Just hours after pre-orders began, shipping estimates for new iPhone 4S orders placed through Apple's online stores in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the UK have slipped to 1-2 weeks from the initial "by October 14th" estimate. Shipping estimates through Apple remain at October 14th in the United States, while the company is not offering online sales in Japan.
Current shipping estimates in Apple's Canadian online store
Apple and its carrier partners began pre-orders around midnight Pacific Time, although Apple's and AT&T's sites didn't come up for orders until about 40 minutes after the scheduled launch time. And even after pre-orders came up on Apple's site, users had significant difficulty getting through. Much of the bottleneck appeared to be related to verifying eligibility and plans through AT&T, with the purchasing process repeatedly hanging and resulting in errors for many users.
iPhone 4S reservation issued due to problems with carrier processing
Apple eventually shut down its iPhone pre-order system for a brief period of time, bringing it back up to issue reservations that would allow users to return later to verify eligibility and select their service plans. Apple has begun notifying users who placed early reservations that they may now return to apple.com to complete their orders, and that they must complete the process by 5:00 PM Pacific Time tomorrow in order maintain their priority order status.
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices.
Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025:
Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
Wednesday March 26, 2025 4:53 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple regularly refreshes the MacBook Pro models, and a new version that uses M5 series chips is in the works. Apple just finished refreshing most of the Mac lineup with M4 chips, and now it's time for the M5. Rumors suggest that we could see the first M5 MacBook Pro models this fall.
Design
There have been no rumors of a design update for the M5 MacBook Pro models that are coming this...
Wednesday March 26, 2025 12:19 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple is going all out with promotions for the popular Severance Apple TV+ show today, and as of right now, you'll find a new "Lumon Terminal Pro" listed on Apple's Mac site.
The Lumon Terminal Pro is designed to look similar to the machines that Severance employees like Mark S. and Helly R. use for macrodata refinement. The Terminal features a blue keyboard, a small display with wide...
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In the mid-to-late 2000s, Facebook was all about staying connected with friends and family. However, as the social media platform added new features and grew over time, that core experience began to get drowned out.
That changes starting now, according to Meta, which today introduced a new feature that will "bring back the joy" of classic Facebook.
Specifically, Meta has redesigned the...
Apple is expected to release iOS 18.4 to the general public as soon as next week, following more than a month of beta testing.
Apple's website says some iOS 18.4 features will be released in "early April," so the update should be out as early as Tuesday, April 1.
Apple this week seeded the iOS 18.4 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, barring the discovery of any...
Wednesday March 26, 2025 4:06 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Update 7:25 pm: Based on comments from our forums, it appears the original Weibo post may have been mistranslated and "8K" actually refers to the high price of the device rather than 8K video recording capabilities. The iPhone 16 Pro currently starts at 7,999 yuan in China.
Our original article follows below.
Apple's forthcoming iPhone 17 Pro models are capable of shooting 8K video, up...
With the second release candidate of iOS 18.4 that Apple seeded out today, the company finally provided us with release notes that give a full rundown on what to expect.
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Thursday March 27, 2025 7:45 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
The upcoming iOS 18.4 update for the iPhone adds an Ambient Music feature to Control Center. Below, we take a closer look at how it works.
iOS 18.4 is currently in beta, so the Ambient Music feature is not widely available yet. The update will likely be released to the general public next week.
To use the feature on iOS 18.4, open Control Center and tap on the plus sign in the top-left...
Thursday March 27, 2025 4:21 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Last week, we covered a report claiming that Apple's book-style foldable iPhone (or "iPhone Fold," as we are provisionally calling it here) will use liquid metal hinges to improve durability and help minimize screen creasing. Today, a Chinese leaker provided more details on the properties of this hinge material that help to clarify why Apple chose it for its first foldable device.
According...
I thought people didn't like the 4S. What happened?
Read the comments: lots of people with iPhone 3s are updating. Their plan cycle is up and they are stepping up to the latest & greatest available from Apple. Had it been an iPhone 5, they would be doing this too... not because a "5" is necessarily better than a "4s" but just because it was time for an update and this is the latest iPhone available. If Apple had said "no new iPhone this year; we're sticking with the 4 (inside & out)" I suspect many of these same iPhone 3 people would still upgrade anyway to a "4" as it is just a natural outcome of their contracts ending.
I think the griping and "not liking it" is a lot of people with expectations of major design updates every year fueled by the delay by several additional months beyond the "normal" launch time and the usual hype-a-rama machine of rumors. And some of these are "4" owners who don't care about cost inefficiencies and/or extended contract terms from renewing hardware before the normal contract term cycle.
Personally, I think Apple should have called this one a "5" as I suspect a lot of the gripes were attached to an idea of a name (number). Sure, if it was branded the "5" the gripes would have been that it looks exactly the same as a "4". But those needing to brag about owning the latest gadget could have got their "5" instead of having to emphasize the "S" in 4s.
Functionally, it has the latest & greatest guts available from Apple. Yes, the rumored bigger screen was an interesting possibility and a new body shape would help those who need to brag show they have a "5" without having to say they have a "5". But otherwise, Apple took the latest horsepower & guts they have and put them in the same shell with the same-sized screen. The braggers will just have to emphasize the "S" or wait out the next iPhone. For those that care about their spending, maybe the next one will arrive right about the time their 2-year deal on the "4" is about to end, so they can do what these "3" people are doing and not waste extra money for their next upgrade?
IMO, it was a waste to wake up early this morning (2:45 EDT), I couldn't get my order in through Apple due to ATT's FAN premier site being down. That along with the fact that Apple was delayed 43 minutes in opening up the store, I went back to bed. Woke up this morning and got my order in on the Apple site within two minutes. Got a confirmation email and not one of those bogus reserve ones. Never staying up again. :)
Mines coming between the 21st-28th, so excited! Got in there before the Shipping Estimates went up, which they inevitably will.
All the people complaining about the new iPhone 4S, this is the biggest spec bump the iPhone has ever seen.
iPhone 2G+3G = 400Mhz Processor + 128MB RAM + 2MP Camera iPhone 3GS = 600Mhz Processor + 256MB of RAM + 3MP Camera iPhone 4 = 800Mhz Processor + 512MB of RAM + 5MP Camera iPhone 4S = 2 x 800Mhz Cores + (Supposedly) 1GB of RAM + 8MP Camera
This is the biggest leap in the iPhones specs ever. If it was in a new different case, most of the complainers here would be crapping themselves in giddy excitement as they trip over each over in the stampede to buy it.
The £600 ($930) price tag for the 32GB stung a little bit though, but I wanted the extra space for the bigger file sized pictures and 1080p video.
