

Apple's 'Let's Talk iPhone' keynote liveblog - 6ren
http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/04/apples-lets-talk-iphone-keynote-liveblog/

======
jrnkntl
"Remind me to call my wife when I leave for work" - <http://imgur.com/Y3Y3s>
His wife, geofence setup. Blows my mind.

~~~
vogonj
"my wife" is Almost Certainly* explicitly flagged in his address book, either
as an alias or through a "relationship" field. he didn't show you that part.
(the same is likely true of the geofence, though a location-aware algorithm
could probably do a better job inferring where your work is than who your wife
is.)

* a term of art meaning "certainly"

~~~
anigbrowl
I have no problem with that. This a great demonstration of what Apple does
best - optimizing products to fit the needs of most users. Google already has
the voice tech in place, but often fails to follow through on the usability
front. A perennially annoying example for me is when I'm on the road
somewhere, bring up Maps, and ask for directions from wherever-I-am to 'home';
it doesn't know where 'home' is. This is even more annoying, because there is
a 'home' tag in Maps, but it doesn't get searched on. Likewise, there's no
easy way to tell it that one person is my wife, another person is my business
partner, a third person is my nemesis and so on.

Apple are leveraging a culture of paying attention to detail to overcome
technical handicaps, but it's hard to quantify or A/B test that, and most
firms aren't comfortable with a budget line item called 'magic.'

~~~
jarek
To add to the frustration, Google _knows_ where "home" is for me, even without
me telling - Latitude inferred it. Can't ask Google Mobile Maps for directions
to home, though.

~~~
saurik
Note: if you are nocturnal and work at an office, Google will frequently
decide your office is "home" and your apartment is "work".

~~~
jarek
For those rare cases, you can override the definitions on Latitude web site.

------
thought_alarm
"Siri, take a memo: Beat up Martin."

Siri: Eat up Martha.

~~~
astrodust
The Newton experience all over again!

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buff-a
Fuck this is a shitty way to have to view an event in this century.

~~~
hugh3
Save time. Wait 'til it's over, and then find out everything you actually want
to know when someone posts a summary.

Do we have a summary so far? There's an iPhone 5, I assume? How does it differ
from the iPhone 4?

~~~
shoota
iPhone 4S, differences are better camera, A5 processor.

------
6ren
The verge is updating pretty quickly
[http://live.thisismynext.com/Event/Apple_iPhone_5_event_live...](http://live.thisismynext.com/Event/Apple_iPhone_5_event_live_blog)

heh, they didn't ripoff that guy that did the watch version of the nano, but
instead complemented with "16 new clock faces."

------
icey
Ars has a pretty good liveblog going as well:
<http://live.arstechnica.com/Event/iPhone_5>

~~~
6ren
That one's updating much more quickly, though has fewer photos.

 _EDIT_ seems to be fixed now _EDIT2_ yet, there seems to be a darth of images
again... engadget still has them _EDIT3_ OK, engadget is offline _EDIT4_
engadget is back (am I really blogging bloggers?)

~~~
joezydeco
None of the blogs are working. A 1:n medium like Twitter is your last resort.
There has to be a better way to do this.

~~~
Pyrodogg
Like for Apple to actually live stream the event....

...nope, back to clicking refresh and killing live blog servers.

------
acak
At thisismynext.com from the former Engadget crew:

[http://live.thisismynext.com/Event/Apple_iPhone_5_event_live...](http://live.thisismynext.com/Event/Apple_iPhone_5_event_live_blog)

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evgen
Both GSM & CDMA. This is going to be one of the huge factors for the 4S & 5\.
If I can now play Verizon, Sprint, & AT&T off against each other then this may
be a big, big win for US consumers.

~~~
pflats
This also means that Verizon's iPhones lose one of their biggest downsides,
that whole worldwide compatability thing.

~~~
evgen
Yeah. I wonder how things like carrier lock are going to work on this new
model. If I have Verizon service in the US and go to Europe can I drop in a
local SIM card and use that? If so what is to prevent me from using that same
feature when I am back in the US? Hmmmm....

