Leander Kahney - page 20

The big question about the iPhone 4S is whether it’s worth the upgrade.

The answer is yes, and that’s because of Siri, the talking personal assistant.

Siri is unbelievable; a paradigm shift. It’s new way of interacting with computers that’s as big a breakthrough as the original Macintosh with its mouse, windows and icons. In fact, it’s bigger. It’s a much more natural way to interact with machines. It’s a glimpse of the future of computing.

Like the first Mac, it’s far from perfect. We’re at the very beginning of this revolution. But if you want to join the party, you need the 4S.

Lots of people are asking why Woz, Apple’s cofounder and still Apple employee number 1, is first in line to buy an iPhone 4S on Friday morning.

I just caught him on the local news, and he has a very good reason.

This looks cool. Gary Allen of IFOAppleStore just snapped these pictures of Apple’s new iPhone 4S window display. Allen is at the Apple Store on 4th Street in Berkeley.

Here’s a couple more pictures. One shows how these big video displays work:

Each year, the lines for Apple’s iPhone become more of a circus. Last year, it was pro line-sitter Greg Packer at the head of the line, giving tons of TV interviews.

This year, app developer Dillon Horowitz has brought a cow, a calf and a goat to Apple’s flagship NYC store.

The iPhone 4S looks like the iPhone 4, but under the hood it’s a whole new beast.

Here’s the first side-by-side picture showing the differences inside:

Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak is already in line for his iPhone 4S. According to Woz’s Twitter account, he’s first in line at the Los Gatos Apple store.

“The long wait begins,” Woz tweeted, “I’m first in line. The guy ahead was on the wrong side and he’s pissed.”

To celebrate Steve Jobs Day this Friday, Erica Montelongo and Gunter Zieber are getting married at their local Apple Store.

 “Gunter admired Steve Jobs and this is how he wanted to celebrate Steve Jobs Day,” said Montelongo, 34. “And when you add in Tiffany and Co., how could a girl say no?” To learn more about the steve jobs wedding, check out this detailed article.

The WSJ’s crusty old Walt Mossberg, not easily impressed by new gadgets, was also pleased by the iPhone 4S and Siri:

Inside its familiar-looking body there lurks a nascent artificial-intelligence system that has to be tried to be believed.

Walt Mossberg: The iPhone Finds Its Voice

The first reviews of the iPhone 4S are coming in, and they look pretty good.

David Pogue, in a review headlined “New iPhone Conceals Sheer Magic,” says Siri is game-changing:

It’s even more amazing how Siri’s responses can actually form a conversation. Once, I tried saying, “Make an appointment with Patrick for Thursday at 3.” Siri responded, “Note that you already have an all-day appointment about ‘Boston Trip’ for this Thursday. Shall I schedule this anyway?” Unbelievable.

From all the bitching and moaning, you’d think the iPhone 4S was a flop.

But Apple just announced that iPhone 4S preorders topped more than 1 million in the first 24 hours — a new record. No wonder the preorder system was glitchy on Friday morning.

Here’s the cover of the October 17, 2011, issue of The New Yorker. Notice that they reuse the same ‘St. Peter uses an iPad’ gag as the recent Next Media Animation tribute to Steve Jobs.

Me & Steve Stories — Some of the best stories about Steve Jobs are the personal, intimate ones. We’re collecting them here and will run as many new stories as we can find. If you have a story about Steve you’d like to share, please send us your submissions.

In September, 2004, KC Bradshaw was working as a trampoline installer, which is how he got to meet Steve Jobs in person and leave with a very special souvenir.

In recent years, Steve Jobs became famous for emailing terse responses to queries sent by Apple customers to his public email address: [email protected].

It’s not a new habit, it seems. Back in the early days of Apple, Jobs used to mail letters with computer chips attached to them. Letters of Note posted the one above. How many of these are out there?

UPDATE: Jobs wasn’t in bed watching the live feed, but sitting on a sofa enjoying apple juice with rice pudding. Our source reports: “He was sitting in his favorite single soft leather sofa chair and having apple juices with rice pudding, as his favorite.”

