The iPhone 5S Hasn't Been Officially Announced, Already Has Line 181
Daniel_Stuckey writes "The iPhone 5S line has already begun, despite Apple not even having made its announcement yet. From the looks of the invite to the unveiling in San Francisco on Sept. 10 (and another event the following day in Beijing, where iPhones are all the rage), the company will not only be announcing a next generation iPhone, the 5S, but also the lower-priced 5C model, in a variety of cheaper-looking colors."
reality show rejects (Score:5, Insightful)
At this point, the only reason to line up for an iDevice is to get on TV. This is not different to survivor or Big Brother.
Re:reality show rejects (Score:5, Insightful)
This is not different to survivor or Big Brother.
Sure it is. All you can win on line at Apple is an iPhone. And by "win" I mean pay the same amount as anybody else.
Re:reality show rejects (Score:5, Funny)
You can win an iPhone online? Sounds like a scam.
Re:reality show rejects (Score:4, Funny)
Those QuBids ads I keep getting in my spam folder tell me I can get an iPad or iPhone for only $8! It's so crazy it has to be true!
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I forwarded this comment to timothy and I didn't get a dollar. What gives?!
It was supposed to be a penny a year for 100 years - you didn't get the penny?
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Re:reality show rejects (Score:4, Insightful)
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As evident by the iCultists lining up for an iPhone 5S before it's been announced and before they know what it is.
You are aware that standing in line does not make any purchase obligatory? But you are right - nobody would stand in line just to be able to say "Well, that Galaxy S 4's back does feel like real cheap plastic. Better tweet it right now."
Re:reality show rejects (Score:5, Informative)
Sure it is. All you can win on line at Apple is an iPhone. And by "win" I mean pay the same amount as anybody else.
Actually, per TFA the first two people in line have been "bought out" by a third-party Apple reseller, and now sport the company's logo on their shirts, and, in exchange, will now have their phones (plural, two each) paid for by the company.
So... yeah, they won the advertising game and now get their phones for free.
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I'm not sure however many days they wait in line is worth that
BTW, TFA was unreadable when I first came to this story... the site was slashdotted
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"Free" as in "have to stand in line for days".
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Well, yeah, I'm already assuming that they consider their time worthless since they were in line not knowing their phones would be paid for. =P
Maybe sitting on a street in New York is their idea of an ideal vacation, similar to other people sitting on a beach somewhere somehow not bored to death.
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Just wait until they declare shenanigans.
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At least with survivor and big brother there is a small chance that you can win some $
And, depending on how adventureous you are, they are a "free" vacation at the least...
Re:reality show rejects (Score:4, Insightful)
At this point, the only reason to line up for an iDevice is to get on TV. This is not different to survivor or Big Brother.
In my line of work we take a dim view of being on the bleeding edge of technology. These people are not simply embracing it, but doing so for their own personal reasons i.e. Be first on the block to have one (which is a damn silly thing to do with a considerable investment, which most iPhones are.)
I was burned on a new car model years ago so I sit back and wait to see how things turn out before committing my own hard won dollars (and even then, as I'm a pre-paid customer, I buy the handset outright.)
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On cars you never buy the first year of a redesign or new model unless you're a glutton for punishment or you're doing an expensive lease that includes free loaner coverage for maintenance and recalls. It doesn't really depend on the manufacturer either since almost all of them outsource a large percentage of their subassemblies to outside manufacturers.
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Re:reality show rejects (Score:5, Interesting)
Well, your one bad experience buying a new model car years ago should certainly keep us all away from buying new items at launch ...
I have had a lot of first model year cars and I have found them to be no more likely to have issues than subsequent model years. Actually, of the cars that I collect, I usually prefer first model year cars because they usually have quirky or interesting features that are dropped because they were judged not popular enough or cost-reduced out.
I have a first generation iPad and iPod touch from the initial launches of both products. Other than Apple abandoning iOS support for the products (and recently the battery on the iPod touch), I have had no issues with them.
But, if the rumors hold true, the products that Apple will launch tomorrow are going to evolutions (or devolutions) of products that have been out for years, not truly new products, so I don't understand how your point applies.
Re:reality show rejects (Score:4, Informative)
I'm familiar with the First Year Collector thing, but I doubt there are any collectors items among iPhones, which tend to sell quite a lot of the exact same model on the first day, before the hue and cry over defects or such result in an adjustment in production.
