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The New iPhone 4.0


Steve E

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We all knew it was coming. Today Steve Jobs announced the new iPhone 4.0, and it seems to have many of the things we've been asking for.

 

1. It's built tougher. I won't go into details but it looks like leaping from your pocket won't be "device suicide" anymore.

2. Videophone. The call it FaceTime. The iPhone now has a video camera in front and in back. There is also an LED flash.

3. Multitasking. Leave an app to go work with another app, and then come back to the first app. About time.

4. High Definition. The display now has four times as many picture elements (pixels) for a sharper picture. They call it their Retina Display.

5. Gyroscope (for orientation)and accelerometer (for movement). This should improve the gaming experience.

6. iPhone 4 arrives on June 24, and you can pre-order or reserve yours on June 15. Price starts at $199 for "qualified" customers.

7. Technical Specifications.

 

Hot damn.

 

I wonder how our Steve will work the gyroscope into Storyist's interface.

- Thoth

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I wonder how our Steve will work the gyroscope into Storyist's interface.

- Thoth

 

Probably after a lot of... well, 'eating backwards' while testing the gyro interface :lol:

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To be honest, this phone doesn't blow me away. I think I'll stick with Android. :lol:

Does Android have a 5 megapixel flash camera?

Can you use android as a videophone?

Is Android magical?

 

Just kidding. Android seem fine for what it does.

But what most attracts you to it?

-T

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I wonder how our Steve will work the gyroscope into Storyist's interface.

 

Hmmm. Let me think about that :-)

 

I think the new phone will be great for folks who are out of contract and looking for a new phone. Not sure if "It changes everything. Again" as the Apple webpage says. I'm looking forward to the iOS 4 upgrade for my 3GS.

 

-Steve

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Does Android have a 5 megapixel flash camera?

Can you use android as a videophone?

Is Android magical?

 

Just kidding. Android seem fine for what it does.

But what most attracts you to it?

-T

 

Evo matches everything but the magic lol.

 

Oh the A4 and the Screen were great, really the only great things to me.

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I think the new phone will be great for folks who are out of contract and looking for a new phone. Not sure if "It changes everything. Again" as the Apple webpage says. I'm looking forward to the iOS 4 upgrade for my 3GS.

 

Maybe my heartstrings are easily pulled, but I'll admit, when I saw the FaceTime video, I was misting up by the end. Not just for the obvious "I can see myself in that position and isn't that so neat" stuff, but when the deaf people started signing to each other over their phone...I mean, since when could 100% hearing-less people communicate via any method besides text using a pocket phone? In at least that way, this phone really does change things in a positive way (for them at least). I think video calling is a Big Deal™ and I look forward to FaceTime becoming an open source format and (hopefully) possible from iPhone to other devices.

 

That screen looks fantastic. As does HD video.

 

And yeah, my iPhone 3G contract is up, so I was going to get a new iPhone anyway. So is my wife's, we'll see if she wants my old iPhone, a 3GS or an iPhone 4.

 

Orren

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Oh the A4 and the Screen were great, really the only great things to me.

 

Well, forgetting FaceTime for a moment and just talking about the hardware, I think the increase in battery life is significant, as is the more robust build quality—as Thoth pointed out, device suicide really is a thing of the past with this phone. FWIW, I was informed that part of the testing process for this phone was literally dropping it off balconies and throwing it to the ground, etc. This phone is robust. I was, however, advised not to drop it in the toilet. :lol:

 

Orren

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About FaceTime: For What It's Worth...

 

CNET News has an interesting

about how Steve Jobs failed to get a Wi-Fi connection on the iPhone 4...for his demonstration of FaceTime in front of a packed auditorium of people...twice. When Steve asked for suggestions from Scott (the head Apple elf on the scene), someone else shouted "Verizon".

 

After about 20 minutes Scott and the Apple elves determined that there were 570 Wi-Fi base stations busily at work in the auditorium during the demonstration. Steve asked everyone to shut down their Wi-Fi connections so he could use FaceTime. (This does not bode well for the common user.) It took about a half hour but they all eventually complied. FaceTime worked beautifully.

 

Poor Scott. I hear Microsoft is hiring.

