iPhone 4S hands-on!- iPhone 4S unveils

By Darren Murph  posted Oct 4th 2011 3:27PM

It's not an iPhone mini or anything, but it's the first iPhone with Siri. And that has to count for something, right? Right? While it's no iPhone 5 (not even close, really), the iPhone 4S is far from being "last year's iPhone," and the greatly enhanced camera, bolstered A5 dual-core processor and inbuilt voice command should provide plenty of reason for folks to upgrade if they're near the end of their contract. Furthermore, having the option on Sprint -- despite Apple almost announcing it as an afterthought -- is bound to make folks already entrenched on the Now Network think twice about what their next phone will be come upgrade time.

We were able to spend a few quality moments with the refreshed iPhone 4 here at Apple's campus, the Sprint flavor no less, and as you might expect... it's an iPhone 4. But S-ier. Much in the same way that the3GS improved the overall experience of the 3G, the 4S does likewise compared to the existing 4. The dual-core A5 chip is a laudatory improvement, and whisking about pages, loading the camera application and launching -- well, just about everything -- just feels zippier. As it should. The other major change, the antennas, weren't readily different at a glance, but as Mr. Cook stated, you'd have to be iFixit to notice (and we're sure they will).

The most impressive part was the demo of Siri, the new assistant that lets you do just about anything you can do on your phone -- but with your voice. We tried to psych it out with a bunch of random requests, including the history of Chester, Vermont (a lovely town) and the best Ramen places in San Francisco. Siri never faltered, never missed a beat. It worked as well as Scott's demo up on the stage. There's nothing better to say than that. We even sent ourselves a few text messages, which Siri transcribed to a T. Of course, the lady on the other end still sounds eerily robotic, but we're hoping for smoother responses from the alien within in a future update.

The 8 megapixel sensor doesn't look any different from the outside, but we're trusting that Apple's re-engineered the interior. We snapped a few photos in the demo room to test and not a one came out as great as the retina-bursting contrasty pictures of balloons and flowers we saw in the demo, but then again, we didn't have any balloons or flowers to capture.

As for weight and feel? Just like the old king. We'll be updating this post with our impressions live from Cupertino, and are working to get you some better pictures to look at. Hang tight -- they're coming!

Update: Sorry, guys, but this time around Apple isn't allowing anyone to take photos or videos of the new iPhone in the hands-on area at its event. But don't worry, we'll give you all that and more when we review it in the coming weeks!

Apple expected to up the ante with new iPhone

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) —

While Apple Inc. may be keeping its latest product unveiling low-key, the iPhone event slated for Tuesday carries major implications for the company’s largest business.

More than 15 months after the launch of the iPhone 4, Apple’s

AAPL -2.37%  smartphone business is still going strong. More than 55 million iPhones were shipped in the first nine months of the company’s current fiscal year, accounting for 45% of total company revenues for that time. While Apple doesn’t break down profitability per device, analysts estimate the iPhone delivers margins in the low-to-mid 50% range — making it by far the most profitable product in the company’s lineup.

 

Still, competition is growing stronger, especially from phones using Google’s GOOG -2.36%  Android operating system. And Apple has taken longer than usual to update the iPhone this time around, a fact that kept the stock relatively flat in the first half of this year.

“To get the stock right over the next year, they have to get the iPhone right,” said Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray in an interview on Friday.

Apple sets iPhone event for Oct. 4

Apple invited reporters to an iPhone-related event Oct. 4, setting the stage for the widely anticipated launch of its latest smartphone. Stacey Delo has details from San Francisco on The News Hub.

Apple has scheduled an event for Tuesday morning at its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. While the famously tight-lipped company promised to “talk iPhone” in the invitation, it has given no further details as to what is expected.

The stock has been on an upswing of late, adding more than 22% since mid-June. Much of the upside has come on anticipation of the up-coming iPhone refresh as well as the growing dominance of the company’s iPad in the burgeoning tablet market. But the shares have remained relatively range-bound since Apple reported results for its third fiscal quarter on July 19.

Munster said the stock’s mixed performance has come largely from predictions that Apple may launch a special, low-end iPhone to go after emerging markets and segments like pre-paid services in North America. Such a move could strain Apple’s already full production capacity as well as crimp overall margins — if a low-end phone were to cannibalize sales of the regularly priced product.

Apple

Apple’s media invite for the Oct. 4 event.

“Given their production constraints, I think it would be a bad idea,” Munster said of a low-end iPhone. He believes Apple instead will lower the price of its older phones when the new one hits, as it has done in the past.

Since the iPhone 4 has remained a big-seller even past its one-year mark, many believe Apple can address other parts of the market with a lower price on the device. The company has cut the price on its last models — the 3G and 3GS — once newer products have launched.

