MacRumors

While some German customers appear to have been the first to receive deliveries of the iPhone 4S several days ahead of the official launch date of this Friday, it now appears that the premature deliveries are making their way to the United States. AppleInsider reports that one U.S. customer who ordered his iPhone 4S from Verizon has already received his shipment two days early.

Customers who pre-ordered the iPhone in the U.S. and other launch countries have been tracking their deliveries since shipment notices began going out over the weekend, hoping that delivery companies might slip up and offer early arrival of the devices. Apple typically coordinates with shipping services for delivery on the scheduled launch day, but occasionally some shipments have slipped through for early delivery.

In line with the announced October 12th launch date for iOS 5, Apple has also transitioned its iPod touch line to begin shipping with the operating system pre-installed. The most visible change to the iPod touch lineup, however, is the addition of white models, and iLounge reports that the white iPod touch is now on display and available for sale in Apple's retail stores.

Apple's online store is also listing all six models of the iPod touch as "In Stock", indicating that they will be available to ship within 24 hours of ordering.

One of the iCloud features launched immediately in the United States upon the service's announcement back in June was "iTunes in the Cloud", offering users the ability to re-download music previously purchased from the iTunes Store to any registered device. The service allows users to forgo storing their entire iTunes-purchased music library on every device and only download tracks to a given device as needed.

With the full iCloud service set to launch today, we have begun receiving reports from international users that iTunes in the Cloud has already begun going live for them. Reports have come in from Canada and the United Kingdom so far, but it is unclear whether additional countries will be included in the initial round of launches.

The changes add a "Purchased" tab to the iTunes Store app in iOS, offering users access to an iCloud-hosted list of all of their purchased tracks, allowing for easy download. iTunes in the Cloud also supports automatic downloads, allowing users to purchase content on one device and have it automatically appear on other devices associated with the user's account.

Apple had reportedly been working hard to secure international iCloud music rights in time for last week's iPhone 4S media event, with sources indicating that Apple had indeed secured such agreements by that date, with the UK set to see the first expansion of the service in Europe.

Update: We've now received reports of iTunes in the Cloud being live from the following additional countries: Australia, France, Ireland, Mexico, Netherlands, and Spain.

Apple continues to make preparations for today's iOS 5 launch with the release of its new AirPort Utility [App Store] app to allow users to administer AirPort Extreme, AirPort Express, and Time Capsule base stations.

Use AirPort Utility to manage your Wi-Fi network and AirPort base stations, including AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, and TimeCapsule – right from your iPad, iPhone, ir iPod touch. See a graphical overview of your Wi-Fi network and devices. Change base station and network settings, or manage advanced features such as security modes, wireless channels, and more. AirPort Utility works with all Apple 802.11n Wi-Fi base stations, including AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme, and Time Capsule.

Apple appeared to originally be preparing to integrate AirPort Utility directly into iOS 5, but apparently decided to break the functionality out into a separate app. Users entering the Wi-Fi portion of the Settings app in iOS 5 will be offered the ability to download the app to manage their networks. AirPort Utility is a universal app compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, and requires iOS 5.

Apple's Find My Friends app, which was announced last week when the iPhone 4S was unveiled, is now live in the App Store [link opens iTunes]. Find My Friends requires iOS 5, which is scheduled for release today.

Find My Friends allows you to easily locate your friends and family from your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Install this free app on your iOS 5 device and sign in with the Apple ID you use with iCloud. Adding a friend is easy – just send a request to see their location. Once your friend accepts using the Find My Friends app, you will then be able to see that friend's location on a list or on a map.

Find My Friends is a universal app compatible with the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. As previously mentioned, it requires iOS 5 and is therefore limited to the models capable of running the latest version of Apple's mobile operating system, which include the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, 3rd- and 4th-generation iPod touch, and the iPad and iPad 2.

Apple's new Cards app, which was also announced last week, will be released today as well.

Apple seems to be putting the finishing touches on their new iCloud service. iCloud.com has been updated this evening with a new login screen. The service now shows icons in the background and a new login that no longer is listed as "beta". iCloud.com, itself, still seems restricted to developers for the most part. There have been sporadic reports of non-developers being able to upgrade, but it seems you must have created one in iOS 5.

iCloud is expected to launch today (Wed, October 12th) alongside iOS 5 and Mac OS X 10.7.2. Apple released iTunes 10.5 on Tuesday in preparation. We don't expect iOS 5 to actually be released until later in the day. Apple has historically released their major iOS updates around 1pm eastern time.

Macworld reveals an interesting fact about the CDMA iPhone 4Ss that wasn't immediately obvious. The Sprint CDMA iPhone 4S comes GSM-unlocked, while the Verizon CDMA iPhone 4S can be unlocked by request after 60 days.

