After a day of thinking about Apple’s announcement yesterday, and getting over the reality there was really no iPhone 5 named model, I am now ok with Apples new 4S iPhone because it packs a real powerful punch inside the popular iPhone 4 chassis. First my AT&T account is due for an phone upgrade and I had expected on getting another phone. After checking out the other phones on the market as nothing really compared to the hardware quality and iOS platform with the iPhone 4 I have now. I am still a recovering Blackberry aka crackberry phone addict but the iPhone answered all my needs in a stylish package.
I understand some wanted and expected more due to the large Internet rumors building up for almost a year. There were also those who were from another phone brand camp and had their own reasons for beating on the iPhone 4S announcement. Ultimately it is personal choice of the consumers which is a good thing and keep everyone in the mobile hardware game moving fast to innovate and deliver better products to market.
So what does the S in iPhone 4S stand for? Well we know the iPhone 3GS was for 3G and the S for speed. So certainly the “S” in 4S could be “S”peed but could also be for “S”exy or perhaps as shown in the Apple presentation it really means iPhone 4S “S”quirrel as you can capture photos fast in low light such as those of a squirrel. IN addition to the Apple announcement of the iPhone 4S, they inadvertently may have created a new Internet meme of the squirrel.
If you want to get the cutout of the Squirrel from the iPhone 4S presentation to use for meme fun, here you go.
Download iPhone 4S Squirrel.png (6826.7K)
Squirrel! Phil Schiller shows off the macro focusing capabilities of the iPhone 4S' camera. (Credit: Kent German/CNET)
Read more: http://cnet.co/mWPxiX
So in a nutshell the iPhone 4S is the iPhone 5 in my book minus a size or shape change some people expected.
- Two times faster graphics and processing with the A5 processor
- Dual antenna so there is no wrong way to hold the phone to get the best reception.
- Better battery life.
- World phone capability with both GSM/CDMA
- Increased data speeds comparable to all those fake 4G claims of other phones and carriers. There is really no 4G as defined in the standard yet.
- Voice assistant Siri. Not a big selling point for me but very nice to have.This is not just a speech recognition or voice search, this is a digital assistant that can not only recognize speech to text but interact such as place items on your calendar and more. This technology as I have been told was originally developed by the uber geek government research group DARPA then the technology was privatized and eventually acquired about a year ago by Apple.
- It is the well built stylish iPhone of metal and glass, not a plastic or cheap feeling phone.
- iOS platform and the new iOS 5 coming out in a week.
- The screen resolution in the retina based display is still the best out there.
- The number one reason I am upgrading to the iPhone 4S
It is the completely new 8mp camera sensor the new optical lenses f2.4 and the enhanced low light processing for photos that makes those fast moving squirrel photos possible and built in 1080p video with stabilization. This big update of the camera makes the iPhone unmatched and truly a point and shoot camera as well as your phone, entertainment, and Internet enabled mobile device that fits in your pocket. A pocket brain with a great eye.
See some examples of iPhone 4S taken photos here: http://bit.ly/riHCGe
Now imagine the possibility of using this device not only as my phone and second brain but as a nice camera to capture photos in lower light conditions. I could capture images or stabilized 1080p video for use in something like Autodesk Project Photofly where you can turn photos into 3D models and you see why I am upgrading.
Yes, I will be ordering my iPhone 4Squirrel at 12:01 am Friday.
-Shaan