iPhone 4
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White iPhone 4 likely not available at launch
The popular rumor going around right now at the eleventh hour is that AT&T will only be offering the black iPhone 4 models for pre-order tomorrow and at launch, with their white counterparts coming "later this Summer." Considering the fact that the white version of the 4 is quite a bit more distinctive than the 3G / 3GS, that's a bummer if true -- but what we don't know is whether this is strictly limited to AT&T. It's entirely possible that Apple and third-party retailers will be offering the white models, and AT&T's own distribution channel might just be suffering from some sort of buffoonery (that's our hope, anyhow). Lending credence to the rumor is the fact that Japan's SoftBank has already officially announced that it'll only be offering the black models initially -- and when we pressed AT&T on the matter, we got "no comment" in return. It's not looking good, folks. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Vodafone UK details iPhone 4 plans a little early, we keep the screenshots
We don't know what shenanigans are going on over in Vodafone HQ, but the UK carrier gave the world a quick glimpse of its iPhone 4 pricing today, before promptly removing the data sheets from the ether. Thankfully, a fast-witted reader by the name of Liam Gladdy captured the incriminating data for us, and we can now sit and ruminate on what Voda has in store. As you might surmise from above, the vast majority of users won't be getting the handset for free, though that doesn't necessarily preclude the contracts from representing good value. We note with glee that Vodafone keeps its data limit at a robust 1GB, unlike a certain other network, and the £30 ($44) a month two-year contract is looking decent from where we're sitting. Prices over 18 months just jump by £5 in monthly outlay with handset costs remaining the same. Click past the break for the full breakdown, including details for the 32GB variety.
Best Buy announces official iPhone 4 pre-sale for June 15th
Best Buy's just dropped the official details on its iPhone 4 pre-sale, and there are no surprises here. You'll be able to head over to any Best Buy starting tomorrow (that's June 15th) and pre-order up Apple's latest offering for delivery on June 24th. That's the same date Apple gave us so like we said -- no surprises here -- but you can hit up the full press release below if you're into that sort of thing.
Switched On: An 'i' for imaging
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. When the original iPhone was first launched, its camera ranked among its least competitive features. While the face of Apple's product broke ground for how it reacted to touch, its eye into the world was wanting. It could capture only two megapixels, lacked autofocus, a flash, or digital zoom, and had no support for video capture. It seemed as though Apple had somehow felt obliged to put in a camera, a feature the company would leave off the iPod touch and iPad. The 3GS bumped the resolution to three megapixels and added in video capture that even included trimming capabilities, but Apple's heart still didn't seem very into the iPhone as a digital imaging device. That's changed with iPhone 4. While its five-megapixel camera lags behind the eight-megapixel cameras on devices such as the Droid Incredible and HTC EVO 4G in terms of raw resolution, and it includes just one LED flash bulb as opposed to two on the EVO 4G, Apple's inclusion of a backlit sensor has aided the product's low-light capture, and the included software makes use of the cameras in innovative ways.
iPhone 4 launch day at AT&T stores: 7AM opening, awesome t-shirts confirmed
What you're looking at here, folks, is the extreme wardrobe you can expect to see when you waltz into a corporate-owned AT&T retail location on the iPhone 4's launch day later this month -- and even better, casual pants and footwear may be worn if approved! On a more serious note, though, this launch packet we've received confirms that stores will be opening on 7AM on the 24th and that new AT&T customers will be restricted to a maximum of one device (the same restriction applies to the new 8GB 3GS) and current customers will only be able to buy one phone per active line of service. Oh, and if you're going to a store that sells U-verse service, expect a pitch. Don't say we didn't warn you. %Gallery-94997%
What really happened with Wi-Fi on the iPhone 4
WWDC is wrapping up here in San Francisco today, and after a week of having most of the best Apple developers in the world all in one place, we're hearing some speculation and solutions for what happened to Steve Jobs on stage Monday. He had Wi-Fi issues while accessing the New York Times website during a demo with iPhone 4, and of course it led to the awkward pause where he asked the over 500 Wi-Fi users in the room to please unplug their computers and stop liveblogging (of course, not everybody complied). But were those users the problem? NPR cornered Glenn Fleishman for an explanation, and he says while that many Wi-Fi users might not have caused problems, many of the people in the room were using MiFis, the personal wireless network devices that aren't necessarily designed to be used so closely together. It wasn't a bandwidth problem then, Fleishman suggests, but an interference problem, with local Wi-Fi likely giving way to the vast noise from other devices. Fleishman also says over at Ars Technica that there might have been another issue: the iPhone 4's pre-release network drivers. If you look at how the iPhone actually behaved, it's apparent that the software might not have been ready to deal with everything happening during the keynote. Of course, that doesn't mean that iPhone 4 will have issues at release -- Apple tests these devices thoroughly, and we couldn't imagine Steve releasing subpar drivers on the iPhone. Even if the drivers were the issue, obviously we'd never heard that from Apple. But Steve's irritation at Monday's keynote may have been slightly misplaced -- there were probably a few different factors going into the reason he couldn't load a page in Mobile Safari.
