This is your Yellowgate. It looks worse from an angle (below the fold). Hopefully, the tint should go away as glue from the factory dries. Image credit: chr0m
Look, fringe issues are common when four million devices hit at once. Hence, this compilation of inevitable teething problems with Apple’s new baby. First up, the display. A bunch of people are writing in a thread on Apple’s Discussion Forums about washed out colors and yellowish tint on the iPhone 4S’s display. This is especially noticeable with lots of whites, such as when browsing the web or reading your email.
A forum user Snowglider reports:
Not to worry, factory workers did not pee on your screen. It’s a common issue with the devices that have literally just been produced as the glue from the factory which keeps the screen in place dries. Watchful readers could note similar problems with early iPad 2 and iPhone 3G units. As for the recently reported slow 3G speeds on the Sprint network, the carrier has denied the issue. PCMag.com has the official statement:
Next up, some folks are complaining about their brand spanking new iPhone 4S’s battery draining out in just a couple of hours on standby. Now, Apple rates the battery inside the iPhone 4S as having up to 200 hours of standby, a hundred less than the previous model. This surprised some fans, especially considering the iPhone 4S’s extra .05W/hrs battery and an hour-long talk time increase. The most logical explanation for a thirty percent reduction in standby time is Siri or additional background processes with notifications. Judging by this thread on Apple’s support forums, the battery issue may be affecting a tiny portion of early adopters.
Moreover, iLounge found out in their iPhone 4S mega-review that the device also has worse battery life for 3G data and audio/video playback/recording. It fared better in their cellular calling tests and on par with the iPhone 4 for Wi-Fi and FaceTime. If it’s any consolation, Apple offers these handy tips on improving battery life on your iPhone, including:
Then there are the sporadic issues, including the high-pitched noise when connecting your iPhone 4S to a stereo via the headphones jack, microphone issues, frozen screen, frequent lockups, random unresponsiveness, getting stuck while syncing, overheating, camera lens rattle sound and more. Many of those can be attributed to a human factor or inapt users who, for example, complain about Siri missing on their device whereas the feature has to be manually turned on in Settings > General > Siri.
Moving on to Siri. As you know, Apple’s digital assistant is being billed as the killer feature of the iPhone 4S. Indeed, it’s like having a secretary of your own – in your pocket. Siri has inspired a site solely dedicated to the things Siri says (another one here). Heck, Jonathan Mann even sang a duet with Siri. Some answers Siri gives are amusing, such as responding to marriage questions with “My End User License Agreement does not cover marriage”. People are more amused by the silly stuff, like when you say “call me an ambulance” and she responds by acknowledging “From now on, I’ll call you ‘an ambulance’”. More on Siri and other tidbits below the fold.
Siri, fuzzy by design, taps a huge phrases database to come up with amusing replies.
The yellow tinting on the iPhone 4S looks worse at an angle.
Thanks to the iCloud’s vast computing power and data Siri collects each time you ask her a question, your personal secretary gets better over time.
Apple explains:
Siri also learns about the world you live in by tapping information from your contacts, music library, calendars and reminders, as explained by Ed Wrenbeck, former lead developer of Siri:
On the cloud front, Apple created a mess by introducing iCloud accounts and the ability to migrate MobileMe accounts to iCloud. A lot of people complain about Apple ID issues in regards to iCloud, but Apple is unlikely to enable merging of multiple IDs into one.
The company clarified in a support article:
You can check the iCloud status on this web page.
On a final note, while Siri is very effective at running errands, we shouldn’t forget it’s a work in progress and beta product. Summing up, Daring Fireball’s John Gruber, one of the toughest critics out there, highlighted in his iPhone 4S review paradigm shift Siri brings to the table:
