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An unlocked iPhone 4S is supposed to 'officially' come out in November but it looks like we don't have to wait that long. [
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Siri, the iPhone's super sassy personal assistant, has some hilarious bite to her, doesn't she? It wasn't always like this! According to WSJ, Siri started with a "light attitude" until Apple bought it and then purposely gave it more of an edge.
Norman Winarsky, a co-founder of Siri before Apple's purchase, says his original team had many conversations about "whether it should be gender neutral or should have an attitude". They decided to go with a voice that occasionally had a "light attitude". When Apple got their hands on Siri though, Apple wanted more edge, a realness that wasn't vanilla. Yes, they wanted to keep Siri "friendly and humble" but they were more concerned with "how would we want a person to respond?"
And they did a pretty good job! We've tested Siri plenty already and it's the most natural voice control system we've seen. What else can answer, "I've never really thought about it" to "Do you do anal?" or respond to an inquiry about Siri's favorite sex position by snapping, "You're not supposed to ask your assistant such things". Now if only Apple spent as much time perfecting the voice as they did figuring out her attitude... [WSJ, Image Credit: Shit That Siri Says]
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Apple improved the antenna design in the iPhone 4S in an attempt to kill the notorious Death Grip problem in the old iPhone 4. Did it work? Yes. OH YES. There is no death grip in the iPhone 4S.
We pitted an AT&T iPhone 4S vs an AT&T iPhone 4 to compare the death grip attenuation and when we tried to choke the 4S, it didn't budge. The 5 bars stayed steady throughout our entire test. The old iPhone 4? When gripped, the signal slowly dropped from 5 bars to 3 (and then re-gained those lost bars when we opened it up).
So if you were worried about the Death Grip still existing in the iPhone 4S, worry no more. It's gone. Sayonara. Killed. Buh-byed. Dead dead dead. You can't "hold it wrong" anymore. Finally?
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Now that the iPhone 4S is out, I'm disgusted by the mere sight of my stone-aged iPhone 4. Ugh. But it's not worthless: If you took good care of your iPhone it could fetch some bills on the secondary market.
People like buying other people's iPhones because they don't have to lock themselves into those lengthy obligatory contracts to get a good deal. So even though you've totally had it with your iPhone 4—someone out there is dying to get their mitts on yours. Here's a breakdown on you could get for a 16GB iPhone 4 today.
How much: $300(ish)
How to do it: You've got two options on the world's largest auction block: Either offer to sell it now for $300 or try your luck at auctions which mostly close in the high-$200 range. Some close above $300 if the iPhones are already jailbroken or come with additional swag. This is definitely the best option if you're willing to expend the effort to deal with a buyer.
How much: $85-$221
How to do it: If you hate interacting with other people, sites that allow you to cash in your device are super-convenient and offer pretty good deals. Just send in your phone and the companies credit you after inspecting it. Before selling you're going to want to check all of the sites. Prices fluctuate so you want to see who has the best price for whatever condition your phone is in.
When we checked it out eBay's InstantSale had the best offer—$221—for an iPhone in good condition. NextWorth and Gazelle were both offering $200 for a flawless phone. And if you've got a clunker that won't even turn on, you can still get $85 from Gazelle.
How much: $150-???
How to do it: Getting past the anarchic mess of scammers and spammers on Craigslist is all about patience. Looking at the listings on your local Craigslist site, you'll see everything bargain-bin broken iPhones to naive newbies who are trying to sell phones in "excellent condition" for $450. It'll take you a while to suss out what the best price is—and what's worth waiting around for. I listed mine for $400 and still haven't heard anything back. But you like to play the waiting game, there's probably some extra dollars to be made from people who like dealing face-to-face.
Wow you guys are really really good at making money. No wonder you can afford an iPhone every time a new one comes out! We loved your ideas as well as hearing about how you got a much much better deal when you sold your iPhone than we did. This update is dedicated to your ingenuity.
How much: $262 Trade/Credit (current)
How to do it
Go to Amazon's trade-in store where they're offering cold hard Amazon gift cards for your outmoded iPhone 4. You can buy anything with Amazon cash. It's practically its own currency.
How much: $200 trade
How to do it
Can't wait? If you're by your local RadioShack and you haven't upgraded to the iPhone 4S, consider Radio Shack's Trade and Save program—they'll give you $200 trade for your iPhone 4.