iPhone 4's resolution resolved
When Steve Jobs introduced iPhone 4, he claimed that its "Retina Display's" tiny pixels exceed what the human eye can differentiate. "It turns out there's a magic number right around 300 pixels per inch, that when you hold something around to 10 to 12 inches away from your eyes, is the limit of the human retina to differentiate the pixels," Jobs said. Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies, refuted the claim in a Wired article entitled iPhone 4's 'Retina' Display Claims Are False Marketing. Meanwhile, Phil Plait of Discover magazine's Bad Astronomy column responds by saying that Soneira is (mostly) incorrect, while Steve Jobs is (technically) right. Begun this week the war has.
Poll: Would you recommend a contract-free iPhone
The iPhone 4 debuts on the 24th of June. I am one of the many users whose upgrade date falls after 1/1/11. Looking at the difference between no-commitment pricing and upgrade-date-after pricing, I've been considering the no-commitment option and coming up without many answers. The math is not particularly compelling. AT&T's new smartphone early termination fee (ETF) is now running at $325, reducing at $10 per month. If I re-up with AT&T, the math becomes a wash after just over 12 months of use. The ETF goes down to $200, the actual price difference between the after-1/1/11 versus the no-commitment. Either way, I'm still under contract for the next 12 months regardless, unless I pay my current $120 ETF -- and I don't particularly want to give up my $30 unlimited data.
iPhone 4's retina display claim put under the math microscope
Samsung might have entertained us with some trash talk about the iPhone 4's IPS LCD yesterday, but this stuff is of a rather more somber variety. Raymond Soneira, president of monitor diagnostics firm DisplayMate, has said that Apple's retina display marketing is inaccurate, because he believes a display that truly makes pixels indistinguishable to the human eye would require a density in the vicinity of 477dpi. The iPhone 4 has 326dpi, and by now you might be surmising that Steve Jobs flat out lied when he said that the iPhone 4's pixels are too small for the human retina to discern from 12 inches away. But not so fast, says Phil Plait from Discover, whose résumé includes calibrating a camera on board the Hubble space telescope. He's done the math too and finds that the 477 number applies only to people with perfect vision. For the vast majority of us, Steve's claim stands up to scrutiny; even folks with 20/20 eyesight wouldn't be able to tell where one pixel ends and another begins. So it turns out Apple can do its math, even if its marketing isn't true for every single humanoid on the planet.
AT&T offering price protection (or iPhone 4 swap) to recent 3GS buyers
We've been able to confirm some leaked information out of modmyi.com today that AT&T is doing us a solid by extending price protection for recent iPhone 3GS buyers by just a little bit. If you purchased a 3GS -- either the 16GB or 32GB model -- between May 7 and May 14, you'll have until June 14 to get credited the difference between the price you paid and the $149 / $199 they're charging now; if you bought it after the 14th of May, you'd have at least until the 14th of this month anyway, so it's effectively a one-week extension. If you'd rather trade up to an iPhone 4 rather than pocketing some cash and keeping the 3GS, you've got an option there, too: anyone who picked up a 3GS between May 7 and May 21 can preorder an iPhone 4 by June 21 and get the new phone for only the difference in cost, assuming you bring in your 3GS when you pick it up. On a related note, modmyi.com is also reporting that AT&T corporate stores are set to open at 7AM on the 24th, iPhone 4 launch day, though we're not able to confirm this one. Word on the street is that new customers will only be able to activate one line and existing customers will be able to buy one iPhone 4 per line of service, clearly an attempt to stretch inventory as far as it'll go. With the way Apple's setting up for preorders and launch-day delivery, it seems like a lot of this chaos and bedlam is going to be avoided -- but hey, it's Apple. You never know.
