iOS devices refer to any of Apple’s hardware that runs the iOS mobile operating system which include iPhones, iPads, and iPods. Historically, Apple releases a new iOS version once a year, the current version is iOS 10. Here is the complete list of iOS 10 compatible devices.
As always, the guys over at IHS iSuppli have just published analysis of their iPhone 4S teardown showing a BOM of $188 for the 16GB and in the process revealing some previously undisclosed suppliers.
The $188 BOM is of course for the entry-level 16GB model, which would also inflate to $196 if factoring in an $8 manufacturing cost. BOM for the 32GB model comes in at $207 (again, before manufacturing), and $245 for the 64GB variant.
The report describes the 4S’s insides as including a “wealth of innovation”, in contrast to the device’s feature set which was received as an incremental upgrade by most. Among the suprises revealed during the teardown– NAND flash memory supplied by Hynix Semiconductor (a first for iPhone) and a “unique custom” wireless module from Avago Technologies Ltd. The device torn down by iSuppli carried the same sony Sensor as the device X-Rayed by Chipworks but they postulate that Omnivision may also provide an 8-megapixel sensor as well for some of the devices.
Senior director of teardown services for IHS, Andrew Rassweiler, explains: Expand Expanding Close
AT&T just released its earnings and showed strong iPhone sales despite having a 16-month old device on hand with updates looming. The carrier reported activating 2.7 million iPhones in the quarter out of a total of 4.8 million total devices. Android device sales doubled year over year.
Non-iPhone Smartphone Sales Increase.AT&T continues to deliver robust smartphone sales. (Smartphones are voice and data devices with an advanced operating system to better manage data and Internet access.) In the third quarter, the company sold 4.8 million smartphones, representing nearly two-thirds of postpaid device sales. Sales of Android devices more than doubled year over year, and almost half of all smartphone sales were non-iPhone devices. During the quarter, 2.7 million iPhones were activated.
Our polls show that significantly more than half of all US iPhone users go with AT&T, due mostly to the higher data rates and ability to talk and use data at the same time.
In May we profiled a Kickstarter project called the Kogeto Dot which was trying to build an affordable Panoramic Video camera attachment for the iPhone to bring panoramic video recording to the masses. They needed to raise $20,000 to get their product built and develop the app.
CEO Jeff Glasse and Co. raised over $120,000, so needless to say, they built the product. It goes on sale this week.
I had a chance to demo the product this evening with Glasse (above). It couldn’t be more straightforward and the good news is that the camera on the iPhone 4S not only works but it produces a 40% better picture due to the capture of 1080p video (over 720p on the iPhone 4).
As you can see in the video above, the video comes out as a circular recording in a standard movie file. The Looker software then uploads the video to a server which then stretches it out into a 360 degree panel. From there you can post to the web or upload to Facebook to share with friends. The movie plays in the Looker App or Flash on the web.
You can pick up the Dot for $79 in four colors starting next week. The Looker App should hit the App store this weekend.
I’ve been using a new iPhone application called Reprise as my main iPhone music player for the past few weeks, and it makes a fantastic replacement for certain iPhone music listeners. In 2005, Apple took the concept of song shuffling to their biggest extreme yet with the iPod shuffle. An iPod dedicating to shuffling your music. That music player still exists, but the iPod line in general has been caniblized by the iPhone and iPod touch and their iOS operating system. With the iPod shuffle even existing, there is a clear market for music shuffling. Read on for the full review…
Regional carrier C Spire Wireless (previously known as Cellular South) has just announced (viaMacRumors) they will be the fourth U.S. carrier to offer the iPhone 4S beginning sometime in the “coming weeks”. This is a clear indication that Apple has plans to open up distribution to more smaller carriers in the future.
“C Spire Wireless announced today that it will launch iPhone 4S, the most amazing iPhone yet, in the U.S. in the coming weeks.
For further information or to register interest, please visit www.cspire.com/iphone. For more information on iPhone 4S, please visit www.apple.com/iphone.”
