iPhone 4S sticks with 512MB of RAM, reports say - by aby benedict

The iPhone 4S' insides.

Despite a number of improvements to the hardware within the upcoming iPhone 4S, it's looking like one component that will remain the same is the amount of built-in memory.


MacRumors this morning points to a report from China-based AppVV.com, which seems to have gotten its hands on an iPhone 4S ahead of Friday's launch. The site has posted photos and videos of the device in action, including the new Siri voice assistant.


In a post over the weekend, the person with the device also notes that the device is packing 512MB of RAM versus the 1GB some had been expecting. That adds to comments made last week by the developer of the upcoming iPhone 4S-centric game Infinity Blade 2, who in an interview with Eurogamer floated the 512MB number as well.

In the days ahead of the iPhone 4S' unveiling, a report from 9to5mac correctly detailed many of the details about the Siri application that's launching as an iPhone 4S exclusive, while adding that there would be 1GB of RAM to help support the feature.

While Apple has been eager to tout the technical specifications of the iPhone 4S in comparison to its predecessor, the company has not broken with the tradition of not disclosing the amount of built-in RAM in iOS devices. RAM increases in devices like the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 have led to noted improvements in multitasking, as well as keeping more Web pages open in Safari on both of these devices.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on the amount of RAM in the 4S following last week's unveiling, saying only that all of the phone's specifications to be shared were listed on the company's product page.

We're likely to get the full skinny, including a look at the innards of the 4S at the end of the week, as is usually the case with popular gadgets through the like of iFixit and CNET sister site TechRepublic. The new phone goes on sale at 8 a.m. Pacific on Friday both at Apple Stores and through its carrier partners. Earlier today Apple said it received more than a million preorders for the new phone in the first 24 hours it was available for sale, saying it's been the most successful early sales run of a product in the company's history.

HTC Amaze 4G hands-on - by aby benedict

T-Mobile may not be getting the iPhone 4S, but it isn’t letting that stop it bulk up its smartphone range. Instead its Android coming to the rescue, with the HTC Amaze 4G expected to play a significant part: taking the Sensation XE as its starting point, the Amaze 4G throws in 42Mbps HSPA+ support and a full 1GB of RAM. It’s fresh to the SlashGear testbench today, so check out our first impressions after the cut.

It’s not hard to see the Amaze 4G’s lineage, though that’s no bad thing. The Sensation XE is a solid device, and T-Mobile’s version keeps the 4.3-inch qHD resolution display – bright, broad viewing angles and solid contrast – and 8-megapixel camera with 1080p HD video support, along with HTC Watch and a front-facing 2-megapixel camera. What’s new, though, is some of the software.
HTC has built a new camera app, including a special composite photo mode which can fire off five shots in rapid succession and then glue them together, HDR-style, to make a single good frame. Unusually there are two camera buttons, too: one each dedicated for videos and photos. We’ll be interested to see how well the f2.2 wide-angle lens and back-illuminated sensor perform, since HTC has had mixed results with its cameras in the past.

Apple iPhone 4S now shipping in 'one to two' weeks, over 200,000 AT&T pre-orders in first 12 hours - by aby benedict

If there was any question of how hot a tamale Apple's iPhone 4S would be, the answer's edging toward muy caliente. AT&T's stated that the iPhone 4S has ushered in its best iPhone launch to date, receiving over 200,000 pre-orders for the device during the first 12 hours of availability (crediting its success to having the only US version operating over 14.4Mb/s HSPA+, aka FauxG). While that's good news for Ma Bell, as of today, you'll be looking at a wait time of "one to two weeks" after placing an order for this latest iThing (Sprint and Verizon included). We've yet to hear how the latter two telecoms have fared, but we'd imagine it won't be a secret for too long -- the iPhone 4S is officially available on October 14th, after all. Full AT&T PR just past the break.

How would you change HTC's EVO 3D? - by aby benedict

A 3D phone? Who woulda thunk it? HTC would have, and the EVO 3D is the product of its labor. The jury's still out on whether 3D will end up being more than just some over-marketed, over-sensationalized fad, but judging by the sales of this thing on Sprint's network, someone is into the concept. We saw it as one of Sprint's stronger Android offerings, but the lackluster battery life and par-for-the-course display were quirks that we couldn't quite overlook. For those who bit, what are your main annoyances? Would you change the design at all? Toss in a different panel? Would you tweak anything about the Sense implementation? Is the 3D camera serving you well? Let us know in comments below!

