Full review of Apple’s 2011 iPhone 4S: Faster, better camera, and Siri

iPhone 4S is minor spec bump over last year’s iPhone 4. Except it’s not. It’s a full on assault of the senses, with eyes, ears, and feel far beyond any previous mobile device. Yes, the hardware bumps specs to be certain — faster chipset, better camera — but it’s what Apple’s iOS 5 software and iCloud services do with that hardware that makes iPhone 4S so compelling, including one feature in particular that makes it the biggest leap forward in mainstream computer interfaces since multitouch on the original iPhone — Siri.

It’s fast, the antenna is rock solid, the camera is amazingly good, and Siri just might be the next big leap forward computer interfaces.	It’s the same design as last year, including the glass backing, which may rankle potential buyers who’d hoped for a change.
Apple has produced an incredibly compelling upgrade from feature phones, and the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. iPhone 4 owners have little reason to upgrade unless speed, camera, or Siri are unusually important to them.

Previously on TiPb

iPhone 4S is the 5th generation iPhone, and one of three models on the market for 2011. While an incredible amount has changed, there are still a lot of features that have carried over from previous years, so here are our previous reviews for the sake of completeness.

• White iPhone 4 review (May 2011)
• Verizon iPhone Review (February 2011)
• AT&T iPhone Review (June 2010)
• iPhone 3GS review (June 2010)

iPhone 4S hardware

 

From the outside, the iPhone 4S looks almost identical to the iPhone 4. It’s the same iconic shape, the same Braun- and Leica-inspired slab of glass and stainless steel. It may no longer be as fresh as it was when it debuted some 16 months ago, but it’s still among the best designed and certainly the best built hardware on the market. It’s also just as fragile, with chemically treated glass on both front and back, and an exposed antenna array all along the sides.

There are some small, subtle differences between iPhone 4S and iPhone 4. They’re both 0.37 inches (9.3 mm) thin at 4.5 inches (115.2 mm) high and 2.31 inches (58.6 mm) wide but iPhone 4S is just a tad heavier at 4.9 ounces (140 grams). That’s 0.1 ounces (3 grams) heavier than the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS.

Like the original AT&T/GSM iPhone 4, all iPhone 4S models have a microSIM tray. Like the later Verizon iPhone 4, the iPhone 4S has symmetrically aligned gaps in the external antenna array — two on both sides.

All the buttons and ports are where you’d expect them. 3.5mm headset, noise-canceling mic, sleep/wake button, microSIM card slot (even on CDMA models, see below), speaker, 30-pin dock connector, phone mic, volume up and down buttons, and the ring/silent switch. On the front, below the screen there’s still a home button. Above the screen is the ear speaker and the still only VGA (640×480) camera. On the back is the LED flash and the new 8 megapixel still, 1080p video camera.

Sensors also remain the same, with aGPS, a digital compass, ambient light, proximity, accelerometer, and gyroscope.

So If iPhone 4 was beautiful to you, iPhone 4S is more of the same to love. If the glass or antenna concerned you, if you were hoping Apple will go thinner or bigger or switch to a metal or plastic case, then the other features will have to be compelling enough for you to look past the looks.

Design evolution

While iPhone 4S is the 5th generation iPhone, it’s only the 3rd major casing design in the product’s history. Here it is compared to the original iPhone (2007) and iPhone 3GS (2009).

8 megapixel, 1080p Camera

Apple chose not to improve the front-facing iPhone camera. Even though Macs have gone to FaceTime HD in 1280×720 (720p), iPhone 4S remains disappointingly 640×480 (VGA.)

The rear-facing camera is another story entirely. It’s 8 megapixels now and capable of recording 1920×1080 (1080p) video. They’ve also improved the backlight sensor, added an f/2.4, wide angle lens capture as much light and picture as possible, and added an extra piece of glass into the assembly to increase sharpness. There’s also an infrared filter to improve colors, face detection for better exposure and focus on portraits, and image stabilization to keep your videos from shaking.

We asked our app editor and resident photographer, Leanna Lofte put it to the test.

• Complete iPhone 4S 8 megapixel camera review
• iPhone 4S photography examples

Overall, the iPhone 4S did a phenomenal job with landscapes especially considering the broad range of lights and darks. With HDR (high dynamic range) enabled, the results were excellent. The f/2.4 lens lacks manual controls but handles motion far better than last year’s iPhone 4.

Face detection works impressively well, even when the subject is moving around and the face partially obscured. The improved backlit sensor does far better in low-light situations, however, capturing shots that were impossible with iPhone 4.

Macro photography, however, more of a challenge. They look great if focus locks on, but often the iPhone 4S fails to lock focus. This might be an iOS 5 issue, and if so, hopefully Apple will fix it in a future update.

The 5x digital zoom and flash are serviceable if you really need them, but are really only useful when you have no other options.

• Complete iPhone 4S 1080p video review

For video, the iPhone 4S 1080p camera did a terrific job adjusting between shade and light, though under bright backlighting the video remained slightly underexposed. Image stabilization worked well for walking and panning but couldn’t compensate for more extreme motion like running.

Low-light was better than iPhone 4but wasn’t great. There was visible grain, and image stabilization didn’t work as well in low light conditions, but iPhone 4S’ ability to compensate for color distortion was impressive and a huge improvement over iPhone 4. Again, macro video was incredibly sharp but iPhone 4S had trouble locking focus on very thin objects.

In addition, Apple has focused on reducing the time it takes to get your photo or video. You can now double tap the home button and tap a new Camera button right on the lock screen to go directly to the Camera app (bypassing Passcode Locks, so beware of pranks if you leave it unattended). You can now also take photos with the Volume Up button. The time it takes the shutter screen to “open” — previously a area of frustration — is also dramatically faster. And, according to Apple, a dedicated Image Signal Processing chip speeds up picture taking, with the first photo taking only 1.1 seconds and subsequent photos taking only 0.5 seconds.

Overall, for impromptu, casual photo and video taking, low end point-and-shoots have just been made redundant. Even for special occasions, vacations and other events, non-photographers and non-videographers can realistically rely on an iPhone 4S and be well served. Apple has done a terrific job here, giving iPhone 4S an incredible new eye.

Antenna and reception

If iPhone 4 had an achilles heel it was the external antenna band. At 5 bars, touching the right antenna junction could drop it down to 3. At 1 or 2 bars, it could literally became a network pause-play button. . Yes, the mainstream media blew it completely out of proportion, and a case made it go away completely, but it was a flaw.

And Apple has addressed it by adding a second antenna and giving the iPhone 4S the ability to intelligently switch between the two to make sure reception is more reliable, more often. It also doubles the previous HSPA 7.2 speed to 14.4 Mbps.

The new Qualcomm RTR8605 chipset is technically HSPA+, but doesn’t include the much faster HSPA+ 21 or 42 Mbps data speeds. So data is faster if not dramatically so. In most areas those top speeds remain theoretical anyway, but it’s a shame people who can get them, can’t get them with iPhone 4S.

For CMDA users on Verizon and Sprint, none of this matters anyway, because you’re still stuck on the 3 Mbps EV-DO rev A network, with all the limitations that come with it. These will likely only be overcome in 2012 or beyond, when LTE 4G (Long Term Evolution) chipsets are thin and energy efficient enough to meet Apple’s requirements.

However, the new Qualcomm chipset does support dual-mode CDMA/GSM. That makes it a world-phone, and means if you travel outside the US you can roam in international GSM carriers. They may even unlock it for you, if you’re a good enough customer and ask nicely enough. Then you can use local microSIMs when you travel and avoid paying roaming altogether.

However, you can’t switch between Sprint and Verizon,or put in an AT&T SIM and have it work. The carriers are still locking that down. (Time will tell if the Jailbreak community can set it free.)

Here are the supported bands:

• UMTS/HSPA at 850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz
• GSM/EDGE at 850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz
• CDMA/EV-DO Rev. A at 800, 1900 MHz

If you noticed the AWS 1700 MHz band that T-Mobile uses in the US, and Wind, Videotron, and others use in Canada are missing, that’s because the are. T-Mobile USA is now the last major carrier in the US without an iPhone to offer.

Wi-Fi has stayed the same as last year, with 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi. The 802.11n also remains 2.4GHz only. The Bluetooth radio on the other hand gets a boost and now supports Bluetooth 4.0, which offers lower power consumption and lower latency.

Speaker and mics

Every year we hope the inventor of the iPod will put a decent mic and speaker system into the iPhone, and every year we get made fun of by BlackBerry, and more recently, Android Beats users.

While there haven’t been any announcements, and certainly no stage demos, of Apple going all in on audio the way they have with optics, iPhone 4S does show real signs of improvement. The speaker is louder and clearer, making it easier to do hands-free calls.

The noise canceling mic does an excellent job in keeping both conversations and Siri voice commands functioning even in busy, noisy rooms.

And the vibration motor, which has reportedly been redone in a linear rather than rotational arrangement, is less annoying when it goes off, yet every bit as noticeable.

Audiophiles might still be waiting for Phil Schiller to give them the attention photographers got this year, but for average users things are an improvement.

Apple A5 System-on-a-chip

The iPhone 4S gets the dual core Apple A5 system-on-a-chip (SoC) that was first introduced last spring alongside the iPad 2. Reportedly based on ARM’s Cortex A9 central processing unit with Imagination’s PowerVR SGX 543MP2 graphics processing unit, Apple will only say it provides 2x the computing power and 7x the graphics power of iPhone 4. This lets it power everything from AirPlay Mirroring to the Siri virtual assistant.

Doing bigger things isn’t the only point, however. Doing more smaller things faster makes a difference as well. Launching apps, rendering and scrolling through web pages, playing games — all these things are palpably faster. Near-instant, in fact. You’ll feel it right away, and if you ever go back to an older iPhone or smartphone, you’ll miss it immediately.

Interestingly, Apple’s stuck with the same 512MB of RAM for the A5. While competing phones are sporting 1GB these days, Apple seems to believe they don’t need more RAM for better performance. Given it’s snappy performance and ability to keep everything from web pages to apps in memory, it’s hard to argue. Still, developers will keep pushing the silicon and it would have been interesting to see what 1GB would have let iOS 5 games achieve.

Battery power

With the monstrous new Apple A5 SoC, and demanding new features like location-based Reminders and voice-crunching Siri, battery life should be a legitimate concern. Apple impressively claims very little change from the iPhone 4, though standby time seems to have taken a very large hit (down 33%).

• 3G talk time: 8 hours
• 2G talk time: 14 hours
• Web browsing: 6 hours
• Video watching: 10 hours
• Audio listening: 40 hours

In our tests it’s hard to get a handle on. Reminders, Siri, and the other new features are so useful you end up using them more often, which leads to faster battery drain. If you stop using them (or turn them off in the Settings app), the battery seems just below iPhone 4 standards, but you lose out on all that great functionality.

If you charge frequently you can enjoy the best of both worlds, a phone doing what you need with power enough to do it when you need it. If you can’t get to power, you’ll have to moderate your usage.

We’ll keep an eye on battery life going forward and update.

Accessory compatibility

While iPhone 4S is almost identical to iPhone 4, it’s that almost that can get you. Depending on how well a manufacturer followed Apple’s tolerance guidelines, most iPhone 4 cases should fit iPhone 4S, with Verizon iPhone 4 compatible cases likely providing the best fit. If in doubt, check into the specific case you want and ask about iPhone 4S compatibility. Here are some examples.

• TiPb iPhone 4S Accessory Store
• Amazon iPhone 4S Accessories

Sticker skins, cables, chargers, and headsets should all be compatible, and with better Bluetooth support, track information and other features should be better than ever before.

Likewise, the iPhone 4S gets not only the iPad 2′s AirPlay Mirroring feature to get content to Apple TV and onto the big screen, but is compatible with the HDMI out Digital AV Adapter as well.

iPhone 4S Software

iPhone 4S ships with iOS 5, Apple’s fifth generation mobile operating system and arguably the biggest update in the history of the platform. It’s a free update for iPhone 3G and iPhone 4 owners, but as always the full feature set is only available on the new iPhone 4S hardware.

We’ve already done a massive write up on all the new features, so, we won’t go over all of it here, just the iPhone 4S specific features, most notably Siri. For the rest:

• Complete iOS 5 feature walkthrough

Siri

Siri is a natural language interface for iOS that combines powerful voice recognition (rumored to be powered by industry leader Nuance) and synthesized speech with an artificially intelligent query and response engine designed to become your "virtual assistant". It replaces the previous Voice Control feature introduced with iOS 3 on the iPhone 3GS.

Siri is also the single biggest feature of the iPhone 4S. The speed is impressive, the camera a remarkable eye, but the voice and ear of Siri is what could define the next generation of computer interfaces. While that may sound hyperbolic, it’s no more so than when Apple mainstreamed command line interfaces with the Apple II, mice and windows with the Mac, or multitouch with the original iPhone. All were derided as “toys” by those who lacked vision or merely disliked the idea of democratizing technology.

If Siri were simply a voice control and dictation system, like others before it, that would be one thing. But Apple has imbued it with an almost Pixar-like humanity, a personality that while unmistakably artificial is undeniably charming and engaging. That’s probably why Apple, atypically, didn’t rename Siri after purchasing the company that made it. Asking Siri a question creates a connection that would be far more difficult to create with a nameless “assistant” app.

Siri understands context. It understands relationships. It understands a smiley face. It can joke, even if canned. It makes you feel, for the first time, like you can have a conversation with your computer. You can ask Siri to tell your mother you’re running late and it will address an iMessage. You can ask Siri to wake you up in 15 minutes and it will set an alarm. You can ask Siri to find you breakfast and it will search for local restaurants. You can ask Siri for the cast of the movie you’re watching and it will query Wolfram Alpha. You can ask Siri her favorite color, and she’ll tell you. She’ll even present widgets, unique to her interface, if you prefer to tap than to reply.

Siri is activated by pressing and holding down the Home button, or by bringing your iPhone 4S up and to your ear, like you would to make a photo call. You can activate the dictations feature alone by tapping the new microphone button on the system-wide keyboard.

Siri is, of course, by no means perfect. It’s still in beta with limited language and even more limited location support. Siri’s voice is female in the US and male in the UK and you can’t alter that (unless you alter the region and your accent). Siri relies on servers that sometimes seem to be struggling to keep up with demand. There could be a customer insight play behind it. And, like humans or Pixar characters, it’s fallible, it makes mistakes, and it tries to “learn” going forward. It’s early days.

Settings can’t be toggle by Siri yet; there’s no turn on/off Wi-Fi or Airplane mode. It can’t launch apps to update your Facebook status or get you back into a game. It can’t plug into the camera for Google Goggle’s type searches, or into Apple’s Faces technology to find a photo of your child. Siri is at her beginning, but it’s a beginning that we’ve only ever seen in Star Trek. And that’s exciting.

The app story

iPhone 4S is compatible with all the hundreds of thousands of iPhone apps contained in Apple’s iTunes App Store. It’s still not ideal — there remain no upgrades, no demos, and Apple as single curator sets itself up as both bottleneck and — though increasingly infrequently — rejector of all apps on the platform.

• Complete TiPb app and game coverage
• Top 5 app and game lists

iOS also remains the most web app-friendly platform in mobile, with an incredibly powerful HTML 5 rendering engine and fast Nitro JavaScript engine now available within Safari, embedded Web Views, and web apps saved to the Home Page.