Financial Times: US antitrust regulators plan to investigate Apple's mobile advertising practices
There's not a lot of details on this at the moment, but the Financial Times is reporting that US antitrust regulators plan to investigate Apple's mobile advertising practices to see whether they unfairly restrict rivals like Google and Microsoft. As you'll recall, Apple recently revised its rules on outside advertisers and, specifically, their ability to collect analytics on ads for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, effectively cutting out Google's AdMob in the process -- something the company's CEO has publicly complained about. What's next? That's still not certain -- the Financial Times says that while US regulators have taken an interest, it's still not clear whether the FTC or the Department of Justice will handle the investigation going forward.
Three will carry iPhone 4 in the UK, O2 cuts off unlimited data
While American iPhone users are limited to a single carrier, the UK offers plenty of choice to customers. Three has announced that they will carry iPhone 4, with pre-orders beginning on June 15th. O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone were all confirmed on the 7th. Even poor math students will notice that UK iPhone customers now have five carriers to choose from. Of course, all of the UK's carriers are GSM. We only have two of those here in the States (AT&T and T-Mobile). Three is the first to announce a pre-order date (the same as in the US) and, as Engadget notes, typically undercut the competition when it comes to price. It all adds up to a bevy of choice -- and a potential price war -- for UK customers. In another adjustment, O2 just announced a new pricing model, citing "clarity" and "sustainability" as key advantages. It's caught the attention of our UK readers (thanks everyone!) as it removes the unlimited option for data usage, much as AT&T did last week. The top plan now maxes out at 1GB of data, with buy-up options for 500MB or 1 GB coming in the fall. Of course, like AT&T, O2 is framing these changes as optimizations to the real data needs of its customers. As of now, the lowest O2 bundle (500MB) provides at least 2.5 times what the 'average O2 smartphone customer' uses. In fact, O2 claims 97% of their smartphone customers won't need to buy additional data allowances under the new arrangement. "With the wide range of Internet based services now available on mobile devices we're providing customers with generous clear data bundles that give customers freedom," said O2's CEO Ronan Dunne in the company's press release. We're not sure what was so opaque and ungenerous about "unlimited data." In June, O2 will introduce three inclusive data bundles for new and upgrading smartphone customers. You'll find their latest information here. Have fun on release day, folks, and may the best provider (for you) win your business.
UK's O2 to impose 3G data limits for iPhone 4 users
It seems like the entire United Kingdom (at least those who aren't out partying it up with Patsy Kensit at the Met Bar) has emailed us in the last two minutes to clue us in on the fact that O2 has posted its new iPhone 4 pricing. It looks like your beloved "unlimited 3G" plans of are a thing of the past -- instead, you'll be paying for up to 1GB of data of month. As you approach the limit, a text message will notify you and let you purchase an 500MB for £5 or 1GB for £10. How very AT&T of them, eh? But don't worry, kids! Texting is still unlimited. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in... and we mean everyone.]
iPhone 4 coming to Three UK, pre-orders starting June 15
And just like that, the UK has turned into a veritable treasure trove of carrier choice. Three has just announced that it too will be carrying Apple's latest iPhone starting from June 24, expanding on the options to be provided by O2, Orange, Vodafone and, most recently, T-Mobile. That's now the complete set of five UK networks all ready to take your name and credit card number on launch day, while Three is also the first to announce its pre-order start date -- which it places at June 15, the same time that Americans will be able to pre-order. Three's strategy in the UK has usually been to undercut the big dogs with alluring pricing, so next week should be a very interesting time for British iPhone lovers indeed. [Thanks, Yusuf]
The Mac is far from dead
Over at Newsweek, Dan Lyons, formerly famous as Fake Steve Jobs, asks the question: Does Apple's iPhone 4 signal the death of the Macintosh? He goes on to answer this question in his article with lots of attention-grabbing phrases like, "RIP, Macintosh," and "You've been dropped. Dumped. It's over." Of course, later on in the article, sandwiched in between several paragraphs of hyperbole, Lyons also says, "To be sure, Apple won't kill off the Mac." Well, okay. What exactly are you trying to say then, Fake Steve? Reports of the Mac's death may be exaggerated, but it's not hard to see why some might think it's on its last legs. As Lyons points out, Jobs didn't discuss the Mac at all during the recent WWDC 2010 keynote, instead spending all of his time discussing iPhone 4 and iOS 4. Apple also dropped its Apple Design Awards for the Mac, which meant others had to step in and take up the slack. Apple's party line on the iPad is that it's the future of computing, and eventually the only people who'll need to use a traditional computer are users doing highly specialized tasks that the iPad doesn't and might never be able to handle. But even with all that, the Mac is far from dead. Read on to find out why the Mac isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Samsung: iPhone 4's retina display is nice, but it's no AMOLED
Samsung seems to have taken exception to a little sidenote made by Steve Jobs during his iPhone 4 announcement at WWDC10 this Monday. While waxing poetic on the virtues of IPS, Jobs let us know that he considers it an entirely superior display technology to OLED, and now the world's biggest display maker has a few words to say about it. According to a Samsung spokesperson, the high-res retina display on the iPhone 4 offers only a 3 to 5 percent advantage in sharpness over its own Galaxy S Super AMOLED screen, but sucks down a wasteful 30 percent more power. Moreover, Samsung believes its screens offer better viewing angles and contrast, and concludes by saying that "structurally, IPS LCD technology cannot catch up with AM-OLED display technology." And here we thought Samsung and Apple were getting along so well.
