Apple has announced the iPhone 4S at a special event held at their Cupertino headquarters.  The new device has been the subject of a huge amount of rumours, many speculating that the 4S would be launched alongside an all-new iPhone 5.  However, the iPhone 4S shares the same design as the iPhone 4, but comes with revised internals and a smattering of exclusive software.

Inside the new iPhone 4S sits the A5 dual-core processor, which we can assume is exactly the same as the A5 used in the iPad 2, however no speeds or comparison information was given by Apple.  As was expected, the camera has been given a complete work-over, and now shoots 8 megapixel pictures with a resolution of 3264 x 2448.  The lens has been widened to f2.4 and benefits from a five-element construction (over the iPhone 4′s four-element) for improved clarity, face detection software and a beefed-up backside illumination sensor, which will provide 73% more light.  The camera will now shoot video at 1080p and has video stabilization and noise reduction too.

The iPhone 4S has been made into a ‘world’ phone, with both GSM and CDMA radios and antennas, plus the problematic antenna design has apparently been tweaked too.  Bluetooth 4.0 replaces the ancient Bluetooth 2.1 on the iPhone 4 and the battery now provides 8 hours talktime.  However, this has had an impact on the standby time, which according to Apple’s site, has now dropped to 200 hours instead of the 300 on the iPhone 4.

iPhone 4S users will get Siri, Apple’s new personal assistant software, where you can speak to the phone to create and send messages, ask web search questions, set up appointments and reminders and a wide variety of other tasks.  Siri will only be available on the 4S.

In the USA, the iPhone 4S will be available on AT&T, Verizon and for the first time, Sprint too, and will cost $199 for the 16GB version, $299 for the 32GB and $399 for a super-sized 64GB iPhone 4S.  It’s going to be available for pre-order on the 7th October and will be released on the 14th October.