The four Quls were granted as a blessing to man by Allah for the sake of protection. The four Quls are actually the four surahs - " Surah Kafiroon, Surah Ikhlaas, Surah Falak and Surah Naas." These Surahs were showered on man as a divine asset to learn them by heart in order to ask Allah for security and shelter from shirk, magic, mischievous acts of the satan and evil undertones of the devil himself or its disciple.
These Surahs provides man as a source to purify one self from all the negativities when man tends to harm its very own origin or kind, such as, hatred, prejudices, envy, backbiting and many other harmful aspects present in human nature. In short, these Surahs should be cemented on every individual's heart for the sake of protection and security.
At times, when we are busy with our hectic routined lives, it becomes impossible for us to recite these very needful verses. Some times it becomes even difficult to recall one's memory and recite the four complete Surahs. Aparts from all that it is a dire need of time as well to recite the 4 Surahs on daily basis and ask God for mercy, help and protection, or atleast once in a day, even this needs time and learning. Now keeping in mind this very salient requirement, RBMTech after the succesful launch of Kalimah App came up with another distinctively brilliant resource known as 4Quls App.
ESTABLISHMENT:
This effort was made by RBMTech to provide its users with a handy and convenient segment for your idevice, which is always there to help and guide you to ask God for guardianship and cover. This application's statistics shows the position in eduational catagory of the Qul app which stands in an extremely dignified manner at no.1 position on Pakistani App Store and Apple's App Store in educational catagory, highlighting the success, achievement and attaintment of hard worked goals achieved by RBM Technologies.
COMPOSITION:
4Quls Application is completely composed for iphone, ipad and ipod touch to bring forth an extremely manageable and convenient approach for its users, further helping the user to learn the 4Quls from Quran.
Moreover, the 4Quls App sequentially comprises of
Surah Al- Kafiroon (109)
Surah Al- Ikhlas. (112)
Surah Al- Falaq. (113)
Surah Al- Nas. (114)
ATTRIBUTES:
RBMTech has no doubt made a worth appreciating effort in fabricating the application in such an easy to use, aesthetically strong, appealing and attractive manner.
The background and the front display of the app is organized in complete unblemished, refined and classy manner. The shades of browns comes up with the tinge of exquisite and divine quality, which directly charms one's inventive skills. The overall structure of the display gives a complete picture of a heavenly script. The vintage format gives this app a more chic and exclusive look.
Apart from the creative quality of the app, the element of tractable and orderly convenient usage is also kept in mind very keenly. This is an anxious effort made by the creators of the app to facilitate its users with the convenience and utility of operating the app. The test on Arabic portrays the beauty of the language, where as, on the other hand the trasliteration in English is also available for the user's accessibilty. There is an option to audio for better understanding or getting help in proper pronunciation.
EPILOGUE:
This resourceful application fully interacts with its user, with complete harmony and understanding, resulting response, education and enlightment.
Hats off to the great efforts, hardwork, detailed research and good will by RBMTech in creating such a master piece. This application for sure provides a gateway towards learning for both young and old, muslim and non- muslim. This easy to use app provides its user with help and guidance tabs, along with, segregated sections for each Surah.
For awareness on a larger panel this app is avaiable on Social Sharing networks which can be dealt via Facebook, Twitter or emailing.
We are looking forward that this effort of RBMTech will bring more and more learning and awareness to its users giving them a proper, practiceable and profitable solution to their querries. Furthermore, we have also got our fingers crossed for its more and more success and popularity benefiting as much people as possible all over the World. Below is the video walkthrough of the 4Quls App:
You can Download 4Quls App from App Store for only $2.99.
Follow @RBMTech on Twitter for updates, also visit and press the LIKE button on fb.com/4Quls
RBMTech launched a Kalimah Application for iOS, which very succesfully touched the top position in educational catagory on Apple App Store. Moreover, this Application was a total success taking over the second position on Pakistani application store in all genre. This application is built to facilitate its users for complete educational and religious purposes. The Kaimah App comprises of complete six Kalimahs. The aim was to enable its users learn or revise the six kalimahs which we mostly memorize in our childhood days, but unfortunately, with the passage of time we tend to forget its few verses or may be sometimes any of the full kaimah skips our mind.
