iPhone 4G Features review
The iPhone 4G
I was watching Steve Jobs introducing the new iPhone 4G today and I have to admit, I was amused at his “stop me if you’ve seen this” joke. Of course we have. But we like the iPhone 4G, so we’ll forgive Apple. Steve just gave us another revolutionary iPhone so that we can make calls and enjoy the Apps.
Another new release from Apple is their new OS4, which introduces quite a few neat and useful features. This comes at only a couple of months after the release of the new tablet iPad. We shall discuss Apple OS4 and its impact on the iPhone and iPad as well in a different post. We offer both – App development for the iPhone and App development for the iPad, so this was good news to come along.
Let’s see what the iPhone 4G brings to the table:
iPhone 4G Facetime
It’s true, people have been dreaming about video calls for a long time. iPhone 4 makes it a reality. With just a tap, users can wave hello to their friends, or share a smile from across the globe. This now works from an iPhone 4G to an iPhone 4G over Wi-Fi. The Facetime feature works right out of the iPhone 4G box.
There is no need to set up a special account or screen name to use the iPhone 4G Facetime. It is also very user friendly. Let’s say you want to start a video call with your best friend. Just find the contact entry in the Contacts list and tap the FaceTime button. Or maybe you’re already on a voice call with them and you want to switch to video. You just have tou tap the FaceTime button on the Phone screen. Either way, an invitation pops up on her iPhone 4 screen asking if your party wants to join you. When they accept, the video call begins. It’s all perfectly seamless. And it works in both portrait and landscape modes.
Two Video Cameras for video calling.
The iPhone 4G has two built-in cameras, one on the front above the display, which focuses on you, and one on the back next to the LED flash. The front camera has been tuned for FaceTime. It has just the right field of view and focal length to focus on your face at arm’s length. So it always presents the subject in the best possible light. FaceTime lets you switch back and forth between cameras at any time during a video call. All you have to do is tap a button.
The new iPhone 4G Retina Display
The Retina display on iPhone 4G is the sharpest, most vibrant, highest-resolution phone screen ever, with four times the pixel count of previous iPhone models. In fact, the pixel density is so high that the human eye is unable to distinguish individual pixels, which makes text amazingly crisp and images stunningly sharp.
By developing pixels only 78 micrometers wide, Apple engineers were able to pack four times the number of pixels into the same 3.5-inch (diagonal) screen found on earlier iPhone models. The resulting pixel density of iPhone 4G — 326 pixels per inch — makes text and graphics look smooth and continuous at any size.
The iPhone 4G Retina display uses technology called IPS (in-plane switching) — the same technology used in the Apple LED Cinema Display and iPad — to achieve a wider viewing angle than on typical LCDs. Which means you can hold an iPhone 4G almost any way you want and still get a brilliant picture. That’s perfect for sharing photos with a friend or moving your iPhone around while playing a driving or flying game. In addition, the Retina display offers four times the contrast ratio of previous models, so whites are brighter, blacks are darker, and everything is more beautiful.
Made from the same materials used in helicopters and high-speed trains, the Retina display glass is chemically strengthened to be harder, more scratch resistant, and more durable than ever. The glass also features an oil-resistant coating (oleophobic) that helps keep the screen clean.
The Retina display includes LED backlighting and an ambient light sensor that intelligently adjusts the brightness of the screen for optimal viewing and battery life. When you lift an iPhone 4G to your ear for a phone call, a proximity sensor immediately turns off the display to save power and prevent accidental dialing.
iPhone 4G Multitasking
iPhone 4G introduces a new way of multitasking. Now iPhone 4G users can run their favorite third-party Apps — and switch between them instantly — without slowing down the performance of the foreground App or draining the battery unnecessarily.
The multitasking user interface allows you to quickly switch between recently used Apps. Just double-clicking the Home button reveals your recently used apps. Scrolling right allows you to see more Apps, and you just have to tap one to reopen it.
There is no need to wait for the App to reload as it picks up where you left off when you return to the App. You can jump right back into playing your game, reading the news, finding a restaurant, or whatever you were doing.
You can listen to audio in the background from compatible third-party Apps while checking e-mail, surfing the web, playing games, and performing other tasks.
Multitasking in iPhone 4 makes it possible to receive Skype or Voice over IP calls while other Apps are running, even when your iPhone is locked. During a phone call, you can keep the conversation going while you switch to another task, such as checking a movie listing or reading an e-mail.
Apps that use GPS can continue to run in the background. Not only do they constantly update your position, they can also give you spoken turn-by-turn directions as you listen to music (the music volume lowers while the directions are spoken). It’s perfect for Social Networking Apps as well.
HD Video Recording and Editing comes to the iPhone 4G. With the iPhone 4G you can shoot your own movies in High Definition. You may capture impressive video even in low-light settings, thanks to the advanced backside illumination sensor and built-in LED light. You are able to edit and create your own mini-masterpiece right on the iPhone 4 using the new iMovie app — with Apple-designed themes, titles, and transitions.
The iPhone 4G 5MP Camera
The iPhone 4G is equipped with a 5-Megapixel Camera with LED Flash and 5x digital zoom. The 5MP camera built into iPhone 4 captures amazingly detailed images. A built-in LED flash illuminates low-light scenes so that you can capture great pictures in darker settings. And the 5x digital zoom gets you closer to the action. The new front-facing camera makes it easy to take self-portraits.
At a candlelit dinner, on the beach at night, or wherever the light’s not bright, you can still get great shots with the iPhone 4G. The advanced backside illumination sensor allows you to shoot low-light photos that are brighter and clearer than ever before. And the iPhone 4G includes a built-in LED flash that automatically fires when it’s needed.
Self-portraits are made simple. The new VGA-quality front camera on the iPhone 4G makes it easy. No need to flip your iPhone around to guess where you are in the frame. Instead, just activate the front camera with a tap, check your image on the display, and shoot.
Autofocus keeps things sharp and the macro lens takes great close-ups. But you can also tap the iPhone display to focus on anything in the picture (like a face in the background) before you take a photo. Focusing also adjusts exposure and white balance automatically, so you get the best-quality photo possible.
You can easily share your photos with the iPhone 4G via e-mail or MMS from the Camera App. Or post them directly to your MobileMe gallery, where friends and family can browse and download them. Every photo you take is geo-tagged with information about your location, which you can save to your computer and share with iPhoto, Aperture, Flickr, or other compatible Applications and Services.
The iPhone 4G: No doubt – competitive and forward-thinking
We are over-all pleased with these new features brought about with the introduction of the iPhone 4G, and we are confident Apple will continue to entertain us in the future with revolutionary devices. We will continue to develop Apps for iPhone, as well as its bigger brother – the iPad. So don’t forget to check out our development pages, and, if you are looking to develop iPhone or iPad Apps, we are here to consult
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