iPhone 4S
Thursday, 17 November 2011
Talk to your iPhone — Siri is the standout new feature of the 4S, but it’s not being promoted by Apple in New Zealand as the language module does not exist for our vowel free accent; as the two Apple representatives stressed, “It’s still in Beta.” Partly that’s because, as a cloud service, every use of Siri, here and elsewhere, adds to Apple’s knowledge on how to make it work better.
With that in mind, some location services may not work correctly. For example, you should be able to say “What’s the weather like today?” Since it should know where you are, assuming Location Services is turned on. In supported regions Siri will tell you. But if Siri is flummoxed, just put in the place: “What is the weather in Tauranga, New Zealand?”
I could do enough of an English accent to use Siri on my demo model (mostly). British, US and Australian English is supported, and if you ask in French or German, it will load up those languages too, and answer in kind.
I tested this with the radio on, and Siri seemed easily able to sort my voice out from the background noise, which were voices in a news report. – you can press and hold the Home button to launch Siri, but just putting the phone to your ear initiates it (you can turn this off under Settings).
But you can train Siri (left) on your ‘Newzullen uxunt’ anyway – you can correct words it doesn’t understand, and it will learn the way you say things. So good luck, all you John Keys, with that.Siri’s cloud data exchange appears to work rather like Genius in iTunes. Out goes the data into the cloud, matches are found, back comes the result. This may take a few seconds but when you realise what’s actually occurring, this is pretty impressive.
If Siri makes a mistake, take a look at your iPhone. At the top of the screen, you should see your query transcribed. Any sections Siri doesn’t understand will be underlined in blue. Tap on that to edit it – that’s how Siri learns.
I was quite surprised when I asked the 4S when my birthday was – I’ve never put this into my phone as such, but it must be listed somewhere. Siri knew who I was and presented the correct answer. However, ‘How old am I’ led to a suggestion I ask at the Genius Bar!
There’s a long list of queries Siri understands at TUAW.
If you’re trying to dictate a message or email, you can also amend with voice commands.
“Change it to” has Siri change your message to whatever you follow this with.
If you say “Add”, Siri adds whatever follows to your message.
Say “Read it back to me” and Siri reads your message out loud, so you can hear, not just see, if it’s now correct.
You can also correct message recipients on the fly, by saying “No, send it to Phil (or whoever name) instead.”
There are some handy tips about improving Siri at Everything iCafe.
I imagine other languages will soon be offered. If not, the Dutch, Danes, Italians and Spanish will soon be speaking even more English. If only to their iPhones.
But it’s truly fascinating and no mistake – Siri goes way beyond just voice activation and speech to text, as it polls the cloud for information, which is processed impressively fast to give answer, either by voice or graphically – for example, to a question like “what’s 12.5 per cent tip for three people on a 26 dollar taxi fare?”.
And being able to say “Send a text to John saying ‘I will meet you at 7’” is much easier than looking at the phone, initiating the contact, typing the text and pressing send.
Speeds — One thing that seems good about the 4S is the speed of internet and telephonic delivery, something Apple’s representatives put down to improved ‘backhaul’ in both main cell phone providers here. Whatever that means.
I didn’t exhaustively test this. Phone sites will have. But I got the 4S with a Telecom sim so I could see if there was much difference, and I ran Speedtest over it, which tests online speeds. With WiFi on, it tests the wireless connection, with it off, it tests the 3G connection – I tested them at the same time at exactly the same spot, so there was no variation in the wireless reception, and cell provider reception is down to overlapping coverage at my desk in Grey Lynn, basically.
On 3G, Telecom’s iPhone 4S came out at 1495Kbits/second download (max 1495), 195Kbits/sec upload (max 210), and my year-old iPhone 4 on Vodafone did 5117Kbits/s download (max 5145) and 150Kbits/sec upload (max 153).
Oddly, perhaps, the iPhone 4S was also slower on wireless: 4170Kbits/sec download (max 4173), and 109Kbits/sec upload (max 125). Latency was 195 milliseconds.
The older iPhone 4 managed 5292Kbits/sec download (max 5297), and 120Kbits/sec upload (max 153). Latency was 77ms.
In real life terms, one didn’t feel slower than the other, but tele-aficionados might but more impressed (or not) by this. I gather, for 3G, I just get better Vodafone coverage where I live. Wireless seems a little more inexplicable - and I’m sitting right by a Time Capsule with the latest -n wireless protocol in it.
So I restarted the WiFi on each and reran the tests. The second time, the 4’s figures were 5300/5300Kbits/sec download and 106/130Kbits/sec upload, and latency of 69 milliseconds.
On the 4S, this improved things – the download speed was now 5166/5166Kbits/sec download, and 124/134Kbits/sec upload, with latency of 202ms.
So yeah, go figure. None of this would put me off buying a 4S, but I do know people who would be perturbed, and in my experience, WiFi is always a bit flakey, anyway. I always seem to be fighting with it.
But on-device measurements tell a different story. The older 4 has an overall Geekbench score of 384 with its Apple A4 800MHz processor (single-core). If you want a more comprehensive breakdown of these (GeekBench is pretty thorough), these results are online.
The dual-core A5 (also clocking 800MHz) got an overall score of 616 almost twice as fast.
Cosmetics — These phones are pretty much identical, and in the same cases, although the 4S is the white version and an additional ovoid is visible above the speaker for the ear (for phone calls). This may also be on my black iPhone 4, but I can’t see it, even with a magnifying glass. If you know what it is, please tell.
Also, the 4 has a division on the steel side-surround band (the antenna) at lower left – the 4S has two of these, with the other above the silence button, on the same side, whereas on the 4 this is on the top. The 4 has another at lower right, and the 4S has two on this side also, top and bottom. In other words, the 4 has three sections of band, the 4s has four.
The new division and placement on the 4S presumably relates to the new antenna and dual-band capability.
The 4S supports UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz);
GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) plus CDMA EV-DO Rev. A (800, 1900 MHz)4 while the 4 only handles GSM model: UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); and GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz).
The 4S has Bluetooth 4 (as against 2.2 + EDR in the 4); this is for better battery life.
What I did notice, though, is that the 4S screen, although it has the same ‘retina display’, is noticeably sharper, due to a new graphics chip that’s a lot faster. It’s also slightly warmer to look at, and looks more balanced, like a Mac monitor (these are factory calibrated), with the 4 is distinctly blueish by comparison. This was with the brightness turned up to full on both devices. Images should look more realistic on the 4S as a result.
If you look at the GeekBench results I posted (above), even the single-threaded scalar is faster on the 4S, with graphical performance all around is well up on the 4, with extra measurements for the additional core.
For your interest, the official tech specs are online at Apple for the 4 and also for the 4S.
There are other advances in the 4S, like a microprocessor that changes the band constantly to improve calls if you are between warring cell towers.
The camera — But perhaps the most obvious advance of all is in the camera. Apparently, it’s the first five-element lens in any phone camera (so Apple told me) and it even has an infrared filter that helps balance bright skies.
More than that, it’s 8 megapixels, whereas the 4 has a 5mp sensor. Physically, this results I larger files (say 1.8MB for the 4, and around 3.3MB for the 4S). These decompress to a 14.4MB, 91.44cm wide, 72dpi image with the 4 and a 22.9MB 115.15cm wide 72dpi image on the4S. That’s a lot more information.
The 4S holds more detail, resolves images (ie, thin silhouettes against the sky) better, and definitely renders the clouds with a lot more detail than the 4, thanks to that IR filter. check out the picture below, for example, which I took within seconds of each other.
The 4S is also a lot faster at snapping repeated photos.
The same picture from the same viewpoint within a few seconds
on the iPhone 4 (left) and 4S (right)
Conclusion — I have said before I would not upgrade to the 4S as it wan’t a compelling enough case to break the contract I have with the 4. After playing with one, I have to admit I definitely wish I had one, but still not enough to break that contract.
If my contract was over, or closer, I would. If I needed a new phone, I wouldn’t hesitate.
What’s Great — Fast processor, excellent graphics, improved camera and Siri, which presages the future of interfaces.
What’s Not — I’m a little perturbed at its relative online performance
Needs — Enunciation!
4/5
What — Apple iPhone 4S, $1049 (16GB), 1199 (32GB) and 1349 (64GB). These prices drop markedly on contract plans offered by either Vodafone or Telecom NZ.
System — Dual Core A5 CPU, 8MP camera, 1080p video, iOS5, iCloud support, Retina display (326 pixels per inch), full specs online.
Available from — www.apple.com/nz, Vodafone and Telecom stores, and from selected Apple Resellers.
