Iphone 4s is Here! Should You Upgrade? Answers Here! - Appjudgment

Your iPhone 5 recap today on App…iPhone 4S…it’s called the 4S? Really, they didn’t call it the 5? Well, that is some bull. We’ll also will talk Photoshop for Android and the Samsung Galaxy X2. This episode of App Judgment is brought to you by Thrillist. Welcome to App Judgment, your source of mobile application news and reviews, I’m Graham Hancock and today in the studio today we’ve got Zac Minor, David Prager, Chris Jenning and Jackie Talbott. We’re here to talk about the iPhone 4S. That is right. It’s a big day, a big day for Apple. I think the upgrades to the iPhone are, aside from the fact there was no form factor change in the shape of it, I think it is exactly what a lot of people expected. More processing power, better camera, and then obviously upgrades to things like the batteries and such to support that. Yeah, the prices seem totally fine based on all the upgrades in the software that we are seeing for IOS 5, like what is it $199 for the 16 gig, 32 gig is $299 and then 64 gig is $399 so the prices aren’t even that outrageous I think with all the new features you are getting. Yeah. And I think they also like, the big thing at least from what I’ve been able to see is response is immediate, responses from people that are upset there is not a new shape and they are upset that the name is not iPhone 5. Well, that is some no, but honestly everything that matters, I feel like the things that don’t necessarily matter are the things that people seem to be getting upset about, like the shape. I think you know, I don’t want to keep talking too much, I think it is great to have capabilities of doubling, adding the 85 processor in there with 2 gigahertz processor chips with separate graphics processing, I think they say with up to seven times more of that, and then making a camera shooting the ??? video are the main selling points to me anyway and having an upgraded, more capable, smart device. Absolutely, we were talking about the 2 antennas they are going to have on them. They’ve essentially improved the antennae which some people can read into as fixed the antenna. Exactly. It’s an antenna, it’s a system where it will switch antennas based on which one will have the best signal quality or it will bridge the two. So that is pretty, that is interesting in that I’m wondering if people who have been complaining about dropped calls on the iPhone 4, is that going to fix the problem? Or was there another problem to begin with. Because is it also a carrier thing? I’m sure it is, like when was the last time someone brought up antenna-gate, right. It was kind of like a thing for a month and then no one really cared. So, exactly, your service is still going to be ***, depending on who you have. I’ve been an ATT user and I’ve hated the service in San Francisco anyway where you drop calls all the time. One of the reasons that I’ve stayed with ATT and not that I’m a globe trotter too much but I like the ability to know I can use my phone overseas all the time. However, based on what Graham just mentioned, two antennas, you can have Sprint, you can have Verizon, ATT and have the capabilities. Those are the radios, not the antennas, so they are now all iPhone 4S’s have both GSM and CDMA radios meaning they can work on both GSM and CDMA networks like Sprint and Verizon are your CDMA’s here in the states, what you call a world phone and ??? GSM. Previously, if you had a CDMA phone like I have, if you travel overseas it is a pain because everywhere else in the world operates on GSM networks. That’s been one of the major pluses of ATT, you go somewhere else you pop in a new sim and you are ready to go. Now, no matter what carrier you have here, you are pretty much set overseas. So I’m excited to switch from AT&T now. So the next big hardware upgrade that the phone got was 8 megapixel camera. Huge, yeah, bigger megapixel camera and they added a whole new lens on it and bigger aperture and everything so the camera is… do you suppose that’s a big enough reason to upgrade your phone, the camera that’s inside it. Yeah, if you take enough pictures. Yeah, I think so; I think it is worth it. Especially with the video as well. Right, yeah, the stabilization they added. I feel like people, I don’t know, there are a few things that people really use their phones for and obviously people care about their cameras. And I just think it, you know it is another thing to push people over so if you have more processing power and you also have the better aperture letting in more light, a better lens to translate the light and the ability to have an extra lens to make it sharper is what they are saying, I think that is a definitely a big selling point. It used to be, back in the day, no one ever had a camera on their phone and no one wanted it. Everyone basically forced you to have a camera because no manufacturer would make a phone without a camera now its like, it is expected, there is no such thing as a phone without a camera and more and more people are going to realize they can take photos of good enough quality that they might be able to ditch any other camera that would have the exception of the DSLR. Yes, that’s the hope, for any point and shoot, you wouldn’t want to have a bunch of the same sort of capabilities on your phones. I assume pretty much that this camera that is on the 4S is pretty much a point and shoot shoved into a phone now, it’s competing with some of the best point and shoots out there, although not in the