Author
Josh Cox
The new phone is totally redesigned. It is 24% thinner than the iPhone 3Gs. It is the thinnest smart phone on the market. Apple has used the new design to take the communication capabilities to the next level by using the metal band around the phone as an integrated antenna system for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, UMTS (4G technology), and GSM.
The new display is a huge improvement from the previous version. At 960 x 640 and 326 pixels per inch this 3.5 inch screen has 78% of the pixel of the iPad.
The new chip, the A4, is an energy saving processor that was designed just for this phone. The new and bigger battery offers up, 7 hours of talk time, 6 of 3G browsing, 10 of Wi-Fi browsing, 10 of video, 40 of music, and 300 hours (over 12 days) of standby time.
Another big addition is a 3-axis gyroscope that will be paired with the accelerometer and compass to give the user a virtual 6-axis motion sensing experience.
A new 5 megapixel camera (the 3GS was only 3) is added along with a LED flash. The camera has a 5X digital zoom, tap to focus, and can record 720p HD video. To help support the use of the HD video, Apple has developed iMovie for the iPhone. It is basically a smaller version of what you would find on the desktop with almost full functionality.
Steve Jobs briefly went over the new iOS (the new name for the Apple iPhone OS), covering folders, multitasking and unified mail. There’s really nothing new because we have already seen the keynote about the operating system.
They are now going to be releasing iBooks for the iPhone, this isn’t too surprising since they have dramatically increased the screen resolution. Text should be a lot easier to read on the new screen, but still isn’t a 3.5 inch screen a little small to be reading books on?
The big surprise of the day was FaceTime. By using the new front and rear facing cameras you can now make video calls. As of right now FaceTime can only be used when connected to a Wi-Fi signal and not 3G. This is not really shocking considering AT&T just capped data usage for smart phones.
So, how much and when? You can pre-order your phone starting June 15 and pick it up June 24. The 16 GB version will be $199 and the 32 GB will be $299. Not too shabby when you think about everything the iPhone 4 can do.