Accessibility

 

Apple finished the iPhone 4 FaceTime video by showing a deaf person signing to a loved one. Apple finished the iPhone 4S Siri video by showing a blind person replying to a message by voice alone. They’ve also added custom vibration alerts, AssistiveTouch gestures, and other features. I’d be hard pressed to think of another company in consumer electronics doing as much to increase accessibility as Apple.

iPhone 4S is the most accessible device in mobile and Apple once again deserves a ton of praise for continuing to make this a priority.

Pricing and Availability

iPhone 4S is getting the widest, fastest distribution in Apple’s mobile history. Starting October 14 in the US, Canada, Japan, France, Australia, and Germany, it will spread to over 70 regions by the end of 2011.

As always, Apple kept the pricing the same as previous years, offering more phone for the same money. This year, however, they’ve added a 64GB model for $399 on contract. And, while last year’s iPhone 4 drops down to 8GB and $99 on contract, they’ve taken the unprecedented step of keeping the 2009 iPhone 3GS on the market, also at 8GB, but at $0 on contract. That’s an iPhone at every price point from nothing to four hundred. No umbrella indeed.

Apple has also added Sprint as a carrier in the US, making it the 2nd CDMA carrier after Verizon. They’re also shipping the white model day and date.

Should you upgrade or cross-grade?

Overall, if you’re thinking about upgrading from a feature phone or an iPhone 3GS or earlier model iPhone, do it. You’ll be getting a spectacularly improved experience and feature set. If you’re thinking about upgrading from an iPhone 4, then you need to make sure the major new features — speed, camera, antenna, and/or Siri — are compelling enough to warrant the cost. For most mainstream consumers, they won’t be. For gadget lovers or geeks, you’ve likely already found a reason to justify it.

If you’re thinking of crossing over from webOS, you should also do it. Now that Sprint is available and HP is floundering, iPhone 4S is a great choice. For BlackBerry lovers and Android aficionados, if you’re not tired and ready for a change, wait and see what RIM’s new QNX/BBX superphones and Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich powered Galaxy Nexus-lead generation brings to the table.

Either way, here’s some help in deciding which, if any, iPhone is for you:

• Should you get an iPhone 4S?
• Spec Wars: iPhone 4S vs. Samsung Galaxy S II vs. BlackBerry Bold 9900 vs. HTC Titan vs. Pre3
• iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, or iPhone 3GS: Which should you get?
• AT&T vs. Verizon vs. Sprint: Which iPhone 4S should you choose?
• Verizon and Sprint iPhone 4S and the limitations of CDMA
• 16GB, 32GB, or 64GB: Which iPhone 4S capacity should you get?
• Black or white: Which iPhone 4S color should you choose?

If you do decide to go with an iPhone 4S, here’s some help getting started.

• iPhone 4S glossary
• How to setup your new iPhone 4S
• How to transfer your data over from your old iPhone to your new iPhone 4S
• How to transfer your data over from your old Android, BlackBerry, webOS or Windows Phone to your new iPhone
• iOS 5 for iPhone and iPad walkthrough
• iPhone 4S tips and how-tos
• iPhone Live! podcasts (with video!)

Conclusion

iPhone 4S may be evolutionary hardware, faster than iPhone 4, with a better camera and more resilient antenna, but iPhone 4 was a great phone and iPhone 4S is even greater. While the design remains one of the best in the industry, it also remains unchanged. If you like Apple’s aesthetic, then you’ll be very happy. If not — if you would have preferred a larger screen or physical keyboard or a greater amount of standard ports — than Apple has done nothing here to win you over, and likely won’t ever on most of those counts.

In terms of software, almost everything about iOS 5 feels broader and better, and not only more functional, but more personal and more tactile as well. Apple has added more granular levels of control to things like Location Services and Data Storage, so you can keep private what you want to keep private and delete what you want to delete. They've also added more direct touch manipulation to the UI in Calendar and Mail, so the interactions are viscerally intuitive. At the same time they've increased the social, sharing aspects of iOS with services like AirPlay and apps like Find My Friends. It's a clever balance. So is the interface, which Apple has kept as easy for novice users as it was in iOS 1 in 2007, and yet added ever greater layers of complexity for power users, including Fast App Switcher in 2010 and Notifications in 2011. For my sister, an iPhone or iPad can just make calls, play music, watch videos, and take photos. For me they can increasingly do almost anything.