Now, this app is a basic source to help and guide us regarding the same problem. It also provides an easy passage way towards the process of learning for the young children. This application is totally designed to instruct and direct young learners, as the six Kalimahs are the vital elements of Islam. RBMTech directly pushed a little bit of effort towards inculcating this facility for both young and old. In-short, it is a step towards the fulfillment of a religious requirement.
DESIGN :
This application is designed keeping in mind the comfort levels, taste and scanning ability of the user, so that it becomes easier for the user to scrutinize the needfull matter properly and fully. The design of the kalimah app was built very cognitively. The company experimented and keenly studied to come up with this brilliant app as a tool to polish and groom our basic religious foundation, the six Kalimahs.
APPARENTAL CHARACTERISTICS :
Kalimah App is fully fabricated in to both English and Arabic language. The break up of each Kalimah is also available in order to decipher each and every word, phrase and expression from each Kalimah clear. The translation along with coherent pronunciation is also available, which can be both read and heard, as the option to hearing for the need to correct pronunciation is also avaiable.
COMPOSITION :
This application is composed keeping in mind the solution for any kind of upraised querry regarding the user. This handy application is extremely easy and manageable. The technology is fully meant to polish and educate on religious grounds. And to fulfill the purpose, one most very important thing was kept in mind that during its formation, which was to allure the user with the power of magnetism. This is succesfully attained by the gloomy greys added to highlight the black background and streaks of green color also boosts the visuals to striking levels.
Each kailmah is divied and furnished in to different sections seperating from each other. There are both alphanumeric and arabic labels which makes it more impulsively attractive and convenient for the user. There are also proper navigations available on each display to help and guide, sideways. Users can also share all the six Kalimahs on Facebook, Twitter or emails for any screen.
FINAL VERDICT :
This application was formed keeping in mind only one motive which was to open doors and to promote the basic concepts of Islam. It also makes it easy and accessible for every muslim and even for non-muslims to gain benefit, assistance and guidance from it. This was a venture leading towards accomplishment of second position on Pakistani App Store. Below is the video walkthrough of the Kalimah App.
We are looking forward that this effort of RBMTech will bring more and more learning and awareness to its users giving them a proper, practiceable and profitable solution to their querries. Furthermore, we have also got our fingers crossed for its more and more success and popularity benefiting as much people as possible all over the World.
You can Download Kailmah App from App Store for only $1.99.
Problem faced by Android from the company as part of the iOS Apple knows more and more success.
The popularity of both functional consumer is given now to the "battle" to be at about the same levels as the plethora of Android manufacturers 'eats' ever share from Apple despite the impetus given each year by new releases of the company.
To corporate users, however, things are quite different with Apple to have a large share at the expense mainly of RIM and almost nonexistent Android, Windows Phone roundtrips.The popularity of iPhone and iPad devices were opened the door to allow their use at the corporate level.The integration, in fact, the Microsoft Exchange ActveSync the iPhone in 2008 played an important role.H Apple did not stop there, of course, then adding support for corporate VPN and proxy servers and the iPad in 2010 success was no longer a given.
Google has tried to respond with Android but so far not had a serious impact on the workplace.Apart from many shortcomings in the actual operating the plethora of Android devices is why the corporate use remains impossible.For example, Motorola, HTC, Samsung roundtrips have different tools for corporate management companies which are unable to support financially and practically.
HTC has released a latest version of its Sensation line of smartphones and it seems like themanufacturer has made many improvements in this device. The new model is called HTC Sensation XL and HTC has included Beats Audio in this device and many other additional features.
The first one we’re reviewing is the HTC Sensation XL, a music-oriented smartphone with a jumbo-sized 4.7” display, 16GB of internal storage, and bundled Beats Solo headphones. It’s a strong mix of features that results in one of the most appealing smartphones that HTC has released to date.
Design
“A 4.7” screen? Surely that’s too big for a smartphone?” That was our first thought when we heard about the Sensation XL, but turns out it’s not as wide as we thought it would be. It’s actually quite nice in the hand thanks to the smoothly rounded edges, giving it the illusion of being a lot narrower than 70.7mm. Of course, it doesn’t have the perfectly-proportioned hand-to-screen-size ratio that the iPhone supposedly has, but it’s not that much wider than phones with a 4.3” display.
