While a few committed individuals have been camping out for the iPhone 4S for some time now, others are now beginning to filter toward their local Apple retail stores in their attempts to secure one of the new models first thing tomorrow morning.
We've yet to hear much from Australia, where stores in the eastern part of the country will be the first to open for iPhone 4S sales just a few hours from now. But lines are already long in Japan, another early launch market for the device, with Guillaume Erard reporting that there were over 100 people in line at Apple's Shibuya retail store in Tokyo a full 11 hours before launch time.
iPhone 4S line at London's Regent Street retail store (Source: @tgrande)
Some of Apple's flagship stores in London are also beginning to see substantial lines forming, as evidenced by photos from Regent Street and Covent Garden stores.
iPhone 4S line at London's Covent Garden retail store (Thanks, Mike!)
Things still appear to be relatively quiet in the United States and Canada nearly 17 hours before the first launches, as we've been receiving scattered reports of lines beginning to form but with only a handful of people encamped at most of the stores from which we've received reports.
MacRumors forum members looking to organize meetups for the iPhone 4S launch are getting together in our dedicated forum.
Update: MacRecord noted earlier today that there were over 100 people (and now up to 150) in line at the Opéra retail store in Paris.
Update 2: Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is reportedly the first and only person in line so far at the Los Gatos retail store in California.
Thursday December 11, 2025 8:49 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Apple seeded the second iOS 26.2 Release Candidate to developers earlier this week, meaning the update will be released to the general public very soon.
Apple confirmed iOS 26.2 would be released in December, but it did not provide a specific date. We expect the update to be released by early next week.
iOS 26.2 includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, such as a new...
Friday December 12, 2025 10:56 am PST by Joe Rossignol
Macworld's Filipe Espósito today revealed a handful of features that Apple is allegedly planning for iOS 26.4, iOS 27, and even iOS 28.
The report said the features are referenced within the code for a leaked internal build of iOS 26 that is not meant to be seen by the public. However, it appears that Espósito and/or his sources managed to gain access to it, providing us with a sneak peek...
Thursday December 11, 2025 11:28 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released new firmware designed for the AirPods Pro 3 and the prior-generation AirPods Pro 2. The AirPods Pro 3 firmware is 8B30, up from 8B25, while the AirPods Pro 2 firmware is 8B28, up from 8B21.
There's no word on what's include in the updated firmware, but the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 3 are getting expanded support for Live Translation in the European Union in iOS...
Friday December 12, 2025 10:10 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released iOS 26.2, the second major update to the iOS 26 operating system that came out in September, iOS 26.2 comes a little over a month after iOS 26.1 launched. iOS 26.2 is compatible with the iPhone 11 series and later, as well as the second-generation iPhone SE.
The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones over-the-air by going to Settings >...
Wednesday December 10, 2025 2:52 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Google Maps on iOS quietly gained a new feature recently that automatically recognizes where you've parked your vehicle and saves the location for you.
Announced on LinkedIn by Rio Akasaka, Google Maps' senior product manager, the new feature auto-detects your parked location even if you don't use the parking pin function, saves it for up to 48 hours, and then automatically removes it once...
Thursday December 11, 2025 10:31 am PST by Juli Clover
The AirTag 2 will include a handful of new features that will improve tracking capabilities, according to a new report from Macworld. The site says that it was able to access an internal build of iOS 26, which includes references to multiple unreleased products.
Here's what's supposedly coming:
An improved pairing process, though no details were provided. AirTag pairing is already...
Friday December 12, 2025 10:08 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple today released macOS Tahoe 26.2, the second major update to the macOS Tahoe operating system that came out in September. macOS Tahoe 26.2 comes five weeks after Apple released macOS Tahoe 26.1.
Mac users can download the macOS Tahoe update by using the Software Update section of System Settings.
macOS Tahoe 26.2 includes Edge Light, a feature that illuminates your face with soft...
Friday December 5, 2025 9:40 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple is about to release iOS 26.2, the second major point update for iPhones since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least 15 notable changes and improvements worth checking out. We've rounded them up below.
Apple is expected to roll out iOS 26.2 to compatible devices sometime between December 8 and December 16. When the update drops, you can check Apple's servers for the ...
Maybe I ought to head over to Apple Store when my preorder gets here tomorrow and walk to the line and say, "Siri, why didn't these people preorder?" :p
Why the heck can't they give these people numbers and tell them to come back tomorrow? Seems cruel to make them wait all night when all the store needs is proof they were there first.
They're already putting out barriers and such, so they obviously have the fact that people will be waiting in mind. Is it that hard to set up a ticket system?
The thing is the store would need to set a time to start giving the tickets out, otherwise people would be there a week early to pick the tickets up.
So if there is a set time that the tickets get given out, people would line up hours in advance for the tickets.
Maybe if I was 18 or so this would interest me. Making an experience out of it and all. But at 40 years old I'd rather eat poison or be stuck in a two-year Droid contract than wait in line overnight.