iPhone 4S - Specs and All You Need to Know

Let's Talk iPhone 2011 is now a history, but it's the same time for a new iPhone introduction. The iPhone 4S is an upgrade to the previous iPhone 4 in almost everything except cosmetically. I'd call it an upgrade as it doesn't really introduce any killer specs or visible changes on the outside. It shares the same shell as the iPhone 4, nothing more nothing less. You can read the entire live feed of the event here. Details after the break.

What you will get:

1. A5 Dual-core processor - similar to the iPad 2. Double the processing power, seven times the graphic.
2. An upgraded camera sensor with whole lot of advancements and features. You can read all of these here. Camera goes up to 8 Megapixels and records 1080p. Comes with more than a handful of technological improvements and software supports.
3. Supposedly 1GB of RAM, I have no information as of now.
4. SIRI personal assistant - the most intelligent smartphone personal assistant through voice command ever presented to date. Throw almost any commands at it and you will be granted an answer, and most of the time it carries out all the tasks for you.
5. AirPlay mirroring, iCloud and many other services.
6. HSPA+ support for both GSM and CDMA versions. No LTE support. Apple redesigned the network system. The antennas now automatically interswitch to obtain a better signal lock and call quality.
7. iOS 5 out of the box.
8. Verizon, AT&T and Sprint will all be getting iPhones.
9. New contract pricing. The phones will go on pre-order starting October 7. US, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, France and Germany gets it on 14th. Rest of the world begins 28th to the end of the year.
10. And a considerable amount of disappointment.

Now if you have missed much of the information, remember you can always refer back to the live feed here.

Images credit : Engadget

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Let's Talk iPhone 2011 Keynotes - iPhone 4S, NO iPhone 5, iOS 5, iCloud and Tim Cooks, iPhone 4S Pricing and Availability Revealed

All times below are adjusted to GMT+8 time zone - Perth, Hong Kong, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur etc.

Let's Talk iPhone event, Cupertino Campus, Oct 4 - Tuesday. Clock's ticking at 12.50AM, less than 10 minutes to the official launch of the event. Jump over the break for the complete live feed from the event.





1.00AM

• The presentation begins, as usual, with the giant Apple logo on screen.
• Tim Cooks takes the stage, expressing his love for Apple, his new position as the CEO, the changes and achievements over Apple in recent years and new stores which opened in LA and HK not long ago.
• Tim expresses the success of OS Lion, achieving 80% more downloads than that of Snow Leopard.
• Tim further expresses its success against Windows 7, which took a long time to reach the same goal.
• Tim emphasizes on the fact that many had been trying to copy the MacBook Air - which refers to none other than the Ultrabooks.
• The Year-over-year growth for PC remains at a low 4%, while Mac goes up to 23%
• iPod, the world leading music player launched in 2001 claimed 78% of music players worldwide - clearly the #1 music player in the world.
• Apple sold 45 million iPods in one year.

1.15AM

• iTunes - the #1 music store in the world, hands down at 16 billion songs downloaded.
• Tim begins to touch on the iPhone.
• iPhone shows a 125% annual growth compared to the 74% of smartphones.
• Mobile phone satisfaction chart - Apple tops it off at 70%, held second by HTC at 49%.
• iPhone is 5% of the overall mobile phone market. Tim hopes that all phones will move into the smartphone section - could this mean a cheaper iPhone is on the way?
• Tim now touches on iPad - it will be changing what the world does with it. Teachers, kids, parents and the likes. Even pilots, said by Tim.
• iPads are actually spreading to all corners of the world - hospitals, here, there and everywhere.
• iPad is the top selling tablet in the world, hands down.
• 250 million iOS devices are sold.
• Scott Forstall takes the stage.
• Since there are 250 million iOS devices sold, it's no doubt the top OS in the world.
• iOS dominates 61% of the mobile OS market.
• 500,000 apps on the app store.
• 140,000 and above for the iPad.
• Appstore experiences 18 billion downloads in mere 3 years - 1 b per month.
• Apple paid more than 3b for developers for apps.
• Apple created new app - called cards. You can now create cards on your phone and Apple takes cares of the rest, including printing and emboss. Various designs are available. Apple will even settle the mailing for you. Simple as that. All you need is to attach an address.
• Service begins 12th October.
• It's free.
• Now, iOS 5.
• Ten of the top 10 features.
• New notification center - separate notifications now pop up on the lockscreen, you swipe and go directly into it. 
• iMessage - messaging service between iOS users. You can sent text photos, video and much more.
• Reminders - You can customize your individual reminders on stuff to do, schedule and etc. They are location based integrated so you can use them depending on where you are.
• Deeper integration of Twitter.
• Newsstand - many new partners including top publishers have associated with it.

1.30AM

• Camera - integrated app launch, snapping photos with volume button, photo edit out of the phone.
• 67 million Game Center accounts.
• Reading list, tabbed browsing on the new Safari browser.
• Wireless synchronization with your PC/Mac and phone.
• iOS 5 begins rolling out on October 12.
• Eddy Cue is up and on iCloud.
• As you have already known, iCloud syncs all stuff among your iOS devices.
• It's free.
• You take a photo > goes to cloud > goes to all iOS devices under the same credentials.
• This includes documents.
• Apps included too.
• Backup on the cloud.
• Find my Friends - works something like Google Latitude. It's a location based programme which allows you to share your location and find your friends.
• Storage upgrades with an annual fee, starting off at 5GB. 10GB goes at $20 a year, 20GB for $40, 50GB for $100.
• iTunes matching system. If you have an iPad which has no music, just sync it to the cloud and you'll get everything - seamless.

1.45AM

• iTunes Match includes many other features such as immediate streaming, upgrades of matched songs, etc at the price of $24.99/year.
• October 12, restated.
• Commercial rolls.
• Now it's Phil Schiller's stage.
• He begins with the reintroduction of the iPod family.
• iPod Nano, launched last year - the interface is reduced to compact icons.
• The integrated Nike application tracks your walks and runs.
• Watches - going Disney? 
• $129 for 8GB, $149 for 16GB - just as we know it.
• iPod touch - most popular iPod.
• It has everything the iPhone has, except the telephony.
• It will run iOS 5.
• It's the #1 portable game player.
• The white iPod touch is confirmed. 8GB at $199.
• 32GB $299, 64GB $399 - beginning October 12.
• All we see is iPod shuffle nano and touch. Classic seems dropped.
• He said many had been trying to copy the iPhone 4.
• Phil is now confirming the iPhone 4S with A5 processor but remaining the same design.
• Dual-core graphics. 7x faster graphics.
• Mike Capps takes the stage - the president of Epic Games.
• He talks the Unreal Engine 3 - featured in Infinity Blade 2, the first installment earned $20 million in revenue.
• The visuals are shown off.
• Emphasizes on console-quality gaming.
• Epic shows off several scenes of Infinity Blade 2.
• Back to A5 talk - 2x Faster CPU.

2.00AM

• 8 hours of talktime, 14 hours of 2G talk, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 9 hours of Wi-Fi browsing.
• Wireless system has been upgraded. It will now switch between antennas to get better call quality, or better signal lock.
• Maximum data speeds has been increased from iPhone 4 to iPhone 4S - up to 14.4Mbps.
• 4G network. It is claimed that data even faster on the iPhone, with or without 4G.
• iPhone 4S will come in GSM and CDMA versions.
• Camera system. iPhone is the top uploader on Flickr.
• New camera sensor - 8 Megapixels up to 3264 x 2448 resolution. 60% higher resolution than the iPhone 4 of 5 MP.
• Improved sensor illumination - 73% more light. Think of what Exmor R does.
• Hybrid IR filter - better colour accuracy, more colour uniformity.
• Five element lens, 30% increased sharpness, f/2.4 aperture.
• Image Signal Processor enables face detection and 26% better white balance.
• The first photo could be taken within 1.1sec.
• Macro performance is increased.
• 1080p HD video recording.
• Video Image Stabilization and Temporal Noise reduction.
• AirPlay mirroring - think HDMI without wires (or wired if you desire).
• Shows off the new voice recognition service - Siri.
• Works just like the old voice recognition - hold Home button, Siri listens.

2.15AM

• Asked the iPhone a question, replied with very accurate answers accompanied with even more integrated information.
• Think of it as an Artificial Intelligence - you ask it a question, it responds you with appropriate answers. For example, stock market, restaurant, places, navigation and practically everything.
• Demonstration of the amazing Siri AI is shown off again and again. Why type when your voice does everything for you?
• You can reply messages, plan new schedules and appointments, update your calender - all with Siri.
• Siri isn't only your personal secretary, but also your listening encyclopedia.
• "Search wikipedia for Neil Armstrong" - it brings up the astronaut's profile. "Define mitosis" - it brings up the definition for you.
• Scott asks Siri "Who are you?", Siri says "I am a humble personal assistant." Humble indeed, when it certainly outsmarts any ordinary human.
• Scott off the stage, reinstating the featured Siri.
• Phil returns to the stage.
• You will need a working connection for sure to use Siri.
• Works out of the box and improves over time, learning your voice and commands. Works for English, French and German - more languages to come.
• iPhone 4S once again gets reemphasized.
• iPhone 4S gets another commercial run.

2.30AM

• The commercial shows off all the features previously mentioned. Still no pricing and availability news.
• The pricing for the iPhone 4S is revealed. 
• 16GB - $199, 32GB - $299, 64GB - $399.
• iPhone 4 goes 8GB - $99.
• iPhone 3GS -  Free. All on two year contract.
• Pre-orders start 7th October, Ships October 14th. US, CA, AUS, UK, France, Germany and Japan gets it on 14th.
• Oct 28th spreads 22 more countries, 70 countries by the end of the year.
• Tim reappears on stage and speaks several words of affections.
• No iPhone 5. 
• That's it - the end of Let's Talk iPhone. There will be no iPhone 5.

Several important images courtesy of Engadget.

Event ends at 2.38AM, GMT+8.

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Samsung Nexus Prime Reveals Its First Leaked Shot - HD Screen Confirmed

Full credits of the image and article to GSMArena.com, source here.

In less than 3 hours from now, Apple will be holding the Let's Talk iPhone media event but in all the hype of it, the true live shot of the Google Nexus Prime leaks. This time, it's personally from GSM Arena, so rumour or not - it's for you to decide. More details after the break.


The Samsung Unpacked event scheduled around next week is believed to be the proper unveiling of the Nexus Prime. If you hadn't heard of its recent rumours yet, they can be found under this entry here written a few weeks ago. Perhaps to catch some heat off the Apple's event, GSM Arena received a tip regarding the first proper leaked shot of the Nexus Prime.

The shot above may not be as you might have hoped for, but at least the HD resolution of 720p Super AMOLED display is confirmed on a 4.6" display, giving you all the awesome pixel depth of 320ppi. That's when Apple offers you IPS for 330ppi while you get Super AMOLED for 320ppi. It's not like we can tell the difference after 300ppi anyway, but still - previous Super AMOLED displays has been a static pixel build of 800x480 even on the Galaxy S2. *However, I am not certain whether the bottom bar for the screen is calculated into the total pixel count - for it certainly doesn't carry out any other functions much like in Honeycomb, so perhaps there is a possibility of the total screen estate being 4.65".

The 1184x720 pixels shown above only represent active pixels for operation - the Android notification bar and soft buttons on the bottom are not included. As presumed, the Nexus Prime will not include any hardware buttons which instead will be substituted by soft buttons within the screen. (I'd still prefer hard buttons though). The Nexus Prime is believed to be having the bragging rights of the first ICS device, so be patient and wait through one last week.

Source and credits.

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Kindle Fire Exceeds 95,000 Pre-Orders - Only the First Day

If you haven't heard of the Kindle Fire yet, you can read it right here. The Kindle Fire is the newest weapon to Amazon's armoury, and based on statistical reports on manufacturing costs Amazon is losing approximately $10 per tablet. Why, you may ask. If, the fact that Amazon is indeed losing money per slate is true, the main income in exchange would be the sales and services provided after sales. Read on for more information.


You might have known the trending price slashes of various tablets - the TouchPad, Flyer, and etc. Amazon took the risk (again if it is true) to manufacture the slates and sell them off lower than the manufacturing costs alone aims to prolong its business paradigm in continuous offerings of premium services and sales. But Amazon wouldn't be worried for its revenue - 95,000 pre-orders have been placed only on the first day. That's approximately one pre-order per second! Supposedly with this amount of slates on pre-order on the first day Amazon will gain a total of $950,000 revenue, regardless of the pricing of only $199.

Statistically, the Kindle Fire is notably a success as compared to all other Kindle products combined. According to eDataSource, the iPad racked a 350,000 sale on its first day, while the iPad 2 was reduced to 300,000 units sold. The Kindle Fire doesn't ship until middle of November so these figures could very well tighten up within the next two months. After all, who doesn't like a little market competency? Some people do not need the extra features a tablet offers, so this might be a decent choice as a little pocket companion for web-browsing, little entertainment features and more.

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Cilia within your nose reports how long have you been dead

Image source

Traditional forensic methods to identify the time of death was based on changes in body temperature or the rate of decomposition of body tissues but these values could be easily miscalculated as what was happening before the individual's death cannot be immediately confirmed. However, finger-like projections in the nasal cavity lining the walls will continue waving even after death. Reportedly, since these cilia will continue but gradually slowing in their movements, the time of death could be pinpointed more accurately. More after the break.


Nasal cilia are tiny projections originating from the olfactory bulb, and part of their major purpose is to sweep foreign substances which are beneficial to our respiratory off the nose and down the throat. Biagio Solarino of the University of Bari in Italy and his team speculated that cilia continue to wave even after its master's death. They took a scraping of the lining of the nose from 100 cadavers to examine the cilia and found the motility continues 20 hours after death, as observed. They hope to use cilia examinations to predict the time of death primarily due to the fact that the beating pattern slows gradually and besides being generally immune to environmental factors.

Source

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Sprint Nextel Bets its Future on yet-to-be Announced iPhone 5

Is it really worth investing almost all your company can afford to in a product which hasn't even been revealed to the public? Sprint telecommunications thinks so. Having reported continuous losses, Sprint decided to invest 20 billion US Dollars at current exchange rate to purchase approximately 30.5 million iPhones for the next four years regardless of sale statistics. Details after the break.

Mr. Hesse told the board the carrier would have to agree to purchase at least 30.5 million iPhones over the next four years—a commitment of $20 billion at current rates—whether or not it could find people to buy them, according to people familiar with the matter. In order to keep the price people pay for the phone low and competitive with rivals, Sprint would be subsidizing the cost of each phone to the tune of about $500, which would take a long time to recoup even at the high monthly fees iPhone users pay.

This all-in investment from Sprint will either raise the company's income by a substantial  margin or it might be the end of what we'll hear of it. Sprint is the only carrier which provides true unlimited data plans, and with this partnership (or investment) it aims to rival against AT&T and Verizon. There has been a report stating that Sprint's verzion of the iPhone 5 will have LTE support rather than the normal 4G HSPA+ network which would be released globally.

I have been told that Sprint will be getting the iPhone 5 — yes the real iPhone 5, not the iPhone 4S — as an exclusive. And it will be a WiMAX device. AT&T and Verizon would launch the iPhone 4S and get the iPhone 5 sometime in the first quarter of next year as an LTE device. Globally, the iPhone 5 might be available as a 4G HSPA+ device.

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Facebook Joins Alliances with Websense to Protect Users Against Phishing Websites

I've got to say this - right about damn time! You must have experienced your buddies on Facebook dropping weirdo statuses on walls of not only their own, but their friends as well. Your entire wallpage will be filled with more and more spams of irrelevant status updates which instigates other users into joining the "phishing" party. With the cooperation between Facebook and Websense, Facebook will now attempt to protect you from being a victim of phishing sites. Details after the break.


Previously Facebook has an integrated warning system activated when you attempt to leave Facebook after clicking on an external link, but years after years hundreds of thousands of users still fall for the temptation to know what's behind the phishing statuses and bam, there goes your account. Curiosity kills the cat. To counteract this issue, Facebook has decided to work hand in hand with Websense as an individual filtering purpose for all potentially harmful links.

The update is planned to roll out next week, and you will be prompted by a different warning message this time - not by Facebook, but by Websense itself. It will attempt to warn you if the site you're heading for is categorized as harmful or would it be safe to proceed. Well you still can opt to proceed to your final destination but always take extreme caution not to allow any 3rd party individuals or bots to gain access to your account. The after effects can be disastrous.

Through the alliance, Facebook aims to protect its users against scams that spread even faster than a wildfire once shared on the world's #1 social network. Best of all, you don't even need to pay for the service - it's always free from Facebook but still, the lack of transparency. Social networks are sites where information is spread so fast that it's almost impossible to effectively contain. Hopefully through this alliance the personal information of many Facebook users can be saved.

Source

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