Watch streaming video from Apple’s “Let’s Talk iPhone” special event in which Apple announced a new iOS 5 feature, the intelligent assistant Siri, along with iPhone 4S and other items.
Apple CEO Tim Cook and other top Apple executives made presentations during the event.
Streaming video requires Safari 4 or 5 on Mac OS X Snow Leopard or Lion, Safari on iOS 3 or later, or QuickTime 7 on Windows.
The video is here.
MacDailyNews Take: We didn’t envy Tim Cook’s job today. Having to step into shoes that are impossible to fill is a lose-lose proposition. Cook did about as well as could be expected given what he had available to present today. While we could have done without the WWDC recap, it probably was a good idea to do a rehash for the less Apple-centric media. It’s too bad that Cook didn’t have an iPhone 5 or some other knock-yer-socks-off item* for his first go ’round, but c’est la vie; we all have to play the cards we’re dealt.
Keeping him on campus and in a small venue was a good idea for Cook’s first time headlining an Apple product announcement. All things considered, good work today, Tim, Scott, Eddy, Phil, et al. We miss you, Steve!
*For the general public; iPhone 4S had us barefooted at “A5.”
What in the world is not knock your socks off about the iPhone 4S? I’m used to media setting up false expectations to say that Apple didn’t meet them. I’m not used to MDN doing so….
A5 chip, killer camera/optics, iOS5, Siri, iCloud… am I missing something? Blows the doors off of Android and the other garbage that is in the market… Apple takes their lead to a whole new level!
Well said. There is a ton to like here. We are just seeing the double edged sword of buzz. Apple gets plenty of benefit from the press hype machine (and I don’t mean that in a negative way), but in this case the expectations were just impossible to meet. If you think about it, there’s no real reason to change the exterior design of the iPhone 4 a little over a year after its launch.
…”What in the world is not knock your socks off about the iPhone 4S?”
Did you not read MDN’s take?
Here is the last line again:
*For the general public; iPhone 4S had us barefooted at “A5.”
as in: “knocked our socks off”.
Oh! I confess I had no idea what the “barefoot” comment meant. I think the 4S is terrific but, as we have seen so many times in the past, there will be an expectation let-down by some in the geek community which the majority of folks will know nothing about.
I see they really nailed the antenna issue.
i’m with you. A total new level with software excellence. A brilliant phone for newcomers but the new mobile SW foundations are just great, the top! (even for users that stick with iPhone 4 – like me). Understand the year and a half design tireness, but no reason to hide what Apple is achieving in one week timeframe. Simply brilliant. A bit of imatureness by MDN in the last 4 posts. But i sure understand devoted fans (social media also faks things a bit). 4S is an amazing phone.
I’m sad.
About time. I’ve really been clamoring to see this one.
Technology-oriented public would be disappointed even if Jobs would be on stage.
Non-technology-oriented public knew nothing about that new iPhone supposed to be of new droplet shape, bigger screen, et cetera. So they take this announce as iPhone 3Gs — which they took great.
Take a look at ‘Joy of Tech’ cartoon (left column of MDN’s site).
Priceless!
There ain’t no other Steve…er, Mr. Jobs.
BUTT!!!:
Is it me, or is there a KIND OF uncanny resemblance between ‘God’ and Tim? A subtle striding cadence. Facial nuances? Hand gestures?
Maybe common among humans…or?
Another reason might Tim be where he is.
I like it, I like it A LOT!
3GS added a gyroscope and a moderately faster processor and we all loved it.
4S adds a significantly faster processor, blazingly-fast graphics (from the new iPad no-less), a fantastic camera and A FRIGGIN’ VOICE CONTROLLED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ASSISTANT!!!!
This is the iPhone 5 in all but name & skin.
Excellent. Steve Ballmer is secretly holding a party in the Microsoft Redmond campus today. The Ballmerization of Apple has begun with rehashed old products rolled out to satiate the fanboys but not winning any new adherents. The iPhone 4S like perpetual releases of the same version of Windows. Good will always be the enemy of great. Today good stood atop the prize winner’s podium leaving great in second place.
How would you know? You are lodged in Ballmer’s underwear beside your sweaty sack buddy.
I don’t understand your disappointment. What is the 4S missing that is so critical? What would it have taken to earn your love? The 4S is a worthy upgrade and the Apple team should be proud.
What a letdown!! I cant really see a new processor making any difference in everyday use compared to the one in my iphone 4. Changing from a lame 5 mp camera to a lame 8 megapixel one wont make me want to upgrade either. I might have considered one if it had decent storage like 128gb but it Looks like apple have got far too complacent.
