News tagged ‘iPhone 4S’

Vooma announced a new case for iPhone that includes a backup battery and a slot for SIM-card. The case can work with the app on jailbroken iPhone that emulates the native phone app to make calls via the external SIM card.

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Appleinsider obtained an email that was reportedly a bug report where the company confirmed that it currently has "no plans" to support its Siri personal assistant feature on older devices and would keep Siri as the iPhone 4S exclusive feature. Some analysts view Siri as the main selling point of the newest iPhone, so it would be quite irrational to provide support for Siri on older devices in first months of iPhone 4S sales.

"Engineering has provided the following feedback regarding this issue: Siri only works with iPhone 4S and we currently have no plans to support older devices," the email read.

But it is not surprisingly, when Apple introduced Siri last month, the company made it clear that the feature was exclusive to the iPhone 4S alone. There were some speculations that Siri might require faster processor implemented in the iPhone 4S, but a hack we reported about denied that fact and show that Siri works on the iPhone 4 also quite well.

The newest Apple’s iPhone 4S became available for preorders in Hong Kong last Friday and sold out almost immediately. As Brian White, analysts at Ticonderoga Securities, said, iPhone 4S preorders sold out in their first 10 minutes of availability.

"In our view, this is a very positive sign for iPhone 4S demand in Greater China has Hong Kong represents the first entry of the new smartphone in the rapidly growing region, and we expect the 4S to reach Mainland China in December," White said in a note to investors on Monday.

"We believe this rapid sell out will rest concerns surrounding the uptake of the iPhone 4S in the Greater China region that were driven by the limited language capability of Siri, which did not launch in Mandarin or Cantonese."

Although, the current version of Siri understands only English, French and German, Apple plans to start supporting additional languages in 2012, including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Italian and Spanish.

A successful start of the iPhone 4S in Chine is good news for Apple. Of course, the nation of over a billion people is an important part of Apple’s international policy and growth.

There has been concerns over the design of iPhone 4S that shares the same stainless steel and glass enclosure with iPhone 4. Because of that, some questioned if iPhone 4 has the same flawed antenna as iPhone 4.

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Despite the fact that iPhone 4 was launched last month, it seems that consumer Interest in the newest Apple’s smartphone is still increasing. Chris Whitmore with Deutsche Bank polled about 30 Apple retail stores and found out that between 85 percent and 90 percent of stores polled are experiencing stock-outs of the iPhone 4S.

"Apple employees are directing customers to make an online appointment (first come first serve) for next day pickup at nearby Apple retail stores as stocks appear to be refreshed daily at most locations," Whitmore said.

In-store Apple representatives advice customers to order the iPhone 4S on Apple's website between 9 p.m. and 12 p.m. Now most number of iPhone 4S units is sold via reservation, leaving a very little stock for customers who want to buy the device at a store.

Whitmore believes strong demand for the iPhone 4S both in America and abroad shows that supply remains the only factor in determining how many handsets Apple will sell this quarter. He has forecast sales of 28 million iPhones during the holidays, but admitted that number appears "increasingly conservative."

A large number of Apple senior executives have left the company this year. And Apple’s vice president of global security John Theriault is one of them. We’ve heard that the reason for his departure could be the lost iPhone 4S prototype, while the official reason is retirement.

In July, an Apple employee lost a prototype of the new iPhone at the Cava22 bar in San Francisco. Following the loss of the prototype device, Apple security personnel being escorted by San Francisco police visited a home to where the device had been traced. Apple security officials reportedly posed as police officers in their search of this prototype iPhone. Apple and the SFPD may face a lawsuit over the matter, as the resident claims that he was threatened by the police and was not informed that Apple's security officials were not actually officers.

Theriault, a former FBI agent and Pfizer vice president, joined Apple in 2007. Theriault was responsible for all of the Apple’s security operations and led an anti-counterfeit team in 2008 in a fight against China’s growing counterfeit product market.

Today comScore published the results of its latest research of mobile phone usage in the U.S., noting that Apple has surpassed 10% share of mobile phone market in U.S. As before, Apple again outstripped all of the largest phone manufacturers in growth over the third quarter, increasing its share by 1.3% to reach 10.2% of the mobile phone market in U.S.

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Despite Apple has seen sequential decrease in iPhone sales in the third quarter of 2011 as customers waited for the iPhone 4S launch, the company again raked in more than half of the profits produced by the largest mobile phone manufacturers over the quarter, according to a research report (via Forbes) by analyst T. Michael Walkley.

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A number of complaints regarding problems with echo on the iPhone 4S when used with a headset, with calls is growing. Moreover, the problem seems to appear on different phone models and carriers.

