Jobs shows off Apple’s slimmer, sharper iPhone
SAN FRANCISCO – The next iPhone comes out June 24 and will have a higher-resolution screen, longer battery life and thinner design.
CEO Steve Jobs opened Apple Inc.’s annual conference for software developers Monday by demonstrating the iPhone 4, which will cost $199 or $299 in the U.S. with a two-year AT&T contract, depending on the capacity. The iPhone 3GS, which debuted last year, will still be available, for $99.
Some of the mystery surrounding Apple’s latest creation had been punctured in April, when the tech blog Gizmodo bought a lost iPhone prototype for $5,000 and posted pictures of the unit. Apple demanded it back, and authorities have been investigating whether a Gizmodo editor broke any laws.
“Stop me if you’ve already seen this,” Jobs said Monday as he started his demo.
The iPhone 4 is sleeker and more advanced than the original iPhone that came out in 2007. Like the iPhone 3GS, it comes in black or white, though it has a more angular look. Its front and back are covered with glass, and it is rimmed with stainless steel that acts as part of the phone’s antenna.
It is about three-eighths of an inch thick; the iPhone 3GS is nearly half an inch. It can shoot high-definition video, catching up to some other smart phones. It has a gyroscope in addition to other sensors, to enable more advanced motion-sensing applications, such as games and mapping services.
The display on the iPhone remains 3.5 inches diagonally, but Jobs noted that it can show four times as many pixels – the individual colored dots that make up an image – as the previous screen. That makes for a sharper appearance.
One of the most noticeable changes is the iPhone’s new camera on the front that can be used for videoconferencing, in addition to a five-megapixel camera and a flash on the back. For now, the videoconferencing function, FaceTime, works only if both parties to the call have an iPhone 4 and are connected over Wi-Fi rather than a cell phone network. Jobs indicated that FaceTime will eventually work over cellular networks, saying Apple needs to “work a little bit” with wireless providers to make it “ready for the future.”
The battery on the new iPhone will allow up to seven hours of talk time – an improvement over five hours on the last model. It can handle up to six hours of Web browsing over cellular networks or 10 hours over Wi-Fi.
New applications for the device will include a version of the popular game Farmville and one from Netflix that lets people watch streaming video where they left off on their TV.