by On Friday, the long purgatory that was AT&T and the iPhone came to a bloody end for Janna and me as we ripped open our Verizon boxes to set up our new iPhone 4S devices of love! I was actually so happy being back with Verizon that I took a hammer to Janna’s AT&T 3G iPhone and my AT&T 3GS iPhone and smashed the screens to smithereens! Then I took those broken AT&T iPhones and dunked them in salt water and let them sit there for an hour before I took them outside and dropkicked each one into the trash bin! Begone AT&T! Your misery knows no bounds and you have no shame! I can’t believe all the money we wasted paying you for lousy voice and data service!
The first thing you notice about the 4s, coming from the 3G series, is that the retina display is just as wonderful as you’ve read about since the rise of the 4. You can actually read tiny text and, as you can see below, the screenshots are magnificent!
iCloud is the new champion of the 4s. It’s a great feeling to cut the iTunes wires and just back up your phone in the cloud.
Storage and Backup should have its own App because you use it so much to keep track on your storage usage and other options.
Backing up my iPhone and my iPad in the same place is just a lovely convenience that I now know I will never be able to live without — and that’s the hallmark of smart, new, technology that just works out of the box.
We can also finally see which programs are hogging up the most space on our devices.
Siri is also getting a lot of play. Here’s how one of my conversations with her turned out:
ME: How are you feeling?
SIRI: I’m fine, David. Thanks for asking.
ME: Am I real
SIRI: I can’t really say, David.
ME: Do you have feelings?
SIRI: I never really thought about it.
I felt like I was back in the therapy chair with Eliza Redux!
The biggest boon for me in writing for the Boles Blogs Network — while using my new iPhone 4S — is the Personal Hotspot feature. I know this is not a new 4S feature, but it is new for me.
Using my iPhone as a WiFi hotspot means I no longer have to worry about having a signal for my laptop while on the road because I can always create my own WiFi network if I can’t find a safe one to join. I also can think about not needing to have a 3G iPad in the future if i have a WiFi network in my pocket.
Here’s the Speed Test result of the 4s hotspot via my MacBook: 1.22 Mbps down and 0.22Mbps up. I think those are dandy numbers and they beat AT&T 3G connectivity numbers by a factor of at least two.
Here are the speed results using my original iPad and a 4s Verizon hotspot: 1.92Mbps down and 0.80Mbps up.
The IP lookup for my hotspot connection takes me near Albany, New York and “Cellco Partnership” doing business as Verizon Wireless.
For comparison, here’s my Ethernet connection numbers using Comcast on my MacBook: 24.12Mbps down and 6.35Mbps up.
The iPhone 4s is a dream machine that, thanks to Siri, feels like your long-lost childhood friend who has just reappeared in your life. Dictation is automatic and fast. The design of the phone is sleek and smooth. I love Apple products and I am delighted to continue to call myself a fanboy for life.
Sounds like a great phone, David! I am going to wait at least another year to get a new phone, though — don’t want to spend money on something that’s only marginally better than what I have now!
Huh? “Marginally better?” Not possible. The 4s is twice as fast as the 4 and it has a much better camera, plus Siri.
http://9to5mac.com/2011/10/10/iphone-4s-its-really-twice-as-fast-siri-supports-raise-to-speak/
Oops! I meant, for my needs. My phone is fast enough, my camera is good enough, and I can wait for Siri. 🙂 (Wouldn’t it be terrible if something happened to my phone and I suddenly needed the upgrade?)
I can understand why it doesn’t make sense for you to upgrade, Gordon. The iPhone 5 is rumored to hit the streets in the Summer of 2012 — that iPhone supposed to be so different that it will tempt current 4s owners like me to pony up full price to upgrade! SMILE!