The rest of the phone’s design is pretty standard. On the front, there are four capacitive buttons below the screen, an indicator light above the screen that flashes green when you have a new notification, and a front-facing 1.3-megapixel camera. The top houses a 3.5mm headphone jack and the sleep/power button, and the volume buttons (housed underneath a thin silver slab) are on the right. The microUSB port is on the left, and the rear houses the dual LED flash, eight-megapixel camera and speaker. Behind the rear casing, you’ll find the 1600mAh battery and SIM card slot, but sadly no microSD card slot.
Incredibly Thin
With the addition of large screen, Sensation XL was also in need of a wide bezel but it seems like HTC has added a narrow side bezel and it makes this device shorter than the upcoming Galaxy Nexus from Google. The device is also very incredibly thin as it measures only 10mm.
Camera
The camera app has been reworked slightly in Sense 3.5. Essentially it brings the effects options into the corner of the display, rather than taking up space in the menu bar, meaning the settings can also be accessed directly, rather than by touching the device menu button. It's a minor thing, but does make it slightly easier to get around.
We like HTC's arrangement when it comes to focusing, offering touch focusing to minimise the amount of messing around you have to do. It also will prefocus, leading to what HTC call "instant capture" when the phone has essentially focused on the scene before you go to press the button. In some devices, focusing takes place after you press the button, so the process seems longer.
The results are good too. As we've seen before from HTC, fed good light, the camera does rather well. A dual LED flash sits in support, but it doesn't really give you clean or consistent illumination when the natural light drops. Low light shots tend to be noisy, but this is common to all phone cameras. Conclusion
To say we liked this phone would be an understatement. The HTC Sensation XL gets so many things right – the gorgeous hardware design, awesome Beats Audio technology (and bundled Beats Solo headphones) and excellent battery life – that it makes its shortcomings (namely the low-res screen, lack of microSD expansion and weak external speaker) easier to forgive.
Still, the limitation to 16GB of internal storage is a big strike against it that may be a deal-breaker for many music lovers. We’d love to see a version of this phone with either more internal storage or microSD expansion (and ideally both).
It now adds a new "WeePlugin" to the list of widgets for the IOS Notifications Center 5.This time we bring WeeSearch, a widget that brings the best-known research center in the online services Notifications of your iPhone or iPod touch updated to iPhone OS 5.
With WeeSearch you can perform searches on three well-known online services, namely Google, YouTube and Wikipedia directly from the Notifications Center of IOS 5.The user can enter keywords in a particular place, and immediately below, specify which service will start the search.
Like any other widget Centre for Notifications of IOS 5, even WeeSearch can be enabled, disabled, hidden, and moved at will.All the changes you want to make the widgets can be done from the Settings menu under the heading Notifications.
WeeSearch is a tweak that you can download free from the BigBoss repository on Cydia.
The Notification Center is turning increasingly into a Widget Center.This is thanks to the many tweaks that have appeared in recent weeks in Cydia.The latest is WeeCompose, a new widget that allows you to type and send a quick message or email.
WeeCompose installing on your jailbroken iPhone updated to iPhone OS 5 will get a new widget in the Notifications Center that allows you to type and send new email or SMS.This widget will allow you to simply refer to your inbox to find unread messages.Logically, the SMS function is not compatible with iPod touch.Complete this widget counter the small characters that are in the lower right corner, just as in its native IOS messages.
Like any other widget Centre for Notifications of IOS 5, even WeeCompose can be enabled, disabled, hidden, and moved at will.All the changes you want to make the widgets can be done from the Settings menu under the heading Notifications.
WeeCompose found in Cydia and you can download from the BigBoss repository.The price was fixed at 1.99 tweak dollars.
The iPhone 4S caught many by surprise, with Apple expected to release the iPhone 5 - but instead we got an iPhone 4 with overhauled innards.
While the masses were initially disappointed, the iPhone 4S features a glut of top-end tech that is designed to put it on a par with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S2 - but does it manage to do that?
