Do you remember when the iPhone 4 came out and a ton of people were getting upset, because they either had no signal or a poor signal? Well, at that time, Apple said that you were holding your phone wrong. Of course, it was an Apple problem, not a user problem, but they were not about to own up to it. Now, with the latest problem, Apple is not saying that you’re holding your phone wrong, but they are saying that you shouldn’t hold it at all.
Siri was released with the iPhone 4S and a lot of people were interested in it. However, not everyone is impressed with Siri. Everyone remembers the Siri commercials when the iPhone 4S was about to be released. Apple tried to portray Siri as a virtual assistant that would be able to give you help and information in response to just about any command you could throw at it.
However, a man by the name of Frank Fazio was so upset with Siri, that he actually sued Apple. Fazio sued Apple, claiming that their Siri commercials were actually misleading and deceptive. Apple’s suggestion to Mr. Fazio was that he should buy a different phone.
Fazio was not alone in the suit against Apple. There was plenty of other plaintiffs, as well, but Apple was not impressed. Instead, they responded saying that all of them were quick to complain about the Siri feature of the iPhone 4S, but none of them took advantage of being able to return the phone within Apple’s 30-day return policy, so they could purchase a different phone. Also, Apple was quick to note that the launch of the iPhone 4S was their most successful launch of an iPhone ever.
That sounds a little bit harsh to me. Honestly, it sounds like Apple isn’t too concerned about keeping their customers. What do you think?
Even though it was widely expected to hit the stores in the year 2011, frenzied apple loyalists were a tad bit disappointed with this year’s unveiling of the iPhone 4S instead of the more eagerly anticipated and feature-packed iPhone 5. The iPhone 5 is already considered to be Apple’s most coveted smartphone ever; a fact that can be confirmed by the growing fan speculation that abounds over the internet regarding the impressive technical specifications of the next-generation smartphone.
While an official release date for the iPhone 5 has not been shared with the world yet, there is a lot of speculation and debate among fans and die-hard Apple loyalists regarding the possible date that Apple might consider ideal to unveil the smartphone. However, there does seems to be a general consensus among fans and speculators alike that the iPhone 5 will, in fact, be released in the current year instead of, say, next year. Here are some of the speculated release dates that Apple fans have discussed over the internet:
March 2012
Seeing the unmistakable release pattern that Apple has traditionally followed with its iPhone product line, it was only fitting for a majority of Apple loyalists to speculate that the latest installation to the series, the iPhone 5, would be unveiled in March 2012. This also seemed reasonable, seeing how iPhone 4S’s release in October 2011 would provide it with six months of uninterrupted sales. However, much to the chagrin of Apple fans, Apple made no such announcements, possibly since a release date in spring would reduce the potential sales buffer between the iPhone 4S and iPhone 5.
June 2012
Sprint has recently announced its plans to launch its 4G network, along with a range of supporting devices, in June; a move that, many fans believe, strongly suggests that the 4G-suppported iPhone 5 could hit the stands in mid-2012. This has caused many eager fans to believe that the iPhone 5 will, in all possibility, be released as early as this upcoming June, particularly since the high-tech feature-packed smartphone supports the technology. In all likelihood, many people anticipate iPhone 5’s release date to be announced at the upcoming WWDC 2012.
October 5th, 2012
Seeing how Apple has traditionally ensured at least a year between its iPhone iteration, there is all the likelihood that the iPhone 5 will be released in October 2012; exactly a year after the release of its predecessor, the iPhone 4S. This seems entirely reasonable, seeing how a deliberately delayed release date would increase the sales buffer between iPhone 4S and iPhone 5. Some online resources also cite certain well-placed sources within the supply-chain management to have actually confirmed the release date to be in October, largely due to an unprecedented shortage in LTE chips.
Another factor that could possibly push the release date of the iPhone 5 even beyond October is Qualcomm’s difficulty in meeting an unprecedented increase in demand which could possibly result in a delay in shipment to Apple of essential hardware. This may eventually force enthusiastic and eager loyalists of the iPhone product line to wait even longer than expected.
Apple Tim Cook keynote featuring “the new iPad 3″ (iPad 3, HD or 4G).
Apple has decided to highlight the most major change in its newest iPad by simply dubbing it “new.” By and large, the new iPad 3 is the same as the old iPad 2 (Home-button and all), but with some really nice amenities that could very well convince owners of the previous iPad versions to upgrade. Upon touching the HD screen, it’s not the overall form factor that grabs us – it’s the screen quality. Given that we’re unashamed Pixel Density Enthusiasts ’round these parts, seeing a 2,048 x 1,536 resolution display in the same area as the prior iPads is stunning. Back in January, ASUS wowed everyone at CES with a reported 1,920 x 1,200 display on the TF700T; this, however, is something that really needs to be ogled to truly appreciate. In fact, the first viewing conjured up familiar feelings — ones that came to light when placing the iPhone 4 beside the iPhone 3G for the first time.
Apple has managed to produce something that’s truly beautiful to think about, even though we’ve yet to see the entire potential of experiencing this many pixels on a 9.7-inch slate, we’re guessing a cadre of game developers happen to be working hard to be able to remedy that. Beyond being dazzling from a density standpoint, colors are sharp and accurate, and viewing angles are predictably ridiculous even having a peek from a serious side angle gives approach to a fairly solid image with next to no washout.
