Hi, I'm Earl. Product Manager at And You Thought You Knew the iPhone 4
After being leaked out to the public back in April, the iPhone 4 has not changed much in design or expectation. The sleek curves are still there. The front and back are flat, and there is a camera on both sides of the phone. However, Apple still managed to hide from the public some pretty revolutionary features.
The first of those features is the Retina Display. Retina Display basically equates to—in geek speak—326 pixels per inch (PPI). My journalism teacher once instructed my class to import photos and graphics into InDesign (a print design program) at 300 dots per inch (the print version of pixels per inch). So essentially, the iPhone is sharper than my school newspaper photos. Another way to look at the Retina Display is by considering the fact that the human eye cannot even distinguish a pixel if the PPI exceeds 300. So what does this mean for the iPhone 4? Well, stunning clarity and detail. No mainstream phone on the market has pulled off such feat so users will undoubtedly be more than willing to pull out the iPhone 4 for show and tell whenever possible.
The next unforeseen feature is the glass that Apple has placed on the front and back of the iPhone. According to Apple, the glass is engineered to be “20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic.” Some other comparisons have cropped up, pointing out that the glass is of the same quality as the glass used on cars and helicopters windows. This makes me wonder if the iPhone 4 can take a bullet. Regardless, the glass is yet another bragging right for iPhone owners. I can only imagine some users daring others to try and scratch their iPhone with a key. Bottom line is, the iPhone 4 has some serious sex appeal
In addition to the super strong glass, the iPhone 4 is encased in a custom aluminum alloy. Again, Apple claims that this custom alloy is five times stronger than steel. Combining such casing with the new custom engineered glass, I can’t imagine why anyone would need iPhone cases anymore.
As for the under-the-hood changes, the iPhone sports a shiny new A4 processor chip, the same chip used on iPads. Apple has also extended battery life, which increases the possibilities of iPhone use in the everyday life. Lastly, the iPhone 4 comes with a 5 megapixel camera and a VGA camera. The 5 megapixel camera can take 720p HD videos at 30 frames per second. Honestly, the camera functionality amazes me. Now, there should be no need to carry around a point-and-shoot for the moderate camera usage because the iPhone 4 will suffice.
Quite simply, I believe that the iPhone 4 is amazing. It truly does deserve a step up in terms of numbers—from 3GS to 4. Get the full scoop here.
Oh, and the picture shows what I ate for dinner today! The crust on the chicken was incredible. The chicken was cooked on a grill but with aluminum foil underneath that had no holes or any means of ventilation. The heat must have really hardened the crust to perfection.