- Thoth

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CNET News has an interesting
about how Steve Jobs failed to get a Wi-Fi connection on the iPhone 4...for his demonstration of FaceTime in front of a packed auditorium of people...twice.

 

You can watch that on the Apple site, where they posted the Keynote address. They couldn't figure out what the problem was during the New York Times comparison of Retina Scan, so they stopped it and he went for static photo comparisons (which didn't require wifi). Scott got back to him, and the answer was that there were over 500 "mifi" and other 3G-to-wifi hubs in use in the audience.

 

This article from smartphonehub sums it up:

http://thesmartphonehub.com/smartphone-hub...o-but-not-mifi/

 

So I guess the bottom line is that anyone who wants to use FaceTime should be sure to have less than 500 3G-to-wifi hubs active within a fifty foot radius. :D

 

Orren

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So I guess the bottom line is that anyone who wants to use FaceTime should be sure to have less than 500 3G-to-wifi hubs active within a fifty foot radius. :D

Actually, I am curious about exactly how much Wi-Fi competition is too much competition for FaceTime. I strongly suspect it's a lot less than 570 users.

 

I also think "Retina Scan" is a horrible name for a screen that's 4x denser than the old screen. I mean, why "Retina Scan"? It's not scanning your retina, or anything else. (A future feature, perhaps?)

 

Calli, TAS has an Android too! Maybe the two of you could start an Android thread. Win us over!

- Thoth,

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I also think "Retina Scan" is a horrible name for a screen that's 4x denser than the old screen. I mean, why "Retina Scan"? It's not scanning your retina, or anything else. (A future feature, perhaps?)

 

Its Retina Display, actually. http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/retina-display.html

 

But I agree, it's a wonky name.

 

Orren

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Does Android have a 5 megapixel flash camera?

Can you use android as a videophone?

Is Android magical?

 

Android is just a platform like iOS. Most of the phones that I have seen... well, suck.

 

My Moto Droid has a 5 MP flash camera, but the optics are so horrid that everything comes out blurry. I mean, seriously. What's the point of putting uberpixel cameras on a device that's too small for a decent lens?

 

The Droid certainly does not support videophone out of the box. I'm sure someone has hacked in support for skype, though. I would be more interested in standard video phone support than iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 only video phone.

 

Android has some serious magic. It magically starts apps that you didn't even know you had installed, and its multitasking allows the phone to drain its battery in an hour or so. It magically gets pretty darn hot while said multitasking is running rampant. It magically crashes apps (like the browser) all the time too. Some times it falls into a magic sleep. Kissing it doesn't seem to wake it up, though, and you have to pop the battery out and back in instead.

 

Oh, if only I had a defective phone. Then I could at least make Motorola replace it.

 

Just kidding. Android seem fine for what it does.

But what most attracts you to it?

 

Android is just an immature, unpolished platform. Like many products that come out of Google, they seem to start strong, then lose steam. Hopefully they can get their act together in the next version of the OS. Updating applications is a pain. I'm sick of having to kill apps that are running in the background for no good reason. Just about any useful feature on my phone is available on the iPhone.

 

The most attractive thing about Android is that I don't have to switch to AT&T. That company never needs any of my money ever again.

 

IF

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The Droid certainly does not support videophone out of the box. I'm sure someone has hacked in support for skype, though. I would be more interested in standard video phone support than iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 only video phone.

 

Apparently, Skype is at least conceptually interested in not just supporting FaceTime for iPhone 4 chatting, but using the open format for other devices: http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/06...ime.as.standard they are non-committal, however.

 

As one pundit (I forget where...CNET?) pointed out, how widely adopted FaceTime becomes will depend on how many big players support it. If AT&T and Cisco support it for enterprise chat (which apparently talks are underway) and then maybe some players like Skype and AOL, along with the inevitable eventual Mac OS to FaceTime support, that will go a long way towards convincing everyone to support it.

 

Anyway, optimism aside, I agree with you—as excited as I am by the technology, eventually it will have to move beyond iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 to be truly useful.

 

Android has some serious magic...Oh, if only I had a defective phone. Then I could at least make Motorola replace it.

 

You make it sound like black magic! :D FWIW, one of those people in my "circle" (meaning, friend of a friend) did have a defective Droid, replaced it, and the new one is also acting up (it randomly won't turn boot up, and she'll have to remove and re-insert the battery). So I think the sleep/battery issues are pretty common.

 

The most attractive thing about Android is that I don't have to switch to AT&T. That company never needs any of my money ever again.

 

Enough people have said that (or similar) that I hope Apple's listening. I've said before AT&T works for me but I have nothing but sympathy for those who hate them. Ultimately, choice is always best; even if that choice is just AT&T and T-Mobile (who both use GSM, although different frequency bands) and not Verizon (who uses a different cell system that neither AT&T/T-Mobile nor European/Asian countries use). Some pundits are suggesting that the real reason for AT&T's "6 month upgrade grace period" to entice people to upgrade is because they anticipate losing the exclusivity of the iPhone in 2011. So perhaps there will be multiple providers soon after all. We'll have to see. But Apple has got to know that there are potential customers avoiding iPhones because of AT&T, just as there are current customers unhappy with AT&T.

 

Take care,

Orren

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The most attractive thing about Android is that I don't have to switch to AT&T.

 

Yep.

 

Reason we got them is that Alex had grand plans of making apps or writing programs or something. I'm certainly not able to persuade someone one way or the other - they both seem neat to me! :D

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Reason we got them is that Alex had grand plans of making apps or writing programs or something. I'm certainly not able to persuade someone one way or the other - they both seem neat to me! :D

 

I have to admit. Writing apps for iOS looks a lot easier than writing them for Android.

 

IF

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I am drooling over the improved camera of course. I'm also excited for the better screen for photo reasons as well. Facetime is awesome, but unfortunately only one friend of mine has an iPhone and I don't know if he's planning to upgrade. If I do upgrade I suppose I could always pester Orren to test it out. :) I really hope that it will start being supported by things like Skype and such, because it would become a whole heck of a lot more useful then. I am also touched by the signing part of it.

 

Here's an interesting article about the whole MiFi bit and that it may not have only been due to the 570 networks....

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/06/...-4g-drivers.ars

 

 

I too agree that Apple is sure coming out with some wonky names these days. :D

 

Dreaming of iDevices off of AT&T......

- Jools

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I am drooling over the improved camera of course. I'm also excited for the better screen for photo reasons as well. Facetime is awesome, but unfortunately only one friend of mine has an iPhone and I don't know if he's planning to upgrade. If I do upgrade I suppose I could always pester Orren to test it out. :) I really hope that it will start being supported by things like Skype and such, because it would become a whole heck of a lot more useful then. I am also touched by the signing part of it.

 

I'm sure you and Michelle would get a kick out of chatting with each other too, she's into crafts too--in fact she just signed up on a forum to do a Hitchikers Guide to the Universe swap. :). At this point it looks like I, Michelle, and my mom will all be upgrading to iPhone 4! Apple loves my family :D

 

Interestingly, what sold Michelle was not video chat but the durability of the engineered glass. Working in a stable, she has dropped her current phone on rocks and metal rails and dirt and it's barely functional. The fact that the iPhone 4 is nearly impervious to barn accidents is worth the extra money (Michelle currently has a generic non-smartphone).

 

Here's an interesting article about the whole MiFi bit and that it may not have only been due to the 570 networks....

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/06/...-4g-drivers.ars

 

My favorite sentence was the guy who in frustration started a network named turn off your (bleeping) mifis ^_^ anyway, sounds like insane congestion and unfinished software combined in a bad way.

 

Orren

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So anyone else, other than Orren and I, have to deal with the epic fail whale that came to visit Apple and AT&T on the Pre-order launch day?

-Jools

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So anyone else, other than Orren and I, have to deal with the epic fail whale that came to visit Apple and AT&T on the Pre-order launch day?

-Jools

 

Not yet. I'm waiting to see how it works out with you guys before I even consider the upgrade.

 

("epic fail whale" :P The sequel to Moby-Dick.)

- Thoth

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("epic fail whale" :P The sequel to Moby-Dick.)

 

Are you familiar with the Twitter "fail whale?" the image they put on their site when the system is down?

fail-whale.jpg

Well, yesterday people mocked a special version up just for the Apple/AT&T debacle:

kfo.png

 

:lol:

 

Orren

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