“We are upbeat about the next iPhone but we wouldn’t be surprised if we saw the iPhone 4 remain in the line-up at lower price points to fend off the competition,” wrote Ben Reitzes of Barclays Capital in a note to clients on Wednesday.

iPhone 5?

The new iPhone to be unveiled on Tuesday will be the fifth in the product’s history, though there is some disagreement as to how the product will be designated.

Several analysts believe — and leaked images on gadget blogs suggest — that the new device will have a few outer design tweaks compared to the iPhone 4, including a larger screen, thinner body and a possible new backplate made from aluminum. 

Most also predict a new, faster processor, likely Apple’s own A5 chip that currently powers the iPad 2. Also, many believe Apple will ship the new device as a “world phone” that can use the differing wireless network standards. The company currently makes two different versions of the iPhone 4 for GSM network operators like AT&T T -1.11%  as well as one for the CDMA networks operated by carriers like Verizon. VZ -0.94%

What few expect is for Apple to incorporate 4G technology like LTE into the new device, given the limited availability of those networks. The company is widely expected to launch an LTE version of the iPhone in 2012.

Chris Whitmore of Deutsche Bank believes a lower-priced iPhone 4 will also be significant for Apple as new countries are added to its market. A lower production cost on the device would allow Apple to maintain its margins while lowering the price for other parts of the wireless market.

“An aggressive push into the mid-range will essentially double Apple’s iPhone TAM [total addressable market] in the near term and position it for more share gains in the 700M-plus unit smartphone market by 2014,” he wrote in a note to clients.

AAPL 381.32, -9.25, -2.37%

Aside from the hardware, the new iPhone is expected to be optimized for the company’s iOS 5 operating system update that is also expected to launch this month. Apple previewed the new software at its developer’s conference in June, which included the new iCloud service that synchs files across multiple devices and stores backups in the company’s cloud servers. Read full report on iCloud introduction.

The June event was also the last public appearance of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs before he stepped down from the CEO role in late August for health reasons. New chief executive Tim Cook and other top-ranking Apple executives are expected to run the event on Tuesday.

Apple is currently slated to report results for its fourth fiscal quarter on Oct. 18. Analysts expect strong results for the period, though iPhone sales may show some effect of consumers holding off purchases until the launch of the new device.

That means the December quarter will likely feel the full effect of the new iPhone, with many analysts expecting unit shipments in the 25-30 million range for the quarter. The company shipped about 16.2 million iPhones in the same period last year.

“We expect Apple to sustain its current momentum as its most recent [third fiscal quarter] results illustrate its impressive success in penetrating the Asia Pacific market and the company is ramping up in key emerging markets as well,” wrote Jeff Fidacaro in a note to clients.

Dan Gallagher is MarketWatch's technology editor, based in San Francisco.

Where iPhone 5 might be lost in Silicon Valley

By Therese Poletti, MarketWatch

WOODSIDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Martin Eberhard, a co-founder and former chief executive of Tesla Motors Inc., laughed when he heard the premise of this column: to feature some Silicon Valley watering holes and hangouts where we might be able to find the next lost iPhone.

By serendipitous coincidence, Eberhard — who was having lunch at the famous Buck’s in tony Woodside, Calif. — showed me his email signature on his iPhone, which reads: “Sent from my iPhone 5 prototype, which I found in a bar.” Just a little geek humor after the latest incident, I suppose.

No, Eberhard did not have that appended to outgoing messages after the news earlier this month that another Apple Inc. AAPL +1.92%  iPhone prototype — this time an iPhone 5, apparently — was left at a drinking establishment (this time at a tequila bar in San Francisco). Read CNET story on iPhone 5 found in a Mission district bar.

Therese Poletti/MarketWatch

From left: Matthew Neher, CEO of start-up Greentech Mining; Kevin Kanning, VP and COO of Greentech; and Dennis Di Ricco, an investor who lists Buck's address as one of his offices on his business card. On the wall is a shrink-wrapped box of Microsoft Windows 1.0.

He’s had that email signature since the top-secret prototype of the iPhone 4 was lost in March last year at Gourmet Haus Staudt, a German bar and beer garden in Redwood City, Calif. “I am beginning to think this is a marketing strategy of Apple,” he said, only half joking. “It might be a new way to test-market a product.” Read more on the first lost iPhone saga.

Eberhard, who won’t talk about what he has been working on since he left Palo Alto, Calif.-based Tesla TSLA +3.95% , is not the lone voice of that theory. But others say that the secretive Apple would never purposely want an employee to leave another iPhone prototype anywhere in public.

“They certainly don’t need the publicity,” argues analyst Ashok Kumar of Rodman & Renshaw. Also, “working at Apple is like working at the CIA.”

Besides, he added, the company certainly would not want to tip off rivals in the smartphone business as to what it will do next: “These products have a really short shelf life.”

