The BBC’s technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones wanted to find out which smartphone was the best listener, so he conducted a quick test of his own.
He spoke the same text into a Siri-equipped iPhone 4S and a Samsung Galaxy Tab, and compared the transcribed results.
Despite past protests against a smaller iPad, Apple appears to be moving ahead with plans to introduce a smaller iPad possibly as early as 2012. Two iPad display firms reportedly have sent samples to Apple for approval. If true, today’s report would lend credence to an earlier Wall Street report that the tech giant is setting its sights on Amazon’s $199 7-inch Kindle Fire.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hckrig2BwNY
Remember Jontahan Mann? He’s the YouTube singing sensation behind the ‘Song A Day’ project, which has seen him sing songs the iPhone 4’s ‘antennagate‘ issue, Steve Jobs, and Steve Wozniak. For his latest track, Mann teams up with Siri for a wonderful duet.
Isn’t it just beautiful?
[via Daring Fireball]
Sometimes is seems as though Samsung puts its greatest efforts into causing a ruckus with Apple’s legal team. The Korean electronics giant is already involved in countless legal spats with Apple for allegedly copying the iPhone and iPad, but it continues to closely follow Apple’s products… or just rip them off completely.
It’s USB charger, for example, is an exact replica of Apple’s, only in black instead of white. It recently littered one its retail stores with a bunch of Apple icons for the App Store and Safari. And its latest trick? Using an iPhone screenshot to sell its Galaxy Player 5.0 media device.
How do you sell a security product to owners of devices that have no real security problem? You get into hand-holding business. That’s what it’s like for Lookout Mobile Security, a San Francisco, Calif. firm unveiling Tuesday the free Lookout for iPhone app. Kevin Mahaffey, co-Founder and CTO, Lookout Mobile Security, says his new app is all about positive reinforcement.
Apple pushed out another update to its Apple TV yesterday which was set to fix a number of bugs in the 4.4 firmware, however, version 4.4.1 comes with a major issue of its own, so we’re suggesting you ignore this update for the time being.
Following recent rumors that claim a refresh to Apple’s MacBook Pro lineup is imminent, I’m sure many of you are eagerly awaiting the new models before you go out and purchase a shiny new notebook. You may not have much longer to wait, according to Apple’s own website, which hints the new models are just weeks away.
You have to watch this to believe it, and then you probably still won’t. Benjamin Dowie threw together a quick series of iPhone 4S video footage and made a beautiful short film.
The iPhone 4S shoots 1080 HD video at 30 frames per second with advanced image stabilization technology. As you can see in the footage above, the camera in Apple’s newest smartphone is nothing to laugh at.
Although they missed the chance to picket his funeral and memorial service, the Westboro Baptist Church still plans to stage two hate-mongering protests for Steve Jobs in Cupertino on October 19.
The Kansas-based congregation, infamous for picketing the burials of slain soldiers and its “God Hates Fags” slogan, plans to picket outside Apple headquarters during the employee celebration of Jobs and at a local high school.
In a rambling online statement, the church cited the immorality of “some nerdy people possessing ONLY what God loaned them for a very short while, have stolen God’s glory and given it to themselves.”
Earlier, the church had announced plans to picket Jobs’ funeral on October 6.
There is an open discussion on Apple’s discussion forum where iPhone 4S owners are reporting problems they are having with their new phones display. The majority of complaints are about how the display has a yellow tint which is especially clear when you place the iPhone 4S next to an iPhone 4. There are other lesser complaints about color washouts and contrast in the same discussion thread.
Some have noted that the lines for the iPhone 4S on Friday were disappointingly short. Apple might have sold a record 4 million devices in four days, but the launch day lines were nothing compared to those for the iPhone 4 or the iPad 2.
But there was one place where the lines went around the block — and no one seems to have reported it yet.
Apple is now selling the iPhone 4S by reservation-only in the US and Canada, meaning that you’ll need to reserve a unit by 9 PM for pickup the following day. This indicates that iPhone 4S stock is running low, and Apple wants to ensure that customers are able to walk out of the store with an iPhone 4S in-hand.
