Leander Kahney: I’m excited about the iPhone 4S. The old iPhone 4 model is a great handset; probably the best smartphone on the market. It’s a great design: easy to pocket; tough as nails; and very functional. Why mess with success? I know many fans are disappointed by the lack of a bigger screen or new design. Bu tI think the internal upgrades look phenomenal. A better antenna, a much faster chip and graphics, plus a great-looking 8MP camera! The best smartphone is even better.
Siri looks astonishing — truly sci-fi stuff. If it works as advertised — and that’s a big if — it will certainly change the way we use our smartphones. I’m already a big fan of Google’s voice search, which is great while walking or in the car. But Siri greatly expands the things you can do. I’d love to be able to set alarms, reminders, send texts and emails with a few simple commands. And it’s likely that the number of capabilities will quickly expand into other areas.
And being able to dictate everything rather than typing will make a big difference to me. I suck at typing. I can see my iPhone becoming my primary input device for writing and email, rather than my iPad or iMac.
Of course, we’ll see how it works in real life. Talking to my iPhone will undoubtedly feel strange and unnatural. I’m in no hurry to look like Scotty in Star Trek talking into the mouse. But I’ sure I won’t be the only one.
Eli Michman: Compared to Steve, Tim Cook can’t sell his way out of a paper bag, but hey — a world phone, “4G” speeds and a personal assistant? I think this might be the biggest iPhone jump yet; just Siri alone could completely revolutionize the way we use our phones, if the feature works as advertised (and this is Apple, so it will). Not to mention the big upgrades to the photo and video — image stabilization! — capabilities. And have they finally given the iPhone a real battery? Of course, horsepower upgrades make it all work flawlessly. Hopefully.
Buster Heine: Holy Guacamole! That Cards app looks so awesome! I OMG’d for like five whole minutes after I they showed us that bad boy. The iPhone 4S was all I was expecting along with Siri, so the keynote was a par for the course. I could have done without the 45 minutes of recapping iOS 5 at the beginning, and I wish the iPod touch got some love. The iPod Nano is exactly what I need for running so I may be buying one of those. Siri looks pretty awesome but why in the world is it only available on iPhone 4S? It’s like Apple only cares about selling their newest phone…oh wait….
Adam Rosen: I think the important takeaway items from today’s press conference are the imminent launch of iOS 5 and iCloud. Both these areas promise to bring significant productivity improvements and keep Apple’s lead over rivals.
For an event titled “Let’s Talk iPhone” however, today’s event was rather a letdown. No new iPhone 5, no 4G phone. The iPhone 4S will be a solid product but I suspect only Sprint customers are truly ecstatic today.
Nicole Martinelli: Distracted by the postcard app and the Friends & Family sharing – do we really want to give a huge U.S. corporation this much personal information in exchange for “Wish You Were Here” (at Starbucks) missives? It makes me want to fire up Diaspora again and donate to the EFF.
Generally, underwhelmed – though, admittedly, it’s hard to drink the kool-aid when you’re not invited to the party. And although Cook was on point, he doesn’t have that Steve Jobs knack for drawing out a presentation with the only real news buried at the end.
Erfon Elijah: Just had a good cry in the shower about no iPhone 5 announcement today. I qualified for an iPhone 4 in January (I have a 3GS) and discovered I just waited 8 extra months for the letter “S.” Sure, the iPhone 4S is faster, has a better camera, and I’ll be preordering one this Friday, but Apple wasted an opportunity to surprise, delight, and confound with an iPhone 5 and a larger screen.
Giles Turnbull: As a keen photographer, I’m pleased to hear about the improved camera hardware built into the 4S. I don’t think, though, that that alone will be enough to make me upgrade from my iPhone 4. Siri looks interesting but I’ll wait to pass judgement on it until I’ve tried using it. For anyone wanting to buy their first iPhone, I think the $99 8GB iPhone 4 looks like a real bargain – it’s still an excellent phone.
David Martin: Personally I found today’s iPhone 4S announcement to be a little disappointing after waiting for well over a year for a new iPhone. I was expecting something a little more earth shattering like a bigger screen and a thinner device overall with a metal rear cover. I spent $20 on a case for the rumored iPhone 5, but the iPhone 4S won’t fit in it. No big deal since I’ve spent $20 on worse things. I’ll keep it just in case – no pun intended. Maybe it will fit next years iPhone model.
In any case I’ll be upgrading to an iPhone 4S just to keep up with the technology and it isn’t a complete flop – the new insides sound like a big improvement, the camera sounds awesome (I use my iPhone camera a lot actually) and iOS 5 simply rocks. The new Siri feature should be interesting and useful at the same time. Of course I’ll get one in Black, but I’m having a hard time deciding between 32GB or 64GB.
John Brownlee: There was no iPhone 5, no 4G iPhone, but anyone who thought Apple was going to announce those device today has either not been paying attention or been toking away.
Ultimately, I think what I’m most struck by is how little it matters that Apple hasn’t released a whole new phone, because it acknowledges the truth of things: Apple has perfected the hardware of the modern smartphone. The iPhone 4 was already incredibly fast, absurdly thin, had great battery life and a world class design? It’s a perfect device. All you can do is make the hardware faster through incremental updates.
The truth of the matter is that it’s the software that counts, and Apple has revolutionized the way we interact with our phones thanks to Siri. The impact that Siri is going to have on the way we interact with our devices is impossible to underestimate: it’s every bit as important as the invention of the GUI, the mouse, the touchscreen. And since Siri is exclusive to the iPhone 4S, that makes the iPhone 4S, in my book, the most important iPhone since the original.
Alex Heath: Today’s event marked a new era for Apple with Cook at the helm. There was no Steve Jobs appearance, and the tone of the event definitely felt different. I think it’s safe to say that Apple as a company has a new tone now. Not a new vision, but a new tone.
There was no “one more thing” or huge surprise that made my jaw hit the floor. In fact, this was probably one of the most predictable Apple events that I can remember. I had an idea of what the iPhone 4S would be like in my head, and short of the name “Siri” instead of “Assistant,” everything turned out to be exactly what the rumor mill had already been saying.
I wouldn’t call today’s event “underwhelming,” but it was definitely predictable.
What about you? What do you think>?
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
118 responses to ““Is That It?” CoM Has Mixed Reactions To iPhone 4S & Siri [Staff Opinion Roundup]”
A let-down. They waited a year and a half for a spec bump?
you prefer….iphone 4 S”ucks” or iphone 4 “asS”
Having studied computer science and speech recognition (e.g. Hidden Markov Models) myself, I have to say that SIRI looks mindblowing (as does the DARPA CALO project that led up to it). It’s not JUST speech recognition — it looks like natural language processing, autonomy/agency, and several more things besides… all VERY, VERY, VERY difficult… the stuff of sci-fi. Lots of reporters who have discussed it don’t seem to get this — once again, IT ISN’T SPEECH RECOGNITION… it’s much, much more than that. All I can say is: I want one!!… and I might just switch carriers from Verizon to Sprint, if there is several month’s delay before Verizon picks up the 4S.
I think if Apple were to have done ANYTHING to the screen size people would be on their knees praying for the iPhone 4S to save their souls. Instead everyone’s underwhelmed by a very successful day for Apple. C’mon, with one fell swoop Apple changed the entire game for companies like Hallmark. There’s so many places this greeting card service could go. It could extent into full calendars you make on your iOS device, books, and photo prints. Never mind the insanely inexpensive price at only $4.99 to send a postcard internationally. I think if anything, Apple laid the footing for an even more amazing update next time around…but I don’t want to hear the words iPhone and rumour in the same sentence for a very, VERY, long time.
…think iPhone 4 S”ucks” has a finer ring to it
no need for iPhone 4S !!!
no need for iPhone 4S !!!
I was gonna jump but i not really worth it for an updated iphone4 …big deal android has had dual core …was hoping to be wowed guess i was wrong i guess samsung will get my dollars
I’m all about d guts too. I agree w Leander. I av a feeling iOS 5 will b processor intensive. As iOS 4 was w d 3G n 3GS. DUAL PROCESSOR n better antenna w a much better camera. Y wudnt u want to upgrade?
I’m surprised Alex said the event was predictable when almost every news site wrongly predicted the iPhone 5 would be announced.
This author, with all respect, don’t know anything about tech and smartphones… iPhone 4 the best smartphone in the market? really? i can’t believe this… Samsung Galaxy S2 is superior to this crap in every way possible… better processor, larger screen with better color saturation (LED of course), 1GB RAM (iPhone 4s will probably come with 512), same camera and video recording features, and FULL CUSTOMIZATION… If someone says he’s going to buy the new iPhone just because it has SIRI, then you really need to get a life.
And to make matters worse, the nexus prime will soon be unveiled (screen with 720 HD), Samsung Note in the following months and Galaxy S2 HD… Apple, for the first time in many years in cellular tech, has fallen behind tremendously.
Glad i switched my iPhone 4 for the Galaxy S2, simply wayyyyyyy better.
Is Siri going to be supported for iPhone 4 users or it will be just for 4S ?
I’m an average business oriented smartphone user, not an uber-geek apple fanboy. IMO, all of the advancements announced today are exciting and useful upgrades to the way I use my 3GS, and I’m looking forward to ordering the upgrade as soon as possible.
unfortuantly, Apple has far more apps.
Infinity Blade 2!
But honestly, the PSVita MURDERS the iPhone 4s.
Also, the “S” name sucks.
the 4S continues to be a beautiful phone. love the upgrades to it. really like siri. i would have jumped in if they would have done an edge to edge screen. i will stick with the samsung nexus this round. #sizematters
Anyone who thought there was going to be an iPhone 5 today was either not paying attention, toking, or reading the load of horseshit that Cult of Mac usually shovels before these events. In most cases, the latter.
Spec bumps are inherently disappointing. That being said, the further I get from the announcement the more I realize that we may have received much more than we realize currently. So often an Apple product seems useless or underwhelming until you actually hold it and use it. And Siri may be just this sort of thing: something you have to use to believe. I’m slowly becoming cautiously optimistic.
My biggest surprise is that Nicole is still on staff here…hadn’t seen her byline in a LONG time.
I also found the announcement underwhelming but I’m even more bothered by the uncertainty.
As a consumer, I have to decide if I want to buy the new phone, but after a 6 month delay (that wasn’t even explained in the keynote), and given that the usual release date of the iPhone is now only 6 months in the future, it’s hard to know whether to pull the trigger on that purchase.
I wish above all, that they had said something like “That’s it for this year, next year we will have a whole new model in October again.” I’m tempted to buy it, but I don’t want to be buying another one in six months if a better upgrade comes out.
This is one of those times when Apple’s secrecy actually works against it’s own ends. As the iPhone upgrades get weaker and more gimmicky, I want to know more and more what the road map for the future is.
I don’t *need* anything this phone offers over the iPhone 4, but I would buy it anyway if I could be reasonably sure iPhone 5 wasn’t going to come out in six months time.
It just seems so unlikely that they will go another full 12 months without LTE for example.
Jesus, what a bunch of ungrateful whiners some of you are. Learn to appreciate things, some people don’t have the luxury of complaining ‘is that it??’.
I have no beef with the presentation. Frankly I’m pleased that Tim Cook has the presentation personality of an overcooked noodle. Why? Because too much worth was placed on Steve Jobs. The media etc hyped him up to the point that he became synonymous with Apple. And that is the core of the trouble. When he became Apple, rather than the products being Apple, the company suffered as well as his right to privacy when his health took a turn.
By lacking in the vavavavoom of Steve Jobs, Tim Cook basically pushes the focus on the actual products and the boring lists of sales numbers. There’s nothing else to talk about because he doesn’t have the cute catch phrases, doesn’t have his ‘uniform’ and doesn’t jump around the stage like a hyped up freak.
The general assumption is that they will wait until next fall. The common man will have made that assumption without needing it said to them. And it really isn’t that unlikely they will go a year before they add LTE. If you look at the various reports, it won’t be widespread until mid summer anyway and it is more logical that Apple would want to test for a month or two rather than slam out a phone right as the work finishes.
spoken by someone who puts all worth on the specs and if he can tinker with something.
not everyone uses the same scale.
A product that was never announced cannot be delayed. Give this bullshit a rest.
“:but I don’t want to hear the words iPhone and rumour in the same sentence for a very, VERY, long time.”:
too late, the iPhone 6 rumors started about a month ago
Many tech bloggers are seemingly the last fuckers on the planet to realize what is happening in tech.
Mobile phones are now shipping with dual core processors. Dual. Fucking. Core. Hardware is increasingly irrelevant. Yes. Irrelevant. What matters, what has always mattered, is what you can DO with hardware. It’s why Apple will always be ahead of Android because Android will NEVER have the seamless integration between hardware and software as long as Google adheres to it’s current model. And that is also why iCloud is the single most important Apple product that will be shipping this year. Ubiquitous computing is just around the corner and if iCloud works as advertised, none of the pissing and moaning about what any intelligent human being KNEW was going to be a speed bump matters a pinch of coon shit. No amount of battery draining moving wallpapers will make your notifications work seamlessly across all your apps and Android phones can have quad core processors and it won’t get them a service that gives you all your data all the time wherever you happen to be.
But by all means, let’s pretend that a significant upgrade to the most popular phone on the planet is “disappointing”.
Delusional as usual
todays event was meh, pretty lame they didnt give me an iphone 5 to obsess over. plus i miss steve.
Only 4S.
I wouldn’t say every news site predicted it wrong. Just because we’re posting rumors that are floating around doesn’t mean we believe them. We’ve been saying for at least 4 weeks that there will only be an iPhone 4S and no iPhone 5. We didn’t say that iPod Touch would be redesigned, other than we thought it might get 128GB version. There were a lot of bloggers out there that knew nothing crazy was coming. Everyone else was getting too excited by rumors caused by case leaks.
A W F U L !!!
If it makes you all feel better, this means the eventual iPhone 5 is all the more likely to be mindblowing. ;)
I wonder why ? Is it something that upgraded hardware needs to process ?
good points
and yet… you’re still here reading the site. just lol’d meself.
Well said. I agree. Apple has still taken a giant step forward today.
The Android forum’s next door…
Well said. I agree. Apple has still made a big step forward today.
could be the hardware, but my guess is they needed to leave it off the iPhone 4 to further differentiate the differences between iPhone 4 and 4S. how else are they going to get your extra $$$ if the phones aren’t different.
Yes you are. But I do appreciate your dedication to following me around the web based on some imagined past history we supposedly share.
I am REALLY, REALLY disappointed and I don’t know if I should upgrade now, or wait for a “5”. :( Sadness…
I didn’t see the Keynote, I’m waiting for it to appear in the Apple Keynotes Podcast directory, but I have kept an eye on the blogs and info, and I gotta say it looks pretty astounding.
We all assumed the iPad’s A5 chip would be in it and there would be an 8mp camera – it’s just the natural progression. But the more I read about Siri the more eager I am to get hold of the 4S. All of the new spec seems to be what the next iPhone should naturally have.
So where does everyone’s disappointment lie? Aesthetics. We’re superficial people, and what we wanted most was to look modern and fresh.
I have a feeling that using the 4S *is* going to feel different and cynics will change their minds about it. The iPhone 4 will fade into the background – like a prototype that Apple accidentally used the design for too soon.
Personally, I did want a newly designed iPhone 5 to go with beautiful iOS 5, but realising that the guts would have been the same either way, I am swayed to upgrade because it would still do the same stuff, whether it be a 4S or a 5.
My disappointments: no 3G iPod Touch! And the iPod Nano doesn’t sync up with the iPhone notification centre – it just seems logical to me to check my watch to find out if my phone is worth removing from my pocket when I’m busy.
What I’m excited about: I would be shocked if Apple doesn’t roll Siri into the iPad 2 and into their Macs. If it’s truly as intelligent as they say, there are going to be some big changes coming.
Prof. Peabody…it’s well known rumor that the chips Apple is probably eye balling for LTE support won’t be available until Qtr 2 or 3 of 2012. I think the next iPhone will be released next fall like this one. I think that was done due to the delay in the iPhone 5 chipset.
Timmy!
