As indicated by the chart above, just released iOS 5 is showing many speed improvements over iOS 4. iOS 5 was faster in almost every category — as indicated by green — except for the first generation iPad. The chart was put together by GigaOM using GeekBench, Gague, BenchTest, and SunSpider, comparing many later versions of iOS 4 to iOS 5.
When iOS 4 was released last year, it didn’t show these types of speed improvements over iOS 3, and when updating the 3GS to iOS 4 it saw drastic speed issues and bugs. Speed improvements in iOS 4’s case were made update-to-update.
To much of their credit, Apple was able to roll these types of speed updates in one release for iOS 5. And in fact, speed will probably get better as Apple rolls out more updates. Now, how about those activations?
Curious to see how the iPad 2 compared? Check it out after the break:
Users on Apple’s help forums have begun reporting that they’re not able to activate iOS 5, noting that Apple’s activation servers are beginning to go down. Users are left with a 3200 error code, and unable to finish the activation. This isn’t a good situation by any means leaving users, in some cases, with almost bricked devices until Apple can get things back up to speed. Many users on the forums have reported that they’re able to get their devices activated after trying a few more times. You’ll recall Apple had similar outages during the iPhone 3G release.
It was undoubtedly a smart move by Apple to release the iPhone 4S two days after iOS 5. All of these activations of both iOS 5 and 4S together would have just been a mess. Also looking through the support forums you’ll find reports of OS X 10.7.2 and iCloud issues probably related to Apple’s overcrowded servers.
Update:GDGT has noted how to bypass this error by installing iOS 5 manually. Simply hold down option + click “Check for update” in iTunes, and navigate to the IPSW file. The links are after the break (directly from Apple):
Apple has just released a new app into the App Store called iTunes Movie Trailers, which allows users to view trailers for upcoming movies and movies in theaters. Along with trailers, the app displays movie release dates and more importantly movie showing times, as you can see below. The Top 25 section of the app lists the top trailers played. And of course, you can favorite your favorite trailers.
Apple filed a patent this summer for purchasing movie tickets inside of an app. While you can’t actually do that in this app, look at the resemblance among the app and the patent drawing. This is certainly a future possibility for Apple, and then add Siri to the mix…
Apple has updated Pages, Numbers and Keynote apps for iOS devices with some nifty iCloud features, including the ability to automatically store your presentations in iCloud and keep them up to date across all your iOS devices (that’s Documents in Cloud for you), download your documents to a Mac or PC at icloud.com/iwork and drag and drop your documents to icloud.com from your Mac or PC to have them automatically appear on your iOS devices.
Apple has just released OS X 10.7.2, which brings iCloud to the desktop. The new update weighs in at 435.5 MB, which can be obtained in Software Update, and brings several bug fixes and stability fixes to Lion. Along with iCloud and bug fixes, Safari 5.1.1 is included.
Apple has just released a new section in the iTunes Store that lets users buy text and alert tones. While the store has always featured ringtones, the alert tones feature is new and requested among many users. You can access this new store by going to Settings > Sounds > Buy More Tones. This was hinted at a few weeks ago.
Ringtones are listed for $1.29 and alert tones for $0.99.
Steve Jobs was buried in the Alta Mesa Memorial Park in Palo Alto, California Friday afternoon according to information discovered by Forbes. The memorial park where he was laid to rest includes many other technology greats like HP’s co-founder David Packard and engineer Lewis Terman who were partners with Walter Hewlett — who gave Jobs’ his first summer job at the age of 13.
The site might be a nice place to visit and pay your respects in the years ahead if you are into that sort of thing.
Apple plans on holding a company wide memorial event October 19th to celebrate Steve Jobs’ life, Tim Cook announced in a company wide email yesterday.
The iPhone 4S is a great device for some, but what if you’re thinking of upgrading from an iPhone 4? That’s a tougher call. The phone is faster, to be sure, and has an amazing camera. And of course, you can’t get Siri unless you have a 4S… but I just don’t know if any of those reasons are compelling enough to convince previous buyers to upgrade. The concept is a particularly hard sell for Verizon customers. The gap between this year’s model and last year’s model isn’t as wide as Apple would probably like.
For this review, I returned to the iPhone after a fairly long period of using and testing other devices. Spending a week with Apple’s newest phone, I’m reminded again of just what makes the company’s products so special. It’s not specs, services, or apps. This phone is not perfect. Certainly it can be improved. But there is something here, beyond the screen and CPU, beyond iCloud, something under the surface. Some intangible spark.
Is this the best phone ever made? That’s debatable. But I can tell you this: the iPhone 4S is pretty damn cool.
Leading up to last week’s event, like everyone else, I kept reading the rumors about a new iPhone with a larger screen and completely different form factor. Quite frankly, I was hoping they were wrong. (For the record, I stated that I heard the screen size rumor was wrong weeks ago.) The iPhone 4′s design is the pinnacle of smartphone design in my opinion. I simply could not imagine how they could alter it to make it better. Even making it thinner would mean that it wouldn’t fit as nicely in your hands for taking pictures. Android fanboys are going to love that statement.
I’m happy that Apple decided not to change the form factor even though they had to know there would be some backlash from a certain segment of the population (read: idiots). Instead, Apple focused on the other thing they do best: refining already great products to make them better. The iPhone 4 was a great product. The best smartphone ever made. Now it cedes that title to the iPhone 4S.
Android phones seem to come out every Tuesday at 3:45 p.m. Apple updates iOS and the iPhone only once a year. So Apple had a lot of catching up to do, even some leapfrogging. There are some rough spots here and there; for example, every now and then the 4S’s camera app gets stuck on its startup screen. And while the battery still gets you through one full day, standby time is shorter than before (200 hours versus 300). But over all, Apple has done an excellent job.
The question isn’t what’s in a name — it’s what’s in a phone. And the answer is: “A lot of amazing technology. And some of it feels like magic.”
The iPhone 4 was my favorite product that Apple has ever made. The iPhone 4S has all the best features of the iPhone 4 — same look, same feel, same Retina Display — and adds several significant improvements. The one and only disappointment I have with the iPhone 4S is that the shutdown spinner animation is still low-res. That’s pretty low on the list of nits to pick.
On a trip to Japan in the early 1980s, Jobs asked Sony’s chairman Akio Morita why everyone in the company’s factories wore uniforms. He told Jobs that after the war, no one had any clothes, and companies like Sony had to give their workers something to wear each day. Over the years, the uniforms developed their own signatures styles, especially at companies such as Sony, and it became a way of bonding workers to the company. “I decided that I wanted that type of bonding for Apple,” Jobs recalled.
Yeah, that didn’t fly.
Sony, with its appreciation for style, had gotten the famous designer Issey Miyake to create its uniform. It was a jacket made of rip-stop nylon with sleeves that could unzip to make it a vest. So Jobs called Issey Miyake and asked him to design a vest for Apple, Jobs recalled, “I came back with some samples and told everyone it would great if we would all wear these vests. Oh man, did I get booed off the stage. Everybody hated the idea.”
So Jobs got himself a uniform.
In the process, however, he became friends with Miyake and would visit him regularly. He also came to like the idea of having a uniform for himself, both because of its daily convenience (the rationale he claimed) and its ability to convey a signature style. “So I asked Issey to make me some of his black turtlenecks that I liked, and he made me like a hundred of them.” Jobs noticed my surprise when he told this story, so he showed them stacked up in the closet. “That’s what I wear,” he said. “I have enough to last for the rest of my life.” Expand Expanding Close
Finding the perfect instant messaging client on the App Store is a pretty big challenge, but a new app called Verbs is pretty close to it. Verbs is available on both the iPhone and iPad and includes support for Google Talk, AIM, MobileMe, and Facebook. With all of these services bundled in one, Verbs becomes the perfect place to chat with friends. Instant messaging is really direct and sleek and the WebOS cards-like feature (seen after the break) makes switching between chats easy. But, Verbs has a lot more to offer.
Other supported services included in Verbs are CloudApp and Droplr for sending images, an iWork and Office document viewer, Instapaper, and the ability to link your AIM and Gtalk buddies with your Address Book.
Verbs Pro in-app update costs a one time fee of $5 and includes Push Notifications (a biggie while chatting) and encryption.
This app blows every other IM app out of the water, because it’s simple, but yet feature packed. Verbs is available on the iTunes App Store for $.99. If it makes you feel better, most of the 9to5 Staff uses this app on a daily basis. Two promo codes are after the break (get them while they last):
UPDATE: As people noted in the comments, the unlimited $69 a month data plan is really a $79 value because Sprint threw a $10 tax. The $10 smartphone surcharge is also applied to the $99 plan. Let’s not forget about the obligatory $36 activation fee, too. Also, the fine print on Sprint’s web site mentions a 15 percent surcharge and notes that the offer ends October 30, 2011.
Sprint has confirmed with Phone Scoop that they will be offering an unlimited data plan alongside the iPhone 4S. When it goes on sale next week, users can pickup a $69 a month unlimited data plan which includes 450 voice minutes and unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling, or a $99 plan which includes both unlimited voice and data. Sprint will be the only US carrier offering an unlimited plan, after AT&T and Verizon dropped theirs, making the deal very tempting. Sprint will also offer the hotspot tethering service but it will have a 5GB cap on that.
Sprint will also sell the iPhone 4 8GB but only AT&T will still sell the free iPhone 3GS.
Meanwhile for those of you interested, SprintFeed has gotten their hands on Sprint’s internal press release for the iPhone 4S. Interestingly, Sprint still doesn’t have the iPhone 4S listed on their site. Check it out after the break:
The iOS 5 GM (seeded earlier today) doesn’t require a registered UDID, which is great for users who aren’t developers and want to get an early look at iOS 5 before it is released next week. Past betas have required a registered UDID with the Developer Center to get the software running on the iOS device.
The GM, however, apparently only calls for the iOS 5 GM software itself and iTunes Beta 9, which we are letting commenters link to. We do warn you however that you should do this at your own risk. We make no claims to the validly of the software and really you should probably be paying for the cheap $100 developer license.
If you have better download links, drop them in the comment section below.
MacRumors points us to AT&T’s new ‘Upgrader App’, that lets users pre-order the iPhone 4S directly from their iOS device (due out on the App Store later today). It lets you pre-order right from your handset starting Friday, October 7. Besides actually performing the evil deed of purchasing the darn thing, the app lets users know their upgrade eligibility and how much the iPhone 4S will cost them.
Following up the official announcement of iCloud and iOS 5 this afternoon, Apple has begun seeding OS X 10.7.2 GM to the Developer Center. This final release gets the Mac prepared for iCloud’s official release October 12th, to the general public. The GM also features bug fixes, enhancements, and Safari 5.1.1. If you find anything interesting, we’re all ears.
The BBC has just posted their hands-on with Apple’s new iPhone 4S. While there isn’t much to show asthetically, BBC demos Apple’s new camera application and the hit of the show, the Siri personal assistant. You’ll notice how Siri actually repeats back to you what you say, and it works pretty seamless, even with a British accent.
Along with the new iPhone 4S this afternoon, Apple has announced a new program called AppleCare+ that covers the iPhone for up-to two accidents. The new program costs $99, and on top of accident coverage you get the AppleCare usuals, like phone support and Genius Bar appointments. Don’t think you’ll be getting off that easy, as each accident will be an additional $49.
AppleCare+ is available October 14th, the same day as the iPhone 4S. Full description below:
Have to say that as a 9to5Mac reader, there were no surprises for you today. On the other hand, the market isn’t so happy with AAPL shares currently trading at 356, down almost 18 points.
Update: Check that. AAPL is making a comeback, but judging by the comments, all is not well.
Besides the Steve Jobs won’t be in attendance at Apple’s event tomorrow news, Robert Scoble has also dropped an interesting note in regards to an upcoming iPad app developed by Apple. The new app, which apparently has Steve Jobs’ touch, will compete directly with cable providers like Dish but content is delivered over IP. The app supposedly features a wide set of content, which seems obvious if Apple wants to compete with current cable providers.
“I’m hearing that Apple is working on a new iPad app that looks a lot like DirecTV without the dish, too. Again, that app will have Steve Jobs’ fingerprints all over it as it will be more expansive than the press is expecting in its content availability. There’s a reason Apple built a 500,000-square-foot datacenter (about twice the size of a Facebook one, by the way) and that new datacenter is for video and the data that video causes to be shared with everyone. Will Reed Hastings CEO at Netflix be on stage tomorrow to help Apple explain its three-screen strategy? I sure hope so, because that would explain further why Netflix split up its streaming and DVD businesses a lot better than Reed’s been able to so far.”
Scoble cites that Apple has built a new 500,000 square-foot data center and a new datacenter for video as a reason to why Apple might unveil this new app. Scoble isn’t quite sure that it will be announced tomorrow. But..if this is true, this iOS event would be as good a place as any to launch it?
Funny, because it is true? SNL’s Seth Meyers tackles the Fire vs. iPad debate at 48 secs in (YouTube).
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You know, no one is really talking about this, but at a smaller 7 inches and priced at $199, the Kindle Fire is more of an iPod touch competitor than a iPad competitor…at least as far as budgets and capabilities are concerned.
Gizmodo Brazilhas gotten their hands on the cheaper iPhone 4, which is codenamed N90A. The cheaper iPhone 4 was spotted at Brazil’s new Foxconn plant, which means we’ll likely start seeing our first “Made in Brazil” devices from Apple next week. The phone looks identical to the iPhone 4 of today, and will likely pack less storage than today’s models; 8GB in all likelihood. Their report corroborates our claims of an N90A iPhone 4 appearing in Apple’s inventory system for an imminent launch. Be sure to read our report about the iPhone 4S, the successor to the iPhone 4 of today.
As the official release of iOS 5 comes in the next few weeks, Apple has begun seeding iWork for iOS beta 4 to the Developer Center. There’s no word if this build features anything besides bug fixes, but we’ll check it out and let you know. Last night, Apple also pushed out a small update to iBooks version 1.3.1.
These updates are sure to be Apple getting ready for their official announcement of the next iPhone(s) and unveiling of iOS 5 next Tuesday. Curious about the iPhone 5? Check out what we know.
Net Applications has come out with new numbers showing mobile OS market share. Android has almost caught Java ME. (Data: Net Applications. Chart: PED via Fortune)
Adding to TiPb’s AT&T store inventory report from earlier this week (above), BGR has posted an image (below) of Case-Mate’s apparent iPhone 5 cases listed in AT&T’s inventory system. The leak comes before Apple’s announcement of the iPhone 5 and/or iPhone 4S Tuesday.
MacRumorsmentions three different iPhone 5 case designs listed in AT&T’s inventory system, the Barely There, Pop!, and Tough cases, so an iPhone 5 could make sense. Next Tuesday is sure to be a big event, but in the meantime read what we know about Apple’s newest iPhone.
Just like Verizon, T-Mobile has chosen to side with Samsung in its fight against Apple reportsFoss Patents. T-Mobile’s reason, in response to a preliminary injunction proposed by Apple, is that they don’t want key 4G devices to be banned for the holiday season. And since it doesn’t look like T-Mobile is getting the iPhone anytime soon, Samsung’s 4G phones could be a big part of their sales. Check out T-Mobile’s response below:
