Apple Unveils iPhone 4S With Voice-Recognition Features-NYTimes

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October 4, 2011

Apple Unveils iPhone 4S With Voice-Recognition Features

By SAM GROBART


Tech journalists descended upon Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., on Tuesday for some iPhone-related announcements. Our updates from the event are below, with the most recent at the top.



2:38 P.M. |Tim Cook Wraps It Up

Tim Cook is back on stage. He’s reviewing everything we’ve heard today. Now he’s pivoting from the devices to the company. “Only Apple could make such hardware and services…”

“I am so incredibly proud of this company and all of the teams that worked so hard to bring all the amazing things you’ve seen to reality.”

And that’s your Apple press event. Mr. Cook exits, stage left. “Layla” now playing over the speakers.

So, in spite of the many mockups that circulated online, and “new cases” that were “revealed,” the iPhone 4S looks exactly the same as the iPhone 4.

Investors seem unhappy with what they’ve heard. Apple’s stock is down 2.6 percent on heavy volume.

We’ll have more coverage soon. Thanks for reading.

2:35 P.M. |Pricing for the iPhone 4S

Prices for the iPhone 4S are as follows: $199 for 16 gigabytes of storage, $299 for 32 GB, and $399 for 64 GB. There will be an iPhone 4 with 8 GB for $99. And there will be an iPhone 3GS for… free, with a two-year contract.

Preorders for the 4S start Oct. 7, delivery on the 14th.

Sprint gets it too! So a world phone on three out of four major networks.

2:22 P.M. |More Features of Siri, Voice Control on iPhone


Siri can schedule events in your calendar, read messages, take dictation, all by voice. You can create a reminder by voice. “Remind me to call my wife when I leave work,” says Mr. Forstall. Siri, based on previous conversations, knows who your wife is and uses geolocation to remind you when you leave a location. You can search Wikipedia by voice.

Apple has also linked up with Wolfram Alpha to provide data and definitions for Siri to access. “Define mitosis,” says Mr. Forstall. Siri generates and reads back a definition.

We are clearly headed to Terminator/HAL territory here. Humans are doomed. Deal with it.

Mr Forstall asks Siri, “Who are you?” Siri replies, “I am a humble personal assistant.”

That’s just chilling.

Jenna Wortham adds: Will this kind of personal assistant technology turn into the latest battleground between Apple and Google? Android has already baked several voice-recognition features into its software, including transcribing voice messages to text and letting users browse the Web using verbal commands. But Siri could help nudge the technology into the mainstream.

More voice recognition: Anywhere a keyboard appears on the phone’s screen, there will be a microphone button, so you can dictate anything. Siri will initially support English, French and German. It will be released in a beta version, with more languages and features added in time.

We’re watching a video now. Just a recap.

2:16 P.M. |Demonstrating Voice Control on the iPhone

Scott Forstall, Apple’s iOS chief, is back on stage. He asks the phone, “What is the weather today?” The phone replies, “Here is the weather for today,” and displays the weather screen.

Mr. Forstall asks, “Do I need a raincoat today?” The phone replies, “It sure looks like rain today,” and shows the weather screen again.

“What time is it in Paris?” he asks. The phone replies with the time in Paris and shows a clock. “Wake me up at 6 a.m.,” says Mr. Forstall. “O.K., I’ve set an alarm for 6 a.m. tomorrow,” the phone replies. This is amazing. And freaky.

Apple’s set up a partnership with Yelp as well. “Find me a great Greek restaurant in Palo Alto.” The phone says: “I’ve located 14 Greek restaurants. Five are in Palo Alto. I’ve sorted them by rating.”

You can ask Siri for directions. It can read text messages to you. You can reply or ask it to read them again.

Mr. Forstall: “Do I have any meetings this Friday at noon?” Phone: “You don’t have any meetings on Friday at noon.”

