How can a flawed iPhone be the best yet? Here’s how:

***

I’m at dinner. The waitress is slow to take our order. I don’t mind. I reach into my pocket for the iPhone 4. It seems like the fifth time I’m doing this tonight. It’s probably the fifteenth.

It’s nearly impossible to tell which side is the front. Both are slippery and oleophobic and smudged by fingerprints—flat, delicate and hard. I respond in cursory agreement to whatever it is my wife just said. My mind’s too busy concentrating on fingertip sensations, maneuvering so the screen faces the right way when it emerges from its hiding place.

Success. Slide to unlock. One bar again. Once I pull it out of my pocket, the reception returns. I’ve never seen this issue with the three previous iPhones.

I wait a few seconds as the iPhone’s antenna adjusts to freedom from the confines of my pants and hand. Then I realize there wasn’t anything I needed to look at. It’s a reflex at this point, like John Marston reaching for his gun.

I slide the phone back in my pocket.

* * *

The screen is the first thing I notice, naturally, because it’s the one thing I couldn’t test when I saw the phone back in April.

Cramming more pixels into a smaller space is the opposite of what Apple did with the iPad, which uses a relatively low amount of pixels in a large space. So why do both displays look so fantastic?

The iPhone 4 has so many more pixels that I can’t see them individually with the naked eye. When I try I can just begin to defocus my eyes when the phone comes too close to my face. It’s the one thing iPhone 4 users should be proud of, provided they’re not one of the unlucky few with yellow spots or white dots.

Then frustration and practicality set in. Why are there more pixels if I can’t see more stuff on the screen? Why are there the same same seven rows of text messages and eight rows of items in the iPod app I saw three years ago when there are four times as many pixels? Photos and videos are great, and text is sharp, but UI elements need to be updated. Only having five emails simultaneously visible is a shame on this screen. At least give me the option.

But the display itself is still better. It has more pixels in a smaller space than all the other phones I’ve ever used. It’s sharp. Tiny text is readable, and everything is just better. I take it outside. It’s no brighter, or more visible in the sun, but everything looks great. What more could I ask from a screen?

When looking at the screen, I get the same sensation I do when finishing the last slice of ice cream cake: I want more of it. My 30-inch Dell, my 63-inch Samsung and my 27-inch iMac all have more pixels, but my first thought when seeing them was look how big. When I see the iPhone’s screen, it was wow, everything is so clear. Now give me bigger and clearer.

* * *

The phone glimmers from the reflectiveness of exposed glass. No more plastic. Much more aluminum. It looks and feels…more breakable.

As something carried around nearly at all times, I understand the need for a case. People drop things. Keys are absentmindedly shoved, thrown and scraped across its surface. Phones need to be set down. But the iPhone is in more danger of being irreparably damaged than its predecessors. Many previously fine resting surfaces are now verboten. A case might now be mandatory.

Yet to acquire a case would admit defeat. This aesthetic—industrial glass and steel—was meant to be the iPhone’s public face. It was never supposed to be stifled by plastic to spare it from harm, or wrapped with rubber to shield the antennas from human interference. If the iPhone were meant to have a case, it would ship with a case. Attached. Out of the box.

* * *

Flick. Flick. Twitter. Swipe. Flick. New York Times. Tap. Tap. Email. Maps. Fruit Ninja. Photos. Vuvuzela. Every touch feels more responsive than the 3GS, which was more responsive than the 3G.

Swipe. Swipe. Swipe again. There’s a delay from a half-inch dead zone on the side of the phone. When I swipe from that edge, nothing registers. I try the same thing on older phones. Odd, this was there all along, in the 3G and 3GS, but I’m only noticing now because the bezel is gone and it’s all glass. There’s no barrier to guide me.

* * *

Matt licks me. Or rather, he puts his tongue in front of the front camera in FaceTime. I enjoy it more than I should!

