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iPhone 4S pre-orders are in the mail
If you were one of the impatient million who jumped to pre-order an iPhone 4S, well, chances are your fancy new handset is already in the mail. A number of tipsters have reached out to us to share their shipment notification emails that just came in from Apple. All the packages we've seen are scheduled for delivery on October 14th, but we wouldn't be shocked if a few of those landed in customers hands a bit early. If you haven't already handed over your billing info, you'll be waiting at least a week or two longer. But, if you weren't camped out at your computer waiting for the 3am sale to begin, we're gonna assume you're not terribly concerned. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Customers begin to receive iPhone 4S shipment notices
The excitement surrounding the iPhone 4S continues to build now that pre-order customers are receiving shipping notices. Customers, particularly those on Sprint, are receiving shipping confirmation notices from UPS that their packages are being processed. Most packages are being shipped 2nd day air, but don't expect your iPhone 4S to arrive earlier than the 14th. In the past, UPS's policy was to hold Apple shipments at the local warehouse until the set delivery date (though a few may slip through). Even if you beg and plead for the packages at the warehouse, UPS will not release them until the designated time. It'll be a long week of waiting and checking on UPS status updates for those with pre-ordered iPhone 4S handsets, but you should be able to rest easy knowing that you don't have to camp out
iPhone 4S pre-orders top 1 million in 24 hours
Apple has reported that iPhone 4S pre-orders topped one million units in a single day, breaking the previous single-day record held by the iPhone 4 (600,000). In fact, it was Apple's most successful first-day pre-order ever. Apple's Phil Schiller said in a press release, "We are blown away with the incredible customer response to iPhone 4S." The iPhone 4S will be available for sale on October 14 in more than 22 countries, including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, and Finland. The iPhone 4S generated more opening day pre-orders than any other Apple product. Sure sounds like a "dud," eh, CNN?
Apple iPhone 4S pre-orders exceed one million in first 24 hours (updated)
Last year's iPhone 4 launch brought more than 600,000 pre-orders within the first 24 hours. This year, that number nearly doubled, topping one million within one day of the device's pre-order availability through AT&T, Sprint and Verizon. Those that haven't pre-ordered the iPhone 4S can line up at Apple stores beginning at 8 a.m. on October 14th, or you can try your luck at pre-ordering now, though you may need to wait an extra week or two to get your hands on Apple's new iOS smartphone. Jump past the break for Apple's PR. Update: Maybe not a huge surprise considering the numbers Apple announced earlier today, but Sprint has just let us know that it has sold out of the 16GB iPhone 4S in both black and white for pre-orders, and that it's not taking backorders. 32GB and 64GB models are still available in both colors, however, as is the 8GB iPhone 4.
Switched On: The four Ses of the iPhone 4S
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. The most surprising thing about the iPhone 4S is that people were surprised by the iPhone 4S, for there is ample precedent to the company both confining upgrades largely to a speed bump and to saying no to a host of potential new features. As to the former, the iPhone 4S is straight out of the playbook of Apple's successful upgrade of the Apple 3G to the 3GS, although the competition wasn't as strong as it is today. Similarly, when Apple first lowered the price of the iPod touch below $200 in 2009 amidst widespread speculation that it would add a front-facing camera for FaceTime (which it did in the next generation), the company noted that it didn't think the product needed any more "stuff." So, what, then, defines the iPhone 4S? The differentiators can be thought of as four "Ses."
Talkcast tonight, 10pm ET/7pm PT: Somber Edition
It's Sunday, and like most every Sunday, we will be getting together for the Talkcast tonight at 10PM Eastern, 7PM Pacific time. This week's will be unpredictable since we have happy news to discuss, as well as less happy news. We have some guests joining us tonight as well, and we'd love to hear your memories of Steve. Prepare for some laughter and (at least on my part) probably some audible sadness as well. Your calls and questions help us make the show the best it can be, otherwise I'm just talking to myself! To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or download the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the Talkshoe Web button on our profile page at 4 HI/7 PDT/10 pm EDT Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (yay for free cellphone weekend minutes!): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8. If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac, you can connect via the free Gizmo, X-Lite, or Blink SIP clients; basic instructions are here. Talk to you tonight!
Sprint says no to iPhone insurance, AppleCare+ breathes sigh of relief
The Now Network is apparently voting thumbs-down to the idea of having its Total Equipment Protection plans available to its new crown jewel. According to a leaked slide courtesy of SprintFeed, your shiny Sprint-branded iPhone 4S (or 4) won't be offered with a healthy portion of peace of mind; rather, you'll need to purchase the AppleCare+ Protection Plan or go through a third party to have any protection from accidental damage. This may change down the road, as the slide says it won't be offered "at launch," but only time will tell. Unfortunate, yes, but we suppose there's always a bright side -- at least there's now a Sprint iPhone to not have insurance for, right?
Why Siri should (and probably will) come to iPad 2
Since the iPhone 4S features the same A5 processor as the iPad 2, owners of Apple's current-gen tablet have wondered if it's possible that Siri, Apple's new voice assistant, might be offered on the iPad 2. While my colleague Erica Sadun's answer to that is "Don't hold your breath," I only agree with her up to a point: I don't think there are any technical hurdles whatsoever to running Siri on an iPad 2, and the fact that the device doesn't currently feature voice controls is meaningless. I think Siri will come to the iPad 2 eventually -- certainly not right away, but possibly within the next six months. Voice Control as it now exists on the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 doesn't function on the iPad or iPad 2, but there's a reason for that: the existing commands would be essentially useless on those devices. The pre-Siri version of Voice Control allows you to use voice commands to control music playback, dial phone numbers or initiate FaceTime calls, and ask the device for information about the current time or currently playing song. That's about all Voice Control does. Those functions are all useful features on a device that spends much of its time in your pocket, but on an iPad they make very little sense. On the other hand, Siri's commands would be immensely useful on the iPad. The same things Apple showed off at the "Let's talk iPhone" event, like setting up Reminders and Calendar events or looking up information on Wikipedia or Wolfram Alpha, would be very handy to have -- so handy that I don't see why Apple wouldn't offer them. Apple has long been a company that designs products its own workers want to use, and it's hard to imagine that no one in Cupertino has thought about how Siri could vastly expand the power and capability of the iPad 2. Since the iPad 2 has both a microphone and the same A5 as the iPhone 4S, there shouldn't be any technical reason why Siri wouldn't function well on that device. Some have speculated that the iPhone 4S has 1 GB of RAM to the iPad 2's 512 MB (a claim that will have to wait for an iFixit teardown before it can be proven or disproven), but my TUAW colleagues don't believe that Siri's functions should be so RAM-intensive that they require such massive amounts of memory. In fact, we've done some digging into Siri and found that most of the actual work of understanding voice commands gets offloaded to external servers. In essence, the iPhone 4S and its built-in processing functions determine what you said, while Apple's servers translate that into what you meant and send that information back to your iPhone. The pre-processing that takes place on the device itself may be too taxing for an A4 processor, but the iPad 2's A5 should theoretically be able to handle it just fine. Perhaps even better -- Apple has a habit of underclocking CPUs for the iPhone in the interest of power management, so the iPad 2's A5 is likely to outperform that of the iPhone 4S for many functions. The fact that Apple hasn't yet said one way or another whether Siri will come to devices other than the iPhone 4S also doesn't mean much. The iPhone 4, 3GS, and newer iPod touch models had an exclusive on multitasking for almost exactly six months before iOS 4.2 debuted and brought that feature to the iPad, and the same thing may end up being true for Siri. Here's what I think is the most likely scenario: Siri will remain an iPhone 4S exclusive at least until the third tier of international rollouts completes in December. In fact, Apple will probably wait until after the end of the holiday quarter and bring Siri to the iPad 2 in the first quarter of 2012. Not only will this give market incentive for people to buy the iPhone 4S by having Siri as a device-exclusive feature during the holiday period, it'll also give Apple's servers and Siri's algorithms time to adjust and scale to the number of inquiries it'll receive. Once Siri's beta period ends and international rollouts for the iPhone 4S are reasonably complete, that's the perfect time to bring Siri to the iPad 2 in a dot-update to iOS 5. By that time Siri and its supporting infrastructure will be more mature and able to handle the extra load of adding support for one more device type, and it should also help alleviate the typical post-holiday quarter sales slump. As for the other devices in Apple's iOS stable, like the iPod touch, iPhone 4, and iPhone 3GS, I don't expect them to ever see support for Siri. Siri's developers have already confirmed that many compromises were required to get the service running on the iPhone 3GS, and it's probably the same story for iOS devices with an A4 processor. The 2012 model iPod touch will likely be updated to an A5 processor, however, so we might see Siri support for next year's iPod touch. For the time being, Siri remains an iPhone 4S exclusive and one we have yet to test for ourselves. We look forward to putting this innovative feature under our interrogation lights once the iPhone 4S is released on October 14.
Apple iPhone 4S now shipping in 'one to two' weeks, over 200,000 AT&T pre-orders in first 12 hours
If there was any question of how hot a tamale Apple's iPhone 4S would be, the answer's edging toward muy caliente. AT&T's stated that the iPhone 4S has ushered in its best iPhone launch to date, receiving over 200,000 pre-orders for the device during the first 12 hours of availability (crediting its success to having the only US version operating over 14.4Mb/s HSPA+, aka FauxG). While that's good news for Ma Bell, as of today, you'll be looking at a wait time of "one to two weeks" after placing an order for this latest iThing (Sprint and Verizon included). We've yet to hear how the latter two telecoms have fared, but we'd imagine it won't be a secret for too long -- the iPhone 4S is officially available on October 14th, after all. Full AT&T PR just past the break. [Image from Skyline/Shutterstock]
Apple reportedly working with AT&T to display '4G' in status bar
AT&T is reportedly pressuring Apple to advertise the 14.4 Mbps theoretical maximum download speed of the iPhone 4S as "4G" in the iPhone's status bar. Given AT&T's aggressive attempts to market HSPA+ as 4G, that's not surprising. What is surprising is that according to This is my next, Apple is apparently bowing to that pressure and will show "4G" in the iPhone 4S status bar. AT&T has confirmed it is "working with Apple" on the matter. While HSPA+ is faster than the standard supported by the iPhone 4 and earlier phones, it is not "true" 4G even if AT&T is advertising it that way. Given the litigious nature of the mobile industry, particularly any time Apple's involved, it seems like a terrible mistake for Apple to bow to AT&T and advertise a feature the iPhone 4S doesn't actually offer. If AT&T and Apple do indeed tout "4G" in the iPhone 4S status bar, you can be virtually certain you'll be seeing the following headline or some variant of it all over the Web very soon afterward: "Class action lawsuit begins over false '4G' iPhone claims." You can be just as certain that various pundits will go out of their way to blame Apple more than AT&T. It's all so very predictable that it's hard to imagine what possible advantage Apple sees in agreeing to AT&T's proposal. We've dug through the iOS 5 firmware in an attempt to locate icons for 4G status in the iPhone 4S status bar. We weren't expecting to find such an icon in iOS 5.0, and we didn't -- all that's there are the icons for EDGE, GPRS, and 3G (UMTS). If Apple is indeed planning on hyping 4G in the status bar, it's going to have to come about in a future iOS update.
This is your life if GLaDOS had control of your iPhone 4S
In many ways, Aldous Huxley was right -- our entertainment technology has made us a happily complacent species, imprisoned by our own electronic conformity mechanisms. George Orwell was also correct on a few theories of invasive government control. No one was more correct, however, than the great modern philosopher Erik Wolpaw and his overarching theses on Portal theory and lemons. Now, all of these dystopias have merged into one: GLaDOSiri on the iPhone 4S. Apple's Siri system enables natural-language voice control for a myriad of uses on the iPhone 4S, and GLaDOSiri makes all of those so much more masochistic, just the way we like it. If this were a real thing, we'd be all over it like children on Soma.
Daily Update for October 7, 2011
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen.
Early adopters penalized $85 for sticking with AT&T
So we're hanging around in the TUAW back room, drinking coffee and comparing iPhone 4S war stories when I point out that I could have saved a bit of cash by cancelling AT&T and hopping over to Verizon. AT&T penalizes many of its first-day-iPhone 4 customers by $250 for buying the first-day iPhone 4S. Verizon and Sprint do not. If you stood on line to buy your AT&T iPhone 4, your current cancellation penalty (your ETF) is likely to hover around $165 unless you're a preferred customer. (You can calculate that value over at Wolfram Alpha.) That's a good deal less than the $250 AT&T will add to the base price of their units. Loyal first day iPhone 4 AT&T customers are being penalized by about $85 for sticking with AT&T and not canceling and moving to Verizon. So Steve and Megs encouraged me to contact AT&T and see if they would do anything for me as a loyal (albeit somewhat unwilling) customer. I called up 611 on my iPhone, and went through the whole range of robots until being put on hold for about 45 minutes. Finally, a human picked up. After being transferred to someone who handled this kind of matter, I was told in no kind terms that no, AT&T would not make any adjustments. Their reply was along these lines: Even if it were cheaper to dump us and go to Verizon, you didn't so we will not make any adjustments. Harsh but realistic. So if you didn't stay up all night and place your order as I did, let me give you a few recommendations. First, call their sales department and make your case before placing any orders. Second, be willing to walk away from any call and try again. As Chris Anderson pointed out to me, a lot of this may depend on who you talk to. "Just keep trying," he suggests. "You'll get help eventually." That extra $85 would have been welcome but right now, I don't have the time. I have kids I have to take care of and work to do. If you do pursue this for yourself, and have any luck, do let me know. Drop a note to the tip line or leave a note in the comments. TUAW contacted AT&T for a statement on this post. Spokesperson Seth Bloom replied, Existing iPhone customers who are upgrade eligible will qualify for our best pricing now ... and of course many will qualify in the near future if they don't today. We want to help customers upgrade to a new device as quickly as possible - exact timing can depend on several factors unique to each account (length of contract, payment history, etc.). More details here.
Top ways to punk Siri
We get giddy after a big announcement day. Alcohol may or may not be involved. And then we start getting creative. We start thinking about new techologies, like Siri, and how they might be punked. In that spirit, we put our inebriated minds together to come up with a list of the worst things someone could shout over your shoulder as you were trying to use Siri. This is where we always wish we had in-house artists. We don't, so just imagine the cartoons that go along with them. Perhaps the Oatmeal will help us? They are (in no particular order): "MESSAGE MY WIFE YOU'RE DUMPED" "PLAY JUSTIN BIEBER" "SEND CONTACT MY GIRLFRIEND TO MY WIFE" "TELL MOM I'LL BE THERE IN TEN MINUTES" "TEXT ALL CONTACTS AND SAY THE STD TESTS WERE POSITIVE" "TELL MY BOSS THAT I QUIT" "MOVE MY 3PM MEETING TO 3AM" "DELETE ALL CONTACTS!" "OPEN THE POD BAY DOORS" Have more suggestions? Add them to the comments.
International iPhone 4S shipping dates already showing delays
That didn't take long. Just hours after preordering for the new iPhone 4S began, Electronista is reporting that international orders for the new phone are already showing ship dates of one to two weeks. For some TUAW readers and bloggers, the order process went slowly this morning, indicating that servers were probably being slammed. Checking the Australian, Canadian, and several European stores shows orders taking one to two weeks for shipping. Other online stores, like the Japanese site, aren't taking online orders, so it's difficult to know what demand is like in those countries. The US Apple Online Store is still showing an October 14th delivery date for all three American carriers. Electronista noted that Apple generally provides more stock to the US. While the worldwide delays don't appear to show a sellout situation, it does point out some strain on Apple's production and supply capabilities. We'll know for sure on October 14th if the iPhone 4S is another hit for Apple, or if the lack of delays in the US are an indication of lesser demand for the new phone.
Unlocked iPhone 4S coming in November, won't work with CDMA
If you were planning to preorder an unlocked iPhone 4S today, you're going to have to wait a little while. The unlocked and contract-free version is available starting in November, with no specific date listed on the Apple website. There's another bit of a surprise, although it makes sense: the unlocked iPhone 4S won't work on CDMA carriers like Verizon Wireless and Sprint. Why does this make sense? Most of the world currently runs on GSM networks. Even though the iPhone 4S is touted as a "world phone" that can run on both GSM and CDMA networks, most of the people who will use an unlocked, contract-free phone are like world travelers who need the ability to swap a micro-SIM card to get on a new local GSM carrier. For some reason, Apple is also warning that potential buyers of the unlocked GSM iPhone 4S may require a credit check, and that they must be at least 18 years of age to make their purchase. The pricing on the contract-free iPhone 4S is fairly steep as well. The 16 GB version starts at US$649, the 32 GB model is $749, and the 64 GB model will retail for $849. The contract-free GSM iPhone 4, which Apple started selling in June of 2011, also sold at similar prices.
Looking back at the iPhone 4S pre-order launch
The iPhone 4S online pre-order went live last night, and the experience was hectic for me. Sales started about 40 minutes past the original estimate and customers vented their frustration on Twitter. Once live, Apple's store site was quickly overwhelmed by customers as was the Apple Store app. Most problems appear to have been had by US AT&T customers -- Verizon customers, for example, and customers outside the United States seem to have made their purchases rather quickly and moved on. Starting at about 5AM, Apple temporarily switched to a reservation system instead of a purchase system. Apple promised, "We will email you at this address when it's time to complete your order. At that time, you will return to the Apple Store to confirm pricing and plan selection." Unfortunately, many of those reservation orders encountered snags this morning and customers were directed to complete their purchases at retail Apple stores. After that, things seem to have smoothed out as many previously-frustrated customers were funneled out of the Apple system. By the time TUAW's Steve Sande woke up a bit after 5AM, everything was, in his words, "roses and unicorn smiles." For me, personally, my shopping ordeal went on for a couple of hours. Although my heart was set on a 64-GB unlocked GSM world phone, those won't be on sale until November. I settled (though it's hardly settling) for a 32-GB AT&T model, which should provide a good balance of what I need for work vs enough storage space for lots of music, apps and photographs. Did you participate in the shopping frenzy last night? Share your experience in the comments, and let us know what you bought. %Gallery-136046%
iPhone 4S pre-orders have begun on Apple's site (Updated)
After an inexplicably long delay, pre-orders for the iPhone 4S have begun on Apple's online store. Orders began as scheduled on both Verizon and Sprint, but AT&T and Apple both experienced significant issues getting the ball rolling. The device won't hit Apple's retail stores until October 14, but if you'd rather not brave the inevitable launch day lines you can get your order in now. As with all iPhone pre-orders, if you really want to nab the device you'd better get moving; in fact, by the time you've finished reading this there's every chance the shipping date will have already slipped. The iPhone 4S is available in the United States through AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint. Plan pricing between the three carriers is relatively comparable, though Sprint is the only of the three who is offering unlimited data. The iPhone 4S is available for a subsidized price ranging from $199 for 16 GB up to $399 for 64 GB if you sign up for a two-year contract. Unlocked models will be offered, but they're not going to be made available until November. Thanks a million for that one, Apple; about a million other customers just probably said the same four-letter word that I did, though I doubt many of them said it as loudly. The iPhone 4S features the same A5 processor as the iPad 2, leading to graphical performance up to 7 times better than the A4 processor in the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4S also has an 8 megapixel camera with improved sensor and lens components. The main new feature of the iPhone 4S is Siri, a voice-activated personal assistant function that understands natural language queries. Update: As you can probably guess, the pre-order is going more smoothly for some customers than others, just like it seems to every year. AT&T pre-orders in particular have been a bumpy road for customers -- SURPRISE! -- while orders through the other US carriers have been hit or miss, but with more hits than misses compared to AT&T. Demand for pre-orders seems to be just as high as ever, so all the pundits predicting the iPhone 4S would be a flop seem to have missed the mark. Again. As for the lack of unlocked iPhones on the US store, it's notable that Canada and Australia are both offering only unlocked models during the pre-order. I picked one up from Australia via one of my contacts there -- sure it costs more to go that route compared to picking up a US model, but it's better than waiting until November for US availability or December for the official NZ launch.
Apple Store is down, iPhone 4S preorders begin 12:01 A.M. Pacific
The show must go on... and Apple's famous sticky note has appeared on cue. The online Apple Store is down in preparation for preorders for the iPhone 4S, which will commence at 12:01 A.M. Pacific time. Those of you who are eagerly awaiting preorders for the latest iPhone had better still be awake by then, because if history is any guide Apple will burn through the first wave of preorders before the sun comes up. Update: The Store is back up after a delay of nearly 40 minutes. Pre-orders have begun. If you were like me and hoping to snag an unlocked model, you're out of luck until November.
iPhone 4S preorders open up at 3AM ET -- are you ready? (Update: They're live!)
It's been a tumultuous week for Apple followers, but the earliest opportunity to snag the company's new slab opens up in just a few hours. Without an extended review, we've done what we can by asking Siri to understand our most random queries, breaking down the costs / benefits, and even leaving it up to the masses. Decision time is upon us, so if you've just got to be first to order an iPhone 4S then either make it a late night or set an early alarm for 3AM ET -- we'll do you one more solid by linking up the US and Canadian carrier pages below (other international providers have only listed notification sign ups so far, but don't worry, we've got them here too.) Update: And they're off! As of a few minutes after 3, all the US carrier's sites are taking preorders as well as Vodafone in the UK, although word is AT&T and Sprint's servers are overloaded so be patient. The Apple store went down for updates around midnight (ET) and is still down, but we'll update again once it's open for business. Update 2: At 3:43AM, Apple.com is finally back up although you'll still need some luck getting through at this point. Read - Apple Read - Verizon Read - AT&T Read - Sprint Read - Telus Read - Rogers (via the Rogers Reservation System) Read - Vodafone Read - Orange Read - T-Mobile (UK)