The changes to the iPhone 4S are easy to document - the camera has been upgraded to 8MP (with an improved aperture ratio), the CPU is now the same dual-core A5 processor as seen in the iPad 2, and a seven time increase in graphical processing power.
Also we've got Siri, Apple's voice recognition service - will this be a game changer for mobile phones or will it be nothing more than a gimmick?
As we've mentioned, the iPhone 4S is almost identical in outward design to the iPhone 4, which might irk those that like to show that they've got the most up to date device from Apple when out and about with friends.
However, the flip side of this is that things like the plethora of iPhone 4 covers on the market at the moment will still fit.
Apple has slightly changed the design of the iPhone 4S somewhat though, by changing to a dual-band aerial design, making sure it doesn't encounter an embarrassing repeat of antenna-gate we had to endure with the iPhone 4.
For all those that haven't seen the older version of the phone, we'll take you on a tour of the new handset: the top of the iPhone 4S houses the power/lock button, as well as the headphone jack, plus a microphone for noise cancellation.
The right-hand side of the phone is devoid of any buttons, but holds the slot for the micro SIM card, which pops out using the included tool (or a paperclip).
The bottom of the phone is pretty standard, with the Apple connector and dual speakers which pump out the (actually quite decent) sound.
The left-hand side of the phone sees the rounded volume keys, with the top one of these also acting as the camera shutter button to make it easy to snap with the new iPhone. We've also got the silencer switch too, which has been slightly moved upwards from the previous iteration.
As you can see, Apple has altered its antenna band technology to move the gaps that plagued the iPhone 4's reception to a less-touchable location.
Interface
The iPhone 4S is the flagship model for the new iOS software from Apple, making it much snazzier once more.
We'll walk you through the big changes to start with - and Notifications is up there with the best of them.
The new system apes Android by using a drop down menu from pretty much anywhere in the phone to let you see all manner of updates, weather news and messages, plus new notifications will now ping across the top of the screen rather than plopping straight into the middle of the screen like before and disrupting whatever you were doing.
It's not revolutionary by any means, but it's well-integrated and makes the whole system feel a whole lot different to iOS 4.
The lock screen is now called into more use than ever before too, with new notifications sitting on top to be easily accessed without needing to mess about inside the phone.
We quickly got to grips with this new system and can see a lot of people really enjoying being able to open the camera quickly too, which you can do by simply double tapping the home button on the lock screen.
The original system we're fans of is also back in full force, with swipable home screens filled with icons for apps, which you can easily sort into folders or edit by long pressing on the screen.
Double tapping the home button will let you see all your open applications, making it easy to multitask on the go, and swiping to the left gets you to the iPod menu to quickly access the controls. It's the closest we get to widgets with this phone, and we're still hankering after more... but that's the choice Apple is making in the face of the widget-laden Android opposition.
We would like to see contextual menus throughout the interface, for instance being able to change the settings for an app without having to jump out of the main menu - we're sure this has to be coming soon in a future release.
As we've mentioned before, the iPhone 4S now comes with the dual-core A5 processor, which means battery life is meant to be better and the rest of the phone should operate even more snappily.
In our tests, we barely noticed that much of a difference in speed with the iPhone 4, as there was never really a problem with opening and closing applications. With the animations still present, it still seems like the iPhone 4S is a little slower than other dual core handsets on the market (although we mean a tiny amount) but in general use it works perfectly.
It's the most intuitive system on the market in our eyes - we're fans of the complexity of Android, but not everybody is a power user and for the person that wants a simple smartphone that's easy to pick up and start using, the iPhone 4S is one of the best.
The iPhone 4S has the same range of calling options as before, and the contacts menu has barely changed in the latest version of iOS, but it's an easy system and one that people will pick up with little fuss.
Contacts
The contacts system is one that makes simple sense: you hit the phone section, and are presented with many options, be it calling one of your favourite contacts list, seeing your missed or dialled calls, accessing the dial pad or just seeing the phone book in its entirety.
It's as easy as you could imagine to add in a contact on the iPhone 4S, with a phone number entry presenting an option to save the number to a new or existing contact without a problem.