Is that an android phone i can see on the horizon Looking more and more tempting?
Why? What on earth does any android phone offer that out does this? Seriously?
While it is true that Apple is now catching up in some areas, such as notifications, and even the 8MP camera, this is not unusual.
Apple is not always first to market. When they are, they are copied by everybody else. It takes less time to copy to market then to invent to market.
What is also true is that when Apple is not first to market, they are usually better to market.
I think most folks are sad that there isn’t a new form factor. Big deal, as the current form factor is as near perfect as has been developed thus far. And I don’t have to buy any new cases!
The only other cool thing that might have come would have been a bigger screen, and I’m not sure how important that really is. It may have been bigger, but would have had the same pixel count, showing the same exact image, albeit slightly larger. I’m not sure I want my phone larger.
With I-cloud, more and more storage is likely to become less and less necessary!
I have an 160gb ipod classic which i connect to the pioneer headunit in my car via usb. The main reason i would prefer the iphone to have bigger storage is so i can play my itunes from the iphone through the headunit (i already do that but it would be nice to store more on it. Its convenient because the headunit charges the iphone at the same time. I dont think icloud would be suitable for when im driving about- i use tunein radio on the iphone played through the headunit from time to time and that can freeze/ buffer quite a lot at times.
Im fortunate to have unlimited data on my iphone plan but i cant see too many people wanting to pay a subscription for a small amount of cloud storage then paying for data just to stream it back to their device if they could just have it on a physical hard drive that they already own. It just seems a lot of hassle for a lesser quality experience (my ipod doesnt have to rely on a 3g signal! Thats just my honest opinion. Im all for using new groundbreaking technology but theres no point if its less practical or convenient than other methods of doing the same job!
Please, buy one and leave.
Thats not very nice
I have an idea for a new feature in ios5- how about letting users put custom message tones on their iphones like every other mobile phone on the planet has done since time began!!!
We shouldnt have to jailbreak an iphone and invalidate the warranty to do such a simple “legal” task
Siri sounds more of a useless novelty than facetime lol
Did you watch the demo? If not, you should. This is the most “Star Trek” feature I’ve seen in a long time.
The Gizmodo guys tried to break it after the demo. They said they couldn’t. Everything they tried worked. I can’t wait to give it a try!
Im sure there are some of you Guys out there who would find siri useful- i dont mean any offence to you but i know id never feel thr need to use it myself. I would rather just press a button!!
Which is fine. I responded to your absolute factual statement that Siri would be a novelty. I do have to agree that as neat as Facetime is, I’ve used it 2 times. Not such a killer app.
For others however, it may be a great thing.
Regarding Siri, time will tell. I’ve tried all the previous attempts at voice recognitions, and none of them to date has been worth a damn. This actually looks promissing 😉
They could have made a much better phone and still called it the 4s.
People seem to be using the actual name (4s) as a scapegoat for the fact its a crap upgrade. It would still have been a disappointment if the same new phone was called the iphone 5
Besides a larger screen, what would make it “better?”.
They made 2x – 7x as fast. BETTER
They improved call quality (it is a phone) BETTER
They finally improved the messaging, BETTER
Free integration with other devices via icloud, BETTER
AIRPLAY – BETTER
The phone already has the most apps, the most interoperability, so far the most security. No I can’t turn it into an FTP server (unless I jailbreak it), but seriously? I have done that, tried all that stuff, and never used it anyway.
I’m a programmer, and my desktop and laptops are my play things, to hack and tweak. My phone is a tool, and it doesn’t get in my way of getting done what needs to be done.
At any rate, I would be curious as to what you want in an iphone that would make it better.
The 4S in summary is using technology that was available at the time of the iPad 2 launch. There’s nothing intrinsically new there. Given that the iPhone represents 50% of Apple’s revenues and profits I would have thought that they would make a greater effort to distinguish it in the smartphone market. Apple is falling behind and is acting like RIM did in 2007 by ignoring the competition. You cannot draw parallels between the time the iPhone 3GS was launched and now because at the time of the 3GS launch Apple’s competitors were in a much weaker position. This is no longer the case and Apple didn’t step up to the plate to knock a home run. They bunted the ball to first base is all they did.
True, most of this is stuff we have seen before in the ipad. Although, getting into such a small package is certainly no less a feat!
That said, I asked what would make the phone better?
Saying that Apple is falling far behind isn’t telling me anything. Far behind what? Android? What does that mean? What features is the iphone behind in? What new features should the 4S have come out with?
At this point the smart phone is getting pretty mature. Short of holographic displays, mind reading, etc., what else is missing?