C Spire is currently the largest privately held carrier in the US, with somewhere in the neighbourhood of 900,000 customers throughout Mississippi, Florida, Memphis, Georgia, and Alabama calling their CDMA network home. The company doesn’t appear to have officially announced pricing plans, but judging by their current options, there won’t be a huge incentive to drop AT&T or Verizon. C Spire is the fourth carrier in the U.S to offer the iPhone after Sprint signed up with Apple to become the third to correspond with the launch of the 4S. Expand Expanding Close
We were all ready to start making fun of these guys for being wacko gun nuts and wasting a perfectly good $650 iPhone until the slo-mos came in about halfway through the video. OK, that was cool. Where’s the Android version? Via Giz (of course)
Motorola teaches us the difference between the 3.5-inch iPhone 4S and 4.3-inch RAZR.
Motorola has just unveiled the DROID RAZR and it looks like it beat the iPhone in the thinness department (except the upper part housing the camera that isn’t). Motorola’s device is, according to the blurb, “impossibly thin”, measuring just 7.1mm versus 9.3mm for the iPhone 4S. This 4G LTE handset driven by Android 2.3.5 features a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display with an qHD resolution, a 1.2GHz dual-core processor with 1GB of RAM plus an eight-megapixel camera with 1080p video recording, 32 gigabytes of storage and Bluetooth 4.0. It weights a slight 121 grams compared to the iPhone 4S’s 140 grams.
But 7.1mm thin? Sure, except the part that is 10mm thin housing the camera.
They also have an optional lapdock that looks a lot like a MacBook Pro. The physical design boasts an interesting combination of Gorilla Glass and KEVLAR. Motorola is claiming up to 8.9 hours of video playback and 12.5 hours of talk time. The device is available for pre-order beginning October 27 on the Verizon Wireless network, starting at $299, with an expected launch sometime in November. Our own Seth Weintraub is live-blogging the announcement over at 9to5Google so feel free to hop over if you’re eager to find out more or check out the official RAZR mini-site. More juicy press shots, a nice teaser video and full press release after the break…
They also compare 4G LTE RAZR to 3G iPhone 4S. BTW Moto, thanks for free advertising!
Dropbox founders Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi didn’t take the money and ran. Would you reject an $800 million acquisition offer from Apple if you had a hot cloud storage startup?
Forbes throws its weight behind a recent rumor that implied Apple had made an attempt to acquire the hot cloud storage startup Dropbox. Author Victoria Barret opens the lengthy profile with an interesting anecdote:
Jobs had been tracking a young software developer named Drew Houston, who blasted his way onto Apple’s radar screen when he reverse-engineered Apple’s file system so that his startup’s logo, an unfolding box, appeared elegantly tucked inside. Not even an Apple SWAT team had been able to do that.
In December 2009 Jobs invited Houston and his partner, Arash Ferdowsi, for a meeting at his Cupertino office. Both men had already established names for themselves in Silicon Valley, thanks to their hot storage startup named Dropbox. Despite considering Jobs his hero, Houston was clear upfront about not wanting to sell out the company to anyone, even to Apple.
It basically came down to the world’s biggest startup – as Jobs half-jokingly called Apple during a chat with Walt Mossberg at last year’s D conference – throwing a nine-figure amount (reportedly $800 million) at the feet of an up and running storage startup. The little guy rejects a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be acquired by Apple, stubbornly choosing to pursue own ambitious goals. Talk about David versus Goliath. Here’s to the crazy ones:
Jobs smiled warmly as he told them he was going after their market. “He said we were a feature, not a product,” says Houston. Courteously, Jobs spent the next half hour waxing on over tea about his return to Apple, and why not to trust investors, as the duo—or more accurately, Houston, who plays Penn to Ferdowsi’s mute Teller—peppered him with questions. […] When Jobs later followed up with a suggestion to meet at Dropbox’s San Francisco office, Houston proposed that they instead meet in Silicon Valley. “Why let the enemy get a taste?” he now shrugs cockily. Instead, Jobs went dark on the subject, resurfacing only this June, at his final keynote speech, where he unveiled iCloud, and specifically knocked Dropbox as a half-attempt to solve the Internet’s messiest dilemma: How do you get all your files, from all your devices, into one place? […] Houston’s reaction was less cocky: “Oh, s–t.” The next day he shot a missive to his staff: “We have one of the fastest-growing companies in the world,” it began. Then it featured a list of one-time meteors that fell to Earth: MySpace, Netscape, Palm, Yahoo.
