You may be one of the lucky few cradling a newborn iPhone 4S in its swadling clothes this morning, but spare a thought for the new Apple smartphone that landed in the hands of the iFixit team. As is their custom, they've torn the phone apart in order to reveal all its component innards.

The tear-down has revealed 512MB of DDR2 RAM alongside a Qualcomm MDM6610 chip, with, in the case of the 16GB model, 16GB of Toshiba's NAND flash memory.

So how much work will it take to put the iPhone 4S back together if you blow it up?

You'll be pleased to hear it isn't quite Humpty-Dumpty levels of difficulty here, with the iPhone 4S getting an iFixit repairability score of 6 out of 10, with 10 being the easiest to fix.

Not bad going!

The iPhone 4S goes on general sale around the world today.

RELATED | iPhone 4S: Specs, price, official pics and hands-on snaps!

Nintendo's Zelda franchise hits the iPhone!

Well, sort of.

"Ultimate iZelda Climb", developed by Audio Attack is the app in question.

Rather than being a swashbuckling adventure full of magic, dungeons and fair maidens however, Ultimate iZelda Climb is a DoodleJump clone. It's as classy as it is likely to get official endorsement from old Ninty.

We're pretty sure Nintendo President Satoru Iwata will be more than a bit miffed at this unauthorized app. Speaking to Japanese business daily Nikkei back in September, he stated that Nintendo gaming apps were "absolutely not under consideration," despite relatively tough times for the company following the less-than-stellar response to the Nintendo 3DS.

"If we did this, Nintendo would cease to be Nintendo," continued the Nintendo boss. "It's probably the correct decision in the sense that the moment we started to release games on smartphones we'd make profits.

"However, I believe my responsibility is not to short term profits, but to Nintendo's mid and long term competitive strength."

What with Apple's stringent app approval process, you can't help but think the Cupertino team are having a bit of a laugh at Nintendo's expense with this one.

If you're interested, you can grab the app by clicking here. It costs 0.69p. Be quick though, this one will be pulled faster than you can say "bootleg Triforce".

iPhone 4S pre-order deals go live today, and we thought we'd give a quick round-up of where you can grab the handset, and how much for.

There's always a big pricing battle around the launch of new Apple smartphone hardware, with all the networks clamouring to grab your attention, so check below to see if there's a deal for you with Apple's new blower.

Apple

Direct from Apple, SIM-Free, you're looking at £499 for the 16GB model, £599 for the 32GB model and £699 for the 64GB.

Pre-order from Apple by clicking here.

Vodafone

£46 a month on a 2 year contract with Vodafone grabs you a free iPhone 4S. The contract gives customers 1200 minutes, unlimited text messages and 750MB of data.

If 24 months sounds like a very long time to be tied to a contract, Vodafone offer a 12 month deal for £51 a month, selling the handset itself for £139. This contract also gives customers 1200 minutes, unlimited text messages and 750MB of data.

Remember, pre-ordering with Vodafone automatically sees £59 knocked off your November bill with them. Vodafone are also running a trade in scheme, giving £212 for an iPhone 4 and incrementally less for older iterations of Apple's smartphone.

Pre-order from Vodafone by clicking here.

Orange

Keeping it simple, Orange offer the 16GB iPhone 4 for free on a £46 a month contract. for that you get 900 minutes, unlimited text messages and 1GB of data a month. If you'd rather the top-class 64GB model, you'll have to cough up £99 alongside a 2-year, £61 a month contract.

Pre-order from Orange by clicking here.

T-Mobile

It's hit and miss with T-Mobile; they're offering a free 16GB iPhone 4S on a £46 a month contract, much like Vodafone, with the same 1200 minutes, but drop the text message count down to 500, and only offer 750MB of data compared to the 1GB Orange are touting.

However, T-Mobile packages offer flexible booster options that let you choose everything from unlimted texts to unlimited landline calls or free T-Mobile-to-T-Mobile calls, so you may be able to shape the package to suit your needs.

Pre-order from T-Mobile by clicking here.

O2 and Three have both announced they will carry the handset, but as yet neither have it up for pre-order.

So, we've got the iPhone 4S. So what, right?

