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.
Many of us are convinced our computers have minds of their own. In this bizarre case of iTunes moving music files around, there may well be a ghost in the machine:
Ok. I got one for you that has stumped EVERYONE that I have proposed this problem to, including Mac Geniuses and numerous techie friends.
iTunes keeps all music organized inside the Music folder in the Home folder. For the last several months, periodically when I add a new song, or change something regarding songs already in the library (add artwork, adjust genre, etc) SOME songs will relocate themselves to Macintosh HD >Music >iTunes >iTunes Music [outside the Home folder].
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.
iOS 5 includes a handy new feature that allows you to create your own custom multi-touch gestures. Although dubbed as an accessibility feature, it serves a larger function that that. In this video, I’ll show you how to create custom gestures, and use them to your benefit.
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.”
Siri is the intelligent assistant that comes with the iPhone 4S. You simply hold the iPhone’s Home button and speak your question or command — Siri does the rest.
While the obvious benefit of Siri is the handsfree aspect of voice technology, you can actually edit your Siri conversations the good old fashioned way with your keyboard.
Photo Stream is a feature in iCloud that allows Apple users to wirelessly sync photos and video between multiple devices. The service lets you take a picture on your iPhone or iPad 2 running iOS 5 and have it uploaded automatically in the background to your Photo Stream folder. That folder is then made available on all of your devices that are logged into iCloud, including iPhoto on your Mac.
There currently isn’t a way to individually delete photos from Photo Stream, but there is a way to completely reset Photo Stream and start over.
Planted in your shiny new iPhone 4s and in the iOS 5 are the seeds of tomorrow’s Mac of the future, and indeed the future of all computers. You can find them if you know where to look. (And I’ll tell you where below.)
It’s not supposed to be this way. In the Microsoft world, at least, new technology starts at the top and “trickles down” from bigger and more powerful computers over time to mobile devices and eventually cell phones. If you’re focused on the machines, this makes sense, as larger computers are more capable of handling powerful new features.
But if you’re focused on the user, as Apple is, this approach doesn’t make sense. Apple has developed what I believe is a unique strategy: introduce new interfaces and new ways to interact with computers and the Internet on the smallest devices first, then scale them up over time, eventually ending up as desktop features.
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.
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.
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.
Apple has been on a software rollout spree lately. iCloud and iOS 5 were both released to the public this past Wednesday alongside a slew of other app releases and updates.
Some of this week’s releases have also caused significant problems for many consumers. Certain iCloud customers have been experiencing faulty connectivity since the product’s launch two days ago. Luckily, Apple offers a way to check iCloud’s status from the web.