How much: $189
How to do it
BuyMyTronics functions much like InstantSale, NextWorth, and Gazelle. Worth a look if you're going the instant sale route.
Side note: I had no idea there were so many enterprises scattered about the internet devoted only to the function of buying your unwanted gadgets for cash. Holy smokes! I can't personally vouch for any of them, and I'd feel wrong endorsing any single one—let's just say they have awesome names like "SellMeYourDarnPhone.com" "UnloadYouGearForCash.org." Many of them promise good prices, and I'm sure there's many dealz to be had.
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Yep, they're still shit. [iPhone 4S on Giz]
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So you managed to get an iPhone 4S today. Congratulations! But once you finish having sex with it and get it cleaned off, ask yourself: What do you really know about your new phone, in an empirical and (sort of) scientifically tested fashion? Not much, right? Giz has your back.
It's faster. Screens slide smoother, apps launch quicker and stuff just works better. But that shouldn't really come as a surprise-we've seen the difference between an A4 and an A5 processor before. More »
The iPhone 4S is here. One of new, not-so-visible features? A re-spiffed antenna, and stuffed inside the AT&T 4S, new guts that (should) mean faster data speeds. More »
You did it. You've got your brand new iPhone. Siri! The better camera! But how fast is it on your carrier's network? Push that download to the max.
Using our Official Gizmodo Download Speed Ultra Test 6500™, you can check how your mobile downloads stack up. More »
Call quality has never been a strong suit of the iPhone. But ever since iPhone 4 came out on Verizon, things have gotten just a smidge better. And the iPhone 4S reaffirms that Apple's improvements have been no fluke.
We compared the iPhone 4S on ATT, Verizon and Sprint to a trio of new Android... More »
Apple improved the antenna design in the iPhone 4S in an attempt to kill the notorious Death Grip problem in the old iPhone 4. Did it work? Yes. OH YES. More »
The iPhone 4S is faster than the iPhone 4. How much faster? And how much faster than its non-Apple kin? We did some benchmark bench pressing to find out. More »
After a little while it gets boring asking Siri to text people and convert gallons to quarts. It's been a long day. I'm a little delirious. Help me, Siri. More »
Yep, they're still shit. [iPhone 4S on Giz] More »
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Siri, the personal assistant extraordinaire, is one of the hallmark features of the new iPhone 4S. But why oh why can't she be on the old iPhone 4? She's just software! iPhone developer Steven Troughton-Smith thought the same thing but actually managed to port Siri over to the iPhone 4.
His first effort was less polished than the one above but this latest one (in the video above), shows Siri working just as buttery smooth and delicious on the old iPhone 4 as on the 4S. He somehow ported the Siri and specific springboard files over and it loads just fine, you see the complete Siri interface, actions and she can even understand you but... you can't do anything with Siri on an iPhone 4 yet. Apple isn't authenticating Siri commands from an iPhone 4 on its servers so all you get to do is stare at the purple and silver of Siri.
Hopefully, Apple will introduce Siri to more devices (namely the iPhone 4 and iPad 2) because the software is amazing and the hardware can clearly handle it. No excuses Apple. We all want the fun. [9to5Mac via Engadget]
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Hey you! With the shiny, hopefully scratch free iPhone 4S. Siri's nice, huh? Camera's good? But you know what makes the iPhone really SHINE? Apps. Apps. Apps. There's a billion of 'em in the app store but here are the apps we think are the best. Go crazy. [Gizmodo]
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I guess you guys weren't all that disappointed in the iPhone 4S after all. AT&T's already broken their record for single-day iPhone sales, and it's on pace to double the old record. And with Verizon and Sprint on top of that, well, that's kind of a lot.
AT&T looking like it's going to double its single-day record is especially impressive because this is the first iPhone launch where it's had to share the mic with Verizon and Sprint. Put another way, take last year's (AT&T-only) iPhone launch, double it, and then on top of that pile on whatever Verizon and Sprint sell today—which will be a lot. Especially considering Sprint's already reporting its best day of retail and web sales ever. That's crazy. [AT&T]
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It's faster. Screens slide smoother, apps launch quicker and stuff just works better. But that shouldn't really come as a surprise—we've seen the difference between an A4 and an A5 processor before. What IS surprising is just how fast the 4S' camera is. That thing KILLS.