Again, I can’t help but come back to Steve Jobs, the man whose vision and singular will drove Apple to create the future of consumer electronics, device by device, app by app, culminating in the iPhone 4S announced just a day before his passing.

Like Jobs did, it stands at the juncture of technology and liberal arts, powerful and yet accessible, capable and yet safe, incremental new hardware brought to life by ambitious new software.

It’s certainly not the device for everybody, but increasingly the iPhone is the device for most people.

Adobe has finally released an iOS version of Adobe Reader! With it, you can view PDFs, including encrypted files, and print and share files. What you can’t do, is edit PDFs.

Even though Adobe is late to the game with this, I must say that I was rather surprised when I learned that Adobe has made this app available for free.

Adobe Reader is the free global standard for reliably viewing and sharing PDF documents across platfoms and devices. Easily and efficiently access the widest range of PDF file types—including PDF Portfolios, password-protected PDF documents and Adobe LiveCycle rights-managed PDF files. Now available for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch, Adobe Reader offers fast, high-quality interaction with PDF.

View PDF files

• Quickly open PDF files from email , the Web or any application that supports “Open In…”
• View PDF Portfolios, PDF Packages, annotations and drawing markups
• Read text annotations such as Sticky Notes

Access encrypted PDF files

• Open and view password-protected PDF files
• Access files secured by Adobe LiveCycle Rights Management, which helps protect sensitive documents
• Supports the highest grade of PDF encryption, up to AES256

Interact with PDF files

• Search text to find specific information
• Use bookmarks to jump directly to a section in your PDF file
• Select single page or continuous scroll modes
• Easily zoom in on text or images for a closer view
• Quickly navigate through large files using thumbnails
• Select and copy text from a PDF file to the clipboard

Print and share files

• Print wirelessly with AirPrint
• Share PDF files with other applications using “Open In…”
• Email PDF documents as attachments

Adobe Reader is available on the iPhone and iPad for Free.

[App Store link]

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Apple has updated their website to reflect that if you want to buy an iPhone 4S at an Apple Store, you’re going to have to reserve it online first.

iPhone 4S is available in store by reservation only. Reserve yours after 9:00 p.m. tonight for pickup tomorrow. When you come in, you'll choose a carrier and plan, and we'll get your iPhone up and running before you leave the store.

This seems to be Apple’s way of minimizing lines and I think it’s a great idea. Instead of showing up to the Apple Store hoping that they have an iPhone 4S in stock, you can reserve it online the night before.

You can, of course, also order it to be shipped.

Source: Apple

Trying to figure out how to get the iPhone 4S‘s Siri virtual personal assistant to say your name properly? One of Siri’s abilities is to learn who you are and refer to you by your first name. However, many of us have names that Siri does not how to pronounce correctly. Or perhaps you don’t even want to be called by your real name. For example, Ally likes to go by “Jailbreak Ninja”. To get Siri to pronounce your name correctly or call you something else, all you need to do ask. Or you can change the phonetic spellings fields of your contact info.

Ask Siri

1. Activate Siri by holding down the home button and wait for the beep.
2. Say “Call me ____” Fill in the blank with whatever you want Siri to refer to you as. This can be your name or anything else.
3. Siri will reply “From now on, I’ll call you ____. OK?
4. Reply “OK.”

Siri will the update the nickname field of your contact info to this name. This is also how your name will appear when Siri types out your name.

Manually update the phonetic spelling of your name

1. Open Contacts app
2. Select your name
3. Tap Edit
4. Scroll to the bottom and tap “add field”
5. Tap Phonetic First Name or Phonetic Last Name
6. Fill out the field with the phonetic spelling of your name
7. Tap Done

Using this method is best for correct pronunciation of your name, because Siri will still display your name with its correct spelling.

