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

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

#121

Post by zokier »

zokier wrote: post #113

8 megapixels, but on how large sensor? Not surprisingly, all sample images are taken in bright sunlight. I doubt that the camera will perform anywhere near Nokias N8, or reasonably priced point'n'shoot. Well, I guess that people should be lucky that Apple didn't put in something silly like 16MP 1/2.3" sensor in it.

Argh, I hate when I get downvotes without explanation.

The fact is that sensor size affects image quality as much, if not more than megapixel count, and if the camera is marketed with statements such as "With 8 megapixels and all-new optics, this just might be the best camera ever on a mobile phone." I feel that both inquiring a major factor of image quality and comparison to current market leader are justified.

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

#122

Post by chc »

kill-9 wrote: post #49
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?

Because Apple did nothing to quash rumors of the iPhone 5. This makes me think that the decision not to launch it was made very late. Usually Apple is better about managing expectations.

"Usually"? Apple almost never comments on rumors one way or the other. I can't even think of any cases where they did off the top of my head.

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

#123

Post by cschmidt »

zokier wrote: post #113

8 megapixels, but on how large sensor? Not surprisingly, all sample images are taken in bright sunlight. I doubt that the camera will perform anywhere near Nokias N8, or reasonably priced point'n'shoot. Well, I guess that people should be lucky that Apple didn't put in something silly like 16MP 1/2.3" sensor in it.

It does have an f2.4 lens, so it should be good in lower light.

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

#124

Post by schiffern »

People seem to be missing the point about Siri. When compared to the free app released two years ago, it's been neutered.

Where's OpenTable? StubHub? TaxiMagic? We've seen WolframAlpha and Yelp, but that's it. Wikipedia still has a full list. I count 19 services. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Siri_%28softw...

Siri promised to organize not just your phone, but the world outside your phone. Apple has integrated first-party apps beautifully, but heard not a peep about third-party services. Neither web services nor native apps can disclose their offerings to Siri.

The easy answer is that Apple doesn't want Siri competing with their app market.

I don't think it's so simple, and I don't think Apple is so short-sighted. After all, if someone's going to make your business obsolete, you want it to be you. Everyone and their grandmother has an app store now. What makes Apple's store distinctive is not only the quality of the apps, but the depth of the apps. Fart apps are obviously shallow (they're semantically non-existent), but a native port of a web service is pretty shallow too. How many verbs are required to interface with craigslist? How many kinds of nouns exist on Yelp? These apps have the capacity to be supplanted by Siri integration, but Apple missed the boat.

I'm comforted by Apple's admission that this is "beta" software. iOS didn't ship with any SDK (despite the obvious potential), and the reason turned out to be as innocuous as "it wasn't ready."

We've glimpsed the post-app world. Don't mess it up, Apple.

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

#125

Post by r00fus »

antifuchs wrote: post #53
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?

From footnote 4 in the tech specs at http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html ("CDMA available only if iPhone 4S is sold and activated for use on a CDMA network."), I'm guessing /hoping that if you get a CDMA phone in the US, it will come with an unlocked GSM radio.

CDMA doesn't use a SIM card, they do EMEI whitelists on their end instead (to prevent devices from authenticating with their data/voice networks that they haven't sold).

If Apple has an agreement with all major CMDA networks in the USA (i.e., Sprint and Verizon) then the 4S will NOT work on those networks unless you buy it from the carrier.

This results in more money for the carrier (and presumably Apple). Unfortunate, since I wanted a world phone where I could actually use it in multiple countries with multiple SIMs.

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

#126

Post by r00fus »

WiseWeasel wrote: post #75

I'm a 32GB 3GS owner on a lapsed ATT contract, and I'll be pre-ordering a Verizon 32GB 4S model on Friday. Two things bother me, but weren't deal-breakers: 1) It sucks that it still has the iPhone 4's flawed design, with glass going right up to the edge of the front and back, requiring a case so it can survive a fall. I've always preferred to keep my iPhones naked. 2) $400 for the 64GB model with two-year contract? R…

I'm in your shoes.

I'll be going for 64GB, as I've maxed out my iPhone storage for over a year (Apps alone are 8GB), and have had to put quotas on my media just to get some stuff in there.

$100 more over a 2-year TCO is a small fraction of the total. If you assume just the data plan alone, 24mo x $20 (VZ 1GB) = $480 and with voice, all told, it's over $2k...

Yeah, I'll pay 5% more over 2 years for double the storage.

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

#127

Post by vacri »

MatthewPhillips wrote: post #50
kenjackson wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iOS and Mango are in the same class in fundamentals. Use a device with iOS, Mango, and Android. Honestly, try it. The iOS and Mango device respond very similarly to basic things like swipes, pinches, etc... Android is a lot more jittery, even on the SGII HW. The odd thing with Android is that it's not a LOT less jittery on the G1 (although it is). Android is second best in apps. And #1 in terms of market dominance. B…

I personally don't see much of a difference between the OSes in terms of lag. I know there is a meme that iOS doesn't lag but my iPad lags all the time (and always has). If I do a big sync I have to restart the device because it's unusably laggy. My Nexus One with Gingerbread rarely lags at all. * I don't really like Android that much (or iOS).

