At the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco today, Apple CEO Steve Jobs officially announced the fourth-generation iPhone and its iOS4 operating system during a keynote speech.
Here are the specs we gleaned from the presentation:
-- New, Slimmer Design: According to Jobs, the iPhone 4 is the world's thinnest smartphone at 9.3 millimeters
(0.36 inches) thick. It's 24% thinner than iPhone
3GS, and made of stainless steel and glass on the front and back with integrated antennas. It also includes a front-facing camera, back-facing camera and
LED flash, microSIM, headset and a second mic for noise cancellation.
-- Retina Display: The 3.5-inch screen has 4x more pixels than the iPhone
3GS (960-pixel-by-480-pixel resolution, 326px per inch, 800:1 contrast ratio). Apple's dubbed this bit of tech the Retina Display. The iPhone 4 screen has 78% of the pixels on an iPad. iPhone OS4 makes it so apps
automatically run on the Retina Display, but they look even better,
because it renders text and controls in the higher resolution.
-- Bigger Battery: The battery now can withstand 7 hours of 3G talk, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of wi-fi browsing, 10 hours of video, 40 hours of music and 300 hours of standby.
-- Three-axis gyroscope: The gyro joins accelerometer and GPS to produce six-axis motion sensing. "It's perfect for gaming," Jobs said.
-- Impoved camera system: 5x digital zoom, tap to focus and LED flash.
-- iMovie for iPhone: You can record, edit and render video on the iPhone. It records a full 720p picture at 30fps. Tap to focus video, built-in video editing, one-click sharing and the
LED flash will stay on to illuminate scenes for video. Record and edit
HD video right on your phone. Priced at $4.99.
-- Multi-tasking: Sort of says it all, doesn't it.
-- iBooks: iBooks on iPhone has the same features as that on the iPad -- the same controls, highlighting, bookmarking and PDF reading. You can download and purchase a book, and it’ll be wirelessly downloaded right to the
device, and you can download the same book to all your devices at no
extra charge. iBooks will automatically and wirelessly sync your place, notes, and bookmarks across all your
devices (which the Kindle currently does).
-- iAds: "Why are we doing iAds? For one simple reason:
to help our devs earn money so they can continue to create free and
low-cost apps for users," Jobs said.
-- FaceTime: video calling. (Blade Runner is finally here!)
-- Colors: The iPhone 4 comes in two colors, black and white. In the US, it's $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model. iPhone 3G will no longer be available and the 3GS will now be $99, on sale June 24 (the 3GS is currently $199 and the 3G $99). Pre-orders start June 15, and the iPhone 4 will be released on June 24. Apple will be offering iOS4 upgrades for the 3GS, 3G (not all features will be supported in the 3G) and iPod touch for free on June 21.
- Carrier: Still just AT&T. If your contract expires any time in 2010, you are immediately eligible for a new iPhone 4 at the same $199 or $299 prices if you renew your contract for two years.
UPDATE: Read our hands-on impressions here.
For more info, check out the official Apple website.