Cars may or may not sell a lot on first issue and generally going out and buying will result in some unhappy experiences, though your experience may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, some being much better at rolling out a truly finished product and others rushing out a model which will have a laundry list of recalls.
My car was such a dud it wasn't made for many years and resulted in one of the greatest financial setbacks for the manufacturer. The engineers did a fine job designing it, the assembly line did a terrific job of putting it together, but the bean-counters who sourced the parts and figured ways to shave costs doomed it. If they had gone with the original engineers plans it would have been a hit and my car would have been worth a small fortune for being very early off the production line.
It's a much better position to be in to watch how a new car rolls out and is met by the market. A successful launch of a quality car may mean you have to pay a little of a premium to get one of the early batch, but you avoid getting burned.
Regarding antenna issues, battery heating up issues, other shortcomings of Apples rather trendsetting iPhones should by now curb some enthusiasm for the wary. Fool me once, shame on you - fool me twice, shame on me sorta fing.
Re:reality show rejects (Score:5, Funny)
How long do you have that Edsel?
Re:reality show rejects (Score:4, Insightful)
My car, on the other hand, had great styling and the early prototypes were wowing the press with its performance and features.
Is there a reason you've got 2 posts on it now without actually naming the vehicle/model/year? :)
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Just wondering, when did you have that car experience and what model was it? Lemon laws in many states protect consumers against faulty cars (it's a massive pain-in-the-ass to go through the process), and I think it dissuades auto manufacturers from completely cheeping out on cars anymore. Though, there may be issues that creep up beyond the lemon-law time window, then you're basically at the whim of the manufacturer to fix it.
As for electronics, if you buy from a company like Apple that has a good warran
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I don't think you can really think of this as the first iteration of the technology anymore. The design is unlikely to change much, even if there's a bit of an issue.
I still have my iPhone 4, bought a few months after release. I never had the problems with the antenna that other people apparently had, and that was the supposed major, fundamental design flaw of the phone. They fixed it in the 4s, and presumably the 5. But I haven't heard of anything fundamentally wrong with the 4s or the 5, and the new stuff
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That's also the argume
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I have had a lot of first model year cars and I have found them to be no more likely to have issues than subsequent model years.
And I have had a lot of first model year cars and I have found them to have issues which were fixed in just a year or two. Like the corrosive grease in the multifunction switch in my 1984 300ZX killing my batteries by keeping the headlights on even when retracted, or the fuel injector harness connectors on the 1989 240SX failing (they were redesigned) or seatbelt and fuel system recalls on my 1992 F250 7.3 which is not exactly a first model year, but it's the first year of the new interior and many wiring c
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Maybe you could site a modern first generation car...something maybe in the 21st century? I think you might find that new car quality is at a high-point.
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Maybe you could site a modern first generation car...something maybe in the 21st century? I think you might find that new car quality is at a high-point.
Maybe you could provide a citation, any citation that contradicts mine, before asking for another citation? Because anything else is a total douche move, for total douches.
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You want a citation? Ok, common knowledge and generally accepted facts need no citation. This is especially true when the information is something readers should already know, readily accept, and easily find in general references (like the Internet or paying attention in life).
~APA Publication Manual (5th edition). I might have embellished the last part.
One example of common knowledge and a readily accepted fact would be that modern cars are far more reliable than cars from the 1980s. So if you want to brin
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Well, you see this behavior for other things too.
I mean, I've never understood people siting and waiting in line to see a movie (Harry Potter, SW, LOTR, Hobbit, etc). I mean, frankly, I would rather wait to see
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Well, you see this behavior for other things too.
I mean, I've never understood people siting and waiting in line to see a movie (Harry Potter, SW, LOTR, Hobbit, etc). I mean, frankly, I would rather wait to see it later without all the fscking crowd and hassle, that is...if I even bother to see it in a movie theater at all.
I generally wait till out on BluRay and watch it on my large plasma tv, with a great soundsystem and fully stocked bar nearby.
Well film is a considerably different matter, and other than impatience and a high degree of tolerance to standing in line (to get ticket), standing in line (to get popcorn) and standing in line (to be seated) followed by trying to get a seat which doesn't suck or isn't close to some noisy or obnoxious clod there seems little argument for being there on opening night. Unless it's a real stinker it will play for at least a week and there's going to be times without the great density of hoi polloi which offe
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...and other than impatience and a high degree of tolerance to standing in line (to get ticket), standing in line (to get popcorn) and standing in line (to be seated) followed by trying to get a seat which doesn't suck or isn't close to some noisy or obnoxious clod there seems little argument for being there on opening night.
