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Heralded as the biggest leap since the original iPhone with over a hundred new features, the iPhone 4 was unveiled to huge cheers at this year’s Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco.
Powered by Apple’s A4 processor, the device is 24 per cent thinner than the iPhone 3GS – making it the thinnest smart phone on the market. It features front and rear facing cameras with an LED flash, a gyroscope as well as the accelerometer, and a micro-SIM slot. Design-wise, it features squared lines and steel edging that serves as an antenna, compatible with Bluetooth, wi-fi, GPS, UMTS and GSM.
The demonstration heavily emphasised the new Retinal Display, so named for having 326 pixels per inch, whereas the human eye can process up to 300 pixels per inch. It features a 960 x 640 display on a 3.5-inch screen, with a 800:1 contrast ratio that is four times better that the iPhone 3GS, and IPS technology for better colour and a wide viewing angle.
Jobs also revealed that the iPad would receive an update later this month, allowing users to view PDF’s, and discussed the App Store’s support for the HTML 5 platform and its approval process, highlighting the reasons for rejection – the app doesn’t do what the developer said it would, the use of private API’s and stability.
A number of other industry faces also joined Jobs onstage. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced the release of Netflix for iPad and iPhone, Mark Pincus, CEO of Zygna, revealed that the hit game ‘Farmville’ will be coming to the iPhone from the end of June, and Activision senior vice president Karthik Bala demonstrated an iPhone version of Guitar Hero.
Stuart Dredge, roving reporter for our sister site Mobile Entertainment, was at the event. You can read his more detailed notes here.