However, and this is a gripe we've had about the iPhone contacts' system for years - it's pretty basic and doesn't really add in a lot of functionality.
You can add in some basic information, like a photo, address or instant messaging handle, but it pales in comparison to the super linked-up options present on the likes of the Android range.
There's no social networking integration, or message history present in the phonebook, which would surely be a pretty cool thing for Apple to add in.
Calling
You may have noticed that the iPhone 4 had a few... issues with its antenna. It was blown way out of proportion by many, as it was a slight attenuation issue present in a few handsets, but Apple is keen to make sure no such attack can be levied at it again.
We've already covered the new antenna system, and we're happy to tell you that it works just fine - no problem with signal quality no matter how you hold the phone.
Call quality itself was top drawer throughout our test, with absolutely no drops no matter where we were. We've used other phones on O2 regularly around London, and the iPhone 4S showed itself to have more bars of signal in areas that have been notoriously dodgy before.
We did notice a number of times where the 3G signal would drop to Edge and take a little while to jump back to the fully fledged signal level. It would also be nice if we could see when the iPhone 4S is running on the super-speedy HSDPA 14.4Mbps connection speeds, but it seems Apple only thinks the masses needs to know when things are 3G or not.
One thing we would have liked to see is smart dialling included, i.e. being able to type in a number and see the right name come up - surely that's something Apple is looking to include in the future?
Messaging
Messaging on the iPhone 4S has been given something of a boost by the inclusion of the iMessage, which is a BBM-a-like service for iOS devices. It can be used on any device running iOS 5, which means conversations can be easily carried across on loads of Apple products without an issue.
While many will expect iMessage to be a separate app in the same manner as BBM, it simply jumps in when a relevant phone is on the other end of the conversation, meaning essentially free text messaging and cool features like read receipts and being able to see when the other person is typing.
However, this will be more useful for iPhone 3GS and 4 models, as it's surely only good to replace text messaging for those that need to save money and haven't got a price plan that offers thousands of messages for free each month.
Email
iPhones have always been looked at as decent messaging devices, and that's certainly true when it comes to email. There's a unified inbox for all your accounts, with multiple email addresses supported on the phone.
Setting these up is as simple as you'd imagine, with only an address and password needed in most situations. As we mentioned earlier, it's so easy to keep track of your emails thanks to the new notifications system, but it's hardly anything new, so not really a unique selling point.
The keyboard is another great selling point from Apple for its iPhone - some people have complained that it's a bit hit and miss in the past, but most people should have become trained in the art of tapping out a message on a touchscreen, so most will quickly be up to speed with the well-known keyboard.
There's a new addition to the keyboard, and that's an option to speak out the message reply using Siri. It's almost unerring in its accuracy compared to other voice recognition systems, although you do need to say things like 'comma' or 'exclamation mark' to add in the punctuation.
We sent 100 messages using Siri to see the accuracy, and found that the accuracy was around 45%, although shorter messages were obviously better.
However, we were relieved to be able to head back to tapping out our messages on the keyboard, as you could make sure what you wrote was correct first go. If you're going to speak your messages, why not just call the person?
Camera
Let's get this out the way now - the iPhone 4S can definitely replace your point and shoot camera for snapping. The only real issue we can see is the lack of an optical zoom to get closer to the object you're trying to capture, but compared to the convenience of always having your camera with you, it's no contest in our book.
Plus you could always look SUPER COOL and get one of those optical attachments for the iPhone 4S to make it into a longer range shooting device.
But the specs on the iPhone 4S are well-upgraded, with an 8MP camera and improved optics also making some really clear and crisp photos. The larger f/2.4 aperture lets in more light, and combined with some clever backlight illumination technology it really makes even low light photos pop.
Add into that Apple's HDR (high dynamic range) imaging technology to help you take the best photo each time, and we're really, really impressed with some of the shots you can achieve with this new camera phone.
We'll be honest - there are other cameras out there that are worthy of a mention - the Samsung Galaxy S2, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc and the HTC Evo 3D are all worthy of a mention.
But to our eyes, the iPhone 4S trumps all of these by producing the best quality shots each time. And if you turn off the HDR shooting mode to just get 'normal' quality snaps, the speed at which you can move from taking one photo to the next is simply mind blowing.