Sprint plans to sell the iPhone 4S with its micro-SIM slot unlocked; Verizon’s will be initially locked, but if you’ve been a customer in good standing for 60 days, you can call Verizon and ask for an “international unlock.” (A Verizon spokesperson told me that this is Verizon’s standard policy for all world phones—it’s just the first time it’s manifested itself on an iPhone.)

This is welcome news to those looking to travel internationally. In those situations, customers can buy a local SIM card to use during travel, eliminating costly roaming charges.

Macworld does a great job breaking down the advantages and disadvantages of world roaming on the various U.S. carriers. AT&T iPhone 4Ss will apparently still come locked.

Sprint and Verizon iPhone 4Ss should start arriving on Friday, October 14th.

The early iPhone 4S reviews are in. Apple has provided some publications with an early review unit of the iPhone 4S and here are the reviews. We've extracted some of the more interesting points from each review, but you can click each title to read the full writeup.

TechCrunch Review

- "The iPhone 4S blows away the iPhone 4 when it comes to speed."
- "The true killer feature of the device is Siri."
- "The amount of times Siri hasn’t been able to understand and execute my request is astonishingly low. I’ll say something that I’m sure Siri won’t be able to understand, and it gets it."
- You need to be connected to internet for Siri to work.

ThisIsMyNext Review

- "[The iPhone 4S is] easily one of the most capable handsets on the market."
- "The 4S is more than capable of going through a full business day without needing a charge, and if you’re a lighter user, you’ll rarely have to worry about it."
- On Siri, "The software even has a good sense of humor. Asking it “what is the meaning of life?” will bring up a number of responses, both serious and not so serious. The first time I asked, Siri simply said “42.”

AllThingsD Review

- "My advice is that owners of the iPhone 4 needn’t rush to upgrade; they can get the new operating system. But owners of older iPhone models, or those with basic phones, will find this latest iPhone a pleasure and a good value."
- In Washington suburbs, was able to get nearly 7 megabits per second.
- AT&T Model still dropped calls.

NYTimes Review

- "This phone comes dangerously close to displacing a $200 point-and-shoot digital camera."
- "Apple says Siri will improve with time — both because she adapts to you, and because Apple itself will periodically upgrade her brain."

Wired Review

- "Before, with the standard iPhone calendar, I would often forget to add an event because I was too busy to type it, and as a result I would forget I had something scheduled altogether. With Siri and Apple’s new Reminders to-do list app, it’s unlikely I’ll forget anything important again because the process is so effortless.
- "From my experience, talking on an iPhone 4S on AT&T sounds noticeably clearer than it did on past iPhones I’ve owned"
- Several amusing examples of Siri responses including 'I'm Drunk' (Here's a list of cab companies)

Macworld Review

Macworld includes a video showing Siri:

LoopInsight Review

- An amusing exchange with Siri at the top of the review
- A 1080P sample video is included (edited with iMovie on a Mac)
- More praise for Siri: "Siri is not your typical voice recognition technology. You don’t dictate to Siri, you interact and have a conversation with Siri. It’s difficult to explain how good Siri is, but you’ll find out soon enough."

Stephen Fry's review for The Guardian

- "So good is the voice recognition that it is now built into all apps that use a keyboard. For the first time I've found that I can happily and accurately dictate texts and emails."
- "There is an option to enable Photostream, which keeps every picture you take for ever. Be warned. You cannot delete a picture once it is in Photostream. There may well be blushes within families who share devices and discover that a photo they would rather not be seen is permanently on view, but they'll have to learn the hard way."
- "Once again Apple is taking a lead and asking a lot of its competitors. I wish those competitors luck, for the better all smartphones are, the happier I am. If Steve Jobs's true legacy is that the devices every other company makes are so, so much better than they otherwise would have been, I don't think he would mind one bit."

Magazine apps are starting to be updated to appear in the Newsstand feature of iOS 5. In this screenshot, sent to us by reader Shawn, we can see Wired, GQ, and Popular Science apps ready for reading. At the moment, only developers with the iOS 5 developer beta can see Newsstand.

All three apps were updated today with support for Newsstand built-in. Other magazine apps, including Golf Digest and Glamour, were updated today for Newsstand support, ready for iOS 5's general release tomorrow.

Steve Jobs was famous for his wardrobe of black mock turtlenecks and Levi's 501 jeans, but the story of what inspired him to adopt the basic but unique uniform has never really been revealed in detail.

