iPhone 4 on Verizon

by Steve Hildreth and Charles W. Moore

iPhone 4 was introduced in June 2010 and features a 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, HD video recording, Apple’s A4 processor, a 3-axis gyro, and up to 40 percent longer talk time - in an all-new design of glass and stainless steel that Apple says is the thinnest smartphone in the world. iPhone 4 comes with iOS 4, the latest version of the iPhone operating system, and in some respects it's more exciting than the very cool phone itself. The new iOS includes over 100 new features and 1500 new APIs for developers. Multitasking, Folders, enhanced Mail, deeper Enterprise support and Apple’s new iAd mobile advertising platform are all now supported.

FaceTime lets you see your loved ones and friends anywhere there is Wi-Fi. Apple says using FaceTime is as easy as making a regular voice call, with no set-up required, and you can instantly switch to the rear camera to show others what you are seeing with just a tap.

Apple’s new 3.5 inch Retina display has 960 x 640 pixels - four times as many pixels as the iPhone 3GS and 78 percent of the pixels on an iPad. The resulting 326 pixels per inch is reportedly so dense that the human eye is unable to distinguish individual pixels when the phone is held at a normal distance, making text, images and video look sharper, smoother and more realistic than ever before on an electronic display.

iPhone 4 is also thinner than ever - 9.3 millimeters - with an all-new design and Apple cllaims build quality like no other mobile device. The front and back are made of aluminosilcate glass, chemically strengthened to be 30 times harder than plastic, more scratch resistant and more durable than ever. The front and back glass have an oil-resistant coating that helps keep it clean, and encircling iPhone 4 is a highly finished stainless steel band made of a custom alloy that is forged to be five times stronger than standard steel.

iPhone 4 features a new 5 megapixel autofocus camera with a 5x digital zoom, a backside illuminated sensor and built-in LED flash that allows you to take photos even in low light and dark environments. iPhone 4 also lets you record and edit i HD video and the tap to focus feature now works while recording video. You can use the iPhone 4‘s LED flash for both still photography and video recording. The new iMovie app for iPhone lets you combine movie clips, add dynamic transitions and themes and include photos and music, and users can buy it for just $4.99 through the App Store right on their phone.

iPhone 4 supports access to tens of thousands of games and entertainment apps on the App Store. Every iPhone 4 has a built-in 3-axis gyro that when combined with the accelerometer provides 6-axis motion sensing such as up and down, side to side, forward and backward and pitch and roll, making it perfect for gaming. Developers can access the gyro using the new CoreMotion API to make games and other apps that go well beyond what other mobile devices offer.

The new iOS 4 boasts over 100 new features, including Multitasking, Folders, enhanced Mail, deeper Enterprise support and Apple’s new iAd mobile advertising platform. With Multitasking, users can now instantly switch between any of their apps while preserving battery life. With Folders, users can easily organize their apps into collections by simply dragging one app on top of another. A folder is automatically created and named based on the category of apps selected. Users can change the name of any folder at any time. In addition, users can now customize their lock and home screens with an array of supplied wallpapers or with any of the photos on their phone.

Note the difference in the quality of images, taken first with HDR off, then with HDR on. Both images are looking into the sun on a hazy afternoon. Then compare these images with one taken using a 2010 iPod touch: