Wearing his usual black turtleneck and jeans, Jobs took the stage to a standing ovation from the audience and a shout of, "We love you Steve!"
The iPhone 4 would be available in two colours, black and white. It would be priced at $199 in the US for the 16GB model, and 299 for the 32GB model. Apple would start taking pre-orders next week and ship initially to only five countries - US, France, Germany, UK, Japan. Jobs promised to add another 18 locations to the list in July. The number could go upto 88 countries by the end of the year in what Jobs described as the 'fastest rollout ever'. There was however no mention of when the iPhone 4 would be available in markets like India.
In what should be welcome news for existing iPhone users, Apple would be offering free iOS4 upgrades for the 3GS, 3G on June 21. However the offer comes with a rider - not all features will be supported in the 3G handset.
Jobs promised over 100 new features, out of which he discussed nine in his keynote.
1. New Design: First up, an all new design. The new iPhone is 9.3mm thick, which makes it 24 per cent thinner than the iPhone 3GS. The Apple boss claimed it was going to be the 'thinnest smartphone on the planet.'
In addition, iPhone 4 will have a front-facing camera, microSIM, camera with LED flash, headset, and a second mic for noise cancellation. In what Jobs described as 'brilliant engineering' the stainless steel band around the new handset has been used as part of the antenna system. "Stainless steel for strength. Glass on the front and back. Integrated antennas, and extraordinary build quality," this is how Jobs summed up the iPhone's new look.
2. Retina Display: Getting warmed up, the Apple CEO then announced the second major enhancement - Retina Display. The display resolution has grown to a staggering 326 pixels per inch. "There has never been a display like this on a phone," Jobs said. iPhone 4 would have a 3.5 inch display, but with 4 times more pixels than the iPhone 3GS and a 800:1 contrast ratio. "You can't make an OLED display with this resolution, we think it's quite superior," Jobs said while disclosing that 300dpi is about the limit that the human retina can distinguish at 10-12 inches away from the eye.
3. New Processor: The iPhone 4 will use the same A4 chip used in the iPad. The handset will ship with bigger batteries and better battery life. Seven hours 3G talk, 6 hours 3G browsing, 10 hours WiFi browsing, 40 hours of music, and 300 hours of standby.
4. Gyroscope: Jobs also announced a new piece of hardware for the iPhone 4: a three-axis gyroscope that would tie together the gyro, accelerometer, and GPS for 6-axis motion sensing. He said the new addition was 'perfect for gaming'.
5. Camera: The next enhancement in line is a whole new camera system built into iPhone 4. The new handset will have a 5 megapixel sensor with a backside illuminated sensor compared to the 3 MP camera in older models. As an added bonus, the new camera would also record HD video - 720p at 30fps. "Record and edit HD video right on your phone. It's pretty remarkable," Jobs said. The experience for iPhone 4 users would be enhanced through a custom built app called iMovie for iPhone. According to Randy Ubillos, Apple's chief architect of video apps, it would allow users to "record HD video and edit with beautiful transitions and titles, all on the device you carry with you every day." Even music can be added from iTunes, besides importing Geolocation information to titles.
6. iOS 4: Jobs then went on to announce the iOS4 - the rechristened iPhone operating system. Calling it 'the most advanced mobile OS in the world', Jobs said iOS4 would have over 1500 developer APIs and over 100 new user features, the biggest being multitasking. In a candid moment, the Apple CEO admitted it had taken his company time to "figure out how to do it (multitasking) right".
Besides a unified inbox and threading in Mail, deeper enterprise support, and tons of new features, iPhone 4 users can also look forward to a third search option besides Yahoo! and Google. Bing! from rival Microsoft Corporation makes its first appearance on the iPhone platform. Jobs even took the time to congratulate Microsoft for the effort: "Microsoft has done a really nice job on this, it's an HTML5 presentation, it's great."
7. iBooks: iBooks for iPhone was the seventh new feature that Jobs announced. "You only have to buy it once. And, iBooks will automatically and wirelessly - and for no charge - sync your place, notes, and bookmarks across all your devices," Jobs said. iBookstore joins the App Store and iTunes Store as the third store on the iPhone.
8. iAds: Jobs spoke about iAds, the eight new feature. According to him: "As you know, we're trying to combine the emotion of video with the interactivity of the web. iAds keep you in your app." Advertisements allow developers to make money on free and low-cost apps in the App Store.
9. FaceTime: But there was still more to come. The new iPhone comes equipped with FaceTime for Video calling, which Jobs demonstrated to the audience inside The Moscone Center. "I grew up with the Jetsons and Star Trek communicators. I grew up dreaming about this stuff...It's iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 anywhere there is WiFi, and there is no setup required," the Apple CEO said.
"That's iPhone 4, and we think it's the biggest leap we've taken since the original iPhone. I think you'll agree there's more to it than met the eye," Jobs said.
The keynote address by Jobs began sharp at 10 am local time at the The Moscone Center, in San Francisco where resounding applause greeted the Apple CEO as he stepped on stage.
Talking to the audience about the success of the iPad that has so far sold over 2 million units in 10 countries, Jobs said it was changing the way people experience the Web. "Things like email, photos, maps, you name it - it's a whole new way to interact with the internet, with apps, with our content and media, and it's going over really well. And it IS magical. I know it, because I got this email...", he added while pointing to an email that read "I was sitting in a cafe with my iPad and it got a girl interested in me. Now that's what I call a magical device!"
In the first announcement of the day, Jobs said Apple would be updating its iBooks app through which users had downloaded 5 million books in the first 65 days. Major enhancements include ability to create highlights, make notes and support for PDF files.
Jobs also talked about the vibrant App Store platform, which he claimed, was receiving over 15,000 submissions every week. According to Jobs, 95 per cent of these were approved within a week. Speaking about the success of the eBay app, Jobs said it had registered 10 million downloads, $600 million in volume in year 1, $1.5 billion in volume in 2010.
There was also good news in store for all Farmville fans. The popular game that has taken Facebook by storm, is now going to be available on the iPhone. This was announced by Zynga founder Mark Pincus. His company created Farmville and a number of other popular games on the social platform. Pincus said Farmville would be available on iPhone by the end of June in time for the first anniversary of the game's original launch.
After the few introductory announcements, Jobs finally came to the subject everyone had gathered to hear about. The iPhone 4.
The WWDC is hosting some 5,200 attendees from 57 countries, Jobs said.
Src & Text: [Ndtv & cnn]
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