Thanks for the tip on Skyfire, Looter! I don't know what I'd do without my iPad 2 or my iPhone, but I do find myself using the iPad for anything serious - getting too old to see the screen on an iPhone. But I did just upgrade to an iPhone 3Gs once they announced the zero $ upgrade, so at least I can stay consistent with iOS5 on all my devices.

Dave

 

Siri, will make all the pretenders just that pretenders. Dont know what siri is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siri_%28software%29

Over a million pre-orders amd it has not tapered off yet. Enough said.

The future:

"Think of all the times you've found yourself Googling stuff on your iPhone to settle a friendly debate with friends about a movie or athlete. Or imagine the times you heard a quote and went to look up where it came from. Perhaps you saw the name of a business and want to learn more about it. Looking at my own Google search history on my iPhone, the most recent items include a movie quote that I didn't recognize and had to look up, a restaurant lookup, the etymology of the word "truffle," information about a local 5K race, "what is planking," information about a yoga pose, the name of a farm that sells at my local farmer's market, and whether you can buy liquor in Illinois on Sunday. There are a million things mobile users query Google about every day on their phones, but I theoretically could have used Siri to look up that entire list for me, and with much less effort on my part.

For Google, this is not good news. Google's mobile search users (on any platform) are increasingly important to the company as more people begin to use their phones to look up local information such as directions, restaurant listings, reviews, and more. Google Places, which works in conjunction with Google Maps, Google Plus, and Google Offers and allows businesses to pay for higher placement, was born almost entirely out of watching how and what users search for on their mobile devices. Mobile ads attached to those queries are exploding right now—arguably moreso than just regular browser ads—and while Google doesn't live or die by that revenue alone, it's certainly not something to be taken lightly. "

Full article here

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/20...h-business.ars

There is way more to the iphone 4s than what people were looking for!

 

I beg to differ. It is your opinion that the others are pretenders, and your opinion alone. Many of us have a different opinion. For all of your million presales, understand that Android phones represent 47% of the smartphone market whereas the iPhone represents only 27%. Perhaps the iPhone is the pretender.

For every article and quote that you can show me proclaiming the iPhone4S the winner, I can show you 2 with a different opinion. No question that the iPhone4S is nice phone, but it is by no means the last word, nor has it lived up to the the expectations that many of us had for it.

As for Siri, it remains to be seen if it really turns out to be the feature that all of you Apple fanboys are hyping it to be, or if it turns out to be a fancy frill that comes with the phone that few people will use. Time will tell.

I still haven't ruled out buying the iPhone4s, but, for me it is very hard to consider any new smartphone that that doesn't come with 4G-LTE and doesn't have interchangable batteries. These are two areas where Apple has clearly missed the boat.

The phone I want to buy is the one that best serves my needs, whether or not the brand name is Apple.

 

Rob, I agree with your premise, but this thread is suggesting I should get the iphone. I want to be able to do the few things I use my phone for quickly, easily and repeatedly. Those are, phone, e-mail device, address book, calendar, internet access, texting, and camera. The one additional use that I may add would be a book reader if I got the bionic. I think the screen is big enough to use for that purpose.

I am not big into reconfiguring my phone, changing its features or adding apps. Someone above says he has not been able to put his new phone down since he got it. That is not me. For me, the phone is an appliance like a refrigerator. I want it to reliably do the same things I need it do for years to come. When it comes to phones, I would be akin to the Lexus buyer, not the BMW owner.

The battery life seems to be a concern. I use one battery in my BB and it easily lasts a full day with a full charge. Have you heard otherwise with respect to the iphone?

 

Bill,

Don't misunderstand my comments. I find very little to fault in the iPhone or most any Apple products in general. It's just that I think that people should buy the technology that they think is best suited to themselves and their needs. They shouldn't buy technology for a name or a package.

I don't think the iPhone4S is a bad phone, quite the contrary. I think it's an excellent device, and if it suits your needs, you should go with it. I probably would very strongly consider it if only it had 4GLTE and a changable battery. If those aren't issues with you you probably should go with the iPhone. I personally am undecided, but I do think both the 4GLTE and the battery are important to me. I also tend to like the Android operating system better, but all things being equal, that wouldn't be the determining factor.

As for the Apple os, I have both an iPad2 and an iPod touch. Both have ios4, and I can't wait to upgrade them tonight to ios5. The operating system is simple to use and works as well as any I've ever used, and I go all the way back to DOS 3.0 and CP/M. Apple ios is as good an operating system as there is. I just happen to prefer Android, but as I said, if this was the only difference, I very likely would buy an iPhone.

I don't know of anyone who has had battery issues with the iPhone, but I do know that I personally get to the end of the day with my phone, and my battery is exhausted. I like being able to change to a fully charged battery and put the exhausted battery in the charger. I also like being able to carry a spare battery with me. I just like doing it that way, this might not be an issue with you. Keep in mind that I spend a lot of time using my phone during the day, you may not.

My point is that I'm not suggesting that there is anything wrong with the iPhone, and from the sounds of it, it sounds like it would suit you very well. I just think it might not be as well suited to me. That said, if the Samsung Nexus Prime doesn't come out as expected, I might very well end up with an iPhone4s.

 

Rob,

You mentioned that having a user-replacable battery is a must for any phone you buy. I assume that this feature is important because you don't want to run out of power during the day.

The iPhone technical specs are

talk time: up to 14 hours
standby time: up to 200 hours
Internet use: up to 9 hours on Wi-Fi
Video play: up to 10 hours
Audio play: up to 40 hours.

I looked up the specs on the Droid Bionic and they show a talk time of 10.83 hours and 200 hours standby. I could not find any specs on audio or video playtime.

So, neither phone is a slouch when it comes to powering during the day.

 

Glad I'm not the only one that doesn't feel the need to be connected with the world 24/7. I have a TracPhone. $100 a year! Have more minutes than I'll ever use. It sits on a shelf in the office. Use it on trips, day rides on the motorcycle, or if I know I need to keep in touch with someone on a particular day.

 

Growing up without a cell phone

When I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalog!!

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a pen! Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there!

There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it!

If you left the house, you didn't make a call or receive one. You actually had to be out of touch with your "friends". OH MY GOSH !!! Think of the horror... not being in touch with someone 24/7!!!

And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right. Please!

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!

 

What's your point? Are you suggesting that we go back to all of that?

 

In some respects, I do.