So, what’d you have at the office pool? apple ipad 3, iPad 2S, iPad HD? Doesn’t matter, really. All that matters is the fact that it’s here! This is the next generation of Apple’s iOS slate and, as always, she’s a beaut — and yes, she’s still rockin’ an actual physical button. As was rumored it is packing a Retina display, potentially causeing this to be one of the most pixel-packed slate available on the market. The 9.7-inch screen plays host to three.one million pixels in a 2048 x 1536 arrangement — that’s 264ppi. It’s not just a higher resolution though, the screen also boasts improved color saturation. Needless to say, what might a whole new iPad be without some updated guts. The new model has an A5X processor and quad-core graphics chip. Apple even claims its newest sliver of silicon can deliver 4 times the performance of a Tegra 3 — we’d say dems fightin’ words.
There’s another new iSight camera fully briefed that’s quite like the version inside iPhone 4S. It’s only five-megapixels, however it does have a backside illuminated sensor having a five element lens. It’s also capable of capturing 1080p video, which should come as no surprise. We’re also excited to view the laptop keyboard sporting a new dictation key that permits you to speak as an alternative to type — yes, just like on Android. The new software inside will likely let you use the slate as a portable WiFi hotspot… as long as the carriers are game. It even can recognize at the very least some bezel gestures, as revealed during its iPhoto demo.
Perhaps most fun though, is the new connectivity options — you guessed, LTE! The new iPad is sporting 21 Mbps HSPA , but it’s also rocking an LTE radio effective at pulling down 73Mbps for both Verizon AT&T here in the US. Outside the states Rogers, Bell and Telus can also be scoring 4G flavors in the iOS tablet. Amazingly enough, despite having an LTE antenna fully briefed, Apple remains claiming to obtain 10 hours of life of the battery. That’s probably partially do in order to the slightly increased weight of 1.4lbs, the 9.4mm thickness is not to sniff at.
Last but not the least, we were pleased to see that the New iPad 3 will support Siri so we have have all the fun things Siri has to say on iPad!
The modern iPad is going to be available March 16th, starting at $499 to the 16GB WiFi model and scaling as much as $829 for the 64GB version with 4G. So, on the price front, nothing changed. Pre-orders start today in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia, with a lot of the rest of the globe to check out on March 23rd.
The executive chairmain and former chief of Google, Eric Schmidt has made some interesting statements regarding Apples personal assistant for iPhone “Siri”. Released in October of 2011, Siri has many capabilties including a search of the Web through voice command. Google is currently in the middle of being investigated for illegally abusing its power and dominance in online search via an antitrust investigation.
Back in September of 2010 Schmidt made a statement that denied Apple and also Facebook as being big time competitive threats. In what some see as an attempt to downplay Google’s huge online prominence, Schmidt recently had this statement, “My statement was clearly wrong, Apple’s Siri is a significant development-a voice-activated means of accessing answers through iPhones that demonstrates the innovations in search.”
“Google has many strong competitors and we sometimes fail to anticipate the competitve threat posed by new methods of accessing information.”
Maybe, when making prior statements, Eric Schmidt was not aware of Apple’s capability to provide a voice activated online search with their new application Siri?
Google claims to pride itself on the algorithm that powers seach results as being fair. Meaning not manipulating search results to direct more traffic to the sites google owns such as Youtube. They claim to make manual adjustments to soley improve the service for consumers. (Keep in mind Youtube has reached its highest peak ever at 20 billion videos viewed in the month of Noverber 2011 alone.) But when you compare Google to Siri, Siri does not generate revenue from ads (as of now) as do Google and Youtube.
Back in the 90s, antitrust probes into Microsoft resulted in the company paying millions in fines to prevent the apparent plans to dominate huge chunks of the IT sector. So what is the future for Google? Will Google eventually be forced to bow down from being “King of search” to Apple’s new innovations?
Apple Has reinvented the phone and music industry. What is next? Apple TV rumors are swarming all over social media. As more rumors surface we will see how Siri, the voice activated personal assistant for iPhone, will play a role in the upcoming Apple TV.
Siri network has been down again as it experiences an extended outage. When iPhone 4S users try to activate Siri and ask a question or say a command, Siri responds back with, “There’s something wrong, and i can’t answer your question right now. Please try again in a little while.”
Apple has asknowledged that the problem is due to iCloud server overload but not necessarily Siri servers. The longer Apple takes to fix this problem, the more irate and dissatisfied customers are becoming. In the mean time, several user say that resetting all settings is a workaround that has worked for them. The problem is heterogeneous and it’s not a one-fix-fits-all.
This is extremely frustrating. In just one month many people have become ‘addicted” to sending text messages and email responses by voice — which is very nice when it works — but really aggravating when it doesn’t. See what technology does to us? A month ago we didn’t know what Siri was, and now we don’t know how to live without her.
Keep in mind, as Apple will remind you, Siri is still in Beta Status:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/siri.html
So what is the best solution to the problem? “Reset all settings” may work to get Siri working again for some people, but it’s not a good option. You have to setup your iPhone again as if it were brand new and restore all your photos and data from iCloud, which is very time consuming even on WiFi. If you know fo an easier way to reset Siri with out resetting the entire phone please share your experience.
