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[Pachterballs]

on a iphone 3G and haven't used the phone for apps much - don't game on it but can you guys recommend apps to make the most of my 4S when I get it? I was looking at some of the stuff i loved on the ipad and hating on the fact that something like 8mm HD is not universal so i'll have to repurchase.

right now:

twitter/integrated
facebook
hipstamatic
four square
instagram

?
I'd like apps that will diversify what phone can do - in the case of the 2 camera apps (instagram/hipsta) photography and the social stuff. Any essentials? Games are also good recommendations but I tend to play on the ipad2.

 

[reilo]

on a iphone 3G and haven't used the phone for apps much - don't game on it but can you guys recommend apps to make the most of my 4S when I get it? I was looking at some of the stuff i loved on the ipad and hating on the fact that something like 8mm HD is not universal so i'll have to repurchase.

right now:

twitter/integrated
facebook
hipstamatic
four square
instagram

?
I'd like apps that will diversify what phone can do - in the case of the 2 camera apps (instagram/hipsta) photography and the social stuff. Any essentials? Games are also good recommendations but I tend to play on the ipad2.

There's a thread for that:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=365088

 

[Auron_Kale]

Is 89K pretty good? I have no idea what those numbers mean.

Here's a pic from the appleinsider forums with the new values added in.

In short, I think it's pretty good to say the least.

 

[Marty Chinn]

Of course they won't, but it doesn't hurt to have more performance, quicker load times, and faster application close times. I haven't touched the iPhone 4 much, but I know my iPod Touch (2nd gen) can be fairly sluggish when opening menus or apps. I'm sure the iPhone 4 is orders of magnitudes better, but you can always improve on that unless every menu and app is already opening and closing instantaneously.

I also think the 4S will see a lot more people upgrading from the 3GS and before than from the iPhone 4, so there will be a substantial boost for them.

Right, the iPhone 4 is orders of magnitudes better and there comes to a point where for 95% of the time, that additional performance is going to be pointless. The iPhone 4 is fast enough that apps don't really lag and only intensive games are the ones that will take any type of advantage of it anytime soon. How often are intensive games released? How many are going to limit their potential by targeting the high end only?

On paper and through performance comparison apps, it's going to look great, but I don't see the real world benefit being such a huge factor anytime soon. That's why to me, the A5, as nice as it is, isn't so important of an upgrade than say the camera. Siri is a more important factor to me and that might just be a side affect of the better performance. We'll have to see what happens when jailbreaking Siri does on an iPhone 4 to see if the perfromance pays off or if it's just a selling point for the 4S.

 

[KHarvey16]

No one will ever need more than 64 megs of RAM, amirite?

 

[Deleted member 17706]

Right, the iPhone 4 is orders of magnitudes better and there comes to a point where for 95% of the time, that additional performance is going to be pointless. The iPhone 4 is fast enough that apps don't really lag and only intensive games are the ones that will take any type of advantage of it anytime soon. How often are intensive games released? How many are going to limit their potential by targeting the high end only?

On paper and through performance comparison apps, it's going to look great, but I don't see the real world benefit being such a huge factor anytime soon. That's why to me, the A5, as nice as it is, isn't so important of an upgrade than say the camera. Siri is a more important factor to me and that might just be a side affect of the better performance. We'll have to see what happens when jailbreaking Siri does on an iPhone 4 to see if the perfromance pays off or if it's just a selling point for the 4S.

I'm not going to argue what the most important upgrade is, but I don't think discounting additional performance is wise. Obviously there's nothing wrong with the iPhone 4, but increased responsiveness certainly won't hurt.

Besides, maybe the A5 processor was needed for the 1080p video recording to be possible without being too sluggish of an experience.

 

[Narpas Sword0]

are we 100% certain that the 4S won't have simultaneous voice and data on verizon?

the droid incredible 2, droid x2, thunderbolt and bionic (even with 4G disabled) can all call and browse at the same time, but lazy journalists often erroneously state that they cannot (or that they can only do it in a 4G area)

newer cdma chips, at least for verizon, allow voice and data at the same time. why would apple neglect to use this chip?

 

[giga]

The "not much of an upgrade iPhone putting up some nice BrowserMark Scores (and so does the iPhone with ios5):

http://www.appleinsider.com/article..._5_dramatically_boost_browsermark_scores.html

The iPhone 4s rings in at a nice 89,567
The iPhone 4 on ios5 rings in @ 51,302 right up with the top Android machines (although we'll have to wait for Google's Samsung Nexus with the Ice Cream Sandwich).

Told ya'll iOS 5's WebKit engine is a beast. iPad 2.

Edit: Just realized the AnandTech chart are all Android 2.x phones. Honeycomb fares a lot better. ICS should help the phones that get an update to it.

 

[nVidiot_Whore]

Right, the iPhone 4 is orders of magnitudes better and there comes to a point where for 95% of the time, that additional performance is going to be pointless.

~60% faster browser rendering speed, not to mention an antenna capable of higher bandwidth is going to make a difference for web browsing.. something that represents far more than 5% of any given users usage of the phone.

If I can launch my browser and look something up that much faster it is far from "pointless."

Having said that.. I'm moving from a 3GS.. so I'm looking at more like 4 times the browsing performance over what I'm current seeing on iOS 4.0

 

[KingDizzi]

So just to be fully sure, if I were to get a White 4S there shouldd be no worry about discolouration because it's sandwiched between glass? Seen the normal iPhone 4 White phones in stores and fuck they are sexy! Going with O2.

Good question mate, good question.

 

[eudaemonic]

I'm upgrading from a 16gb 3Gs to a 64gb 4S, and sticking with AT&T (largely because of grandfathered unlimited plan).

Same here.

 

[Gary Whitta]

Guys, tell me that I'm not going to hate 3G data on my new VeriPhone 4S. I'm having switchers' anxiety! I was really impressed by the 3G speeds on the demo model 4 at my downtown Verizon store, but now I've convinced myself that they probably have a mini cell tower or something in back of the store to artificially boost speeds in there.

 

[Marty Chinn]

~60% faster browser rendering speed, not to mention an antenna capable of higher bandwidth is going to make a difference for web browsing.. something that represents far more than 5% of any given users usage of the phone.

If I can launch my browser and look something up that much faster it is far from "pointless."

Having said that.. I'm moving from a 3GS.. so I'm looking at more like 4 times the browsing performance over what I'm current seeing on iOS 4.0

Maybe pointless is the wrong word, but negligable is the more appropriate one. There comes a point when even doubling something becomes amost meaningless to the end user. If something takes 200 miliseconds and now it only takes 100, are you as a user going to notice? That's double the performance but does it really matter to you? Looks great on paper but the real world response is lost in the experience. That's all I'm getting at. We can sorta forget about the higher bandwidth antenna because while nice, again on paper, it doesn't translate to real world performance. You have the potential to see higher bandwidth but that's assuming you're getting that type of signal available to you to begin with. I believe the iPhone 4 maxes out at 6mbps but I'll be damned if I've seen anything come close to that so why should I believe suddenly an antenna with a max speed of 14mbps is going to make a difference to me?

Guys, tell me that I'm not going to hate 3G data on my new VeriPhone 4S. I'm having switchers' remorse anxiety! I was really impressed by the 3G speeds on the demo model 4 at my downtown Verizon store, but now I've convinced myself that they probably have a mini cell tower or something in back of the store to artificially boost speeds in there.

It's always been my understanding that Verizon is more consistant in their speed, but at a lower on average maximum speed than AT&T. So you get the trade off of more reliable but slower.

 

[Auron_Kale]

So just to be fully sure, if I were to get a White 4S there shouldd be no worry about discolouration because it's sandwiched between glass? Seen the normal iPhone 4 White phones in stores and fuck they are sexy! Going with O2.

Good question mate, good question.

Yep, no need to worry about discoloration of the white due to it being sandwiched between glass.

 

[eudaemonic]

Guys, tell me that I'm not going to hate 3G data on my new VeriPhone 4S. I'm having switchers' remorse anxiety! I was really impressed by the 3G speeds on the demo model 4 at my downtown Verizon store, but now I've convinced myself that they probably have a mini cell tower or something in back of the store to artificially boost speeds in there.

Haha... and I bet if you picked up the white one you'd be wondering if you should have gone with the black.

You almost sound like a new dad worrying about everything before the baby is even born.

 

[Tron 2.0]

Guys, tell me that I'm not going to hate 3G data on my new VeriPhone 4S. I'm having switchers' anxiety! I was really impressed by the 3G speeds on the demo model 4 at my downtown Verizon store, but now I've convinced myself that they probably have a mini cell tower or something in back of the store to artificially boost speeds in there.

In my experience, ATT is superior for data when you're in an optimal location and Verizon superior for voice.

But, I am currently on Verizon and even though data is more important to me than voice I am happy with my choice.

EDIT:

It's always been my understanding that Verizon is more consistant in their speed, but at a lower on average maximum speed than AT&T. So you get the trade off of more reliable but slower.

That's true in my experience. Good way to put it.

 

[Keylime]

Guys, tell me that I'm not going to hate 3G data on my new VeriPhone 4S. I'm having switchers' anxiety! I was really impressed by the 3G speeds on the demo model 4 at my downtown Verizon store, but now I've convinced myself that they probably have a mini cell tower or something in back of the store to artificially boost speeds in there.

Hold strong, Gary! HOLD STRONG!!!

 

[bananas]

Guys, tell me that I'm not going to hate 3G data on my new VeriPhone 4S. I'm having switchers' anxiety! I was really impressed by the 3G speeds on the demo model 4 at my downtown Verizon store, but now I've convinced myself that they probably have a mini cell tower or something in back of the store to artificially boost speeds in there.

Should've gone with Sprint.

Spoiler

not really

 

[Gary Whitta]

It's always been my understanding that Verizon is more consistant in their speed, but at a lower on average maximum speed than AT&T. So you get the trade off of more reliable but slower.

You know what? I'll take that trade.

 

[KingDizzi]

Yep, no need to worry about discoloration of the white due to it being sandwiched between glass.

Lovely, cheers mate! White iPhone 4S 16GB it is for me then, just a case of how long I'll have to wait as O2 are giving priority to current customers first.

 

[Gary Whitta]

Here's a pic from the appleinsider forums with the new values added in.

In short, I think it's pretty good to say the least.

WTF, the 4S has browser performance 13x the Samsung Focus? LOLZ

 

[CrunchinJelly]

Funny to see the 3GS and 4 get faster and faster with new iOS versions, as well.

 

[Auron_Kale]

WTF, the 4S has browser performance 13x the Samsung Focus? LOLZ

Crazy isn't it?

Here's a link to the thread (where the pic's from): appleinsider

I'm amazed at how some people were downplaying the importance of optimizing code for your hardware. Overall, the entire iPhone line-up improved with iOS5.

 

[bananas]

WTF, the 4S has browser performance 13x the Samsung Focus? LOLZ

I'm pretty sure those are pre-Mango update Windows Phones.

 

[ToD_]

At first I just thought that 89567 number was a number fabricated by internet hype and completely false, and figured the 4S would be somewhere among the top Android phones. But when you look at an iPad 2 (same but higher clocked cpu) performing at 100000+, it makes this completely believable. This is certainly adding to my hype.

 

[Gary Whitta]

I'm pretty sure those are pre-Mango update Windows Phones.

Does Mango increase browser performance by 13x? If not, LOLZ.

