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.
The iPhone 4S is a great device for some, but what if you’re thinking of upgrading from an iPhone 4? That’s a tougher call. The phone is faster, to be sure, and has an amazing camera. And of course, you can’t get Siri unless you have a 4S… but I just don’t know if any of those reasons are compelling enough to convince previous buyers to upgrade. The concept is a particularly hard sell for Verizon customers. The gap between this year’s model and last year’s model isn’t as wide as Apple would probably like.
For this review, I returned to the iPhone after a fairly long period of using and testing other devices. Spending a week with Apple’s newest phone, I’m reminded again of just what makes the company’s products so special. It’s not specs, services, or apps. This phone is not perfect. Certainly it can be improved. But there is something here, beyond the screen and CPU, beyond iCloud, something under the surface. Some intangible spark.
Is this the best phone ever made? That’s debatable. But I can tell you this: the iPhone 4S is pretty damn cool.
Leading up to last week’s event, like everyone else, I kept reading the rumors about a new iPhone with a larger screen and completely different form factor. Quite frankly, I was hoping they were wrong. (For the record, I stated that I heard the screen size rumor was wrong weeks ago.) The iPhone 4′s design is the pinnacle of smartphone design in my opinion. I simply could not imagine how they could alter it to make it better. Even making it thinner would mean that it wouldn’t fit as nicely in your hands for taking pictures. Android fanboys are going to love that statement.
I’m happy that Apple decided not to change the form factor even though they had to know there would be some backlash from a certain segment of the population (read: idiots). Instead, Apple focused on the other thing they do best: refining already great products to make them better. The iPhone 4 was a great product. The best smartphone ever made. Now it cedes that title to the iPhone 4S.
Android phones seem to come out every Tuesday at 3:45 p.m. Apple updates iOS and the iPhone only once a year. So Apple had a lot of catching up to do, even some leapfrogging. There are some rough spots here and there; for example, every now and then the 4S’s camera app gets stuck on its startup screen. And while the battery still gets you through one full day, standby time is shorter than before (200 hours versus 300). But over all, Apple has done an excellent job.
The question isn’t what’s in a name — it’s what’s in a phone. And the answer is: “A lot of amazing technology. And some of it feels like magic.”
The iPhone 4 was my favorite product that Apple has ever made. The iPhone 4S has all the best features of the iPhone 4 — same look, same feel, same Retina Display — and adds several significant improvements. The one and only disappointment I have with the iPhone 4S is that the shutdown spinner animation is still low-res. That’s pretty low on the list of nits to pick.
Right after releasing iTunes 10.5, Apple has begun seeding developers with the iTunes 10.5.1 beta, which also includes the latest iTunes Match beta. Like before, the release notes mention iCloud libraries will be deleted at the end of the beta. Of course it also comes with the usual bug fixes and enhancements, but we’ll let you know if we find anything interesting. Full release notes after the break.
The official Twitter iOS client has also been given an update today (viaMacStories), bringing an “enhanced sign up experience”, the ability to upload photos to pic.twitter.com, and a redesigned direct message UI for iPad. The improved sign up experience comes courtesy of iOS 5’s ability to access Twitter account data from the Settings app, opposed to re-authenticating manually. You can grab version 3.5.0 from the App Store now.
As has been the case with every new iPhone, the arrival of iPhone 4S marked re-shuffling on the supply chain end as some parts makers fell out of favor with Apple’s management and new ones surfaced to pledge allegiance to the Cupertino, California consumer electronics powerhouse. Partnering with Apple is good business for far-flung suppliers, most of whom are based in Taiwan and China. It’s also a one-of-a-kind privilege to work with the world’s leading technology company notorious for pushing the envelope with advanced manufacturing techniques that have not been tried before. The winners and losers, call it what you will, here’s an overview of the enabling vendors helping Apple manufacture iPhone 4S in the millions.