megapixel area but in the glass and the sensor and the aperture size. I honestly thing that if you are a photographer and you end up taking a lot of pictures with your iPhone this is a big reason to get the 4S. I think it is great that also, in all the announcement today, everyone’s known that IOS is coming, it’s got a lot of amazing new features that will apply to the iPhone 4 and older models and I think one of the new features that are available on the 4S that won’t be available is the new voice technology, translation technology called Siri which I happen to think is amazing that they are developing the technology, making it better, I don’t think it is going to affect anyone’s life and it’s not going to be usable in the real world to a great extent that is just going to change everything. I think it will further technology for later applications. There is no way I will be using this while running down the street. Really? There’s been integration of voice control that has been kind of stuff, there’s been apps that do this, Siri was a big one, it was on IOS devices dating back to like 3G. First off I’m surprised they kept the name Siri. I am too, everyone thought they were going to call it IOS Assistant, but they said no, it’s called Siri. That must have been a big wheel and deal kind of thing. Yes, it is kind of good they are giving props to the original app developers and keeping that name but as far as the voice controls go, I am an Android user and I’ve been using the voice controls on the Android for quite awhile now, they came out in version 2.2 of Android so I’ve been doing the alarm setting, the calls, emails, when you say note to self, it emails yourself, these things are all been in Android for quite a while now, so I’ve used them quite a bit, I think they are pretty helpful. I’m ready to be corrected, I just don’t anticipate really using it extensively, again I think it will enhance people’s lives a lot later and it’s cool that you are applying so many different variables to the algorithms of should I wear a raincoat versus what’s the weather like. I think it is very limited in how well. Note to self is amazing, being able to be able to send a text message, while speaking while driving. I think I will use that the most, sending text messages, dictating emails, that kind of stuff, but it is also connected to Wikipedia and Wolfram Alpha so if you need to ask your phone like how many pounds are there in a stone or something like that, you’re going to get that information from your phone. Or how many pixels in the 8 megapixel camera phone. Yeah. To be honest, the information is available on the internet, you can find it without Siri or some voice activated thing so I kind of get what you are saying, I don’t know, do you think it is because of the hardware issue. I think it’s the science project because of the fact that in order to turn it into, to react more to a human, to the expectations to be able to interact with it, very consistently and have it be able to identify enough accents and variable and thought processes and outside noise and such like that, I personally think it is a science project. I’m glad it is one that they are entertaining, I just know think it is real world application are going to life changing right now. I think it, we’re kind of a different scenario we are all super comfortable with our phones, we all know what our phone can do, we need to go look up something on a map, real easy go to our map application and type it in. There are a lot of people who are not comfortable with that level of technology, and might prefer to just say something and have their phone interpret it. And an additional problem with that is there is sometimes limited by some of their partners, if they are partnering with Yelp so you can say I want to find Italian restaurants in San Francisco and it will find them. I want to look up how many molecule in a mole and Wolfram Alpha will tell you that. If you want to find out certain things what your friends are doing through Facebook, there is no integration with Facebook and there are probably tons of other companies maybe not as big as Facebook that they are not integrating with right now that will limit the potential results and capabilities of what that Siri voice activated thing is able to parse and give you as result data. Yeah, so I think, time will tell whether or not this catches on or if it’s something everyone will use. I personally think I don’t like typing, I think I will use it in situation where I would rather not type and dictate stuff. So yeah, iPhone 4S, it comes in three models now, it’s not just 16 and 32, they have 64 gigabytes. The 16 gigabyte version is $199, the 32 gigabyte is $299 and 64 is $399. Pre-orders start October 7 which is this Friday and it will ship the week following that. Also, big news, IOS 5 is going to go out to everybody October 12 and iCloud is going to come online as well. Not everybody, IOS 5 is for the 4 and 3 GS, right. There are features that will only be in the iPhone 4 that won’t be in the 3GS. This operating will probably work on the iPhone 5, just guessing. You are such a good guesser. Also introduced a couple of apps to go along with this, we know Apple makes apps on occasion, they made these new card apps so that you can now take a picture and get a card mailed physically to anyone, and that’s it. So they can emboss it also, right. Exactly. There is an existing company called Post-i-gram where you can take a photo and have them send a picture and a physical