iPhone 4G?

[Bromptonboy]

10:30 - iPhone 4.

Jobs announces the iPhone 4.  "Stop me if you've already seen this," he said, referring to the leak of the phone by Gizmodo. "But believe me, you ain't seen it."

"It's one of the most beautiful designs you've ever seen.  It's beyond a doubt the most precise things and one of the most beautiful things we've ever made."

Jobs shows photos of the phone, familiar from the leak.  He calls it the "thinnest smartphone on the planet," noting that it's 24% thinner than the previous version.

He then begins talking about the phone's new display, the "retina display," which boasts a four times higher resolution than the previous versions.  It's 3.5" display, he says, has 78% of the pixels of the much larger iPad.  It's got 960 x 640 pixels. He calls it "the best window on the planet."

10:42 - Problem!

Jobs runs into a major problem when a display of the new phone's resolution fails because of a poor internet connection.

He can't load the New York Times web page on the new phone, which is an odd unscripted blooper, rare for Apple.

"Boy I'm sorry guys, I don't know what's going on," Jobs

"Scott, you got any suggestions?" he says, seeking help from a colleage.

"Verizon!" someone yells.  The audience laughs

[Bromptonboy]

we wanttsssss one, yessss, we do....(gollum, gollum!)

[Bromptonboy]

10:50 a.m. Gyroscope

The new iPhone 4 will have a built in Gyroscope.  That is a much more precise motion sensor that can sense the phone's position around 3 difference axes.  It can sense pitch, roll, and yaw -- with the accelerometer, that means the new phone can sense six different axes of motion.

Jobs plays a game of Jenga as the audience watches.  As he rotates around himself (as in, turning in a citcle), the Jenga stack rotates.  He carefully removes a piece at a time.  After each removal, he turns a few steps himself, looking for a new piece to remove.

He gets about 8 or 9 pieces out before the stack collapses.

"These phones are getting more and more intelligent about the world around them," he said.

10:55 a.m. - iPhone 4  camera and video

Jobs shows off the new iPhone's 5 megapixel camera, to oohs and aahs from the audience.  The camera has an LED flash.  will record high definition video, with a "tap to focus" effect.  The phone will have a built in

"You can record video and edit it right on the phone, and then with a few taps, send it to MobileMe or send it to YouTube."

Apple then shows a demo of a new built in iMovie app, that allows users to do rather sophisticated video editing on the phone.  They show a very impressive demo of a short touristy movie that was recorded, edited and rendered right on the phone.  The resolution is stellar.

iMovie will cost $4.99.

[Bromptonboy]

11:00 a.m. - Update on the problem

Jobs says everyone was running around backstage to figure out the Internet problem.

"We figured out There are 570 Wifi base station operating in this room.  We have two choices -- turn off all the stuff and we see the demos, or I don't show you the demos.  Would you like to see the demos?"

Some people reluctantly turn off their computers.  Pesky media people don't.

11:05 a.m. - iPhone's new operating system :  iOS4

Jobs announces a new version of the iPhone's operating system, which he largely announced a few months ago.  It's been renamed "iOS4" and he show of the new metallic logo.  The OS will have 100 new features.

[Bromptonboy]

11:10 a.m. New features of the new OS

He runs through a bunch of the features that Apple already announced in April.  For a rundown, see here.

Jobs announces that iPhone will now offer Microsoft's Bing as a search engine.  Google's search engine will remain the default, but users will now be able to choose Bing, in addition to Yahoo, which has been an option for some time.

"Microsoft's done a very nice job on this," he said.

11:15 a.m. 100 million iOS devices sold

He then announced that there have been 100 million iOS devices sold. "No one else even comes close," he said.  "There is definitely a market for your apps."

11:18 a.m. iBooks now available on iPhone

iPhone 4 will include the iBooks application, and allow users to download and read books from the iBookstore.

Perhaps most interesting, the app will sync across multiple apple devices, so you can buy a book once on your iPad, say, hand have it wirelessly sync/download to your iPhone or iPod touch.

The iBooks app will automatically sync notes, bookmarks and your "place" (where you left off in the book) across all your Apple devices.

Jobs said the three Apple stores -- iTunes, App Store, and iBookStore, have 125 million credit card accounts combined.  There have also been 16 billion downloads of the different media types, he said.

