iPhone 4S is released - big woop...

I can't believe what I heard on the news today - people were actually queuing over night to get the latest iPhone from the Apple stores.  Sorry, but that is really really sad.  I do admit I have been to midnight launches before where I did have to queue for a bit but these people are just taking it a little too far!  There was no reason to queue up all night just to get the latest iPhone - it's bound to be the same as the iPhone 4 anyway, just with a better camera and voice recognition, which brings me neatly to my next point of the rant...

I can't believe Apple are taking the voice recognition software as an innovative step for phones - hello!!!  This software has been out for ages!  When I first got my G1 (over 3 years ago), I had voice recognition.  Did I use it though?  No, because I'm not that lazy and I can actually type things out.

I heard one part of the phone that uses the voice recognition software is the alarm.  Who is realistically going to use that feature?  I think it would be much quicker to actually open the alarm clock app and set it like all other phones do.  Typical scenario:

User: 'set alarm for 8am'
Phone: 'do not understand the request, please try again'
User: 'ok... set alarm for 0800 hours'
Phone: 'do not understand the request, please try again'

User: 'grrr, getting p**sed off now - SET THE GOD DAMN ALARM FOR 8 O'CLOCK!'

Phone: 'do not understand the request, please try again'

User: 'FFS!'

Yeah, that would be me, but I'm smart enough to not want to go to such lazy lengths just to set my alarm!

The best bit about the launch is that you have to pay to get the new phone, despite it probably being EXACTLY the same as the iPhone 4!  What's the point?  I don't understand the need to upgrade AND pay to practically get the same phone.  

I've heard a lot of people commenting that they want the new phone and all I can advise them is to save their money and not get tied into the whole 'Apple or nothing' world because the next thing they will want to do is change their PC to a Mac and buy songs from iTunes rather than getting it cheaper off Amazon (and DRM free, meaning you actually do own the MP3s!).  I'm sorry to say but that would be a very bad path to follow.  I'm not trying to offend any of my friends who are already at that point in their lives but I do feel sorry for them because they have no way out.  Maybe someone should set up some help groups to aid them out of the claws of the late Steve Jobs (RIP Steve) and back to reality...