I think that there's selection bias at work. I have an android phone, but test software for a company that only has an app for iphone (owner is iphone fan). As a result, I have to frequently borrow other people's iphones to test things with the app - and I find that the amount of missed swipes, jitteriness and responsiveness is very similar between the iphone and my 'lowly' motorola defy. If I have a lot of crap running on the defy, it performs worse, but in normal use, I don't find the touchscreen responsiveness much different between these phones.

To be honest though, I'm running CM7 and not the stock image. Still, I see iphone/pad users miss swipes all the time or have to try repinching a few times, but for some reason it registers less on a shiny device.

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

#128

Post by vacri »

ghshephard wrote: post #109
adbge wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The iOS and Mango device respond very similarly to > basic things like swipes, pinches, etc... Android > is a lot more jittery, even on the SGII HW. Before I ditched my iPhone 3G for an Atrix, the device was barely usable. It didn't just stutter, it would hang for upwards of a minute when opening certain apps (maps, I'm looking at you), and it's not like the device was defective as I've used others and had an ident…

iPhone 3G came out in 2008 - nice, because it was new - but yes, had lots of lag - better than the competition (at the time). 3GS gave it a bit of a boost. iPhone 4 was the first (in my experience) iPhone to significantly reduce lag/latency in most areas - the shutter speed was it's achilles heel (it sucks). I'm upgrading to the 4S for one reason only - Supposed zero shutter lag.

perhaps try the camera out in a story before forking over the cash first :)

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

#129

Post by WiseWeasel »

r00fus wrote: post #126
WiseWeasel wrote: post #75

I'm a 32GB 3GS owner on a lapsed ATT contract, and I'll be pre-ordering a Verizon 32GB 4S model on Friday. Two things bother me, but weren't deal-breakers: 1) It sucks that it still has the iPhone 4's flawed design, with glass going right up to the edge of the front and back, requiring a case so it can survive a fall. I've always preferred to keep my iPhones naked. 2) $400 for the 64GB model with two-year contract? R…

I'm in your shoes. I'll be going for 64GB, as I've maxed out my iPhone storage for over a year (Apps alone are 8GB), and have had to put quotas on my media just to get some stuff in there. $100 more over a 2-year TCO is a small fraction of the total. If you assume just the data plan alone , 24mo x $20 (VZ 1GB) = $480 and with voice, all told, it's over $2k... Yeah, I'll pay 5% more over 2 years for double the storage…

I hate to give them the satisfaction, but I'm still debating. I'll see how much I can get for my 3GS; maybe that'll influence me.

The fact that I can now stream all my music to myself with iTunes Match frees up a good deal of space. My current 32GB 3GS is also filled to the brim, but there are a lot of apps that I never use which could be cleaned out.

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

#130

Post by gte910h »

pohl wrote: post #100
gte910h wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Don't take my "back in your pocket" comment too literally. The CPU is going to go into low-power states quite frequently while you're using these I/O bound applications you describe, and the sooner it can, the better. I don't think what I'm saying is controversial in the mobile industry. For example, here's an old article that has a quote about the effects of Intel's Quick Start technology from back in the year 2000…

While what you're saying about CPUs is correct, that is not the main battery hog in smartphones (additionally why Apple is staying so far from LTE at the moment)

The biggest demon is by FAR the radios. The amount apps and the phone use that is mostly determined 1> by how much the user wants notifications (which are basically implemented by constant polling, even in background notifications), or 2> how network intensive the apps are that a person is using. Additionally, stuff like having bad connections to your cell provider make the radio receiver power have to be turned up (as well as broadcast, but the receiver is the worst part usually), and constantly using bluetooth will kill you as well. The bad thing about the radios, especially if you have stuff like lots of apps doing push notifications, as well as a fast polling interval for your mail, is that you're doing this even when the phone is in your pocket.

Second to the radios is technically another radio, but people only do 1 way comms with it and don't really think of it as a radio: THE GPS SYSTEM. Apple vastly improved this (it used to pretty much leave the system on, now it pulses it on and off unless your app requires the older mode for some reason, such as Navigon type turn by turn navigation). Again, this is a part of the phone that optimization did help with (as often time the GPS radio doesn't come on if the phone can figure out your location from other mechanisms), but still, you're generally speaking going to see most GPS heavy apps running while the user is using them. Sure driving faster will get the phone in their pocket faster, but I'm not sure an added hour of battery life is worth unsafe driving.

I'm not saying graphics and the like don't eat up huge chunks of power, I'm just saying that a vast majority of people eat most of their power on much more pedestrian things than Infinity Blade.

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