The iPhone 4S – A step into the future, or a disappointing remake?

It was Apple’s latest release, quite shortly before Steve Jobs’ death. A great fuss had been made, all the websites were writing about it – the iPhone 5. News on Yahoo, Bing, Google, and other similar internet news providers were flooded with speculations and predictions alike. Some were expecting a commercial success; others not so much. Some people seemed to be in love with the idea of the iPhone 5, and other ones saw it as just another meaningless upgrade to the iPhone, aimed at making a healthy profit for Apple.

What everyone got though, was not the iPhone 5. Instead, Apple presented the new “new revolutionary product of the future” – the iPhone 4S.

The iPhone 4S is the completely same model as the iPhone 4. Even though it is advertised as faster and better, with a higher processing power and a “revolutionary” graphical display, is has been disputed whether any updates were present at all. While it surely is true that hardware and software advances are present within the new model, user reviews have classified it as “exactly the same as the iPhone 4”.

The big question that arises is – “Why would anyone buy this product”? Why would anyone throw away their “old” iPhone 4, even iPhone 3 or 2, for this “wonderful, state of the art” invention that comes at the slim price of just a couple of hundred dollars? The answer lies in the iPhone 4S. Siri.

Siri is a voice recognition program that has amazed even Apple haters. Upon a click-and-hold of the central button, the user can issue a command. This is where it gets interesting.

Commands are successfully recognized, and they can range from making a meeting, to sending a text message (without the user having to type it), calling someone, and making virtually any change in the settings of the phone. The user can also check the internet, Google something and the results are read out loud without even having to look at the screen. While immensely cool, this is also very helpful for people with disabilities, who can’t type or see properly (as is stated in the official commercial).

The bad sides? Having a phone which can do all of this, while it talks back and makes a bit of a conversation, is a slightly creepy idea. While humanity’s goal should be at developing technology, it might take some time before the concept of having technology execute orders much like a human, and having it talk back, is something that we might feel uncomfortable with until it integrates into our daily routine.

David Dlaka