Buchanan sounds clear, our respective AT&T chains thrown off, our faces and voices streaming fluidly over Wi-Fi. Finally, a mass-market video calling device that’s going to have enough built-in audience to actually have a chance at success. It’s fun. Useful. Futuristic. Easy. My parents could do this. (Until they can’t, and have to ask me for help.)

But the secret is that—when he’s not licking me—I’m looking Matt right in the eye. The camera and screen are so close that they create the illusion of a camera behind Matt’s eyes—so I really feel like we’re talking face to face. When Skyping someone on a laptop, they’re always looking at me on their screen—away from their webcam.

I say goodbye to Matt. The next time I expect to see his face in a phone conversation will probably be in 2011. Voice is enough for most. He’s not my wife.

* * *

On a drive in a car that’s not my own to a place I don’t recognize, the Nexus One is along for the ride. There’s no free, usable and decent turn-by-turn bundled with the iPhone 4.

The alternative? Fifty bucks for an app. I don’t have fifty bucks. Not for this shit. Especially not when my normal car has navigation. The iPhone has been capable of turn-by-turn directions since the 3G added a GPS chip. It’s time for a better solution—from Apple.

* * *

“Can you show me that video chat thing?”

“I can’t. There’s no Wi-Fi here.”

Frustration? Anger? Embarrassment? None of the above. I feel like I’ve let someone down.

There was no limitation in Star Trek. Riker didn’t have to have a hotspot set up in order to chat from Farpoint Station. James Bond doesn’t have to locate a Starbucks to talk to Q. Batman doesn’t…Batman doesn’t do anything he doesn’t want to. Because it was 70 years ago, Dick Tracy had the entire AT&T network all to himself to make video calls.

“But hey, it’s got a better screen.”

* * *

Sitting on the most intimate of chairs, I watch my own previously uploaded HD YouTube videos, marveling at the display quality. It’s downscaled from the video’s original quality, but still, I’m impressed.

I get bored and move on, flipping through honeymoon photos and skimming 720p videos taken in Japan, each pixel a tiny fraction of a wonderful memory that was well worth the lousy exchange rate. It makes me wish that I was in Tokyo right now, with their Toto Washlets in every home, office and public facility. But then I wonder, how much space are these bigger photos and videos taking?

Back at my iMac, I check. 3.26GB. The same photos only took up 1.6GB on the 3GS. Videos are a similar story.

We’re gonna need a bigger NAND.

* * *

It’s not my birthday.

I suggested the birthday song as a quick test for voice quality, because it inherently necessitates changes in tone and pitch. It’s a quick song, out of necessity. I’m not sitting through the full eight-and-a-half minute rendition of Won’t Get Fooled Again. Though making Rosa do that ten times successively might justify the price of the iPhone 4.

The call quality testing we did matches what I observed in my own use.

My friend seems surprised to hear from me. I haven’t called him in a while, usually relying on IM and email, because this is 2010 and we are not old. Many people are getting called with the iPhone 4 today, in the name of science.

More than once my test subjects surprised that I’m switching back and forth between standard hold and speakerphone. The dual-microphone noise cancellation setup makes a huge difference for filtering ambient noises from a speakerphone. But regular calls aren’t much better than before, seeing as I’m not surrounded by vuvuzelas.

“Thanks, talk to you later. Bye bye.”

I look down, confused. Random buttons have been inadvertently pressed by my face. My face hasn’t changed very much since using the 3GS, just days ago. Place this issue among the “to-fix-in-iOS 4.01″ pile.

* * *

I keep hearing variations of the same anecdote when discussing iMovie for iPhone 4. “You could barely edit movies on a computer ten years ago.”

My head bobs in agreement. Very true. I’m surprised at how quick it is, joining clips, adding themes, making titles and transitions. Exporting? Takes about as long as the clip is, on average resolution.

