And that's very impressive and it appears to work very well...

...but both platforms will suffer from the problem of people being too embarrassed to use it. I know I only use my voice commands when I'm at home or in the car. They're great to have, but I just can't use them with strangers around...

*edit*
And on the flip side, I'm sure there will be plenty of people using voice commands on their phones and being very obnoxious about it. It'll be a whole new area etiquette, like the people who talk on their phones in public with the speakerphone on

I'm not sure how you call up the feature on an Android handset, but on an iPhone 4S you can apparently put the phone up to your face as if on a regular phone call, which activates Siri. This is in addition to pressing and holding the home button.

Not too shabby for a phone that looks the same as it did last year...

First weekend numbers, 4+ million. iPhone 4 did 1.7 million in the first weekend.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/10/17iPhone-4S-First-Weekend-Sales-Top-Four-Million.html

Anyone here pick one up? Initial thoughts?

I sold my 4 and bought a 4S.

It definitely feels "snappier" (to use that well known mac performance metric) although how much of that is down to the fact that I was without my 4 for a week.

Siri is pretty good, I was actually pleasantly surprised given how dire "voice control" was ("What time is it?"......"Calling Sarah...Mobile"). I had a chip in the screen of my iPhone 4 which was irritating, it was "just" over the display and because I knew it was there, my eyes were always drawn to it.

I'd have ended up paying £140 for a replacement, so I figured I may as well sell the phone on and upgrade to the 4S.

Haven't played with the camera yet. The smaller "shift" key on the keyboard due to the voice functionality requires a bit of operator retraining to hit the right key.

Biggest gripe is that the siri localisation changes both the voice recognition and voice, it'd be nice to be able to select the female US voice because it's much nicer than the UK voice, which just makes me think I'm listening to something from xtra-normal.

Heh.. On our recent month-long tour of Europe, we took with us a Garmin Nuvi 3790 satnav. Great device. But our choice of voice on it was the UK "Sally" voice. Aside from getting used to "take slip road" (instead of "take ramp"), she was just SOOOOooo much nicer to our ears than the American English female voice. That latter one sounded like a smarmy overworked short-order waitress.

Cheers

The main problem is that the UK siri voice is male and not a very nice sounding male at that! I guess I'm just used to hearing a female voice with the sat nav, it just sounds right somehow. Male voices just remind me of "Greetings professor falken".

Yea, I got one on Friday. It was more a matter of the home button almost failing on my iPhone 4 and the fact I want to swap tariff that coincided with the 4S coming out. I filled out the preregistration on three's website a few days before and it turned up with the postman on Friday morning, no queues or drama for me.

If I was to make a brief review, I'd say it's not worth the upgrade to the average user. In the UK Siri is very limited at the moment and is a gimmick that kept me amused for all of 20 minutes, I don't think I'll be talking to my phone very often.

In terms of signal it does seem to have improved. I have also swapped network so it is a little difficult to make a direct comparison. I can hold the phone however I like now, which is nice!

The extra storage of the 32Gb was most welcome but I guess I could have done that with the 4. So in summery, it's an iPhone and does what an iPhone has always done. I'd say it's more of a revision than an earth shattering upgrade.

Cheers

Cris

I do hope your are taking the old one with the dodgy button back to the Apple store to get it swapped for a working one ?

In Canada apparently you can't even ask Siri the time. Well, you can, but you'll just get some cheeky reply instead of the actual time. Strange, I don't know why this would have anything to do with locale. I though this would be one of the local queries that didn't hit the network or use location at all.

Out of warranty. Sold it to one of those mobile phone recycling companies for £280, I've used them before so I know they are good for it. The button works, it just sticks a little when you double press it. My old 3GS did this and when I took it in for a swap they told me it's common and as soon as it starts I should swap it out. I'm not paying what ever it is to swap to a refurb.

I did the maths and even though I won't actually save any money I am about even after the swap of tariff, sale of the old one, cashback deal I got and not having to pay for a swapped iPhone 4.

I just asked Siri the time and he told me. So I assume it will work everywhere outside of the US too. The only useful thing I have found for Siri is setting alarms and reminders, that and "Play me some Johnny Cash please" in the car. That is quite useful. If I am polite to Siri he is not polite back, so saying please and thank you makes no difference to the attitude. I think this is a bit of an oversight as it would be much more human if he was polite back.

Cheers

Cris

Isn't there a line somewhere in Douglas Adams about someone who's always polite to his robots, because he's afraid that if he isn't, he'll get out of practice at being polite to other humans?

On the other hand, there's definitely a line in Terry Pratchett somewhere where the new owner asks a robot to be less polite, because he can't bear the idea of such an intelligent mind being so servile to him.

Peter

Here's some video shot on an iPhone 4S. The video quality and stability of the device are impressive, but the people who put these samples together also have talent, so you can't discount that either.

http://vimeo.com/16048559

http://vimeo.com/30578363

The warranty is irrelevant, sale of goods act trumps that. Next time take it back.

Recently had my iPhone 4 swapped out for a new one despite being over 14 months from initial purchase. Even got a new one rather than a refurb, as it wasn't the first failure I'd had.

Yea, I did this with the 3GS. To be honest I hate the idea of going to see a feckin' "Genius" in Manchester at the best of times, but especially when it's over a button. It's just not worth it to me.

At the stage it's at I wouldn't call it faulty as such as you can get it to work most of the time. Anyway it's gone in the post now

Cheers

Cris

This video has to be one of the most pointless I've ever seen on the internet...

http://vimeo.com/30606785

A comparison of a 5D MkII and an iPhone 4S. Really ???

Cheers

Cris

I saw the same or a similar video earlier - kind of pointless in general, but especially so without some kind of motion. SidexSide as a thumbnail is kind of irrelevant, pretty much anything is going to look half-decent. I would expect the iPhone 4 to look just about the same.

This is better, from PCWorld: http://www.pcworld.com/article/241955/smartphone_camera_battle_iphone_4s_vs_the_android_elite.html

I'm getting that too, and so is my girlfriend on hers.

I suspect if you take 2 or more phones to an Apple store exhibiting this problem, you'll have a much better chance of getting something done about it than you would with one. Even without any warranty left. If you do have warranty or AppleCare, then definitely take them back.

I thought I'd read something about free loaners recently (this year) but a quick google only turned up something about a $30 loaner from back in 2007. Worth a call to Apple Care at least.

I had three iPhone 4s in a row develop a dodgy home button. First two were replaced without question.

On the third one we had a bit of discussion on how maybe it was me and not the phones (which is fair enough, it did seem like the most likely explanation). But in the end they decided I wasn't happy so replaced it.

Those replacements were inside Apple UK's 12 months warranty. I then had the radio and GPS start to fail on my fourth phone, a couple of months outside the warranty.

Of course the law in the UK is very different to the US. The law expects and requires something like a mobile phone to last without defect for a lot longer than 12 months. So when I took the fourth phone back I was confident of my rights for a repair or replacement.

Of course having legal rights and enforcing them are two different things.

In the end I didn't have to kick up a fuss at all. They replaced it without question. I did ask whether I could get a new one rather than a refurb, given that I had had 3 failed refurbs in a row. They granted my request.

I couldn't be happier with Apple UK when it comes to replacing faulty iPhones. Would have been nice if I hadn't had four failed phones in the first place though.

It would be interesting to see if the 4S exhibits the same moire and line skipping artefacts as the 5D.

Or rolling shutter on the video...

Looks like regional carriers in the US are getting in on the iPhone too this time around: http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/19/is-c-spire-getting-the-iphone-4s-its-website-says-so/

Meanwhile, the Samsung/Google Galaxy Nexus with Android 4.0 was announced yesterday. It's a very impressive phone. About the only mystery is what the exact radio specs will be for the CDMA/LTE phone to be released in the U.S. They've said a huge lack of anything about whether it will be a world phone or not.

Have you seen images of the new Nexus next to an iPhone? It looks just a tad bigger than huge.

When I upgraded from my iPhone 3G to a Droid X, I really enjoyed the larger screen. I had a silicone sleeve on my iPhone, which made the resulting package fit comparably into my pocket with my uncovered Droid X.

It's an interesting question whether you'd want to put a cover on the Galaxy Nexus.

This fixation with ever smaller, ever lighter has always puzzled me.

Already these devices are so Lilliputian that they can only be comfortably used with keyboard programs like Swype to correct the inevitable mis-typings. Would your ultimate phone be some fingernail-sized item that you needed a magnifying glass and a needle for input?

I don't own a smartphone, or any cell phone for that matter, so my opinion is probably worthless. But SWMBO has an iPhone, and it seems to me that it would be a worthwhile tradeoff to double the thickness in order to, say, quadruple the battery life. It would still fit into any pocket, and be easier to hold onto.

But what do I know?

tanstaafl.

I wouldn't mind the iPhone getting a little bigger, first and foremost to allow a bigger battery. However, the thickness is currently just about perfect. I would go wide and taller, by only about 5mm each. The other benefit of course is to fit a slightly larger screen. In all honesty, it looks like they might be able to cram a slightly higher capacity battery into the current iPhone, especially if it weren't for that SIM slot. This is probably one of the reasons Apple were talking going go SIM-less with some carriers over the past couple of years.

With the iPhone's auto-correct you can type pretty fast, making all kinds of egregious mistakes, without it adversely affecting the actual output. I'm a total iPhone typing novice yet I can still get by quite well, even with the phone in portrait orientation.

I prefer typing on the iPhone to the iPad- but I understand that when I upgrade to iOS 5 on the iPad I will be able to thumb type better.

I don't mind typing on the iPhone at all.

As for thickness, if you want that you can get it. There are third party cases that add extra battery life to the phone at the cost of thickness.

I know the iPhone keyboard feels like it should be unusable, but it simply isn't. You just need to suspend your disbelief and keep typing.

It works very, very well. Far easier to type on than any similar sized physical keyboard that you can fit on a phone.

And no, the ultimate phone (for me) wouldn't be any smaller. For me the iPhone is about the right size, I don't want it to be any bigger or smaller.