Apple Unveils iPhone 4S; World Phone With Faster A5 Chip, Siri, 8-MP Camera, Faster Download Speeds, HD Video Recording

Apple Unveils iPhone 4S; World Phone With Faster A5 Chip, Siri, 8-MP Camera, Faster Download Speeds, HD Video Recording

After months of rumors and speculations, Apple unveiled their hotly anticipated fifth generation iPhone called iPhone 4S at the Let's Talk iPhone event earlier today.

As the name suggests, iPhone 4S is not a redesigned iPhone as many of us had hoped, it looks like iPhone 4 but comes with a number of new features and improvements.

Here's a list of new features and improvements:

A5 processor: iPhone 4S will be powered by Apple's A5 processor that currently powers iPad 2. Apple claims it delivers up to 2 times faster performance and up to 7 times faster graphics compared to iPhone 4's A4 chip.

8-Megapixel Camera: iPhone 4S gets an all-new 8 megapixel camera and a custom lens with a larger f/2.4 aperture. The camera also comes with an improved backside illumination sensor, auto white balance, advanced color accuracy, face detection, and reduced motion blur.

HD Video recording: You will be able to shoot 1080p HD video using iPhone 4S. It also comes with image stabalization technology to avoid shaky videos.

World Phone: iPhone 4S is a dual mode or world phone, which means it will work on both GSM and CDMA network, which is a boon for CDMA iPhone users as they'll be able to roam GSM networks. Apple claims that iPhone 4S is the first phone to intelligently switch between two antennas to transmit and receive, so call quality is better.

Faster Network Speeds: Apple has doubled the maximum HSDPA data speeds to 14.4 Mbps in iPhone 4S.

Improved Battery Life: iPhone 4S comes with improved battery life even though it comes with a faster processor.

Talk time: Up to 8 hours on 3G (from 7 hours in case of iPhone 4), up to 14 hours on 2G (GSM)Standby time: Up to 200 hoursInternet use: Up to 6 hours on 3G, up to 9 hours on Wi-FiVideo playback: Up to 10 hoursAudio playback: Up to 40 hoursSiri: Siri's is Apple's new personal assistant feature that is exclusively available on iPhone 4S. Using Siri, you can use voice commands to compose and dictate emails, schedule meetings, place phone calls, it can also find answers for you from the web through sources like Wikipedia, Yelp and WolframAlpha. It also can use location based services wherever required. You can send a text, ask for a reminder, ask for the weather or even the closest ATM using voice commands. Apple has covered a few more examples:

Siri understands context allowing you to speak naturally when you ask it questions, for example, if you ask “Will I need an umbrella this weekend?” it understands you are looking for a weather forecast. Siri is also smart about using the personal information you allow it to access, for example, if you tell Siri “Remind me to call Mom when I get home” it can find “Mom” in your address book, or ask Siri “What’s the traffic like around here?” and it can figure out where “here” is based on your current location. Siri helps you make calls, send text messages or email, schedule meetings and reminders, make notes, search the Internet, find local businesses, get directions and more. You can also get answers, find facts and even perform complex calculations just by asking.

Checkout the video of how it works:

It is clearly the killer feature of Apple's new iPhone. We still need to try it out, but it could be as revolutionary as iPhone's multi-touch interface.

Here are some other features that are also available in iPhone 4:

The gorgeous Retina display.It will come preinstalled with iOS 5, which brings over 200 new features and improvements.FaceTime - Apple's video recording feature.AirPlay and AirPrint support.Pricing:

iPhone 4S will be available for $199 for the 16GB model, $299 for the 32GB model, $399 for the 64GB model.

Availability:

iPhone 4S will be available for pre-order in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Japan and Australia on October 7th and will be launching on October 14th and in 22 more countries Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithunia, Luxemberg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland on October 28th and 70 countries by the end of the year.

Though we can see that many of you are disappointed that Apple didn't launch a redesigned iPhone 5 with a larger screen, we think the specs bump and Siri makes it a great incremental upgrade.

Let us know what you think in the comments.

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