 

[nVidiot_Whore]

I believe the iPhone 4 maxes out at 6mbps but I'll be damned if I've seen anything come close to that so why should I believe suddenly an antenna with a max speed of 14mbps is going to make a difference to me?

Because it will?

My 100Mb network never got that close to 100Mb real world performance.. didn't stop me from upgrading to a 1000Mb network when equipment became cheap.

Doubling the theoretical generally doubles the real world performance.

I see your point.. the iPhone 4 is plenty fast.. sooo.. move on?

 

[Deleted member 17706]

WTF, the 4S has browser performance 13x the Samsung Focus? LOLZ

I'm on a Droid running 2.2.2, but the browser experience is pure shit. Everything about this phone is just sluggish and awful and prone to crashing. I feel for the Samsung Focus people if that chart is to be believed.

 

[bananas]

Does Mango increase browser performance by 13x? If not, LOLZ.

I don't know the exact numbers, but Post-Mango IE9 on my HD7S hasn't felt any less to Safari on iOS5 when I used it on my iPhone 3GS or iPad.

 

[giga]

Samsung Focus on Mango gets about 22k. Javascript performance in IE is pretty abysmal.

 

[Marty Chinn]

You know what? I'll take that trade.

Ya, I'm not saying it's a bad trade. I get something like double the data rate on AT&T, but it really depends where. So when it's faster it's definitely significantly faster, but that's assuming I don't move two inches.

Because it will?

My 100Mb network never got that close to 100Mb real world performance.. didn't stop me from upgrading to a 1000Mb network when equipment became cheap.

Doubling the theoretical generally doubles the real world performance.

I see your point.. the iPhone 4 is plenty fast.. sooo.. move on?

But it won't. Suddenly having a higher bandwidth antenna doesn't automatically open the bandwidth being given to you. If your HDD can only write data at 10mbps, going from 100mbps to 1000mbps isn't suddenly going to make the HDD write faster. Theoretical peak bandwidth is meaningless unless you are pushing the bounds currently and that's the whole point I've been getting at. Many things sound great on paper and on a spec comparison, but the real world application doesn't match up always and that's the important stuff. All this on spec paper and threshold comparisons is meaningless crap if it doesn't affect you in the real world.

To push the point even further, HSPA+ which is the 14mbps speed that the iPhone 4S uses only applies to AT&T. So are we trying to say that suddenly AT&T's network isn't shitty? We're relying on AT&T to be giving us a better network in order to even begin thinking about taking advantage of it.

 

[Gary Whitta]

Ya, I'm not saying it's a bad trade. I get something like double the data rate on AT&T, but it really depends where. So when it's faster it's definitely significantly faster, but that's assuming I don't move two inches.

Yeah every now and again I'll find myself on the intersection between two druid leylines or something and get amazing 3G performance on AT&T. But much of the time I don't even have enough bars to do anything. Wasted five minutes yesterday in Palo Alto - not exactly the tech boonies - while my phone tried to pull enough of a 3G signal to even run a basic Google Maps search. If Verizon data is a bit slower in general but more reliable more of the time, that's a big trade up for me.

 

[Ken Masters]

Anyone else excited for Friday?

I'm more excited for iOS 5 actually, my dad was thinking of getting rid of his 3 year old flip LG phone, he said he'd take my iPhone 4 and I'd just take the 4s


also, a question about browser speed benchmarks, isn't that dependent on 3g speed?

 

[Gary Whitta]

I'm more excited for iOS 5 actually, my dad was thinking of getting rid of his 3 year old flip LG phone, he said he'd take my iPhone 4 and I'd just take the 4s

Yeah the great thing is even people who aren't upgrading their hardware are going to see huge improvements on their existing phones.

 

[Evlar]

I'm more excited for iOS 5 actually, my dad was thinking of getting rid of his 3 year old flip LG phone, he said he'd take my iPhone 4 and I'd just take the 4s


also, a question about browser speed benchmarks, isn't that dependent on 3g speed?

