What a disappointment. Christmas bonus time approaching, and still chugging along with my iPhone 3G, I was really hoping for an iPhone 5.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15172238

You could always treat yourself to one of these @ xmas ...

I don't understand. It isn't made by Apple

18months of my 24 month contract are up, so I can upgrade my 3GS now if I choose. That my choice is not a spangly 5 but a 4GS is disappointing. The 4 had a better screen, a shit reception and no real incentive to upgrade my 3GS to it for my money, and learning that the 4GS has a better screen again a slightly better camera and some Siri shite that recognises my voice isnt enough to convince me to "upgrade" without waiting for the Stuff & T3 reviews.

So they will have almost caught up with the best Androids after this. Wahoo?

A couple more years and they'll have fallen as far back as Nokia.

but Murf, it's an iPhone!

I get the feeling that this phone was originally meant to be the iphone 5 but because it falls short of the SGS2 etc they've decided to brand it as an upgraded iphone 4 ...

Which would make sense as we were all lead to be believed the 5 would be released in Oct.

No matter what bells & whistles you put inside, you cant have an iPhone 5 that looks like an iPhone 4.
AN objective comparison of how the iphone 4GS falls short of the SGS2 would be good....

And if they could have sold it as an iphone 5 AKA the most powerful smartphone in the world the outer shell would have been completely different to the iphone4...but as they can't it isn't ...

As I said, I'm able to upgrade and thought an objective comparison would be good. Playing "my phone is better than your phone" does nothing to dissuade me from waiting for the Stuff/T3 review.

I'm playing 'my phone is more powerful than your phone' which doesn't necessarily equate to better, the iphone IOS is a better choice than Android for some, just depends what each individual is looking for from their smartphone of choice...

I've literally begged my boss for an Android, SGS2 ideally, but no dice. The iPhone4 is a nice looking bit of kit but it's still Apple which means when I can't do what I used to do with my wife's old Desire. Watching Bloomberg today it seemed the only positive they could find was that Apple was going to save the world. This is some let down.

Sad story Dr B, but not uncommon. But maybe you're on the wrong forum?

The crazy thing is that Apple will almost certainly go on to sell bucket loads of these devices as they're very good at convincing the pro apple brigade that the upgrade will be worthwhile...

I thought that as I typed it but thought, "what the hell"!

Without a doubt my friend. To be fair you can't argue with their marketing, they could have just renamed it and it would have still sold out. I was highly amused to hear my boss harping on about his new iPhone a while ago that could run one app and then flip to another one, several months after Android. It was the same with folders.

It doesn't seem to be discussed but Android now has more than twice the new take up than Apple. The idea that you have one company that makes one phone every 12 months seems like a crazy business plan when you've got loads of manufacturers making a broad range of excellent phones, all based on a common platform with apps that will work on all of them.

10 reasons why you shouldn't buy a iphone 5

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/04 ... _iphone_5/

That's a good article and matches my views but I've been reading some iPhone blogs and forums and they're all saying the same things: it was a good move to make it a 4S and how the new stuff is ground-breaking. To me the idea of bringing out a fix for a fundamental flaw such as the aerial issue and a slightly improved camera and battery was not worthy of such a hyped press conference but we all know it'll get lapped up.

I imagine there's a lot of pissed off networks out there too; my company bought a bucket load of iPhone 4's (not 4S's...) which were going cheap, I guess because they were anticipating demand from October. Oops, people won't be as bothered upgrading now that the new phone looks the same as the current one.

To be fair, it does look like a very, very nice upgrade to the 4. I shouldn't have been so quick off the mark, but I just expected the launch of iPhone 5. I blame the media!

Very, very?

Those 10 reasons not to buy an iPhone4GS are a load of pish. I have never once seen an HTC or Galaxy sporting colleague swapping their battery over to a spare, and there has always been sufficient storage psace that I never needed a memory card - and isnt that the point of iCloud anyway? Then its onto the real horseshit that I'm encouraging the walled garden business model , it in the reviewers opinion does not in fact mark me out as a member of the 'Cognoscenti' and wait for it - Stephen Fry has one? Well thats it then. No iPhone for me no more.

I'll be interested in whether iOS5 runs on the 3GS - giving cloud, Siri etc to those of us that might be able to live with a slower phone with an average camera...

BFM -

What you are really asking for is our opinions of the differences? Mrs Richt has an iPhone 4 and I have the Samsung Galaxy 2.

Pros for the galaxy compared to iPhone. (imo).

Better quality camera (8mp)
Larger clearer screen.
Quicker processing
Very straight forward to upload pics / download apps and save stuff to your pc. Without the use of itunes.
The Android market allows you a 15 minute grace period after buying an app, where you are refunded your money if you delete it within that window.

cons of galaxy compared to iPhone.

Can be a bit awkward for those with "fatter" fingers to text.
Battery life isn't brilliant. (but apparently there are ways around this).

There are going to be other pros and cons, but those are the ones that spring immediately to mind.

One major iPhone pro - The post contract sell on value.
Used 32gb iPhone 4's are still selling for between £300-£370 on eBay - compare this to the Samsung Galaxy 2 which are available new for £350-360.

Obviously the cost of the monthly contract reflects that.

I think 7 is reason in itself

If you compare an iPhone to another machine which contains similar hardware, it is hugely more expensive. As discussed, above and below, the differences between the iPhone and the competitor are all such as to make it worse, not better, and such as to mean you will pay more on top to network operators and to replace it down the road.

Do you follow that theory when buying a PC? Of course not, so why when buying a phone?

http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/busi ... 109284358/

I'd partially agree with the point about the battery but it's not just about day-to-day use. I recently had to replace the battery on an old phone that wasn't holding its charge. I didn't want to to spend £200 on another phone or sign a 24 month contract so preferred to spend £9.99 on a new one online. The memory card issue goes a lot further than the point about storage even though they're correct when they say that it's frustrating that you have to buy another phone at great cost to upgrade. What annoys me is their control of media; I want to be able to use my phone as a portable harddrive and move music and other files to and from it and between my various computers. Sure, that could mean I could illegally move music I don't own but I don't believe that's for Apple to decide.

As an aside, Apple shares are down for the 5th day in a row. That tells its own story. If people weren't so tied in to them because of docking stations and iTunes I don't think it's a stretch to believe the gap between them and Android would be even wider.