iPhone 4S

[Lemur]

IT HAS BEGUN [/Mortal Kombat voice]

iPhone 4S introduced today. Thoughts? Opinions? I've been working, so I have not been able to follow events. Liveblogs here and here.

[Risasi]

It was as I expected. The gradual progression of the Apple upgrade mentality. Nice updates to an already awesome phone. Those who are disappointed in no iPhone 5, I don't know what they were expecting. The major update seems to be every two years. Like their MacBook line, sandy bridge was pretty big, next year ivy bridge will be a nice update but haswell is going to be amazing.

I'm glad no LTE, so far it's just a battery hog. I get about 3 days of normal use and about 5-6 hours of talk time on my iPhone 4.
4-12 hours of just standby mode on LTE is not my idea of a good time. Likewise, I don't get the obsession of superhuge downloads. Is that just so people can burn through their 2GB data plan even faster?

iOS 5 is what I'm more excited about

If you're due for a phone update and out of contract it's worth getting the 4s, if still under contract from last year's 4 then hold of for the iPhone 5 next year.

Sent from remote...

[Papewaio]

My 3GS contract with Three {Vodafail} expires next week. So I will after 11 years with one company that has changed from Orange->Three->Vodafone will be looking for a new circuit provider... Probably Telstra.

At least that way I can get reception on my morning commute more often then not & in reception in the CBD.

So for me the 4S is a logical choice, just not the only one.

[Papewaio]

Connectivity issue proving my case resulting in a triple post

[Catiline]

I'll stick with the Samsung Galaxy thanks. Android kicks the iOS all over the park.

[Risasi]

We'll have to just not agree on that. Android is no more open than iOS, and because you have all these homebrew distros it's messy from a dev standpoint.

My wife is still irritated with me I didn't "try harder" to talk her out of buying the Galaxy when I got my iPhone 4. Can't airplay to the Apple TV, can't play Netflix (or perhaps they finally added support). Can't play stuff out of my iTunes account on my computer. Retina display kicks Galaxy's keister around the park.

In all fairness if you don't have or want all the other Apple doo-dads then yeah, you are missing out on the synergy found within their walled-garden "ecosystem". In which case, yeah buy what fits you. For me I'm too far locked into Apple to bother backing out now.
In the past I have seriously considered the Galaxy S series and also the Moto Droid-X/X2 series. I think they are on top of the heap in the Android market.

[Catiline]

If you've got that much of the product I can imagine that not having an iPhone is a pain. I'm struggling to imagine a world where not using iTunes is a problem though