As you know by now, the handset is being assembled by Taiwan-based contract manufacturers Pegatron (an Asustek spin-off) and Hon Hai Precision Industry. The latter – also known under the Western moniker Foxconn – will be churning out iPhone 4 units this year, to be joined by Pegatron in 2012. Pegatron is reportedly tasked with building approximately one in seven iPhone 4S units. Tapping the economies of scale and long-term supply contracts, Apple is able to build iPhone 4S cheaper than its competitors while preserving traditionally high margins which are the envy of the industry.
Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore estimated in a note to clients Monday the iPhone 4S bill of materials in the $170-$220 range, depending on capacity. The figure translates to manufacturing margins between 71 and 73 percent, roughly in line with manufacturing margins for the previous-generation iPhone 4. Note that bill of materials excludes other costs associated with assembly, packaging, distribution, sales, marketing, licensing, research and development and more. As for sales potential and profitability, Asymco’s Horace Dediu praised the current iPhone family price matrix, seen right below.
The current iPhone family price matrix, courtesy of Asymco.
The analyst observed that “there is now an iPhone for every budget”, ranging from the free of charge iPhone 3GS to the $99 8GB iPhone 4 to the 16GB/32GB/64GB iPhone 4S costing $199/$299/$399 and all the way up to the unlocked 64GB iPhone 4S priced at $849. Estimating the price of a contract-free, unlocked iPhone 4S ($649/$749/$849 for the 16GB/32GB/64GB version), Dediu concludes it is “very nearly the price that operators themselves pay (excluding any volume discount)”. No surprises here, folks, the iPhone 4S remains a money-making machine. In fact, it’s more profitable than 4G Droids.
While dudes over at iPhoneItaliahave taken a peek under the iPhone 4S’s hood, a thorough X-ray and teardown analysis by Chipworks and iFixit is needed to understand how Apple engineered the product. Early benchmarks confirm that iPhone 4S is twice as fast with seven times faster graphics, indicating a clock frequency of 800MHz (versus 1GHz in iPad 2). Meanwhile, UBS Research put together a list of potential key suppliers of components for the iPhone 4S (seen after the break).
Corning Glass, TPK Holdings and Wintek are being listed as touch screen suppliers. DIGITIMESthinks Apple shifted its touch panel orders among suppliers “due to a product flaw found at Wintek’s panels”. As a result, TPK Holdings’ September revenues spiked 53.7 sequentially and 139.7 percent annually while Wintek’s revenues declined 18.4 monthly and 4.5 percent annually “as Apple rejected a batch of defective touch panels for iPhone 4S”.
Sony supplies Apple with the eight-megapixel CMOS sensor for iPhone 4S, while Largan Precision is being credited with all-new optics.
Providers of the iPhone 4S’s improved camera system include CMOS supplier Sony (confirming a 9to5Macreport from April), camera modules from Sharp and LG Innotek and all-new optics with five lens instead of four, courtesy of Largan Precision and Genius Electronic Optical. It’s also possible that OmniVision joined Sony as a backup CMOS sensor supplier as they announced a thin 1080p camera sensor back in May. Most notably, however, Samsung has remained the manufacturer of Apple’s custom-designed A5 chip, arguably the iPhone’s most important hardware component…
In the old camera was attached to the solenoid lenses and the whole group moved to focus the image, in this new camera is outside the solenoid, and moves only slowly, so we think this is also an effect on the improved shooting speed. The CCD is unchanged in size.
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Here’s the initial observations (machine translated):
The ‘Touch LCD and have remained virtually unchanged, the only differences are:
1) screw placement, which is changed according to the new shell with antenna diversity;
2) the patina around the proximity sensor is now placed in a slightly different way, to solve definitely the problem with the sensor that some users complain. Also now more visible is the area of the light sensor, presumably to make it more sensitive.
As for the back of iPhone 4S:
1) The hook at the top near the camera was the first time plastic metal;
2) The glass in front of the camera’s flash is smooth, while the first had ridges that were used to spread the light, but that created problems of reflections;
3) the back is more shielded than before.
