AT&T realized that they just needed to do a little upgrade to their existing 3G networks to get the same speeds the other two were advertising as 4G, by using HSPA+. So for now, HSPA+ is just as good as LTE or WiMax, any of the 3 technologies can be called 4G since 4G is a meaningless marketing term now anyway, and the iPhone 4S supports HSPA+ and is therefore technically a "4G" phone but without the godawful battery drain that WiMax and LTE cause.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[atrain728]

What would a thinner design do? Nothing. Larger screen? What will a display that's 0.12" larger really add?

GP cites a 4" screen (like many have been asking for.) Iphone 4/4s features a 3.5" screen. Perhaps I'm missing something, but I think your calculator may be broken.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[harperska]

Thing is, Apple didn't do anything to set up expectations, unless you believe the conspiracy theories that all the rumors are planted by Apple PR. Remember, no Apple product exists until Steve or now Tim announces it on stage. Anything before that is merely speculation, and unrealistic expectations are created in the rumor mill echo chamber. It's a trade off really, as Apple has chosen historically to not tip their hand as to what products they are working on. So the rumor mill fills in the blanks with wild speculation. So it's either let everybody know what you're working on and risk competitors beating you to market, or keep quiet and risk disappointment among the fans when their hyped up assumptions prove wrong.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[mlts]

Maybe they can put out an unlocked version of the phone. Now, that would be extremely useful. This way, you can use a GSM provider if the CDMA doesn't have coverage in your area, although why two providers for one phone would be beyond me.

But more realistically, it would make the device extremely useful when travelling without having to pay the insane roaming fees.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[harperska]

Apple's stock has always taken a dip the day of a big announcement, when the fanboys are disappointed that the hyped up rumors they believed in turned out to be false regardless of how good the announced product really is. But the stock always rebounds and grows once the market realizes that what was released was actually pretty good and forgets about the unrealistic promises from the rumor mill.

And Apple has always taken a 'less is more' approach rather than a 'cram in all the cutting edge features any geek has ever heard of'' approach. And it has worked pretty well for them as the features they do chose to include they can take time to polish.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[NiteShaed]

So it's either let everybody know what you're working on and risk competitors beating you to market, or keep quiet and risk disappointment among the fans when their hyped up assumptions prove wrong.

That's true to a point, but a huge amount of interest was getting focused on the idea of a 4" screen. That's a rumor Apple could have reigned in, in the interest of managing expectations, without giving anything valuable to their competitors. It's not like HTC, Samsung and Moto would then hit the breaks on their popular 4" screen phones in order to be more Apple-like; if anything they're probably pretty happy to see that they still have no Apple competition for customers who prefer that size. Hell, screen size is probably something that competitors had a good idea of anyway, just because there was no surge in demand for larger screens from Apple.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[mr100percent]

According to T-Mobile, HSPA+ is 4G, so the 4S has 4G. Also, let's not overlook Siri, which looks to be the future of smartphones. IMO, Apple already gave away iOS 5's secrets a few months ago so people are already bored by hearing it repeated at today's conference despite getting a standing ovation last time (and it's not even out yet).

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[Sancho]

I have a feeling that Apple research shows that best profit is made by keeping the phone design around for a couple of years. The first iPhone had an aluminum case--which may have been problematic for the signal. They switched the design for the 3G, and kept that same design for the 3GS. The latter was a small iterative improvement over the former, just like the 4s over the 4. They'll probably make more profit on the 4s than the 4 (or rather, they won't be recovering R&D for the design now.)

Two data points isn't good enough to establish a pattern, but it makes some sense. Next year, they'll probably release the 5 with an all new design, larger screen, and 4G. Maybe NFC, if that starts catching on.

The truth is, there are only so many obvious improvements to be made in the smartphone game. It makes financial sense to milk as much as one can out of each design and featureset, and to space out your improvements so that you always have people itching to upgrade.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[Sancho]

There are plenty of people who will buy every new iPhone. But more and more, Apple is selling to people who won't. The low-risk, small-improvements make sense in this context. Every other iPhone is a pretty big leap in one way or another, so every two years, people who stick to that upgrade cycle have a lot to look forward to. Lots of the people saying "meh" have an iPhone 4. I know several people with a 3GS who are looking forward to upgrading, because it's a big leap for them.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[NiteShaed]

Oh I agree with all of that, but I think the problem here though was that Apple delayed (or at least appeared to delay) the release, and that people took that to mean that there was something amazing coming that they needed more time to polish. I'm in that group, I figured that perhaps with Jobs stepping down, the longer than historically expected lag between hardware updates, and the apparent addition of Sprint, that they'd break their pattern and go for the gold. That larger screens have been popular on Android phones also led me to think this. In retrospect, it was all incorrect guessing on my part, but I'm far from alone and I think that, while it's not really Apple's SOP to comment before a launch, they may have made a mistake by not trying to manage expectations at least a little. A 4" screen, NFC and "4G" (yeah, I know WiMax and LTE aren't *really* 4G) really weren't crazy guesses to make. Once people were really married to the idea though the 4S, which is a perfectly good incremental followup to the iPhone 4, was almost guaranteed to...well, not necessarily disappoint, but at least underwhelm.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[RoverDaddy]

This, this and more this. I've been holding on to an aging 3G since 2008 (gee three years I must be some kind of backwoods luddite). I am happy with the feature set that's been announced and I'm almost certain to upgrade sometime this month.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[Dahamma]

Of course, putting in an A5 chip, nice 3D graphics, a much improved camera w/ 1080p video, Bluetooth 4.0, 14Mbps HSDPA, and AirPlay wireless video mirroring is a bit more than "tiny changes".

