Everything You Need to Know About IPhone 4

For Apple fans, today was a big day. Steve Jobs gave the keynote to open the WWDC 2010 event this morning. We gained an official glimpse at the new iPhone. We learned that the 4th generation of the iPhone hardware to be released will be called iPhone 4. Over 100 new features were added. Among them includes a new design. iPhone 4 is 9.3 mm thick which is a reduction in thickness of the iPhone 3GS size by 24%. Other physical hardware features that differentiate this phone from the previous iPhone form factors is glass on the front and the back of the phone, a front facing camera, and a flash for lighting still photos that has been added to the existing camera on the back of the phone. A micro sim and a second mic were also added. iPhone 4's display will be 326 pixels per inch. Apple claims that the human eye cannot detect pixel density that is more than 300 pixels per inch, making this phone's screen high definition. This will increase clarity dramatically. It turns out that this would allow 78% of the pixels on an iPad app to be displayed on the iPhone, so I guess they will have to do some scaling. One thing is clear: there will be a ton of iPhone app updates coming out this summer to adjust for all of these new hardware capabilities. It amounts to a 800:1 contrast ratio. This makes iPhone 4 the highest resolution smartphone that you can buy.

iPhone 4 features a new A4 chip that Apple designed which will make it faster than the iPhone 3GS, and they implemented a new battery configuration that will allow 7 hours of 3G talk, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of WiFi browsing, 10 hours of video, 40 hours of music, and 300 hours of standby. Apple has been pretty accurate about their battery estimates in the past, so we should be able to accept this as fact and not a bunch of hyperbole. It appears that the capacity will stay at the current capacities of 16 and 32 gigabytes which is a downside. I had hoped that we would receive a 64 gigabyte capacity iPhone. A new gyroscope has been added to the iPhone which will allow for six axis positioning that will benefit gaming, location and positioning software. This should allow developers to make their software even more intelligent and make it more responsive to the situation in which you are using the iPhone software.

A whole new camera system was added. Steve Jobs claims that better photos do not mean just more megapixel images, but rather the more precise and intelligent capturing of the photons and low light photons. The result is a 5 megapixel camera that will also allow for greater clarity without increasing the noise in the image as their competitors do. Also the new camera will record 720p HD video. You will be able to edit the video right on your phone and play it back at 30 frames per second using iMovie on the iPhone which will become available sometime on the App store for $4.99.

Video chatting on the iPhone was also unveiled as this WWDC's "One More Thing...". The app on the iPhone 4 for this called FaceTime. Using the front and back facing cameras, it is only available for iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 phone calls. Images displayed in FaceTime works in both landscape and portrait. A cool example of the functionality of this app was demonstrated by two individuals chatting with sign language over FaceTime. Can you imagine what kind of interviews might be able to be taken with this device by journalists?! Facetime will only work on WiFi for now. Jobs admitted that Apple is still working with the carriers to make the technology available to use on the AT&T network. This explains why AT&T changed the terms of their data plans recently. FaceTime and uploading of HD video and stills will likely increase the data usage of users dramatically.

We also learned a few things about the new iPhone 4.0 OS. It is has been renamed iOS 4.0. No longer will the word "phone" remain in the operating system title. With the introduction to the lineup of the iPad in addition to the existing iPod Touch and the iPhone, it makes sense that they would want to consolidate the name of the OS that handles these devices. Netflix will now allow you to stream shows and movies on your iPhone. You can also begin viewing a film on your iPhone, pause it, and then pick it up where you left off on your iPad, or even on your desktop. Even though there has been all kinds of Netflix queue management apps on the iPhone for awhile now, Netflix is now offering their official app for handling these important duties. iOS 4.0 will be available to users of iPod Touches, and iPhones for free on June 21st, 2010.

We learned some interesting stats about iPads. They are selling one every 3 seconds. A couple of months after launch, 8,500 apps are available for the iPad on the iTunes App Store, with some 35 million apps downloaded already. This amounts to an average of approximately 17 apps per iPad sold. It is clear that the iPad is an unqualified hit as far as the consumer market is concerned.

iBooks on iPad will receive some updates and the app will also become available on the iPhone with next iOS update. The new features include adding notes that are contextual to a certain page and text selection in the document that you are reading. This should allow for more textbook like uses of the iPad and iPhone for education. You can also snyc .pdf documents to iBooks now as well. You can share the book among your iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone at no extra charge. Your bookmarks and notes will be wirelessly synced among your devices, so that you don't lose your place or your notes within the document.

iPhone owners will now have the option of choosing between not only the search providers of Yahoo and Google on their Safari browser but also Bing! iAds will be deployed July 1st.

White and black are still the only available color choices for the iPhone, but cases and decals do a nice job of allowing for customization on the exterior of the phone. iPhone 4 will launch on on June 24th, 2010 and will cost $199.00 for the 16GB and $299.00 for the 32GB if you qualify for upgrade with your AT&T account. Pre-orders begin June 15th, 2010. AT&T is making an exception so that if you are within six months of your contract expiring on AT&T then you will become eligible for the upgrade.

Why pixel density matters by Matt Braga: http://www.tested.com/news/why-pixel-density-matters-more-than-just-screen-size-or-resolution/371/