Slightly bigger battery (5.25 -> 5.3 Whr or 1420 mAh or 1430 mAh) detailled below:
The first SunSpider and BrowserMark benchmarks 9to5Mactold you about yesterday confirmed the iPhone 4S as being “twice as fast”, per Apple’s tagline. Today, AnandTechpublished a more thorough analysis based on Javascript, CPU and GPU benchmarks of Apple’s latest handset. Thanks to the dual-core A5 chip first outed with iPad 2 this Spring, Javascript performance on iPhone 4S “finally catches up to Tegra 2 based Honeycomb devices, while general CPU performance is significantly higher than the iPhone 4” – about 68 percent, to be precise.
More importantly, Geekbench results (seen below) tell us that iPad 2 is clocked around “25 percent higher than the iPhone 4S”. Overall, the Apple-designed dual-core A5 chip inside iPhone 4S is estimated to run at 800MHz versus iPad 2’s 1GHz A5 processor. This isn’t entirely unexpected due to the battery concerns and the handset’s much smaller 5.25 Whr battery. Furthermore, Apple says iPhone 4S has “up to seven times faster graphics” versus the advertised “nine times faster graphics” on the iPad 2 – another proof that the two device’s graphics processing units are not clocked equally.
As we predicted, Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR SGX543 graphics units ticking inside the iPhone 4S is also significantly speedier compared to the ARM-based Mali-400 GPU found in the Samsung-designed 1.2GHz Exynos 4210 processor (they recently announced the improved 4212 chip) used in the Galaxy S II smartphone. By all accounts, the iPhone 4S has the fastest graphics in a smartphone yet. Anand Lal Shimpi and Brian Klug explain:
Last week, we detailed the internal docs Apple uses to tell its employees how to sell the iPhone 4S, the new iPods and the new Cards app. Today a tipster added to the trove two more internal docs. iCloud and iOS 5 First looks. These are the cheat sheets that Apple employees use to sell customers these products. Both below:
Update: It is live, we’ve taken a walkthrough below.
According toThe Verge (formerly known as This is my next), the elusive Facebook for iPad app is about to go live “momentarily” on the App Store. The iPhone app will also get updated, the publication has it, with bookmarks to apps, a new Requests dialog that will display app notifications, and support for Facebook Credits for in-app payments. VentureBeatquoted Facebook engineer Leon Dubinsky as describing the software on the Facebook blog, but no such post had gone live at press time. While the social networking giant has yet to formally announce the program, they already have a dedicated URL up and running at facebook.com/mobile/ipad.
The page invites users to download the free Facebook for iPad app here. That URL actually leads to the existing iPhone app, which indicates that both the new iPad app and the existing iPhone client have been merged into a universal binary. The official list of features doesn’t disappoint: You can chat on the iPad’s beautiful 9.7-inch canvas, browse and flip through your friends’ photos, as well as play games and watch high-definition movies in full screen mode.
What’s best, it supports AirPlay technology so you can easily and wirelessly beam your videos and snaps to that big telly in your living room through the Apple TV set-top box, which is also up for an update with 1080p video output via the A5 chip. At post time, the US App Store still had the iPhone app hosted at the URL, but it shouldn’t take too long before changes propagate throughout regional App Stores. Go past the break for release notes, more screenies and a hands on video.
As Apple announced this morning one million iPhone 4S pre-orders in just 24 hours and some customers began receiving shipping notifications, someone out there already has the handset in their hands and they have a video to prove it (viaMacRumors). The interesting bit is the Siri section in Settings which lets you choose between activating Siri by holding down the home button or simply raising your handset to your ear, which 9to5Macindicated back in August. This feature isn’t simply activated via the iPhone’s proximity sensor sensing your ear (like the Google app for iOS), but also taps motion sensors for accuracy as well. Other Siri options in the Settings interface include language choices (English, French and German at launch, Apple promised more to come at a later stage), Voice Feedback, My Info and enabling/disabling Siri system-wide. According to early benchmarks, Apple wasn’t lying describing iPhone 4S as “twice as fast”. The handset scores 2222.1 milliseconds in the SunSpider benchmark and 89567 in the BrowserMark benchmark. This compares to a BrowserMark score of 44856 on an iPhone 4 with iOS 5.