We tested the iPhone 4S against the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 and though the 4S felt better when compared to the iPhone 4, it's not an iPad 2/iPad 1-sized difference where you feel like the old generation is trudging trough slowsand and it's impossible to ever go back. However! It'd be foolish to discredit the speed difference because it clearly exists and it definitely improves the iOS app-launchy, screen-slidey experience. iOS is just slicker on the 4S, things work better and you get to do what you want to do faster.
Where the iPhone 4S truly blows the iPhone 4 away is in its camera speed. I tried to "rapid fire" the cameras in both devices—obviously more of a stress test than a real-world test—and the results were stunning. First, the iPhone 4 camera takes MUCH longer than the 4S camera to open. And then when I started taking pictures over and over and over again, the iPhone 4S handled it with ease. Saying the camera in the iPhone 4 struggled is a bit of an understatement; in a solid 10-15 seconds of button mashing, the iPhone 4S managed to take twice as many photos as its predecessor. The camera speed in the 4S is legit, folks.
The iPhone 4S also shines in more intensive games like Infinity Blade and NBA Jam. The iPhone 4 isn't even on the same level, actually, sword swipes swoop smoother and controls feel more responsive on the 4S. What we saw in our testing was the iPhone 4S and iPad 2 battling it out for first place while the old iPhone wasn't even close. And that's the real gist of it, the iPhone 4S compares more to the iPad 2 than the old iPhone 4. And that's a pretty good place to be.
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The iPhone 4S is faster than the iPhone 4. How much faster? And how much faster than its non-Apple kin? We did some benchmark bench pressing to find out. Feel the burn!
First, some synthetic benchmarks, courtesy of Sunspider. How fast could these phones crush JavaScript? We tested each phone on the same Wi-Fi network, inches away from one another. A lower score (faster) is better:
iPhone 4S: 2237.8 ms
iPhone 4: 3611.8 ms
Droid Bionic: 3963.9 ms
Samsung Galaxy S II: 3523.2 ms
The iPhone 4S is the champ by a wide stretch—and its little brother still beats the beefier Bionic.
But what about some non-synthetic testing? We loaded up two popular, image-heavy sites under the same conditions. Again, lower is better:
iPhone 4S
Awl: 6 sec
NYT: 5 seciPhone 4:
Awl: 7 sec
NYT: 8 secDroid Bionic:
NYT: 12 sec
Awl: 13 secSamsung Galaxy S II:
NYT: 5 sec
Awl: 8 sec
Again, the 4S crosses the finish line first. Is this a completely comprehensive test? No. Is this highly indicative? Yes.
You can keep up with Sam Biddle, the author of this post, on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+. Related StoriesView the original article here
10 
Call quality has never been a strong suit of the iPhone. But ever since iPhone 4 came out on Verizon, things have gotten just a smidge better. And the iPhone 4S reaffirms that Apple's improvements have been no fluke.
We compared the iPhone 4S on ATT, Verizon and Sprint to a trio of new Android phones: Motorola Droid Bionic (Verizon), Samsung Galaxy S II (Sprint) and the HTC Amaze (T-Mobile). We placed calls to a landline phone and tested for not just for overall quality, but also the noise canceling capabilities of each phone. So how'd they fare?
When comparing among iPhone 4S models to each other, the CDMA-powered Verizon and Sprint phones sounded better than the AT&T handset on both ends of the line. Yes, the CDMA handsets lacked a certain clarity and sounded a little more hushed, but the voices were full and soft, which made having a conversation easier on the ears. Voice quality on the AT&T iPhone 4S was tinny and shrill and generally less pleasant, even if voices came through bolder.
On the Android side, the Galaxy S II was more or less on par with the AT&T iPhone 4S. Clear and upfront, but again, shrill. The HTC Amaze sounded the worst, sounding tinny and distant and surrounded by ambient noise. The Droid Bionic, on the other hand, sounded great. Striking a balance between clarity and richness of voice, it was the best sounding of all the phones. But it's also running on Verizon's 4G network, so it was somewhat expected.
Winner: Droid Bionic
For the noise cancellation test, I was sitting in an enclosed booth, so I just threw on a song with a lot of abrasive noise and proceeded to talk over it to my co-conspirator on the other line.
All the iPhones eliminated about the same amount of noise, quickly recognizing when I was speaking and dampening the music, making my voice intelligible. When I wasn't speaking, the mic would hone back in on the background noise. The AT&T's noise cancellation was more noticeable, since the audio quality is brighter.
Of the Android phones, the Galaxy S II and the Droid Bionic performed about the same, cutting out most of the unwanted sound and leaving my own voice intact. It took longer than the iPhones for each of the Android handsets to detect when I was speaking, but once they caught up, they performed admirably. The HTC Amaze's noise cancellation worked well enough, but it took the longest of any to kick in, and even when it did, it still let some background noise through.
Winner: iPhone 4S
The call quality on all the iPhone 4Ses is the best yet of the lineage. That said, it still quite isn't on the level of the Droid Bionic, even the 4S has some awesome noice cancellation capabilities. And if you're looking for a top-to-bottom comparison, here it is:
1) Motorola Droid Bionic (Verizon)
2) iPhone 4S (Sprint and Verizon—tie)
4) iPhone 4S (AT&T)
5) Samsung Galaxy S II (Sprint)
6) HTC Amaze (T-Mobile)
[iPhone 4S on Giz]
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The iPhone 4S is here. One of new, not-so-visible features? A re-spiffed antenna, and stuffed inside the AT&T 4S, new guts that (should) mean faster data speeds. But theoretical max speeds are not real world experiences. So which iPhone is the fastest: AT&T, Sprint or Verizon? And how does the 4S stack up against the most jacked Android phones?
We tested the iPhone 4S on AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon; the iPhone 4 on Verizon and AT&T; the Samsung Galaxy S II on Sprint and T-Mobile; the Motorola Droid Bionic on Verizon, and the HTC Amaze on Sprint.
None of the iPhones proclaim to run at "4G" speeds, although AT&T has billed phones with the same potential data speed as the 4S as "4G." What you consider 4G may differ from what somebody else calls 4G, and sure enough, every Android phone we tested is a 4G phone, according to their respective carriers.
Let's talk speed limits, theoretically. Verizon and Sprint's iPhones use CDMA EV-DO Rev A, which has a theoretical max download speed of 3.1Mbps. The old AT&T iPhone 4 was technically capable of hitting 7.2Mbps downstream. AT&T's iPhone 4S uses a version of HSPA+ with a max speed of 14.4Mbps downstream. For the non-iPhones, the Amaze 4G and Galaxy S II on T-Mobile also run on HSPA+, but a version that theoretically allows a peak downstream speed of 42Mbps. The Galaxy S II on Sprint uses WiMax for 4G speeds, while Verizon's Droid Bionic runs on its LTE network, which claims speeds of up to 12Mbps (though we've seen them go well above 20Mbps). Obviously, theoretical max speeds are not real world speeds. Which is what we wanted to check. (Is this alphabet soup of network standards confusing? Read this.)
This is just a spot test, from our roof in our downtown NYC offices. We have pretty strong signalage from every carrier (every phone showed max bars, and though bars can be slightly misleading as a measure, they're ballpark). Of course, some networks are stronger than others in certain areas, which is why we've got more comprehensive, diverse network testing on the way, in lotsa different locations. (For something a little wider reaching, check out—and participate in!—the great national network test.)
Method: We ran at least five speed tests for each to make sure we were getting good data, and then averaged the results.
(BTW, click on the charts to embiggen.)
Most important, to most of you anyway, are download speeds. No surprise, perhaps, the 4G phones massacred the iPhones, beating them by nearly 1000 percent. AT&T's faster theoretical speeds with its iPhone 4S are indeed faster in real life, beating Verizon and Sprint on the iPhone 4S. And yes, the 4S was definitely faster than 4 on AT&T. No real gain for Verizon—our theory is that Verizon iPhone 4 already had a tweaked antenna design, so it had less to gain.
Upload speeds on phones have gotten more and more important, considering how many of us are now syncing our high-res photos and HD videos back to the cloud. The Droid Bionic's crazyquickness is way beyond anything else, which is why we love us some LTE. The iPhone 4Ses' speeds make us sad though, particularly AT&T's. (We re-ran the tests many, many times to see if they weren't a fluke. Perhaps there was a problem with the tower near us.) Sprint's iPhone 4S had the best upload speed of those we tested, at 0.89Mbps.
Again, these are preliminary tests, but so far Sprint seems to average out the best of the iPhone 4Ses, with the second fastest downloads and fastest upload. Plus you get unlimited data. If all you care about is downstream and you've got good AT&T service, that's going to be your best bet. Of course, the bigger take away? iPhones are officially slowwwww when it comes to raw data speeds. Next year, right?
Image credit: Shutterstock/Ra Studio
You can keep up with Brent Rose, the author of this post, on Google+ or Twitter. Related StoriesView the original article here
After a little while it gets boring asking Siri to text people and convert gallons to quarts. It's been a long day. I'm a little delirious. Help me, Siri. God, just help me.
It can't get me drugs. It can't understand my need. But at least it'll tell me what it's wearing without any questions. [iPhone 4S on Giz]
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Thanks to iOS 5, Foursquare has a new Radar feature in its iPhone app that's insanely cool. Radar will smartly let you know if you're near friends, around a place on your To-Do List or followed and will even notify you when the app is closed. It's like a super useful Find My Friends.
Foursquare's examples are, "If you follow a list, like the 101 Best Dishes of 2011, foursquare will let you know when you're next to one. Or you save that yoga studio to your To-Do List (because you really want to try it); we can remind you when you're close."
It just works! Radar finds the places you've already wanted to go but didn't know were next to you. So smart I might start using Foursquare. The new update of Foursquare should be hitting the App Store soon. [Foursquare]
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We've seen a really impressive, albeit polished, video look at Siri working on the iPhone 4S already but this video is a little more thorough and a lot more real life-ish. She's still impressively smart but she's not perfect.
When asked "What's your name?", she responded "My name is Siri. But you knew that already". To "How old are you?" she (creepily) responds, "I am not allowed to answer that question." Are you going to bust Chris Hansen on me Siri! She can do funny too, when the person said "I love you" to Siri (which I'm sure she, or it, will hear a lot), she hilariously responds, "I hope you don't say that to those other mobile phones, [NAME]".
But she's not perfect, her voice is verrrrry missy robota and she can't always understand the off the wall questions, like when asked "Can we be friends?" Siri responds, "Sorry. I don't understand, "Can we be friends". What's there to not understand, HMM!?
Take a look at the whole video though, beyond the silly question and answer game, Siri shows off her amazing breadth of knowledge and potential usefulness. I'm not sure I'll ever use Siri but color me impressed. [Apple Master Touch via MacRumors]
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Scosche's RDTX is a radiation detector for your iPhone. Seriously, it turns your iPhone into a Geiger counter—you just attach the wand to your iPhone and the RDTX will tell you the radiation levels around you.
Once attached to your phone, the RDTX displays results in a digital scale or classic green/yellow/red analog needle on your iPhone. The radiation detector can even average out how much radiation you expose yourself to, find out the total dosage, ring an alarm if it gets too high and even update Twitter/Facebook/Google Maps (to map out radiation levels). It's only out in Japan right now (and for good reason, obv) but could be extremely anywhere nuclear disasters may happen. [Scosche via DVICE]
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Apple's demos of the new iPhone 4S' Siri smart assistant are very impressive, but they're just controlled demos. Stuff.tv got their hands on an iPhone 4S and played quite a bit with in a public place. It's still very impressive.
It looks like they were playing with it at the Apple Store in Covent Garden, with quite a bit of noise in the background. Not New York subway level noise, but noisy enough. It worked great all the time. The people tone is pretty natural.
But the question is still the same: would you be like Captain Kirk or Picard and bark orders to your phone in public? [Stuff.tv]
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229 We hoped Apple had beefed up the RAM in the iPhone 4S, but those hopes may be dashed. Two recent unconfirmed reports suggest the iPhone 4S may ship with 512MB of RAM like the iPhone 4, not 1GB as expected.
This information comes from an Infinity Blade developer and the website Appvv. The developers behind Infinity Blade should be familiar with the hardware specs of the phone since its game will launch as the flagship title. And Appvv apparently has some advance knowledge of the handset as it posted a video of Siri in action.
If this rumor pans out, then the iPhone 4S may be less attractive to many users, a situation that could open the door for other platforms like Windows Phone to grab some market share. [Eurogamer and Appvv and via MacRumors]
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