snail mail postcard to somebody and I guess the card app is a competitor to it. I was just going to mention that, very true. The next big app that they released was Find my Friends, which to me when I heard this, this is kind of cool, it is exactly pretty much Google Latitude, but I think what they are doing is they are using their find my iPhone sort of stuff, where Apple knows where your iPhones are, everybody’s iPhones are. Now, they can link that up, if I add my friends names to my iPhone where I can find out were their iPhones are, where they technically are. It’s kind of using the Google latitude model. Privacy is the best. Yeah. I assume all of this Find my Friend stuff is opt in, I’m sure there is a connection. It rings some alarm bells with privacy. And ruin so many relationships, and make some. So, Zac, you recently got an iPhone 4 on Verizon. Is this enough to upgrade? No, it’s a really compelling phone, I love the speed upgrades, I love the camera, but my iPhone 4 is super fast. I’m really interested in what is going to happen next week at Google’s Nexus Prime event because I think Apple disappointed some folks and left the door open for them to blow some people out of the water, but we’ll see. If they’d changed the shape of it, I wouldn’t have gotten one, but because they didn’t… no, I’m kidding, I’m going to get it because it’s twice as fast, it’s got a better camera and I can use it overseas without it having to be AT&T so I’m going to do it. Awesome. I’m not sold on this, I’m sticking with Android. I agree with Zac, I think next week we’re going to know a lot about more about Ice Cream Sandwich and the new phone offerings from Google and Samsung. So, I haven’t seen enough to make the switch. I’ve been using the voice functions for awhile; Google is going to make them better I think. So, a lot of the functionality is already in Android and if it’s not, it will be soon. Myself personally, I am switching to Verizon and I was waiting for the next thing, I didn’t really care what they were coming out with, I just didn’t want to switch to Verizon and get a phone that was going to go out of date a week later. So, I’m definitely going to get this phone and I think if I were going staying with AT&T I would probably upgrade too, I’ve had the iPhone 4 for a year now, I’m ready to have a phone that is twice as fast. What about you? I would agree with Chris and Zac, I was an Android user for while and just recently got the iPhone from Verizon and I totally think it is good enough. It’s, the camera is exciting to thing about, but I don’t think I’m throwing some money it, I don’t think it is worth it. The one place Apple didn’t enter it on today is the display, because they said no one matched the retina display that iPhone 4 had, so now, I mean if Apple doesn’t release the iPhone 5 for another year, that gives all those other manufactures plenty of time to develop one. They didn’t do it already, so maybe they won’t but they certainly left the door open on some higher quality display technology. Should we speculate on iPhone 5 ship dates? Time now to start that. Is it going to be, that is a big questions, does that mean that Septembers now going to be, or October is going to be a new iPhone or is it going to go back to June. We’ll see. Coming up next, Jackie and I will run down some new apps for both IOS and Android to hold you over until Thursday. And Annie will be back on a special Friday edition of App Judgment this week, but first, let’s thank our sponsor Thrillist. You know how you have that old friend that hooks you up with cool new brands before anyone else has even heard of them. Well Thrillist is kind of like that but for cool new stuff to do, and places to go. You want to know about Star War burlesque show, a beer garden that’s screens ‘80s flicks or a new restaurant with a sushi robot, then sign up for Thrillist, a free daily email that sifts through the crap to find the best new bars, restaurants , event and services. What ever it is, they promise it won’t suck. So go hit up thrillist.com/aj and start getting Thrillist sweet, sweet knowledge right away. And don’t forget there is an app for that. Thrillist is available on your iPhone, iPad or Androide device. The mobile world was more than just iPhone 4S news this week, here are some note worthy app updates and releases. Smarter contacts for Android released late last week and it looks to be a robust network organizer. Chillingo’s action packed shooter Pixel Ranger is now in the app store for those of you who are into the retro game look. The Washington Post is now in the Android market and most of the negative reviews consist of its about time. And the big news this week, Adobe releases the new Adobe Photoshop Touch as well as a whole sweep of apps for Android tablets. And, beer drinkers rejoice. Untappd is finally a native IOS and Android app and as soon as they fix the network issues, it’s going to be Mauricio’s favorite check in service. Text Expansion for Android is the next text expansion app, loved by our friends at Lifehacker this week. And sweet, Katamari Amore for IOS released late last week and it’s free and amazing. Serious sportsetball fans will enjoy NBA 2K12 for IOS, it is in the ITunes app store today. And another little bonus for Androiders, the Samsung Galaxy S2 4G is available for $149.99 from Amazon wireless. Check the show notes below for more information. And make sure you follow us on Twitter, Facebook and You Tube and don’t forget about ??, check in now. We’ll see ya on Thurday.