It's a weird feeling to attend an Apple event that's been drained of all mystery. When the press is summoned to one of Steve Jobs' keynote speeches, we often have only the vaguest sense of what he's going to say. Sure, we expect him to announce a new phone every summer, but we can only guess at its specs, what it will look like, and whether or not it will finally get decent battery life.
This year, though, Gizmodo did Jobs' presentation for him. In April, the gadget site purchased and dissected an iPhone prototype that an Apple employee had left behind in a Bay Area bar, and in May, another prototype somehow surfaced on a tech blog in Vietnam. As punishment, Apple banished Gizmodo from Jobs' speech at the company's developer conference this morning. (No word on what terrible fate will befall Vietnam.) By the time Apple's CEO took the stage, then, the only real speculation centered around the new iPhone's name. Would it be the iPhone HD, as some have speculated? Would Apple try to corner the market on names related to menstruation?
Actually, Apple is calling it the iPhone 4. Ho hum. ("Stop me if you've already seen this," Jobs joked as pictures of the angular new device appeared on a giant video screen behind him.) The name is slightly confusing, as it suggests that the iPhone will run at so-called "4G" network speeds, which it won't do. Instead, the 4 is simply a version number, and although Jobs points out that the phone's external casing will act as an antenna, he doesn't promise we'll get any better voice or data reception with the new model. In fact, during Jobs' first demo, the new phone struggled to pull up a Web page over Wi-Fi, while the old 3GS model he compared it with did just fine. When Jobs called out for help from the stage, a wiseass in the audience yelled, "Switch to Verizon!" (Jobs blamed the buggy Wi-Fi on interference from the hundreds of personal routers that bloggers set up in the audience. This seems plausible"”after he ordered everyone to shut off their Wi-Fi devices, his demos worked fine.)
How does the new phone look? Jobs insists that the iPhone 4"”which goes on sale in the United States on June 24; prices start at $199, just like the old iPhone"”has a remarkably different design from the current one. But as I wrote after seeing Gizmodo's model, it looks pretty much the same to me. The new phone is 24 percent thinner than the old phone, but that amounts to just a few millimeters"”nothing that you're liable to notice. Its edges are square rather than curved, and made of what the company says is a new kind of stainless steel rather than plastic. But only Apple nerds will be able to spot the difference from afar, especially since most of us stuff our phones in plastic cases.
Still, there's a lot to love about the new iPhone. For one, it's got a fantastic new screen that delivers a resolution of 326 pixels per inch. (Apple says this is more pixels than the human eye can discern.) That means dramatically sharper text and pictures. Even very small text is quite readable on the new phone"”for those of us who read a lot in the dark, the new screen might stave off gadget-induced blindness. There's also a 5-megapixel camera that shoots high-definition video as well as a new video-editing app that lets you make a polished home movie right on your phone. Along with the addition of HD, there's now a second camera, allowing for video conferencing. The phone includes a built-in gyroscope, which allows it to detect motion across six axes, meaning games can translate precise movements into action on the screen. And, finally, the new iPhone will have an upgraded operating system that allows for multitasking (you can finally play a music-streaming app while you do your e-mail), an improved e-mail program, and a less cluttered interface. (The new OS will also go out to older iPhones and iPod Touches as a free upgrade.)
Read Full Article »