2:14 P.M. |Better Voice Control for the iPhone

“We left one thing out,” says Mr. Schiller. “It’s about our voice.” This is the fruit of Apple’s acquisition of Siri, a startup that has been working on voice-control features. Siri is now a feature on the iPhone. “It’s an intelligent assistant that helps you get things done, just by asking.”

“Probably the craziest thing you can do is do a voice-recognition demo on stage, live,” says Mr. Schiller. “But we’re going to do it anyway.”

2:12 P.M. |But Where’s the iPhone 5?

A slide just went up with the number 5. But then it was quickly replaced with a slide about AirPlay. What’s up with that? Is there an iPhone 5? These are all the kinds of changes people were expecting for the iPhone 5, so it’s hard to say.

2:04 P.M. |The Camera in the iPhone 4S


We’re now on to the camera in the iPhone 4S. “We set our sights on competing with the best point-and-shoot cameras,” Mr. Schiller says. The camera has an 8-megapixel sensor, 60 percent more pixels than the iPhone 4’s camera. It has a backside-illuminated CMOS sensor that captures 73 percent more light. It’s 33 percent faster.

Translation: the photos will be better. The iPhone already has a pretty good camera. These improvements may well make it a really good one. Point-and-shoots should be afraid.

The iPhone 4S takes 1.1 seconds to take its first photo once you start up the Camera app. The Droid Bionic, by comparison, takes 3.6 seconds, says Mr. Schiller.

Mr. Schiller is showing unretouched photos taken with the iPhone 4S. They are pretty. The same camera system also works for video, which is now 1080p, the highest high-definition standard available. There’s also video image stabilization. We’re now going to see some video from the iPhone 4S.

2:02 P.M. |Stats on the iPhone 4S

The new chip is twice as fast as the older one, we are told. Battery life is 8 hours of talk time on 3G, 14 hours on 2G, 10 hours of watching video.

Mr. Schiller is now talking about the wireless system. The 4S now can switch between the two antennas to transmit and receive, for better call quality. He says downloading data can be twice as fast.

Mr. Schiller is saying that the speed bump the 4S gets from the new chip makes it competitive with devices that can use faster 4G wireless networks.

The 4S is also is a world phone, meaning it has both GSM and CDMA network capabilities. That’s huge for Verizon.

1:55 P.M. |Unveiling the iPhone 4S


“Next: iPhone,” says Mr. Schiller. We’re looking at the existing iPhone 4, hearing how great it is. But now he’s talking about the iPhone 4S. Muted applause.

“Inside, it is all new.” It has an A5 chip, same as the iPad 2. So, no new design. At least, not for this model — is there an iPhone 5 as well?

Of course, Apple did the same thing with the iPhone 3G. The model after that was the 3GS.

This is sort of funny — reports were out there that Apple was “hiding” the iPhone 5 in an iPhone 4 body. Maybe Apple wasn’t hiding it at all.

Developers of the game Infinity Blade 2 are now on stage, showing off the iPhone 4S’s graphics ability. They point out that there are koi in a pond in a gaming scene. People applaud here in the auditorium. People love koi.

The Infinity Blade person describes the graphics as “eye-melting.” I should certainly hope not.

1:52 P.M. |Schiller on the iPod Touch

Mr. Schiller is talking about the iPod Touch. As mentioned earlier, iMessage works over Wi-Fi, so even though the Touch can’t do text messages, it can communicate free over Wi-Fi.

There is now a white iPod Touch. The 8-gigabyte Touch is now $199, 32 GB is $299, 64 GB is $399. The iPod Shuffle starts off the lineup at $49.

1:48 P.M. |An Update to the Nano


Phil Schiller is now on stage, looking trim. He’s talking about an update to the iPod Nano. The apps on the Nano are now swipeable, making it easy to move from one app to another.

