• October 4, 2011

Apple will not be releasing an iPhone 5 in the coming weeks, but does that really matter?

In its widely anticipated iPhone announcement on Tuesday, the Cupertino, Calif. company announced its latest phone upgrade would be the iPhone 4S (a similar pattern the company followed when improving on its iPhone 3G to 3GS). But while the phone will have the same features on the outside, nearly everything will be upgraded, from its processing chip (using the same A5 technology that powers the iPad 2) to a more advanced camera and a new operating system.

Most impressively, it seems, the phone will also come equipped with a technology, "Siri," that will recognize voice commands to help schedule appointments and reminders, dictate text messages and surf the Web. "We are clearly headed to Terminator/HAL territory here," wrote Sam Grobart on the New York Times' live blog account of the event. "Humans are doomed. Deal with it."

The new phone -- which will available on AT&T, Verizon and, as rumored, on Sprint networks -- will start at $199 for a 16G model, and increase in price along with memory size. Concurrently, prices for the old iPhone 4 will drop to $99 and the 3GS will be free (with a two year contract).

Apple will begin taking pre-orders for the iPhone 4S on Friday, with its official release coming on Oct. 14. Let the lines begin.