Face recognition is involved in the photo taking process too - and it's one of the best examples of such integration on a phone, firing instantly when a face is present.
The 'up' volume control can now be used as the camera shutter button too - however, it was very stiff indeed on our test sample, meaning there was an element of shakiness about some of the photos that simply pressing the screen could accomplish.
(Our first test sample also had a hardware issue where the button actually stopped working after a couple of days, but we switched to another model and encountered no problems at all.
However, it's still a nice touch to have - taking pictures of yourself is much easier with this as an option.
Check out our selection of shots taken with the new iPhone 4S - we've even included a couple from the Samsung Galaxy S2 as comparison:
Standard cat: Taken with the iPhone 4S, the low light sensors do a good job raising the brightness, but lose a little detail.
To summarise again: the iPhone 4S is one of the best camera phones on the market for simple ease of use combined with great pictures. Some will take issue with its lack of features to tinker with - you can't mess around with colour balance or set the exposure, for instance - but for general day to day use most will find they come away from a night out with a great set of pictures with minimal effort.
Video Camera
The iPhone 4S now packs 1080p video recording, making it much easier to take footage and spew it across to your big screen TV in full pixel glory.
Apple's hasn't just stopped at Full HD with the iPhone 4S though, as it's also included anti-shake functionality that really does work to stabilise video, as you can see in our samples below:
The same backlight illumination sensor has been added in to the video mode as well, making it easy to get good quality shots in low light. The video light is nice and bright too, as you can see in the cat video, so you've got a choice of shots should you want to mess around recording at dusk.
Apple has packed the same video editing tools into the new software as before - basically you can trim video by dragging the slider across, or install iMovie (for a price) to make more professional versions of your home movies with ease.
SIRI
When Apple announced the new Siri software for the iPhone 4S, it was easy to just dismiss it as another company trying to get on board with the voice recognition gimmick we've seen companies trying to make work for years.
But there are a couple of things to remember here: firstly, this is Apple, a brand that will always make something seem cool and work pretty well. And secondly, it's not a technology that it's had to develop fully in house, with the company buying voice recognition development app-maker Siri.
We've played with some pretty advanced voice recognition software on the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S2, so we've also taken a look to see how the same command is registered on both phones.
Long pressing the home button will result in the Siri voic icon popping up - or alternatively, you can set the iPhone 4S to activate the service when you hold the phone up to your ear in standby mode, so you don't look as ridiculous when talking to your handset.
From there, you've got quite a range of things you can achieve with speech alone, be it sending a message, playing a song (or even a playlist), setting the alarm, creating a reminder... we were very impressed with the range of options on offer.
And the system is quick too - where with many other phones you have to open up the voice recognition function (often in a long winded way) and then wait for the beep to speak, Siri opens up in around a couple of seconds from anywhere in the phone.
The voice recognition is pretty darn good too - we were straight away impressed with how many phrases it managed to get right on the first go, including some pretty obscure bits and pieces of speech. You do have to pronounce your words a little more clinically than you might do normally, but even garbled speech comes through pretty well.
To put a number on it: we went through the list of functions Siri offers, and found that around one in three or four attempts went awry, which is miles better than the one in two we encounter on most other phones.
However, before we get into the comparison, we should say this about Siri in the UK - the full range of services aren't available, and that's a real shame. This means you can't ask where the nearest McDonald's or petrol station is, a feature that's been talked up in the US.
We do have high hopes that the same features will eventually be enabled in the UK, as it's just a matter of licensing the information and incorporating it into the system, but it will be annoying for a number of users to see that Siri comes back with 'I cannot do that' time and time again for cool functionality.
But what it does do well is work out the context of what you're saying, something that most other voice recognition software fails to do. So if you say 'Tell Andy his hair looks amazing today' it will work out that you'll want to tell him by message, rather than asking what method you'd prefer to speak to him.
Messaging isn't as straightforward as we'd like though, as using the 'Send message' command to a person in your address book will result in you being asked whether you'd like to do it using the phone number or email address - and there's no way to set a personalised choice.
