For as long as I can remember, Apple faithfuls have rightfully known themselves as the possessors of cutting-edge tech. Every Apple product launch, when Steve Jobs walked out in that black turtleneck, you knew by the time he was finished talking, the weapons that would turn the tide of war had been readied, and very soon that they would be in your hands. Placing you at the pinnacle, giving you the reassurance that all else throughout the land was inferior and insignificant, and there was only Apple.
The Apple iPhone 4S is the world's fastest smartphone. It's CPU clocks in at 800Mhz and is 73% faster than the iPhone 4, and twice as fast as Samsung's Galaxy S II. Apple CEO Tim Cook announced that the iPhone 4S was the Al Capone's vault of product launches. That being said, it might surprise you to hear that the iPhone 4S ended up being a phenomenal disappointment.
Aside from from it's blazing fast dual core A5 processor, the very same in the iPad 2, the camera has been upgraded from a 4 element lens to a 5 element and the megapixels pushed up to 8 from the iPhone 4's 5MP. The camera's aperture has also been improved which would suggest better exposure in different light conditions. Facial Recognition was also incorporated and HD video recording was pushed up to 1080p from it's predecessor's 720p along with the addition of video stabilization. The case of iPhone 4S was also changed (somewhat) to a dual-band design, to ensure it didn't encounter the same embarrassing repeat of antenna-gate that the iPhone 4 was afflicted with. The buttons, which grace the left side of the iPhone 4S were moved far enough to not even make it worth mentioning. Siri, a built-in assistant, was probably the only real innovation in the new iPhone 4S, though whether it's a gimmick or not, is yet to be seen.
The battery life on the iPhone 4S boasts 8 hours of talk time, one additional hour over the iPhone 4's 7 hours of talk time. Curiously, however, the standby time of the iPhone 4S is only 200 hours as compared to the 300 hours with the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4S did not make the leap to 4G and remains 3G, which is something that surprised me.
I'd also like to point out, that there have been a slew of disgruntled owners of the new iPhone 4S complaining about a "yellowish tint" to the display which gives it a bleached appearance and contrast problems.
One thing that has become expected of Apple press conferences was Steve Jobs pulling that one rabbit out of his hat that blew the minds of every Apple loyalist. This time, however, that didn't happen. I can only help to wonder what exactly new Apple CEO Tim Cook thought was so worthy as to compare the iPhone 4S to the Al Capone's vault of product launches. More importantly, however, what the hell have the people at Apple been doin this entire time? Whatever it was, it wasn't enough to impress investors as Apple stock dropped, failing to meet Wall Street expectations for the first time in years. Apparently the end result wasn't enough to make many iPhone owners run out and upgrade either, but rather wait until late 2012 until the iPhone 5 launches. Let's keep our fingers crossed that the folks at Apple pull their shit together, because as the mobile wars heat up daily, Apple will need to bring something big to the table.