Gawker now shares an excerpt from Walter Isaacson's upcoming biography of Jobs, revealing the history behind the wardrobe choice. According to Isaacson, the idea of a corporate uniform first came to Jobs on a visit to Sony's facilities in Japan, where he was struck by the way uniforms for employees helped create an identity bonding them to the company. Born out of necessity for Sony after World War II when the company's workers had few clothes of their own, Jobs briefly sought to bring the idea of corporate uniforms at Apple.

Sony, with its appreciation for style, had gotten the famous designer Issey Miyake to create its uniform. It was a jacket made of rip-stop nylon with sleeves that could unzip to make it a vest. So Jobs called Issey Miyake and asked him to design a vest for Apple, Jobs recalled, "I came back with some samples and told everyone it would great if we would all wear these vests. Oh man, did I get booed off the stage. Everybody hated the idea."

Despite being shot down by Apple employees, Jobs adopted the idea of a uniform for himself for the sake of convenience and identity, and drew on his friendship with Miyake to create his signature look.

"So I asked Issey to make me some of his black turtlenecks that I liked, and he made me like a hundred of them." Jobs noticed my surprise when he told this story, so he showed them stacked up in the closet. "That's what I wear," he said. "I have enough to last for the rest of my life."

It's not clear when Jobs related that story to Isaacson, but as Gawker notes, the closing quote comes with a whole new perspective following Jobs' death last week.

iPhone-Ticker.de points us to a hands on demo video of Siri on the new iPhone 4S. Siri is Apple's new voice assistant that is designed to provide you with some voice-only capabilities on your iPhone 4S.

Besides some serious examples, the reviewer also asks some silly questions and statements including "How Old Are You" and "I Love You".

The reviewer also briefly walks through some of the other iOS 5 features. iOS 5 (without Siri) will be launched on October 12th.

Meanwhile another video by Stuff.tv is also making the rounds. This was recorded at Apple's media event last week and shows some more examples of what Siri is capable of. The demonstrator in this video is tapping the Siri icon to end recognition, but Siri will also work when listening for a pause in conversation:

Siri is an iPhone 4S exclusive feature. The iPhone 4S will be officially launched on Friday, October 14th.

With Apple having pushed iTunes 10.5 out to the public earlier today, the company has already seeded developers with a beta version of iTunes 10.5.1 to continue testing of its forthcoming iTunes Match service.

iTunes 10.5.1 beta 1 includes several performance enhancements and bug fixes, and is a required update for all subscribers to iTunes Match beta. iTunes Match is not included in the iTunes 10.5 GM release.

As with previous builds testing iTunes Match, Apple notes that iCloud libraries will be deleted at the end of the beta testing period.

iTunes Match was initially part of iTunes 10.5 and appeared set to debut alongside iOS 5 and iCloud, but at Apple's media event last week the company announced that iTunes Match would not launch until the end of October. The last beta version of iTunes 10.5 still had some remaining issues with iTunes Match functionality, and Apple has given itself a few more weeks to address those problems by pulling the feature out into a separate iTunes 10.5.1 release.

iTunes Match is a $24.99/year service that allows users to have their music libraries matched to Apple's database of over 20 million tracks, making those songs available for use on any iCloud-enabled device associated with the user's accounts. Songs not available in the iTunes Store can be uploaded to Apple's servers and also made available across devices. iTunes Match will be a U.S.-only feature at first, but Apple is apparently working to extend it to other countries soon after its initial launch.

Apple today released iTunes 10.5, bringing support for iOS 5 and iCloud as well as new Wi-Fi syncing capabilities. iOS 5 and iCloud are set to launch tomorrow, and today's launch of iTunes 10.5 sets the stage for those releases.

What's new in iTunes 10.5

- iTunes in the Cloud. iTunes now stores your music and TV purchases in iCloud and makes them available on your devices anywhere, any time, at no additional cost.
* Automatic Downloads. Purchase music from any device or computer and automatically download a copy to your Mac and iOS devices.
* Download Previous Purchases. Download your past music, TV, app, and book purchases again, at no additional cost. Previous purchases may be unavailable if they are no longer on the iTunes Store.

- Sync with your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 5.

- Wi-Fi Syncing. Automatically sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iTunes any time they're both on the same Wi-Fi network.

iTunes 10.5 brings compatibility with iOS 5 and iCloud, as well as the paid iTunes Match portion of iCloud. iTunes Match is a $24.99/year service that allows users to have their music libraries matched to Apple's database of over 20 million tracks, making those songs available for use on any iCloud-enabled device associated with the user's accounts. Songs not available in the iTunes Store can be uploaded to Apple's servers and also made available across devices.

Apple announced at its media event last week that iTunes Match will launch in the United States by the end of October.