Reasons to never visit a chain theater again. They are worse than chain restaurants. If you can, go to a local "movie and brews" type place. Alamo Draft House, for example here in Austin. No lines - you buy online, you print your ticket, you reserve your seat, they bring food to you. Bonus: they ban texting and talking and don't let people in after the movie starts. THAT'S how to run a theater. Not 3 gallon buckets of popcorn for $10, not gimmicky Movie premieres. Good food, good beer, good service, and no
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Except BluRay and plasma tv's did not exist when SW came out.
I managed to get a copy of SW on laserdisc, it was mindblowing quality for the day.
Not only that, but George Lucas held off on DVD issue of Star Wars for a very long time. In the case of your Laserdisc you did have something with value others could buy, but not easily after Laserdiscs waned from the market.
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I actually have my original Star Wars Trilogy laserdisc set...is nice to pull out every once in awhile, is is letterbox format, and before Lucas started messing with the film, old explosions, Han still shoots first, no extra characters added to scenes later, and at the end, old Anakin
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Because you already know what they're coming out with? Amazing!
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Because you already know what they're coming out with? Amazing!
More because Apple has a history of delivering reasonably decent stuff, and, again, this is an update to an old line.
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Hardware wise we don't know how much of a change it will be yet. But software wise, it's by far the biggest change to iOS yet.
Of course defects in the software matter less as they can be fixed later.
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I wouldn't qualify the iPhone, or most smart phones, as being on the bleeding edge of technology.
Now, the USB 3 cable on the other hand....
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First, an iPhone is unlikely to be on the bleeding edge of anything. The OS is version 7 (nothing more than a UI refinement of OS version 6, and it's already appearing on today's iPhones.) The hardware won't represent any great leaps in processor or battery technology. As a matter of fact, the only new aspect will be the slightly larger screen. It won't be anything unexpected for its new users.
Next, a phone is hardly what many people would classify as either "considerable" or even an "investment". It's
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And no, no great leaps in CPU or battery, but there is one thing: a fingerprint sensor that isn't your run-of-the-mill print reader. We'll know tomorrow, but from what I've read of Authentec's patents (now Apple's patents) this one should actually work quite well and be very hard to fool.
(And BTW, this slightly larger screen appeared a year ago in the iPhone 5.)
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None of those are "bleeding edge" enhancements which the GP suggested would be a reason to avoid the new iPhone.
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are you counting calling a library function with different argument as a different api.. or what the fuck?
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Phones "only a few hundred dollars - less in America". Yeah, good luck with that. New smart phones are $199, sure, but I pay $250 a month for three data plans and three phones and I get a hefty employee discount. When I was young, I would have NEVER prioritized a phone, at current expense, over other things. Phone plans are like a car payment, but it never ends as long as you are using a phone. It's no wonder young people don't have cable, or sometimes, cars.
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I don't know how crazy it is. It's 3 smart phones with unlimited texting and voice and 6 GB of data aggregate across the three devices (family plan). I would guess your low bill is due to not having data/limited data, which is a no go for us.
I'll give it a look, however. I have 5 phones clear and free of contracts. Maybe I can put my kid on something like that and save a buck or two.
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Regardless of the price, it doesn't make the iPhone an "investment". It's an expense, because the value of the phone has almost no chance to rise over time. If you're restricting the conversation to people who can ill afford them, that makes it a really foolish expense - but it's still not an investment.
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an additional security mechanism cannot hurt.
Actually, an "additional security measure" often hurts in unexpected ways. Allowing two different ways into a system allows an attacker to choose the easier of the two. Sometimes, the interaction between the two can reveal secrets, or allow novel attacks. And if the fingerprint reader isn't perfectly secured, it might be possible to extract information from it that could be used to attack a different fingerprint system.
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These people are not simply embracing it, but doing so for their own personal reasons i.e. Be first on the block to have one (which is a damn silly thing to do with a considerable investment, which most iPhones are.)
I'd probably be standing in line just for the fun of it if my phone were due for an upgrade anyway. I certainly wouldn't be afraid of buying an Apple iProduct.0, given their reputation for handling customer issues without hassle. If you buy an iPhone 5S tomorrow, it's about as safe a bet as you can get in the tech industry that Apple will take care of any problems you have with it.
