iPhone 4 Officially Announced

[SunnyD]

Can't believe this hasn't been posted yet.

Link is to the below liveblog info:

11:45 - iOS 4 upgrades for older phones arrive June 21. Free upgrade, even for the iPod Touch.
11:40 - Pricing: $299 for 32GB, $199 for 16GB, with two-year contract. Black or white. Same as 3GS. Existing iPhone owners can upgrade up to six months early. On sale June 24. iPhone 3GS will also hang around: 8GB for $99. Accessories are also redesigned, of course.
11:34 - Will iPhone 4 finally make video calls take off? Apple calls it FaceTime (because you need a catchy name for everything at Apple). You can use either camera, portrait or landscape. The catch: Only works on Wi-Fi and only between iPhone 4s. Older phones are shut out.
11:32 - Steve Jobs' trademark "one more thing," which we haven't seen much of in recent years, is back. What is it? Of course: Videoconferencing. You'd forgotten about that new camera on the front of the phone, right?
11:22 - Developers who want to integrate ads into their applications (presumably to keep app prices down) can now do so via Apple directly. Introducing iAds. Apple is running out of things to put after the letter "i." Ad demos follow. (Feel free to use the restroom now.)
11:16 - The news you've been waiting for: iBooks for the iPhone 4. You can feel the excitement over this enormous announcement. (/sarcasm) Actually, it's an indicator of how seriously Apple is targeting books, including a dedicated iBooks store on the phone. Amazon and its Kindle are surely quaking in their boots.
11:15 - iOS 4 ships to developers today. No word on a release date to the public. Just "soon." Nearly 100 million "iOS devices" sold to date.
11:14 - More rumors come true: Bing joings Google and Yahoo! as a search provider option.
11:09 - iPhone OS gets a new name: iOS. iOS 4 adds 100 new features to the phone, including the long-awaited multitasking. (This has previously been announced by Apple.) Other new features included a unified inbox, threaded email, and folders that let you group apps together -- looks perfect for those of us with overstuffed screens.
10:58 - Video editing and sharing built in. A version of iMovie will appear on the iPhone now, complete with transitions, credits, and all that jazz. Demo looks snazzy, but who ever has the time and patience to edit videos they shoot on their phone? iMovie won't be standard; $4.99 to download.
10:56 - Camera is upgraded to 5 megapixels, with 5x digital zoom and the aforementioned "illuminated sensor" (don't call it a flash -- Apple hates Flash). Also records video in HD resolution (720p at 30 fps). Flip cameras are in trouble.
10:50 - Internal accelerometer features are also upgraded to add a gyroscope to the mix. It's a little wonky, but now the phone will sense movement on a six-axis basis. Pretty early stuff, we'll see how developers (mainly game devs) take advantage of this.
10:48 - iPhone is now powered by Apple's A4 chip. Battery is bigger, and Jobs promises 40% more talk time than before (great news). 32GB of storage standard (no upgrade vs. the 3GS). And support for 7.2Mbps networks... once AT&T supports it.
10:46 - As rumored, 960 x 640 pixels of resolution on the 3.5-inch display. That's unheard of on a cell phone and actually approaches what most smaller laptops have. 78% of the pixels that the iPad has.
10:43 - Hiccups with the demo... blame the AT&T network. (That's what I do!)
10:38 - The display is going to knock you out of your New Balances. With 326 pixels per inch, it has a better display than the human eye can even process (300 ppi, per Jobs). It's called a "retina display." Will have to have some hands on time to see exactly how much better it looks -- and the existing iPhone screen looks pretty good as it is.
10:35 - All the rumors are true. The new phone has the thinner, squared-off design we've seen in the leaked photos of the device, redesigned buttons, a front-facing camera, a flash on the rear camera, a secondary microphone for noise cancellation, and improved antennas integrated right into the design. 26% thinner than the iPhone 3GS: The thinnest smartphone ever, according to Jobs.
10:33 - Now it's time for the main event. iPhone. It's real: the iPhone 4 (the official name) is as expected, with a new case design.
10:28 - Jobs is done with app demos. More statistics: 5 billion apps downloaded so far, with $1 billion paid to app developers. iPhone has (according to Jobs) a 28 percent market share vs. 9 percent for Android. (But Blackberry still has 35 percent.)
10:24 - Guitar Hero for the iPhone? Zzzz. We already have Rock Band for the iPhone, this doesn't look that thrilling. "A new strumming mechanic" will make gameplay perfect. Not that excited.
10:20 - Zynga's Farmville comes to the iPhone. The first Facebook app that I'm aware of to make the crossover from PC to phone. Now 70 million players can plant and harvest no matter where they are. "Farm anytime, anywhere!" That was grandpa's motto, too. Arriving this month.
10:16 - Netflix, at long last, is coming to the iPhone. Reed Hastings, Netflix's CEO, is out to give the demo. Looks a lot like the iPad application, letting you stream video and manage your queue on your iPhone. Pause a move on the iPad and it picks up where you left off on the iPhone. And -- big news -- it will work over the cell phone network as well as Wi-Fi. AT&T must be cringing already.
10:12 - Jobs is already into pumping up HTML5 and trashing Flash. Why, because apps cocded with "private APIs" ... "break and crash." With 225,000 apps available, that's a problem.
10:09 - New iBooks feature will include a note-taking system that emulates Post-Its (looks very Apple-like), bookmarks, and native PDF viewing (see, Apple doesn't hate everything that Adobe does). Updates should roll out this month.
10:07 - Now 200,000 iPhone apps available. Demos of iPad apps getting underway. 5 million books downloaded for the iPad so far (in a little over two months). Jobs say publishers are in love with the iPad already.
10:03 - Various updates about the conference (which starts today), with Jobs' usual braggadocio about how big the event has become. Then on to the sales updates. The "magical" iPad of course (2 million units).
10:01 - Steve Jobs takes the stage right on time to a standing ovation.

