[WWDC] Steve Jobs Announces iPhone 4

Steve Jobs recently announced the iPhone 4 and discussed how there are eight points he wants to explore.

Design

He boasted about its precision and its beauty, even taking note how thin it is. He mentioned that it is 9.3mm in thickness, a 24% reduction in thickness over the iPhone 3GS. He proceeded to go on to show the location of the typical buttons / hardware in the phone, such as the volume buttons, the sleep/wake button, headphone jack, etc. One of the new engineering designs unique to the iPhone 4 are these engineering bands which are placed throughout the side of the phone which are used as antenna's to allow better reception. To sum up its appearance: thinnest smartphone in the market, stainless steel for strength, glass for optical quality and scratch resistance, integrated antennas, and an all new design.

Retina Display

An increase in pixel density by four times to increase the quality of the image/video on the iPhone. He continued to show how increasing pixel density increases the quality by showing features such as anti-aliasing. The new iPhone has a retina display which contains 326 pixels per inch. To summarize the point for this part of the iPhone reveal he shared the following slide: "3.5 inch display, 960x640 (4 more), 326 pixels per inch, 800:1 contrast ratio (4x better), IPS technology for superb and wide viewing angle" and later went on to mention how the phone has 78% of the pixels an iPad has and also how existing apps look better.

Powered By The A4 Chip

Jobs announced as expected that the iPhone 4 will be powered by the A4 chip which allows them to have more room for other other hardware, such as the battery while still being able to maintain good processor speed. Since the A4 chip allowed for more room, Apple was able to provide a larger battery and boasted about the following usage: 3G Talk (7 hours), Browsing 3G (6 hours), Browsing WiFi (10 hours), Video (10 hours), Music (40 hours), Standby (300 hours). Jobs moved on to then discuss the Environmental checklist where he mentioned that the new device is Arsenic Free, BFR Free, Mercury Free, PVC Free, and highly recyclable. He moved on to recap some of the specs he mentioned previously with a slide which shared the following info: "Apple A4 chip, up to 32GB of storage, Quad-band HSDPA / HUPA 7.2MBs down and 5.8 MBs up, Dual mic noise suppression, 802.11n WiFi, GPS + accelerometer."

New Hardware - Gyroscope

Moving along Steve Jobs mentions "We're adding a 3 axis gyro, and we tied the gyro and accelerometer, compass, and gyro together for six axis. It's perfect for gaming." The next slide gave more details and contained the following information: "3 axis gyro (angular velocity), Pitch roll & yaw, rotation about gravity, Gyro + accelerometer provide 6-axis motion sensing." To demo this new hardware he showed an app which contained a block of stacked wood, and after turning his body, one of the blocks went with him.

A Whole New Camera System

Noting "while megapixels are nice, what these cameras are really about is capturing photons and low light photography" Jobs started the fifth point to explore. The iPhone 4 will have a 5 megapixel camera as opposed to 3. He mentions that while the number of megapixels are increased, most companies lower the size of the megapixels whereas Apple did not. He continued to show demos of pictures that further proved the quality of the new and improved camera on the fourth generation device. One of the slides mentioned all the new features for the camera, it stated the following: "5 megapixel camera, backside illuminated sensor, 1.75 micrometer size pixels, 5x digital zoom, Tap to focus, and LED flash." He then moved on to discuss how the camera even records HD video, 720p at 30fps. "We pioneered tap to focus, and we now have it for video... and we have one click sharing... and the LED flash will stay on for video recording. You can record, edit, and then with a few taps email it right on the phone" said Jobs about the video features.

iMovie for iPhone

Randy Ubillos was called out for this one where he presented the iMovie for iPhone app. Much like iMovie for the Mac, it has a timeline in the bottom where you can add videos and pictures, you can edit clips, any added image receives the Ken Burns effect, transitions and titles are also included. iMovie also automatically records geolocation which you can toggle on/off. The whole app end product was demoed by a video created by Randy which was visually stunning and impressive for everyone to watch. The app was mentioned to cost $4.99.

iOS4

Apple decided to rename iPhone OS 4 to iOS4 and Jobs proceeded to show some of the discussed new features of the updated mobile operating system. Multitasking was one of the features discussed and he demoed multitasking for everyone, claiming they didn't implement multitasking before because it "kills the battery." The features he discussed included: "Multitasking, folders, Retina Display integration, Mail - unified inbox & threading, Enhanced camera & photos apps, deeper enterprise support." For the Enterprise support, Jobs mentioned the following: "Even better data protection, Mobile device management, Wireless app distribution, Multiple Exchange accounts, Exchange SErver 2010, SSL VPN support." Jobs then moved on to announcing the expected addition of Bing to the search bar and mentioned how users can choose from setting Bing, Google, and Yahoo now as their default search engine. Furthermore, developers will get their hands on iOS4 today and it will be released soon.

iBooks

iBooks was announced for the iPhone and has all the goodies that the iPad version has. Much like the Netflix app, you can save a page and/or notes on your book with the iPhone and pick up where you left off on your iPad (or vice versa) which shows good integration between the two. Access to the iTunes Bookstore and the growing number of books available for download was also mentioned. Furthermore, it will come packed with a PDF reader so one can read their PDF files with ease.

iAds

Steve mentioned that iAds was created to help developers make more money. The following information was portrayed on a slide pertaining to iAds: "Emotion + interactivity, iAds keeps you in your app, Built into iOS4, Apple sells and hosts the ads, 60% revenues go to the developers, Payment via iTunes connect." Jobs then continued to talk about some of the advertisers that had decided to go with iAds: "So let me tell you some of the brands that will be advertising with us. Nissan, Citi, Unilever, AT&T, Chanel, GE, Liberty Mutual, State Farm, Geico, Campbells, Sears, JC Penny, Target, Best Buy, Direct TV, TBS, and Disney... those are some of the brands." To demo iAds he showed a Nissan Leaf ad which was very interactive and impressive, leaving the audience amazed. He mentions how iAd sales are projected to represent 48% of the mobile advertising market in the second half of 2010.

Jobs had finished discussing the eight things he mentioned but suddenly decided ...

"Wait One More Thing..." - Video Calling!

"You know I grew up with the Jetsons... and video calls... and now it's real. What about you?" Jony: "I grew up with the same thing, and it's real now!" Steve: "It is real... especially when people turn off their WiFi." Jony: "We've had to wait an awful long time for this to become reality." Steve: "Okay, let's have lunch soon." It's called FaceTime. WiFi only. iPhone 4 to iPhone 4. No setup. Jobs mentioned how the audio and video quality are great but Apple needs to work it out a little bit more with the carriers before its usable. Apple had a basic handful of standards when creating the idea but decided to leave it to an open industry standard. Formats supported include: "H.264, AAC, SIP, STUN, TURN, ICE, RTP, SRTP."

Pricing and Availability

The iPhone 4 was announced to come in two colors: white and black as well as in 2 models: 16GB and 32GB. The pricing for the models is as following: 16GB for $199 and 32GB for $299 with a 2 year contract each. The iPhone 3GS was bumped down respectively and will be offered for $99. Preorders start on June 15th and the iPhone 4 goes on sale June 24th (the iPhone 3GS price is also knocked down on the same date). To make the deal even sweeter, for those of you who have an AT&T contract that expires at some point in 2010, you can upgrade to the iPhone 4 six months early. As Steve Jobs said: "...So that is the iPhone 4. We think it's the biggest leap we've taken since the original."

The big iPhone 4 segment of the keynote is out! What do you think? Share your thoughts and comments below.