Yeah, standing in line to buy a mass-produced consumer item is silly on the face of it. But if you were going to get one anyway,
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Well other than the obvious reason that they want to get the new iPhone before anybody else.
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You mean like have it shipped to your door and delivered on release day?
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There's no guarantee pre-orders will be received on release day. The iPhone 5 came out Sept 21st, but pre-orders were still being fulfilled in October.
So people who missed out on getting a first day slot for their pre-order may well cancel and choose to line up for it at a store.
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At this point, the only reason to line up for an iDevice is to get on TV. This is not different to survivor or Big Brother.
High ticket price, though.
Cheaper looking... (Score:1)
That's been my opinion when looking at the leaked colors, up to and including champagne (which is supposedly an addition to the flagship, rather than the 5C). They look cheap, and the champagne/gold looks like dirty white instead of what I assume was supposed to be evoking jewelry.
Jobs would never stand for this.
Flower Power and Dalmatian iMacs ... (Score:2)
Jobs would never stand for this.
Oh yes he would, he actually did something similar. Flower Power and Dalmatian iMacs.
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Those sounded a lot closer to the actual Note3 colors.
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The colourful iMac DID sell like crazy compared to other Macs and clones.
So in other words, the first few idiots of the (Score:2)
shopping season are finally here!
How about a 'duh' tag (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple will release a new version of their phone, and another one about a year after that and will keep doing so for as long as there is money to be made doing so. This is no different from any other manufacturer releasing new versions of their products - it's what they do. Why people ever act surprised when there's a new shiny version of 'X' has got to be one of life's great mysteries.
Next years surprise, Ford releases the 2015 model of the Focus! Shocking! Who could ever see that coming? What do you mean the entire industry does this every single year?
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On the plus side, at least you can sort of estimate when the new model will be out and if it's worth it to buy or wait.
Other manufacturers will keep touting their current model up till the day the new one is released, sof if you bought the now outdated one, OH WELL.
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Apple will release a new version of their phone, and another one about a year after that and will keep doing so for as long as there is money to be made doing so. This is no different from any other manufacturer releasing new versions of their products - it's what they do. Why people ever act surprised when there's a new shiny version of 'X' has got to be one of life's great mysteries.
Next years surprise, Ford releases the 2015 model of the Focus! Shocking! Who could ever see that coming? What do you mean the entire industry does this every single year?
I think the difference is, previous Focus owners don't camp on the sidewalk all night waiting for the Ford dealership to open so they can pay retail for the next model.
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Next years surprise, Ford releases the 2015 model of the Focus! Shocking! Who could ever see that coming?
This is Jeremy Clarkson's surprised face.
Hmmmm .... (Score:5, Interesting)
WTF does that even mean?
Purple used to be reserved for Royalty I think, but I'm not sure I follow what 'cheaper-looking colors' is supposed to even mean.
Do we have some sort of chart which shows which color looks more expensive than another? Because I've never heard of this.
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WTF does that even mean?
It means the submitter is a biased click whore.
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WTF does that even mean?
You have to translate while looking down your nose. It basically means if you don't have the 5S they won't let you in the tree house.
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I think Apple's iphone color chart looks something like this (albeit with rounded corners and a faux-beveled overlay)
Expensive:
Clear, Metal, Black, White, Gold
Reserved for dirt poor plebs:
Every other color
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I think Apple's iphone color chart looks something like this (albeit with rounded corners and a faux-beveled overlay)
Expensive:
Clear, Metal, Black, White, Gold
Reserved for dirt poor plebs:
Every other color
I wonder if there will be knock-offs discovered to be 5C phones spray-painted white.
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They probably do. Just because you don't think a color looks cheaper doesn't mean others agree with you. Apple devices are like fashion items so I'm pretty sure they are very very selective about color, shape, texture, etc.
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Royal purple was very expensive, as you had to poke / squish thousands of snails to get enough purple snail snot to dye a coat.
We have better living through coal tar^W^Wchemistry now, though.
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Do you get told to go fuck yourself often? Because you're the one acting like a douche at the moment.
Breaking news! (Score:2)
Publicity Stunt, Please ignore. (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a publicity stunt by a company that sells macs or something. I'm not looking up what they do.
Summary:
1) 4 guys get printed shirts with company logos and lines up crazy early.