Manually update your nickname

To have Siri call you something other than your name, you can update your nickname manually, and here’s how:

1. Open Contacts app
2. Select your name
3. Tap Edit
4. Scroll to the bottom and tap "add field"
5. Tap Nickname
6. Fill in the field with the name you wish to be called.
7. Tap Done

Using this method will display your name as whatever you typed in the Nickname field.

There you go! Now you’re all set to have Siri call you whatever you wish – whether that be the correct pronunciation of your name, or something else.

Please let us know how this tip worked out for you! Is anyone choosing a nickname other than a phonetically spelled version of their first name, like “Master”, to be humorous? Let us know in the comments below!

Wondering how to turn use AirPlay Mirroring on your new iPhone 4S or iPad 2? Air Play Mirroring is one of the great features of  iOS 5 and enables you to mirror your screen on your second generation Apple TV. Here’s how to get it started.

First off we need to make sure AirPlay is enabled on the Apple TV

• Go into Settings
• AirPlay
• Turn on AirPlay

Now we have done that, grab your iPhone 4S or iPad 2

• Make sure it is connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the Apple TV
• Double Click the Home Button
• Swipe twice from left to right in the fast app switching task bar
• Click on the AirPlay icon which looks like a rectangle with an arrow pointing up
• Select your Apple TV and turn the toggle switch on for Mirroring

Thats it, you should now see your iPhone 4S or iPad 2 screen on your Apple TV.

Enjoy this awesome new feature!

Daily Tips range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you'd like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it's especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we'll even give ya a reward…)

 

 

One of our readers has let us know that, as someone who has his iTunes set up with Paypal, he is unable to make purchases in Apple’s new Cards app. When trying to give Apple his money,

Problem

• Apple’s Cards apps asks you for credit card CVV even though your iTunes account is associated with Paypal and not a credit card.

Work around

• Update your account with a credit card if you want to make any Cards purchase.

I suspect that Apple will fix this soon, as they are probably eager to collect your money. Any other Paypal users run into this problem?

[Thanks Jason!]

9to5Mac posted some thoughts on what they think happened with the more ambitious iPhone 5 update that some were expecting to be announced at Apple’s Lets Talk iPhone event earlier this month.

The iPhone 4S as you see it was originally planned to be released at WWDC with iOS 5, like every iPhone before it [...] But something happened around February of this year that threw everything off. Apple was still integrating the Siri team and code into iOS and it was going much slower than planned. At the same time, Apple's iPhone 5 (teardrop) plans were moving along on or ahead of schedule and the first prototypes were testing well. With mid-October being the earliest possible date of a Siri-fied iOS being ready – with "Apple-levels" of polish –Apple had to look at its options.

This could explain the iPhone 5 case leak-a-palooza we saw just before the iPhone 4S announcement.

TiPb’s own sources are split on this, with some saying Apple had planned iPhone 5 as the new iPhone, and iPhone 4S as souped up iPhone 4 for the mid-range market. Others insist iPhone 4S was the plan all along, and no redesign was ever in the cards for this year (or at least, wasn’t considered for long).

9to5Mac‘s sources expect the redesigned iPhone to be announced in summer of 2012. TiPb’s still hearing fall 2012, but this far out Apple can and will keep plans as flexible as possible.

Hit the link below for a full breakdown.

Source: 9to5Mac

We’re getting lots of mail and tweets from readers who say Siri is currently down for them, as in Apple’s new artificially intelligent voice control system says it can’t connect to the network. While Siri is in beta at the moment, and all online services have outages, that doesn’t stop real users from being really annoyed when it happens.

Is Siri down for you? Are you being told Siri is having trouble connecting to the network? Are you on Wi-Fi or 3G, and if 3G, which carrier? Does restarting your iPhone 4S help?

Let us know if you’re down, any fixes that work for you, and when it starts working again.

Every day, TiPb gets flooded with announcements for new and updated iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad apps and games. So every day we pick just a few of the most interesting, the most notable, and simply the most awesome to share with you!