We don’t have many details, but we have it from a good source that Steve Jobs watched the launch of the iPhone 4S from his death bed home in Palo Alto.

A special private video stream was set up for him to watch the event from home.

According to our source: “At the end of the show, he smiled as if to say ‘All things are in good hands’ but did not utter a word.”

The source declined to go into further detail. The source is well-connected and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Jobs died the following day.

Update: There’s a small private funeral for Jobs today, followed by a memorial for Apple’s staff, according to reports.

Apple still hasn’t released any details about Steve Jobs’ funeral. It’s likely to be a small private affair, in Steve Jobs’ style.

But the outpouring of tributes at Apple’s retail stores shows the need for a public memorial. And someone like Tim Cook needs to take the reins to arrange it.

Apple promised customers the ability to preorder the new iPhone 4S at 12:01AM Pacific Time on Friday — but the store blew right past that deadline and is still showing a “Back Soon” sign. The Apple Store App is “Back Soon” also.

Verizon’s website is accepting preorders fine, according to a stream of happy tweets on Twitter. But there’s no sign of a pre-order button on AT&T’s website.

iPhone 4S order fail.

Who’s off to bed soon?

UPDATE: The online Apple Store went live for preorders at about 12.40. However, there were lots of complaints of timeouts and other problems. Some customers reported success using the Apple Store App.

I’ve never seen anything like it. This amazing tribute to Steve Jobs was assembled from the parts of a MacBook Pro. It’s truly an astonishing piece of work from the designers at Mint Digital.

Unfortunately, there’s no explanation of how it was done. I’ve sent an email asking how they did it. Here’s a large version.

Steve Jobs has laid plans for his vast $6.5 billion fortune, Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt has hinted.

Jobs had plans for a “third act,” Schmidt told the New York Times, and hinted that he may yet have another huge impact through the fortune he leaves behind.

This is what the San Francisco Apple Store looks like tonight. Fans have plastered the windows in sticky-note tributes. Here’s a Twitter search listing some of the other store memorials popping up all over the world.

Photo by patr1ck.

Case company Hard Candy sold thousands of cases for a mystery Apple device that it believed Tim Cook would unveil yesterday.

Customer’s were so excited by the prospect of a jumbo iPhone with a 4.44-inch diagonal screen, they pre-ordered a couple of thousand cases based on the rumor.

“Crazy day,” said Hard Candy CEO Tim Hickman after the Apple event. “We have to cancel a few orders. Two thousand cases were ordered since you ran your story. That’s bad ass! Apple consumers love, love, love to play in this world.”

How do you follow an act like Steve Jobs, the best presenter in the business?

The answer is you can’t, and you shouldn’t even try.

Tim Cook should be given credit for that, even if his performance at the iPhone 4S launch today was subdued and low-key.

Case company Hard Candy is busy manufacturing 50,000 cases for a mystery Apple device.

The device probably looks like the mockup above. It might be the iPhone 5 or a new, bigger iPod touch. It has a 4.44-inch diagonal screen, which is much larger than most observers are expecting for a new iPhone.

Whatever it is, Hard Candy expects Apple CEO Tim Cook to unveil the device at today’s press event. And the company is busy churning out a range of different cases that will be on store shelves when the device ships.

I have some exciting news: we’re launching a new software hub at deals.cultofmac.com.

Starting today, we’ll be bringing Apple fans the best deals in cutting-edge software and apps. We’ll be offering all kinds of deals: free app codes; 72-hour sales on premium packages; and bundles of the best apps — all at savings of 30% to 90% off retail.

We’re kicking off today with the smash-hit mail app Sparrow. It’s one of the highest-rated email clients on Mac OS X, and we have it for just $6.

We were sent this video anonymously earlier this evening. The tipster says it shows the iPhone 5.

Watch as the user goes into System Settings. They select a special “Developers” tab, which then allows them to switch graphics processors.

The “Developers” tab suggests it’s a special prototype provided to partners to test the graphics performance…

More than 300 people camped overnight for the grand opening of Apple’s first store in Hong Kong. Some camped out for two days to be among the first inside the new flagship store.

Here’s what the store looks like, plus a video report of the grand opening: