Find My iPhone works!
Someone stole my daughter's iPhone 4S on Wednesday. We recovered it today, Saturday. The phone was a lost cause if not for Apple's cloud recovery service, which worked in an unexpected way overnight.
The saga started in the school office, where my daughter works for one period every other day. She often has out her phone and feels comfortable leaving it at the table where she busies; the teens working there are all fairly honest. On this particular day, she stepped out for five minutes and returned to find the phone gone. Sitting where she had been: Another teen applying to attend the school, with her mom close by. My daughter used a friend's phone to call hers, but the sound was off. The iPhone 4S was gone.
Galaxy Nexus shames iPhone 4S Siri
So much for Apple's voice command/response technology Siri.
Among this year's holiday presents, our family received a gift card for Italian eatery Buca di Beppo, which my daughter gladly used to go out to dinner with a friend. So last night, they're ready to drive but no one knows to where. She pulls out her iPhone 4S and speaks "directions to Buca di Beppo", which Siri can't understand and repeatedly gives meaningless results when she tries again.
The best two tech ads this holiday are from Apple and Google
Unsurprisingly, they promote smartphones -- iPhone 4S and Google Nexus.
Yeah, I know, this is a bit fluffy stuff, but I'm flu-stricken today and barely able to sit up to type. Besides, these are both really great ads that stand out for creativity and how well they demonstrate product benefits. Good marketing is often about great storytelling and, with smartphones like these, communicating a single benefit watchers will remember. You'll remember both these commercials, surely.
Samsung snark sours iPhone perceptions
The shoe is on the other foot. I hope Apple wears it well, because I expect it's a tight fit.
Samsung is doing to Apple what the "Get a Mac" marketing campaign did to Windows a half-decade ago: Change perceptions, for the negative. Apple's ad campaign is one of the best conceived for tech products, using two actors to represent a Mac and Windows PC and convey simply complex concepts about why one is better than the other. That campaign crushed the Windows brand at a time when Microsoft delayed Windows XP's successor, which thumped on the market in late 2006 like someone flying fast and far from a trampoline. Samsung's "The Next Big Thing is Here" campaign -- squarely slamming iPhone and its idolaters -- similarly succeeds.
Siri humbled my Android
I chuckle whenever someone in comments calls me anti-Apple. Much of what I write here derives from experience. Sometimes that works for Apple, or whatever other vendor, sometimes against it. Today, I've got a wet, smoochy kiss for iOS 5 and iPhone 4S and kick aside the head for Android and Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket.
Yesterday, my daughter met up with a friend for the Toyland Parade in the North Park community of San Diego. She's a live-in-the-moment, never-think-ahead teen. (Who isn't?) So, of course, when we got in the car and I expected my girl knew the way to the meetup, she didn't. After I chided her, out came the white iPhone 4S, and she spoke: "Direction to Claire de Lune". I knew where this was going, thinking: "There's no way Siri is going to get this right".
iPhone 4S: 'Ours is not 4G'
It's dress-down Friday here at BetaNews, and I can't resist letting Samsung dress down Apple. Yesterday, the South Korean electronics manufacturer uploaded to YouTube yet another TV commercial in "The Next Big Thing is Already Here" marketing campaign. This one answers the question I posed in late September: "What if iPhone 5 isn't LTE?" -- days before Apple revealed 4S; there was no 5 and only HSPA+.
What's the answer: Disappointment, as the commercial reveals. Apple's smartphone and standard Galaxy S II both have HSPA+, but S2 is better, offering maximum 21Mbps vs iPhone 4S' 14Mbps. The Galaxy S II Skyrocket has 4G LTE -- granted only in 9 markets. I have that phone. Absolutely hilarious: The commercial's huge gaffe that will give Apple fanboys chance to do a little dressing down of their own. The TV spot is set in Denver, which is not one of the cities where AT&T officially offers 4G LTE. Whoops! No one would have noticed or cared if the location label was Washington, DC, where there is service.
Of course iPhone 4S battery life matters
Last night, my colleague Ed Oswald made the most ridiculous statement in defense of iPhone 4S: "Battery life is not a showstopping defect", and he put it in italics! I disagree and told him so in group chat: "It's a real apologist post. Battery life is a showstopping defect". Ed's commentary responds to so called "Batterygate", where for many iPhone 4Ses the charge drains too fast. On Thursday, Apple released an update that fixes the problem for some, but not for many others. Meanwhile, the company issued a statement that: "We continue to investigate a few remaining issues".
Absolutely, smartphone battery life matters, and, yes, it's a "showstopping defect". In a survey of 23,000 phone and tablet users, conducted by SwiftKey developer and retailer/accessory maker Smartphone Experts, battery life ranked third as "essential" feature when answering "What's important when buying a new smartphone". When adding "quite important", battery life tops the list, which includes screen size, ease of typing and app availability.
iPhone 4S battery problems are overblown
There is no denying that the iPhone 4S has battery issues. Despite Apple claims to the contrary, there is a significant number of users with problems, based on what I have seen in both my own experience and across the web. It is an issue that deserves Cupertino's full attention.
Is it really as bad as it seems? Has 'Batterygate' taken on a life of its own, far surpassing the true weight of the situation? There is tendency in this era of the 24-hour news cycle to overhype, and Apple's battery woes are no exception.
Can you return iPhone 4S?
It's the question everyone who preordered or purchased on launch day and is having battery-life problems should ask. That's because the 30-day return window closes in two days and may already have passed for others.
A friend of mine, Sebastian, called this morning to tell me that he had arranged return of his iPhone 4S. He's displeased with battery life -- "five hours, not even a full day. If a phone doesn't work as a telephone it's worthless, it's a brick". Since he was contract-free before ordering iPhone 4S, he hasn't seen meaningful battery-life improvements from iOS 5.0.1 and there are enticing LTE alternatives, Sebastian wants to get out from the new two-year commitment while he can. But doing so proved arduous, although it looks like he succeeded. You might not be so lucky.
Apple lets consumers choose: unlocks entire line of iPhones
Apple added contract-free unlocked versions of its iPhone lineup, including the iPhone 4S, to its online store on Friday. The 8GB iPhone 3GS is available for $375.00, 8GB iPhone 4 for $549.00, and 16, 32, and 64GB iPhone 4S for $649, $749, and $849 respectively.
Unlocked iPhones will only work on GSM networks, including the iPhone 4S, which is a dual mode phone. Furthermore, the GSM network will need to support the same frequencies as AT&T in order for 3G data to work. Potential iPhone users on T-Mobile's network and other carriers that use AWS would be limited to slower EDGE data rates.
Apple releases iOS 5.0.1, promises better iPhone 4S battery life
Apple on Thursday released iOS 5.0.1, aiming to fix one of the biggest issues with iPhone 4S. The company claims the update addresses poor battery life in the device, as well as remedying a host of other issues.
Many 4S users complain they need to charge the device far more than they should, leading some to find creative ways to conserve battery life. Apple maintains that the battery issue is the result of "bugs" within the initial release of iOS 5. The company insists battery issues only affect a small number of users, although a cursory look around the web indicates a widespread problem.
iPhone 4S speakers don't play stereo right, tests show
iPhone 4S users are suffering from stereo audio quality issues when playing music through the device's integrated speakers, BetaNews has learned. The issue has been replicated on several devices, indicating that the problem may be widespread.
When playing stereo audio, the various instruments and sounds are sent to either the left or right channel based on how it is recorded, at an equal volume. This gives the illusion of fuller sound and depth to the listener.
Why can't Apple get iPhone's design right?
For a company praised for such great design, Apple sure seems troubled getting out an iPhone that works right. Death Grip -- and its signal stifling capability -- marred iPhone 4 from Day One. Consumer Reports still won't recommend the handset, even after giving it a high rating. Successor 4S comes along and, uh-oh, suffers from heap, big battery-life problems. The story is everywhere -- even Apple apologist blogs report it. Perhaps the company should invest more resources in functional design than appearance.
Maybe Apple simply is out of its depth. The company has received generous praise for launching a smartphone from scratch and dramatically changing -- arguably pushing ahead -- the entire mobile market with it. Apple deserves kudos for its accomplishment. But the company also is a newcomer to a market where depth-of-engineering is necessary to get products right. The smartphone category is also one where form shouldn't supplant function.
Stuck in iPhone 4S battery hell? Here's a way out
Just like many other iPhone 4S users, I am experiencing poor battery life that has left me running for the charger far more than I would like to. The issues are a black eye on what has been an otherwise stellar experience with Apple's latest smartphone.
Although I never owned the iPhone 4, I am told by those who have used both that there is a definite decrease in battery performance. We should have known, though -- in the slides of the keynote introducing the 4S, astute observers noted the standby time advertised by Apple (200 hours) was a full 100 hours less than its predecessor.
Sprint iPhone owners want answers why slow data speeds
iPhone 4S users on Sprint's network have flooded the carrier's support forums with complaints of slow data speeds, leading some to consider returning the device before Friday to avoid the $350 early termination fee.
Complaints appeared on support forums on October 14, the day the iPhone 4S launched at retail. Tests indicate that in some cases data throughput was as slow as .25Mbps -- only a little faster than a 2400 baud modem. The issue also seems mostly limited to the 4S itself: other Sprint phones tested side-by-side are unaffected although scattered reports of bandwidth issues are appearing elsewhere.