Personally, I pico projector would have been real cool!
To be honest im more than happy with my iphone 4 i love it to bits!
I dont honestly know how it could be significantly better but judging by the fact apple shares went down by 4% following the disappointing announcement of the 4s (according to uk news channels) im clearly not the only person who feels apple has missed an opportunity to pull out the stops to compete with the growing android market. It seems the company is losing the direction and leadership jobs gave them.
First of all, that happens most of the time after one of these!
Besides, don’t you think that a lot of it was just because of the hype? Seriously. First of all, poor Tim Cook had to follow in Steve Jobs shoes. Nothing short of a miracle would have made that come out well!
The pundits have been calling for a new iphone 5, with a big screen and tapered shape. That didn’t happen, and since there was so much speculation (that never came from Apple) the folks out there seem let down.
Remember when the I-Pad came out? Same thing happened, and everybody thought Apple was crazy, behind the times, etc. FAIL was a word I read so many times. Same this time.
I think we do get spoiled. Apple is one of those rare companies that has been able to truly pull a rabbit out of it’s hat. We’ve come to expect it to happen EVERY time. That isn’t practical. Some times a speed bump is all that we are going to get, and all that is practical until technology evolves another step allowing Apple (or any company) to take advantage of it and turn it into the next amazing thing.
Thank you! I’ve read all your comments on here and you seem to nail exactly what I’ve been thinking all day.
Wont airplay and icloud be available on the current iphone 4 anyway? Seems pointless for the average iphone user like myself to upgrade to the 4s. I think i will wait and see what the iphone 5 brings us next year! Not had any problems with my uk iphone 4 regarding call quality or reception. Were previous problems specific to early batches of the iphone 4? Nobody else who i know has had any problems with theirs (uk models)
Just for you there won’t be an iPhone 5.
Apple will go directly to the iPhone 6 and really blow your sox off next year.
Got home, and about 20 minutes into the Stream.
So far All I have to say… Tim, go take some public speaking classes. First big event, i’ll leave the criticism at that.
And yes, i’ll be getting a 4S. but i’ll wait till nov/dec and pay full price, don’t want a contract holding me back when the 5 does hit next year.
the iPod updates… THAT is the worst part of the whole day. Was really looking forward to a new nano, clock faces… did nothing for me.
You lasted a full 20 minutes watching it without falling asleep with boredom?!!
still watching, still awake.
Siri…. Wow.
If this were just a ‘speed bump’ improvement, Apple wouldn’t have added the extra memory and wouldn’t have waited for iOS-5 to be finished before releasing the new iPhone.
The faster processor, double RAM and iOS-5 are ALL about enabling the iPhone with a voice interface and artificial intelligence (Siri). That’s clearly what Apple thinks will set the iPhone apart from competitors … not a teardrop shape that Samsung/HTC can copy in three months.
Those who believe that Apple wasted the past 16 months since they didn’t introduce a new case/shell for the iPhone have it all wrong. Apple could have changed the case and added the A5 processor in six months … but that phone wouldn’t have impressed anyone and wouldn’t have allowed the iPhone to retain its leadership status.
Few have greater clarity of vision than Steve Jobs and his lieutenants. I say we give the benefit of the doubt to 4S and see where things stand a month from today.
Just because Steve was an incredible master of ceremonies does not mean Tim will be. He did a fine job, but he is Tim, not Steve. His primary duty is as CEO not MC, right? While that has been tradition, it has been Steve’s tradition, but does it have to be Apple’s tradition? Not smart IMHO. If Steve can’t do the presentation anymore, then don’t try to mimic Steve, it will never work. Find your own place Tim. I don’t think it even matters if Tim does the presentation. Just say hi and hand off to the others who are more natural at this sort of thing. Forcing it could go horribly wrong and the stress it is bound to place on Tim isn’t worth it. There are several things about all this, 4S vs 5, Tim presenting as if a Steve clone (impossible), etc., that really make me wonder about who is in charge of the marketing, reading the public and such. Curious moves or serious errors; I wonder. It is undoubtedly an awesome phone, but if people don’t feel it, well, they don’t feel it.
I just finished watching the special event. My response (when we finally got to the new iPhone) when from “ok, that’s pretty good” to “that’s rather impressive” then “excellent, I can retire my big, bulky camera” until finally we get to Siri which left me laughing and gasping with absolute giddy, incredulous delight!
No iphone would blow my socks off its a smartphone at the endof the day thats all that it is but it would be nice to have a new toy to play with thats got enough new features for me to actually want to upgrade from my iphone 4!!!