Sounds like a solid upgrade to an existing platform. Actually, sounds more like they pretty much gutted the interior and just reused the case. None of the specs are leaps and bounds ahead of the competition, but many people like their iPhones and this is a nice upgrade for most. The only people who should be whining are the Apple design fanboys who feel the need to show off their new toy to everyone in their local cafe/restaurant/bar/movie theater every 5 minutes.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[mcmonkey]

The old iPhone 4 page on apple.com has the option to purchase with AT&T, Verizon, or "Or get iPhone unlocked and contract-free".

The page with pre-order info on the 4s does not seem to have this option.

Of course the 4 doesn't have the same flexibility as the 4s with respect to travel.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[Sancho]

The late refresh is really the big one to me. It smells of them trying to polish a new design. That could still be the case--Apple isn't going to want to reduce battery life or increase heat, but they wanted to put in a more powerful chip and make it a world phone. All of which is something they haven't dealt with in the smaller form factor (or at all, in the case of the world phone feature.) Of course, with a larger screen, they probably would have had more space for batteries. I'm not sure if all of the extra juice would have been required just to run the screen or not. Regardless, they might have had problems getting everything just right with the A5 in the iPhone's form factor. They didn't make a big deal out of the CPU this time around--just the GPU. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if the A5 in the 4s was a little underclocked compared to the iPad2.

I think 4G was obviously not going to happen for the battery life reasons alone. Apple is also going more data-centric, and with cellular providers capping data left and right, it will be interesting to see what happens when those collide. Apple has shown that it's willing to throw its weight around to get a better experience for its users. I'm hoping that when they go LTE, they'll get exemptions to metered data for their own services. Frankly, without that, I have much less interest in iCloud.

NFC...that was a big, big rumor. I'm not disappointed that it didn't pan out exactly--I'd currently have no use for it. I don't know, it's kind of a wild card right now, I think.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[RightSaidFred99]

The Shuffle is inferior in almost every way to the Sansa Clip Zip or Clip+.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[Threni]

> It is Apple tactic No. 1, and Cook is full square behind it.

With let-downs like this he needs to be careful if it's not going to be "Cook? Cook who?".

I can only assume the 5 wasn't ready so they had to put out a sort of overclocked HTC Wildfire. "It's got voice recognition, which means you can.." Yeah yeah, been there, it's been on Android for, what, two years now?

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[Threni]

> I know several people with a 3GS who are looking forward to upgrading, because it's a big leap for
> them.

Let's be honest - pretty much every phone out there is a big leap for 3GS users, what with the tiny, almost monochrome display and piss poor power. The figures speak for themselves - Apple had their day in the sun and now they're playing catch up with the Galaxy S2, Nexus Prime etc. Even the Kindle launch was more interesting than this.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[__aailob1448]

You are correct that the peak speed isn't that important but, apparently, (please correct me if I'm wrong) 4G also reduces latency which is hugely important.

Here is a comparison between ATT 3G and 4G which shows that latency in 4G is about 30% lower (50ms vs 70ms).

This impacts browsing in a very big way for browsing, VOIP and Videoconferencing, online gaming and so forth.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[green1]

let's not overlook Siri, which looks to be the future of smartphones.

If their only revolutionary selling point is a feature that the competition has had for several years... doesn't bode well..

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[boreddotter]

It's been like that with Apple rumours since forever... you are always disappointed at the announcement.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[geekoid]

Apple works very hard to cultivate an image, and leverage online hype very effectively. So in that regard, they dropped the ball.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[xouumalperxe]

Did you for even a second believe most of those rumours?

4" display? That'd imply changing to a lower dpi display to keep the resolution of the iphone 4 (which they would be quite unlikely to do -- the display's a strong selling point!), or, much worse, keep the dpi and increase the resolution, and break the nice resolution arrangement that exists right now, with the newer devices being exactly twice the resolution of the older ones.

It's also pretty obvious from the 3DS that the glassless 3D idea is a gimmick that doesn't push devices. Plus it'd require developing the 3d for apps, that'd further fracture the developing effort.

NFC I thought was a possibility, if somewhat forward for Apple's style. I can't recall them being early adopter for any tech at all in the last few years. They're usually either pioneers or late to the game, but 4G was definitely a no-go. There's no such thing as a well-defined 4G standard, there's only a handful of competing technologies. I'm pretty sure Apple will only join in on the 4G party once the dust has settled on a more global scale.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[Webz]

Sense of entitlement much? Why don't you try designing and implementing the world's greatest phone, see how far you get.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[dakameleon]

3G -> 4S is a bigger upgrade than many considering this who are on 3GS or 4 - the 3GS upgrade path is reasonable one, the upgrade from 4 much less distinct, but one that's hedged by those who didn't like the current design (like me). The design might be selling like hotcakes, but that doesn't mean everyone likes it - and some of us got our hopes up with rumors of a redesign.

Yes, yes, Apple didn't promise anything, but nonetheless it left this presentation a little underwhelming.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[dudpixel]

I think you nailed it in your first line.

"A year and a half later" - its not 2 years yet since the last big update. Most people who bought an iPhone 4 are still on contract.

Better to wait until all of those people are ready to buy a new phone, and then launch the iPhone 5.

Unfortunately for Apple, everyone knows this - so the iPhone 4S was really just a fill-in. Why did they need a fill-in? If I had to guess I'd say its because Android 4 launches in a week from now, with the Samsung Nexus Prime (or whatever it will be called). They needed something to tie the users over...

The greater news will be when iOS5 gets rolled out soon...that's what Apple should be pinning their hopes on. New hardware is nice and all, but was it needed? probably not - the iPhone 4 coped just fine. But the new features in iOS5 sound good, and the earlier iPhones get them too for free...

Have to wonder if this was all a bit of a misstep for Apple. It wont hurt them, sure, but one wonders if it was even necessary? The problem Apple have created is that the hype always preceeds their events - and if their products dont live up to the hype, then people get disappointed. How will they prevent this happening again?

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[dudpixel]

Any phone manufacturer can do an update like this in just a few months.

I'd say this is just a fill-in device until the iPhone 5 arrives next year (when all the iPhone 4 users are out of their 2 year contracts). With a big Android release around the corner, they needed something to keep the fans happy - and this was it.

Just an observation - do you agree?

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[kimvette]

If all it offered was a larger screen and more storage (64GB or 128GB) I'd be upgrading on Oct 14. Unfortunately, just the larger 64GB capacity isn't enough to convince me to upgrade.

Dual core? I don't use the iPhone for 3D gaming since the ui is cumbersome. I like 2D games on it (Angry Birds, World of Goo, and so on) so the upgraded graphics chipset and CPU don't impress me much. For GPS navigation, looking things up in Safari, and so on, it's plenty fast with the single core processor. If I am not multitasking, leaving it on standby/sleep mode brings the charge down only 20% over the course of a full day, so battery life is fine for a phone. And of course, the single core processor is fine for actually using the phone as (gasp) a phone. As far as the 8MP camera goes? It has a tiny lens, so small snapshots are fine - and f/2.8? On a 1/4" sensor, the depth of field is still immense, so it still produces images that look like a camera phone or very low-end P&S camera image. If I need high resolution photos, I'll use my DSLR instead. My iPhone 4 does pretty much everything the 4S will do, albeit slightly slower - well, except for Siri, which is a cute feature but not a "must have." Heck, even my old 3GS did most of what I need.

I'm sure some Apple worshippers who already have the iPhone 4 will upgrade to the latest golden calf. I'll wait for the larger screen, unless my iPhone irreparably breaks in the meantime.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[cthulhu11]

A year and a half later, all that they can offer is a slightly better camera, faster CPU, and universal (GSM+CDMA) mobile. :(

It would seem that they felt that's all they needed to do to the thing. The original iPhone 4 was still selling well and I suspect they felt that the market wasn't demanding massive changes.

Most people including myself

You personally know "most people" and polled them?

were hopefully for the thinner design, larger edge-to-edge 4 inch screen, metal back, NFC, 3D glassless display, 4G wireless data, etc. that were mentioned in the iPhone 5 rumours/hype

The rumors that we would get such a device today were rather tenuous and it's been quite a while since many believed it would happen. Now, instead of a gearhead, think for a moment like a business. If they delivered all of the above today, what would be left for next year? Would you instead twelve months from now bemoan that the 5s didn't offer massive changes/improvements?

No innovative must have features offer!

The Siri stuff, if it works, isn't innovative enough for you?

Definitely not worth an update over the popular iPhone 4.

Some of us have older phones. I've been nursing my 3G along waiting for this to pop, and now it has.

It also sucks that you still can't play video podcasts in the iPod Nano like you used to 2 generations ago!

That's a bit of an abrupt product jump, but ... the Nano is like 2 square inches of display -- and you want to watch *video* on it?

In fact this entire iPhone+iPod refresh really is a big disappointment for me.

So you'd be happier if they hadn't refreshed the products at all???

I guess Apple does not think that hardware innovation is important anymore! What a great way to disappoint your fans, and have them look at other platforms that at least have some more frequent hardware improvements.

What do you expect? Earthshaking redesigns every three months? Do you really toss your phone and buy a new one that often?

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[exomondo]

So it's either let everybody know what you're working on and risk competitors beating you to market, or keep quiet and risk disappointment among the fans when their hyped up assumptions prove wrong.

But the things people were expecting are things that are already on the market not things where they would have to worry about competitors beating them, Apple's PR should have managed those expectations somewhat given they knew the device would be below the cutting edge of the industry in particular aspects, as in screen size, NFC and radio (and yes in many aspects it does still define the industry cutting edge, like screen resolution).

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[Threni]

> Any phone manufacturer can do an update like this in just a few months.

Exactly. It's just Apple playing catch up to Android.

I can only assume the iPhone 5 wasn't quite ready for a high profile demo. Shame they're going to miss christmas. The prime, galaxy sii etc won't.

Maybe next year? Of course, there'll be new Android phones then too...

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[rolfwind]

Let's be honest - pretty much every phone out there is a big leap for 3GS users, what with the tiny, almost monochrome display and piss poor power.

Almost monochrome screen? Are you at all grounded in reality?

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[afabbro]

Thing is, Apple didn't do anything to set up expectations,

You're right, but Apple certainly has the power to dampen expectations, leak to favored journalists, etc. It's not like they didn't know what people were expecting.

Their iron-clad policy of "no comment" did not serve them well here.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[Threni]

I put my HTC Desire next to a iPhone 3gs. You have to try and politely not laugh at the shitty, small iPhone screen with its washed out colours.

Perhaps you have some difficulty with your eyesight, though.

Re:No iPhone 5, just iPhone 4s

[rjstanford]

Did you actually read that link? The technology mentioned in that very article, HSPA+, is completely supported by the iPhone 4S. Here's another link from the same site that backs up the speed claims.

And...

[Petersko]

Cue dickheads making derogatory statements about iOS device owners for no good reason other than an assumed - and misplaced - feeling of technical superiority.

Re:And...

[geekoid]

misplaced? Android has had pretty much every technical feature before the iPhone.

so, no not misplaced.
http://techthirst.com/?p=414

Re:And...

[MrMickS]

misplaced? Android has had pretty much every technical feature before the iPhone.

so, no not misplaced.
http://techthirst.com/?p=414

I was expecting some nonsense in the comments for this story but the parent getting modded Insightful takes the biscuit. Given that the iPhone was released before Android how has it had pretty much every technical feature before the iPhone?

Ah, I get it. Google have used their massive computing power on the faster than c neutrino problem and gone back in time to change history.

Re:And...

[geekoid]

While I could have been more clear, if you had read the article you would have understood what I was saying.
Yes, the iPhone was first, but after the android came out, Apple has been following.
Android and Stereo blue-tooth first, multitasking, good notification, and many others, listed ni the article.

So I apologize about not being clear, OTOH, that doesn't excuse you being an ass.

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[mr1911]

Because I own pharmaceutical stock, and you just popped another blood pressure pill.

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[mr1911]

He was injured in a horrible chiropractic accident.

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[Duradin]

Great, now tanked is like bricked.

Augmented Reality gets closer to existence

[Scowler]

This 4S phone might have the horsepower and usability to pull it off, at least some of the basic augmented reality applications?

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[jellomizer]

Your right... They should be a site that that consolidated tech based news across web to cover such things such as new product releases of technology.

Perhaps we should name it after some some part of a basic mainframe commands but obscure enough to to keep some people out. Maybe DividePeriod.org

Lets face the facts Ladies and Gentlemen...
Slashdot is a tech web site... Apple is the big name in tech... Information will be spread to the site.

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[atrain728]

Apple is the biggest (technology) company in the world. Thus, it's product releases are going to be covered by (technology) websites everywhere.

I feel dumber for having to explain that.

Apple Disappoints -- Again

[Nom du Keyboard]

So Apple disappointed us with no iPhone 5 in June. Now 4 months later they disappoint again with a warmed-over iPhone 4S that might be worth getting if you have no iPhone at all, but not get locked into a new upgrade contract otherwise. Meanwhile there are multiple Android LTE choices available. Has Apple lost their magic and now just wants to squeeze out every last dollar as long as the current iPhone continues to sell? Or is Apple showing the inherent weakness of one company against everyone else when it comes to innovation. Even in the best year(s) there was only one iPhone model to choose from.

Re:Apple Disappoints -- Again

[SlowGenius]

There was one, and only one mega-fail here. It didn't happen today. It happened when Apple made their announcement of "Let's talk iPhone" and then failed to keep expectations within line. Everybody has now been buzzing about the dual iPhone 4S/iPhone 5 announcement for the past couple of weeks. Without an iPhone 5 announcement to be made today, Apple needed to kill that rumor DEAD. Instead, they've managed to totally underwhelm the world with a new product launch for a fine incremental update for something that would have looked fairly decent if examined in its own light. Mr. Cook, I'm sorry to inform you that you just flunked the oral portion of your CEO marketing exam and that the board is likely soon going to be announcing your imminent departure from the top spot. Nice knowing you.

Re:Apple Disappoints -- Again

[hoppo]

Is this really any different than Apple's strategy all along? Come out with a phone, and make incremental improvements each year. Every other year (except for 1-3g jump) has been the major refresh mark. If you come out with a majorly new product each year, you stand to alienate your customer base -- the majority of customers will balk at feeling pressure to refresh their devices every year. This puts people on a 2-year track, which also coincides with the term of carrier contracts.

And face it, Apple has never attempted to cater to the device geek market, except maybe with the very first iPhone (and that's a stretch). Instead, they have focused on enhancing features that are important to everyday use, often centering around a single aspect. In this case it's battery life and form factor. It may be lacking 4G, but you will make it through the day on a single charge, without having to do much, if anything, to optimize battery usage. And it will fit pretty comfortably in your pocket.

That's been Apple's MO with all their products -- make consumer-grade devices that do the important things well, and leave other competition for the early adopters. I like a lot of the Android phones, but I wish one of them would take a similar strategy and make them accessories as opposed to focal points -- take a break from cramming new features in and turn attention to gaining energy efficiency and making the things smaller.

Re:Apple Disappoints -- Again

[itsdapead]

lnstead, they've managed to totally underwhelm the world with a new product launch for a fine incremental update for something that would have looked fairly decent if examined in its own light.

Lets wait and see what the world thinks rather than the handful of rabid fans and trolls who were obsessively scouring the interwebs for unconfirmed iPhone 5 leaks and rumors. Although, come to think about it, the rumor sites have been accurately predicting the 4S for the last couple of weeks, so I don't know who is really that surprised.

This is far from the first time that Apple have failed to deliver the fusion-powered, unobtanium-cased ubergizmo predicted by rumor sites - they haven't gone bust yet.

Re:Apple Disappoints -- Again

[ediron2]

Yeah, I base my product evaluations entirely on whether the version number goes from N to N.1 vs. N to N+1. It's a goddamned VERSION number folks.

Sheesh, the antifanboi-ism is almost as insane as the fanboi ranting. I'm a 3g owner that has waited far too long to upgrade in part because I was hoping for a worthy webOS working-grade phone (not some pixie whosit). To me, they've said the 4s improvements are: faster better camera, better antenna (the 4's antenna is a dealbreaker where I've tested it), good cloud integration, better chip, better battery life, and voice-driven functionality. It sure smells like the rumored iphone 5 from where I'm sitting. Better, not a slam dunk win over new droids, and enough to make me mildly want it, in spite of my techno-tinkering ways making me more of an android kind of user.

Oh, and it stuck with same form-factor, meaning docks and protective cases and other accessories won't set me back as much as the phone itself. That's a big damn deal, IMHO.

Re:Apple Disappoints -- Again

[cthulhu11]

So, you assert that Apple should have changed their entire strategy and designed / had manufactured a whole new hardware platform because of some lame-ass rumor started a month or two before the announcement?

Antenna switching for transmit/receive?

[Scowler]

Can somebody explain that a little more? Is that really unique or not?

Re:Antenna switching for transmit/receive?

[Seedy2]

I heard someone in the office say that the claim was 2 antennas make it communicate twice as fast.
The sad thing is, people will believe that, many people.

Re:Antenna switching for transmit/receive?

[LDAPMAN]

It's that there are two antennas. It's how those antennas are used. Not sure how they are doing it yet but they are claiming 14.4Mbps which is twice the speed of the iPhone4.

Re:Antenna switching for transmit/receive?

[Seedy2]

I'm not a radio-head, so I don't know what you get for using two antennas each for 1/2 duplex instead of one at full duplex; but I cannot imagine it's twice as fast, or everyone would be doing it.

Re:FAIL

[Wingsy]

It very well could be the best antenna. What other cell phone can switch to a 2nd antenna when your hand is covering one of them? (Oh, I get it. Just because it CAN must mean one or both antennas are deficient in some way. Right?)

Apple must be getting hammered

[CODiNE]

This is the longest I've ever seen their website down. Come to think of it, I've never seen it down before.

Whoop, it's up. That was a solid 10 minutes at least.

Re:Apple must be getting hammered

[R3d M3rcury]

When I go to http://www.apple.com/, I get an "Access Denied" message. It works if I go to http://www.apple.com/iphone/, though.

Re:Apple's next product.

[desdinova 216]

so it's going to be less expensive than a Dyson

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[gmon750]

Nonsense... this just shows your cluelessness. If you want a stock that does nothing but go up, then I have stock in Unicorn Inc. I'll sell you.

Fact: AAPL has been consistently going up for ages now. They have a great lineup now, and for the foreseeable future. They have a ridiculous amount of cash on hand, and time-and-time again the bitching of /.'rs preaching the "Apple is doomed" mantra has been proven wrong.

So it goes down 3%. BFD! Considering how high my AAPL holdings have gone up since I bought a bunch more - during the 2008 meltdown - ignoring the whining and bitching from folks like you about wasting my money, I am quite happy with the current level and after phantards like you finish your weekly anti-apple propaganda, the stock will continue to lead the industry. Continue ranting, I'll continue cashing in. Buh-bye...

www.apple.com down?

[Serious Callers Only]

First time I've seen Apple's website go down (as opposed to the store) - someone messed up when updating the store perhaps?

http://www.apple.com/
Access Denied
You don't have permission to access "http://www.apple.com/" on this server.
Reference #18.47efd4d9.1317755036.25f60c38

Anyone else seeing this?

Re:www.apple.com down?

[djlemma]

I got the same thing.

Apple "slashdotted" itself I guess. That, or maybe anonymous is up to some tricks...

Re:www.apple.com down?

[Gazzonyx]

Yeah, it's down for everyone.

Re:www.apple.com down?

[R3d M3rcury]

Yup. But the individual links work (ie, http://www.apple.com/iphone/)

Pass the popcorn and chocolate rain

[Quiet_Desperation]

Damn, the bitterness and whining in here is epic! You ponies are just the most fun I've had in eons.

Quick! More posts about how you can completely profile a human being you have never met down to their last minor psychological trait based on what smart phone they use. That shit is hilarious!

Re:Pass the popcorn and chocolate rain

[Scowler]

It's pathetic, isn't it. In the Slashdot of old, there would be a lot of people dissecting the new features, especially Siri and the new camera, comparing those features to competitors (objectively), maybe explaining the prior art or comparative products that exist. There would still be a lot of criticism, but by and large most of it would be of the objective kind. The slashdot of now? A bitter cesspool of trollish negativity.

Re:Pass the popcorn and chocolate rain

[Sunshinerat]

Welcome to the new internet.
In case you have not noticed, "half" the world is on the net which means the number of morons out here quadrupled as well.
Try to read the comments section on your favorite news site, you will understand what I mean...

Re:Pass the popcorn and chocolate rain

[Quiet_Desperation]

Well, here it can be fun to watch people traffic in stereotypes (and weird oxymoron ones, like mainstream hipsters).

On news sites it's depressing because there is discussion of actual important issues, as opposed to what gadget someone watches their German BDSM porn on (not tat I know about any of that, no sir, not me). On the Right sites it's all "Obama am teh anti-Jesus" and on the Left sites it's all "If your child shows any desired to be a businessman, kill it immediately, for it is evil, and unclean in the sight of Gaia."

And, yeah, I know I just picked on using stereotypes, but my two goofy examples are not *that* far off the mark for some sites.

My favorite this month was some women hating on the new My Little Pony for making the ponies "slim and sexy" and wanting to know where the fat ponies were.

"Eaten by wolves because they can't run as fast," I responded. They were not amused. :-)

Re:Pass the popcorn and chocolate rain

[Sunshinerat]

An evolutionist answer never flies in those situations.
To be honest, I am more disturbed by making ponies sexy than slim...

Re:Pass the popcorn and chocolate rain

[Quiet_Desperation]

Well, that was their words. They just look like cute overloaded cartoon animals to me. It's those anime eyes, I think.

Re:Pass the popcorn and chocolate rain

[geekoid]

Should you be mod +1 funny. or -1 romanticizing the past?

Seriously, its ALWAYS been like this. Except it was Star Wars Rage 12 years ago instead of Apple Rage..cause, really Apple was almost out of business then.

Take a look:
http://web.archive.org/web/200012171146/http://slashdot.org/articles/98/11/11/1050224.shtml

Re:Pass the popcorn and chocolate rain

[hovelander]

OUTSTANDING!!!

Re:Pass the popcorn and chocolate rain

[geekoid]

You think that was an evolutionist answer? seriously?
Pretty pathetic.

Re:Pass the popcorn and chocolate rain

[Scowler]

One single novel feature often generates a thousand posts.

Re:Pass the popcorn and chocolate rain

[Scowler]

I think it's worse now. People, back then, came here in large numbers; and a large enough portion of them used the moderation system to good effect. A +5 insightful post truly was insightful, for example. That does not really happen any more, and I think that's why slashdot readership fell off a cliff, and why Taco ultimately left.

Re:Pass the popcorn and chocolate rain

[Scowler]

Kind of true, but the statement is also accurate and intended to spur some self-reflection on the part of some of the posters here. I would characterize my post, in entirety, as a lament, not a trollish critique.

Re:Pass the popcorn and chocolate rain

[sonicmerlin]

I also get tired of mentioning the A5's GPU is extremely powerful compared to every other device out there. Shrinking the iPad 2's SoC into the iPhone's form factor and maintaining or even improving battery life from the previous iPhone is really amazing.

Re:Pass the popcorn and chocolate rain

[SuperKendall]

Seriously, its ALWAYS been like this

No, it has not. Even the Microsoft hate (which was sometimes out of line) was more tame than what you are seeing against Apple these days - mostly because back then people would be hating on Microsoft mostly on technical merits, rather than just pure hate.

Re:Pass the popcorn and chocolate rain

[nloop]

I remember more Natalie Portman, Grits, and First Post personally.

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[John Bresnahan]

It was about $50/share when I bought some 4-5 years ago.

I'm not complaining.

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[MozeeToby]

He had a bad sublaxion that caused him to accidentally post under his real username, outing himself once and for all as an above average troll.

RIP Dr Bob, you were as entertaining as you were frustrating (which, thanks to /. moderation isn't really saying all that much).

Re:For something far more rewarding...

[MikeBabcock]

The Onion's story was an excellent summary of the event in advance I believe.

During a highly anticipated media event held today at the Apple corporation’s world headquarters, CEO Tim Cook announced the new iPhone 4S is good and people should buy it. “It’s a good phone,” said Cook, walking out onto a stage and gesturing at a picture of the device projected on a large screen behind him. "It's got e-mail, the Internet, and you can get apps on it. Everybody should get one. It's good." After standing in place for another four seconds without speaking, Cook walked off stage, at which point the houselights came up and all in attendance were asked to please file out of the auditorium.

Re:Apple's next product.

[gmon750]

Sure... and then Samsung comes out with their iSuck clone called "iSwallow". Looks and functions exactly alike, yet takes it all the way down the throat like a true whiner should.

The iPhone Force (4S)

[qpqp]

Best model name as of yet, IMO.

Re:The iPhone Force (4S)

[Sunshinerat]

I was a fan of the iPhone 3Some.

Re:it is clear who is a not current CEO

[Scowler]

Sometimes car companies iterate on their products with only incremental updates to the styling, but with significantly better interior features and under-the-hood improvements. Casual auto customers don't always notice, but enough enthusiasts exist out there that these kinds of updates *can* be worthwhile.

The smartphone marketplace is not as mature as the automotive one, but in the end the same customer dynamics are likely to exist.

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[harperska]

Actually, I'm not surprised at all, and kind of wish the fanboys who are raging that the new phone doesn't shit rainbows and have a '5' in its name would sell off more of their stock and depress the value even more so that I can afford to buy some AAPL for myself.

Kinda sucks...

[MBC1977]

Not sure I understand the business reasons fully for not allowing T-Mobile to carry the iPhone 4S. If there was any carrier who really needs this phone they are the ones who need it most; especially in light of the fact that there is no guarantee that the AT&T / T-Mobile merger will occur. Perhaps its just sour apples on my part, since I really was hoping to finally move away from my Blackberry.

Re:Kinda sucks...

[Lifyre]

You could try Sprint? I'm not saying they're better (in fact from my experience there is a good reason they're failing) but you could get the iPhone without dealing with ATT or Verizon.

Re:Kinda sucks...

[Glendale2x]

My take is that T-mobile not getting the iPhone is probably a good indication that the merger will happen since AT&T already has it.

Re:Kinda sucks...

[Miamicanes]

It's still stupid for them to not support 1700MHz uplinks. Even if AT&T *does* buy T-Mobile, it's not like they could instantly absorb all of their customers into AT&T's existing 3G network overnight without making life suck even MORE for existing AT&T customers. If the iPhone 4s phones sold by AT&T supported 1700/2100 (AWS) UMTS, and AT&T closed the deal, they could instantly add T-Mobile's existing 1700/2100 HSPA+ sites to AT&T overnight with little more than a PRL update.

That said, is the iPhone 4s physically INCAPABLE of 1700MHz uplinks, or is it merely not CERTIFIED for them? I find it hard to believe that Apple has somehow managed to buy millions of WCDMA baseband processor chips that are LITERALLY silicon-incapable of 1700MHz operation. Personally, I suspect the iPhone 4s's bare-metal hardware is perfectly capable of 1700MHz AWS, but won't be submitted to the FCC for certification as such unless the AT&T merger falls through.

Re:Kinda sucks...

[Rich0]

Plus, what does AT&T do with all the 1700MHz phones floating out there? Do they offer to replace smartphones that might be only a month old?

If they cut off 3G/4G service then that is breach of contract (I PAID for 4G service!) - and now their leading-edge customers are free to change carriers. They at least need to make a decent show of offering that service until the contracts run out.

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[wintercolby]

Wait, this is /. Do you mean to tell me someone actually read the article and they didn't even apologize for it?

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[John Bresnahan]

Some people would call this a "buying opportunity".

iPod Classic Lives!

[Sponge Bath]

I'm glad they did not axe the iPod classic. Maybe they will reward the faithful with a quiet upgrade to 320GB since 320GB 1.8" drives have been around for a couple of years.

Re:My prediction

[jo_ham]

Teach me how to be cool like you!

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[semi-extrinsic]

Sure, no stock goes up forever. But as you point out, AAPL has been consistently going up for ages. This has resulted in many people considering the stock "overbought". So if you bought stock in 2008, you should take your money now, deposit 95% of it in a savings account and gamble 5%, e.g. on shorting Raiffeisen or Commerzbank. As that will probably be good for your assets, and AAPL probably sees some downward adjustments during the next few months, you can buy even more AAPL for Christmas! (Disclaimer: Don't trust random internet people with your finances.)

As I always thought

[Anomalyst]

An iPhone 4 is for Shiat

Re:Flash on the iPad!

[toriver]

Crippled? Flash is a stop-gap solution. Stop worshiping Adobe like that.

Re:it is clear who is a not current CEO

[fullmetal55]

Just like nobody upgraded to the 3GS right? This isn't a new pattern for Apple. Nor will it be!

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[Hatta]

RIP Dr. Bob.

But they promised me a pony!

[bledri]

Despite all the nerd rage that Apple did not deliver on all the random rumors posted by those not in the know, it's a good phone and they'll sell like freakin' hotcakes.

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[Idbar]

And they are actually very smart. Since there are SO many expectations on the iPhone 5, and they don't have a fully cooked product, they will be releasing an iPhone 4S.

Re:it is clear who is a not current CEO

[hovelander]

Someone mod this up, please.

Today is an interesting intersect of how Apple releases products, media boredom & follow on, and Jobs leaving. Awful lot of hype building up to an imaginary iphone 5, and then this collective letdown because it looks the same and isn't a new number.

Kind of funny, really.

unexpectedly?

[geekoid]

IT was know there wouldn't be an iPhone 5 anouncement. This isn't surprising at all, in fact it's was expected.

One important announcement

[HuguesT]

One thing that I believe is important: even after today, the 3GS is still sold by Apple, it is now the cheapest available IOS5 device. This means it is still supported for another year.

Good news for all the 3GS owners.

Re:My prediction

[Atzanteol]

Just wait 'til he tells you how he doesn't even *own* a TV!

Re:shoe's on the other foot now!

[ganjadude]

i have to use octoshape with something i enjoy on weekends that is streamed, Truth be told, i really like it

Re:Flash on the iPad!

[dave420]

It's hardly "stop-gap". It has plenty of very valid uses that still haven't been bested by any other technology out there. It's not perfect, but then absolutely nothing is. Stop lying like that. :)

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[gnasher719]

As an AAPL stockholder, you should be pissed off, as their stock just tanked. Down 3% during this press conference, and it has been steadily going down for the past few months.

Sigmund Freud could probably explain it better than I can, but if you bought AAPL a few months ago, you are up quite a bit.

Crap comments :(

[Potatomasher]

Wow, to think I came to slashdot in order to have an informed discussion about Siri, the seemingly impressive voice recognition tech. Nope, all fanboys. Slashdot definitely ain't what it used to be. :-\

Re:Crap comments :(

[bledri]

The only comments I've seen regarding Siri claim that Android has had it for 2 years now. If they are talking about about voice recognition to dial numbers and play songs, then Apple has had that for years as well. If Android has had conversational, contextual voice recognition that seamlessly integrates all the core apps plus external information sources allowing the user to speak naturally, then a lot of marketing dweebs in several companies should be fired because I've never heard of it.

Anyway, I can't wait to see how Siri works in the real world. If it works even half as well as the demo, it seems like a big deal to me. As in "killer app" big. Truthfully I was confused by the audience's staid reaction, I don't think understood how awesome the potential of it is.

Yeah, I sound like a fanboy.

Re:Crap comments :(

[narcc]

If Android has had conversational, contextual voice recognition that seamlessly integrates all the core apps plus external information sources allowing the user to speak naturally, then a lot of marketing dweebs in several companies should be fired because I've never heard of it.

Vlingo Plus Personal Assistant for iOS, Android, and Blackberry.

Re:Crap comments :(

[bledri]

...

Vlingo Plus Personal Assistant for iOS, Android, and Blackberry.

Interesting, I didn't know about Vlingo (or Siri) before the Apple announcement. Vlingo looks pretty powerful, as I haven't used either I can't compare them. I think Apple including this as a standard part of the phone's functionality out of the box is a big deal. Maybe Google will more tightly integrate Google Voice into Android itself, or maybe they'll buy Vlingo to counter Apple's purchase and integration of Siri.

So its an incremental update?

[renegadesx]

How is that any different from all previous iPhones, Android phones, desktops, etc?
Are not all upgrades incremental? Otherwise it would be a new product.

Rumors fooled you

[MikeMo]

All the stuff that you were expecting was pure speculation and rumor, nothing from Apple. It appears that the blogosphere and the rumor sites are responsible for your disappointment, not Apple.

Beyond that, it seems to me that a dual-core CPU (and GPU) is much more than just a "faster CPU". That, plus a dual-mode, spatial antenna, 8MP backlit sensor, 5-element lens, all in the same package with essentially the same battery life is pretty remarkable, especially at the same price. That plus iOS5 makes this a non-trivial update. It's at least as big an update as the 3GS was over the 3G.

AND, don't sell Apple's implementation of Siri short until you give it a good look. Cnet is a good place to start. It's WAY beyond voice recognition. It requires the A5 CPU.

Re:Apple's next product.

[fyngyrz]

Yeah, the thing is, a vacuum that leaps and bounds misses spots, see?

Back to the drawing board for you...

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[geekoid]

define biggest.
I consider IBM and MS to be far bigger. as in, more stuff more places.

Re:Siri makes it worth about any price

[narcc]

Siri isn't new. It's been around for a while now. I haven't checked, but I'll bet you can still get it on iTunes for your iPhone 4.

There are also alternative products that do the exact same thing for iOS, Android, and Blackberry.

Re:iPhone 5 isn't ready becasue

[Anonymous Coward]

An impressive fake but a fake nonetheless. Holographic display? Riiiight.

Which is why...

[SuperKendall]

my 3GS I have to hit the home button, slide to unlock, put in my access code, find my camera app (which isn't hard, mind), and load it.

That's why in iOS5 they added the camera to the lock screen. so you don't have to do anything but hit the home button, then the camera button.