Then I try uploading a natively shot 720p video to YouTube from the phone. It’s tiny! And grainy, even after letting it fully render over a day. And fuzzy, and definitely not 720p. How could this be? Would it be better if I uploaded over Wi-Fi, or emailed it to myself to upload from somewhere else? No. Every one of those options down-converts before sending it off the phone.

I discover that the only way to get the full 720p video from my phone to YouTube is putting it on a computer first. Dreams of shooting HD videos from the field, over that faster HSUPAupload, and not having to do extra post-processing at a computer later have vanished. Why would I edit on iMovie on a phone if I have to dump the resulting file onto a computer to upload at full-resolution anyway?

Is this AT&T’s doing again?

* * *

Brian calls me, enthused, and asks me to guess where he is.

“Home.”

He hasn’t been able to make an iPhone call from his house without it almost immediately dropping for the last year and a half. He’s had to resort to getting a Microcell. He tells me he’s turned it off.

It’s six minutes into the call. The iPhone 4 is smarter, choosing towers that can actually handle calls, rather than just the one with the strongest signal.

“Can you hear me? I can’t hear you.”

He sounds like he just went into the bathroom, filled his bathtub and dunked himself phone first. Sure, he can make calls now, but something’s still keeping the phone from making great calls. After thirty seconds of this, the connection breaks. Maybe we should have used FaceTime.

Update: Actually, the 3gs miraculously has 5 bars in his house now, too. So it seems like a convenient tower change or installation or upgrade may have occurred recently.

* * *

I’m reading a chapter of Shit My Dad Says in bed, trying not to disturb the wife. There’s very little eye strain, though I don’t know if I could reach the end of the book reading this way. Even for a lover of ebooks, the size of the phone is too small to accurately represent a “book”. It requires me to turn the page too often, like some iPad mini parody. Page turns are actually responsive enough to be pleasant.

Added up over a year, I would probably save about seven hours of cumulative time notwaiting for book pages to render, apps to load and photos to resize, compared to the 3GS. I can’t go back.

Now to find a use for those seven hours.

* * *

Is it too thin? Is it too delicate? I’m afraid of holding it. I never used to be.

I go to play with my bunny. When I pick him up, he squirms as if I’ll never let go for all eternity. I try to lower myself to the ground as much as possible before he scratches my arms and jumps out of my hands. He can adjust his body to land on his feet, absorbing most amount of impact in the least damaging areas.

This iPhone cannot. The iPhone 4 is not as drop resistant as a rabbit.

* * *

While the wife’s driving the two of us to McDonalds, I take the chance to catch up on email, Twitter, Giz and the latest episode of the Adam Carolla Show, flipping back and forth with fast app switching in iOS 4. Doubling the amount of RAM to 512MB is just like gas expanding to fill a vacuum—programs will find a use for it. Along with the smoother transitions thanks to the faster processor, every flip between programs is fluid. Things are kept fresh, ready for me when I need them.

I try to put down the phone, only to get bored and pick it up at the next red light.

The last time I charged the phone was yesterday morning, and it’s already past noon today. 20%—not bad. Better than the 3GS, because the battery is bigger. Still, good thing I turned off Bluetooth.

Another red light. I’m motion sick…possibly going to vomit. But I can’t stop playing with the phone.

* * *

It’s Friday night. The guy from Hypermac surprises me at my table.

“You’re here with your family?”

“Yup! Did you get your iPhone 4?”

He waves takes his out and does the Miss Area Woman local parade wave. I smile.

“Yup.”

Three years ago a waitress asked to see my first-generation iPhone. I showed her. Ten minutes went by. She forgot to take my order. I’d forgotten, too, until she walked away.

Tonight’s waitress isn’t as impressed. “Oh, is that the new iPhone? My boyfriend has the old one. Does this one drop fewer calls? Well, that’s good. So what are you having?”

The newness is gone, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t still excited.

I text Mark and Matt. They both reply within a minute—the fastest I’ve seen them respond in the last six months. It’s clear they were both playing with their phones, or at least, had them in reach.