~~~
mahyarm
Verizon's other world phones (Like the Droid 2 World) have a 'US only lock'.
It will lock out USA SIM cards, but it otherwise unlocked everywhere else.
It's also subsidized. I think that is a very fair way to do it.

------
Jun8
On a tangent: I miss Steve! These guys may be good but from the photos here
most seem to be reading from a prompter screen and they just don't seem to
have the look-into-your-eyes "believe me, this is the greatest thing ever"
stare that Steve Jobs could do. Also, the black turtleneck may be untouchable,
but rumpled blue shirt? Doesn't that shout blue collar corporate manager?

------
duck
Seems like apple.com is down hard:

Access Denied

You don't have permission to access "<http://www.apple.com/> on this server.
Reference #18.cc896783.1317755134.6ee996bd

Edit: That only lasted a minute... it is back up.

~~~
biot
I'm still getting that. Somewhere, a sysadmin has had better days.

------
paraschopra
Anyone else disappointed with the announcement? Looks like a pretty standard
upgrade.

~~~
FilterJoe
This upgrade reminds me of the upgrade from the Blackberry 9700 to the
Blackberry 9780. In both cases: camera is considerably improved, processor
and/or memory modestly improved, more interface eye (or ear) candy. It's no
wonder that many people seem to be disappointed, given all the associated
hype.

The iPhone 4 seemed like a huge step up from prior models to me thanks to a
326 PPI display, a much faster processor, and a variety of other reasons. I
guess even Apple acknowledges this given the naming convention of going from 4
to 4s. Not enough of a change to warrant iPhone 5.

~~~
danilocampos
It's odd you reach to Blackberry, here.

This is just like the iPhone 3G > iPhone 3GS transition. Doing a new enclosure
every year would be pretty taxing, so they take a year off. Incremental
hardware improvements meanwhile. The funny bit is they barely needed to do
this much — iPhone 4 was still selling steadily.

~~~
FilterJoe
I own a Blackberry 9700 which was a nice phone when it came out but have been
underwhelmed by the 9780 and in some ways even the 9900 (no autofocus camera,
no UMA). That's why it's the first thing I thought of.

I think I would prefer an iPhone if it were on T-mobile or if not that, at
least the option to buy an unlocked iPhone at a reasonable price that worked
at reasonable speed on T-mobile. Not so with today's announcements. An iPhone
3G can be purchased unlocked for $375, or an iPhone 4 for $549 but both are
very slow on T-mobile at EDGE data speeds.

An exciting announcement for me personally would not have been a new
enclosure, but rather the ability to run on T-mobile at fast speeds, all at a
reasonable price. Wishful thinking, I guess.

------
TallTalesOrTrue
Saw this on Engadget:

1:26PM That got applause. People seem desperate to clap for something. That
was it.

Pretty much sums up what we have seen so far

~~~
FireBeyond
"2:02PM Phil's taking a shot against the Atrix, Thrill, and Inspire 4G. "The
iPhone 4S is just as fast as these phones.""

Wow. "Guys, this is awesome! Our new phone is just as fast as an Android phone
that came out a year ago!" (The Atrix, about to be supplanted by the Atrix 2).

~~~
culturestate
> Wow. "Guys, this is awesome! Our new phone is just as fast as an Android
> phone that came out a year ago!" (The Atrix, about to be supplanted by the
> Atrix 2).

He was pretty clearly using them as examples of "4G" phones when it comes to
data transfer speeds and nothing more.

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scott_s
Is Siri specific to iPhone 4S, or will it be a part of iOS 5? It sounded like
it is only a part of iPhone 4S, but it seems like it's all software. Perhaps
the iPhone 4 isn't powerful enough to do the voice recognition seamlessly?

~~~
potatolicious
From what I hear the A5 in the 4S has some hardware components not available
before - including a hardware DSP and image processor. That's what's powering
Siri and the newfangled fast-camera features.

------
tvon
I'm surprised so many live blogs have gone down considering how tame the
rumors leading up to this event have been.

------
rkaede
CNN live video stream:
[http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/cvplive/cvpstream4#/video/c...](http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/cvplive/cvpstream4#/video/cvplive/cvpstream4)

------
revscat
If Siri works as advertised, that's... pretty cool.

~~~
ceejayoz
Yeah. I remember the Wolfram Alpha video demo - it looked amazing and natural,
but when you got to use the real thing 95% of your queries didn't work at all.

------
jfb
Does anybody know if the GSM concept of unlocked has an analog in CDMA? IOW,
if I buy my new 4S factory unlocked, can I use it on Verizon OR Sprint? I'm
assuming yes, because it really looks like a single SKU, but I don't know.

~~~
ben1040
[http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iph...](http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone/iphone4/about_unlocked?mco=MjU5MTk4Nzc)
(this is the text of a popup window on the unlocked iPhone page).

 _The unlocked iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S will not work with CDMA-based carriers
such as Verizon Wireless or Sprint._

Sounds like that's a no-go for the 4S. Which sucks because my wife wants to
replace her Android phone, but we're not upgrade eligible from Verizon yet. So
that means I'm going to have to pay same price as the unlocked phone, but it's
going to have the GSM side locked out if I ever want to sell it.

------
evgen
No iPhone 5! Some people are seriously losing on their announcement bets.

~~~
kahawe
Much worse, AAPL is going to take a big plunge - no matter how awesome and
flashy the 4S features are. After the HUGE pre-event hype and blabla, everyone
is only going to take "What, NO iPhone 5????" away from this, sadly.

~~~
kls
Unfortunately, I have to agree, I am a 3GS owner and was waiting for the 5.
The thing that I keep thinking is with this being the first big announcement
since Steve left the company they really needed to show the world that they
where going to keep hitting home runs. While the 4S is an nice upgrade, it is
in no way the home-run I would have expected to show that they are no worse
for wear without Steve. I was very surprised when I learned that it would not
be a 4G phone, that would have at least been an easy win for getting people to
make the upgrade decision. My wife picked up an Atrix almost a year ago and it
was 4G. I know the coverage is still growing and there are areas that do not
have it, but it is not like 4G is not standard equipment on the higher end
Android phones. To me that was the biggest miss.

------
gizmo
These guys got a live stream for most of the keynote last time:

<http://www.ustream.tv/channel/applelivekeynotes>

~~~
xenophanes
140,000 users viewing a black screen (broken video). lol that's a lot. hope it
works soon.

the total views is going up at like 1500/second

------
tvon
I'm having a hard time separating the wheat fromt the chaff in all that camera
talk, is anyone familiar with these changes/sensors (since I suspect they're
not unique to Apple devices)?

~~~
potatolicious
I'm an amateur photog, and I'm excited about the camera:

\- backlit sensor = better low-light pictures, with dramatically less noise

\- faster lens, hopefully with better clarity (less haziness that's
characteristic of phone cameras)... but we'll see how well it actually works
out

\- and most importantly, _fast_. I know I hate using my phone's camera since
by the time I pull it out and the phone lets me take my first picture, the
moment's already passed. The whole "1 second to first picture, 0.5s between
shots" I think is going to be HUGE. It's going to get people using their cell
phones as cameras a lot more than than they are now.

------
ubasu
Apparently, the HN dup-check differentiates on the trailing slash:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3071680>

------
tejaswiy
Hmm, everything seems pretty expected till now. Dual core processor, better
graphics, "4G" support, better camera. Roll out the speech tech and nfc !

~~~
al_james
>Hmm, everything seems pretty expected till now

Except its called iPhone 4S and not iPhone 5!

~~~
cpeterso
The "iPhone 4S" name was a pretty common rumor, so it is not unexpected. Given
the iPhone's "tick-tock" release schedule (3G->3GS->4->4S), I was not
surprised.

~~~
kayoone
well but since yesterday all you knew was 1 -> 3G -> 3GS -> (first real
redesign) Iphone 4

Easy to say in hindsight and based on the rumors, but still they didnt really
have a tick-tock release cycle before.

------
joelanman
the friend tracking feature seems similar to Glympse, which I've used a lot:

<http://www.glympse.com/>

sharing your location for a set time is really useful

~~~
gurkendoktor
I guess with all the toddlers supposedly owning iPods/iPhones/iPads, this has
some valid use cases. But actively supporting personal surveillance systems
seems like a weird move to me after the media hubbub about the location cache.

~~~
evgen
Yes, this is something people legitimately want. There are lots of occasions
where I will go somewhere with friends/spouse and want to wander but
occasionally sync up or know where someone else is. It sure beats SMSing
"where R U" messages back and forth.

~~~
gurkendoktor
I guess I edited my posting while your were answering, sorry about that.

I clarified that I am actually more worried about the public reaction to this
rather than legitimate use cases. Not really worried, just, why not leave it
at a third party app?

To answer my own question, Apple's solution has probably both more polish and
more lock-in power, just as with iMessage vs WhatsApp & Co.

------
gfodor
For all you devs here, the GM seed dropped on the iOS dev center today.

------
SODaniel
Clearly the most 'non event' keynote from Apple in the last few years.

------
ashbrahma
No iPhone 5..Bummer!

------
calloc
It seems that ScribbleLive isn't keeping up anymore :/

------
melling
Engadget and Ars keep going down. Ugh.

------
Slimy
iPhone 4S? I want the iPhone 5 :(

~~~
jfb
Once Apple can put the tech that would justify a jump from 4 to 5 and retain
their (50% of ASP!) margin, they will.

Idly, I wonder if they're getting a sufficient cut from the carriers to make
the 3GS at no cost profitable, or if rather this is what they mean to do with
their cash hoard: chase market share AND increase profitability.

 _DISCLAIMER_ : I used to work for Apple. I have no specific knowledge about
the phone.

~~~
djloche
The prices you saw are the carrier subsidized prices. The carriers buy the
phones from apple and then subsidize the cost, and try to make a profit over
the length of the contract.

The presentation was a little bit sloppy, because previous presentations would
have footnoted that these were _with a new 2 year contract_ prices, not "we're
selling these phones at these prices".

~~~
jfb
I understand that part. I'm just amazed that the demand for the 3GS is
sufficient, and AT&T desperate enough, for Apple to retain the tooling to
build them.

------
a235
apple releases their iphones every year, but sales them with a 2year contract.
Hmm, it seems like they are forcing you to use outdated hardware.

------
drieddust
I am just wondering what the fuck has happened to Microsoft.Seems like apple
picked kinect and ran with it. Gates must be very restless today.

~~~
duskwuff
Kinect? I am confused. I didn't see anything even vaguely related to Kinect in
this keynote.

Also, Gates hasn't been working at Microsoft full-time since 2008.

~~~
drieddust
kinect was the one of the first device to sucessfully use natural language
processing for controllerless entertainment which already works pretty well in
the context but MS never thought of probably extending and integrating the
tech with other products.

[http://digitizor.com/2011/06/17/microsoft-kinect-sdk-
windows...](http://digitizor.com/2011/06/17/microsoft-kinect-sdk-windows/)

Strong point of MS was integration of different technologies but ever since
Gates stopped taking interest in MS they have lost it. Now they have
uncapitalized half assed implementation of technology laying around in silos.

Note: I am well aware of when Gates stopped working with MS. Even before
stopping to work, he stopped taking interest in MS's future vision atleast
years before that.

~~~
vogonj
[http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-
us/howto/wp7/basics...](http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-
us/howto/wp7/basics/use-speech-on-my-phone.aspx)

and Kinect voice commands are of equal sophistication.

~~~
drieddust
Exactly but seems like crowd here is completely oblivious to anything non
Apple. Post Gates Microsoft have just lost it.

~~~
vogonj
nerds haven't been all-about-the-Windows-ecosystem for a decade or more, if
indeed they ever were.

Microsoft has had dominance over personal computing for so long because people
aren't by and large nerds, and computers weren't fashion statements until
recently.

and Microsoft's still trying to catch up with "computer fashion."

