iPhone 4S thoughts
Wednesday, October 5, 2011 at 2:59AM Here is a selection of reactions to the iPhone 4S from Twitter, Lost In Mobile and elsewhere-
"Disappointed that the screen's still 3.5" though.... Android now rather owning the high end smartphone space?" Steve Litchfield.
"Jobs sheds a tear. Not a great keynote. No passion and a weak product line. Ouch." daverage.
"So, I really wish the screen had been made bigger. I was irrationally hoping for better, but it was pretty much the smallest set of changes they could get away with. I will, of course, be first in the queue to get one, however, which is depressing. Why? Because, despite this being an incremental change, it's still head and shoulders above any other phone, in my opinion. Sad, but true." Peter.
"One thing I'm confident about is that Apple knows its market. Most iPhone 4 owners will be on 18-24 month contracts so not ready to upgrade. 3G and 3GS owners will jump at the better camera and extra speed. And some 4 owners won't be able to stop themselves." elbowz.
"There's nothing in here that makes me think Apple is still ahead of the game, usually a new iPhone has a thing or two that makes me think the competition has some catching up to do....this just makes me think that it is Apple catching up to one or two other newer devices...." Murray.
"Not for me. My contract's up in December, and unless iOS 5 completely buggers up my iPhone 4, I don't think I'll be upgrading. Can't see anything that's worth tying me into another contract.
I still think the 4 is a fantastic phone that still gives me a "wow" factor even nearly 16 months on." Statto.
"Apple must have been shitting bricks whilst we all talked about 'new hardware' (ie iPhone 5) knowing they were launching a 0.1 update today." Ewan.
Reader Comments (20)
And yet the queues will be around the block...
Yep. And I will be ordering one because I sold mine a few weeks ago and can't go on with a cheap Android backup.
It IS depressing. I DO think that Apple has dropped the ball and finally conceded the technological advantage. Yet all they had to do was bump the screen size and it would have turned a mild refresh into a major win.
It speaks volumes that they had to emphasis the Siri feature, which I think is pretty much useless (The Register is agreeing with me, today, writing it off as as a "gimmick"). The officially-sanctioned example that Rory Cellan-Jones demonstrated for the BBC was a joke - he made a long press on the home button, asked what the weather is like and was rewarded by the weather app loading. Just pressing the weather app icon would have been quicker.
All that said, it's a nice upgrade to a great phone. I imagine Apple is looking at the press reaction, today, and making plans to ensure that the next iPhone blows everyone's socks off. We can but hope!
Pity you never tried a more expensive Android option around a similar price point to iPhone - you might have been favourably surprised. Of course this also depends on how much you use iTunes....
Do you know if Siri can be used while phone is locked - if it can and pulls up info and allows you to interact while the phone is locked that would be quite useful for an iPhone.
For Android - I just have the widget sitting on the phone screen which provides me with that info at a glance once unlocked - or I can even put that sort of stuff on my lock screen if i want to, so I agree Siri does seem a bit pointless, though probably very useful for the disabled.
"Do you know if Siri can be used while phone is locked - if it can and pulls up info and allows you to interact while the phone is locked that would be quite useful for an iPhone."
Or any phone, I'm guessing.
It works while the phone is in your pocket, if you're using a headset. The interations Siri is capable of look quite extensive, and people who have used it have been impressed:
Joshua Topolsky at This Is My Next...
"in use I found it kind of staggering. I wasn’t speaking slowly (as Scott did during the event) or even trying very hard to sound clear. There was background noise. But it really worked, and worked well."
Darren Murph at Engadget:
"The most impressive part was the demo of Siri, the new assistant that lets you do just about anything you can do on your phone -- but with your voice. We tried to psych it out with a bunch of random requests, including the history of Chester, Vermont (a lovely town) and the best Ramen places in San Francisco. Siri never faltered, never missed a beat. It worked as well as Scott's demo up on the stage. There's nothing better to say than that."
Vincent Nguyen, Slashgear:
"Siri makes promises that we’ve learnt to be wary about over the years, but after a brief test we’re surprisingly impressed. Easily activated, with a new microphone icon on the regular on-screen keyboard, Siri managed just what it did on-stage during the keynote. We could ask it local information, such as the weather or to find nearby stores, while online searching and complex questions for Wolfram Alpha were handled with little delay. Speed can be the killer for services like this – people just won’t wait if their phone takes 30 seconds to look up an answer – but Siri delivered in just seconds.
"Even complex tasks, like accurate transcription, seems comfortably within Siri’s abilities. It’s the interaction between existing data – like calendar entries – and new commands, such as setting up appointments by voice that are likely to really impress users, however. Usability is slick as well: whether you’re in the lock screen or the homescreen, you can hold the iPhone 4S to your ear and Siri will automatically kick in. Again, we’ll have to put it through its paces when we review the iPhone 4S, but first-impressions are very, very good."
Jaamgaans,
I've tried a few high-end Androids and have briefly owned the Desire Z twice. They don't meet me needs, unfortunately. iOS is, for me, simply better.
