Yesterday Apple’s new CEO, Tim Cook, took to the stage for the first time to fill Steve Jobs’ well worn New Balance trainers and announce the next generation iPhone.
Sadly it was not the iPhone 5 we had all hoped for and instead was the much feared iPhone 4S. Fair enough it has a beefed up processor in the Apple designed dual-core ‘A5’ chip, an 8 mega-pixel rear camera with the edition of an extra lens and a larger aperture allowing more light in creating sharper images and the ability to shoot 1080p HD video. There is also a new battery but on closer inspection it only adds an extra hour of talk-time, so no great shakes.
Along with the iPhone announcement came talk of IOS5 (iPhone software update with over 200 new features), iClould (sync-able data between all your devices over the ‘cloud’) and an interesting new feature called “SIRI”. Essentially a personal assistant kept prisoner within your phone that when asked has the ability to; read your texts, schedule appointments in your calender, set your alarms, give you hourly weather forecasts and so much more. Annoyingly this feature is restricted only to iPhone 4S, much like the video camera was only enabled within the 3GS. These kind of science-fiction realisations however often have little practical use, imagine standing in line at the post office and asking your phone to read your text then replying via dictation, these are the actions of someone who sees no shame in wearing a Bluetooth headset 100% of their day and not just when a hands free situation is called for.
So will I be queuing up at an ungodly hour in the cold on Friday 14th October to get my iPhone 4S…… Sadly not. Call me shallow but if I’m going to upgrade my iPhone and fork out a couple hundred pounds I want it to at least look different, even the slightest redesign and I’d be reaching for the sleeping bag and preparing for a night on the streets outside the Carphone Warehouse.
I guess we’ll all have to wait patiently for the iPhone 5, which if the release cycle history is anything to go by, we’ve got another year to avoid smashing our screens. Good luck everyone.
