Anecdotal reports have been pouring in since iOS 5 landed that battery life had suddenly dropped off on some people’s iPhones. A full 15-percent of you who responded to our poll reported suffering from the issue. Now Apple has officially confirmed that several bugs are negatively affecting battery life. In a statement given to All Things D the Cupertino company acknowledged the problem and said it would “release a software update to address those [bugs] in a few weeks.” In recent days the complaints in both the Apple forums and our own tips box have reached a deafening volume but, sadly, Apple isn’t offering any temporary work arounds or advice for those constantly attached to a charger.
A little cajoling from a clever developer got Siri talking to the iPhone 4 and the iPad, but Apple’s tight-lipped servers kept the conversation effectively one-sided. The last-gen port was still missing something, and developer Steven Troughton-Smith knew where to find it: a jailbroken iPhone 4S. In an interview with 9to5Mac, Troughton-Smith said that getting Siri to talk to Cupertino’s data servers only took ten minutes after he had all of the pieces in place. Ready for your personal assistant port? Hold the phone, the process is a bit dodgy — our hacking hero said that getting Siri on the older device is a 20-step process, and it requires files from the iPhone 4S that he says aren’t his to distribute. When asked about distributing the hack over Cydia, Troughton-Smith said it was something he couldn’t be a part of. On Twitter he suggested that a release would “anger the hive,” but promised to post detailed notes on the hack after an iPhone 4S jailbreak drops.
Last we saw of C3 Technologies’ 3D mapping software it was making an appearance on Sony Ericsson’s X10, but if 9to5Mac turns out to be right, its next stop could be the iPhone. According to the publication, Cupertino recently scooped up the Saab spin-off and C3 execs have since been working closely with the iOS division. Earlier this year, Apple posted job listings, looking for developers to “radically improve how people interact with maps and location-based services.” On a related note, the outfit previously acquired Poly9, a web-based mapping company. So is the fruity one looking to up its street (navigation) cred? Is it finally ready to give Google Maps the boot? We’ll just have to wait and see.
Less than a week after it disappeared from iTunes, the Apple-friendly Google Voice app is back and declared iOS 5 friendly, per its official Twitter account. Also improved is operation when you don’t have a data connection, as there’s no data required for all numbers previously called. Hit the source link below for v1.3.1.1891 — we’ll never go back to the dark days of v1.3.0.1771.
What does a Russian satellite system have to do with the iPhone 4S’ GPS capabilities? Allow us to explain. Russian site iPhones.ru recently noticed that the 4S’ spec page lists support for both assisted GPS and GLONASS — the Kremlin’s global navigation satellite system and acronym for GLObalnaya NAvigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema.
The country launched GLONASS 35 years ago in the hopes that it would eventually provide an alternative to GPS and the EU’s forthcoming Galileo, thereby reducing Russia’s dependence upon US- or Europe-operated systems. The global system has since been beset by delays and budgetary setbacks, but last week, a Russian rocket successfully launched the 24th and final GLONASS satellite, completing the constellation and inching the infrastructure closer to full activation.
News of the iPhone 4S’ support has already elicited a delightfully surprised response from the Russian media, with daily Vedomosti writing: “If the iPhone 4S really does have Glonass navigation, this would be the first time the Russian system reached the world market.” (Nokia, it’s worth noting, announced in August that it would manufacture GLONASS-compliant handsets, while Samsung’s High Fidelity Position app offers similar compatibility.) In light of Russia’s economic and regulatory climate, however, the move may not seem so shocking.
The Kremlin already imposes import taxes on handsets that don’t support GLONASS and, as Russia’s iGuides.ru points out, has even threatened non-compliant devices with an outright ban. Apple, meanwhile, has made no secret of its interest in expanding its influence within the country, with CEO Tim Cook recently referring to the Russian market as “more promising.” It remains to be seen whether this added support results in sharper navigation capabilities, or if it enhances Apple’s presence within Russia, but it’s certainly a compelling development, nonetheless.
How did you spend your weekend? If you’re Apple, the answer is simple, really: selling a whole lot of iPhones. Cupertino this morning announced that iPhone 4S sales have reached four million — quite an impressive number compared to what its predecessor was capable of, a fact no doubt helped by the addition of some carriers, like Verizon and Sprint here in the States. The handset is currently available in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the UK, with plenty more countries coming by the end of the year. Whatever happens, Apple has supposedly upped its order from manufacturer Pegatron, increasing its original shipment request by 50 percent, up from 10 million units to 15 million.
We’ve been expecting this to happen, but we didn’t expect it to be so fast. Sure, plenty of folks are still waiting for their shipments to arrive, but Apple’s latest magical handset is already baring its innards, courtesy of the screwdriver-wielding mad scientists at iFixit.
The good folks over at iFixit have finished mucking about the iPhone 4S’s innards and have confirmed the handset’s packing 512MB of DDR2 RAM, an updated Qualcomm MDM6610 chip and 16GB of NAND flash memory courtesy of Toshiba. There’s no indication that the A5 processor is clocked at 800MHz as claimed by Anandtech though.
Idle hands will be happy to know the phone’s been awarded a six out of ten repairability rating — it’s not quite amateur territory, but you don’t have to be a pro to get your hands dirty.
Even if you were one of those Apple fans who was less than impressed by the iPhone 4S, there is still reason for excitement — and that reason’s name is iOS 5. If you’ve got an iPhone 3GS, 4, third- or fourth-gen iPod touch, or either of the iPads you can download Apple’s latest and greatest mobile OS right now.
That’s right, all the fun new features like pull-down notifications, iCloud, iMessage, Find my Friends, Twitter integration and lock screen access to your camera will be at your disposal. Sadly you will not be getting a taste of Siri, which appears to a 4S only feature for now. Still, there’s more than enough here to make it a worthy upgrade to your device. So, what are you waiting for? Go hit that update button now.
Updating to iOS 5 will require iTunes 10.5 to be installed on your computer. There’s also an update to OS X coming down the pipes — version 10.7.2 — which officially delivers iCloud to your Mac.
The Bluetooth 4.0 specification may have been finalized in July of last year, but smartphones supporting the standard are just starting to hit the market. In fact, the first such handset is the iPhone 4S. That the 4S is the first to deliver its 4.0 wares to the American public is something that got lost in the entire hubbub surrounding its launch. One of the biggest selling points of the latest version of the PAN standard is its low-power mode, though that won’t have much of an impact on Apple’s device. What it will enable the latest iGadget to do however, is act as a hub — collecting data from multiple sensors and accessories simultaneously, such as heart rate monitors and cats. Don’t expect this to be alone on the market for long though, as other manufacturers will most certainly be squeezing support for the specification into their next flagship device.
Pre-orders for the iPhone 4S only began shipping this week, but a handful of early owners have already taken Apple’s first A5-based smartphone for a test run, and they’ve got the benchmarks to prove it. The results, obtained by AnandTech, are hardly what we’d call shocking. Well, it’s a dual-core, and we actually already have the performance result of the A5 CPU from the iPad 2, so it shouldn’t run too far anyway.
In terms of Javascript performance (pictured above), the 4S measures up rather nicely against the Tegra 2-based Honeycomb competition, while out-dueling the iPhone 4 in overall CPU muscle. Geekbench results, meanwhile, clock the 4S at around 800MHz, with a score of 623. That’s about 25 percent lower than the A5-based iPad 2, but notably higher than the iPhone 4 (see graphic, after the break).
When it comes to GPU performance, GLBenchmark 2.1 tests in 1280 x 720, off-screen render mode place Apple’s new handset well above the Galaxy S II, with scores of 122.7 and 67.1, respectively. It still trails the iPad 2, not surprisingly, but the 4S’ scores show a major advantage over the iPhone 4, which registered a score of 15.3.
For more statistics and graphics, check out the source link below. Are you impressed with the result? Well, Samsung and Co. will most probably be launching quad-core handsets very soon, which will most probably crush the A5 CPU’s performance. So we can see why the Apple fans are disappointed.
Last we saw of C3 Technologies’ 3D mapping software it was making an appearance on Sony Ericsson’s X10, but if 9to5Mac turns out to be right, its next stop could be the iPhone. According to the publication, Cupertino recently scooped up the Saab spin-off and C3 execs have since been working closely with the iOS division. Earlier this year, Apple posted job listings, looking for developers to “radically improve how people interact with maps and location-based services.” On a related note, the outfit previously acquired Poly9, a web-based mapping company. So is the fruity one looking to up its street (navigation) cred? Is it finally ready to give Google Maps the boot? We’ll just have to wait and see.
Recent Comments