Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference has just begun (3am AEST). I’ll be posting the main announcements as they happen, right here so stay tuned. As more details emerge this post will be updated. It’s expected that Steve Jobs will announce the 4th generation iPhone which is said to be called the iPhone HD. Given the developer focus of the conference and the recent launch of the iPad expect Apple to be giving lots of incentives for developers to create dedicated iPad applications. We may even see iPhone OS 4.0 software for the iPad released, stay tuned.
Update
Apple have just gone live with their official iPhone 4 site featuring a new gallery and video.
Event details:
- Over 5,200 attendees
- 57 countries
- Sold out in 8 days!
iPad details:
- 2 Million sold (One every 3 seconds)
- iPad specific apps are up to 8,500.
- 35 Million iPad apps downloaded (17 apps per iPad)
- 5 Million iBooks downloaded (2.5 books per iPad)
Apps:
- iBooks will now support PDF, coming to the iPhone (with wireless sync)
- Netflix for iPhone (US only)
- Farmville coming to the iPhone
- Guitar Hero for the iPhone
- Apple have paid One Billion Dollars to developers (and taken 30%)
iPhone 4 announced
- New industrial design – ‘Really gorgeous, really thin’
- 9.3mm thick – ‘thinnest smartphone on the plannet’
- Front facing camera with LED flash
- 326 ppi resolution display, 960 x 640 resolution, 800:1 contrast ratio (4x the res of the iPhone 3G/3GS)
- Same A4 processor as the iPad
- Up to 32GB of storage
- Moving to the Micro SIM
- Improved Battery life – 3G talk (7hrs), Browsing on WiFi (10hrs), Video (10hrs), Music (40hrs), Standby (300hrs)
- Includes Gyroscope
- 5 Megapixel camera with a back side illuminated sensor [samples]
- Records HD video (1280×720 @ 30fps)
- iMovie for iPhone announced (US$4.99), export in 360p, 540p 720p.
iPhone OS renamed to iOS4
- 1500 new features including multitasking
- Bing added as a search option
- iOS4 Gold Master coming to developers today
FaceTime
- Ridiculous name
- Video calling using the front facing camera
- Wi-Fi only in 2010, Apple working with carriers.
Availability
iPhone 4 will be available in 2 colors, black and white. Price is $199 in the US for the 16GB model, and US$299 for the 32GB model. 3G discontinued, 3GS will drop in price.
Pre-orders (may be US-only) start June 15th.
The release of iPhone 4 will be in 5 countries initially on June 24th 2010 – US, France, Germany, UK, Japan. In July 2010, they release in 24 more countries including Australia.
iOS4 arrives June 21st, available for free to iPhone and iPod touch owners. Some features (multitasking) won’t be supported on older versions.
More @ Apple