* * *

I’m taking photos of my food. I don’t know why—I’ve been here before, and I’ll come back again. It has more to do with the act of taking the picture than the result, which is that I have a photo of what I’m about to eat. “Remember that,” I’ll think to myself some months down the line. But I won’t. I might not remember how the meal tasted, or what happened, nor do I really need to. There’s evidence. Now the evidence is clearer and more saturated, with the better lens and smarter processing. The colors pop. They look more delicious than they do when I was actually there.

I get up real close to shoot macros of my bunny. The camera responds quicker than I’d expect—quicker than other cellphone cams. Sometimes, still, not quick enough. Bunnies are fast.

I get in closer. Autofocus kicks in, rendering orange-tinted shots that I will have to fix later in on my computer. Wish there was white balance.

I get in even closer. The limit’s reached, and the shots turn out blurry.

Bunny sniffs the phone.

* * *

Everything is more crisp. I tap out a message and the new keyboard noises make the old 3GS keyboard noises seem muddy. The speakers themselves are more clear as well, but a little softer.

The home screen. The volume buttons. The power button. The screen itself. Everything is crisper, sharper, more angular. All softness is gone. The rounded back, an awkward turtle-shell of necessity, is out. It’s hard. It is a hard phone. Thirty times harder than plastic, as the too-often repeated marketing phrase goes. But hard still shatters, as our own intern Ryan saw.

It was designed this way. It’s probably a mistake.

* * *

The engineers have lost. The industrial designers have won.

Antenna problems, confirmed by Apple themselves, are the symptom of a problem that goes into the heart of Apple’s product process. Right brain won over left brain. We all suffer.

I’m making a call, trying to adjust myself to the phone, holding it at the top instead of the bottom, so as to not jeopardize reception. What happened to Apple’s iPad marketing, where the device adjust itself to you? Why am I changing the way I’ve held cellphones for the last decade to avoid a design issue? It feels foreign. It feels like I might drop my phone.

Then I forget. My hand slips down to the accustomed position, covering up the antenna with meat and sweat and humanity. The call maintains. There’s ever-so-slightly more distortion in the voice, but I can still hear the other person fine. I’m lucky to live in one of AT&T’s well-covered areas. Those with mediocre reception to begin with see a bigger impact, documented, when they use the death grip.

I’m fiddling with the phone over 3G, flipping through maps, searching Twitter, checking mail. The otherwise zippy phone feels winded. There is no alternative to the death grip when I hold the phone in the left hand and point with the right—that’s the only way I can hold the phone.

I don’t want to get a case.

* * *

How was my $500 Sanyo camcorder, bought on that trip to Japan, obviated by a 720p cellphone camera? The same way point and shoots and Flip minicams are now being eaten into with the camera that everyone has on them—the one on their phone. And hell, this phone is actually better than most of those single-use devices.

My 1080p Sanyo is fantastic. It has one thousand and eighty pees. Someone even emailed me to ask what camera it was, when I uploaded my own reception problem video. But hell if I ever carry it with me, even if it’s only slightly bigger than my fist. There’s only room for one fist in each of my pockets, and pocket one is spoken for.

The iPhone will be there. It’s the camera that counts, the camera that’s with you when you get into a traffic accident, when someone’s about to do something stupid, when you’re doing something you’ve never done before.

But I have to decide, do I put more consumable content on my phone, or do I save more of that 32GB for making memories?

* * *

My dad calls. He needs his printer fixed, or he forgot how to log into Gmail, or he had a recurrence of old-person syndrome and entirely forgot how to use a computer. It doesn’t matter which.

He asks me about the new iPhone. I recommend he doesn’t get it.

“You actually make a lot of phone calls, unlike me. Plus, AT&T is lousy where you are. Plus there’s the reception issue, which gets exacerbated* when there’s low signal. As for the rest, it’s improved in many ways. But stick with what you’ve got now.”**

* I didn’t use the word “exacerbated” over the phone.
** Also, this conversation actually occurred in Chinese.