Update: iTunes Match appears to have been pulled completely from the public release of iTunes 10.5. Developer beta users had previously had the ability to turn iTunes Match on and off from the iTunes menu bar, but that option is missing in the public release. Consequently, Apple may need to release an updated version of iTunes to reenable the feature when the service launches later this month.

Update 2: Apple has posted a support document to assist users with troubleshooting the new Wi-Fi syncing feature in iTunes 10.5.

Last week, we noted that Apple had introduced a new "AppleCare+" offering for iPhone, replacing the previous $69 AppleCare with the new $99 warranty extending coverage to two years from the date of device purchase and including new coverage for up to two incidents of accidental damage. Incidents of accidental damage covered under the new AppleCare+ program will also incur $49 service fees.

One Apple retail store source has contacted us to explain in more detail how the new AppleCare+ program will also change the way the Genius Bar handles damaged devices. Previously, Genius Bar staff had some flexibility in waiving the $199 out-of-warranty replacement fee as a "one-time exception", giving customers a free replacement for a damaged phone. With the shift to AppleCare+, Genius Bar staff will no longer have the option of offering free replacements, so customers who have been aware of Apple's informal replacement policy should be mindful of the change.

Apple is also now requiring that AppleCare+ be purchased at the same time as the device, a change from other AppleCare offerings that have allowed customers to purchase AppleCare anytime before the standard warranty expires. That requirement has been causing some confusion with iPhone 4S pre-orders through carriers and other outlets, as many of them have not been offering AppleCare+ as an option.

Customers seem to be hearing different stories from Apple sales representatives regarding adding AppleCare+ to iPhone 4S purchases made elsewhere, adding to the confusion. Some representatives have suggested that a simple phone call to Apple can resolve the situation, while others have suggested that users should bring their unopened iPhone 4S boxes to Apple retail stores and have staff members set up the devices and add AppleCare+.

But while Apple's official policy requires AppleCare+ to be purchased at same time as the device, the source who reached out to us notes that Apple will allow users who did not purchase AppleCare+ to add it to a replacement phone if they damage their device and need to have it replaced. Under the program, customers needing to replace a damaged iPhone would be given a $50 discount on Apple's standard $199 replacement fee if they also purchase AppleCare+ for the replacement device, for a total cost of $249. That program would then cover the consumer for additional accidental damage incidents in the future.

Update: We're hearing that even Apple isn't clear on whether AppleCare+ needs to be purchased at the same time as the device. While Apple's iPhone and AppleCare pages are clear that AppleCare+ "must be purchased together with your new iPhone", the legal text of the AppleCare+ Terms and Conditions (PDF) indicates otherwise:

You must purchase the Plan while your original iPhone is within Apple’s One Year Limited warranty.

We've been told that Apple may be offering some clarification on the AppleCare+ situation by the time the iPhone 4S launches on Friday.

Update 2: Apple has been reaching out to customers who were unable to order AppleCare+ at the time of their iPhone 4S purchases, noting that customers will have 30 days to visit an Apple retail store to purchase AppleCare+ if they so desire. The company's online store will not support standalone ordering of AppleCare+.

While Apple has touted Wal-Mart, Target, and Best Buy as its featured third-party retailers in the United States to carry the iPhone 4S at launch, Wal-Mart's warehouse club chain Sam's Club has now joined the list, alerting customers today that it is now taking reservations for the device. The iPhone 4S will be available through Sam's Club on the official launch day of this Friday, October 14th.

iPhone 4S will be available for pre-order at most Sam's Club locations beginning at 10:00 a.m. on October 11th on a first-come, first-served basis. Available for purchase on October 14th while supplies last.

Not all Sam's Club locations offer the iPhone, so customers should check the Sam's Club iPhone database to determine which clubs will offer the device for their carrier of choice. Sam's Club is also not offering a discount on the iPhone, but it does provide one more option for customers looking to purchase an iPhone 4S on launch day.

Apple sold out of its initial stock of iPhone 4S pre-orders in less than 24 hours, announcing that it had taken over one million pre-orders over that time.

Best Buy confirmed yesterday that it will carry the full line of iPhone offerings, and RadioShack has also been taking in-store pre-orders ahead of Friday's launch.

(Thanks, Daniel)

The first iPhone 4S deliveries have already started arriving in customers' hands. Several German customers have received their new phones several days before the official launch. Macerkopf.de posts a several images of the new device from different readers.

We've already seen information leak out about the device as early units make its way into the hands of customers. General benchmarks have shown the new device to be about 68% faster than the iPhone 4 and with graphics benchmarks close to 7x as fast.

The iPhone 4S officially goes on sale on Friday, October 14th with pre-orders scheduled to be arriving on the same day. At this point, if you haven't pre-ordered a device, the only way to get the iPhone 4S on launch day will be to stand in line at a local retail store.