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Apple Announces iPhone 4
In a keynote presentation today at WWDC, Steve Jobs officially unveiled the iPhone 4. It's powered by an A4 chip, has a glass front and back, and has stainless steel around the edges, which turns out to be part of the antenna system. The new iPhone uses what Jobs called a "Retina display," running at 960x640, or 326 ppi. The battery is also bigger, with a corresponding increase in battery life. The iPhone 4 supports 802.11n, has two mics for noise cancellation, and a three-axis gyroscope, which allows rotation and precision that accelerometers can't match. The iPhone 4's camera is using a 5-megapixel backside illuminated sensor, which Jobs said does better at low-light photography. It also records 720p video at 30 frames per second, with tap-to-focus. In addition to this, they've created an iMovie app, which allows users to easily edit videos on their phone. Several live blogs of the event, with pictures, are available. The device ships in the US on June 24. Apple's product page has been updated with specs and a video. Read on for more details.
Update: 06/07 18:34 GMT by S : Steve's "One More Thing" this time around: FaceTime, live video chat from one iPhone 4 to another. It is Wi-Fi only at the moment, but they're working with carriers to expand that in the future. Jobs says the iPhone 4 OS is being renamed "iOS4," since it isn't just focused on phones anymore. The release candidate will be made available to developers today. He demonstrated multitasking, a unified email inbox, and folders for apps. In the App Store, you can expect to see an iPhone version of Netflix soon, as well as Guitar Hero and FarmVille. Jobs also announced that iBooks, the ebook application for the iPad, would be getting a few upgrades. Users will soon be able to make notes, and a bookmark button is on the way. It will put bookmarked pages into the book's table of contents. iBooks is also gaining support for viewing PDF files. On top of that, it won't be just for the iPad anymore; it's coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch as well, and it will sync between devices.
Update: 06/07 18:34 GMT by S : Steve's "One More Thing" this time around: FaceTime, live video chat from one iPhone 4 to another. It is Wi-Fi only at the moment, but they're working with carriers to expand that in the future. Jobs says the iPhone 4 OS is being renamed "iOS4," since it isn't just focused on phones anymore. The release candidate will be made available to developers today. He demonstrated multitasking, a unified email inbox, and folders for apps. In the App Store, you can expect to see an iPhone version of Netflix soon, as well as Guitar Hero and FarmVille. Jobs also announced that iBooks, the ebook application for the iPad, would be getting a few upgrades. Users will soon be able to make notes, and a bookmark button is on the way. It will put bookmarked pages into the book's table of contents. iBooks is also gaining support for viewing PDF files. On top of that, it won't be just for the iPad anymore; it's coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch as well, and it will sync between devices.
It's not even useful video conferencing.
Camfrog still rules the entire video conference sector, on both price and performance.
100 webcams at once, fuck yes!
Apple - copy everyone else, claim it's revolutionary.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Less space than the Library of Congress. Lame.
This can be easily rectified.
I call dibs on burning the John Adams building!
I think his point was that competition has forced Apple to step up as opposed to merely recycling previous models (i.e. 3G, 3GS).
Yeah the 3GS and the 3.0 upgrade sucked. I mean, where's the voice control, MMS support, cut and paste, bluetooth stereo, speed increase, video recording, opengl 2, compass, I mean they just sit back and never improve the thing.
I'm not saying Android didn't force Apple to rethink a thing or two (background processes for third party devs), but it's not like the iPhone resembles the v1.0 to this day. I have a Droid through work, I'm always confused if I should open Email or Gmail, or Calendar or Corporate Calendar, and the app reviews are great since they tell me to go to droidfilez.com usually (most recent review of almost anything). Also, I enjoyed paying $20 for a third party activesync program so I could have a SIGNATURE attached to my email, and the double tap in the browser that doesn't perfectly zoom text all the time was a nice touch. Oh, and that $20 third party program - it was nice, I lost multiple Exchange account support which the built in client had, unless I switch profiles every time I want to check a new account. Oh and that Droid keyboard sucks, and the batter isn't impressive, but I can shut down the phone, put a new battery in, and then reboot if I need to. And who misses the dock connector, not like I need TV out or anything.
Android is many things, including more open for app developers, but I'll reserve final judgement until Verizon and Motorola "allow" Froyo to be released for me. At least when iOS 4 ships, my iPhone and iTouch will get it immediately. Well, I guess it will take an hour to download first.