Apple yesterday made its big announcement in San Francisco, unveiling the Apple iPhone 4S. The phone is an incremental upgrade to the iPhone 4, rather than the full-blown successor many had expected. Its core improvements include a faster processor, better camera and improved call quality. There's even a voice-controlled personal assistant on board. The Apple iPhone 4S will launch in the UK on 14 October.
New Apple boss Tim Cook revealed that the outer design of the iPhone 4S will remain the same as the iPhone 4, with all the big changes being made inside. The phone includes an A5 dual-core processor - the same chip that runs Apple's latest tablet, the iPad 2. The inclusion of that chip makes the iPhone 4S twice as quick as its predecessor and also means it can offer dual-core graphics, making the phone's graphical performance seven times quicker.
Lets talk camera:
The camera on the iPhone 4S has an eight-megapixel sensor - a substantial improvement on the five-megapixel sensor contained within the iPhone 4. There's a redesigned lens, too, so the sensor can pick up 73% more light than the iPhone 4. That means you should get far better results in low light. Pictures will be sharper, too. The camera can shoot in 3264 x 2448 resolution - offering 60% more pixels than the iPhone 4. Apple says it intends its phone's camera to be a serious competitor to dedicated point-and-shoot cameras.
Lets talk video:
In addition to its still image performance, the camera will shoot video in full 1080p high definition. There's now real-time video stabilisation, so unsteady hands won't ruin a video and there is real-time temporal noise reduction, which reduces the blurry effect of fast-moving objects
Personal Assistant?
Perhaps the most headline-grabbing feature of the iPhone 4S is voice control. It comes with a built-in 'personal assistant' called Siri. Ask Siri a question, such as 'What is the weather going to be like?' and it will respond with appropriate information, such as the weather forecast. Siri was shown off doing everything from reading out recent emails to making appointments directly within the calendar app. It can also handle dictation, which could prove handy when sending text messages. Siri works via a data connection, so you need a decent signal to use it and a large internet package on your price plan.
Battery life:
All these new features appear to come with no negative impact on battery life. In fact, Apple says the phone has a better battery performance than the iPhone 4, with the iPhone 4S offering eight hours' talk time.
Signal?
Last year, Apple's launch of the iPhone 4 was quickly overshadowed by the 'antenna-gate' tales of dropped calls and dodgy connections. So it was no surprise that this time we heard all about a feature that will enable the 4S to intelligently switch between mobile phone antennae, thus improving call quality. The 4S can also download data twice as fast - at a theoretical maximum speed of 14.4Mbps download. That makes it as fast as the 4G handsets that are gradually taking off in the States, says Apple.
We will definately find out if that's true.
Additional news:
Finally the iPhone 4S will run Apple's new mobile operating system, iOS5. The operating system will be launched on 12 October and will be available free for Apple devices. New features announced today for iOS5 include a rejigged camera app with additional editing features and Newsstand for accessing magazines and books in a dedicated app.
