New Apple Lust Objects for 2010 and onward

4S has all the ios7 features except airdrop I believe.

My work involves a lot of smartphone usage/testing... its basically down to preference at the top tier. iphones are more stable in my experience, but the trade off is being locked into the apple ecosystem. That's a dealbreaker for some. Androids tend to come loaded with carrier bloatware, but are much more customizable, which inevitably leads to some slow down and crashing for most users. Also their battery life sucks.

does the s4 fit comfortably in a back pocket? how's the app store for android? Mostly the same as ios?

(my g2 got locked out of upgrading right around cupcake, so i missed a whole generation of apps for phones)

my g2 got locked out of upgrading right around cupcake

wow

it was a poor buy.

i get the sense anything i get now will be a quantum leap forward.

the apple dealbreaker is less the walled environment and more the cost... top of the line runs a good $200 more with apple
this is hardly news but it's annoying

unless you're itching for a big screen or want to customize the hell out of your phone, iPhone 5 is probably the way to go. more stable, has the edge on apps, more reliable battery life. if you've got other Apple products, there are perks too. markers is right about it being too late in to go 4s.

i'm on a 4s. it's fine for me. i got it 18 months ago, but it was actually replaced with a brand new unit about a month ago because a button failed. so i had a brand new boxed phone i could have sold on ebay for enough to make it effectively a cheap upgrade to a 5. i didn't bother though. i mean it's just a phone. it works.

but i'm not sure i'd recommend buying one outright new *now* if you can wait, just because apple phones going to get better and/or cheaper after the summer.

what's the price difference between the 4s, 5 and whatever android thing you're looking at.

my 4 (non-s) is still totally boss, feels ridiculous to bin it right now but what could i do, my provider was offering my a 5 for £19.99

Wait for the 5s imo. These things have great resale value. When you go to upgrade in two years you can sell the old one for the price of the new one, if not more. I made money on my old 4 when upgrading to 5.

there's also talk of that budget iphone, if that's your thing

My iPhone 4 (non-s) is still trucking right along too. I can't use Siri (not a big deal), but iOS 7 is supported. I'm planning on getting a 5s, but might get sidetracked if Apple ships a retina iPad Mini.

Resale value is indeed great.

markers otm about 4S vs. 5 as far as future software compat. goes, also the best way to decide is to touch both and figure out which you'd rather touch every day for 2+ years. Compare vs. the Samsung/Nexus/etc also. No substitute for that really.

5 also is substantially lighter than 4S, despite the larger screen. Oh, and it has 4G/LTE for much faster data speed where supported. Makes the 5 easily worth the extra cost IMO.

wait for the 5s and just squeeze the trigger, son

when it comes to this kinda tech you should always buy the best thing you can afford. Software turnover just makes things obsolete after two or three years. May as well start off strong.

headphone jack on the bottom is some weird ish

impossible to tweak the volume now when it's in my pocket

no doubt this complaint was hashed out a year ago

get a pair of headphones with iphone volume control + play/pause button, bro

no

wow LTE is fuckin fast

just dl'ed a 40 meg podcast in like 12 seconds, jfc

headphone jack on the bottom means that when you pull out your phone, it's already facing the 'right' way

also it's a FLUSH headphone jack. FLUSH.

flush with what?

for the time being i'm sticking the phone into my pocket the same way as before, with the jack on the bottom, which is a bit weird and will probably hasten the death of these headphones, but then i can spring for a more expensive set with volume control on the wire, bro

forks i broke my 4s and am waiting for the 5s instead of going with the 5. I always buy the second version of an iphone release.

okay, i'm convinced; i'll wait on the 5s OR get down with HTC1 or Galaxy S4. will play with them in store, see how they feel.
though i admit this article has me thinking apple might be the horse to bet on for the next two years:
http://venturebeat.com/2013/07/02/is-facetime-audio-apples-trojan-horse/

unless android plans are cheaper then it's hard to see why the initial cost of the phone should matter a bunch; you're talking thousands over two years...until the dumb USA mobile cartel gets broken, world without end, amen

well see that's what i'm talking about re: facetime audio.
fyi, i'm paying 70 a month or 840 a year. iphone 5 is between $650 and $850 for a 16 to 64 gig model or roughly the cost of a year of service.

w/o 2 year contract I take it?

