Have you ever wanted to feel like Dexter, boy genius? When I was little, I wanted his life, complete with a secret laboratory, his immense knowledge and a computer assistant.
Unfortunately, I had only one of the things that Dexter had: an annoying sister.
Now, with Apple’s Tuesday announcement of the iPhone 4S, I can have two.
Such as the 3GS succeeded the 3G, the iPhone 4S keeps the same form factor as its predecessor while improving its internal hardware. The big selling point of the iPhone 4S will not be these upgrades, however, it will lie in it’s voice recognition software called Siri.
Billed as a “humble personal assistant,” Siri allows you to give voice commands to your iPhone. For example, if you tell it to “Send Michael a text message saying ‘I’ll be there at 8’”, the phone will compose a text to Michael saying what you told it to write. It also has Wolfram|Alpha integration, meaning you can ask it a question (“How many days until Christmas?” “What is the weather in Mexico City, Mexico?” “What is the meaning of life?”) and Siri will give you the answers (82, 73 degrees and partly cloudy, and 42 (go figure)). Seeing it in action is quite impressive. This might be an advertisement, but on stage at Apple’s press conference the software performed similarly.
This will potentially cut down the time it takes to do tasks that would normally take a long time on a mobile device. For example, getting directions takes a long time on a phone mainly because of the typing and opening the needed applications. With Siri, all you need to do is ask how to get from point A to point B. It’ll use the internet, understand your voice and find your directions. This is just one instance, but the possibilities for using Siri are vast.
In terms of software, the iPhone 4S will run iOS 5, Apple’s latest revision of its mobile operating system. This update manages notifications in a cleaner manner by making them accessible by swiping downwards on the status bar, which should address the complaints many have had about popups since the original iPhone was launched. IOS 5 also introduces deeper Twitter integration, iCloud (Apple’s online storage system) and improvements to the Safari web browser. But only on the iPhone 4S will you find Siri, a feature that could change mobile computing as we know it.
The hardware is also solid. The iPhone 4S packs the powerful dual-core A5 processor, which is the same one found in the iPad 2. This processor makes the phone very quick and responsive. The iPhone 4S also has an eight megapixel camera and allows the phone to take photos in 3264 × 2248 resolution, besting many cameras available on the market. The resolution of the phone has not changed, but considering that the iPhone already had the retina display, which displayed text and images on the phone in stunning quality, I’m not too disappointed.
I will say that I’m a little disappointed, however, that the iPhone 5 wasn’t announced. Calling it the 4S and not the 5 indicates that this is just a minor improvement of a previous product. As it stands now, I’ll be stuck buying the minor improvements of Apple’s phones (3GS owner here!).
Despite this, I am excited for the iPhone 4S I’ve been impressed with the iPhone 4, which has been able to hold its own against other phones that have better performance than it. I’ll be getting one on Oct. 14, all whilst trying to resist the urge to say “computer” before every time I tell my phone to do something.
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