Mr. Schiller is talking about the Nano’s use among fitness buffs. There are now 16 new clock faces for people who want to wear their Nano as a watch. The faces are cute: chronometers, and Mickey Mouse! “We worked with Disney,” says Mr. Schiller. Given that Steve Jobs is Disney’s largest individual shareholder, that mustn’t have been too hard.

The Nano is now $129 for 8 gigabytes, $149 for 16.

1:46 P.M. |Music in the Cloud

Mr. Cue is now talking about iTunes Match, which Apple has already previewed. Music that you did not purchase from iTunes can still be shared among devices and backed up in the cloud. Apple will match what you have on your PC with its own online catalog. If you have something that Apple does not, it will be uploaded to the cloud. iTunes Match will cost $25 a year.

iCloud and iOS 5 ship on Oct. 12, and iTunes Match at the end of the month.

We’re now watching a video about iCloud. It’s like the old journalism rule: Tell them what you’re about to tell them. Tell them. Then tell them what you’ve told them.

1:41 P.M. |Location Features: Find My Friends


The Find my iPhone function, which lets you see your lost phone on a map, is being adapted for Macs too, so you can find your lost MacBook Pro.

And there’s a new app, called Find My Friends. You see a list of friends and family who are sharing their location with you on a map. You can create temporary events, and you can invite friends to share their location with you, but you can set a time for the location-sharing to end. There will undoubtedly be major social snafus because of this feature.

iCloud is free, but heavy users can get storage updates. (More on that later. The slide went by fast.)

1:38 P.M. |Up in the iCloud


Eddie Cue is next to talk about iCloud. (He is clearly reading from a teleprompter.) “It just works.”

First: iTunes in the cloud. Music purchased on one device will be downloaded to all your iOS devices. Previously purchased music (or TV shows) can be accessed by any iOS device. This is not entirely new: some of these features have already been available.

We’re now on to Photostream. Photos taken by one device will be pushed to all other iOS devices, as well as iPhoto on your computer.

Basically, all of your stuff is available from all of your devices. Mr. Cue is applying this to different apps (Pages, Keynote, etc.), but that’s the gist.

iCloud does a daily backup from all your devices. Contacts and calendars are synced.

1:33 P.M. |On Safari and Mail

The Safari browser is next. Reader is a new button on Safari. Tap that button, and you get a text-only version, formatted for your device. It’s like Readability (sorry, Readability). Reading List lets you save articles for later, like Instapaper (sorry, Instapaper). Tabbed browsing is also now available.

And in the Mail app, there are new formatting tools, and you can search the text of an e-mail, not just the subject and address lines. (Finally.)

iOS 5 is now PC free, says Mr. Forstall, meaning you don’t have to connect your device to a computer to get started. And iOS updates are also wireless. The new operating system will be available next week.

1:32 P.M. |Changes to the iPhone’s Camera App

The camera app is now accessible from the lock screen. Double-tap the home button and you can go directly to the camera app, no password or anything required. You can lock autofocus and exposure on a single point in the frame.

Red-eye reduction, auto-enhance and other improvements have been made to Camera.

1:27 P.M. |New Features in iOS 5

We’re now talking about iOS 5 and getting a recap of new features. Notifications is one of the big ones. All of those old pop-ups are now sent to the notifications center. Notifications can be displayed on the lock screen too. Swipe any notification and you will be taken to the app that is associated with it so you can respond appropriately.

iMessages is next. It’s a souped-up text messaging system, basically. These are sent over 3G and Wi-Fi. Then there’s Reminders. It will remind you to do things (duh), and also uses the iPhone’s location capabilities to remind you to do something when you’re near the place where you need to do that thing.

Twitter gets a spot in the lineup, as Mr. Forstall explains how Twitter is deeply integrated into iOS 5. Newsstand is iOS’s way to manage publications like magazines and newspapers. New issues are downloaded in the background.

1:23 P.M. |Apple’s Mobile Operating System

Scott Forstall, Apple’s iOS chief, is now on stage. (Steve Jobs does not appear to be here, but there is a bottle of SmartWater, his preferred beverage, on a podium.)

