

IPhone 4 is official - anderzole
http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/iphone-4-official

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awolf
I'm impressed with 24% thinner. After holding an iPod touch for the first time
I always wished my iPhone was less bulky.

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blhack
To be honest, I would much rather see a thicker phone with a longer battery.
My current iPhone (the 3g) feels unnecessarily thin to me.

What I would _really_ like to see would be the option for a larger battery.

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mattmillr
The Mophie Juice Pack does two things for my 3G:

(1) Makes it thicker (2) Gives it longer battery life.

Problem solved ;)

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rbanffy
Is there any good, sound, technical reason why iOS4 won't run on 1st-gen
hardware (iPod and iPhones)?

I understand some hardware may be missing (bluetooth on 1st-gen iPods and 3G
on 1st-gen iPhones) but the computer that runs the show is pretty much the
same as the 2nd-gen ones.

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brk
It seems that Apple has historically concentrated more on pushing towards the
future instead of dragging legacy support with them.

In the long run this means that users who don't make the investment to stay
current hardware-wise often lose out on being able to take advantage of the
latest features.

This certainly creates a good cash flow situation for Apple, but my guess is
that the cost-avoidance side is equally lucrative. Not having to run QA tests
for hardware that is 3 revisions back, and possibly still running original or
near-original code has got to look good on the bottom line as well. Also,
knowing that you can leave any mistakes or oversights in the past, and keep
drivers for massively old legacy items out of the code base probably just
makes for a better overall experience for everyone.

I once worked with one of the guys who was a kernel developer for Windows95.
According to him, a lot of the Windows bloat and slowness at startup was
directly attributed to massive hardware base they had to maintain support for.
IMO, I personally _like_ the fact that Apple doesn't waste a lot of time and
effort on worrying that every new feature is fully back-portable to everything
they've shipped in the last 5 years.

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rbanffy
This is not even close to a good, sound or technical reason.

The reason I asked is because, as far as I know, the processor and the amount
of memory is the same for 1st generation and 2nd generation hardware. I wonder
if Apple is artificially limiting the availability of their software just to
force fashion victims to buy new hardware.

And calling the hardware base iOS has to support "massive" is quite an
overstatement. That's the enormity of 7 models.

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brk
_This is not even close to a good, sound or technical reason_

Well, "good" is a little subjective. I am purely speculating here, but I
_doubt_ that Apple compiled something into the code to make it simply not run
on first gen hardware. IE: there must be something about that hardware
platform that makes it different enough from current-gen hardware that
supporting it adds some amount of back-end effort. Perhaps the reason has to
do with one of the other factors I mentioned, a "mistake" or shortcoming in
the first-gen hardware that requires more internal hacks and work-arounds in
the code than they are willing to support.

It's not like this sort of thing is unique to Apple. Some of the first-gen
Droid phones are not going to see the 2.2 update. Yes, there may be more
hardware variants and changes among the Droid phones, but it is still a
relatively new platform abandoning not-that-old hardware.

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rbanffy
It's either a hardware difference or Apple artificially restricting where it
installs to increase hardware sales.

It would not be the first time - the first iMacs are capable of running up to
MacOS X 10.4, provided they have enough memory. I have successfully ran 10.4
on a beige G3. The installer, however, checks the hardware against a list of
"forbidden" (if I remember the term used in the .plist file) machine types.

Here is a similar story, regarding 10.5:

[http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=200710260837463...](http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071026083746346)

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MikeCapone
To me the IPS 300+ DPI screen is the best part. I can't wait until the iPad
gets this kind of DPI.

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jgerman
It depends on if you have to switch to the tiered plan on upgrade.

It's a foolish purchase if you do, or if this is your first iPhone. 2Gb is
nothing, particularly when they're pushing ads at you, and don't forget the
game network is coming.

I'm installing an in dash GPS receive this week that will let me stream
Pandora in my car, that's next to useless without unlimited.

Hell a poorly written app could blow through wads of data while you're at the
doctor's office and you wouldn't know until too late.

The iPhone (and realistically all phones of this nature) need unlimited plans.
AT&T is really screwing the customer here, and Apple as well.

At the very least they should have offered a $50 a month unlimited (or
practically unlimited) plan.

They really need to open up the market and get some competition going.

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neilc
_It depends on if you have to switch to the tiered plan on upgrade._

ATT has been pretty clear that you don't (i.e. you can upgrade and retain the
unlimited data plan).

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dlsspy
That's insanely high res. How many pixels would my 15" MBP have at that DPI?

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ovi256
15" / 3.5" * how many pixels the new iPhone has. Math people.

So ~4100 by 2700. Pretty nice.

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mrscotchboy
I'm upgrading as soon as I can...if for nothing else but HD video!

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paul9290
Anyone know when iPhone 4.0 will be available to download.

As a bootstrapped developer I ran OS 4.0 through the first 3 betas, but as
noted by apple do so at your own risk. I had some issues with beta 3 so Ive
been waiting for an official version, before upgrading to 4.0 again. I just
checked developer page and it still says the latest beta 4 well is in still in
beta. I guess they release the official version around same time phone comes
out?

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cpr
Steve said (in the keynote) that the Golden Master download should be
available today.

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jodrellblank
They said "master candidate done today, so out soon". Also that the phone is
available on the 24th, so iOS needs to be finished enough before that to be
built in and shipped off on time.

But I'm guessing they wont allow us to have iOS 4 in wide circulation before
iPhone 4 itself is out, so 24th or after is my guess.

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rimantas
Wasn't it mentioned in keynote? Where do I got June 21st date then…

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euroclydon
_Apple's next-gen iPhone also comes equipped with Apple's speedy A4 chip and a
gyroscope, which when coupled with the accelerometer, provides 6-axis motion
sensing._

Six Axis? OK, I picked up my mouse, and demonstrated to myself, rotating it
about each of the three(X,Y,Z) Cartesian axis -- no problem. So then I tried
to figure out the other three: All I can guess is that they are movement along
those prior mentioned axes. Is this correct?

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lliiffee
I assume three are for position, and three are for angle.

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ROFISH
Huh, no WebM support.

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heimidal
It isn't in any stable build of any popular browser yet, and you expect it to
be in MobileSafari's stable build that is released as GM today? That's
unrealistic.

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bkudria
It'd have been nice if they had at least announced it.

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phreeza
The front camera is the most important innovation to me. I think this will
really bring video calling to the masses, for the first time.

Many people have been doing that with laptops, but the increased mobility will
make a huge difference.

(edit: also, I was mystefied why the iPad doesn't have one. Surely the first
update will?!)

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rbanffy
Indeed. I think this is the major game-changing feature of the phone.

I also like the gyroscope.

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sev
I'm very impressed. Anyone know if only the rear camera is 5 MP/720p or are
both cameras? If not, what are the specs for the one in the front?

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swilliams
"VGA-quality photos and video at up to 30 frames per second with the front
camera" <http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html>

VGA is 640x480, correct?

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smokey_the_bear
Anyone know when it's coming?

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alex1
June 24. Pre-orders starting June 15.

