IPhone 4S: A5 chip, 8MP camera, and Siri voice recognition • Hacker News Board

Re: IPhone 4S: A5 chip, 8MP camera, and Siri voice recognition

#61

Post by tptacek » Tue, Oct 04, 2011, 8:27 PM UTC

kenjackson wrote: post #21

This is a pretty underwhelming release. At least for waiting 16 months since the last phone. I sincerely hope Apple isn't about to do a replay of the Mac. Great introduction with incredible technology. But a few years into it, begins to stagnate. HW wise this nothing like the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 was a far superior device over the Galaxy S phones. The Galaxy S II though is pretty close to this. In terms of the raw…

The iPhone 4 is (apparently) Apple's most successful product launch ever. It has been for me their most useful product ever. I am rarely without it. It's my phone, my music player, my camera, my alarm clock, my kitchen timer, my only game system, and often my web browser. It is also the most solid-feeling, elegant, understated thing Apple has ever sold me.

Apart from "faster", "better at connectivity", and "better at taking pictures", where does Apple have to go with this thing? A new chassis design? Why?

I agree that this was a boring keynote. But I think it's boring because Apple has got this particular product design nailed. It may not be the best phone we'll ever see, but they're holding 20 and the dealer is showing 6.

Re: IPhone 4S: A5 chip, 8MP camera, and Siri voice recognition

#62

Post by wmeredith » Tue, Oct 04, 2011, 8:28 PM UTC

lylejohnson wrote: post #43

guywithabike wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't get it. Why's everyone underwhelmed? Is a new case the only thing people wanted?

I imagine that at least some of the disappointment is due to a lack of surprises. We've pretty much known for months that at a minimum the new iPhone (whatever model number it ended up having) would have incremental improvements over the iPhone 4. That is, we expected to see the A5 processor, and a better camera, slightly better battery life, etc. But we were simulatenously hoping that Apple would throw us a curve ba…

Yeah, this is exactly why I'm disappointed. They literally showed nothing during the Keynote that I didn't already know about.

Re: IPhone 4S: A5 chip, 8MP camera, and Siri voice recognition

#63

Post by joebadmo » Tue, Oct 04, 2011, 8:29 PM UTC

masklinn wrote: post #59

joebadmo wrote: post #47

As an Android user and admitted Google fanboy, there's a secret part of me that always hopes the new iPhone will be so much and so unequivocably better that I'll want to switch. I really like the iPhone 4/4s ID, but I am a bit disappointed that there's not a shiny new chassis with something to blow me away. No doubt the camera (now even more so) is better than anything on any Android device, probably by a lot. The pi…

> I want now is something like Locale or Tasker, background apps that allow me change phone settings according to different criteria, e.g. when I'm at home, my ringer and wifi turns on, when I leave home they turn off. Yeah a more integrated Reminder, which can handle switching settings: it has geofenced tasks and todos, system hooks would be pretty cool.

Yes, exactly. But, unfortunately, it's the kind of fiddly sort of feature that I don't expect to be high priority for Apple. I.e. the lack of it in no way stops me from recommending the iPhone to the vast majority of people that ask me which phone to get.

Re: IPhone 4S: A5 chip, 8MP camera, and Siri voice recognition

#64

Post by tptacek » Tue, Oct 04, 2011, 8:31 PM UTC

gwright wrote: post #56

tptacek wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait what? I've been AT&T since the original iPhone and AT&T has never let me upgrade, despite the massive amount of money I spent on my mobile plan.

This doesn't make sense. When you near the end of your 2-year contract AT&T will subsidize your purchase of your next phone (e.g. the $199, $299, $399 price points for the 4S announced today). If you aren't near the end of your 2-year contract then you are basically still paying off the purchase of your original phone and so AT&T (and other carriers) aren't going to give you the subsidy to purchase a new phone althou…

Yes, when I'm near the end of my contract, AT&T is happy to offer me subsidized iPhone pricing. But they haven't offered me any breaks earlier than that.

Re: IPhone 4S: A5 chip, 8MP camera, and Siri voice recognition

#65

Post by masklinn » Tue, Oct 04, 2011, 8:31 PM UTC

Xuzz wrote: post #20

seanalltogether wrote: post #19

"And iPhone 4S is a world phone, so you can use it almost anywhere. Whether you’re a GSM or CDMA customer, you can roam GSM networks in 200 countries around the world." The term 'roam' is throwing me off there, does that mean you can't swap in your own sim card? That you have to use the roaming feature on whatever your current carrier is?

Most likely. Most iPhones are sold locked to a specific carrier. Only recently (this summer) were you even able to buy unlocked ones inside the US.

On the other hand, it was always possible to unlock the phone with third-party tools or in countries with better consumer protection than the US,.

Re: IPhone 4S: A5 chip, 8MP camera, and Siri voice recognition

#66

Post by gwright » Tue, Oct 04, 2011, 8:31 PM UTC

Greenisus wrote: post #7

I was hoping for an iPhone 5 with a new design, but I'm still very excited about this. The extra processing power combined with the low level speed improvements in iOS 5 are going to be HUGE for app developers. The only letdown for me is seeing Apple do things that compete with their app developers: the new Cards app, Reminders, etc.

I've been having a hard time understanding all the clamor for a new form factor. The 3G to 3GS bump was all about performance and software. It makes sense for the 4 to 4S to also be about performance and software. The next form factor change will be the iPhone 5 in the same way that the iPhone 4 was a form-factor change.

This seems like a reasonable allocation of R&D dollars to me. I don't think the form factor has to change every year.

Apple's next earnings call will be interesting. I'm curious as to why the product cycle for the iPhone changed this time around with the fall intro rather than summer. Was it component supply? engineering delays? market timing strategy with the holidays? milking the existing iPhone 4 demand? all of the above?

Re: IPhone 4S: A5 chip, 8MP camera, and Siri voice recognition

#67

Post by gte910h » Tue, Oct 04, 2011, 8:31 PM UTC

pohl wrote: post #15

gravitronic wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does it impact battery life? To be honest I find the existing generation fast enough (and while I do enjoy gaming on my ipod touch 4g, I find 3d graphics completely overkill) but really the battery life is what's abysmal...

Good question. The results in mobile devices seems to be counter-intuitive, to me. A faster processor often means that, according to usage patterns, the work gets done faster and the machine can go into one of the many power-saving states more quickly, leading to better battery life. That probably varies by what you're trying to do, but for a smart phone the sooner it's done and back in your pocket, the better.

The CPU bound processes in most apps are tiny portions of the entire app.

Re: IPhone 4S: A5 chip, 8MP camera, and Siri voice recognition

#68

Post by colomon » Tue, Oct 04, 2011, 8:33 PM UTC

guywithabike wrote: post #34

moe wrote: post #4

Any word on when the real iphone5 will arrive? The 4S seems like a rather pitiful flagship by apple standards.

I really don't get it. Why's everyone underwhelmed? Is a new case the only thing people wanted?

Speaking solely for my perception after watching the ad linked above: It seems like the features they are highlighting for this phone are either baseline improvements that happen with every single new release (faster processor, better camera) or they are features which appear to be playing catch up with Android (voice recognition, notifications).

It's certainly possible this set of improvements adds up to a terrific phone. But the ad did nothing at all to sell that to me.

Re: IPhone 4S: A5 chip, 8MP camera, and Siri voice recognition

#69

Post by masklinn » Tue, Oct 04, 2011, 8:35 PM UTC

jesseendahl wrote: post #25

seanalltogether wrote: post #19

"And iPhone 4S is a world phone, so you can use it almost anywhere. Whether you’re a GSM or CDMA customer, you can roam GSM networks in 200 countries around the world." The term 'roam' is throwing me off there, does that mean you can't swap in your own sim card? That you have to use the roaming feature on whatever your current carrier is?

Well, so far there is no pricing available for an unlocked version of the iPhone 4S, and I assume the contract versions will carrier locked within the USA :(

Unlocked phones are available in most countries which are not the US.

They're... not cheap. On the french store, the unlocked 4S is advertised as starting from 629€ (which would be for the 16GB version)

Re: IPhone 4S: A5 chip, 8MP camera, and Siri voice recognition

#70

Post by alexg0 » Tue, Oct 04, 2011, 8:37 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #51

alexg0 wrote: post #45

AT&T has consistently let it's best customers upgrade to new iPhone releases without enforcing the contract -- charging subsidized prices to upgrade to newer iPhone models. Will Sprint and Verizon done the same, or is switching to Sprint now will commit one to sit out next iPhone?

Wait what? I've been AT&T since the original iPhone and AT&T has never let me upgrade, despite the massive amount of money I spent on my mobile plan.

Really, they let me upgrade from 3G to 3GS to 4. And I waited to get 3G few month after it originally came out.

See this article on from 2009: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10266781-37.html

update: Based on my recollection, with 3G and 3GS, AT&T only asked for 1 year contract, not two. When new iPhone was released, sometime in June or July, anybody with contact renewal through October was marked as elegible to sign new contract, and received contract pricing on the newly released model if iPhone.