It’s officially released now… It’s a refreshed iPhone, it’s the iPhone 4S! The least expected thing happened yesterday during the Apple’s “Let’s Talk iPhone” event in San Francisco. As Apple’s new CEO, Tim Cook appeared on the stage, the gathered media and Apple fans expected that he was about to launch the Apple iPhone 5, but it seemed like Apple wasn’t ready yet to announce the iPhone 5.

Apple on Tuesday, announced the next generation iPhone: the iPhone 4S, 3G smartphone with an improved processor, which is designed to run seven times faster than the iPhone 4. This will also make the device capable of running applications faster than its predecessor. The new “World Phone” can run both CDMA and GSM networks, with an advanced and faster 8 megapixel camera.

However, the release of the iPhone 4S failed to “wow” its aficionados, since they were expecting the announcement of the iPhone 5. The new iPhone 4S has been priced at $199, $299 and $399 with two-year contract for 16GB, 32 GB and 64 GB models respectively.

Having the iPhone 4S announced, Apple also stated that its earlier generation iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 will stay on and continue selling it. However, the price tag of the iPhone 4 has been reduced to just $99 for the 8GB while the 8GB 3GS will be made free, bundled with data contracts by carriers.

Apple iPhone 4S Features

Powerful A5 Chip

At first glance, the iPhone 4S looks quite similar to the iPhone 4. However, the important feature that the iPhone 4 sports is the dual core A5 chip, the most powerful iPhone processor ever. The two cores in the A5 chip are set to deliver flawless performance with 7x faster graphics and two times more power. With the power of A5, the iPhone 4S is quick and responsive, which makes all the difference when you’re launching apps, browsing the web, gaming, and doing just about everything. And with all this, the A5 is yet so power-efficient with an outstanding battery life.

iOS 5

The most exciting feature of the Apple iPhone 4S is that it will run on the iOS 5, which Apple announced it during its WWDC 2011 this year. It sports more than 200 features than the earlier versions, which includes Twitter integration, a new messenger called the iMessage application – used to communicate between iOS devices, improved Notification System on emails, News Stand and more. Apple claims that the iOS 5 is the most advanced and powerful OS, which will definitely enhance your experience with the iPhone.

Along with its 200+ features, it will also include the iCloud service. This will enable users to sync, host and manage content like music, photos, apps, calendar, mail, contacts, documents, and so on. It certainly is an effortless way to manage your content, which can be accessed from any part of the world. The service will be available from October 12.

Camera

The iPhone 4S sports a splendid 8 megapixel resolution camera that claims to pack 60 percent more pixel for better shooting experience with autofocus, LED flash and face detection. It has a new custom lens with a larger f/2.4 aperture and an advanced hybrid infrared filter for sharper and accurate images.

The camera also supports 1080p HD video recording at 30 frames per second. Improved auto white balance makes the color even more accurate, and temporal noise reduction helps you take great videos in low light. It also has the video stabilization feature which will eliminate unwanted motion caused by unsteady shaky hands. Along with this, you can edit your video on the go and share them with your friends.

Display

Sadly, the display size is the same as the iPhone 4 and so is the resolution. It has a retina 3.5 inch with a 1.5:1 aspect ratio widescreen multi-touch display. It has an LED backlight IPS TFT LCD screen with a 960 by 640 pixel resolution at 326ppi (0.61 MP). This will provide crisp and crystal clear images, which brings a better viewing experience for a viewer. An interesting feature that the iPhone 4S has is the fingerprint resistant oleophobic coating on the front as well as on the back.

Siri

A new voice control feature in the new version of the iPhone 4S is an intelligent assistant called Siri. Siri helps you do everything with just your voice command. With this the device exactly understands what you say, and helps you figure out the right answer. If you want to make a call, send a message, set a meeting or schedule a reminder, the new Siri will help you make it possible.

For instance, if the user commands stating “What is the weather going to be like?”, then the assistant will response such as “The weather is to be cloudy and rainy and drop to 60 degree today”. It’s an interesting feature that Apple has come up with, and I’m sure most of them will find it quite helpful.

The voice control feature not only understands what you say, but it’s smart enough to know what you mean. So if you ask Siri, “Any good burger joints around here?”, then Siri would reply “I found a number if burger restaurants near you” and provides a list of all the restaurants nearby.

The same feature can also be used to take dictation. Instead of typing, the iPhone 4S can listen to your voice and convert them into text. You can mainly use this to write messages, take notes, search the web, and more. You can also update your Facebook and update tweets with third-party apps.

For U.S. Residents Only

FaceTime – Be in two places at once

The FaceTime feature lets you talk to your friends and loved ones no matter how far you are from them. With this feature you can not only video chat with your friends, but also host important meetings that can be a cheaper mobile alternative to a full on telepresence solution. With a tap, you can make video calls from your iPhone 4S to your friend’s or colleague’s iPhone, iPad 2 or iPod Touch.

Or you can just command Siri, “FaceTime with Jake”. Or maybe you’re already talking to Jake, and you want switch to video mode. Just tap the FaceTime button on the screen and an invite pops up asking if he wants to join you. It’s seamless and works in both portraits and landscape view.

Battery

Apple claims that the new iPhone 4S has a much better battery life. It offers 8 hours of 3G talk time, 14 hours on a 2G network, 6 hours of browsing, 9 for Wi-Fi, 10 hours of video, and 40 hours of music. The battery life is definitely longer than the iPhone 4 and it switches between antennas intelligently for better call quality.

iPhone 4S – Technical Specifications

(*) Siri is a artificial intelligence voice assistant. You speak it will do most of the things on your iPhone 4S. Like, “Can you write a mail for me” opens up new compose mail box then you just start speaking, it will convert your voice to text and finally just tell your phone to send this mail. Done!!!
(**) Now you can speak without disconnecting your call due to Antenna or signal issues. This also improves download speeds.

iPhone 4S Mock Illustration (You Can Embed This)

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Pricing and Availability

The iPhone 4S will be available for pre-order from October 7th. The order can be placed from the Apple Online Store or by calling 1-800-MY-APPLE. Choose a carrier and plan, and Apple will ship your iPhone free for delivery beginning October 14. However, the device will be available in-store starting on October 14 at 8am in US, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Japan.

It will be released on October 28 in the following countries:

Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland. And will be released in 40 more countries by December 2011.

The iPhone 4S will come in three different versions:

• – iPhone 4S 16GB : $199
• – iPhone 4S 32GB : $299
• – iPhone 4S 64GB : $399, with a two-year contract. And the iPhone 4 will drop to $99.