click any image to enlargeSAN FRANCISCO — Thanks to photos and videos leaked by Gizmodo, we all became familiar with the iPhone 4 several weeks ago. But holding one in your hands tells a brand new story.
Apple’s iPhone 4 is the biggest upgrade yet for the handset. Highlight features include a front-facing camera, a 960-by-640 “retina display” that shows image and text more crisply, the same A4 processor that powers the iPad, and a 5-megapixel still camera that also shoots high-definition video.
The overall look and feel has changed as well: Both the front and back of the iPhone are composed of a sturdy glass that Apple claims is 13 times harder than plastic. Overall, the case is 24 percent thinner than the current iPhone 3GS.
Wired.com had some hands-on time with the iPhone 4 after Apple’s press event Monday. Continue reading for a closer look at the new features, with photography by Jon Snyder.
Near the headphone jack is a second microphone for noise cancellation. Pretty snazzy.
The new glass back of the iPhone feels great, though it creates a new problem: smudges on not just the front, but the back of the device as well. Hope you like wiping.
Also worth noting is the new 5-megapixel camera, which is accompanied with a flash. (No, not Adobe’s.)
The border of the iPhone is composed of a stainless steel that Apple claims is incredibly strong. It felt pleasant in the hand.
The iPhone 4 features the same 30-pin dock connector and a speaker. No surprise there.
FaceTime is a button accessible through the Phone app. Unfortunately the Wi-Fi in the press room was flimsy, but when we connected for a few seconds, it was pretty fun. Apple hasn’t yet disclosed the resolution of the front-facing camera, but the video we saw on-screen looked decent for chatting.
Multi-tasking couldn’t have come at a better time. On the iPhone 4 it worked very smoothly for switching between Pandora, Photos and the iBooks app.
The iPad’s e-book application and bookstore, iBooks, will soon be available for iPhones via Apple’s latest mobile operating system, iOS 4 (formerly known as iPhone OS 4). The new sharper display on the iPhone 4 should make reading on a phone enjoyable.
The iBooks app is also expanding to include a PDF viewer. We tested one out, and it worked nicely.
Photos on the iPhone looked like they were taken with a high-end camera. The so-called “retina display” added a lot of detail compared to current iPhone’s screen.
source:wired.com
with special thanks to
brian x cgen & jon snyder