It’s a shame they couldn’t come to terms and here’s why…
DIGITIMES Researchpublished a new survey this morning calling for global tablet PC shipments hitting 18.7 million units. As for iPad, the research arm of the Asian trade publication forecasts 13 million units, representing a whopping 36.8 percent sequential growth compared to the 9.25 million iPads the company shipped in the previous quarter. DIGITIMES Research says, however, that Apple was originally shooting higher:
Impacted by the weakening global economy, Apple’s iPad shipments in the third quarter did not meet its forecast and only reached 13 million units with a sequential growth of 36.8%.
This could explain recent claims by J.P. Morgan’s Asia team which caused quite a commotion saying Apple cut holiday quarter iPad orders by 25 percent, even though J.P. Morgan quickly distanced themselves from that report. Underwhelming or not, the fact remains that the 13 million iPads account for a healthy 70 percent of the entire tablet market this quarter.
As for iPad wannabes:
Meanwhile, due to their inability to attract consumers, most non-iPad tablet PCs suffered from high inventory issues in the third quarter. In addition, many new tablet PC product launches have been delayed. As a result, shipments of non-iPad tablet PCs only grew 10.1% sequentially in the quarter.
In the U.S., three out of four tablets sold are iPads. Apple is due to report September quarter earnings today after the closing bell so the mystery surrounding iPad shipments will be cleared up soon.
This is your Yellowgate. It looks worse from an angle (below the fold).
Hopefully, the tint should go away as glue from the factory dries. Image credit: chr0m
Look, fringe issues are common when four million devices hit at once. Hence, this compilation of inevitable teething problems with Apple’s new baby. First up, the display. A bunch of people are writing in a thread on Apple’s Discussion Forums about washed out colors and yellowish tint on the iPhone 4S’s display. This is especially noticeable with lots of whites, such as when browsing the web or reading your email.
Got a new iPhone 4S this morning, and when I put it next to my old iPhone 4 I discovered the screen was much ‘nicer’ on the old iPhone. When I say nicer, its kind of got a really yellow tint to the screen on the 4S, whites are where you notice it the most for example the email looks far nicer on the iPhone 4 screen. All other colours look quite washed out. Anyone else got this problem?
Not to worry, factory workers did not pee on your screen. It’s a common issue with the devices that have literally just been produced as the glue from the factory which keeps the screen in place dries. Watchful readers could note similar problems with early iPad 2 and iPhone 3G units. As for the recently reported slow 3G speeds on the Sprint network, the carrier has denied the issue. PCMag.comhas the official statement:
As always, Sprint is carefully monitoring the performance of the 3G network. We are looking into a small number of reports of slow data speeds when using the iPhone 4S, however there are also reports showing that Sprint’s network is the fastest, such as the Gizmodo report that came out earlier today. Speed tests represent a moment in time and are subject to many variables including weather, time of day, device, and proximity to a tower. Sprint will continue to monitor the feedback we are getting from our customers and will investigate and resolve any issues that may arise.
Next up, some folks are complaining about their brand spanking new iPhone 4S’s battery draining out in just a couple of hours on standby. Now, Apple rates the battery inside the iPhone 4S as having up to 200 hours of standby, a hundred less than the previous model. This surprised some fans, especially considering the iPhone 4S’s extra .05W/hrs battery and an hour-long talk time increase. The most logical explanation for a thirty percent reduction in standby time is Siri or additional background processes with notifications. Judging by this thread on Apple’s support forums, the battery issue may be affecting a tiny portion of early adopters.
Moreover, iLoungefound out in their iPhone 4S mega-review that the device also has worse battery life for 3G data and audio/video playback/recording. It fared better in their cellular calling tests and on par with the iPhone 4 for Wi-Fi and FaceTime. If it’s any consolation, Apple offers these handy tips on improving battery life on your iPhone, including:
Be sure to go through at least one charge cycle per month (charging the battery to 100% and then completely running it down).