2) Vice / Gizmodo / engadget / Slashdot talks about them, with pictures of them in their shirts. Make sure you're still there for the NBC crew shows up!
3) Profit!
Please tell me it is even taller/longer (Score:5, Interesting)
Please tell me this thing is even taller, I want the iPhone to end up looking like one of those satellite tv remotes.
Survey says... (Score:5, Insightful)
I think you mean queue (Score:1)
The headline makes sense if you replace the word 'line' (which has many meanings) with the word "queue' (a group of people lined up waiting to buy something, or get into an event)
In the English language anyway.
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But, in New Jersey, nobody knows what the word queue means (even though the reporter used it in the article), but everybody knows what standing in line means. Nobody in the United States has every stood in a queue.
Whenever somebody criticizes your lifestyle... (Score:2)
Whenever somebody criticizes your lifestyle, just point out that vast sums of money are being spent, traded, and speculated based on the color of a consumer product. Building a life-sized T-rex in your backyard? Hitch-hiking to Guatemala? Chucking it all to become a surf-bum and live in a driftwood shack by the beach? Not the least bit absurd by comparison.
scalpers too (Score:2)
iPhone line? (Score:2)
Are you certain [campusbasement.com]?
But also the lower-priced 5C model (Score:2)
So now even the people writing
There must be something wrong with me to keep me coming to a site that's been this far gone for this long, just because it used to make me better informed years ago before it crashed and burned.
Golden iPhone... (Score:2)
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Not innovative enough for a new model number huh?
Not sure why Innovation is tied to model numbers? But anyways the Apple 'S' releases have traditionally focused more on software (Siri, bio metrics) than major hardware redesigns. Not sure why Apple would want to do major 4S->5 redesigns every year.
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Re:Apple stagnation (Score:4, Insightful)
5C is 5 China, it's their bid to gain major penetration into the worlds largest cellphone market.
Re:Apple stagnation (Score:5, Funny)
The letters refer to the demographic they are being sold to.
S - suckers
C - chumps
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I'm going to wait for the iPhone 5PBH.
In fact, forget the P and the B!
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Wow! I expected to modded into oblivion over my post. Good to see that people have a sense of humour.
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The the 4s also has more horsepower than the 4 so it can run Siri, etc.
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Re:Apple stagnation (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Apple stagnation (Score:5, Informative)
Funny, how their were no mic issues before, when it was a third party app.
Not to mention that some jail-breakers were able to figure out exactly how Siri was disabled on the iPhone 4 and re-enable it and - surprise surprise, Siri works just fine on the 3GS and 4 [igeeksblog.com].
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So the other response correctly points out that the 4 didn't get Siri because the mics and the special on-board noise reduction chip weren't in it.
If you'd like to test out what kind of difference this makes, load up Google's voice search, and see how often it gets the search right compared to the 4s. I've basically never gotten a single correct search out of Google when trying to use the voice feature, but I've had friends with newer devices tell me that it all worked just fine.
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Not sure why Innovation is tied to model numbers?
Well, why else would Firefox start increasing the version number every three months other than to increase innovation? Clearly bumping the version number is very important, otherwise we'd still be using Firefox 5 now instead of Firefox 23!
Of course, the "S" versions of phones generally mean "minor spec improvements, no new features" with Apple, so since we already know what iOS 7 is bringing, this means the new iPhone will have nothing interesting.
Re:So? (Score:5, Funny)
thrice a day, ery day
You should probably back away from the computer when you do. Your keys are starting to stick.
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Who are you kidding. The 5S and 5C are both "Designed in California" and "Made in China". Both models will come with both sets of spyware as standard.
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/. used to be a place to read actual articles. Now, it's just infested with a bunch of whiny fandroids and iHaters.
You hypocrites would love if ANY Android phone had this kind of popularity and brand loyalty. You'd love people lining up for days on end for the excitement. But hey, because it's Apple, it's just hate for the sole reason of hating and result to childish name-calling and insults because that's all you can come up with. Sad behavior.
Let me guess -- you're posting this from your 5 while camped outside waiting for the store to open.
I can't speak for the rest of the "fandroids", but to me, waiting outside in the rain (which I've seen with my own eyes for the 4s release -- and skipped getting coffee in that strip mall when the 5 came out) to buy a consumer device at retail makes absolutely no sense to me, and I would be a little alarmed if it happened with a phone I was considering. Perhaps enough to reconsider the wisdom of my choice.