The “How to Buy” page on Apple’s website has been updated with information regarding this change in policy. The two options are buying online (with a 1-2 week shipping estimate), or reserving for pickup at a local Apple Store.
httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHjX7LlS7OY
What’s better than an iPhone 4S? An iPhone 4S in space, of course! Final Cut King from YouTube sent two iPhone 4S’s to space and obtained footage of the voyage.
“We launched 2 iPhone 4S phones with a weather balloon to go up to 100,000. We put one of the iPhone 4S’s on an interval photo timer app and the other on video mode. We used s Spot GPS tracker (though I would not recommend it because it only tracks in 15 minutes increments).”
(Tip: Ask Siri to “Beam me up Scotty” on your iPhone 4S)
Celebrities and industry leaders have come out of the woodworks over the last couple of weeks to pay tribute to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. His passing has spurred dozens of anecdotes from those that have come into contact with Jobs throughout the years.
Famous singer/songwriter John Mayer is known for loving Apple products. He has taken the stage at Macworld multiple times to help introduce products like Garageband. As it turns out, Mayer developed a personal friendship with Jobs years ago.
Despite now competing against two other carriers for iPhone subscribers, AT&T seems to have an unlikely ace up its sleeve: speed. Some AT&T users are reporting a boost in 3G speed after upgrading to the iPhone 4S.
Well if you had any doubts about this past weekends iPhone 4S sales you can rest easy it was a blockbuster weekend for Apple and all the carriers. Millions of customers are out trying all the new features in iOS 5, on their iPhone 4S and in iCloud. It also looks like a lot of you are trying to find your friends with Apple’s new Find My Friends app and related services. Well it looks like this morning that the service is experiencing activation problems.
The cloud is getting crowded. Although just one week old, Apple’s iCloud has 20 million users, the Cupertino, Calif. tech giant announced Monday. iCloud, allowing users to sync all of their Apple devices, becomes the latest example of the company’s vaunted ‘halo effect’ keeping consumers close to the brand.
Just in time for consumers looking for an early Christmas present: Apple has cut $100 off the price of the original iPad. This means you can grab a refurbished 64GB Wi-Fi or 32GB Wi-Fi+3G tablet for just $399.
I’ve been using the iPhone 4S for a whole weekend now, and I have to say, this device is a magnificent beast. That dual-core A5 processor makes everything super speedy and incredibly seamless, while the 8-megapixel camera takes terrific photos, and the Siri assistant — although in the U.K. — is just plain awesome.
Externally, however, the iPhone 4S is just as fragile as its predecessor, and nowhere near as robust as its biggest rival, the Samsung Galaxy S II.
A Steve Jobs memorial held at Stanford Memorial Church on Sunday attracted a huge number of people who came to pay their respects to Apple’s former CEO and co-founder. Among them were a long list of celebrities, musicians, CEOs, and even a former president.
So, that device that nobody wanted, which looks just like the iPhone 4 with a couple of internal improvements, actually did pretty well for itself during its launch weekend. Apple has just announced that it sold a whopping 4 million iPhone 4S handsets this weekend, which is considerably more than the 1.7 million iPhone 4 units sold during its debut weekend last year.
If you like your bleepy music with a healthy dose of retro, you might like to know that right now on the iOS Store you can grab a copy of the latest virtual synthesizer from electronic music pioneers Moog – for just 99 cents.
Do you find the iPhone 4 is a little too quiet for you? I certainly do, especially in crowded places. But thankfully, the speaker on the new iPhone 4S is significantly louder than its predecessor, as demonstrated in this video.
Since Steve Jobs passed away on October 5, we’ve seen a stack of awesome of tribute images created from MacBook parts, Minecraft building blocks, and even salt. However, this has to be one of my favorite: a portrait of Steve created with 4,001 Post-it notes.
httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-OnZCywaII
The same developer that originally ported Siri to the iPhone 4 has created another video showing more progress. Developer Steven Troughton-Smith has been working to port Apple’s new Siri technology to older iOS devices.
In the first video, Siri was unresponsive and sluggish on the iPhone 4, mainly due to the fact that the phone’s GPU was disabled. Now the Siri port has been improved to run smoother and more fluidly on the iPhone 4.