iPhone 4 Officially Announced!

Just as suspected, Steve Jobs announced the new iPhone today. It is simply called “iPhone 4″, and is absolutely gorgeous. It is the same unit we have already seen all over the internet, but Apple has made this pics look better, somehow. Steve made fun of the leaked iPhones, by saying “..you may have seen this already.”. He got huge laughs from the developers and media for that.

So, lets take a look at the specs. Steve went over 8 points that I’ll do my best to explain here:

1. Design

Glass on the front and back, and steel around the sides. It is the thinnest smartphone on the planet; 24% thinner than the iPhone 3GS, at 9.3mm thick. Front facing camera, micro SIM tray, camera and LED flash on the back. Mic on top and bottom, headset jack, noise cancellation mic.

Steve explained why there are breaks in the outside of the aluminum frame. They are actually 2 separate antennae. They are part of the primary structural elements of the phone… this is part of brilliant engineering. One for HSPA and GSM, and the other for WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS

2. Retina Display

A new kind of display that increases the pixel density, by 4 times. Now the retina display as 326 pixels per inch. 960 x 640 display 800:1 contrast ration, 4x better than the 3GS. IPS technology — “Quite a bit better than OLED”. 3.5 inch display.

“It makes it so your apps run automatically on this, but it renders your text and controls in the higher resolution. Your apps look even better, but if you do a little bit of work, then they will look stunning. So we suggest that you do that. So that is the Retina Display. Awesome text, awesome images, and awesome video. We think this will set the standard, and no one is going to come close.”

3. The Guts

iPhone 4 is powered by the A4 chip. A new giant battery gives us improved the battery life. 7 hours of 3G talk, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of WiFi browsing, 10 hours of video, 40 hours of music. Quad band HSDPA, 7.2Mbps, dual mics, 802.11n WiFi, GPS, compass, accelerometer.

See the full specs list on Apple’s website: here.

4. Gyroscope

“We’re adding a 3 axis gyro, and we tied the gyro and accelerometer, compass, and gyro together for six axis. It’s perfect for gaming. So the gyro joins our four other sensors. These phones are getting more and more intelligent about the world around them.”

5. New Camera

Camera is now a 5 megapixel, with a backside illuminated sensor. They’ve kept the megapixels the same size. They don’t capture less photons. 5x digital zoom, tap to focus, and we’ve got an LED flash. It records HD video, at 720p, at 30fps. Tap to focus, in video. LED flash, that will also stay on for video recording. You can record, edit, and then with a few taps email it right on the phone.

iMovie for iPhone announced! Fullfeatured version of the awesome Mac OS X version. Themes, transitions, titles, the whole iMovie experience. Add photos and audio. “You’ll be able to buy this for $4.99… if we approve it.” Hilarious!

6. OS: iPhone OS 4 Renames “iOS 4″

iPhone OS 4 is now called iOS 4.

Multitaksing, folders, audio controls in mutiltasking dock, unified inbox and threads for Mail. We’ve already covered a bunch of this stuff. The only big announcement here, is that Bing search is now included in iOS 4. Google is still the default.

7. iBooks

iBooks is coming to iPhone. It has the same bookshelf as the iPad. It is also a PDF reader. iBookstore right on your iPhone.

“We’ll have it on the iPhone, the iPad, and the iPod touch. What can we do with these together? First, you can purchase and download a book. It will download wirelessly. You can download the same book to all your devices at no extra charge. Buy it on your iPad, download to your iPhone. And iBooks will automatically and wirelessly sync your current place, all your bookmarks, and all your notes.”

8. iAds

Yeah…you already know about this.

One More Thing…

Yes, Steve pulled out the “one more thing” card. Video Calling is official. It is called FaceTime. Only works over WiFi (*ahem*… 3G Unrestrictor?) Works in landscape or portrait. Can use front or rear camera.

iPhone 4 will be released in the US on June 24th, with pre-orders starting June 15th. It will be available in Canada, some time in July. 16GB iPhone 4 is $199, and 32GB iPhone 4 is $299. iPhone 3g and current iPhone 3GS models have been discontinued, but we now have an 8GB iPhone 3GS, for $99.

iOS 4 will be officially released on June 21st for everyone. It is a free upgrade, but is not available for first generation iPhones and iPod Touch. Not all features will be available for anything older than iPhone 3GS and iPod TOuch 3rd gen.

Holy Crap, that was a pretty huge keynote, and WWDC has only just begun. We’ll bring you more through the week, as we learn more. Video of the keynote should be up sometime later today. We’ll let you know!