"We believe this is the most of any store on the Web."

11:23 a.m. - iAd platform

Jobs goes to Apple's new iAd advertising platform.

"Why are we doing iAd?" he said "To help our dveloprs earn money to help them produce free and low cost apps for users."

He listed a number of advertisers who will be early entrants into the iAd platform, designing advertisements for the iAd platform:

Unilever, Chanel, AT&T, GE, Liberty Mutual, State Farm, Geico, Nissan, Campbell's Soup, Sears, JC Penney, Target, Best Buy. DirectTV, the TBS network, and Disney.

Jobs said advertisers had commited $60 million dollars for the second half of 2010, and that at only eight weeks old, Apple has earned a decent chunk of the U.S. mobile advertising market.

11:31 a.m. - One more thing: Video telephony: FaceTime

Jobs turns all the lights on the stage for the finale.

Jobs calls colleague Jony Ive with his iPhone 4 and ...

An image of Ive pops up on the big screen -- Jobs is conducting a live video phone call.

But there are still Wi-fi problems so the call is a little jerky.

"The idea of communicating this way, it's an old idea, but we've had to wait an awfully long time for it to become real, haven't we?"

But now video chatting is real -- Apple's name for it is FaceTime.

But there are caveats -- it only works with WiFi -- and of course, only with iPhone 4 models because they have the video camera.

"We need to work with the wireless providers," he said, before FaceTime will work on the cellular network.  Though they expect to ship tens of millions of FaceTime capable devices, they'll only work with Wi-Fi for the rest of 2010.

11:41 a.m. New Pricing

Phones go on sale June 24th.  They'll be available in both black and white.  The phone will cost $199 for the 16Gb version, and $299 for the 32Gb version.

Current iPhone owners will be able to get the new phones for the same prices as new customers -- if they renew their AT&T contracts by the end of 2010.

Upgrades for 3GS and 3G will be available in June -- but 3G doesn't get multitasking.

[billybob476]

Well this looks great. I think Fran will be getting one when her phone contract comes up in Sept and I will DEFINITELY be upgrade in 3G when my comes up in Jan.

The account management site for my mobile provider (Fido) is down right now and the phone won't even be available here until September!

[Feathers]

Ooooh too tempted now. Out of contract and two weeks to wait...

Admitedly, my main interest is still the multitasking rather than the hardware itself but the screen does look lovely so a 4 may still be a better bet than a cheap 3GS.

[billybob476]

The camera is a big one for me as well. I love snapping random shots and phone cameras keep getting better and better. If this trend continues I feel like the point and shoot  market will be getting a run for it's money.

If this camera is as good as they let on I don't think I'll be toting my camera along on trips soon enough.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

I'm still emoraging that its still on the At&t network.  Verizon has been far better for me than At&t has ever been for our family.  I really want this device.  I want a good solid phone and this is the one.  But no, we can get Verizon's cheap knockoff Droid.  It looks cheap, feels cheap, etc.  

Sorry for the slight amount of anger, but that's what dampens this phone for me.  I can't get it.  GRRRR!  :)

Its a nice enhanced phone and definitely has some really great features.  Even cooler that it has better battery life despite all the new features.  

king

[Bromptonboy]

I like the forward facing video camera - since my wife does quite a bit of Skype video calls to her folks in the old country -this would be perfect (although it will have to be on wifi - not 3 or 4G networks).

[Rico]

I like this quote from Steve Jobs...

"I grew up here in the US with The Jetsons and Star Trek and communicators, dreaming about video calling, and it's real now!"

[Meds]

That's a classic sales line lol

[wraith1701]

To upgrade or not to upgrade? Definitely a no-brainer for me. My only question is whether to get the 16 or 32 GB version.

Pshh; who am I kidding. 32 all the way.

[Feathers]

To upgrade or not to upgrade? Definitely a no-brainer for me. My only question is whether to get the 16 or 32 GB version.

Pshh; who am I kidding. 32 all the way.

Still waiting to see the UK pricing before making that kind of decision.

[Bromptonboy]

Now that my ardor has cooled a bit - I may wait yet one more year (when my contract is up to get a better discount).  I have the 32GB 3Gs - so if the new release of the phone OS supports tethering - I think ....think mind you...that I will wait.
Bear in mind this is in a rare moment of clarity that will mostly likely fade..

:)