This concept wants you to smell it, smell it, Smellit - by aby benedict

We admit it: this could just be another highfalutin gadget render that'll never breathe the polluted whiff of day. But it's a nice render, which demonstrates a concept called the Smellit: a miniature olfactory factory that's meant to connect to your PC and bring a "fourth dimension" to video and gaming. Its creator, Nuno Teixeira, even claims he's found a French company to build the device and show it off at the Lisbon Design Show next week. Now, the principle of a practically-sized scent generator has already beendemonstrated by others, but we won't be convinced until we have to open a window.

Galaxy S II NFC capabilities inside, dormant for now - by aby benedict

If you’ve got either an AT&T or a T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II and were hoping to work with Google Wallet in the near future, you might well be in luck. Have a look under your battery cover and you’ll find the three sweetest words a mobile payments seeker can ever read: Near Field Communication. It’s not been highly publicized yet because plans aren’t publicly solid, but take a closer look in at least one public press release and you’ll see it, clear as day: NFC enabled.

This is a first for the Galaxy S II line, NFC and Google Wallet only fully activated in the Samsung device Nexus S 4G for now – have a look at your humble narrator’s hands-on video with Google Wallet on the Nexus S 4G for the full skinny on the situation. The Nexus S was the first Android device to really be pushed as having the feature for future use – now that Google Wallet is out and active in stores in several states across the USA, we’ve got to hope for the capability in all phones through the future.

Have a look at this early press release from T-Mobile:

T-Mobile today announced additional details about the Galaxy S II. The Galaxy S II will be one of T-Mobile’s fastest smartphones and one of the first to take advantage of T-Mobile’s faster 4G (HSPA+ 42) network technology. In addition, the Galaxy S II is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 processor with 1.5 GHz dual CPUs, runs on Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) and is NFC enabled.

From what we’ve been told thus far, NFC capabilities lie inside the battery, believe it or not, and that NFC functions and mentions are strewn throughout the Android source code, though as the title of this post says, all of this is dormant for the time being. If this situation ends up being like the Nexus S 4G, we’ve only to wait for the update to the newest version of Gingerbread to get both the Google Wallet app and the ability to utilize NFC for all manner of activities.

Joy? Joy! No need to use NFC stickers now, right? Hopefully. Those stickers seem above-average stone-age to me.

It’s the Early-90s All Over Again with iOS Gaming - by aby benedict

At the iPhone event held earlier this week in Cupertino, Calif., Apple showed off how the iPhone 4Scould deliver a level of gaming that so far, has been unmatched in the mobile space. And developers, hoping to capitalize on the new technology, have already sounded off on how impressed and excited they are to start developing for the device.

Although just about everyone likes to talk about mobile gaming as the future, and the preferred way in which many smartphone owners are entertained, I can’t help but look to the past, and consider how this time in mobile gaming reminds me so much of the early-1990s.

Nearly 20 years ago, the gaming industry was in an interesting place. A few companies, namely Nintendo and Sega, were continuing to try and innovate, and startup developers around the globe were offering some of the most cutting-edge (and addicting) games the world had ever seen. At the time, not everyone believed that the gaming industry would become the multi-billion dollar industry that it is today, and the vast majority of players couldn’t have cared less.

Today, many of those people that didn’t live through that generation look back at games on the Sega Genesis and SNES and laugh, wondering how we could have ever been entertained by those titles. But for those of us who lived through that period, it was a glorious time, and one that, every now and then, we wish we could have back.

Today, with mobile gaming becoming increasingly important on iOS and Android, I’m seeing many similarities. The games available on these platforms can’t quite match what we find on consoles or PCs, and yet, we don’t care. The games are innovative, they’re fun, and they appeal to both the hard-core segment and casual gamers, alike. What’s more, the companies building the hardware to support the titles are working hard to push the envelope and give developers as much to work with as possible.

Sure, the devices are different, and the way in which we get the games is something that wasn’t even considered back in the 1990s, but the basics are identical. For most small, independent development houses, building a console game is simply too costly. But building boatloads of iOS games isn’t. And so, with such low barriers to entry, people around the globe are turning their unique ideas into reality. And in many cases, those unique ideas have become cult classics.

Looking ahead, there’s no telling where the mobile-gaming space is headed. It could continue to explode, or it could fizzle out if developers find other opportunities elsewhere. But if I had to make a prediction, I’d say that the best is yet to come.

Over time, the games will become more sophisticated, they’ll look better, and they’ll cost more to make. And in the process, gamers will benefit — just as they did during the 1990s when the gaming business evolved from a niche, largely ignored industry into an entertainment powerhouse.