Well, it's official. Steve Jobs has uttered the "magic" words. Neowin report Today at Apple's World Wide Developers Conference, the iPhone 4 was announced, putting all prior forms of speculation to rest. The new phone will run iPhone OS 4, which has now been renamed iOS 4. Apple is also releasing over 100 new features as part of their development SDK. Included in these features are multitasking, folders, a unified inbox, and deeper enterprise support. Microsoft's Bing has been added as an alternative search engine option in iOS 4 (Google remains the default). iBooks for the iPhone will also be available and will allow you to access the content that you've already purchased for your iPad. Previously thought to be called iChat, FaceTime, was shown off as Steve Jobs' famous "one more thing." FaceTime is real-time video chat, available between two iPhone 4 devices. For the remainder of 2010, it will be only usable over Wi-Fi, as carriers are not yet ready for the extra traffic. Apple plans to make FaceTime an open industry standard. iPhone 4 will be available from AT&T on June 24th for $199 (16 GB) and $299 (32 GB), assuming you sign a two-year contract. If your contact was set to expire at any point in 2010, you will be elligible for an upgrade immediately. Pre-orders begin on June 15th. The phone will initially be available in the US, France, Germany, UK, and Japan, with many more countries to follow (88 planned for 2010). A dock will be available for $29. iOS 4 will be available as a free update for iPod Touch (2nd gen and above) and iPhone 3G and 3GS users on June 21st. Here's what the iPhone 4 will sport: New design made of glass and steel (24% thinner than iPhone 3GS) Apple A4 processor 3.5" Retina Display - 326 pixels per inch (960 x 640) Bigger battery (7 hr. 3G talk, 6 hr. 3G browsing, 10 hr. Wi-Fi browsing, 300 hr. standby) Front-facing camera 5 MP camera with LED flash and illuminated sensor (tap to focus) 720p HD video recording with built-in iMovie video editing (iMovie available in App Store for $4.99) microSIM Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, UMTS, GSM (quad-band) 2 microphones Available in 16 GB or 32 GB models 802.11n Wi-Fi 3-axis gyroscope (6-axis motion sensing for gaming)
199 U.S. dollars = 137.21299 British pounds according to google convertor. But we all know that they'll increase the price to £180 or somthing.
I must admit this is the first iPhone thats ever looked appealing to me. You have to take out a two year contract to get it at that price though so its going to cost a lot more sadly. If we look at the price of the cheapest 16gb iPhone 3gs over here its pretty obvious the iPhone 4 is gonna break the bank. 16gb iPhone 3gs on o2 is £179 on an 18 month contract. The contract is £30 per month totaling £719 for the contract and phone over 18 months. On Pay and Go the 16gb 3gs is £449... either way to me thats ridiculous for a phone.
For someone not wanting to spend lots money and wants a 3GS or 3G, they will be all over eBay as people upgrade, and a lot cheaper than before! Best time for someone who wanted to jump, and remember the 3GS supports all the features in iPhoneOS4! However if you want an iPhone 4 a bit cheap, your need to wait a few months until after launch for them to appear on eBay. Also whats the deal with Facetime and an industry standard? We already have 3G Video Chat, and its an industry standard worldwide used by over 500 million people as well (I say used, but not many people use it, but its supported and usable to over 500 million people already over a 3G network). Thats one feature I'm reading and thinking what idiots Apple are. To top it off, 95% of all 3G phones currently sold support 3G Video Chat, it works between different phone models and makers.
The cheapest used iPhone 3GS's on ebay at the moment are about £320. When you consider you get get Andriod phones of a superior spec brand new for around the £300 price point its not exactly a great deal. Even in a years time used iPhone 4's are still going to cost almost as much as some of the high end Andriod phones are new. Thats one thing I do agree with you on, I was watching it online and it Apple piratically made out that they just invented video calling which I thought was a bit ridiculous. Welcome to 2003 / 2004 yet again Apple. (at least in the UK, carn't speak for everywhere else). I remember last year Apple made out like they invented multitasking on smart phones, something every other smart phone has done since... forever really. Then the year before its like wow were 3g now... yes 3g phones have been out since 2003ish in the UK i think.
Oh totally, Ill admit i'm a bit of a fanboy when it comes to Apple products. Apple do big every little thing up when it comes to the iPhone and act like its revolutionary. The iPhone is just too expensive for me to buy new sadly...
I'll be pre-ordering as soon as I can! Must have these features. I cannot wait. So many new features this month! On-Live, iPhone 4G, iOS 4.0, Windows Live Wave 4, and more most likely that I'm forgetting.
The phone does look nice. At first I though differently but it has grown on me. It will cost alot, I think the minimum it will be pay as you go is £400.
I love how Apple products look so slick and shiny, but I think they're jerks at marketing. Man, some say Microsoft is a bad company screwing off their customers, yet everyone knows Apple's very succesfull way of marketing is to create hype, which means: 1: Every feature is a revolution. 2: Every feature is exclusive, if not, it will be. 3: The prices can't be relative like on any other market. 4: The prices must be higher than the value, it must be a speciality to use Apple products! For example, most designers expect Flash and the relatively new Silverlight to be replaced by web standards in the upcoming years. However, Apple's reaction to this was to completely insult Flash and former friend Adobe, even saying that Flash is the only reason Mac systems could make a crash. Right now, Flash is still used for a lot of interactivity on the web, like games or movies, while simple button interfaces are more commonly turned into normal web code. So even though Flash is not an 'open' standard, it's certainly still a standard for interactivity on the web. Thus, I admire Apple products for their quality, design, and handy software. But the reasons stated above won't buy me a Mac or iPhone, EVER.