You'll even get that on the 3GS on the 12th... startup time will not be 1.1 seconds though.

Re:Which is why...

[MrAngryForNoReason]

That's why in iOS5 they added the camera to the lock screen. so you don't have to do anything but hit the home button, then the camera button.

Doesn't that leave you rather open to anyone who picks up your phone taking pictures with it? Look forward to your photo album being full of pictures of balls when you get back from the bar.

Re:Which is why...

[Mike Buddha]

I believe it was explained in an earlier iOS 5 event that the pics taken from the lock screen are sequestered in a separate memory area and have to be promoted to your regular album.

Have vs. Have Nots

[SuperKendall]

Go watch the video of the various things it does, then come back and say the competition has the same thing with a straight face...

Re:Have vs. Have Nots

[green1]

The competition has the same thing. (You can't see my face, but it's straight)

Re:Have vs. Have Nots

[green1]

Take a look at vlingo

Re:Have vs. Have Nots

[green1]

Vlingo

VR for the rest of humanity

[SuperKendall]

Vlingo Plus Personal Assistant for iOS, Android, and Blackberry.

Did yo notice that all of the commands you send it have the action you want taken, then some data?

That is fine for a technical person who is used to thinking like that but hard to use for people who do not. Siri lets you mix action and data any way, and can have multiple steps involved... watch the video for the examples they used. It's more impressive than I thought it would be.

Re:VR for the rest of humanity

[narcc]

I checked out the demo again I tried a few similar phrases out in Vlingo, with various results. (To your first point, you're right. For whatever reason, it never occurred to me to ask my phone if I need an umbrella when I could simply ask for the weather. I'll take you at your word that I'm in the minority here.)

Anyhow, I dug up this article from 2010 which highlights some of the differences between Vlingo and Siri. They seem to take (in general) two different approaches to the same problem:
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/Vlingo-Answers-Apple-Siri-With-SuperDialer-for-Android-459856/

Back to the demo. Some of the things in the Siri demo are identical in Vlingo such as reading and replying to messages (the jogger in the demo says "read message" and "reply: defiantly, I'll see you there" keeping with the (rather sensible) command / data approach. Same with the "text [name] [message]" part.

It diverges somewhat for questions like "what's the traffic like around here" -- but that's not really interesting within a set of limited domains. It's similar to how Vlingo will give me a list of restaurants near me when I say "Mexican restaurants" or something similar -- snagging my location form the GPS and doing a specialized search like Siri does. Siri just seems to allow more free-form questions

I did try a few free-form inquiries with vlingo just to see what I could get it to do. I started with a simple "send a text to steve, how are you" instead of my normal "text steve message how are you" and they worked identically. The more complex "I'm hungry for Mexican food" snagged my location from GPS and pulled up a list of local Mexican restaraunts (with ratings, address, and a button to call them) just like my earlier, simpler, query. It looks like I'd need to try Siri out to really see how much they actually differ here.

The neat bit with Siri seems to happen with questions like "what about napa valley?" -- remembering the previous inquery and adjusting it and the subsequent reply. I'm curious to see how this will ultimately work in practice, however, as it doesn't seem too far removed from the average chat bot (which is sure to produce some bizarre results in response to odd phrasing or misinterpreted speech.) This isn't to say that it's not nifty, just that I expect it will function more like Alice than the Star Trek computer (the parallel the demo wants us to draw, obviously).

Ultimately, I'd really need to play with Siri for a bit to see how much they really differ and what advantages Siri's narrow-but-deep approach offers over Vlingo's broad-but-shallow approach.

Anyhow, having dug a bit deeper, I think I understand your point.

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[Totenglocke]

Except that Apple is already following the RIM(job) model of being lazy and making extremely minor changes and thinking they can stay on top. That's why iOS's market share hasn't changed for over a year now while Android's market share keeps going up and up - because the companies making Android phones are innovating constantly as well as Google updating Android more than once a year with minor changes. Eventually investors will realize that Apple has peaked and that stock will start to drop - FAST.

Does the "S" mean suck?

[starfire83]

What gets me is why this is coming to market without any of the current "4G" technologies for all the supported carriers. According to the tech specs there's no LTE, HSPA+, or WiMax antennas. At least on Sprint it would make sense to include a WiMax antenna since they're the only ones remaining with truly unlimited data for their phones (they just capped their mobile broadband to 5GB).

Re:Does the "S" mean suck?

[aristotle-dude]

What gets me is why this is coming to market without any of the current "4G" technologies for all the supported carriers. According to the tech specs there's no LTE, HSPA+, or WiMax antennas. At least on Sprint it would make sense to include a WiMax antenna since they're the only ones remaining with truly unlimited data for their phones (they just capped their mobile broadband to 5GB).

There is currently no "true" LTE chipset from Qualcomm. They have LTE "data" but not voice which is a problem because then you cannot implement and LTE "world" phone and have to settle for two LTE models. Don't believe me? Look up their roadmap.

As for Wi-Max, that is a real niche standard which was not even intended for use in handsets. It was meant for wireless home internet connectivity.

Re:Does the "S" mean suck?

[starfire83]

WiMax may be a niche standard but it's in all of Sprint's high-end and flagship phones. Suffice to say, with Sprint's ideals about keeping unlimited data for their phones, not including WiMax is kind of a kick in the pants because the iPhone hitting Sprint could, potentially, boost their customer base. There's plenty of people wanting to leave Verizon and AT&T but want to keep their precious iDevice. As far as LTE goes, I can see keeping LTE out until there's both data and voice on the carriers that use that standard so they can promote an actual world phone with a "4G" technology in it.

Re:Yawn! Who cares?

[atrain728]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/aug/09/apple-pips-exxon-as-worlds-biggest-company

Re:For something far more rewarding...

[MikeBabcock]

Just since you may not have noticed; the Onion posted this long before the conference itself happened.