Let's compare the iPhone 4S to the Samsung Galaxy S2 to see which phone comes out top in the voice recognition stakes:
Firstly, the iPhone 4S has a range of functionality that the S2 simply doesn't have - things like being able to set the alarm and play a specific song or playlist aren't available on the Samsung option, which is rather annoying.
We asked both phones: what's the weather like tomorrow?
The iPhone 4S managed to nail that in a few seconds, whereas the Galaxy S2 couldn't read the 'tomorrow' part of the command, meaning we had to ask 'What's the weather like?' which simply showed us an (admittedly very useful) Google search to give the information.
We asked both phones to set a reminder to 'Buy apples tomorrow at 11.35am'. The iPhone 4S simply made a reminder that said 'By Apple' but at the correct time, although sadly the S2 couldn't register a time stamp in the message and decided we wanted to 'Buy Apple store'.
The final test went better for both handsets: Asking both to send a message to Rich Fields, it managed to get what we said with ease and then managed to send it with a quick voice command.
As you can see, the iPhone clearly has the edge when it comes to voice recognition, but it's still not perfect. Especially as we noted that on more than one occasion it failed despite being connected to a Wi-Fi router, stating it could not connect to the network.
We are being pretty picky here, as Siri is by far the best voice recognition software on the market for a mobile phone, so it's a big 'Bravo!' to Apple for leading the way with this technology.
However, while it's cool and fun to play with as a new feature on your phone at the moment, the key to whether Siri will be a game changing piece of technology depends on other applications being able to use the API and integrate the functionality into their own offerings - something Apple currently doesn't offer but we hope it will soon.
Apple also has to improve the service to gain more scope and include more functions, but for now it's a very good start and the future for the tech can only get brighter in our eyes - it seems this won't be another FaceTime after all.
You may have noticed that iPhones have always been pretty darn good when it comes to the media side of things thanks to the rich iPod heritage Apple had before the iPhone ever existed.
That's still present and correct now, with some slightly new additions - plus Siri is getting in on the act by helping control your music through your headset.
Music
The iPod experience on the iPhone is no more - music is now rather boringly entitled 'Music'. We suppose it makes sense... but still sucks a bit. We liked the name.
Anyway, there's not a lot different if you've used the player before on any iOS platform. You can simply look through your music in the boring old list format on a white background, or turn the phone on its side to see the now-famous Cover Flow style.
The iPhone 4 was already fast enough, but the dual core processor means there's not a hint of slow down when it comes to swiping through your music collection.
You can tap an album cover and see the list of songs on there to play - it's a pretty nifty system, and one that just makes the iOS system seem that much slicker.
And don't forget last year's big hitter: Genius. It's still a very clever system, and the ability to tap a button and simply get given a decent playlist based on the song you've chosen is brilliant.
It's still not 100% perfect, but then again, we're not sure our music collection is among the coolest anyway, so perhaps we're just frying its little Genius brain.
Siri once again proves its worth when you're out and about listening to music. Although most headsets can skip tracks and pause music with the inbuilt button, using Siri you can shuffle tracks and open a given playlist. This was possible with the previous voice control on the iPhone, but now it's so much more accurate.
Sonically, the iPhone 4S is among the best again - we're talking rich sounding bass and some nice top end reproduction, especially when you upgrade your headphones to a decent set. (Oh, look. We've written a 'best headphones for phones' feature right here with all that info in. Aren't you lucky?)
Also you can control the music from the phone's lock screen – simply double tap the home screen when the screen is in sleep mode and you can interact with the songs.
Video
The Retina display is perfectly designed for video playback, with the high res screen in the smaller form factor making it very easy to sit back and enjoy a movie.
However, you won't be able to enjoy the whole thing, as in our eyes the screen is just mite too small to be able to get a marathon movie session out of. It's got a decent enough contrast ratio at 800:1 (well, we assume it's that, as that's the spec of the iPhone 4 and placed side by side the movie experience is the same) although the dark scenes look a little too dark at times.
The video format support is mostly acceptable as well, with H.264, MP4, MOV, M4V all supported. Nothing for AVI or DivX in there... and the latter is certainly missed as re-encoding all our (home-taken, of course) ripped DVDs takes ages when they were already nicely packaged up with DivX.
