Apple iPhone 4S - Picking Up Where 2007 Left Off - The UpStream

Apple iPhone 4S - Picking Up Where 2007 Left Off

posted Sunday Oct 9, 2011 by Nicholas DiMeo

Apple iPhone 4S - Picking Up Where 2007 Left Off

Amazing, indeed. It's amazing how anyone could think this device is revolutionary, powerful or even something out of this year. In case you couldn't figure it out, the new iPhone was announced this week. With much speculation of how the event would pan out after the untimely resignation by Steve Jobs as CEO of the company, Apple had a lot riding on the announcement of the new iDevice. As luck would have it, the presentation was lackluster at best.

For a company who has always relied on the "shiny", flashy and glamorous presentation style, with products to match, they really seemed to drop the ball with this one. We could only assume that the people on stage, who were close to Jobs, knew about his passing in the coming days, however since Apple did not choose to push back the conference, they had to bring their "A" game and didn't. Instead, an empty seat reserved for Jobs, who obviously could not attend, spoke volumes for the lack of energy and presence of that man himself on stage.

What we did see was the announcement of the iPhone 4S, the "S" of course standing for "stuck behind the times." For the breakdown on the list of the "Hey, we can do this too!" Apple features, check after the break.

I feel what we saw on stage this week was Jobs' last project he had his hands in, and, coming from the same guy who took almost a year to decide on what shade of white paint should go on the device, it is no surprise to me that we saw a device such as this shown off as being the next big thing. It would have been the next big thing... five years ago. This again proves the theory that it is not the best product that sells the most; it is merely the shiniest or most heavily marketed.

Let's go down the spec sheet and see where the iPhone 4S stands in comparison with things we already know about. Starting with their new dual-core A5 chip, Apple says that this is their most powerful iPhone processor ever. While this might be true (if it wasn't already being used in the iPad), technology is rapidly advancing in this field, where we are seeing these quad-core Kal-El chips hitting mobile devices by the first month of next year. Add to that a simple 8MP camera and social media integrations and you simply have last year's features in a phone that is being touted as the must-have product of today. We still get the same smaller-sized screen with no option to move into something larger, and we surely don't get the options we'd get with other devices. The iPhone 4S will be available on AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, and that's all. I can pick up an derivative of an HTC device on both major OS platforms, on all four of the major carriers, in many different styles, shapes and sizes that tailor to my needs. If a one-size-fits-all device is something you're looking for, then I suppose the iPhone 4S is right up your alley.

Some things were also mentioned that we already knew about, but they need to be mentioned anyway. You still won't get true 4G speeds. On any carrier. At all. Double-digit upload and download speeds are still years away if you decide to go forward with this iComplacent upgrade.

I do have to give some sort of credit to their Beta Siri program, that takes voice activity to the iPhone, finally. We've seen other iterations of voice controls in mobile devices before, and while some worked and some didn't, they've all been out there. Apple makes their way into the cool kids group with Siri, but only because things like "Set an alarm for 6a.m." and its ability to take phrases like "Do I need an umbrella?" and make sense of them are kind of neat and haven't worked well in the past. It's up to Apple to really make this feature shine. Siri might very well have been their best acquisition o make the phone interesting.

So there you have it. Other than the iCloud service being the newest thing, which may or may not even come out to begin with, you are left with the same old features you've seen in previous iPhones.

However, one thing you won't see in the 4 but will in the 4S is that Apple finally realized that having two antennas are better than one. This is to combat the Apple antenna blockage problem that they brought on themselves. No, this doesn't mean double the speeds that Apple is falsely claiming. Instead, your iPhone will switch to the secondary antenna when it notices the first one is getting weak signal when it shouldn't - the same technology we've seen in other devices for quite a while.

Putting all that aside (and it's hard, believe me), we are all wondering if Apple will succeed. Pushing back the release coupled with the additional carrier surely should help numbers, but is the Sheeple's faith in Tim Cook? Will Jobs' passing help or hurt the numbers? We will see once these things are out to the public. On October 14th at 8:00a you can go into an Apple Store or pre-order online now starting at $199. Let us know if you agree with our conclusions.

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