The iPhone 4S is alive! But what’s different? What’s noteworthy? Allow T3 to strip the iPhone 4S specs back into easily an digestible form. We know it’s not the iPhone 5, but it may as well be…Well there you go, then. In a small auditorium in California, Apple has shown us its latest handset, the Apple iPhone 4S. It may not be the iPhone 5, but if you want to know what the iPhone 4S features are, read on…

1/ Apple iPhone 4S body and case
Don’t be disappointed, but it’s the same as the iPhone 4. While many rumors may have suggested a brand new body, the iPhone 4S remains the same. That’s no bad thing though; the insides are beefier, so it’s now even more impressively slim.

2/ Apple iPhone 4S display
Likewise, the pin-sharp Retina Display remains. The iPhone 4S screen hasn’t jumped up to 4 or 4.4-inches, but still retains its clarity and performance, which is market-leading if not at the very least market-matching.

3/ Apple iPhone 4S Airplay Mirroring
Like with the iPad 2, Apple TV will let you stream what’s happening on your iPhone 4S screen to your TV, letting you watch movies, browse the web or play games on the big screen.

4/ Apple iPhone 4S processor
Yep, it’s in – the A5 processor that’s currently in the iPad 2 has somehow been squeezed into the iPhone 4S. The chip is a 1Ghz dual-core monster, which will bring 7x faster graphics from a 2x CPU. In short: it’ll be very nippy and proffer console-worrying graphics. The storage has been bumped up to a maximum of 64GB.

5/ Apple iPhone 4S camera
The Sensor’s gone up to a monster 8-Megapixels. It’s backside sensor will let 73% more light per pixel in. It’s got a Five element lens, plus a Hybrid IR Filter. That means nicer shots, essentially. The video camera has been ramped up to allow full 1080p HD recording.

6/ Apple iPhone 4S battery
The battery’s had a welcome boost. While the iPhone 4 made a big jump from the previous iPhone 3G and 3GS, this is a step up yet again. The iPhone 4S battery should see you through 8 hours talk time on 3G, 10 hours of video and 9 hours’ Wi-Fi. Impressively, it’ll give you 40 hours of music playback.

7/ Apple iPhone 4S antenna
The antenna has changed to allow the iPhone to become a ‘World Phone’. This essentially means it’ll allow our US brethren to use the phone on either the AT&T or Verizon networks. Apple claims that downloads are 2x faster thanks to its intelligent antenna that switches between signals. Erm… So it’s a 4G handset then, Apple?

8/ Apple iPhone 4S operating system
As we already knew, the iPhone 4S will ship with Apple’s iOS 5 out of the box. The new OS boasts a massive range of top features, including a new slide-down iPhone notifications bar, deep Twitter integration, additional camera features, FaceTime over 3G, WiFi sync and a completely PC-free operation. iOS 5 will also be available on the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch (4th generation) and both iPads from October 12th, as a software update.

9/ Apple iPhone 4S Siri voice assistant
Apple’s acquisition of the Siri voice-controlled assistant earlier this year has resulted in an OS-wide tool to help you organise your life. Anything from ‘wake me up at 6am tomorrow’ to ‘get me a route to Manchester’ or ‘find me an Indian restaurant in London’ can be asked for, with Siri going about your commands in a HAL-like fashion. It’s still in BETA in English French and German.
10/ Apple iPhone 4S release date and price
The iPhone 4S release date is set for October 14th, as expected, in the US, the UK and Apple’s usual early launch countries. It’ll land elsewhere on October 28th. The iPhone 4S price is US only at the time of writing: 16GB is $199, 32GB is $299, 64GB is $399 with a 2 year contract.

[Source: T3 ]

The iBookstore is now live on the App Store (free) and comes with Winnie the Pooh and the ability to sample of any book in the store before buying.  US-only and iPad-only for now, global editions are expected in the near future.

It isn’t certain if Apple will build versions of the iBookstore for Mac and iPhone/iPod touch like Amazon has built with the Kindle but it would certainly be welcome.

You can also drag free ePub books manually into iTunes as demoed here.

[via 9to5mac]

The first batch of iPad apps is live in the App Store, days before the device has been released to regular, non-media humans. First impressions? So many apps! Also: So expensive. Update: Here’s our list of the best.

[via gizmodo]

Hot on the heels of the release of the Netflix iPad app, ABC’s ‘ABC Player’ has appeared in the App Store (iTunes download link).  As with the Netflix app though, it doesn’t look like iPhone/iPod touch users will be seeing this functionality anytime soon.

From the looks of it, with CBS and ABC now on-board, it would appear that a Hulu app might not be needed if this pattern continues throughout the networks.  Then again, that’s a BIG “if”.

Check out some screenshots below…

[via 9to5mac]

Today, Apple has officially unleashed their iWork productivity suite to the App Store for download. There’s not much you can do with it until Saturday besides drop your 30 small and drool at the screenshots, but it is worth a look. They are each $9.99.

Download them here: Keynote | Pages | Numbers

[via 9to5mac]

24/7WallSt. reports that Apple and third-party developers have lost approximately $450 million in revenue from App Store piracy since the store opened in July of 2008. Out of this, $140 million of this counts as lost revenue for Apple – a huge chunk of the $500 – $700 million in revenue the App Store has generated for the company so far – with the remaining $310 million revenue loss falling on developers.

Their analysis is based on several assumptions, however, any one of which could easily be wide of the mark. They argue that with three billion downloads on the App Store (not an assumption), 17% of those are paid apps (assumption), with a piracy rate of 75% (assumption), and the number of pirate downloads at 1.53 billion. If the average price of a paid app is $3 (assumption), then there’s $4.59 billion in losses. Assuming that only about 10% of the pirates who downloaded apps would have actually bought them, that makes the total $459 million. Still with us?

According to 24/7WallSt.’s analysis, around 10% of iPhone/iPod touch users have chosen to jailbreak their devices, and it’s only about 40% of these jailbroken users who are responsible for this torrent (ahem) of piracy. This means that, according to 24/7WallSt.’s numbers, out of a rough total of 75 million worldwide iPhones and iPod touches, a mere 3 million devices are responsible for the 1.53 billion apps 24/7WallSt. is claiming have been downloaded illegally.

For those of you calculating along at home, that works out to an average of 510 pirated apps per device. That snap you just heard was suspension of disbelief.

[Via MacRumors]

There’s no question that App Store piracy is a huge problem, especially with some developers noting that as much as 90% of downloads of their apps are pirated versions. But 24/7WallSt.’s numbers seem outlandish to say the least. Analyzing how much money a company would have made if not for the dirty, dirty pirates is always a guessing game at best and economic voodoo at worst. Although 24/7WallSt. claims that Apple doesn’t see this lost revenue as a priority because the App Store essentially exists only to sell iPhones and iPod touches, it’s hard to believe that even a company as stuffed with cash as Apple would simply look the other way and twiddle its thumbs over $140 million in lost revenue.

[via tuaw.com]