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 ]

Software update yeilds three updates today. First and foremost, iTunes gets updated to 9.1 in preparation for the iPad:

iTunes 9.1 comes with several new features and improvements, including:

• Sync with iPad to enjoy your favorite music, movies, TV shows, books and more on the go

• Organize and sync books you’ve downloaded from iBooks on iPad or added to your iTunes library

• Rename, rearrange, or remove Genius Mixes

For information on the security content of this update, please visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

Also, the iPhoto 8.1.2 update addresses minor issues in the area of import and syncing to iPhone, iPod or Apple TV.

Finally, the iPhone Configuration Utility gets updated for Enterprise iPad configurations.

[via 9to5mac]