iPhone 4 makes a stormy appearance at WWDC 2010
At the WWDC 2010 Apple CEO just announced Apple's next-gen iPhone. Uninspiringly called iPhone 4, the new device comes with a bunch of new features along with the new design you've already seen well in advance in various leaks.
You can see a demo video of the Apple iPhone 4 posted at our blog.
Design-wise the iPhone 4G packs a thin 9.3mm body with a metallic frame encircling the body. That metallic frame also serves as an antenna. Quite interestingly, the iPhone 4 back is also covered by glass much like the display upfront. Apple are reportedly using some new hardened glass that's supposedly way better than plastic. They are calling it engineered glass and we guess it's something along the lines of Gorilla glass.
The iPhone 4 uses a microSIM port (sigh!) much like the iPad Wi-Fi+3G and is powered by the same 1GHz Apple A4 platform ensuring extra speedy performance. Available storage capacities for the iPhone 4 are 16GB and 32GB. A secondary microphone caters for active background noise suppression.
The Apple iPhone 4 features a newly developed extra high-resolutions screen called Retina display. It delivers 640 x 960 pixels resolution, which amounts to a staggering pixel density of 326 pixels per inch.
The resolution is four times higher than the three iPhones so far, which means application upsamling should be quite easier for software developers. The 800:1 contrast ratio of the new display (a IPS panel) is also four times the previous ones.
The iPhone 4 makes use of 5 megapixel camera with LED flash. The sensor of the camera is backside-illuminated, which should probably deliver better highISO performance.
iPhone 4 records 720p HD video at impressive 30 fps. You can edit your movies straight on the iPhone thanks the built-in editor (plus you can use the new iMovie app from the AppStore) and the LED flash doubles as a video light quite expectedly. The video recording also makes use of tap-to-focus.
Sadly, the secondary microphone is not used during video recording so stereo videos are a no-go.
Next Apple are renaming the iPhone OS 4 for iOS 4 so they can put the iPhone and the iPad under the same umbrella.
Of course, with the new iOS we also expect to see the new iAds system for incorporating ads into mobile applications. The system will be pioneered on all iOS 4 devices come 1 July.
Whoa, did we mention the iPhone 4 also has videocall camera. They call it FaceTime. Man, that's so 2008! And they are still not fully ready with it - in 2010 it will only work over Wi-Fi. Seriously, how hard can it be? And it only works iPhone 4 to iPhone 4. Ha!
In the US the iPhone 4 16GB will be priced at 199 US dollars while the 32GB will go for 299 US dollars. A new version of iPhone 3GS with 8GB storage will be sold for 99 US dollars.
Pre-orders for the iPhone 4 start in eight days on 15 June and shipments to US, France, Germany, UK and Japan will begin on 24 June.
18 other countries will get the iPhone 4 in July. In September a total of 88 countries will enjoy the iPhone 4.
In the meantime, the iOS 4 will be available as an upgrade to iPhone 3G and 3GS users starting on 21 June. iPod Touch users will also get it - this time for free much like the iPhones. We guess the schedule for the iPad remains September.
iPhone 2G users are not getting the update to iOS 4. At least not officially.
Apple are also developing a new line of accessories including a new dock and a new colorful case called Bumpers.