Mr. Forstall is talking about how more than 1 billion apps are downloaded in a month. A new app is being shown: Cards. You can create cards on your phone or iPod Touch, and Apple will print them out and mail them.


If you mail something within the United States, Apple can use the postal service’s intelligent barcode system, letting you know when the card will be delivered. The price is $2.99 to mail in the United States, $4.99 for the rest of the world.

My colleague Jenna Wortham adds: Apple is getting into the snail-mail business — one that start-ups like Postagram, which lets people send real postcards created from pictures taken on their iPhones, have tried to corral. Or is Apple setting its sights on Hallmark?

1:19 P.M. |On to the iPad


Mr. Cook is talking about how pilots are using the iPad to replace 40-pound flight plans, which he claims makes the planes more fuel efficient. And that, technically, is true. But come on.

Three out of four tablets sold are iPads, Mr. Cook says. There have been more than 250 million iOS devices sold.

“Today we take this to the next level.”

1:16 P.M. |Talking About iPhone

“Next up is iPhone — this could be a reason why the room is so full today.” More stats supporting Apple’s dominance. Ninety-three percent of Fortune 500 companies are testing or deploying the iPhone, Mr. Cook says. He’s smooth, totally on his game.

In spite of all this success, Mr. Cook says, the iPhone has only 5 percent of the worldwide handset market. “We believe all handsets will become smartphones,” he says.

There have been rumors about Apple releasing a cheaper iPhone for other markets, but previous-generation iPhones are sold at a fairly steep discount, so it’s unclear how a purpose-built device would be useful.

1:13 P.M. |On to the iPod

Mr. Cook is now talking about the iPod. They’re showing an image of the original iPod, which now seems so old and foreign. Who buys the iPod Classic anymore? There have been rumors that it may go away.

Apple has sold more than 300 million iPods, 45 million in the year that ended in June.

ITunes has more than 20 million songs for sale. It is the No. 1 music store in the world, with 16 bilion songs downloaded, Mr. Cook says.

1:09 P.M. |Some Product Updates


We’re now getting news about other Apple product lines, like Lion, the Mac operating system. This is the rhetorical equivalent of putting the milk in the back of the supermarket: We’re all here for iPhone news, but first you have to walk past all this other stuff.

Mr. Cook is talking about how Lion was adopted at a rate 10 times faster than Windows 7. (Which is nice for Apple, but let’s not forget there are still boatloads more Windows users out there.) Apple is approaching 60 million Mac users and has 23 percent of the PC market, Mr. Cook says. “We have a lot to go,” he says, referring to the other 77 percent.

1:02 P.M. |Tim Cook Kicks It Off

Tim Cook has taken the stage: “I love Apple. I consider it the privilege of a lifetime.”

“This room has quite a history at Apple. Just 10 years ago, we launched the original iPod here. And just one year ago, we launched the MacBook Air. Today we will remind you of the innovations of this company.”

Mr. Cook, who is wearing dark jeans and a navy Oxford shirt with a black t-shirt underneath, is now talking about the retail stores. New shops are in China — Shanghai and other cities. Shanghai is their largest store in Asia, and 100,000 people came over opening weekend. By comparison, the Los Angeles store had 100,000 people in a month. Now we’re seeing images of the Hong Kong store. And a video about the company’s retail arm. Apple now has 357 stores in 11 countries.

12:57 P.M. |Gearing Up for Announcements


We’re here in the auditorium; people are being seated and Led Zeppelin’s “When the Levee Breaks” is playing. Prior to that, it was the Rolling Stones and “Under My Thumb.” Get it? Thumb? Oh, Apple — you so funny.

We’ve now moved on to “Can’t Explain,” by the Who, a phrase that is often heard from Apple’s P.R. department. We should be starting shortly — we’ve been asked to silence our phones.