Do they perform the tests over wi-fi? I don't know.

 

[Joe Shlabotnik]

I'm on a Droid running 2.2.2, but the browser experience is pure shit. Everything about this phone is just sluggish and awful and prone to crashing. I feel for the Samsung Focus people if that chart is to be believed.

I feel your pain, bruddah. It also forgets to pick up the 3G signal when I come out of the subway. I loved it when I first got it (and I'm going to miss Navigation) but goddamn I can't wait for a phone that actually works.

 

[X-Frame]

Check out my AT&T 3G speeds during lunch time in NYC, Midtown:

The 2:22 is when I switched to EDGE to see the difference ..

21st floor. Here's to hoping the "4G" doesn't just kill over for 3 hours during mid-day.

 

[Marty Chinn]

Yeah every now and again I'll find myself on the intersection between two druid leylines or something and get amazing 3G performance on AT&T. But much of the time I don't even have enough bars to do anything. Wasted five minutes yesterday in Palo Alto - not exactly the tech boonies - while my phone tried to pull enough of a 3G signal to even run a basic Google Maps search. If Verizon data is a bit slower in general but more reliable more of the time, that's a big trade up for me.

I really wish I could switch to Verizon. I just can't give up unlimited data and being able to browse the web and talk at the same time is a huge factor. That'll go away with 4G but for now I need to be able to talk and use the net at the same time. You'd be surprised how handy it is when you have a baby to be able to talk to the wife while looking up something relating to the baby that you're currently talking to her about. So ya, AT&T has me by the balls. I just hope the rest of you guys jumping ship actually makes it better for me =)

Edit: Right now I just got 268kB/s/124kB/s.

 

[Gary Whitta]

I don't why people are so hooked on unlimited data, I use my phone for data quite a bit and never even come close to the 2gb cap I'll have on Verizon. I guess some people like streaming music and video on their phones, but I hardly ever do that.

Isn't Verizon supposed to be be adding the data + talk capability at some point? I don't really use it but it's nice to have.

 

[Trojita]

Here's a pic from the appleinsider forums with the new values added in.

In short, I think it's pretty good to say the least.

 

[Deleted member 17706]

I feel your pain, bruddah. It also forgets to pick up the 3G signal when I come out of the subway. I loved it when I first got it (and I'm going to miss Navigation) but goddamn I can't wait for a phone that actually works.

Holy shit, this is such a horrible problem with the Droid.

I had to force it to stop connecting automatically to my home Wi-Fi or else the device would take 15 minutes or more whenever I left the house to figure out that the Wi-Fi connection was no longer available and switch over to 3G. Any time I go into my work's parking garage or an elevator, I have to manually turn on airplane mode and then turn it back off unless I want to wait 5-10 minutes for the phone to figure it out on its own.

Such a piece of shit, really.

 

[Marty Chinn]

I don't why people are so hooked on unlimited data, I use my phone for data quite a bit and never even come close to the 2gb cap I'll have on Verizon. I guess some people like streaming music and video on their phones, but I hardly ever do that.

Isn't Verizon supposed to be be adding the data + talk capability at some point? I don't really use it but it's nice to have.

I don't have the exact monthly usage, but since I got my iPhone 4, which is 16 months ago when it launched, I've used 22 GB d/l and 2 GB u/l. So 24 gigs divided by 16 gives me about 1.5 GB average a month. Now I'm assuming I'm not always consistant so I'm sure there are months where I hover more closely to that 2GB barrier or maybe even once gone over it. Between Facetime, streaming audio in the car, downloading podcasts and the occaisional YouTube video, the data adds up over time.

As an Apple fan, shouldn't you understand not wanting to deal with the hassle of thinking or worrying about things? Why would I want to worry about going over and getting charged painfully by the carrier?