I looked at androids w/o contracts but they were all as expensive as iPhones with shit battery life so said fuck it, iPhone 5 so light too

i'm going with t-mobile for the moment. Service isn't great but my contract just expired and they're the only major carrier to function without contracts and their prices are not utterly extortionate. When everybody follows suit, i'll likely move around.

no more cell contracts EVER

i would much rather buy the hardware outright then be tethered

iphone 5 is between $650 and $850 for a 16 to 64 gig model or roughly the cost of a year of service.

K and I got ours at tekserve, the 32 gig model with Verizon plans and AppleCare, for about 900 total for the pair...

well another thing we haven't talked about is the new rumored "cheap" iphone that might be coming out

i'm using a four-year-old lg feature phone right now

hey forks, other US carriers don't have pay-as-you-go contracts ?? that sounds insane.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_mobile_virtual_network_operators

Contrary to what AT&T will tell you, it's possible to use a prepaid plan with no data on an iPhone.

I think all the major US carriers have postpaid as well as prepaid plans for the iPhone; you just have to pay full price for your phone (or bring a used one) rather than getting the low subsidized prices you see widely advertised for a phone + 2-year contract. T-Mobile is doing it somewhat differently.

The big carriers have their own prepaid plans as well as through MVNOs, although typically only with lower-end handsets unless you bring your own.

for the moment, i'd rather go with an ongoing monthly plan. just don't want to be tied down to it.
just played with the htc1, i like it!

is it sad that the main reason I don't want to give up my iPhone is because I don't want to lose my progress in Tiny Tower?

http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/news2/Steve-Jobs-Angry-at-Analytics-Firms-Tracking-its-Devices-2.png

DAN IT SHOULD BE BECAUSE YOU'RE COMMITTED TO THE COMPANY

I think all the major US carriers have postpaid as well as prepaid plans for the iPhone;

You think or you know? AT&T's pay as you go policy requires smartphones to have a data plan.

I think.

(not an expert at this stuff, except maybe for Verizon which I currently use.)

The carriers' websites show which phones they'll supply with prepaid/pay-as-you-go plans

Regarding a non-contract iPhone in the US, Apple notes this on their site:

If you buy iPhone for T-Mobile, it will arrive with a nano-SIM card already installed that you can activate by visiting an Apple Retail Store or a T-Mobile store or by calling T-Mobile. If you buy a SIM-free iPhone, you will need to purchase a GSM-compatible nano-SIM separately. When you travel internationally, you can use a nano-SIM card for iPhone 5 from a local GSM carrier. The unlocked iPhone 5 model is A1428. For details on LTE support, see http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE. The unlocked iPhone will not work with CDMA carriers such as Verizon Wireless or Sprint.

The A1428 btw is the North American GSM version of the iPhone 5, which unfortunately doesn't support LTE outside of North America. The A1429 GSM (not to be confused with the A1429 CDMA) iPhone 5 that does work on LTE elsewhere in the world cannot use LTE in North America. Different frequencies. This is really annoying for international travellers; hopefully the chipset manufacturers are working on this and will have it sorted out in time for the 5S so there can be just one version of the iPhone for everyone.

Looking into this further, it seems a single device for all LTE carriers won't happen anytime soon, for reasons both technological and legal/contractual (CNet explains). So next year's iPads will likely again force you to choose a carrier when you buy it, and will never work on any other carrier no matter what you do, even though AT&T and Verizon both use the same LTE technology and the same 700 MHz frequency.

i got t-mobile in the end lee and it works fine in my 4s, thanks! (apart from i don't get any signal in my apartment, and i couldn't connect to the network in times sq or at penn station. but when it works it works.)

i have a stack of sims from net10, h2o and airvoice, (all at&t) which i'm going to try next week.

$S is GSM/HSPA+ which is much more intercompatible between carriers than LTE found on the 5 but not the 4S. T-Mobile's HSPA+ data network is by far the fastest in the US that the 4S can use (at least in "refarmed" frequency areas), approaching LTE speeds in many cities.

4S not $S