O2 offers early iPhone 4 upgrade amnesty in bid to retain customers
Would you look at that. Following in the footsteps of AT&T, O2 has today announced it'll allow current customers to pay off the remainder of their contracts at a discounted rate when they re-up with the network for the iPhone 4. Irrespective of how much you're paying now, the UK carrier will charge you a flat rate of £20 ($29) for each leftover month. Considering most iPhone users rock out at £30 and above, that's a solid 30 percent discount (or contract amnesty, however you wanna view it) for the impatient types. Of course, you'll be trading away your usual 14-day cooling off period if you take them up on this deal, so you'd better make doubly sure you want the iPhone 4 on O2 before taking the plunge.
TUAW TV Live: topical talk at 5 PM EDT today
This has been quite the week in the world of Apple: the new iPhone 4 was announced, the iPhone / iPad / iPod touch operating system gained a new name, Safari 5 hit Software Update, and thousands of Mac and iOS developers are building their knowledge for the future at WWDC 2010 in San Francisco. Hmmm. Sounds like a topic or two for TUAW TV Live! Join me and a possible guest for an hour of talk about iPhone 4 lust, some demos of several apps, and even a short tutorial on how to use Apple's iPad Camera Connection Kit to move both photos and video into your iPad. All the fun starts at 5 PM EDT today, and all you need to do is drop by TUAW just before that time. The streaming video will be ready to roll, the chat will start up, and you can start basking in the glow of intense geekdom.
Exclusive: mDialog Ad Developers' Toolkit for iOS 4 and iPad
If you've got video you're looking to put on the web and monetize, but you want to make sure said video is a) compatible with the iPad and iPhone and b) is nice and secure and c) is easy to deploy and can run ads based on a variety of criteria, then mDialog has a way. In fact, the company's Ad Developer's Toolkit is a complete solution for running ads and streaming video -- and running ads in the video. mDialog will put ads in streaming live video or prerecorded segments on your site, and give you stats and measurements on those videos. Plus, those videos can be seen on the iPad and iPhone. mDialog provides some snazzy tools to help you view metrics and control distribution of your videos and ads. I spoke to Greg Philpott, CEO of mDialog, about the analytics side of the equation, and you can see the video of that conversation above. Later Greg showed me how you can easily toggle ads on your video to be pre-roll, post-roll or in the body of the video itself. Greg also demoed the ability to limit your ads to a specific geographic area. You simply enable the control and click on where you'd like to target the ad. It's quite simple and cool to be able to control your ads so easily. mDialog is "Video as a Service" and is fully compatible with HTML5. They've baked-in security to protect your content (using AES-128), and you can control how your video is distributed and how ads run within it. Some of the security options: you could limit the dates available for a video, have ads run a certain number of times for a viewer (capping the number of views per person) or in certain locations only. All of this stuff is easily tracked with pie charts and maps. I have to say it's an elegant product and a compelling service for anyone wanting to get into the video biz -- especially on Apple's mobile devices.
iPhone 4 at Best Buy for launch, at least 45 devices per store?
The iPhone 4 at Best Buy on launch day? It'd be no surprise, really -- after all, the retail giant had both the iPhone 3GS and iPad right from the get-go. We just got word from one of our trusted sources that Best Buy will indeed have the newfangled phone at launch, and even better, we've got some details on the inventory. A minimum of 30 units for the 32GB device and 15 of the 16GB will apparently be available at each store, and employee purchases are banned at launch. We can't say for sure without more paperwork, but this source has been pretty reliable before -- if nothing else, it should give you a decent idea just how early you should be preparing to wait in line. Oh, and RadioShack fanatics? Yeah, we've heard you can head down there for launch, too, but we don't yet have a clue as to how many will be in stock.
