iPhone 4S Thread

I have a perfectly good iPhone 4; I see no reason to upgrade.

 

I have a perfectly crappy first generation Droid. My new Iphone 64gb 4S will be delivered this Friday to my front door, I preordered from Verizon, and existing subscribers will KEEP their unlimited data usage. New folks will have to buy a data plan in 2gb increment amounts!

I really hope it easily syncs with the $30,000 Bluetooth headset I drive!

 

if it looks like a iphone 4 how will other people know im better than them ? with it ????

 

If you are a true Apple Fan, you will tell them.

Much like, "How do you tell who the fighter pilot is at a party"?
He'll tell you.

 

KK6PD, I've taken the liberty of drafting a memo on your behalf. It makes a great T-Shirt too.

Attention Everyone:

This is an iPhone 4S ... It is not a iPhone 4, but a 4S. It looks the same as your iPhone 4, but it has a faster processor, an 8 mp camera, and siri. Your phone does not.

It's a 4S!!!!

(It's more expensive by a lot)

I am better than you. I paid for the right to say that.

I also have an unlimited data plan. You suck if you don't.

Sincerely,

iPhone 4S owner

 

This is my first Apple product. The timing was coincidental. At work we buy loads of Mac Minis, but load them up with Windows XP Pro!
I do however think it sucks they are setting data rates, it should be unlimited for all!....that's a bunch of infrastructure, especially if you want speed!
Besides, the one time I needed my Droid to work and get me out of a jam, it failed miserably.... no second chances.
Apple, batter up!

 

I pre-ordered mine because I am eligible for an upgrade on my 3GS. I don't care how little the improvement is becasue anything will be better than my 3GS. If I waited for the iPhone 5 I might be too old or dead by then. Besides, if you're waiting for the 5 you may want to wait for the 6, the 7, the 8 or whatever and you'll never get one.
Androids came about because of the iPhone. Windows came about because of the Mac. Everyone's scrambling to copy the iPad. Steve Jobs was a genius. I want the real thing, not an imitation attempt.

 

Agreed that if you have a 3GS and are upgrade eligible, this is a decent to good time to upgrade to the 4S. I'm guessing that we won't see an iPhone 5 until at least 12 months from now, if not longer, given this break from the former June/July upgrade cycle.

 

From what I've heard, speed improvement on the 4S is pretty significant, although I don't really have a problem with the speed of my 4. The improved camera is certainly a nice addition, but not enough to make me want to get a 4S at this point. For me, the only really huge upgrade with the 4S is Siri. By all reports it's pretty awesome, but all it really does is make it easier to get to information you already have available on the 4.

So, I'll wait until next year for the 5. Lets see what awesome new features and form factor Apple can come up with next!

 

The 5 stages of the next iPhone.
Rumors, anticipation, announcement, anger, acceptance.
I wonder what caused the iPhone 4S's pre-orders to exceed one million in first 24 hours, Sprint's availability or the death of Steve Jobs or both or neither.

 

I doubt anyone bought it because of Job's death... If you want to get something to remember him, get the 4, as he actually released that one (He wasn't on stage to announce the 4S - he had stepped down from Apple months before).

As for Sprint, I'm sure that was part of it, but certainly not all of it. AT&T alone saw 200,000 in the first 12 hours. Seeing as the iPhone 4 saw 600,000 in the first day across all carriers in multiple countries, AT&T really broke their past records.

