I love Siri on the iPhone 4S. As I have written previously, it has changed the way I use my iPhone and, in fact, the way I do much of my writing. Thanks to Siri I’m better at consistently setting up reminders for myself. Thanks to Siri I’m able to make new appointments on the fly. And thanks to Siri I am rarely typing on my iPhone any longer. Yes, Siri’s voice recognition is so good that, so long as I speak clearly and slowly and follow the guidelines I have previously shared here on the site, I am now able to do the vast majority of my first draft writing with my iPhone and Siri. Siri is huge and its power and importance will only grow over time. After all, the service is still technically in Beta!
Yet as I drove around the state going from lifecycle event to lifecycle event today I suddenly realized that as important as Siri is, it isn’t the biggest improvement I’ve found. What is?
The PHONE! Yes, I can actually use my iPhone as… a phone now.
As I drove around today I made call after call and it suddenly dawned on me that I wasn’t dropping calls! This was something new for me. After all, ever since I got my first iPhone part of my “iPhone experience” was knowing that I would drop a call at least once during any given conversation. In fact, some of the places where this would occur were so predictable that when I was driving to and from the synagogue I would warn people to whom I was speaking that a drop was coming up and, sure enough, I would drop the call in the exact same place each and every time. (I stuck with AT&T only because I like being able to take a call and be on-line at the same time.)
But here I was today driving, talking but not dropping. I suddenly realizing that I can’t remember the last time I dropped a call. Apple said they redesigned the antenna when the moved from the iPhone 4 to the iPhone 4S and I have to believe them. The iPhone 4S now works like a pocket computer AND a phone.
How about you? Are you seeing your AT&T iPhone holding on to calls a bit better on the iPhone 4S or are you continuing to see the same issues as before?