Siri, an intelligent voice-controlled personal assistant which debuted with the iPhone 4S, could come to your big screen television via Apple’s set-top box. The evidence is inconclusive at this point, but clues exist pointing in this direction. For starters, Cross Research analyst Shannon Cross speculated about Siri on the Apple TV in her note to clients last week, observing (via Fortune’s Apple 2.0 blog):
One interesting application of the Siri technology would be with Apple TV (either the existing device or actual TV’s that Apple may launch). We think this would solve the industry’s difficulties with remote controls… We think it would be very compelling to own a TV or a device that could quickly answer the request, “I want to watch the Yankees/Red Sox game,” by changing the TV channel without requiring the user to look at a guide or use a remote control, or even specifying HD or standard definition feeds, since you would want the HD channel if available. Or, you could instruct the device to record all new episodes of a show, without leaving the program you are currently watching. Finally, since you are online, a Siri enabled TV could answer whether your iPhone or computer has received a new message, and let you respond accordingly.
I know what you’re thinking… Analysts, they also predicted flying cars, right? But if Apple were to bring the Siri functionality into their set top-box, they would need to issue a hardware refresh because the current-generation Apple TV powered by the A4 processor lacks oomph to run Siri. As 9to5Macdiscovered on Friday, the Apple TV 3,1 reference in the iOS file system indicates a major hardware refresh for the device. While references to devices that have never come to fruition had previously appeared in the iOS code, this one comes from a file that Apple uses to activate unreleased devices in testing. If Apple is testing a new Apple TV with the A5 chip, it would indicate full HD 1080P video playback and – although this is a stretch – the possibility of voice-controlled input powered by Siri. Think telling your Apple TV to search for movies from 2010 starring Tom Cruise, play four stars-rated songs by Bob Dylan, serve up weather information, compare stocks, rate an episode of a TV show you’re watching, asking “who directed this movie” and so forth. And while we’re at it…
The iPhone 4S just went up for pre-sale on Friday the 7th, and shipping notifications are already coming through. Reader Alex has forwarded along his shipping notification from Sprint for his white 32GB iPhone 4S, and according to Sprint, the unit will be shipping overnight/next day. Those in the AT&T camp are reporting that their orders are not longer listed as “backordered” and are now being processed by AT&T warehouses across the nation. Let us know your status in the comments.
We’ve been hoping for a new Apple TV since Apple began transitioning its iOS device lineup to dual-core A5 processors, and we now have some compelling evidence for a next-generation Apple TV being in the works. Deep inside the iOS 5 file system is a reference to a Apple TV 3,1. This would be an upgrade from the current Apple TV’s 2,1 marking. The number changing from 2 to 3 represents major changes, and with the Apple TV recently gaining a fully re-designed case, we expect this upgrade to mainly consist of internal changes.
In all likelihood, this new Apple TV will gain some of internal power from the iPhone 4S and iPad 2: the dual-core A5 chip and maybe a boost in the RAM department. The Apple TV 3,1 reference comes from a file that Apple uses to activate unreleased devices that are in testing; furthermore this Apple 3,1 is already in testing stages. A dual-core Apple TV will likely mean 1080P video playback, a current restriction due to the current model’s A4 processor. We will also likely see some 1080P iTunes content to come along with this next-generation model’s new abilities.
Although this model has turned up in the iOS 5 file system, we must warn that devices that never have come to fruition have also shown up in the iOS file system; namely an iPhone 3,2 and an iPod touch 4,2. These devices have been characterized as internal development units, but with previous rumors pointing to an A5, 1080P capable Apple TV, we’d say this Apple TV 3,1 becoming a reality is very likely. Also lookout for an Apple TV with bluetooth in the near future.
This happened internationally earlier in the day, but now Apple has sold out of its U.S. iPhone 4S pre-order allotment. Customers who are interested in ordering an iPhone 4S from the Apple Online Store can still order, but the shipments are said to arrive in 1-2 weeks. The one week likely means just a little after the October 14th launch, and the two weeks would be right around October 21st.