Other nice touches include the iPhone 4 remembering which videos you're yet to watch, and how far you are through those you're watching - allowing you pick it back up again when you re-open the file. Nice.
And you can always get your content from the iTunes library that comes bundled with the phone instead; it's as simple as clicking the application open and browsing for music you'd like, or movies and TV shows you fancy watching.
And the prices seem to have come down a tad since last year, with £10 seeming to be the average price for a title in the library. Plus you can now rent films too for a lot cheaper... although we're still sure BlockBuster is a better bet for these things. (Is it just us that doesn't want to see our childhood video rental chain go under?)
Apple has now also thrown in mirroring to a larger TV - at 720p resolution if you do it wirelessly over Airplay 1080p with a VGA adaptor. We've still yet to lay our hands on one of these so we can't test all the cool new features - but rest assured as soon as we get them in we'll give it a thorough going over.
Games
The iPhone 4 came with something cool: the gyroscope, and while it was meant to herald a new way of playing games, it hasn't set the world on fire in the way we'd expected.
Things like Gun Range and NOVA are excellent examples of what you can do with the technology, but to our eyes, this needs a virtual reality helmet as an attachment to really work. That would be ace... Apple, please make it happen, then we could jump around our living room firing at things all day long.
But the real advance when it comes to gaming on the iPhone 4S is the seven times performance leap the graphical processor offers up - and boy, are we excited to see the power this offers.
We've yet to properly stress the graphical properties of the phone as yet - Infinity Blade is the best we can manage, but we really want something that we can hold next to the power of the Samsung Galaxy S2 to see which really is top dog when it comes to chucking out the polygons.
Battery and iCloud
The iPhone used to be notoriously bad when it came to battery life, but thankfully that seems to have changed since Apple plonked its own processor in the iPhone 4, which yielded a much better battery life indeed.
We didn't notice a huge amount of difference between the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 4S' battery life during normal use - in standby mode we noted around a four to five per cent drop rate in the battery meter when we were doing nothing, but with Push notifications turned on.
We tested this in two ways - the first with high intensity usage (which is pretty hard not to do on the first day you get any new phone, let's be honest) where we managed to run the phone down from morning to evening... but only just, and this was with the screen brightness up full and most connections active.
However, we dialled down the usage massively after that to see how the iPhone would survive, and we were pleasantly surprised to see that even with Push notifications active, the phone managed to easily last two days.
This was with around 30 mins of internet usage, opening and playing briefly with around 10 apps, using the camera three times and parsing emails on the odd occasion - easily enough to not feel like you're totally neglecting your iPhone 4S.
iCloud
iCloud is a new service from Apple that debuted with iOS 5, and while it's not revolutionary, it's certainly a really nice step forward.
The main function of the service is to automatically keep all the important things backed up to the ether, be it Mail, Notes, Reminders, Bookmarks and Photos.
The latter option is the key one there, with all the photos turning up online safely in the event of a device breakdown or loss. However, be warned: once those photos are on there, there's no way to delete them again.
Apple has offered up 5GB of storage for all your stuff, so should you have multiple iOS devices all signed into the same Apple account you'll be able to see the same thing across all, so photos and reminders won't be confined to the one device.
Make sure you're careful with what you upload though, as the 5GB of storage will quickly start running down if you simply back everything up.
And the good news is the backing up happens automatically and wirelessly - when you've got the phone charged, locked and connected to a Wi-Fi network (ie, when you sleep) you'll be instantly kept updated via your online storage.
Conclusion
Let's make no bones about it: the iPhone 4S is one of the best phones on the market at the moment, and the best thing Apple has ever created.
It's got all the right bits right: good camera, slick web browser, quality screen - and made it all work together in the way we've come to expect.
Some people might be disappointed not to have seen the fabled iPhone 5, with the larger screen and new design, but the iPhone 4S is more than enough to keep Apple fans happy.
Simply put: if you've got an iPhone 4, you don't need to upgrade (as long as you update to iOS 5) but for anyone else on an older device, or hankering after finally making the jump to an iPhone, you should run down to the shops and pick one up now - you won't regret it.
