Apple Press Conference Highlights: New iPhone 4S, New iPods, iOS5

iPhone 4S, New iPod Nano & iPod Touch Announced at Apple Press Conference

The October 4, 2011 Apple press conference is in the books. So it's the iPhone 4S, and not the iPhone 5. applause at the Apple press conference was described as "muted", even though the new A5 chip claims a 7x faster graphics speed than the iPhone 4. Check craigslist for a glut of suddenly-outdated iPhones. The iPhone 4S will be available October 14 in the US, Canada, Australia, UK, France, Germany, and Japan. October 28 is the drop date for 22 other countries.

The talk time is a claimed eight hours on 3G and 10 hours of video (presumably in airplane mode); cut that in half for real-life use. the iPhone 4S also features an 1080p-capable 8MP camera. An aperture of f2.4 means better low-light performance. Should point-and-shoots be afraid? Yes, if you're taking party pics and snapshots. One less gadget to pack in your Chrome bag.

What will the iPhone 4S Cost?

iPhone 4S will come in three configurations: 16GB ($200), 32GB ($300) and 64GB ($400), with a 2 year contract with the mobile provider you hate the least (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint in the US). You can preorder the iPhone 3S starting October 7.

iOS5 will contain the features promised at WWDS 2011, including the Android-like Notifications and PC-free activation. Also, the camera can be accessed from the locked screen, and Safari can render web pages as text-only, as well as support tabbed browsing (OK, that's pretty cool).

iCloud will allow for synch-free music storage and playback. Hopefully you have a really good data plan, or spend lots of time in WiFi hotspots.

Photos

iOS5: Developers Preparing Apps for iPhone 5

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uploaded by NowPublic Staff

Siri: Voice Assistant for iPhone 4S

The voice-recognition assistant (built by Siri, which was acquired by Apple) will let you yell at your iPhone 4S and actually have it do what you want. It's like something out of Code 46. The scope of its capability is really creepy: your iPhone will be able to remind you to do things when you switch locations. My XT720 just leers at me with the trollface when I shout at it.

[No way these are off-the-cuff voice recognition tests. Surely they were tried out beforehand, but that only makes sense]

Siri works in English, French and German for now. After December 1, want to hear from some Geordies on how it handles accents.

The new iPhone is only sort of new. The iPhone has only 5% market penetration, which will surprise some folks, considering the amount of hype that it enjoys. This is because it's very expensive and doesn't run on every network. Apple made a cheaper iPhone version to remedy at least part of the problem.

Cards: Can Apple Save the US Postal Service?

Apple is bringing back physical cards. Using an app (of course), you can generate a digital card, and Apple will print it up and post it for you. It will only be a printout (and hopefully not in Comic Sans), but still a physical object, so it's a decent compromise between writing a card like a grownup and typing out a Facebook message.

New iPods

Sam Grobart at the NY Times nailed it when he wrote, "We're all here for iPhone news, but first you have to walk past all this other stuff." Still, "this other stuff" includes the ever-popular iPod, so let's take a look.

The iPod lineup will be synchable and restorable from the cloud. The new iPod Nano features swipeable apps. Also, the Nano features several clock faces, embracing the whole Nano-as-watch thing.

The new iPod Touch now also comes in white, and costs $200 (8GB), $300 (32GB) and $400 (64GB). It will be iMessage-ready when in WiFi. The cheaper iPod Touch takes a swipe at Amazon's new Kindle Fire, and hits the shelves earlier as well.

The iPod Shuffle, which was not discontinued, will start at $49.

The iPod nano is also cheaper: $130 for 8GB and $150 for 16GB.

Oh, and one more thing... there was no "one more thing".