Hasta La Gadget!

You’ve been hanging back, waffling back and forth. Android or iPhone? But it’s decision time, and you’ve made the call: it’s time to trade in the Cupertino Kool-Aid for some Kit Kats. Here’s how to do it right.

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Yeah, that makes just as much sense to us as it does to you. Following yesterday’s PR debacle, the final word from Sprint appears to be as follows:

“Sprint’s policy is to have the iPhone 4S SIM locked to our network domestically and internationally. At launch, the International SIM will be unlocked. We do expect a SIM lock to be pushed to the devices shortly after launch. We will then allow existing customers in good standing to unlock the SIM for international use if needed in the future.”

So, if we’re reading that correctly, the iPhone you purchase and activate will be unlocked. Then, a SIM lock will be “pushed” to your device. But, if you’ve been a good, policy-abiding customer, your iPhone can then be unlocked manually by Sprint. Who knows what’ll happen if you buy your phone and flee to a non-extradition country before Sprint comes knocking at the door, shackles in hand. Will you be left to live in peace with your newly-acquired international Micro SIM? Will you need to plead your case before a tribunal of mobile carrier overlords? Only time will tell, we suppose, or perhaps further clarification from Sprint. Jump past the break for the complete announcement.

Continue reading Sprint explains iPhone 4S unlocking policy: phones will be unlocked, then locked, then unlocked again

Sprint explains iPhone 4S unlocking policy: phones will be unlocked, then locked, then unlocked again originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Oct 2011 18:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Phil Schiller introduces the iPhone 4S' voice-controlled assistant, Siri. Image: Brian X. Chen/Wired.com

If initial sales figures for the iPhone 4S are any indication, Apple could issue a resounding “I told you so” to critics who initially panned the phone’s new features and unchanged physical appearance as disappointing. Perhaps even more telling: Solid sales of older iPhone models continue to prove Apple’s dominance in the smartphone space.

The iPhone 4S sold over one million pre-order units in its first 24 hours of availability, trouncing previous record pre-order sales of 600,000 units for Apple’s iPhone 4. Early iPhone 4S purchasers are likely a mix of 3G and 3GS owners who qualify for an upgrade, those who just want Apple’s latest and greatest, and those unable to previously get access to the iPhone on their network, says Forrester analyst Charles Golvin.

“It reinforces [Apple’s] belief in their strategy, building the products that they think make the most sense,” Golvin says.

The sales figures challenge a number of recent negative headlines that read like Apple had failed before the smartphone even launched. Business Insider wrote, “Is Apple’s decision to release just an iPhone 4S, not an iPhone 5, a huge disappointment, or just a regular sized disappointment? Depends on who you are, but either way it’s a disappointment.” The Daily Beast titled an article “Apple’s iPhone Letdown” and wrote, “In short: there is no new iPhone.” And even Apple darling The Wall Street Journal reported widespread disappointment and titled its story “Apple Underwhelms with iPhone 4S.”

And the lukewarm 4S sentiment wasn’t just expressed in headlines. @redmusk tweeted me, “Very disappointed for not seeing major change in #iphone.”  Gadget Lab commenter Adam Johns said, “It looks the EXACT same as a 4…this is not an upgrade, this is lame.”

The iPhone 4S shares its form factor with the iPhone 4, but features some dramatically revamped innards. These include an 8-megapixel camera with a faster shutter speed and backside-illuminated sensor, a voice-activated digital assistant called Siri that could revolutionize the way we interact with mobile devices, and a hot new A5 processor that provides up to 7x faster graphics processing. A video leak shows that the Safari browser is about twice as fast on the iPhone 4S than on the iPhone 4.

“There are so many new features in the 4S, it might as well have been called the iPhone 5,” Gartner analyst Michael Gartenberg says. And although the 4S designation makes the new phone sound like it’s a minor upgrade from the iPhone 4, it’s not, Gartenberg says: ”I wouldn’t call it an incremental upgrade, I’d say it was an evolutionary update with revolutionary features.”

