Mobile carrier Sprint has confirmed rumors that it will start offering unlimited data plan for the iPhone when it launches on the carrier.

“We will be offering the benefit of our unlimited plans that start at just $69.99,” said spokeswoman Michelle Leff Mermelstein. Sprint’s $69.99 plan includes unlimited data and 450 voice minutes as well as unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling. Unlimited calling and data costs $99 a month.

The new iPhone 4S alongside 8 GB iPhone 4 are to debut on Sprint, AT&T and Verizon in the United States on Friday, October 14th. It seems that Sprint is indeed "very excited" to begin offering the iPhone, AllThingsD noted. Though, the mobile carrier has been quiet since yesterday.

We know that iPhone 4S is better than the iPhone 4, let's take a look at how Apple's latest smartphone compares to Android and Windows phones. Engadget compared iPhone 4S with Samsung Galaxy S II, Motorola Droid Bionic and HTC Titan. The first two are Android based, while the last one is Windows one.

Take a look at the results:

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Now, instead of selling your used iPhone on services like Gazelle or eBay you can give your used iPhone 4 to Apple and receive up to $200 for it, depending on its condition. Just visit the page of Reuse and Recycling Program on Apple’s site and press the button Get Started.

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UBM TechInsights posted their estimates  on price of the major components of the iPhone 4S. They suggest that the value of the components used to make the Apple iPhone 4S comes to $203 for the 32GB model which will be sold for $299 on a subisidized basis.

The most expensive part is the flash memory which costs $38. The second most expensive component   is Retina display wearing a $31 price tag. That is followed by the dual-core A5 processor, which costs $26. Making the new iteration of the iPhone a World Phone added $6 to the cost of a GSM-only unit, while the updated 8MP camera added only $3 to the price of the components.

iPhone’s rival HTC ThunderBolt was valued at $262 according to TechInsights. It includes such components as a LTE chipset, bigger battery, but lower resolution screen, and slightly slower processor, comparing with the iPhone 4S’.

The recently-announced 8GB Apple iPhone 4 indicated that Apple now offers the phone with small margin. Its component cost is $156 and the company is going to sell it for $99 with a signed 2-year contract.

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Implementing its plans to ban sales of Apple’s new iPhone over infringement of intellectual property, Samsung today has said that it is going to file requests with the courts in Italy and France for preliminary injunction of new smartphones.

“Samsung Electronics will file separate preliminary injunction motions in Paris, France and Milano, Italy on October 5 local time requesting the courts block the sale of Apple’s iPhone 4S in the respective markets”.

Samsung’s requests in Italy and France will refer to patent infringements connected with wireless telecommunications technology for 3G mobile devices. Also Samsung said that it plans to file the same requests in other countries after it reviews the situations.

Today’s statement from Samsung does not refer to the specific patents which iPhone 4S infringes, but it is possible that they are the same patents that already used by Samsung in a Dutch suit seeking the sales ban of iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad and iPad 2.

Apple has claimed that patents cited by Samsung are essential for 3G wireless technologies and should be licensed under FRAND terms. Apple argued that Samsung has not offered it licensing under reasonable terms, and two companies has been unable to arrive at agreement on licensing of those patents.

Since iOS 5 GM has been released, it's time to try it. While the firmware is available for developers, everybody can install it without Apple Developer account and UUID registration. You can download new iOS 5 GM firmware and iTunes 10.5 beta 7 using the links below:

UPDATE: Final iOS 5 version is released. You can download it here.

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Apple has finally released iOS 5 GM seed to the iOS developers. GM version is usually the same as the release version, unless some critical error are found.

Yesterday Apple announced that iOS 5 software will be available on October 12 as a free software update for all iPhone, iPad and iPod touch customers.

There is no need to register UUID at Apple to install GM version, so anybody can install and try iOS 5 right now.

Developers can download iOS 5 GM here.

Apple has released a software update for the existing iPod Nano 6G. New software brings new icon size, fitness features, and additional clock faces.

You can install the update by connecting your iPod nano to iTunes and clicking the update button.

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There is still no information on unlocked iPhone 4S availability in the US. However there are some news from Europe. According to Apple, in France you will be able to buy unlocked iPhone 4S 16GB for 629 EUR (~$836). You can get tax free if you don't live in Europe, so the price would be around 550 EUR (~$732).

Unlocked iPhone 4 16GB will cost 519 EUR ($690), which is ~455 EUR (~$605) after tax free. The cheapest unlocked iPhone 3GS 8GB is just 369 EUR (~$490), which is ~320 EUR (~$426) after tax free.

UPDATE: Unlocked iPhone 4S will be available in November

Apple yesterday announced iPhone 4S  and seems to prepare the name “iPhone 5” for 4G LTE model of the smartphone that may be released next spring. Analyst Will Strauss, president of wireless chip market research firm Forward Concepts, has tried to explain why Apple showed off an iPhone 4S and not the rumored "iPhone 5" on Tuesday.

"They're saving iPhone 5 for the LTE version and that won't be out until next spring. There's no way they could come out with LTE now," he suggested.

Apple may need an LTE baseband chip that, according to Anand Shimpi of AnandTech, will arrive early next year, so first iPhones powered by it likely to arrive in the second quarter of 2012.

"While I don't like participating in the rumor garbage, if I were to guess at the release date of the rumored iPhone 5 I'd say early Q3 2012," he added.

But Apple is not in hurry. The company shows interest in LTE, but not going to implement LTE technology in the next iPhone as soon as possible. Quoting Apple executive Tim Cook, the reason is what that “LTE chipsets force a lot of design compromises with the handset, and some of those we are just not willing to make".

Yesterday during the expected media event Apple announced the new iPhone 4S, an upgrade to the existing iPhone 4 with improved A5 processor, new 8 MP camera with better optics, faster download speed on 3G, Bluetooth 4.0, and more. Media members who attended Apple's iPhone 4S event had the opportunity to spend some time with the new hardware following the presentation, and immediately started posting their first impressions about the iPhone 4S.

Engadget highlights the improved internal specifications of the new iPhone 4S, noting that it is faster than the previous model, with faster navigating between pages and opening the camera application. Engadget was also able to test the new voice assistant, Siri:

The most impressive part was the demo of Siri, the new assistant that lets you do just about anything you can do on your phone — but with your voice. We tried to psych it out with a bunch of random requests... Siri never faltered, never missed a beat… There’s nothing better to say than that. We even sent ourselves a few text messages, which Siri transcribed to a T. Of course, the lady on the other end still sounds eerily robotic, but we’re hoping for smoother responses from the alien within in a future update.

Jim Dalrymple at The Loop covers the differences in antenna design:

The current model has three bands — one on each side on the bottom, and one on the top. The iPhone 4S has four bands — two on the top and two on the bottom. The bands are where Apple houses the antennas for the device. The Wi-Fi, wireless and Bluetooth technologies use these areas. It’s not clear at this point if Apple moved any antennas or what they added the extra band.

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Yesterday Apple announced that iOS 5 would be released on October 12th and seeded the Golden Master copy of the new software to iOS developers. And now the company is asking their developers to start submitting iOS 5 applications for the App Store ahead of official release of the software.

This gives developers a chance to test better their applications and make necessary improvements before the final shipping of iOS 5 version of the applications. Noteworthy, Apple has already been approving many iOS 5 applications.

iOS 5 is promised to deliver over 200 new features and will be compatible with  the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad, and the 3rd and 4th generation iPod touches.

Apple officially posts video stream of todays's "Let’s Talk iPhone" event. You can watch it on Apple site or below.

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Here's a nice quick hands-on video of new iPhone 4S from BBC.

Check out official Apple videos of Siri Assistant, iCloud and new iPhone 4S:

Siri:

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