When using the Apple hands free headset with the phone during a call, I get an echo problem. It does not occur immediately. It can very from 30 seconds into a call and as far up to 9 mins in before it begins the annoying echo. If I unplug the headset it goes away but will return when I plug the headset back in. I have tried 3 brand new iphone 4s headsets with the same problems. So far I have tried rebooting, and also restored phone back to factory original settings as a new phone and still no resolution. I have been told by the other person on the line a screech sound is made then the echo begins.

Other issue that affects both incoming and outgoing calls is static on iPhone 4S call. The issue also occurs on multiple handsets as users exchanged devices at Apple retail stores in attempts to address the problem

The third problem involves users experiencing no audio on a subset of outgoing phone calls.

Picked up a Verizon iPhone 4S - 32GB and on about 1 in 10 calls I get no outbound audio when dialing. Call shows the timer counting as if the call is progressing but absolutely no ring back and cannot hear the party on the other end when they answer.

Digitimes claims that Apple plans to completely overhaul its iPad, iMac, iPhone and MacBook Air lines in 2012, saying nothing about MacBook Pro, Mac mini, Mac Pro and iPod lines.

Apple plans to completely overhaul its product lineups, including iPad, iMac, iPhone and MacBook Air, in 2012 and is expected to finalize order volumes for key parts and components for the next-generation iPad in December, according to sources in the upstream supply chain.

The iPhone is most likely to be redesign. The iPhone 4S has the same design as the previous generation iPhone 4. So it is quite reasonable to suggest that the iPhone will receive a new design. As for iMac, its design hasn’t been changed for some years. And it’s unclear how drastically it would be changed. The iPad is expected to become thinner in 2012. Some analysts believe that Apple’s tablet could finally receive Retina display. Finally, the MacBook Air. The notebook will certainly receive new design next year. There are rumors about a 15" Air-like design. Moreover, the Air and Pro lines is expected to be merged into one, but the Air form factor will dominate the consumer market in the near future.

Today research company Nielsen published its survey on mobile users for the third quarter, which confirmed that Android and iOS remain two main player on the smartphone market. Android platform increased its share of the US smartphone market by 4%, from 39% to 43%. During the same period iOS remained flat with 28% share.

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The legal conflict over copycat of mobile devices between Samsung and Apple continue to escalate in different countries and now Samsung requests testimonies from Apple’s designers working on iPhone, including senior vice president Jonathan Ive. Also Samsung wants to receive source code of iPhone 4S and details of agreements between Apple and Australian carriers.

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Siri, exclusive to iPhone 4S digital assistant, requires a network connection to interact with Apple cloud in order to get answers, the company said at the iPhone 4S unveiling. In order to find out how much traffic does Siri consume, Ars Technica conducted eleven tests, using Siri to make five network operations such as searching information on Wolfram|Alfa and other sources and six local tasks, including setting up reminders, alarms, dictation and other.

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The Next Web reported that South Korea had removed a ban blocking App Store games a week before the iPhone 4S launch. Korea opened up the local App Store earlier today. The Store had been closed for about two years. Of course, such ban cannot but affect Korean game developers. The selection of available games in the Korean App Store is limited for now, but it is expected to improve quickly.

The iPhone 4S is believed to face with tough competition in the region from the local giant Samsung, especially from the latest Galaxy Nexus. But Apple will obviously achieve success, predicting huge demand for their newest smartphone. Moreover, worldwide sales of the iPhone 4S are breaking all records. In the first three days of availability Apple sold four million units.

Nevertheless, Samsung intends to target Apple with new patent suits after iPhone 4S launch in Korea, even despite the fact that all their previous attempts were unsuccessful.

SmartOffice reports that Samsung is requesting Apple to provide them with the source code for the iPhone 4S firmware. Samsung doesn’t abandon their attempt to ban the device in Australia, trying to find any loophole to achieve success. Moreover, Samsung wants to know details of subsidy agreements with all Australian carriers.

“It goes to show that since the iPhone 3G was made available in Australia in July 2008, the impact on the market for every iPhone product has been significant, and has lead to a substantial increase … in market share by revenue. If subsidies are given for the iPhone 4S, there are less to go around for my client’s products,” - Samsung counsel Cynthia Cochrane told the federal court.

As for the source code Apple denies any infringement. The Company claims that Samsung agreed to license the three wireless 3G-related patents in question under FRAND agreements. Samsung thinks that agreement doesn’t cover Apple in Australia and claims Apple denied previous attempts to extend the license internationally. But it seems that all Samsung’s attempts will be unsuccessful, because the case will be handled by Justice Annabelle Bennett, who handed out the injunction against Samsung’s Tab 10.1.