* * *

Flash

I surprise, no, shock, my wife with the iPhone flash in the dark. She is not amused. I am. I am a child.

There’s now light where there was no light before. Drunken New York bar exploits will be all the clearer now, illuminating various conquests, trophies mounted on Facebook the next morning, all with tiny pupils adjusting to the harsh glare. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than not having a flash.

I imagine thousands of these damn iPhone flashes at the next basketball game I go to, illuminating all of a full three feet ahead of these people, making the back of the bald guy’s head in Row 27 look amazingly clear. Kobe, on the other hand, will still be lit just fine by the fluorescent bulbs of the Staples Center.

* * *

I keep picking up the phone, looking inside, and finding things to do. I want to use it.

I can’t go back to the 3GS. The speed, the camera, the screen, the non-humpback, the video chatting. Once you have it, you can’t give it up.

But I’m scared. Not of dropping calls because I’m holding it wrong—I don’t make a lot of them, and when I do, they’re not so critical that I can’t call someone back. Plus, I have a Batphone landline and work at home. I’m scared for data. I can never hold the phone naturally because I’m afraid I’m getting a quarter of the speeds I was getting before. Like a parent with a child too lazy or too difficult to live up to his potential, I’m frustrated and confused and sad. You love it too much, and you can’t give it up, but something’s wrong. So like most, I focus on the good qualities. The speed, the camera, the screen. So what if he throws a tantrum when I hold him wrong? He’s my boy.

* * *

(via Gizmodo)

photo credit: iulian nistea

When Apple announced iOS 4.0 earlier this year, some additions to the SDK (software development kit) caught the attention of augmented reality (AR) developers – specifically, open access to the phone’s camera APIs. But with the introduction of the new hardware in the iPhone 4 made this past Monday, the possibilities for AR on the popular smartphone have skyrocketed. Today I had the opportunity to chat about the device’s impact on AR with Stefan Misslinger, lead iPhone developer for metaio, one of the leading AR companies and makers of the mobile AR browser junaio.

Enhanced Image Tracking

For some AR experiences, image recognition and tracking are essential to a quality customer experience. The application needs to be able to analyze the data being taken in from the camera in order to properly overlay 3D objects into space, but previously this functionality wasn’t available for iPhone developers. When Apple announced iOS 4.0, the inclusion of access to live camera data in the iPhone SDK provided AR developers with the ability to bring image tracking to the iPhone.

Other mobile operating systems, like Android, have had the capability to use image tracking for a while now, but the iPhone had been closed off from raw camera data. Last week, metaio introduced an image tracking application for Android, known as junaio Glue, and now with iOS 4.0, it will be able to bring this same functionality to the iPhone. The company also provides its own mobile AR SDK that allows developers to build apps leveraging metaio’s technology, and Misslinger says metaio will include image tracking in the iPhone version of its SDK in the next few weeks.

New and Improved Cameras

But it’s not just the software that will make image tracking on the iPhone easier and more available; the forthcoming iPhone 4 also includes a 5 megapixel camera capable of recording 720p video. The higher resolution of images captured by the phone makes the tracking of AR markers and image-based triggers much easier, but, as Misslinger points out, it comes with a catch.

Image tracking for AR requires that visual data be analyzed 30 times per second, and using a high-resolution image could slow down this process and make the tracking less accurate, or lag-ridden. To avoid this, Misslinger says the use of the full resolution will likely be on a case-to-case basis. For closer experiences, a lower resolution image should suffice, but for tracking markers that are larger or father away, the full power of the camera may be required.

The iPhone 4 also includes a second forward-facing camera, and everyone seems excited to see how Apple’s vision for the future of video communication will play out. For augmented reality, however, the front facing camera opens up an entire new realm of possibilities on the mobile device. AR experiences traditionally developed for desktop webcams, like virtual mirrors that let users try on sunglasses and clothes, can now be experienced from a handheld device.