Not Siri, though. I can't see a use for it (other than, as you point out, for the disabled).
I'm completely opposite to you, Peter. I'm hugely excited by Siri and its potential going forward.
I have used the Siri app previously, and been quite impressed, but it's Achilles' heel was always that it wasn't embedded in the OS. Now it is, and quite deeply, it seems.
There are plenty of times when I want to jot something down - a reminder, a note, a calendar entry - or look something up, but it is inconvenient to pull out my phone, fire it up, exit the app I'm using (if necessary), navigate to the app I want, launch it, enter the info and any other settings that are necessary, save it etc. It's interruptive and labor intensive, and quite impossible when driving, of course.
In the past, I've resorted to calling myself and leaving a quick voicemail, with Siri it looks like I won't have to.
Lazyboy,
I guess time will tell! Here's my objections:
* The app has been available for more than a year and didn't set the world alight. Apparently the Apple version has removed the text input field, limiting it to voice only.
* Google and WP7 has had some/most of these features for a while and also didn't set the world alight. I just tried the Google solution on my Android phone for the first time. It was a dreadful faff and the text message transcription was, to be frank, terrible.
* Voice transcription is never as good as you hope it will be. This will be no different. There is no new voice technology in here - it's Nuance. Siri will get it right sometimes but it will get it wrong plenty of times, too, and when it does it will take you longer to put the message right.
* I would feel terribly self-conscious using the feature in public. I just couldn't.
* Some of the demos I've seen so far are simply faster via a touch UI (though not all).
My prediction is that it's a gimmick that Apple bought to bring feature parity with Android, then promoted to front and centre yesterday because there really wasn't much else to announce. I think people will be superficially impressed but quickly get over it.
That said, I've been calling speech-to-text and text-to-speech rubbish for ages (I've worked in the natural language sector for 12 years) and I suppose someone will get it right sometime. Colour me a skeptic in the meantime!
Lazyboy - I wouldn't believe everything said by those writers. There are in Apple's pockets. Real life opinions will count.
Peter - Siri is supposed to get better the more you use it, it learns just like the iPhone keyboard. It's worth spending time at first to get it right.
I have the google app. Search has a microphone option. I asked for the weather in Plymouth, and I got the google answer plus weather graphics. I asked it to add to numbers and it showed me the answer. Didn't speak back but nonetheless still enough to say, no need for 4S.
I am also concerned with all the patent lawsuit. What if Samsung succeed. The 4S won't be available. Also , the new handset by Samsung teased about today could be a techno marvel.
Apple needs to move ahead now.
"I wouldn't believe everything said by those writers. There are in Apple's pockets. Real life opinions will count."
Agreed. I never rely on the first reviews from Apple's preferred media crowd.
"I wouldn't believe everything said by those writers. There are in Apple's pockets. Real life opinions will count."
Of course, we'll see how well it performs in real life. However, I think your characterization above is wrong. I see that Charles Arthur of the Guardian was also quietly impressed, and he has been a bit of an iPhone skeptic from the start.
I've tried a few searches using the Google app, and yes, it will return simple results so long as you ask a specific type of question, but ask a follow up question in natural language and it just doesn't go any further.
It will be very interesting to see how Siri compares when we can all have a go or the more detailed reviews come in.
Re: Samsung's tease: Is the S2 out of date already?
Re: Google search, I just asked it the same question as asked in Apple's demo video of Siri:
"Is it going to be chilly in San Francisco this weekend?"
Google: top result, was an add for payroll accounting, then a couple of news stories dating back to February and November 2010.
Not the same thing at all.
Lazyboy. I never said it was the same :) but it's adequate. To be honest now that the initial buzz is over I have decided to stay with my 4. The extra cost for not much gain isn't worth it. The 4 is not slow. I don't play many games on it. iPad does that. The camera on the 4 is perfectly good enough. And with ios 5 the 4 gets 200 new features. I would only upgrade if the cost was minimal.
Talk to you, later, Gav, ;)
The 4S is a good move. World is in recession and Apple can prices competitive by using the Iphone 4 body and screen and extra volume allows the 4 to become cheaper and grab market share. Right move st the right time.
That's a really good point Jah. I also think the huge tsunami has had an impact too
Here is a true fact. The 4S is only capable of running Siri. Odd that the app was available on the AppStore only 24 hours ago!!
Siri isn't an app, she's a person.
Open the pod bay doors...
I'll stick with my original statement. If these specs had been in the sleeker body that was rumoured, everyone would be thrilled. Not because the sleeker body was necessarily better but because it was different.
Bob, I agree. There's always a lot of silliness surrounding anything Apple does. Remember the collective "meh" from the blogosphere when the iPad was launched? I do.
The iPhone 4S is an amazing, state of the art phone that builds upon something that was already exceptional. I can't wait to get it in my hands.
"Focus is about saying no. And the result of that focus is going to be some really great products, where the total is much greater than the sum of the parts."
Steve Jobs, WWDC 1997