“I stayed till 3am to watch Apple unveil its new iPhone 4 at WWDC…” was all I can say when boss asked why I came in looking a mess. Should have slept and catch it on Apple instead. Thanks to the leaks, the new phone didn’t really came much as a surprise.
Even as we expected it to look like what we saw some months ago, the iPhone 4 will in fact change everything. Again… especially in the ways we design and market our products. Take the newly engineered aluminosilicate glass front and back for instance. 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic? And the stainless steel sides? With a surface so tough, is there a need for additional plastic cases? Plastic cases, polycarbon or not, seem to be more scratch prone than these babies.
If you haven’t heard it by now, there’s also a front facing camera enabled for video chat using the new “FaceTime” feature. A WiFi-only video calling feature that works only from iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 with “no setup” involved, and can flip over to the rear camera if your caller gets tired of your face. The rear camera has a new LED flash for taking pictures when you’re in the club, and a 940×640 pixel “Retina Display,” which is four times the resolution of previous iPhone models. Rated at 326ppi, it’s claimed to be beyond the human eye’s limit of distinguishing individual pixels. Similar to the iPad, it’s an IPS display, offering 800:1 contrast. The camera has been beefed up to 5 megapixels, with 5X digital zoom and a “backside illuminated sensor,” which can also record HD video at 720p / 30fps.
Running under the hood is the A4 processor that runs the iPad. Despite the new engine and a 25% thinner structure (9.3mm to be exact), Apple has made the battery slightly larger, announced with 7 hours of 3G talk, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of WiFi browsing, 10 hours of video, and 40 hours of music. Nice…
Applications will automatically get high resolution text and buttons as part of iOS 4(the OS previously known as iPhone OS 4), and with “a little bit of work” developers can make their entire app compatible with the new resolution display. Developers will also get access a new 3-axis gyroscope with pitch, roll and yaw sensors, which is separate from the iPhone’s accelerometer. It provides app developers with 6-axis motion control that can be built into their apps and games. Not leaving out the users, they can mess around with that new HD video using a brand new iMovie app (US$4.99).
When will the new iPhone 4 be available in your country? June 24th, if you live in US, France, Germany, UK or Japan. Available in white or black, the iPhone retails at US$199 for the 16GB model and US$299 for 32GB. (Nope, no 64GB model, yet) The 3GS will be dropped to US$99 and the 3G will phase out completely. 18 more countries (Singapore included) will see the light of it in July and another 88 more in September.
Yes, we will be having new iPhone 4 accessories soon. Stay tuned.
