Apple iPhone 4: Thinner, Faster and 2 Cameras Coming June 24 for $199

After spending a while singing the praises of the iPad and its worldwide success, Steve Jobs revealed the iPhone 4, but it's fair to say that most people had seen it coming given the number of leaks that have surfaced recently.  We already had an idea of how big it would be, what colours it would come in and the overall design.  That doesn't mean we're not happy to lean (or have confirmed) the presence of a better screen, a longer battery life, an improved camera or an updated OS, which has been renamed iOS.


'Hello everybody, please switch off your mobiles' ... it's starting.  To the sound of What A Wonderful World, Jobs walks on stage, and will once again be making the presentation himself.  He kicks off with the iPad: two million have been sold already so far, with customers picking one up every three seconds.  Plus, 8,500 dedicated applications are already available, and it's as big a success as everybody expected.

New features are coming too, including support for PDFs in iBooks.  After reaching out to Adobe, Jobs then pulls back by saying that the iPad will only ever support two platforms: HTML 5 and the App Store—and not, therefore, Flash.

First hint of a new iPhone—news on some major apps

Moving over to the iPhone, Jobs has plenty of praise for eBay's app, and also brings news of a Netflix app as well as Farmville, which has millions of online players.  All of the demos, though, use an iPhone 3G S.

Next comes Guitar Hero, which we'll see again later on the iPhone 4.


And then come the magic words: 'Now I'd like to talk about the iPhone.'

To start with, Jobs has a gentle dig at Android: according to analysts Nielsen, the iPhone has a 28% market share, compared to RIM's 35% and just 9% for Android devices.

Apple unveils the iPhone 4

Jobs reminds us that there was a time before the iPhone, but that in 2010, things were set to change again with a new phone: the Apple iPhone 4.  As he introduces it, Jobs jokes that 'some of you might have seen it before.'


The new model is 24% thinner than the iPhone 3G S, and only measures 9.3 mm from front to back. This makes it barely thicker than an iPod Touch, which measures 8.5 mm.



The screen has been improved too, with a higher resolution.  According to this diagram, it has four times as many pixels:


The new definition is 326 dpi, which is incredible.  To compare, an LCD monitor has around 96 dpi, a normal magazine is printed at 150 dpi and an expensive glossy at 300 dpi.  Jobs is right to say that it's impossible for the human eye to make out the individual pixels.

His next step is to demonstrate the power of the iPhone 4 by loading the New York Times website on both the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 3G S ... except that it doesn't work.  To make up for the failure, we move on to photos.

461 Kilopixels on an LED backlit IPS display with 800:1 contrast

To help gloss over this mistake, Jobs shares the exciting news that the iPhone 4 will have a resolution of 960 x 640 pixels, a total of 460,800 pixels on a 3.5" screen.  That's actually 78% more pixels than on the iPad—which rather begs the question of what the iPad 2 will be like.

Another detail, which we're not used to hearing about mobile phones, is the contrast ratio of 800:1.

Jobs explains that existing apps will benefit from the improved resolution, not just new ones.  The iPhone 4 must be able to upscale them itself.  Could that be one of the new features of Apple's Retina Display system?


Next up is the list of what's on the inside and what isn't:


A green phone?  We'll see about that later ...

What's new? A 1 Ghz processor, 5 megapixels, 720p videos and more!

The iPhone 4 has Wi-Fi, a microSIM, a gyroscope, a dual microphone with noise reduction, up to (just) 32 GB of memory, a GPS chip, a compass, an accelerometer and a new 1 GHz A4 processor that Jobs assures us has been developed by Apple's own teams. The new 1 GHz processor matches the speed of the Samsung Galaxy S and is an improvement on the previous iPhone's 600 MHz. Plus, as well as being faster, this A4 processor will be more energy efficient.

The battery has been improved too, with battery life announced as follows:

 

• 7 hours of talk-time in 3G,
• 6 hours of web browsing in 3G,
• 10 hours of web browsing in Wi-Fi,
• 10 hours of video playback,
• 40 hours of audio playback,
• 300 hours on standby.

The camera has been given a welcome boost in resolution, and it now has a 5-megapixel sensor and an LED flash. However, Steve Jobs also confirmed that the sensor would be backlit, making it more sensitive and less prone to digital noise. Sony was the first manufacturer to use this type of technology, which has since become more widespread. And we can tell you from experience that it really is better!

The iPhone 4 films 720p HD videos and iMovie video editing software will also be coming to the iPhone 4.

Surprise: iPhone OS 4 will be known as the iOS 4

The iPhone 4 will be launched with the freshly renamed iOS 4 operating system and will officially be Apple's first phone capable of multitasking.

Steve Jobs then sets about demonstrating the web capabilities of the iPhone 4, and hopefully this time it won't crash! He asks everyone in the room to switch of their mobile devices: mobiles, PDA, computers etc. Everything then seems to be working fine, as the iPhone 4 with iOS 4 is effectively surfing the web.

Next comes the announcement that Apple is set to sell its '100 millionth iOS device. That includes iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch'.

The iPhone 4 as an e-book reader

It's not surprising that with its ultra-high resolution, (better even than ink and paper, in fact) iBooks will be coming to the iPhone 4.


But will the iPhone really make a good e-book reader? You may remember that Florence and Romain spent the last month testing the iPad. The iPad has a much larger screen, which although does have a lower resolution than the iPhone 4, is still an IPS panel. They concluded that 'You'll quickly get tired of reading e-books on the iPad, due to the screen's constant backlighting. E-ink is certainly easier and more pleasant to read, even if it is less flashy and impressive as the iPad's full-colour screen.' We'll have to wait and see whether the iPhone 4 can do any better.

Advertising to fund developers

There's now an iAd banner at the bottom of the page. If you click on it, an interactive ad opens up. The iAd service will be up and running as from 1 July and 70% of revenues will apparently be paid directly to developers.

Videoconferencing: live demo!

Then, just like for the iPhone launch in 2007, Jobs calls the infamous Jony Ive. Beeeeeep, beeeeeep, beeeep, dring. Hello?


So you wanted videoconferencing? Well now you have what Apple is calling 'video calls'. The live demonstration shows a short conversation between Jobs and Ive and it seems to work fine. Note that for the moment video calls are only available via the Wi-Fi connection.

The video calling application is called Face Time, and it seems to work ... so long as you're calling from iPhone 4 to iPhone 4. Then Jobs shows a tear-jerking ad showing all the great features of the iPhone4, focusing on this application in particular. It shows Granny and Granddad chatting away to their beloved grandchild, then it shows a video conversation in sign language.

Price and availability: out 24 June in the UK, prices are $199 for the iPhone 4 16GB, $299 for the iPhone 4 32GB.

Given that they're the same prices as the current iPhone 3GS, the price of the latter version is likely to be reduced.


The iPhone 4 will also be released on 24 June in the US, France, Germany and Japan.

iOS 4 available free for everyone, including the iPad Touch, on 21 June

Now here's a piece of good news. The update to iOS4 will be available free for all users on 21 June. And it'll even be available for the iPod Touch!

There's another new feature too, as the iPhone 4 will be getting a splash of colour with a new selection of covers.

And finally, Steve Jobs predicts that: 'Face Time is going to change the way we communicate for ever'.

And now it's time for Apple to crank up its production line!


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