 

[Joe Shlabotnik]

Holy shit, this is such a horrible problem with the Droid.

I had to force it to stop connecting automatically to my home Wi-Fi or else the device would take 15 minutes or more whenever I left the house to figure out that the Wi-Fi connection was no longer available and switch over to 3G. Any time I go into my work's parking garage or an elevator, I have to manually turn on airplane mode and then turn it back off unless I want to wait 5-10 minutes for the phone to figure it out on its own.

Such a piece of shit, really.

Haha, oh you figured that out too, huh! Oy.

 

[nVidiot_Whore]

But it won't. Suddenly having a higher bandwidth antenna doesn't automatically open the bandwidth being given to you. If your HDD can only write data at 10mbps, going from 100mbps to 1000mbps isn't suddenly going to make the HDD write faster. Theoretical peak bandwidth is meaningless unless you are pushing the bounds currently and that's the whole point I've been getting at.

That's not entirely how wireless tech works though, it's not necessarily an issue of bottlenecks. If you are dealing with a tower that has maxed out it's own bandwidth? Sure.. if that's your performance issue, then a faster antenna won't work.

If you aren't? Then you should see better performance connecting to the same tower with an HSPA+ device over an HSPA device.. neither being all that close to the theoretical maximum the technology states as being possible.

 

[jts]

Funny to see the 3GS and 4 get faster and faster with new iOS versions, as well.

Would like to see 3GS's number on 5.0.

 

[Marty Chinn]

That's not entirely how wireless tech works though, it's not necessarily an issue of bottlenecks. If you are dealing with a tower that has maxed out it's own bandwidth? Sure.. if that's your performance issue, then a faster antenna won't work.

If you aren't? Then you should see better performance connecting to the same tower with an HSPA+ device over an HSPA device.. neither being all that close to the theoretical maximum the technology states as being possible.

Ok here's a better example. I had an iPhone 3G, and now I have an iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 added HSPA with up to 6mbps. I saw no speed increase from my 3G to my 4 over 3G network. So why would I expect, or most people expect suddenly they are going to get dramatic speed increases when we're at the mercy of AT&T actually doing something with their network? It's an on paper mostly meaningless spec that doesn't even affect Sprint and Verizon users.

 

[Auron_Kale]

Would like to see 3GS's number on 5.0.

In the appleinsider thread, someone claimed that they got 38k on a 3GS with iOS5.

 

[Number45]

I don't why people are so hooked on unlimited data, I use my phone for data quite a bit and never even come close to the 2gb cap I'll have on Verizon. I guess some people like streaming music and video on their phones, but I hardly ever do that.

I'm going to tether the entire of my local neighbourhood to ensure I use as much as possible.

It's peace of mind for me to be honest. Knowing that no matter what I do I'm not going to incur any further costs is good for me. I'm also going to disable iCloud sync when on WiFi and do it on 3G only.

You hear me Three? I'M COMING FOR YOU!

 

[LyleLanley]

I don't why people are so hooked on unlimited data, I use my phone for data quite a bit and never even come close to the 2gb cap I'll have on Verizon. I guess some people like streaming music and video on their phones, but I hardly ever do that.

Isn't Verizon supposed to be be adding the data + talk capability at some point? I don't really use it but it's nice to have.

I think that's in their LTE plans.

 

[nVidiot_Whore]

I saw no speed increase from my 3G to my 4 over 3G network. So why would I expect, or most people expect suddenly they are going to get dramatic speed increases when we're at the mercy of AT&T actually doing something with their network?

People YOU shouldn't expect greater speeds, because clearly you have bad AT&T service where you live.

It's an on paper mostly meaningless spec

It is not meaningless. It might end up being meaningless for you personally if you are experiencing such terrible speeds where you are.

A lot of people saw their 3gs/4 speeds bumped significantly when AT&T added backhaul in their area.. people like myself.. I expect better speeds from HSPA+ because I have no reason not too.