Still, hopeful and inquiring minds wanted to know where else in Silicon Valley the next top-secret lost iPhone will turn up. See a slide show of bars and hangouts where you might find the next iPhone.

“We have seen a lot of stuff that is stamped confidential, but confidential to one person is another person’s garbage,” quipped Jamis MacNiven, the owner of Buck's, who’s also written a book, “Tales from the Pancake Guy.”

Eberhard pointed out that it might be hard to spot such a device in the clutter of Buck’s, a favorite haunt for venture capitalists and entrepreneurs. Every bit of wall space is taken up with MacNiven’s collectibles — from Cracker Jack prizes of the 1920s and 1930s and a shrink-wrapped box of Microsoft Corp ‘s. MSFT +0.48%  Windows 1.0 to a soapbox car, a relic from the Sand Hill Challenge derby of the dot-com boom.

Click to Play

Cracking open the hotel minibar

The Minibar is a savior when guests need a Toblerone late at night and there's no room service. But hotels and guests say minibars are also problematic, and that's prompting change.

One could stay all day in Buck’s, but sadly it’s time to move on. Not far is Sand Hill Road, where the swish Rosewood Sand Hill resort has one of the most elegant bars seen on this Valley pub crawl, simply called the Bar. Power banker Frank Quattrone scurried away after a quick hi, avoiding annoying questions about lost gadgetry or deals he has in the works. After a divine $5 pomegranate mojito sans alcohol, it’s time to leave.

Next, Cupertino, Calif., seems like a good bet. The old Peppermill next door to Apple’s campus is now gone. It’s been replaced by BJ’s Restaurant and Brewhouse, where you can see the main One Infinite Loop building from the parking lot. One BJ’s worker admits he always looks at the phones Apple employees have to see if they are new, yet-to-be-released iPhones.

“Nothing top-secret has ever been left here,” said Treavor Morris, general manager of BJ’s Cupertino. “We’ve found a few iPads, but they come right over and pick them up.” Well, there’s always a first time.

Another likely candidate is a pub, the Duke of Edinburgh on North Wolfe Road, on the other side of the 280 freeway in Cupertino, where Apple’s new campus will be built. Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ +1.12%  still has some people working there and Apple occupies some buildings nearby. The Duke, as it is called, has a charming, and likely little-used, red London phone booth outside, and its interior is said to have been made in England.

“They talk about doing business at the Duke,” said J.C. Deacha, one of the owners of the Duke, of the H-P employees and previously Tandem workers. But no, “we haven’t found anything like that,” he said when asked about ever seeing any clandestine prototype devices.

Alas, the Mexican cantina Pedro’s in Santa Clara, Calif., hasn’t had any shenanigans with drunken engineers leaving confidential products behind either. “I found an iPhone in the bathroom,” reported Dora Garcia, the manager. Its sobered-up owner claimed it the next day.

But Pedro’s — known as a watering hole for Intel Corp. INTC +2.00% employees, as well as those of EMC Corp. EMC +0.31%  and Qualcomm Inc. QCOM +0.45% — might be a place where a Johnny-come-lately in smartphones might want to “accidentally” leave a working device with chips (not of the tortilla variety) based on the microprocessor giant’s new partnership with Google Inc. GOOG +0.76% . Read more about Intel's deal with Google.

Heading north: So many bars, so little time. One stop is Fred’s Place on Old Middlefield Way in Mountain View, Calif., a local dive that’s something of an institution, having been a stone’s throw from the original Fairchild Semiconductor offices on Charleston Road. It’s not clear if Fred’s was also a big hangout of the early chip cowboys (like the now-demolished Wagon Wheel was, which stood at East Middlefield and Whisman Roads). But given Fred’s location and age, it’s pretty likely.

“Lots of companies have started here on a napkin,” said Paul Partti, who has co-owned the 51-year-old Fred’s for the last 11 years. He declined to be more specific, giving his bar a mysterious allure — visible by its magenta neon sign, complete with glowing martini glass and olive. The usual things have been forgotten, typically cell phones, but nothing top-secret or in development. “It’s funny that this happened to Apple twice,” he mused.

Torn between the chichi bar at the Four Seasons Hotel just off the 101 highway and downtown Palo Alto, I decided to continue exploring dives. “Most of the geeks I know go into bars on University Avenue or California in Palo Alto,” said Trip Chowdhry, a Global Equities Research analyst.

Antonio’s Nut House on California Avenue is a favorite of some Facebook Inc. and AOL Inc. AOL -2.91%  employees as well as Stanford students. Disappointed only to find peanut shells covering the floor, and nary an iPhone prototype hidden among them, it was time to call it a night.

Therese Poletti is a senior columnist for MarketWatch in San Francisco.