Deceptive appearances

Well, here’s a tough little cookie — this year’s “Let’s talk iPhone” event wasn’t quite as eventful as everyone had anticipated it to be, and I say this not because it’s been (massively) overshadowed by the demise of the one of the greatest visionaries, but because, well, we didn’t get the iPhone 5.

The rumour mills had been rife with expectations of a radical upgrade to the iPhone 4, especially since the annual iPhone event usually held in June didn’t really happen. Apple instead decided to move the new iPhone announcement to their October iPod unveiling. People expected something big out of this. Bluntly put, it really wasn’t meant to be. but here’s what came out of it.

There’s a new iPhone on the block, and it’s been christened the 4S. Now, we don’t really know what the ‘S’ stands for, but I think the best description wo-uld be ‘subtle’. there really isn’t much else to it. for starters, it looks exactly the same as its old brother. the difference is all on the inside.

Feast your eyes on these specs. There’s the weirdly named Siri Assistant, a voice-controlled assistant you can call up anytime by holding down the home button for a few seconds. you can ask it the weather, time, directions, schedule a meeting on your calendar, reply to messages, play a song from iTunes, or ask any factual question via Wolfram Alpha. Pretty neat if it actually works, no?

Yeah so, now that you know about it, should you buy it? well, if you’re already in possession of an iPhone 4, we’d really tell you to hold on to your money. with the mild upgrade here, chances are a really awesome iPhone 5 is in the works. but if you’re looking for a smartphone that’s worth your money, or if you’re in the market for an iPhone, there’s no doubt about it. This is the one to get.

The Raw Hardware* Dual-core A5 processor (power efficient, up to two times more power and up to seven times faster graphics.)* 1GB of RAM (as opposed to 512 MB on the iPhone 4.)* Dual CDMA/GSM chip for different networks (but sorry, dual SIM junkies, you’ll still have to wait.)* “Slightly longer” battery life.* Faster wireless data speeds via HSDPA (read: technology too advanced for Indian users.)

The Camera* the you-can’t-believe-it’s-on-a-phone camera (except you can. It’s 8 megapixels. Big deal!)* Video recording in 1080p HD.* All new optics (better photos in low-light.)

The Software* iOS 5 (the OS you’ll get on your iPhone 4 and iPod touch anyway, starting October 12.)* iCloud (stores your music, photos, apps, mail, contacts, calendars, documents and more. and wirelessly pushes them to all your (Apple) devices.)