 

[SunnyD]

10:20 - Zynga's Farmville comes to the iPhone. The first Facebook app that I'm aware of to make the crossover from PC to phone. Now 70 million players can plant and harvest no matter where they are. "Farm anytime, anywhere!" That was grandpa's motto, too. Arriving this month.

Oh dear fucking god... I'm going to need a lot of ammo for all the iPhone retards that poke their head in my office to tell me about their FarmVille shit.

 

[Gillbot]

Oh dear fucking god... I'm going to need a lot of ammo for all the iPhone retards that poke their head in my office to tell me about their FarmVille shit.

there's no block on this either like there is facebook

 

[Narmer]

Facetime being wifi only is strange and a huge let down. Makes it little more than a novelty item that people may rarely use. However, it can be very useful in certain circumstances, like when your girl wants to know where you are. I'm glad I won't have this phone.

 

[cheezy321]

I am finally caving. Going to make the switch from an unlocked iPhone 2G on tmobile to the iPhone 4 on AT&T.

Looks like AT&T's network couldn't handle facetime chat. I dunno how much I will be using this anyways.

I am interested to see what the video looks like off the iPhone. The HTC Evo claims to record 720p video, but from all the reviews I have read it sounds like they compress the hell out of it.

I was about to make the change to droid, but after doing my research I realized I just cant do it. First I read about the horrible battery life of the Evo. I do some more research and came to the conclusion that any droid device just doesnt have the battery life of the iPhone. My iPhone 2G still lasts a full day and its over 2 years old! Thats a big factor to me.

White iPhone 4 here I come!

 

[Bateluer]

Facetime being wifi only is strange and a huge let down. Makes it little more than a novelty item that people may rarely use. However, it can be very useful in certain circumstances, like when your girl wants to know where you are. I'm glad I won't have this phone.

This was a given, predicted when it became apparent the iPhone 4 would have video chat. Predicted by everyone from tech pundits, journalists, and even the lowly customers. Its common knowledge that AT&T's network can't handle that kind of load.

I was about to make the change to droid, but after doing my research I realized I just cant do it. First I read about the horrible battery life of the Evo. I do some more research and came to the conclusion that any droid device just doesnt have the battery life of the iPhone. My iPhone 2G still lasts a full day and its over 2 years old! Thats a big factor to me.

White iPhone 4 here I come!

Eh? My Moto Droid lasts a full 22-24 hours pretty easily. This is with lighter use, texting and emails only. Add lengthy phone conversations and extended browsing with the screen on, and battery drops to a still respectable 12-15 hours. I think you need to expand your research outside of Apple Insider and MacWorld.

 

[Cobalt]

No 64GB is a huuuuuuuuge let down.

 

[tatteredpotato]

Sounds like a nice screen and camera.

Don't get me wrong, sometimes that's enough.

 

[cheezy321]

This was a given, predicted when it became apparent the iPhone 4 would have video chat. Predicted by everyone from tech pundits, journalists, and even the lowly customers. Its common knowledge that AT&T's network can't handle that kind of load.




Eh? My Moto Droid lasts a full 22-24 hours pretty easily. This is with lighter use, texting and emails only. Add lengthy phone conversations and extended browsing with the screen on, and battery drops to a still respectable 12-15 hours. I think you need to expand your research outside of Apple Insider and MacWorld.

Um i read reviews on engadget, gizmodo and mobilecrunch. Not everyone that likes the iPhone is some hardcore apple fanboy.