Right; it may well be the best iPhone ever made, but it's still nowhere near the dream phone we'd imagined the notably-absent iPhone 5 to be. So, for a change, maybe the iPhone 4S isn't the best smartphone on the market? We've taken a look at all the major mobile operating systems to throw you a few iPhone 4S alternatives. There's a few wildcards thrown in, but each is worthy of your attention in different ways. Click through below to take a look.

It's barely a glint in the eye of Old Mother Apple, but Samsung are already making moves to have the newly-revealed iPhone 4S banned.

The ongoing patent dispute between the two parties will now see Samsung attempt to have a sales ban put on the iPhone 4S in territories including France and Italy.

With the move described as "all-out war", Samsung will file two new preliminary injunctions against Apple, claiming the iPhone 4 hardware update infringes on two Samsung-owned patents. Samsung have not yet gone into specifics as to what the patents in question are.

"Apple has continued to flagrantly violate our intellectual property rights and free-ride on our technology, and we will steadfastly protect our intellectual property," said a Samsung spokesperson.

The long-running battle between the two has already led to headaches for tech fans looking to grab the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, which was banned in Australia, Germany and even the UK for a short spell.

Via: PhysOrg

Click here for more info on the iPhone 4S.

We've brought you the specs, we've brought you the pictures, we've brought you the US pricing, now we're bringing you the UK price run-down for the newly announced Appl iPhone 4S.

iPhone 4S prices begin at £499 without a contract for the 16GB model.

Though the rest of the range has yet to have its pricing revealed, educated guesses put the 32GB model at £80 more expensive at £579, and £659 for the 64GB whopper.

Stateside, you're looking at $199 for the 16GB version, $299 for the 32GB, and $399 for the 64GB model.

All prices are the same whether you opt for the black or white versions.

Click here for more info on the iPhone 4S.

Epic Games subsidiary Chair took the iPhone 4S launch as a chance to launch a blockbuster of their own; Infinity Blade 2, the sequel to their mega-popular iOS hack and slash title.

Set to launch on December 1st, the game runs on the Unreal 3 Engine, and uses the iPhone 4S's new A5 processor to be even more of a graphical powerhouse than the first title.

"Infinity Blade allowed us to demonstrate the true potential of triple-A handheld gaming by delivering mind-blowing graphics and awesome gameplay to millions of mobile users," said Chair Entertainment boss Donald Mustard.

"With Infinity Blade 2, we're pushing the boundaries of everything achieved to date and adding a ton of new content and unique new features to create the must-have gaming experience on iOS."

Epic also said that the game will run on the iPad and iPod Touch, as well as using new iOS 5 features such as iCloud for game saves and profile switching across multiple devices.

The original Inifinity Blade itself has already made more than $10 million in sales, according to Epic.

Via: MCV

Apple shares dropped more than four percent last night following the company's unveiling of the iPhone 4S, an updated iPhone 4 rather than the brand new iPhone 5 many had hoped for.

"It's a pleasure to host you today. I love Apple. I consider it a privilege of a lifetime to have worked here for almost 14 years and I am very excited about this new role," said new Apple CEO Tim Cook at the Cupertino media showcase before firing away with Apple's new goodies.

However, investors were less excited by the incremental improvements brought with the iPhone 4S, which included a new 8MP camera sensor, speedy A5 processor, better signalling and a voice activated control system called Siri. Shares soon tumbled when it became apparent the iPhone 5 would not be making an appearance.

Also not in attendance was former Apple head Steve Jobs, leading to further speculation about his health, and likely also causing a few murmurs on the Stock Exchange.

Click here for more info on the iPhone 4S.

Apple's iPhone 4S smartphone is here, it's real, and it's not the iPhone 5! Whether or not that's a good or bad thing is up to you, but one thing's for certain: you'll want to know what it looks like, and you'll want to know what it's capable of. Thankfully, you can see and learn all of that just by clicking through the images below. Enjoy!

The iPhone 4S is this year's new Apple smartphone. We may have hoped for an iPhone 5, but the new iPhone 4S is what we get. And it ain't half bad, even if it ain't all brand new. Here's everything we know so far. Keep a track on this page as we'll be updating it regularly as new details are revealed.
Size and Style:

On the outside at least, the iPhone 4S will be practically identical to the iPhone 4. While we're still waiting on the exact official measurements, that'd put them more or less at 115.2mm (4.54 in) (h) x
x 58.66 mm (2.309 in) (w) x 9.3 mm (0.37 in) (d). It'd also have the same 3.5 inch Retina display, with a resolution of 640x960. That Retina display is still not to be sniffed at, still far sharper than the majority of smartphones on the market. Weight wise, a fair guess would be very similar to the iPhone 4's weight of 137 g (4.8 oz).

A5 processor:

Perhaps the most significant change for the iPhone 4S is the inclusion of the A5 chip, the same one that currently powers the iPad 2. The Apple-designed chip is said to make the device up to 2x faster than the original iPhone 4, with dual-core graphics capabilities that allow it be up to 7x faster for in-game graphic processing. Apple used Epic Games' Infinity Blade 2, the sequel to the mega-popular, super pretty iPhone game, to show off the new graphical capabilities of the iPhone 4S. An unsurprising, but welcome addition.

Battery:

Another decent improvement is the battery life of the iPhone 4S. "Industry leading" as described by Apple, it manages 8 constant talk-time hours over 3G, 14 hours of 2G talk time and 6 hours of 3G browsing.

Signalling and Antennas:

Remember the "Death Grip" problem that plagued the iPhone 4 at launch? That should be a thing of the past with the iPhone 4S. The wireless system has been much improved, now featuring two antennas to both transmit and receive. This should improve call clarity, as well as double download rates. In other words, 14.4Mbps download speeds are now capable, making for top-notch 3G speeds, if not quite a match for 4G. Both GSM and CDMA are onboard, making the iPhone 4S ready for any globe-trotting antics you may have planned.

Camera:

The iPhone 4's camera is pretty reliable, and the iPhone 4S looks to up the stakes slightly too. An 8MP camera sensor, taking high-resolution 3264x2448 shots is onboard, managing to push out 60% more pixels than the iPhone 4's camera sensor. The new sensor also allows for 73% more light per pixel, as well as 33% faster capture speeds, which will be great for snapping up lightning fast events. A Hybrid IR filter means your shots should have far more colour uniformity and accuracy too. 1080p video recording will also feature.

iOS 5 onboard:

Apple's latest mobile software, iOS 5, will ship with the iPhone 4S.iOS5 means users will no longer need to be tethered to a PC via a wired connection to set up a mobile Apple device, with future device updates delivered over the air. Other new features (many of which were already detailed at WWDC 2011 - click here for our coverage) include deep Twitter integration, a drop-down notifications area and a periodical download app called NewStand for, you guessed it, newspapers and magazines.

A new feature called Reader will also be added. Working much like the Instapaper app, it turns websites into bare-bones text pages for future offline reading.

Click here for more iOS 5 info.

Siri voice recognition app:

We thought it was going to be called Assistant, but Apple's voice recognition app will go by the name Siri, after the company Apple bought to help with its development. Though hands-on journalists were told it was still in the beta stages, it still looks a decent feature. Tell Siri to set an alarm and it will. Tell Siri to call a contact and it will. Ask Siri for a definition to a word and it will tell you. Ask Siri for a weather forecast and it will grab one. From searching the web to searching your phone's stored items, Siri looks capable of doing quite a lot, all controlled just by the power of your voice.

Siri will apparently also learn its user's preferences and speech quirks over time, making it grow more accurate with more use, but as one witty Twitter user pointed out, that's also what they said about Furbys.

Pricing and Pre-order details:

The iPhone 4S will be available from October 14th, with pre-orders kicking off from October 7th. Available in black and white, it'll cost $199 for the 16GB version, $299 for the 32GB, and $399 for the 64GB model. Other iPhone models will be re-priced accordingly. The iPhone 4 will now be available in black and white for just $99 with the iPhone 3GS 8GB model absolutely free on contracts. In the US, Sprint will for the first time now also carry the iPhone.

UK UPDATE:
iPhone 4S prices begin in the UK at £499 without a contract for the 16GB model. Though the rest of the range has yet to have its pricing revealed, educated guesses put the 32GB model at £80 more expensive at £579, and £659 for the 64GB whopper.
More news on UK carriers to follow.

So a (sorta) new iPhone then. The iPhone 4S is still the best iPhone Apple have ever built, but is it good enough? No bigger, better screen. No true 4G. Voice tech similar to what's been available in Android and the Vlingo app for years. And Furbys.

Google could deliver a knock-out Android blow to Apple if the Nexus Prime does anything remotely exciting.

The newly revealed iPhone 4S will be in your hands from October 14th, with pre-orders kicking off from October 7th.

Available in black and white, it'll cost $199 for the 16GB version, $299 for the 32GB, and $399 for the 64GB model. We'll pass on UK pricing as we get it, but it's worth noting that It's the first time an iPhone has been available with 64GB of storage.

Other iPhone models will be re-priced accordingly. The iPhone 4 will now be available in black and white for just $99 with the iPhone 3GS 8GB model absolutely free on contracts.

In the US, Sprint will for the first time now also carry the iPhone. More news on UK carriers to follow.

Click here for the first details on what's inside the iPhone 4S.

And click here for more coverage from tonight's "Let's Talk iPhone" launch event.

Image - Engadget

Several years ago, when the iPhone was a mere twinkle in Steve Jobs' eye, Motorola launched an iconic new handset called the Razr. It was startlingly thin for a mobile, looked absolutely incredible and was soon the number one handset for any self-respecting gadget lover, celeb or fashionista.

But within a couple of years the Razr had become the uncoolest phone on the planet. Motorola had made so many of them and offered it in so many different guises that gadget-lovers, fashionistas, celebs and quite possibly your grandmother had moved on.

So why am I mentioning the Razr now? Well it is clear that Apple has a very aggressive strategy for its handsets and that means it is offering the 4S (a not especially enhanced upgrade on the 4) and some cheaper older iPhones in a bid to expand its reach. I just wonder if the iPhone, like the Razr before it, might just become a little too ubiquitous.

In some ways this is a strategy that Apple has to adopt. It is starting to feel the pinch from low cost, but better specified than the iPhone, Android models and will soon be contending with Nokia Windows handsets that may turn out to be a lot cooler than most of us are expecting. But I do think that when everyone on your bus has an iPhone, and I mean if you live in Northampton rather than North London, the phone itself might start to feel a little uncool.

Of course Apple has been here before with the iPod. Over its existence it went from the preserve of Apple fanboys to a music player that almost everyone in the UK seemed to have. Did it ever become uncool? Well kind of. The difference between the iPod and the iPhone is that the iPod never really had any serious competition (except maybe in its early days from Sony). If the iPhone ever becomes the handset of choice of your grandma then you have lots of other places to go. This has already happenned a little in the UK with the rise of the Blackberry among young urban kids. There are many reasons why kids lust after Blackberrys rather than iPhones, but the fact that the iPhone has become so ubiquitous among their peer group has clearly helped sell a few devices for RIM.

The reason why Apple execs probably aren't too worried is that the iPhone app market is still so far ahead of its rivals. Also I think this might be the last time we see a minor tweak to the iPhone. You can bet on some serious surgery next time (like the move from the iPod classic to the touch) or else that device will start to look a little passe.

Pic from Gdgt

Apple has just announced its new operating system iOS 5 will go live on the 12th of October and apparently contains a huge 200 new features. Wow.

Now admittedly some of these (OK all of these) features were expected and we're not going to bore you with every one, but here are some that we're excited about.

Notifications and the introduction of iMessage

Yep, we were definitely expecting this one. iMessage is the new iOS-based messaging service, allowing you to send messages between fellow iOS users, regardless of device. Text messages, photos, videos and contacts can be shared, and group messaging is also supported. Being cross-device compatible, all messages on an iPhone or iPod are mirrored on your iPad, and vice-versa.

Deep integration with Twitter

We were expecting the word "integration" to be wheeled out a few hundred times this evening and we haven't been disappointed.

Scott Forstall said at the announcement earlier, "we've integrated Twitter into many of our built-in apps. Tweet photos, web sites, videos, locations from maps." And then he gave a little shout out to Twitter's CEO Dick Costolo. How sweet.

A single sign-in menu will configure Twitter with all compatible apps, saving your credentials so you don't have to re-enter them every time. Twitter will also be integrated into apps such as Camera and Photos, allowing you to quickly send snaps to all your Twitter contacts, as well as send Safari pages and Maps data.

Synced, slick reminders

This new feature lets you create simple lists of things you need to get done, assign them to dates in the calendar, and even add a location too, geo-fencing your to-do list. It will sync across all your iOS devices, pulling the info into your Calendar app if you so chose.

A few new camera features and photo editing

There'll be a camera button on the lock screen making it much easier to quickly snap a photo and there are several new photo editing tools too, allowing you to crop, rotate and remove red-eye.

Safari with Reader feature

It looks like Apple is taking on the likes of Instapaper and Readability with Reader, which aims to "take the story on the page, we format it perfectly on the device, it's all loaded so you can just scroll through and read it."

Game Center gets an update

It's mostly a social update, displaying scores of your friends' friends, and also offering friend recommendations and game recommendations. Game downloads can now be made directly from Game Center, with turn-based games playing directly from the OS.

A PC free feature gets added

You no longer need to tether iPads, iPhones or iPods with a machine the very first time you use them, with a "welcome" screen running you through all the necessary set-up functions. Software updates are now available over-the-air, and as these are delta updates, only adjusting the specific changes made, you shouldn't be left with massive downloads.

Siri Voice Assistant App

The iOS 5 will also feature deep voice recognition capabilities in the shape of the Siri app, acting like your phone's own digital personal assistant. Asking questions to the iPhone 4S will give immediate, intelligent answers, giving you the abilty to (using Apple's own example) just ask your phone what the weather is like today before being given a forecast, for instance.

It's confirmed! Apple will be releasing an updated iPhone 4 in the shape of the iPhone 4S.

Almost identical on the outside to the iPhone 4, inside it's all business, and all updated tech.

With an Apple-designed A5 chip inside (the same as the one in the iPad 2) it's up to 2x faster than the original iPhone 4, with dual-core graphics capabilities that allow it be up to 7x faster for in-game graphic processing.

The iPhone 4S also has industry-leading battery life, managing 8 constant talk-time hours over 3G, 14 hours of 2G talk time and 6 hours of 3G browsing.

The wireless system has been overhauled to side-step anymore embarissing death-grip situations like those that plagued the iPhone 4, now featuring two antennas to transmit and receive. This should improve call quality, as well as speed up download rates by as much as 2x. In other words, 14.4Mbps download speeds are now capable, making it comparable to 4G speeds. Both GSM and CDMA are onboard, making it ready to take calls around the globe too.

An 8MP camera sensor, capable of 3264x2448 shots is onboard, managing to push out 60% more pixels than the iPhone 4's camera sensor. The new sensor also allows for 73% more light per pixel, as well as 33% faster capture speeds. A Hybrid IR filter means your shots should have far more colour uniformity and accuracy too. 1080p video recording will also feature.

The iPhone 4S will also feature deep voice recognition capabilities in the shape of the Siri app, acting like your phone's own digital personal assistant. Asking questions to the iPhone 4S will give immediate, intelligent answers, giving you the abilty to (using Apple's own example) just ask your phone what the weather is like today before being given a forecast, for instance. Multi-lingual and capable of dictation, it looks pretty sweet.

Will have a more detailed look at the iPhone 4S shortly, so stay sharp!

Image - ArsTechnica

Click here for more coverage from tonight's "Let's Talk iPhone" iPhone 5/iPhone 4S launch event.

iOS 5, the latest iteration of Apple's mobile operating system, will hit UK shores as a free update on October 12th.

The iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad and iPad 2, plus the iPod Touch third and fourth generation will all be compatible with the new update.

iOS5 means users will no longer need to be tethered to a PC via a wired connection to set up a mobile Apple device, with future device updates delivered over the air.

Other new features (many of which were already detailed at WWDC 2011 - click here for our coverage) include deep Twitter integration, a drop-down notifications area and a periodical download app called NewStand for, you guessed it, newspapers and magazines.

A new feature called Reader will also be added. Working much like the Instapaper app, it turns websites into bare-bones text pages for future offline reading.

Click here for more coverage from tonight's "Let's Talk iPhone" iPhone 5 launch event.

Thanks to some clever digging around by 9to5mac images of Apple's new iPhone 4S are already on Apple's main website.

As you can see it looks VERY similar to the iPhone 4 model, but the Newsstand app icon on the homescreen tells us it's running iOS5 instead of iOS4, just in case you were convinced we were just showing you a photo of two iPhone 4 handsets to keep you entertained!

We're a nation of early adopting "snobs" when it comes to tech. That's according to a study published by the University of Warwick's economy analyst Professor Michael Waterson. He's predicting that UK tech fans will be willing to pay as much as three times the recommended retail price for the iPhone 5 when it launches just to get their hands on it early, based on his findings monitoring eBay transactions following the launch of the iPhone 4.

"We monitored all eBay transactions on the iPhone 4 for six weeks from 24th June last year when it became available in the UK. The extent of eBay activity on this product was extraordinary, with total transactions amounting to around £1.5m for 2,183 sales," said Professor Waterson.

"For the 16GB version of the phone, 98% of sales completed at a value in excess of the listed retail price of £499. The average price was £640.35 and the maximum achieved was £1,180. For the 32GB version of the phone, 97% of the sales completed above the listed retail price of £599. The average price was £778.73 and the maximum price achieved was £1,551."

According to Waterson, possible stock shortages will play a key role in inflating prices of iPhone 5 handsets on the grey market. Speaking of the iPhone 4, he continued:

"The product was in short supply and so it's probable that demand was influenced by immediacy or 'snob value'. It will be fascinating to see what will happen to the iPhone 5 as the launch is eagerly anticipated. I think we will see the same level of activity.

"It seems we are willing to pay well over the retail price for the kudos of being one of the first people to own the latest piece of technology. This study suggests technology is the one area where we are not prepared to tighten our belts in the current financial climate."

Ah, the circus-like magic of an Apple event. Shrouded in secrecy, the Cupertino kings' media showcases are part Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, part Tom Waits' "What's He Building in There?"

We're all chomping at the bit for details of tomorrow's expected iPhone 5 launch, but for those who just can't wait Joy of Tech have blown the doors of Apple's event wide open, letting a nice autumnal breeze blow the smoke away from the mirrors.

And they've done it all with a colourful picture (posted below) that'll look just gorgeous on a Retina Display.

Just one more thing? How about a load more things, including an Automated Heckler Disposal System?

Yet another leak revealing snippets on the-all-but-revealed iPhone 4S handset. This morning brought the rumoured news of its A5 processor and 4G connectivity, and now we can add a trio of storage options into the mix too.

According to a placeholder page over at the German Vodafone site, you can expect to pick up both black and white variants of the iPhone 4S in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB sizes. Enough for a sizeable amount of apps and Retina display-primed videos we'd imagine.

And after tomorrow we wont have to imagine at all. Apple's big iPhone event kicks off at 6pm GMT. We'll have exhaustive coverage, so check back here all day tomorrow for specs, pictures and analysis.

Oh poor Apple; after last year's iPhone-4-in-a-bar debacle, the Cupertino team have managed to keep a tight wrap on what's coming tommorow at their iPhone launch event. Sure, we've heard A5 processor snippets here, and talk of more pervasive voice control tech there, but its still all just whispers in the wind.

What a pity then that Apple themselves seem to have blown the cover on what's expected to be one of tomorrows big "surprises"; the existence of the iPhone 4S.

Trawling through the code of the latest beta version of iTunes for software developers, Apple seem to have carelessly left info on the presumably-budget handset in the build.

The iPhone 4S is specifically listed as a CDMA device, with both black and white colours stated also.

Whether its palceholder coding or a teasing slip-up, we wont have long to wait to find out; Apple's iPhone event kicks off at 6pm GMT tomorrow evening. Check back here then for all the juicy details.

Via: 9to5Mac