One of the most revolutionary new features is Siri, a natural language voice-control tool. You can ask Siri questions, and “she” will pull data from websites, your calendar, or Wolfram Alpha, a dynamic search engine that uses linguistic analysis or advanced computations to provide information. For example, if you say, “Define mitosis,” she’ll provide the definition from Wolfram Alpha. If you say, “Find me a great Greek restaurant in Palo Alto,” Siri responds with “I’ve found 14 Greek restaurants, five of them are in Palo Alto. I’ve sorted them by rating.” You can also use Siri to find out information about your daily schedule, dictate emails and text messages. Siri will translate your dictation to text, and then dispatch your communiques. All in plain English. Or German and French.

“Apple’s new Siri Assistant is a powerful harbinger of the future use of mobile devices,” Golvin said in a statement.

Norman Winarsky, co-founder and board member of Siri prior to its purchase by Apple in 2010, thinks that Siri is a paradigm-shifting innovation. “This is a first. This is real technology, with real artificial intelligence. It’s a do engine, not a search engine,” he says.

This is just the beginning of the era of virtual personal assistants, Winarsky says. Imagine calling an airline to make a reservation. Instead of suffering through a series of menus — misdialing or having a bot misinterpret your commands — you could call the airline, voice your exact request, and be quickly transferred to the right representative. Or you might even bypass the representative altogether. For example, saying something like, “I would like to make a reservation for the cheapest flight before noon on Oct. 14″ would automatically present you with relevant options.

With regard to the iPhone 4S’s improved camera hardware, photo expert and pro-retoucher Joe Gerardi told Gizmodo, “This is not just a bigger megapixel camera upgrade. The lens improvements combined with back-side illuminated chip with a dedicated image processing chip, all powered by the A5 processor really make this an impressive camera.”

And Ryan Block of Gdgt expressed the significance of the iPhone 4S’s world phone functionality very nicely: “The GSM/CDMA worldphone functionality of the 4S is genuinely impressive … Antenna design is one of the most difficult engineering challenges in the handset industry, and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a dual-mode worldphone engineered with as much (apparent) finesse as the 4S.”

With the introduction of the iPhone 4S, Apple now has a full product portfolio, from the shiny new iPhone 4S to the budget-friendly free 3GS. And despite their “old age” (well, in smartphone years), the iPhone 4 and 3GS continue to dominate carrier sales charts. For June through August of this year, the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 3GS were the number one and number two selling smartphones, respectively, on AT&T, while the iPhone 4 was the top seller on Verizon (which does not carry the 3GS).

Given their reduced prices, the iPhone 4 and 3GS will likely continue to deliver solid sales numbers, despite the fact that they’ve been eclipsed by the 4S.

“I believe that Apple’s iPhone sales will continue to grow significantly, and not just due to the 4S, but because now there’s an iPhone for anyone, no matter what they can afford to spend,” said Golvin via email. Sixty percent of cellphone owners still use feature phones, so providing a cost-effective, entry-level option for consumers puts Apple in a strong position to gain wider adoption.

Indeed, Apple has its ducks in a row, and seems poised to realize killer market-share figures over the next few months as consumers gobble up its handsets. The ball is in the Apple critics’ court.

Continue reading Apple iPhone 4S now shipping in ‘one to two’ weeks, over 200,000 AT&T pre-orders in first 12 hours

Apple iPhone 4S now shipping in ‘one to two’ weeks, over 200,000 AT&T pre-orders in first 12 hours originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 08 Oct 2011 14:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Needless to say, opinions of Cupertino’s latest product have poured down on the internet like acid rain. Tim Cook’s inaugural turn behind the wheel came with the awesome responsibility of unveiling the iPhone 4S, Apple’s first addition to the iPhone family tree in 16 months. The good news: the 4S received a healthy upgrade in CPU and camera, threw in Siri voice recognition and added Sprint to its growing list of supporters in the US. The unsettling news (for many, anyways): it’s basically an iPhone 4 with new internal parts — there was no change in design or screen size, no LTE to flaunt, no iPhone 5 to accompany it. Naturally, expectations were incredibly high prior to the keynote, so we’re anxious to find out how you feel about the outcome. Do you feel the design is still current? Are you relieved to see it available on Sprint? Were you hoping for a larger Retina Display? Rise up to the occasion and let us know — is the iPhone 4S going to be your next handset purchase? Sound off after the break.

Continue reading Poll: Will you be getting an iPhone 4S?

Poll: Will you be getting an iPhone 4S? originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Oct 2011 14:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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