Moving on to Siri. As you know, Apple’s digital assistant is being billed as the killer feature of the iPhone 4S. Indeed, it’s like having a secretary of your own – in your pocket. Siri has inspired a site solely dedicated to the things Siri says (another one here). Heck, Jonathan Mann even sang a duet with Siri. Some answers Siri gives are amusing, such as responding to marriage questions with “My End User License Agreement does not cover marriage”. People are more amused by the silly stuff, like when you say “call me an ambulance” and she responds by acknowledging “From now on, I’ll call you ‘an ambulance'”. More on Siri and other tidbits below the fold.
Siri, fuzzy by design, taps a huge phrases database to come up with amusing replies.
Update: Judging by the comments, this update is bricking more than a few readers’ machines!
Update Pulled, expect another shortly
Apple has just released an update to the Apple TV this evening, updating the new 4.4 to version 4.4.1. We don’t know if there is any new features besides bug fixes as of yet, but we’ll be on the look out. If you find anything let us know; tips@9to5mac.com.
This is the first update to the new version of the Apple TV, version 4.4. Version 4.4 brought many updates including Trailers, Photo Stream, NHL, and WSJ Live. Check it out in action after the break:
US department store, Sears, announced today that they are rolling out iPads and iPod touches to 450 retail stores nationwide. The rollout is to better the relationship between the customer and sales associate to improve the shopping experience. Sears will train their employees to utilize these devices to order products online for customers, access product information and videos, and show customers how to utilize enhanced purchasing tools to buy products they desire.
Sears isn’t the first company to rollout Apple products across their fleet. Lowe’s did something similar by bringing 42,000 iPhones to their stores to process sales. Old Navy, Home Depot, and of course Apple also use iOS devices to enhance the sales experience.
In the press release, Sears also said they’re working to upgrade their technology infrastructure so that customers can use their mobile devices to compare products (Wi-Fi). Sears will also use the iPads and iPod touches to train employees. Cheers, to a better shopping experience!
The stars are aligning for Apple as Reutersjust reported of another legal win in the company’s legal battle with the Taiwanese handset maker HTC. The news gathering organization explains that the U.S. International Trade Commission on Monday ruled in favor of Apple concerning HTC’s patent infringement complaint:
An ITC administrative law judge found “no violation” by Apple of four HTC patents that include technologies for power management and phone dialing.
This will come as a relief to the Cupertino, California company as competitor HTC in May of last year asked ITC to ban the importation of iOS devices into the United States. This doesn’t mean the ruling is a done deal as a full commission is scheduled to rule on whether to uphold the judge’s preliminary decision in February of next year.
The development follows today’s news that Samsung asked the courts to stop sales of the iPhone 4S in both Japanese and Australian markets after Apple last week successfully bared Samsung from selling Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia. Samsung’s chief operating officer Lee Jae-yong – also son of Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee and heir apparent to the group’s leadership – met with Apple CEO Tim Cook following a private memorial service held for Steve Jobs yesterday at Stanford University, to which Kun-hee had been invited.
He told reporters that Samsung should “maintain a healthy partnership with Apple”, adding the two companies should also “compete fiercely but fairly”. Industry sources this morning toldKorean Times Apple’s been in talks with Samsung over shipment of its A6 quad-core chip for iPad 3 and iPhone 5, indicating Samsung’s importance in Apple’s supply chain as the South Korean conglomerate remains a critical business partner. As for the Apple vs. HTC saga…
MacRumorspoints us to Apple’s how to buy page, where it has been updated saying that the iPhone 4S is now only available in retail stores by reservation only. The page says an iPhone 4S can be reserved after 9:00 PM each day, and will be available for pickup the following day.
An Apple representative told MacRumors that supplies are beginning to disappear, and are pushing customers to the reserve page to ensure they get a device rather than leaving the store empty handed.
It seems highly unlikely that Apple would push away a customer who would come in to buy a device. Perhaps they’ll be selling the remaining stock to those who walk-in. Customers can also order the iPhone 4S online.
Shawn Blanc (viaThe Next Web) calculated this morning that Apple is selling 16 iPhone 4Ss a second, or roughly 1,000 a minute. Blanc’s figuring comes after Apple announced this morning that there were 4 million iPhone 4Ss sold its opening three-day weekend. Figures are also expected to expand as the iPhone 4S is introduced in 22 more countries on the 24th.
Reaching this milestone, Apple is on tract to pass Microsoft’s Kinect as the fastest selling consumer device of all time. Microsoft sold 8 million Kinects in the first 60 days, a number Apple could theoretically pass in the first two weeks.
The success of the iPhone 4S is most likely helped by a few factors:
The availability on three U.S. carriers: AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint. AT&T and Sprint both announced opening day sales records on Friday. The iPhone 4 was only on AT&T in the US its opening day.
iPhone 4 was released in 5 countries. iPhone 4S was also available in Canada and Australia in addition.
iPhone 4 saw serious product shortages while it appears that Apple made plenty of iPhone 4Ss (OK, maybe not)
There was a longer than normal wait time between the iPhone 4 and 4S (15 months)
iPhone 4S is amazing.
We’re sure to hear more in Apple’s FYQ4 earnings call tomorrow afternoon.
Alright, calling it outer space is a little over the top as weather balloons may typically reach altitudes of 40km (25 miles) or more, which is still in the atmosphere, but still…
So these guys paid an eye-brow raising tribute to Steve Jobs in their own unique way, by launching two iPhone 4Ss into space by attaching them to a weather balloon. Yeah, I know, it’s an old trick, but the phones are new and do 1080P video. One of the phones had an interval photo timer app running while the other captured video. They explained:
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.
The result of their undertaking is impressive: Check out the included clip depicting Earth’s atmosphere in full HD quality. The weather balloon eventually deflated and the iPhones landed safely, courtesy of a parachute and OtterBox cases for the iPhone 4S. Yeah, I know it’s a paradox that the iPhone 4S can safely land unscratched from the outer space and yet won’t survive a waist high drop.
And if the attached GPS failed, the amateur balloonists could use Find My Friends to get their rig. See? It isn’t just for finding cheating spouses.
The online Apple Store is having a clearance of the original iPad for three select WiFi and WiFi + 3G models, including the flagship 64GB WiFi + 3G iPad. Now available for up to $200-$230 less compared to their original list prices, these products come looking like new and with the same 1-year warranty that other Apple products receive. All refurbished iPad models also include a brand new battery and outer shell. Supplies are time-limited, as indicated by the Special Limited Time Price designation. Availability is guaranteed upon receipt of full payment.
• Refurbished 64GB Wi-Fi iPad: Now available for $399, down from $599, a $200 savings
• Refurbished 32GB Wi-Fi + 3G iPad: Now available for $399 down from $629 a $230 savings
• Refurbished 64GB Wi-Fi + 3G iPad: Now available for $499, down from $729, a $230 savings Expand Expanding Close
Samsung told the Japanese courts that Apple is violating their user interface and technology patents in their smartphones and tablets, while they told Japanese courts that Apple has violated patents in the realm of wireless telecommunication standards. Today’s news comes just after Apple’s victory of a ban on the sale of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia last week.
Although Apple says that they will begin selling unlocked, contract-free iPhone 4S units in the United States in November, we have learned otherwise. Select Apple Stores in the United States have begun selling contract-free versions of the iPhone 4S, which our friend Steven Troughton-Smith was able to both verify and purchase.
Users can activate the contract-free iPhone 4S by simply plugging the device into iTunes. Once plugged in, the above iPhone 4S unlocked popup will appear. Troughton-Smith’s unlocked iPhone 4S in the United States successfully connected to T-Mobile’s EDGE network via an O2 SIM-card on roaming. The contract-free, unlocked iPhone 4S included an AT&T SIM card, which is of course removable. Apple sells this special iPhone 4S for $649, $749, and $849 for 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB, respectively.
Developer Steven Troughton-Smith has been working with 9to5Mac exclusively to port the iPhone 4S Siri voice command system to the iPhone 4. Troughton-Smith was able to get the beginning steps of a full port rolling after installing the iPhone 4S Siri and Springboard files onto an iPhone 4. As you can see in the video, Siri’s interface loads up with all the features from the iPhone 4S implementation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pue5Yl3WrZA
Siri running on an iPhone 4 (video). Update: Faster version below fold.
Siri on the iPhone 4 can recognize spoken commands in both the standard Siri view and the keyboard Dictation view. The only issue at this point is that Apple is not authenticating (obviously) commands to its servers from iPhone 4 hardware. The Siri port to the iPhone 4, at this point, also has the ability to speak back to the user. You may notice Siri and the iPhone 4 acting very sluggish in the above video. The issue here is not Siri, but is that a special GPU driver for iPhone 4 is needed; and it is obviously not included in the iPhone 4S binary cache – where the Siri files are located.
Perhaps the biggest news here is that we’ve determined that there is no technical reason for Apple not to allow Siri to run on the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 hardware can support the Siri artificial intelligence system, as the A4 processor is said to be powerful enough. We are not entirely sure why Apple is making Siri an iPhone 4S exclusive but it could be due to special microphone support, or because the A5 may allow it to run slightly quicker. After all, Apple is the company who blocked custom wallpapers on the iPhone 3G because the animation is slightly slower than the animation on newer iOS devices.
We are, of course, working with Troughton-Smith to improve the Siri iPhone 4 port. Stay tuned.
Sprint took a big risk on the iPhone, paying a rumored $20B up front to get the iPhone over the next four years (that is some pipeline!).
Mr. Hesse told the board the carrier would have to agree to purchase at least 30.5 million iPhones over the next four years—a commitment of $20 billion at current rates—whether or not it could find people to buy them, according to people familiar with the matter. In order to keep the price people pay for the phone low and competitive with rivals, Sprint would be subsidizing the cost of each phone to the tune of about $500, which would take a long time to recoup even at the high monthly fees iPhone users pay.
Directors debated what they had just heard. Some worried the payoff would be too long in coming. One member questioned whether the multiyear deal might outlast the iPhone’s popularity. To sell that many iPhones, Sprint would have to double its rolls of contract customers, convert all of them to the Apple device or a combination of the two.
It appears that the risk is already starting to pay off.
Today, spokeswoman Michelle Mermelstein told us:
Fared Adib, Sprint Product Chief, issued the following statement: “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.”
From the outside, they look virtually identical to an untrained eye. Inside, they are worlds apart, figuratively speaking. But seriously, how fast is the new iPhone 4S compared to the sixteen months old iPhone 4? Well, YouTubers are doing tests of their own so we went about searching for the best side-by-side clips pitting the iPhone 4S to its older brother. For starters, the iPhone 4S’s browsing experience is a whole lot better thanks to a speedier chip, two times faster cellular networking (3G HSPA 14.4Mbps) and heavy under-the-hood tweaking in Safari and its Javascript engine.
It’s not just the browser, the iPhone 4S’s back camera benefits from the increased oomph provided by the A5 chip. Specifically, the A5’s image signal processor unit is responsible for nice real-time image processing, including face detection, white balance and automatic image stabilization. The difference between shaky iPhone 4 clips and smooth, stabilized iPhone 4S footage really makes all the difference, as we showed you. As for the quality of 1080p video capture, MacRumors compiled a nice list of the various high-definition clips taken on the iPhone 4S and compared to other popular cameras, embedded after the break. In addition.
In April, we exclusively revealed that Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer said that Sony was the maker of cameras for Apple iOS devices. At the time, Sony had not been known as a camera supplier for Apple’s iPhone, but Stringer’s comments seemingly affirmed that Sony would be supplying camera sensors for upcoming Apple mobile devices. Now, Chipworks and iFixit have examined the new eight megapixel sensor in the iPhone 4S and have determined it to be built by Sony.
The iPhone 4S repair specialists show you how to disassemble an iPhone 4S whether it is to fix something inside or just to piss off an enemy. (If you aren’t a Rick Ashley/Rickroll fan then you might want to get that volume toggle ready).