Apple’s long term carrier parter AT&T has announced that they have processed 200,000 pre-orders for the iPhone 4S, making the new Apple smartphone the most successfully launched iPhone yet. These 200,000 orders only come during the first 12 hours of sales, which started around midnight. Notably, these are just AT&T’s numbers and don’t include Apple’s own online pre-orders or the orders through Apple’s other U.S. carrier partners, Verizon Wireless and Sprint.
AT&T has seen extraordinary demand for iPhone 4S with more than 200,000 preorders in the first 12 hours alone, the most successful iPhone launch we’ve ever had. It’s obvious customers like AT&T’s 4G network, which is the only one that lets their iPhone download twice as fast and talk and surf simultaneously.
The iPhone 4S officially launches on Friday, October 14th and features a substantial internal upgrade from the iPhone 4. This includes the dual-core A5 processor from the iPad 2, a re-designed camera system with an eight megapixel back sensor and an improved optics system, improved battery life, and of course the headlining integration of Siri artificial intelligence technology. This 200,000 pre-order number for AT&T can be compared to 600,000 total pre-orders (on all carriers) on day one of iPhone 4 pre-orders last year.
Update: Sprint has sold out of the 16GB iPhone 4S.
Perhaps looking to differentiate its service from the other two US carriers, AT&T is working with Apple to get a “4G” icon on the iPhone 4S when it hits its HSPA+ network according to The Verge.
The move would seem to try to further differentiate AT&T’s network which is already significantly faster than Sprint or Verizon’s (and theoretically double the iPhone 4 speed).
If you are in the US, which network will you be getting an iPhone 4S on?
Best Buy has begun advertising their comprehensive iPhone 4S pre-ordering program which includes black and white iPhone 4S model in 16/32/64 GB flavors and with service agreements from Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint (carrier plan breakdowns here). You can pre-order the handset over at the Best Buy site today. Expect deliveries to be made next Friday, October 14. The retailer is sweetening the deal with the Phone Trade-in program allowing you to sell Best Buy your used device in good condition and claim up to a $300 gift card, which can be redeemed against an iPhone 4S purchase as well.
The iPhone 4S is also offered for pre-order via the online Apple store, in addition to the Verizon Wireless, Sprint and AT&T online and brick-and-mortar stores. AT&T’s online pre-ordering system experienced some hiccups this morning, but those issues appear to have been sorted out at post time. Apple, too, will buy your used iPhone 4 for up to $200 and you can fetch some really attractive prices over at eBay and Gazelle. Other popular choices include Craigslist, NextWorth and SellYourMac.com.
If you’re in the market for an iPhone, you might also find this AT&T pricing grid handy, included right after the break.
Android apps running on your iPad? Alien Dalvik makes it possible.
In case you’re not familiar with Alien Dalvik, it’s a port of the Dalvik virtual machine, which is the software layer in Google’s Android operating system responsible for executing Android apps. According toSlashGear, the Myriad Group (the brains behind the Alien Dalvik project) announced support for Apple’s iPad in Alien Dalvik version 2.0.
As a result, the unimaginable (even unholy) becomes possible: You’ll be able to download, install and run Android software on your Apple-branded tablet. Alien Dalvik wraps each Android app file in its own virtual machine so it kinda feels as if you were running a native iPad app. The Myriad Group explains:
From a user perspective, Alien Dalvik 2.0 is completely transparent and installed without user disruption. Users simply enjoy the same rich Android ecosystem they have become accustomed to via mobile on other key screens, such as playing Angry Birds on HDTV. This all while gaining faster access to a wider range of apps, thus encouraging a higher frequency of downloads and increased ARPU.
We assume performance isn’t comparable to the experience of running native iOS apps on an iPad 2 and we’re surely expecting some hiccups and likely compatibility issues. With that in mind, this development begs the question: Why would you want to run Android apps on your iPad?
Apple’s iOS software boss Scott Forstall said at Monday’s iPhone 4S introduction that about 140,000 out of the 500,000 apps available on the App Store have been specifically created with iPad in mind. Android apps also aren’t as pretty or delightful as their iOS counterparts. But the fact that most are either free or ad-supported should mean something so we expect some folks will give Alien Dalvik a try. Stay tuned as the team promised to show off Alien Dalvik 2.0 running third-party Android apps on iPad 2 at CTIA 2011 next week. Expand Expanding Close
We are hearing numerous reports that AT&T unlimited data users aren’t able to upgrade their unlimited plans when they order the iPhone 4S. They are automatically changed to a different data tier (in the above case, the $30 data).
Update: It appears the upgrade is just a bit more complicated. You have to remove the “unlimited data for iphone” plan and then they’ll let you add an “unlimited data for iphone 4S” plan. Yes, unnecessarily complicated and is causing some users to lose their unlimited status.
Update 2: AT&T has chimed in: All current AT&T smartphone customers with an unlimited plan can upgrade and keep their unlimited plan. We’re working on making the online page more clear, but if a customer keeps clicking continue, they will see their unlimited plan.
It’s interesting that you can’t take your unlocked iPhone 4S over to Sprint or Verizon to enable service, at least explicitly. Also, it appears that you can take your unlocked iPhone 4S over to T-Mobile (Apple says “GSM Networks” but doesn’t mention T-Mobile specifically), but only expect to use the EDGE 2G speeds. Being unlocked also means swapping out micro SIMs when travelling internationally is possible.
The unlocked iPhone includes all the features of iPhone but without a contract commitment. You can activate and use it on the supported GSM wireless network of your choice, such as AT&T in the United States.* The unlocked iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S will not work with CDMA-based carriers such as Verizon Wireless or Sprint.
If you don’t want a multiyear service contract or if you prefer to use a local carrier when traveling abroad, the unlocked iPhone is the best choice. It arrives without a micro-SIM card, so you’ll need an active micro-SIM card from any supported GSM carrier worldwide. To start using it, simply insert the micro-SIM card into the slot on your iPhone and turn it on by pressing and holding the On/Off button for a few seconds. Then follow the onscreen instructions to set up your iPhone.
As promised, Apple has begun pre-orders for the anticipated iPhone 4S. Pre-ordering is now available in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom through Apple’s website. Additionally, carriers in these countries are offering pre-orders through their individual websites.
In the US, the iPhone 4S is available for order right now through AT&T, Verizon Wireless, and for the first time, Sprint. Pre-orders placed in time through Apple will be delivered on the October 14 release date. Sales in stores will also begin on this date. Unlocked (carrier-free) models are coming in November, according to Apple.
The iPhone 4S features Apple’s breakthrough Siri personal assistant functionality, the dual-core A5 chip from the iPad 2, 7x better graphics performance, improved battery life, an eight megapixel camera with an improved optics system, 1080P video recording, iOS 5, iCloud, and 64 GB storage for the first time in an iPhone.
Verizon Wireless is offering global data plans at purchase; SIM card included:
The iPhone 4S comes in black and white and comes in 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB capacities for $199, $299, and $399 (on contract) in the United States. After you placed your order, feel free to share your choice of goods in the comments below.
Toshiba-branded NAND flash module in the previous-generation iPod nano (left) and the SanDisk module in the new model (right). Click for larger.
Apple on Monday reaffirmed its dedication to the iPod family and its latest iPod nano saw a slight refresh stemming mostly from the power of software. The enhancements include an improved user interface with larger icons, sixteen new watch faces and the improved Nike+ fitness functionality (accelerometer?). Furthermore, the new interface available to the older nanos, too, via a firmware update. Apple’s diminutive music player is available in seven colors, priced at $129/$149 for the 8GB/16GB version.
Gadget experts at iFixittore it apart and found out the device carries the same model number A1366 as its predecessor, while the part number shifted from MC688LL/A to MC689LL/A, yet another indication of the minor hardware tweaks. The device still features the same 240-by-240 pixel display which remains inseparably bonded to the front glass. Also looking at the logic board, the seventh-generation iPod nano sports three Apple-branded chips, like its predecessor.
