iPhone 4 Announced at WWDC 2010 – What’s New?

1. All new design. The new phone is  thinner than any previous iPhone and infact it’s the thinnest smart-phone in the marker being only 9.3mm. It has two sturdy glass panels in the front and back (back is no longer plastic like the iPhone 3G or 3Gs). It has a beutiful stainlesess steel outer cover that doubles as the antenna for Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS, UMTS, and GSM. There’s two cameras one in the back and on the back. The back camera has an LED flash on the back, and two microphones for noise cancellation (like the Nexus One). Available in black and white

2. Retina Display. the iPhone 4 has the densest display on the market. It runs at 326dpi. According to Steve Jobs, 300dpi is about the limit that the human retina can distinguish at 10-12 inches away from the eye, so he’s calling this the “retina display”. It uses IPS technology for a wide viewing angle (just like the iPad) and has an 800:1 contrast ratio. The iPhone uses the same 3.5 inch diagonal size as the iPhone 3GS. The difference is that the iPhone 4 packs in 4 times as many pixels (960×640). Since the aspect ratio is exactly the same as previous iPhones no change is needed from developers and all old apps run unmodified. However, the new display allows higher resolution graphics for the developers to take advantage of if they choose. For gamers this screen will deliver them a better gaming experience and be ready to expect updates on a lot of games and a lot of new games with improved graphics.

3. New processor. The iPhone 4 will use the A4 chip. The A4 chip is used in the iPad and is smaller giving the possibility for a bigger battery meaning better battery life. The chip provides up to 7 hours talk time, 6 hours 3G browsing, and 300 hours of standby. As apple said The chip was engineered to be able to easily perform complex jobs such as multitasking, editing video, and placing FaceTime calls without maximizing the battery life. The iPhone 4 also provides up to 32GB of storage.

4.Gyroscope. The new device has a real gyroscope in addition to the accelerometer. This gives the iPhone 4 6-axis motion capabilities which is perfect for extremely precise movements. Developers can use a new CoreMotion API to add gyroscope capability to their apps.  This technology compliments and ads to the standard compass, proximity sensor, and ambient light sensor.

iPhone Camera (image by apple)

5. Camera. The iPhone 4 now has a 5 megapixel camera + plus they’re using a backside illuminated sensor for higher quality.The best part of the camera is that it can now record HD Video! ( 720p at 30fps).  Geolocation is also embedded for both photos and video. There’s also a camera in the front that comes to play in a very important new feature which will be explained later. To add to the new and improved camera, Apple wrote a new app called iMovie for iPhone. and it allows you to edit movies with effects, transitions, music, titles, and so forth on the go. It’s for sale now in the app store for $4.99 .

iOS 4 (image by apple)

6. iOS 4. Formerly  “iPhone OS 4“, the new OS has a lot of new features including multitasking, unified inbox, conversation threading, and more. The name change means that the same OS will be running on all Apple Touch devices like iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. The golden master of iOS4 is being released to developers today. iOS 4 will be free for all 3G/3Gs and ipod touch 2nd gen. users on from June 21st.

iBooks (image by iphone)

7. iBooks. The iBooks app is not limited to just the ipad now it is available for the new iphone as well. You can now read PDF files on iphone and buy books from the iBookstore which directly integrated in the iBooks app. Also you only have to buy a book once and it will be available on any iOS device. iBooks will automatically sync your place, bookmarks, and notes.

iAd

8. iAds. iAds is an Advertisement tool for the developer to advertise in their apps so they can maintain free or low-cost apps in the App Store.  With the new iAd platform, there’s a standardized, supported platform to create in-app ads that don’t sent the user out of the app and into the browser.(causing the people to not click on them).  Apple sells and hosts the ads, and developers get a 60% cut via iTunes connect (the same way you get paid for your apps). iAds will be enabled July 1st but Apple has been selling spots for 8 weeks. So far they’ve sold over $60 million.

One more thing

Originally Steve said he was going to highlight 8 features, but he couldn’t resist adding “one more thing”…

9. FaceTime. Video calling makes its Apple debut on the iPhone 4. It works with WiFi only right now. You can set it up so the other person sees you (via the front camera) or what you’re looking at (via the back camera). FaceTime is being proposed as an international open standard. It uses other standards like H.264, AAC, SIP, STUN, RTP, SRTP, TURN, and ICE.

So how much is all this going to cost you? With a 2 year contract, $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model. AT&T will let you upgrade to an iPhone 4 6 months earlier than usual if you re-up for another 2 years.

Preorders start June 15th, with the phone in stores on June 24th. 18 more countries in July, 24 more in August, and 40 more in September (total of 88 countries).