So you want to watch Tim Cook’s big fancy iPhone 4S reveal, but don’t have an hour and a half for ponderous corporate keynotes? No problem—we did it for you, and cut out everything but the good stuff. More »
Want a shiny new iPhone 4S? Of course you do. Trouble is, you’re already locked into a pesky contract with AT&T. Thanks to a new app, you can easily find out if you are eligible to upgrade, what kind of upgrade you can do, and how much it will cost you. Then, if you like the terms, you can go right ahead and pull the trigger, all from within the same AT&T app.
The app, called AT&T Upgrader, will be in the app store soon. (It actually made it in briefly, before being pulled again.) In the meantime, there are a few other ways to check you upgrade options. One is to head to Apple and enter your details. (There is also an option for Verizon customers.)
Another is to visit AT&T’s site and do the same.
Or, if you’re feeling particularly jaded with your wireless carrier, perhaps you might just wait out your current contract and then head over to Sprint? Not so fast. Sprint will be the third U.S. carrier to sell the iPhone, but this is still not mentioned anywhere on Sprint’s site. I guess they’ve only had four years to get things ready.
AT&T Upgrader App Lets iPhone Owners Preorder From Their Phones [MacRumors]
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Samsung looks to block iPhone 4S sales in France, Italy originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Oct 2011 05:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Well, well, what have we here? Hot on the heels of being unveiled to the world, the latest and greatest iPhone appears to have landed with the feds to get the FCC’s stamp of approval. That’s right, an Apple phone bearing model number A1387 has just made it through the commission’s myriad tests unscathed. We can’t say for certain it’s the 4S, but given the timing of its appearance, it sure seems like Uncle Sam’s officially on board with the new iPhone. If the rest of our coverage of Apple’s new handset wasn’t enough for you, hit the source below for the full FCC nitty gritty.
Apple iPhone 4S makes its way through the FCC? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 19:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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To say expectations were high for Tuesday’s iPhone event at Apple HQ would be an understatement.
Apple is infamously secretive, and few words of what news Apple’s event held in store were leaked prior to the event. Or rather, few accurate words. Most of the other rumors were dispelled.
We’ve taken a look at a few of the most pervasive rumors to have made the rounds before the event, as proposed by publication. Let’s see how everyone checked out.
Some rumors, reports and predictions were right on.
Sprint would carry the iPhone
The Wall Street Journal spoke truth when they reported that the nation’s third largest carrier would begin carrying the iPhone this year.
Some speculation was down the middle: Not entirely false, though not entirely true, either.
Apple’s voice control and recognition system, Siri.
Everything about it was pretty spot-on, except for the name, which 9to5Mac, which broke the news, said would be called Assistant.
Here are some predictions that were big stinkers: They were completely wrong. Maybe Apple laid a false trail that they picked up on, but it’s more likely that people just let their imaginations run a bit wild.
NFC capabilities
One of the earliest rumors was that the next iPhone would feature NFC. Bloomberg perpetuated this story in January. BGR added fuel to the fire in May, reporting from a source that an NFC-enabled iPhone was all but “imminent.”
The next iPhone would sport a different look
A larger, flatter, teardrop-shaped iPhone did not make an appearance today. This Is My Next started that rumor with a mockup posted on their site, and a host of mockups and case designs followed suit. An iPhone with a flat metal back (9to5Mac) also didn’t show up. Neither did one with curved glass (Digitimes).
The name
We now know it’s the iPhone 4S and not the iPhone 5. Being Apple’s next iPhone, pretty much every tech blog — us included — referred to Apple’s next generation iPhone as the iPhone 5.
The iPad 3 would make a surprise debut.
The parts may be (may be) being prepared, Digitimes, but no iPad 3 landed today.
Two iPhones
Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore was one of the first to start this rumor, that Apple would be releasing a dramatically changed iPhone 5 and a budget iPhone.
At its iPhone 4S event on Tuesday, Apple boasted of its new phone’s specs by comparing it to a number of Android competitors. But as much as newly minted CEO Tim Cook raved about the 4S, the question remains: Does the 4S truly stack up to the rest?
For the sake of comparison, we’ve taken some of the latest and greatest handsets across today’s most prominent mobile operating systems and broke them down relative to the new iPhone. First, we have the Droid Bionic, Motorola’s latest and greatest 4G smartphone offering. There’s also the Samsung Galaxy S II, the much-anticipated sequel to the popular Galaxy line. And of course, we have to include the underdogs: Samsung’s Focus (which runs Windows Phone 7.5, a.k.a. Mango), and one of RIM’s most recent handsets, the BlackBerry Bold 9900.
So let’s get to it.
First, let’s compare these guys on what matters most: Their insides.
The Samsung Focus packs the weakest punch sporting a 1-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, while the Blackberry Bold has a slightly faster 1.2-GHz Snapdragon model. The iPhone 4S and the Droid Bionic both house 1-GHz dual-core chips, the 4S an Apple-designed A5 processor, the Droid Bionic an A9 processor. The Samsung Galaxy S II also features a 1.2 GHz dual-core chip.
Honestly, single-core chips are yesterday’s news. iPhone or not, two cores are indeed better than one.
We weren’t given the specifics of the iPhone 4S’s battery, but it’s safe to say it’s either the same as the iPhone 4’s, a 1420 mAH battery, or better. The Blackberry Bold sports the smallest in the battery department, a 1240 mAH battery, while the Samsung Galaxy S II has the largest, a 1650 mAH one (the better to juice up that super large display with). Schiller promised us up to 14 hours of talk time with the iPhone 4S; we’ll see if that holds water.
Only the BlackBerry measures in smaller than the iPhone when it comes to display size. The Bold has a practically teensy 2.8-inch LCD. The iPhone 4S has a 3.5-inch retina display, just like its predecessor. The Samsung Focus has a larger 4-inch Super AMOLED display.
The Android models embrace the “bigger is better” ethos: The Droid Bionic has a 4.3-inch qHD display, but the Galaxy S II trumps even that with a gargantuan 4.52-inch Super AMOLED screen.
Although the larger phones are great for media consumption, a smaller phone fits more easily into pockets and doesn’t look ridiculous when you actually talk on it. Display size, therefore, is largely a matter of personal preference and depends on how you plan to use the phone.
It should be noted that the BlackBerry Bold 9900 is the only one of the bunch to include a hardware QWERTY keyboard (and not a slide-out version), while the rest utilize onscreen touch-based keyboards.
The Samsung Focus and BlackBerry Bold both have 5 MP cameras on board. We thought that pictures taken with the Focus were sub-par, and somewhat on the blurry side. It does offer HD video recording capabilities, though. The Focus is an older phone, it came out in 2010, but the Bold 9900 debuted this year.
8 megapixels seems to be the standard in 2011. The Droid Bionic has an 8-megapixel camera. The Samsung Galaxy S II does as well. Both take bright, detailed photos. So finally, the iPhone 4S joins the 8-megapixel trend, also with photo editing functions. All three of these guys have 1080p video recording capabilities, so you can capture whatever it is like you like to capture with your smartphone camera with exquisite clarity and detail.
The Samsung Focus and Droid Bionic are single carrier guys. The Focus runs on AT&T’s HSPA+ network, while the Bionic sails on Verizon’s CDMA and LTE networks.
The BlackBerry Bold 9900 is the first 4G BlackBerry, and it’s available on T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon’s networks.
The Samsung Galaxy S II comes in different flavors that run on AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint’s networks. We tested the Epic 4G Touch, which is available on Sprint’s 4G Wi-Max network.
The iPhone 4S will be available on AT&T, Verizon and Sprint.
Hardware wise, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 is really the only phone that’s behind the times (though saying RIM needs to catch up is hardly news). Android and iOS are still battling neck and neck for world smartphone domination. And we should have some new Windows Phone Mango handsets later this fall, which should bump up Windows Phone’s offerings to better match that of Android and iOS (hopefully, at least).
Phew, what a day! Apple’s done its fair share of introducing today, and now it’s on us to distill everything down into something understandable by folks who don’t have the time to pore over every single morsel of iPhone and iOS 5-related news oozing from Cupertino. You can relive our liveblog right here — for everything else, get schooled below.
iPhone 4S
iOS 5
iPod / Mac / other news
Apple’s iPhone 4S, iOS 5 and iPod roundup: details, specs and release dates originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 17:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Looks like we weren’t the only ones shooting video at today’s ‘Let’s Talk iPhone’ event. Apparently Apple had some folks there with cameras as well. Cupertino has posted video of the event, so between that and our liveblog, you can relive the magic — or disappointment — again and again. Check out the action in the Source link below.
Apple’s iPhone 4S event video now online originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 17:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
AppleCare+ debuts for $99, offers to cover accidental damage in addition to the standard fare originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 17:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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It looks like Apple’s making good on its promise to standardize its charger port for EU territories. Behind all the big hitters announced by Apple today, an official micro-USB adapter has shuffled into the UK’s online store in a very typically English way. Sure, there have been third-party options for a while, but this one’s the real deal and looks set to go on sale on October 14th, alongside the newly crowned iPhone 4S. We hope and expect that this will come packaged with Apple’s latest phone in Euroland — but on the off-chance that it doesn’t, we’d question whether charging an extra £8 obeys the spirit of the regulation.
[Thanks, Cameron]
Official iPhone micro-USB adapter quietly sneaks into UK Apple Store originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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