However, Toshiba’s NAND flash module from the previous-generation model has been replaced with flash memory from SanDisk, which appears to be the only major change to the device’s internals. The battery is still soldered to the logic board and getting the display off of the device requires the use of a heat gun, just like before, iFixit noted.
Additionally, iFixit’s director of technical communication Miroslav Djuric confirmed to 9to5Mac via email that the new model carries an updated Apple processor, the Apple 339S0104 chip versus the Apple 33850859 silicon found in the previous model. From TechInisights, it appears that this is a repackaged Samsung processor+DRAM:
Apple 339S0104 stacked PoP – Samsung APL3278A01 ARM Apps Processor and 512 Mbits Mobile DDR SDRAM from Samsung K4X51323PI
This stacked package-on-package device, once decapped, revealed another design win for Samsung (manufacturers of the A4 ARM processor).
This package revealed a Samsung APL3278A01 ARM application processor and 512 Mb (64 Mbytes) of Mobile DDR SDRAM (part number K4X51323PI).
By the way, UBM TechInsights guesstimated that Apple is spending $203 in parts for each 32GB iPhone 4S.
Sprint has updated its website to indicate that it is now taking pre-orders for the iPhone 4 and will obviously be offering the iPhone 4S on October 7th with Verizon and AT&T (and about 100 others) for delivery on October 14th.
UPDATE: As people noted in the comments, the unlimited $69 a month data plan is really a $79 value because Sprint threw a $10 tax. The $10 smartphone surcharge is also applied to the $99 plan. Let’s not forget about the obligatory $36 activation fee, too. Also, the fine print on Sprint’s web site mentions a 15 percent surcharge and notes that the offer ends October 30, 2011.
Sprint has confirmed with Phone Scoop that they will be offering an unlimited data plan alongside the iPhone 4S. When it goes on sale next week, users can pickup a $69 a month unlimited data plan which includes 450 voice minutes and unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling, or a $99 plan which includes both unlimited voice and data. Sprint will be the only US carrier offering an unlimited plan, after AT&T and Verizon dropped theirs, making the deal very tempting. Sprint will also offer the hotspot tethering service but it will have a 5GB cap on that.
Sprint will also sell the iPhone 4 8GB but only AT&T will still sell the free iPhone 3GS.
Meanwhile for those of you interested, SprintFeed has gotten their hands on Sprint’s internal press release for the iPhone 4S. Interestingly, Sprint still doesn’t have the iPhone 4S listed on their site. Check it out after the break:
Siri, an intelligent virtual personal assistant, is being advertised as the iPhone 4S’s killer feature. A live demonstration that Apple’s iOS software chief Scott Forstall gave yesterday (video after the break) wowed the crowd of tech journalists who’ve seen it all. Rightfully, though – Siri is nothing short of breathtaking. Siri can be seen in Apple’s onstage demo accomplishing a wide variety of complex tasks with incredible ease. It delights with conversational responses to inputs: You can tell Siri to move your appointments around, read aloud a text message from Dad and reply with spoken content turned into text, ask it about afternoon weather conditions and latest stock quotes, have it remind you to call Mom when you arrive at Starbucks and much, much more.
If selling your iPhone on eBay ($357!) or great services like Gazelle are too cumbersome, Apple will now accept your used iPhone 4 and pay for it up to two hundred bucks, depending on its condition. Just head over to the Reuse and Recycle program at Apple’s site and hit the Get Started button underneath the “Get an Apple Gift Card for your old device” section.
If your used iPhone 4 manages to fetch a cool $200, congrats – you just secured yourself a 16GB iPhone 4S free of charge (with a two-year contract). As part of yesterday’s reshuffling, the iPhone 4 is now available only with eight gigabytes of storage and priced at just $99. The iPhone 3GS, meanwhile, has gone free. Both older iPhone models require a two-year plan to fetch those prices. Apple is also offering the iPhone 4 and 3GS without a contract commitment for $549 and $375, respectively. What about a SIM-free iPhone 4S?