Gyroscopic Motion Sensing

One of the biggest surprises at the iPhone 4 announcement was the addition of a gyroscope to the device’s arsenal of sensors. As Steve Jobs demonstrated, the gyroscope will allow the device to interpret its specific location as it relates to gravity – as the person turns in 3D space, the phone will recognize this motion based on sensed velocity. Most people immediately thought of augmented reality when this feature was introduced, and Misslinger says this is an obvious tool that AR developers will quickly adopt.

Certainly the gyroscope will help apps stabilize their results and track a user’s movement, but there are additional uses for the gyro for AR. At the moment, if a user is using image tracking technology, quick movements of the device can cause the image to blur – interrupting the tracking of a marker or image. Misslinger says he is excited to use the gyroscope to help bridge the gap between when image tracking software loses and regains its capture on an image or marker. With the gyroscope working in tandem with image tracking technology, brief interruptions in tracking due to blurred images could be eliminated.

Faster Processor & High-Resolution Display

Call it what you will, but Apple’s “Retina Display” on the iPhone 4 packs a serious high-res punch, and that bodes well for augmented reality. AR’s success, in someways, relies on its ability to create a seamless merging of real and virtual worlds, and with a better display comes better graphics. Misslinger points out that the enhanced display will allow for the inclusion of better 3D models in mobile AR experiences – greatly enhancing the overall user experience.

Additionally, faster processor speeds on the device will allow these larger models to run much smoother than before. Apple’s home-brewed A4 processor will allow AR apps to not only render 3D models faster and at a higher level of quality, but it will also help analyze the camera data at more close-to-real-time speeds.

iPhone 4 vs. The World

Apple is famous for admitting that it may not be first to include seemingly basic and simple functionality (like copy/paste and multitasking), but the company aims to do it as seamlessly and efficiently as possible. In the case of image tracking, Apple wasn’t first to the game, but it is likely that with the ease at which developers can implement APIs from the SDK that the iPhone could soon establish itself as the leading platform for mobile AR. Add that to the phone’s hardware additions and the large number of devices the company is likely to sell and you’ve got fertile soil from which AR can blossom.

On Monday, Apple officially unveiled the iPhone 4. After playing around with it for 20 minutes or so after the keynote, I can safely say that it’s the most impressive mobile device I’ve ever seen. But plenty of people (many of which have never used the phone) disagree. Their arguments are mainly predicated on what Apple didn’t include rather than what it did.

But what those people fail to understand is that this is exactly what makes the new iPhone (as well as the previous iterations) so solid.

During his keynote address on Monday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs noted that while Apple may not be the first to release features, they do so in a way that’s the best implementation.

Many people view this as absolute bullshit. But what that implies is that they think Apple simply cannot get features done in time — or that they will not do them for some reason. I have a hard time believing either of those is the case.

Jobs cited the iPhone’s cut, copy, & paste functionality as one example of Apple getting a feature right. I have to agree. For two years, everyone complained (myself included) that Apple didn’t have this functionality. Could Apple have done it sooner? Of course. But would it have been half-baked? Probably. Just look at how it works on other devices — or maybe I should say: look at how poorly it works on other devices compared to the iPhone. Most Android phones want you to use that damn ball to select text. Or worse, those arrow buttons at the bottom of the EVO’s horrid keyboard. It’s a nightmare.

Another popular example is background tasks (or multitasking). This feature is finally coming to the new iOS 4 after being on other devices for a few years. So was Apple dragging its feet out of incompetence? Or were they being stubborn? In their view, they were waiting to perfect the system that would not destroy battery life. Android’s background method is supposedly similar to what Apple will use, but it has issues (see: the EVO).

Most people haven’t yet seen third-party apps running in the background with iOS, so it’s hard to know exactly how well Apple has done here. (And I only got to play around with one app, Pandora, running in the background for a few minutes.) But a few developers I’ve talked to who have used the system say it’s by far the best combination of functionality and battery-saving techniques that they’ve seen. One told me that it basically doesn’t ding battery life at all.

In March of last year, I reported that I had heard from sources that Apple was talking about ways to bring background tasks to the iPhone. Even though it didn’t happen until now, by multiple accounts, Apple was working on it at the time. It’s just that it took Apple this long to perfect the system.

Most companies, seeing their competitors already doing something, would feel forced into releasing their own solution as quickly as possible. Not Apple. And I suspect this ends up being a big benefit for the users.

But those are things that currently now work on the iPhone or will soon be working. What about newer features that Apple left out of iPhone 4 (and iOS 4)? Here’s a list of 10 things from eWeek. Some are ridiculous (for the millionth time: Apple is not going to do a physical keyboard — nor should they), and some are just clearly (and sadly) not going to happen (Google Voice). But a few are things that come up somewhat regularly.

One is 4G support. The main problem here is that the iPhone is still exclusively tied to AT&T in the U.S., and AT&T has basically no 4G support yet (they have enough problems with their 3G support). If Apple made a version of the iPhone that worked on Sprint’s network (which recently rolled out the EVO 4G), then maybe we could talk — but they don’t.

More importantly, I’m not even sure we’ll see a 4G-capable iPhone next year. As Apple proved with the first iPhone (which wasn’t 3G despite 3G being fairly ubiquitous at the time), they care more about the overall experience than about being the first to have a nice-sounding feature. Users laughed at the notion that 3G capabilities severely dinged battery life — until the iPhone 3G came out and that’s exactly what happened.

With 4G, by all accounts, the battery ding is even worse. Also, 4G is still slowly deploying around the country, and some carriers (read: AT&T) won’t have it really deployed for a long, long time. In other words, don’t be surprised if next year Apple still doesn’t have a 4G version of the device. Everyone will bitch about it, but in Apple’s view, it likely just won’t be worth it yet.

Another feature brought up is over-the-air (OTA) updates. While eWeek seems to specifically be talking about OTA firmware updates (does anyone really care about that so much?), the more pressing issue is the ability to sync things wirelessly on your iPhone. Currently, you can only truly do that with certain MobileMe elements (like Calendar, Contacts, etc). But in his post a couple days ago, my colleague Jason Kincaid brought up his disappointment that over-the-air syncing of things like apps and music wasn’t in iOS yet.

This is a fair point both because it would be very useful, and because it’s baked into the latest version of Android, 2.2. But we have yet to see exactly how well this system with work with Android 2.2. The on-stage demos at Google I/O were impressive, but it probably wouldn’t have been made into a demo if it weren’t. The proof will be in the real-world usage of this feature.

Apple is clearly thinking about how best to do this as well. Jobs said as much during the D Conference a few weeks ago, and Apple has even blocked applications that do something similar (a sign that they’re likely working on it — and that they don’t want third parties touching the iTunes/iPhone sync interaction). Make no mistake: this feature will be coming to the iPhone. And I would bet it will be here next year. And if Apple is able to get its iTunes-in-the-cloud service off the ground in time, it could be a lot easier than people are thinking right now.

The point to all of this is that one of the things that makes the iPhone great is that Apple is so deliberate and meticulous in the features they choose to focus on and implement. Could Apple include more features? Of course. But anytime you try to do more, you take focus away from the key things you want to get done. It’s something that’s so obvious it almost needs to be restated.

It’s the same reason why startups that focus on creating as many features as possible often fare worse than those that focus on a few key ideas. The ones that keep it simple are able to execute much better. Apple (which likes to think of itself as the “world’s biggest startup”) is no different, and the iPhone is a testament to that.

The conspiracy theorists will say that Apple holds back features to be able to sell more devices the next time around. I believe it’s much less about that, and more about focusing on a core group of features that matter the most — and nailing them. