Apple's new iPhone 4S

No iPhone 5 folks, but say hello to Apple's new iPhone 4S

7

Apple's new CEO Tim Cook has taken the wraps off the company's new iPhone - the 4S

In his first product launch since becoming CEO, Apple's Tim Cook has announced a new version of the iPhone at Apple HQ in Cupertino, California. The iPhone 4S retains the ground-breaking Retina display technology and glass back of its predecessor, but has undergone something of an internal overhaul. Apple's new smartphone gets a brand new dual-core processor, an 8 megapixel camera capable of also shooting full high definition video, and a new personal assistant application that uses voice recognition. The 4S also promises up to double the previous download speeds and will be available on over 100 carriers worldwide.

• 
• 
• 
• 

Announced in the very same room as 2001's original iPod, Apple's new iPhone 4S runs on the new iOS 5 platform and is powered by the company's new dual-core A5 chip, that's said to be twice as fast as its predecessor. Mobile gamers will no doubt be pleased to hear that the included dual-core graphics are up to seven times faster than before. The new smartphone's battery life is claimed to offer either eight hours of 3G talk time, six hours of browsing, nine hours on Wi-Fi, ten hours of video playback, or 40 hours of music.

As the rumor-mill predicted, the 4S features a new 8 megapixel camera sensor (in actuality a 3264 x 2448 pixel resolution, backside illuminated CMOS sensor). There's a hybrid IR filter for more accurate colors and a five element f/2.4 aperture lens for 30 percent sharper images. The sensor also caters for full 1080p high definition video recording with image stabilization and noise reduction. Users can line up a shot using optional onscreen grid lines, and the new Photo app allows for simple in-device editing - such as crop, rotate, enhance and red-eye removal.

Access to the camera has been simplified - users just need to double-tap on the home screen to activate the new camera app, and use the volume up button as a shutter release. A new Apple-designed Image Signal Processor caters for face detection, improved white balance, and it sees the camera ready for its first shot in just 1.1 seconds (in only 0.5 seconds, the next one can be captured).

Improved call quality and voice control

Apple says that intelligent switching between the transmit and receive antennas results in much improved call quality, and users are no longer asked to choose between GSM or CDMA networks, as the 4S supports both. Theoretical data download capabilities have been doubled to up to 14.4 Mbps with HSDPA, with uplink remaining the same as the iPhone 4 at 5.8 Mbps. The 4S has also been treated to AirPlay Mirroring, which allows gamers to throw the device's image onto the big screen - wired or wireless.

As previously mentioned, perhaps most impressive of all the new features is an Intelligent Assistant named Siri, which uses sophisticated voice recognition technology to do your bidding. Press down the onscreen icon and speak to Siri via the phone's microphone, then everything from the local real-time weather to checking stocks and shares to setting appointments, alarms and reminders to searching online for information, is made available via vocal commands.

Apple has also included a beta version Dictation feature that currently supports U.S., UK and Australian flavors of English, along with French and German, with more languages to follow in the near future.

Pricing and availability

Pre-orders for the new iPhone 4S will start on October 7, with U.S., Canada, Australia, UK, France, Germany, and Japan getting first bite on October 14. Verizon, AT&T and Sprint have all been confirmed as U.S. carriers and both black and white versions will cost US$199 for the 16GB model, US$299 for the 32GB version and US$399 for the 64GB flavor (with a 2-year contract).

Another 22 countries (including Mexico, Singapore and most of the rest of Europe) will take delivery from October 28, and the 4S will be available in 70 countries by the year's end.

In other news...

The Apple team also highlighted a few of the 200 plus new features in the new iOS 5 platform - including an interruption-free, swipe down Notification Center, a new iMessage service for sending and receiving text messages, photos and videos between iOS device users, location-aware Reminders, the Newsstand feature with background downloading of latest subscribed issues, and wireless, PC-free updates. There's also an update to the Safari browser that brings tabbed browsing to the iPad and new reader functionality with device sync. iOS 5 will be available from October 12.

Apple is also launching its iCloud services on October 12, including Find My Friends, where you can view the locations of friends who've opted to share - useful for guiding lost guests to your new house. iTunes in the Cloud comes with iTunes Match, that scans your own music library, upgrades matched songs to 256kbps AAC file format, and places the matched files into iTunes - all for US$24.99 per year (available in the U.S. from the end of this month). iCloud comes with 5GB of online storage free for iOS/OS X Lion users, with more available at a price.

By Paul Ridden

Samsung's Galaxy Note

Samsung's Galaxy Note supersizes the smartphone with 5.3 inch screen and stylus

The Galaxy Note next to Tim's Galaxy S II

移动VPN客户端 - www.Juniper.net/Junos-Pulse
欢迎使用Junos Pulse – 集成的移动解决方案。

Ads by Google

Samsung showed its new Note smartphone today at IFA, just 12 months after it showed the Galaxy Tab to great acclaim, and when history judges the 5.3" supersized smartphone it just might play a much greater role in the development of the personal computer form factor. The incorporation of a stylus and the 1280×800 high-resolution Super AMOLED screen give the thin Android phone additional functionality by way of both sketching and note-taking and when Gizmag's Tim Hanlon tried the phone with its 1.4GHz dual-core processor, he's now thinking of trading in his Galaxy SII.

• 
• 
• 
• 

"It might look like the awkward stepchild of a phone and tablet, but as soon as I went from my iPhone to the Galaxy SII, I became used to the additional screen-size instantly", said Tim.

"My old iPhone now seems like a toy compared to the SII and although the 5.3 inch Note looks awkward, it just might be indispensable once you get used to it. It is bigger than the Galaxy SII, but because it's thin, at 9.65mm, it's still small enough to slip into my jeans pocket."

"I wasn't crazy about the note taking feature as there was a slight lag, but it's likely to be a lot quicker than typing for a lot of people. The Note also loads web pages very quickly, and the camera seems much snappier than the Samsung Galaxy SII."

"It's funny, but I think the odd form factor is the type of thing that people might mock until they try it, then they'll have their opinion turned around like mine was. I pull out my iPad or laptop noticeably less with the Galaxy SII in my pocket, and I expect this would be amplified significantly if I had a Note...and although the Note won't replace my iPad, it will probably replace my Galaxy SII."

"Last but not least, it's surprisingly comfortable to use as a phone."

Computer research done on desktop computers has shown many times that the amount of screen real estate is almost directly proportional to productivity, so it may well be that the 5.3" HD Super AMOLED display offers considerable productivity advantages over existing smartphones.

Samsung also demonstrated two apps which leverage the Note's large screen and are sure to be sought after. One is the S Planner, a cross between a personal organizer and a management planning tool which integrates a To-Do list and schedule and will make a very useful life organizer. The other is a multimedia app named S Memo, which can take any form of user-created content (pictures, voice recordings, typed text, handwritten notes and sketches) and combine them in a memo which can be edited, annotated and shared. Those two apps alone will make the Note a very useful tool.

There's also a really easy-to-use screen-capture which means you can capture any screen and make notes on it before being filing or sharing - a genuinely useful tool .

There are several other trump cards associated with the Note. Firstly, its connectivity speed is exceptional as it has both HSPA+ and LTE, making it fast enough to stream video in real-time or participate in online gaming.

The other is via the use of Juniper Networks' Junos Pulse SSL VPN which enables secure remote access to corporate networks. This last one could prove to be a killer app as large enterprises have until now had very little choice in the smartphone arena and the SSL Virtual Private Network meets high-volume secure access and authorization requirements. By offering a smartphone that enables IT managers to centralize control and protect corporate data, Samsung has produced a device which can finally go head-to-head with the iPhone.

The Note will also no doubt sidestep most of Apple's legal complaints about "look and feel" too, as it's entirely different to either the iPad or iPhone and hence it looms as a real competitor to both as Apple is unlikely to be able to block its arrival in the marketplace.

The Note has enough smarts to significantly influence the form factor of the personal computer once more.

Toshiba's 55-inch 3D TV

Toshiba's 55-inch, Ultra HD, glasses-free 3D TV

Ads by Google

Toshiba has taken the wraps off a 55-inch, 16:9 ratio LED backlit TV with glasses free 3D capability and Quad Full HD resolution. That's a massive 3,840 x 2,160 pixels, or in other words, four times as many pixels as a 1920 x 1080p TV. We've just checked out the Toshiba 55ZL2 on the floor at IFA and the consensus is that it looks great.

• 
• 
• 
• 

Billed as the world's first large-screen glasses free 3D TV, the 55ZL2 is designed to allow several viewers to watch 3D content from different positions. Its CEVO-ENGINE calculates multiple wide-angle viewing zones in front of the lenticular screen and face tracking operated by the remote control is used to detect the viewers' actual positions and optimize the nine viewing zones.

The CEVO-ENGINE also handles Auto Calibration which Toshiba says achieves "studio level picture quality" and personalized settings - including the volume level you last had the TV set to - can be stored for up to four users.

Content can be recorded to an external hard drive via USB, SMART-TV functions allow access to Toshiba's Places online platform, Resolution+ converts lower res formats into Quad Full HD resolution and if you have an iPhone, you can download an app and throw the remote control away.

The 55ZL2 can also display 2D content at the Quad Full HD resolution.

So how does it look? Our first chance to see the screen in Berlin today definitely left a positive impression - the 3D image had much smoother depth than the "cardboard cut-out" effect on other glasses-free units we've seen, bringing us hope that the reign of 3D glasses will be short lived.

Overall the 3D effect was more subtle, natural and real, with crisper images that seemed to recede into the background rather than jump out at you. In short, it's comfortable to look at.

Of course, native 3D content in Quad Full HD resolution might be a little hard to come by for a while, but the 55ZL2 could well be a new benchmark for the industry.

"It seems like a step towards maturity for the entire market," says Gizmag's Tim Hanlon. "I can't see the downside. This is a pretty sick TV."

The Toshiba 55ZL2 will be released in Germany in December 2011. Release dates for other European countries are yet to be confirmed and there's no word yet on how much it will cost.