If you’re one of the million lucky souls who has spent a few minutes today tenderly lifted an iPhone 4S out of its lovingly-crafted, pearly white packaging, perhaps after spending hours in the driving rain outside an Apple Store, you might be stuck with a rather odd question: what now? Except for Siri — which, admittedly, you will be playing with for weeks to come — there really is nothing new. Yes, iOS 5 has a ton of neat features, and iCloud is awesome — but you would’ve had access to those even if you hadn’t handed over a fistful of dollars for an iPhone 4S.
There are still a few things that you can do to make the most of your new, super-fast iPhone, however.
Tell Siri who you’re related to
No, not so that Siri can tell your wife that you’ve been saying inappropriate things to your new, cutesy assistant — but rather so that you can tell Siri to “call my wife.” Pull up Contacts, edit a contact, click Add Field, scroll down to Related People, then add yourself and your relation (see right). Alternatively, you can simply tell Siri “Mary Poppins is my wife,” “My brother is John Smith,” and so on; a much more
Applesque approach, admittedly.
Set up WiFi Sync
Not only can iOS 5 devices stand alone and be activated without iTunes, but you can now sync the contents of your iPhone, iPad, or iPod via WiFi. To do this, just plug in the cable, open up iTunes, select your device from the left, and scroll down to select “Sync with this device over Wi-Fi.” You’ll be walked through a simple setup process, and that’s it.
If you want to copy large amounts of data you’ll still want to use USB, though: it’s faster, and WiFi sucks up quite a lot of battery power.
Install some juicy games, play them on your lounge TV
Hardware-wise, by far the most stand-out feature on the iPhone 4S is its SGX 543MP3 graphics processor: it’s seven times faster than the iPhone 4, and
almost twice as fast as the next smartphone(Galaxy S II). In everyday use, though, you won’t really notice the new GPU: the whole phone will just feel a little bit snappier… Unless you install some hardcore, bleeding-edge iPhone games!
Rage HD simply flies on the iPhone 4S, and
Need for Speed Hot Pursuit and
Galaxy on Fire 2 are good options too. Presumably the best game that will really show off the new graphics chip is
Infinity Blade II, which was demonstrated at the iPhone 4S press event — but unfortunately it won’t be available to download until December 1.
It’s worth noting that you can hook these games up to your big-screen TV by way of Apple TV and
AirPlay, and while the iPhone 4S isn’t quite as powerful as a video games console, it’s getting there…
Get a cheaper SIM card
While the iPhone 4S is being advertised as a “world phone,” the situation regarding its replaceable SIM card is a little murky. According to PC Mag, it sounds like Verizon users will be able to
switch out their micro-SIM for another — and Sprint customers might be able to as well. AT&T customers will be forced to use the installed SIM card.
What this means is that Verizon (and possibly Sprint) users can a) switch in a SIM that gives you cheaper international calls, and b) when you’re actually travelling around the globe with your world phone, you can use a prepaid SIM card to make cheap local calls. AT&T customers will sadly have to pay for an “international package” and then suffer through extortionate roaming costs.
Of course, if you wait until November, you’ll be able to pick up an
unlocked iPhone 4S for $449. Whack in a prepaid T-Mobile SIM and off you go!
Make sure iCloud is set up on your Windows or Mac PC
Finally, it goes without saying, but because it requires an update we’ll say so anyway: To take full advantage of iCloud you need to
install an app on your Windows computer, or
update your Mac machine to OS X 10.7.2 or later. The setup process is easy enough, but the first synchronization will take some time if you’ve taken a lot of photos and movies on your iDevice.
You may also want to customize exactly what gets uploaded to and downloaded from iCloud, which is under Settings > iCloud on your device, iCloud in System Preferences on your Mac, or iCloud in Control Panel on your Windows computer.
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