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.
If you are an AT&T Customer and you upgraded to an iPhone 4S this weekend you might want to check your account settings. Something fishy is going on with customer messaging plans. I got wind of it from a friend who is currently traveling in Alaska.
Apparently if you previously had Messaging Unlimited with Mobile to Any Mobile Calling on your old phone you’ll find out like I did that AT&T switched you to the Messaging Unlimited plan. That plan does not including the Any Mobile to Mobile calling feature.
In case you didn’t know, today is apparently “Steve Jobs Day” in the state of California. Governor Jerry Brown recently tweeted that today, October 16, is now known as Steve Jobs Day. The golden state celebrates Jobs’ legacy.
A great way to take part in the new holiday would be to tune into the Discovery channel tonight to watch the Mythbusters special, “iGenius: How Steve Jobs Changed the World.”
California Governor Jerry Brown announced Friday, that Sunday, October 16th will be known as “Steve Jobs Day” statewide. This will coincide with the private Steve Jobs memorial planned at Standford University for the Apple co-founder. The Governor tweeted the news about Sunday late Friday after the announcement that some of Silicon Valley’s well-known people were invited to the memorial service at Stanford.
We have no doubts at Cult of Mac that iPhone 4S sales this week-end are going to be a blow out and the first thing people will probably try to do after obtaining their iPhone 4S is to converse with Siri. Well it looks like this morning with way too many people to talk to Siri has gone offline or maybe its just out on a coffee break.
I had a late day yesterday and I’m only now getting around to playing around with and testing Siri. I think the rest of you might have worn it out since it isn’t as snappy as it was yesterday when I tried a few preliminary requests.
According to a report Steven Troughton-Smith has made progress on porting the Siri voice assistant to the iPhone 4. The resulting ported version of Siri isn’t ready for prime time so I wouldn’t get to excited just yet and return that iPhone 4S you bought yesterday.
The new iPhone 4S has a minor physical tweak that makes it difficult to fit into some cases. The culprit is the silent/ringer switch which has been moved down slightly towards the bottom of the phone. Since I’ve had a few reader queries about cases for the iPhone 4S I thought I’d share some information about cases I have on hand.
I have six iPhone 4 cases that I either purchased or received for review and surprise a that a lot of them fit just fine for regular use. Only one of them wouldn’t fit at all. If you have one of the other five you’ll be just fine when you upgrade to an iPhone 4S.
Here’s the video to that “Steve Jobs” rap song that hit the Internets last month.
It’s got a few things that might not be safe for work – mainly rapper Supreme General who wrote and performs the song in various states of undress with obligatory crotch grabbing and too many obscenities to count. (Not that I didn’t try to count the obscenities – I’m like that.)
Today Sprint announced that the iPhone’s launch on its network resulted in the carrier’s best day ever in sales. Apple announced its partnership with Sprint to offer the iPhone 4S and 8GB iPhone 4 last week.
After today’s launch day, the iPhone has given Sprint more sales than any product ever on its network.
Fared Adib, Sprint Product Chief:
“Sprint today reported its best ever day of sales in retail, web and telesales for a device family in Sprint history with the launch of iPhone 4S and iPhone 4. We reached this milestone at approximately noon CT/1pm ET. The response to this device by current and new customers has surpassed our expectations and validates our customers’ desire for a truly unlimited data pricing plan.”
Rumors suggested for months that Sprint and Apple would partner for the next iPhone launch leading up to last week’s announcement.
Sprint offers its customers the unique option of purchasing an unlimited data plan with the iPhone.
AT&T also announced a record number of iPhone activations for today’s iPhone 4S launch.
AT&T announced Friday, October 14 that it saw a record number of iPhone activations on its network. The iPhone 4S was made available to US customers on AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint this morning.
The carrier confirmed to BGR:
“As of 4:30 pm ET today, AT&T had already activated a record number of iPhones on our network – and is on-track to double our previous record for activations on a single day.
These record volumes may produce slower activations for some customers, though our systems continue to run at record levels.”
Despite the fact that many were unable to activate their new iPhones on AT&T today, the carrier still calls the iPhone 4S its “most successful iPhone launch” to date.
AT&T alone was responsible for 200,000 of the 1 million worldwide pre-orders that were placed last Friday.
Although Apple has slashed international shipping times for many countries, eBay auctions may bring the iPhone 4S to early adopters before they can buy them in stores.
eBay currently lists a whopping 8,000 iPhone 4S for sale on its international circuit, in addition to individual country markets.
Some 22 European countries await the iPhone 4S launch on October 28, but that hasn’t stopped people from trying to sell them now via the online marketplace.