Instead, I'm going to say it's a combination of 4 things:
- First, it is available on Sprint. That's another large customer base to draw from, but should simply increase sales proportional to Sprint's market share.
- Second, The "delay" in the 4S announcement/launch. People had come to expect it to be launched at WWDC in June. Throw an additional 4 months of customers eligible for discounted phones on there, and that'll certainly bump the numbers up.
- Third, the 3GS. When it came out 2 years ago, a lot of people jumped on it. Everyone who had 2's, and a lot of people who had 3's. It provided a rather significant performance boost over the 3, and was pretty much worth it for anyone who could get it. Now all those people are eligible for discounted phones, while they weren't last year when the 4 came out.
- Finally, Antennagate - the widely publicized problems with the iPhone 4 antenna probably scared a bunch of people off - they put off upgrading specifically to wait for the next generation when Apple would fix the problem (which they did with the dual antennas in the 4S)

 

Hmm, I doubt Sprint's that responsible for things but I'd never really thought abut eagle331199's second point. I do agree that there was likely a bunch of pent up demand from folks those w/iPhone 3GS or older that are now eligible.

I think Steve Jobs' death might've helped a little bit because it put the spotlight back on Apple and its products. I also doubt people bought it because of his death but rather many folks (both potential iPhone buyers and even those who own iPhones) for some reason don't follow Apple's product intro historical trends (e.g. in the past, always shipping new iPhones in June/July), knowing iOS update history and what they decide to deprecate/leave out, etc.

So, for those folks, buying an iPhone is a guessing game. I've noticed this in other forums (specifically one for an app where the iPhone is required, even to see the forums) where I'm just floored that some iPhone users can be so clueless about this.

 

IF (really, if) the camera in the 4S is a reasonable replacement for a stand-alone camera, then it is worth upgrading for a lot of people.

As for Siri, I am so used to voice recognition being hyped crap I'll wait with a skeptical ear.

And as for speed and better battery life, excellent reasons to stay in the Apple camp when it comes time to renew a subscrition.

Lastly, the dual receiver is BRILLIANT, and will be very much appreciated by the sub-group of people who travel internationally or change carriers. I wonder if Apple will force ATT to unlock these phones when they are past subscription.

 

You don't need to wait til your contract is up to get AT&T to unlock the phone. Just have the rep transfer you to the international department and tell them you're going to europe or asia and they will unlock it for you. You're not required to show proof of travel plan. I unlocked my Tilt 2 a week after I got it. They unlocked it, no questions asked. In fact, I got them to unlock the Tilt2, C905a, and RAZR V3xx all at the same time.
Speaking of C905a, it has one of the best cameras on any camera phone, even til today. It rivals many digital cameras. It even has a real xeon flash just like a real digital camera. That phone is 2 years old. Imagine the camera it'll have if SONY had updated it.

 

I'll try that with the iphone. Fingers crossed.

By the way, specific to the iPhone, ATT refuses to unlock the phone AFTER the contract is up. You read that right.

 

They unlocked your phones because they were not iPhones. Bastard AT&T (as far as I know) still will NOT issue unlock codes for any existing AT&T carrier locked iPhones, in or out of contract. See Locating iPhone wireless carriers and AT&T Wireless- and http://www.att.com/esupport/article.jsp?sid=55002&cv=820#fbid=bTHdq6LKtGT..

There was even an AT&T class action lawsuit about unlocking but unfortunately, iPhones were excluded. See below, for examples:
To Settle Lawsuit, AT&T Lets You Unlock Anything That's Not An iPhone - The Consumerist
AT&T offers unlock codes to settle class action suit, excludes Apple iPhones
Proposed class action settlement would let you unlock almost any AT&T handset -- except the iPhone -- Engadget

Here are some recent articles (given that unlocked iPhone 4 started to be the sold in the US via normal channels);
http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/06/14/att.wont.yet.unlock.iphone.4.itself/
http://www.tuaw.com/2011/06/14/unlocked-iphone-faq/

If SageBrush succeeds, that'll be a (recent?) change in policy and no doubt will get a lot of press attention. It'd be worth letting major tech journals and blogs know.... it might give him a few minutes of fame.

 

I popped my SIM into a friend's iphone purchased from another network over seas. Damn AT&T added the iphone data plan to my line. This goes to show that even if you got your iphone from an unlocked source, AT&T's network still knows it's an iphone and will add an iphone data plan. The only way to cancel the iphone data plan is to call CS. You can't delete the feature from the web. 611 is the only way.