Sorry to go “South Park”, but really, it’s just a phone, and it’s not that much better than the phone it replaces. I’ll wait for the 5 if I’m going to take a bath, financially-speaking, to trade-up.
this by itself just isn’t worth it for me.. id rather wait. But I’ve been waiting for this since Feb to switch to Verizon from att. So now I’m not sure what I’m going to do…. id wish i just got a 4 back then
The announcements today were solid. The 4S has a lot of good improvements. I suspect there were a few more they didn’t mention. Siri/assistant sounds totally awesome. This is a killer app. I’ll buy the 4S just for this. Seeing the product line fill up shows Apple’s discipline. They’ve slowly built up the product line to consist of three levels. They didn’t have to educate everyone on the differences. We already knew the 3GS and 4. Now Apple can offer a phone free with a contract making less and less room for the competition to hide.
lemme see … what was arguably the world’s best smartphone is getting many very significant improvements, (along with its entire Apple ecosystem) this month, both hardware and software, and that’s …. a letdown?
look, i hate to be the one to tell you, but daddy is never going to buy you that pony.
actually, the 4S may be even better than it looked today. have to get our hands on it to really know the full impact of all the new stuff. and if it all “just works.”
i for one am glad Apple left the iPhone 4 shell alone, rather then fiddle with it like most companies would just to market this year’s model with a new “5” designation. i think it is one of the absolute best examples of industrial/consumer design ever, and will now become a recognized “classic.”
bunch of spoiled gadgetheads who don’t know how lucky they are.
Brownlee… your a tool. lol. Thats all i can say. You have written a multitude or articles about the iphone 5 and all the reasons you swore it was coming. And now your like “but we dont need it anyway cuz the iphone is awesome”
next time, either dont play up the hollow rumors, or admit you were wrong before you start backpedaling.
…not even a cool tool. Like… like one of those tiny screw drivers only used for glasses and children’s toys. That kind of tool.
This is a solid upgrade. People were always comparing the iPhone to other phones and saying it was behind because of the single core processor, the antenna, and the camera, and not they have nothing to complain about. So what if it doesn’t look different? It fits all the older cases.
Of course a larger screen would have been nice but the iPhone 4 is too well designed to dump the design in just one generation. The only thing that sucks is that Siri doesn’t work on the iPhone 4. WTF.
Still using the old Bluster, and I thought that you were leaving the Apple puniverse judging by some of your posts on this forum.
Oh, and still not replying to any of the points put to you. Interesting, says it all.
Not so long ago a white phone would make headlines, now its just OK? Add a 8MP camera, 1080p video dual core processor, Siri & the #1 mobile game appliance Apple wants to bump at the same price to remain on top…and you guys are complaining? Everything doesn’t have to be groundbreaking to be great.
It’s only a letdown to everyone who was expecting more than is logical to expect right now. Manufacturing is not yet ready to produce the parts needed for a major external hardware upgrade. I personally think the improvements presented today are a worthy successor to the iPhone 4. My only wish for more MIGHT have been a larger screen, but it’s just not quite time for that yet.
IMO, the iPhone 4 is a beautiful phone and doesn’t need an external upgrade. All the “iPhone 5” concepts that were flying around were downright ugly to me. I like this new phone a lot.
Sorry I have to do this… I have OCD.
I’m all about THE guts too. I agree WITH Leander. I HAVE a feeling iOS 5 will BE processor intensive. As iOS 4 was WITH THE 3G AND 3GS. DUAL PROCESSOR AND better antenna WITH a much better camera. WHY WOULDN’T YOU want to upgrade?
That’s better. :)
I thought Nicole posts all the time ?
I was hoping the fact that this didn’t arrive in July meant that they had managed to include 4G LTE in this version. It was really the only feature I wanted that would make me upgrade from my 3GS while adding a new 2 year contract.
Looks like an awesome phone though. If the speed is routinely above 3Mbps, I will seriously consider upgrading. But I’ll need proof first.
It was underwhelming. 16 months for a spec boost. The reason they did this was the Verizon iPhone 4 in February pushed the date back and then the White iPhone 4 a few months ago pushed the date to yesterday. Boo!
I agree, but from another point of view, most of the users who want to buy the new iPhone 4S but already have the iPhone 4, already have a contract starting from earliest June 2010 and are not eligible for this new phone until 1.5 years or so. I think to make $$$ they needed to eliminate the eligibilty requirements and only require a new contract for 2 years, independent of how long you have your contract with carrier. I guess there is something else which I don’t know. Anyway thanks for your reply.
I guess this is where all of the action is so I’ll repost here with an addendum.
Both things seems to be true, it was in fact fairly underwhelming, especially if you’ve been living in the the seat-of-your-pants universe of “rumor mill”. But it’s also true that, if your worst problem is that you now have a dual processor A5 device added to your list of possibilities then it seems to me it could be much much worse. As you will see in just a moment, the silent minority of us who refuse to get too caught up in the cellular miasma of “smart” phones, but who, none the less, want to have access to all of the non-cellular technology – in other words, iPod Touch users – really did walk away from this week’s announcements shaking our heads in genuine and well founded disappointment.
Reposted –
Yeah so, uhm… I guess I’ll go ahead and buy a 4th generation Touch, but Apple better not come out with a major hardware update, i.e., Dual A5 chip set, any sooner than next spring – or I might get upset or something. Really though, why the heck didn’t they do a processor upgrade for the Touch?! Are people really gonna decide not to buy an iPhone just because there’s a Touch with the same chip set? I don’t see that. People who buy iPhones and people who buy Touchs are completely different animals… I’m a Touch animal and will only just begin to considering an iPhone when Apple get’s 4G in their workflow, and probably still won’t buy an iPhone anyway. Jeepers-maleepers. Do they really think they’re gonna seduce me into an iPhone4S because that’s they only way I’ll get a major processor upgrade, (which I really want by the way – except I want it on the Touch, not the iPhone.)?
Well, I’m still on a 1st gen Touch and I gotta upgrade – and I am not very happy. Most people may not get very jazzed about internal hardware upgrades that effect minor little things like getting things done up to 7x faster, but I do – very much so. Actually the more I think about it the more bummed I get so I’m gonna stop thinking about it. This time next year when they come out with the multi-core A5 Touch I’ll sell my one year old, 64GB, 4th gen Touch for $300 on eBay and buy what I should be buying this year next year.
This really isn’t good. And to add the proverbial straw to all of that, I’m one of those sulky professional Final Cut Studio users who is already in a profound state of unhappiness about that whole fiasco. Windows still isn’t going in any direction that even comes close to allowing me to imagine using that mess – so like Jim Carrey in Liar Liar says: “… I guess I’ll just piss and moan and take it up the tail pipe.”
After speaking with Siri, I’ve found that Eliza is indeed alive and well, though Siri says of her “very good friend” that she is a “retired psychologist” and implies that they are unrelated.
Another thing Siri will do is refuse to open the Pod bay doors citing that the request is insulting. Obviously, some lessons have been taken from Eliza and implemented in Siri.
I don’t see consider that Siri is truly a personal “AI” at this moment. At most, she is a moderately useful novelty. Indeed, I have stumped Siri more often that I’ve had her provide useful results; however, she will be a short-term party sensation. She does know good places to hide bodies, that is for sure.
Siri obviously can run on the iPad 2 and the only reason she isn’t is for marketing purposes. Where I’m disappointed is that, in the past, many could have said that Apple did things this way but there was always that sliver of doubt. Now, that really doesn’t seem to be the case here. I wonder if this signals a true change in Apple’s approach or was this a minor hiccup in what has been, up to now, one of the most successful marketing companies ever.
Siri won’t become true AI until she can learn to expand her capabilities as you add features to your phone by purchasing software. For that, Apple will have to leverage third parties and, lets face it, thats the one thing that Apple really hasn’t done all that well: integrating third parties in anything but their marketing efforts.
I like Apple, so don’t get me wrong. I use six different Mac’s regularly and have umpteen bajillion devices. I like Siri and I’m pleased that such technology has a major player backing it now. However, I’m disappointed that Siri wasn’t ‘more’ and the iPhone 4s wasn’t more, in and of themselves. I think many, after the hype dies down, will feel the same way.