And yes, the battery life you just described above is not good enough for me.

 

[Anubis]

I was about to make the change to droid, but after doing my research I realized I just cant do it. First I read about the horrible battery life of the Evo. I do some more research and came to the conclusion that any droid device just doesnt have the battery life of the iPhone. My iPhone 2G still lasts a full day and its over 2 years old! Thats a big factor to me.

White iPhone 4 here I come!

without using my droid itll go well over 36 hours in idle mode, with moderate use. few calls + texts + email + some browsing + music streaming i get over 24 hours out of mine, on a charge

 

[gsaldivar]

Um i read reviews on engadget, gizmodo and mobilecrunch. Not everyone that likes the iPhone is some hardcore apple fanboy.

And yes, the battery life you just described above is not good enough for me.

You do realize that you can upgrade the battery, right?

http://www.seidioonline.com/category-s/4213.htm

 

[Saint Nick]

No Verizon

 

[gsaldivar]

No Verizon

Awesome! More bandwidth for me

 

[tatteredpotato]

You do realize that you can upgrade the battery, right?

http://www.seidioonline.com/category-s/4213.htm

I guess battery life is very important to him. Personally as long as I can get a day out of it I'm fine.

 

[gsaldivar]

I guess battery life is very important to him. Personally as long as I can get a day out of it I'm fine.

I can see where he's coming from. Personally, I'm waiting for the Seidio 3500mAh upgrade for my Incredible. I don't care about the extra weight, but I'm a heavy user and it's pretty important that my battery never die on me. That being said, I'd never buy a device that didn't at least give me the OPTION to do stuff like this.

 

[halik]

No 64GB is a huuuuuuuuge let down.

This,
especially considering the pricing. I was ready to pay $299 for 64gb, but now I'll just wait for the Verizon version.

 

[QueBert]

I can see where he's coming from. Personally, I'm waiting for the Seidio 3500mAh upgrade for my Incredible. I don't care about the extra weight, but I'm a heavy user and it's pretty important that my battery never die on me. That being said, I'd never buy a device that didn't at least give me the OPTION to do stuff like this.

iPhones have tons of external batteries that double as cases too. With the right one you'd get far more battery life than an extended battery in any other phone. I loved my Morphie Juice, it gave me about 14 hours of talk time, and since it was basically the size of my phone height wise, I didn't have a retarded looking lump in the back where other phones extended batteries stick out. Like on my Motorola Q. And while I never used it for this, you can use the mini USB connector on the Morphie to charge other USB devices like a Bluetooth headset or even another phone. Pretty cool in a pinch.

 

[Drekce]

This was a given, predicted when it became apparent the iPhone 4 would have video chat. Predicted by everyone from tech pundits, journalists, and even the lowly customers. Its common knowledge that AT&T's network can't handle that kind of load.




Eh? My Moto Droid lasts a full 22-24 hours pretty easily. This is with lighter use, texting and emails only. Add lengthy phone conversations and extended browsing with the screen on, and battery drops to a still respectable 12-15 hours. I think you need to expand your research outside of Apple Insider and MacWorld.

Plus you can have an extra battery and swap it out in about 30 seconds. I do this when I travel.

 

[sjwaste]

Isn't "ios" already taken by Cisco?

 

[TheWart]

I can't wait to get some hands-on time with the screen to see how much better it really is.

I also really like how the phone is 20%+ thinner...I can't stand thick phones so the thinner the better.

 

[Pheran]

No Verizon

Yup - carrier exclusivity continues to make this phone totally useless to me.

 

[Deeko]

Its a nice looking phone. I'm glad to see the rumors are true and Apple is jumping into the high-resolution game. Since other manufacturers always want to top them on paper, we should see some good stuff coming in competition too. Other than the screen, nothing really revolutionary, but I'm glad to see they are really competing in the hardware game, not just software.

 

[secretanchitman]

amazing update. the lack of a 64GB version sucks, but i can get over it.

 

[Riverhound777]

without using my droid itll go well over 36 hours in idle mode, with moderate use. few calls + texts + email + some browsing + music streaming i get over 24 hours out of mine, on a charge

I don't understand this. My Incredible lasts much longer than that. If I do that lame "power off to charge completely" thing I can get 3 days out of it. Without that I can get two days easily. I don't use it a whole lot but still probably 15-20 minutes on the phone, a few texts, checking facebook/internet 10 times, and maybe playing a games like chess a few times a day.

 

[ManBearPig]

I already posted this in the wwdc thread but wasn't sure if that was the right place for it.

If I bought a 3GS when it came out, what options do I have if I wanna get an iPhone 4 when it's released?