• My Daily Dream Journal (giveaway): A journal for you dreams! In addition to the journaling features,key themes in your dreams are automatically recognized and listed below your entry. Tap on one of these themes to see possible meanings or even to see how many times this theme has popped up in your dreams. [$0.99 for iPhone and iPad - App Store link]

• MyWakeUpTunes: Lets you set up alarms and wake up to songs in your music library. Now with Instagram integration so you can wake up to beautiful photos! [$0.99 for iPhone - App Store link]

• Melina’s Conquest: Play as the warrior Melina who has to save her mentor Telhar from the evil Giglioblath! Run through over 20+ action packed portals facing challenges ranging from moving spikes to lava pits for hours of fun and challenge that gets more addicting as you play it! [$2.99 for iPhone and iPad - [http://click.linksynergy.com/fs-bin/click?id=xhXvKggNk&subid=&offerid=146261.1&type=10&tmpid=3909&RD_PARM1=http%3A%2F%2Fitunes.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Fgoogle-search%2Fid470610850%3Fmt%3D8)]

• Slide To Do: Display your task list directly on the Lock Screen! [$1.99 for iPhone - App Store link]

• Halloween Totems HD: Set in a magical halloween village where costumed animals help you "match'em and stack'em". [$1.99 for iPad - App Store link]

Giveaway

The good folks at JI Software Company have given us 5 copies of My Daily Dream Journal to giveaway to our readers! For a chance to win, just leave a comment below!

Any other big app or game releases or updates today?

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.

Instapaper, the popular iPhone and iPad app that saves online material for offline reading, has been updated to 4.0. The interface has been complete redesigned, there is a new search subscription available for searching for the full contents of every article you’ve ever saved, and much more!

Great for long articles and blog posts that you find during the day and would like to read, but don’t have the time when you find them. Save with Instapaper, then read later when you’re commuting, in a meeting, or waiting in line.

Here’s the update notes:

• Completely redesigned iPad list interface as a grid with sidebar
• Redesigned iPhone interface with a black-and-white theme
• Multi-select articles in list to archive, delete, or move in bulk
• Search Subscription: the $1/month Subscription from the Instapaper website is now available in the app via In-App Purchase. It’s called Search Subscription, and it adds server-side searching of the full contents of every article you’ve ever saved. This replaces the old downloaded-articles-only search in the app.
• Archive and Delete now peacefully coexist everywhere
• App Directory (in Settings) lists apps that integrate with Instapaper
• Hardware brightness control in iOS 5 (brightness now also available on iPhone)
• Draggable scrollbar for quickly jumping through documents
• Article authors, published dates, and site titles are now displayed when available (availability will increase over time)
• “Friends” section can now browse all recent links posted in your Facebook news feed, Twitter timeline, and Tumblr Dashboard
• “Editors” is now fully intergrated and sourced exclusively from Give Me Something To Read
• New settings to customize number of Liked/Archive articles stored on device
• Wikipedia lookups added to newly redesigned “Define” popups
• Footnotes are converted to inline “…” buttons that display in popovers
• [iPhone] Option to hide the status bar while reading (hidden by default)
• [iPhone] Redesigned font (ᴀA) panel to be like iPad’s
• [iPhone] Redesigned Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Pinboard, Evernote share forms
• YouTube URLs now open in the system’s YouTube app
• New option to use Apple’s dictionary under iOS 5
• Minor improvements to the in-article styling
• Smoother tilt scrolling that works well in all orientations
• New icon
• Added Tweetbot and The Hit List to Share panel
• When updating, the entire table no longer reloads after each article downloads. It now just reloads once after the main update request, showing all (even un-downloaded) articles, and they enable themselves as they get downloaded.

Instapaper is available on the iPhone and iPad for $4.99.

[App Store link]

Have an app you’d love to see featured on TiPb? Email us at iosapps@tipb.com, tell us about your app (include an iTunes link), and we’ll take a look.