The early reviews for Apple’s iPhone 4S are in and, as expected, reviewers — who had anticipated an iPhone 5 — are tempered in their praise. Still, they give the model points for its 8-megapixel camera, speed and the Siri voice-recognition feature.
Wall Street Journal tech columnist Walter S. Mossberg, for instance, notes the iPhone 4S “isn’t a dramatic game-changer like some previous iPhones.” For that reason, Mossberg recommends that iPhone 4 users don’t rush to upgrade, but download the new iOS instead. “But owners of older iPhone models, or those with basic phones, will find this latest iPhone a pleasure and a good value.”
Though Mossberg praises the phone’s “brilliant new camera” and “faster, 4G-class download speeds,” he dubsSiri, the voice-recognizing personal assistant, the “standout feature.” Siri “isn’t perfect, and is labeled a beta, but it has great potential and worked pretty well for me, despite some glitches,” he writes.
The New York Times‘s David Pogue, meanwhile, was also captivated by Siri, though he notes its similarities to Dragon Dictation, a free iOS app. “Apple won’t admit that it’s using a version of Dragon Dictation,” he writes, adding that Siri “is infinitely better, though, because it’s a built-in keyboard button, not a separate app.”
Pogue was also enamored with the 4S’s built-in camera, which delivers photos that are “crisp and clear, with beautiful color.” Though it lacks a zoom and has only a tiny LED flash, he says “this phone comes dangerously close to displacing a $200 point-and-shoot digital camera.”
The Guardian‘s, Stephen Fry also gushed about Siri, the camera and the phone’s ability to offer service in various parts of the world. “Siri, the high quality and ultra-fast camera, 30 fps 1080p HD video, globally available voice recognition and the introduction of two antennae (the phone seamlessly switches between whichever is getting the strongest signal) are features that make the 4S irresistible,” he writes. Like Mossberg, he advises iPhone 4 owners who are “tired of the upgrade race” to download iOS 5 instead of buying the 4S.
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It’s kind of creepy when iOS devices know things about their state in the world. Like whether they’re upside-down, or whether they’re oriented with magnetic north, or whether you have them pressed against your ear or pulled down to see the screen. Now, Apple wants to give them even more creepy self-awareness, by allowing you to use motion and proximity to share files between devices.
There’s more to the patent, though. In addition to just saving files, Apple has also included the ability to create “graphical objects” and send them between devices. Patently Apple describes that in order to make file transferring a little more deliberate, Apple has included the idea of resistance fields – for example, using a flick motion to send a file by giving it speed. Combine that with the graphical objects and you basically have the ability to write something on the screen of your iPhone with your finger and flick it to another device somewhere nearby. In the patent, an image shows the example of someone having scrawled “5 p.m.” on one device and then flicked it to another to share the note silently.
Apple and iPhone enthusiasts hoping to get their post Fourth of July summer off with a bang are in the luck.
SeanTheComicGuy 