As one might speculate based on the name alone this is a fairly minor revision of the current-generation iPhone 4. The new device carries only a few minor hardware adjustments, but some very significant changes for the software itself (most of which the iPhone 4 will receive as well).

The most significant hardware changes are the upgrade to a dual core ‘A5′ ARM CPU, a completely redesigned 8MP camera and the integration of the voice-interface called ‘Siri’.

The first two pieces of this puzzle are fairly easy to understand. The new A5 processor will give the handset much more power, particularly for gaming or video intensive applications. The second new piece of hardware, the redesigned camera has a higher resolution sensor, larger aperture and an additional lens element, all of which are said to contribute to brighter, crisper, “better” photos than any of the previous iPhones.

The odd-ball of the bunch is Siri. This is something which might be described as an assistive technology, something designed for users who would have trouble interacting with the phone in a traditional manner. But if science-fiction has taught us anything it’s that we’ll all be talking to our computers in the future and the keyboard and mouse will be “quaint” figures of our collective social memory.

Siri was rolled out in Beta to the iPhone 4S and is the only iOS 5 device receiving the enhanced voice interface despite similar processing power in this past year’s iPad 2. The “beta” monicker is something that Apple has used only sparingly in years gone by and it tends to be in a fairly traditional sense of the word, being applied to products which are truly unfinished when they are made available to the public. There has been a great deal of speculation as to what this means for the future of Siri. Many feel that the technology will eventually make its way on to every Apple product from voice-enabled phones, to computers through to the Apple TV. The digital living room device is, in my opinion, the killer target for the new technology as it would allow a remote-control free experience (assuming it knew when to listen to you and when to ignore the sound coming out of your TV).

But all that aside I really wanted to focus on this one point: the iPhone 4S is the next logical step for Apple. After the initial release of the iPhone in 2007 it was followed up with the iPhone 3G which was arguably the first “complete” version of the handset in 2008. June of 2009 saw the introduction of the iPhone 3GS which was for all intents and purposes a revised version of the previous year’s model. 2010 introduced the iPhone 4 with an all new design and the first instance of an Apple device with an Apple CPU (the A4). After such a major upgrade nobody knew what would happen next. Speculation early in 2011 led many to believe (correctly as it turns out) that Apple would abandon it’s traditional June timeslot for iPhone launches eventually delivering the new phone in October.

The delay also led to a great deal of speculation that Apple must be using all this extra time to produce an absolutely killer new iPhone 5 which would revolutionize the phone market as much as the iPhone 4 had the year previous. The iPhone 4 is still one of the best selling single handset models ever, particularly if you focus on smartphone sales. As time dragged on so did the predictors, pundits and pranksters. We saw mock ups of super-sized, super-small, super-thin, dual screened, cloud-based, fat, thin, black, white, pink, polka-dotted, tutu-wearing, pipe-smoking, tap-dancing iPhones (OK, I made some of those up, but you get my point). When the new handset finally arrived, it was not the much touted iPhone 5, but a revision to the iPhone 4 complete with evolutionary hardware upgrades and a new piece of software that may someday change the way you interact with most of your technology.

It makes sense. The next iPhone will (probably) have a more significant redesign. The next iPhone will (probably) not be called the iPhone 5. The next iPhone will have Siri. The next iPhone — well, we’ll see it when it gets here, won’t we (or when it inevitably gets left in a bar somewhere in San Francisco).

Revived Apple

Steve Jobs founded Apple Computer in the late 1970′s. The company has had its ups and downs over the years and Jobs was ousted from his leadership position only to be hired back on in the 1990′s when Apple was bordering on irrelevancy. Starting with the iPod and iMac in the early 2000′s Jobs and his leadership team helped make Apple one of the most recognized and relevant brands in the world.

Reinvented home computing

The early Apple II computers were some of the first to be placed in the home as the “family computer”. While they weren’t the only ones, they were certainly among the first and also among the most widely deployed. The number of people who can tell you today that their first computer was an Apple IIc, or Apple IIgs is lengthy; myself included.

Revolutionized portable music

While not the first company to produce MP3 players, or even hard-disk based MP3 players, Apple created a beautifully designed device in 2001 called iPod. Jobs took the position that existing media players were not particularly good, or usable. He assembled a team to create a new device as a part of Apple’s “digital hub” strategy. This was, at it’s core, a basic MP3 player with an internal hard disk which could store 5-10 GB of music, which at the time was all, or most, of most peoples’ digital music collections. iPod became the foundation of later forays into the personal electronics space which has become central to Apple’s position in the market.

Reimagined telecommunications

It has been called “the second coming of mobile telephony”, it is Apple’s iPhone. Jobs and members of his leadership team like Jonathan Ive released it’s first iPhone in 2007 and has revised it every year selling millions upon millions of devices every year. Apple has become a (the?) leader in mobile phone sales and development worldwide leading a device category that they helped create less than 5 years ago.

Redefined portable computing

With the launch of the iPad tablet in 2010 Apple helped to define a third product category which had, until then, been somewhat vaguely defined. Steve Jobs himself referred to the iPad and it’s successor the iPad 2 as devices that would usher in the “post-PC era”. While not everyone feels that iPads will replace their computers, they have certainly helped to define a product category where people will use devices to complement their “real lives” with their digital ones.

So there you go, a brief summary of the impact Steve Jobs has had on the worlds of computing and technology in the past 35 years. We can only hope that he’s inspired his teams at Apple so that the innovation of Apple, particularly over the past decade, will continue in years to come.

1Password

1Password is a password manager for MacOS X which late last year released a version of their application which works with the iPhone and iPod touch.  Both the desktop and handheld versions of the application are brilliant and provide a great credential management service for those running the appropriate devices.  If you’re a slider like many of us are starting to become, it may not be the solution for you since there’s no version of 1Password available for Windows or any flavour of Linux.

Website | App store | Twitter

Crayon Physics

Again coming from desktop-based roots Crayon Physics is a simplistic looking game for the iPod Touch.  The goal is simple, draw the tools you need to get the ball to the goal.  The trick is you need to be able to anticipate how those tools will react to gravity, friction and impacts with other objects.  Give Crayon Physics a try if you want a game that’s challenging enough to make you think, but easy enough to actually complete.

Note: the desktop version was licensed by Kloonigames to Hudson Soft, so they’re technically not related.

Website | App store

iShoot

iShoot is a great replication of games that were super-popular in the early 1990s like Worms and my favourite Scorched Earth.  Battle it out with the computer or up to three other human players in a tank-on-tank-on-tank-on-tank battle with weird and wonderful weapons of all kinds.  A recent release of the game also includes the ability to define your own rules, terrains and weapons making it a truly personalized experience.

Website | App store | Twitter

SpaceTrader

Modelled after games with the same name on other platforms, and of course loosely based on Wing Commander: Privateer, SpaceTrader allows you to fly from planet to planet as a trader in an effort to make as much money as possible.  This game is the only 3D entry on the list with a fairly rich 3D environment that you can walk around and explore.  I had some memory issues with this game early on, but working with the developer and sending in some crash logs a newer release seems to have licked that problem.  Give this a try as a neat alternative to the 2D side scrollers.

Website | App store

Which applications have you purchased?  Or are you more of a JailBreak type?  Party in the comments…