My Verizon iPhone 4S box

This Thursday, CNN Money reported that AT&T outsold Verizon when it came to iPhone’s last quarter. Big Blue ended up selling 7.6 million iPhone’s; whereas Big Red sold a measly 4.2 million. Sprint will be revealing their sales on February 8, 2012.

The weird part about the entire thing is that Verizon outsold AT&T when it came to new contracts. Verizon had 1.2 million new customers get an iPhone, and AT&T only had 717,000. Including Android, Windows Phone 7, and BlackBerry, AT&T sold a total of 9.4 million smartphones last quarter. This means that about 81% of AT&T sales were to the iPhone.

Now, I’m assuming that Big Blue and Big Red outsold Sprint, but hey, you never know.

Enter TidyTilt. It’s designed to keep your headphones organized, and for propping your iPhone up, just like it would an iPad with a Smart Cover. The TidyTilt itself attaches to the iPhone with a magnetic band, which does not affect you memory or give your phone antenna problems. As the designers put it, the TidyTilt tidies, tilts, and mounts your iPhone.

This project is already funded, and ready to go on Kickstarter, but you can still snag one up on their Kickstarter page. Paying just a small $19 will snag you one of these awesome iPhone accessories.

Graphisoft is the maker of ArchiCAD, and  has had dealings with Steve Jobs since 1980. Apple supported the small company with computers and cash when it needed them most. Commissioned by GRAPHISOFT Founder and Chairman of the Board, Gabor Bojar, the statue is the first in the world honoring the late founder of Apple, who passed away on October 5.

Crafted by Hungarian sculptor Erno Toth, the life-like bronze statue stands near the entrance of architectural software maker Graphisoft’s Budapest headquarters.

Design

A white iPhone 4S- Courtesy of Engadget

The iPhone 4S keeps the same design as the CDMA (Verizon) iPhone 4. The front and back are made out of glass. The side band (antenna #1) is made out of an aluminium. On the front we see the front-facing camera and ambient light sensor, a 3.5″ “retina” display, and the home button. The back of the device sports a new 8-megapixel camera and LED flash, the Apple and iPhone logos, and some legal stuff. On the left we see two individual volume up and down buttons and the sound/silent toggle switch. If we flip the device over, we see the SIM card slot, which the CDMA iPhone 4 left behind. The bottom gives us a 30-pin dock connector, the microphone, and the speaker. Finally, on top, is the 3.5″ headphone jack and sleep wake button.

The design is absolutely beautiful; a work of art. It looks sporty but professional at the same time. I give it a 9/10. What kept this device from getting a 10/10? The glass picks up fingerprints and dust; and if you aren’t careful, may shatter when you drop it.

Operating System

My iPhone Running 5.0.1

The iPhone 4S comes with Apple iOS 5 preinstalled. This, in my opinion, is one of the easiest to use but yet most powerful operating systems out here. It’s main competitor is Android, which are both outstanding mobile operating systems. Not much explaining to do here, and I give it an 8/10.

A Quick Look at the Internals

Display: 3.5″ “Retina Display” at 640 x 960-very good, but may be hard to see in direct sunlight.

Processor: Apple A5 dual-core 2.0Ghz- blazing fast.

Rear Camera: 8-megapixel auto-focus with LED flash- outstanding for a mobile device.

Front Camera: Good for FaceTime and self portraits and not much else.

Battery Life: Shaky and first but got better with 5.0.1 update

Call Quality: Respectable

Internal Speaker: Not as good as some other smartphones these days, but acceptable.

Price with 2-year contract (for all major U.S. carriers): $199 16GB white or black, $299 32GB white or black, $399 64GB white or black.

Price without 2-year contract (for all major U.S. carriers): $650 16GB white or black, $750 32GB white or black, $850 64GB white or black.

There’s no telling whether or not Apple are going to do anything to block the Siri hack, but there’s not much they can do about users jailbreaking their devices.

If you’re willing to make the plunge, there’s a few things you need to know first. Basic knowledge of jailbreaking is required, as this is a Cydia package which you’re going to load up to your device. That, a jailbroken iPhone 4 or iPod Touch and a little patience is all it takes to get this running.

Steps to Success

The installation process is very simple and takes just a few minutes to do once you’ve actually downloaded the right files.

1. Add the following repo to Cydia: http://www.cydia.be (if that doesn’t work, then try http://cydia.myrepospace.com/H1Siri/ or http://www.iphone3gsystem.fr/cydia) – The file is around 110MB in size so go grab a coffee or something while you’re waiting.
2. Go back to Manage>Sources, and find the added repo.
3. Install H1Siri.
4. Reboot your device when prompted.
5. Go to Settings (the default settings app on any iOS device)>General>Siri
6. Flip the switch to On.
7. Start enjoying Seri.

Did this work for you? Let us know in the comments below!

This hacked version of Siri is running through the hacker’s servers right now, which are a little unstable, so you can expect things to be slow for a little while until things get a little more stable. As stated before, Apple could pull the plug on this hacked version of Seri at any time, so chat her/him up while you can!

Access to iTunes Connect

The delivery of any apps or updates

Additionally, the following will be delayed:

Releases scheduled to appear on the App Store for the first time

Pricing changes scheduled through the interval pricing system in iTunes Connect

We strongly recommend that you do not schedule pricing changes through the interval pricing system in iTunes Connect that would take effect from December 22 through December 29. Pricing changes scheduled to take effect during this date range will not be reflected in the App Store and the app will become unavailable for purchase.

We also recommend that you do not schedule any apps to go live during the shutdown. Releases scheduled with a sales start date between these dates will not go live until after the shutdown.

Regards,

The App Store team

Thanks for reading and be sure to publish your iOS applications soon.

It starts with the user hooked up to some ECG pads, which are then connected to the control board. The MacBook works it’s magic, then outputs signals to the iPhone 4S which picks up a “Steven Hawking” style voice.

Right now this system seems to be just for show, but if Apple invested some time in this technology, we might see some awesome Siri stuff on the horizon.

The new black smart cover

Today Apple cut the orange smart cover, and introduced some darker colors into the line of Apple cases. Customers who prefer darker colors rejoice with the new darker grey polyurethane cover, and navy leather cover. The prices are still the same, with the leather cover running at $69, and the polyurethane at $39.

The new Color Lineup

What do you think of the new lineup?

$100 – $250 -

Iiyama E2473HDs 24″ LED monitor – $200 (£180)

While you may think that you get what you pay for, i do agree with you in most circumstances however i am willing to make the exception for Iiyama’s E2473HDS. This is the monitor i currently own and i have no complaints what so ever! The colours are vibrant, the blacks are black and the whites are white! At full HD 1080p this monitor works great with any of the MacBook laptop range, however under testing i have found that it doesn’t work great with the hi-resoloution MacBook Pro 15″ as the pixel ratio is much more dense on the laptop and is a huge difference to the 1920-1080 on the monitor. This monitor is also available in 22 and 27 inches.

(5 Stars)

ASUS PA238Q 24″ LED monitor – $180 (£120)

Being at a similar price to the Iiyama the PA238Q from ASUS is at a similar quality. The adjustable stand and the ability to rotate the monitor allows for a brilliant customisable viewing angle that will suit everyone. If your planning to use this monitor with a notebook computer you will have the luxury of 4 extra USB ports, meaning that you dont have to go out and buy a $20 USB hub. The contrast is good and the brightness is at a good quality at 250 cd/m, this is found not too bright that it distorts and not too dark that it gives false colours. In contrast to this the colour reproduction on this monitor is slightly too over powering due to the “Colour Accuracy’ colour calibration technology.

Overall this monitor is at a very high standard for a budget 1080P monitor, it is a good buy and very useful if you are looking to have 3 or more of them on one computer.

(4 stars)

$300-$500 -

Acer S273HL 27″ LED monitor - $340 (£250)

Although being the same size as the Apple Thunderbolt Display this monitor still only has a 1080P HD resolution, this will appear a lot less than the 2560-1440 on the Apple display. Despite this the Acer S273HL has brilliant colour reproduction. Also, this monitor has a 12,000,00:1 contrast ratio which beats all of the other monitors on this review. The ports on this monitor include 2x HDMI and 1x VGA, i would of liked a DVI too but never the less we do have digital. Like all monitors these days this one has IPS technology, which allows up to 178 degree viewing angle, this is good for getting a crowd around your screen, but not so good if you doing something private!

If your a professional graphic designer or a photographer, this monitor may not be for you, however if your just looking for a good quality 27″ monitor, look no further than the Acer S273HL.

(4 stars)

DoubleSight 19″ LCD monitor – $480 (£350)  <– Approx

I came across this monitor while browsing for mine on the BestBuy website and i thought that it might just give a bit of contrast to this series of reviews. As you can see from the picture of this product, it may be something that you have never come across before, I have defiantly never come across anything like this before, in all my 5 years of the tech world. It is basically 2 19″ monitors on 1 stand. The specifications of the DoubleSight are not of the best; 1000:1 contrast ratio and 1440-900 maximum resolution is very basic considering it has a price tag of $480, however there is a good amount of brightness at 300 cd/m.

If you want my overview of this monitor I would say that it is pretty poor and pointless, i cant see a gap in the market for it as it is cheaper to buy 2 24″ monitors that have a higher spec. Also i think that having 2 monitors on one stand is ugly and in practical.

(2 stars)

The disassembled iPhone 4S.

Recent reports have been released, showing that the iPhone 4S costs Apple $196 to make. This doesn’t include things like licensing and it can increase when going up the model range to the 32 + 64Gb models. To break the cost down, the iPhone 4S only costs $8 to manufacture, the flash storage 16Gb costs $20, the 32Gb costs $40 and the 64Gb costs $80. So now you can bare this in mind when choosing the model of your 4S, you will be able to take into account the amount your paying for double the storage! As always, Apple has blown up the prices for the iPhones to pay their bills, but that’s expected with pretty much every Apple product.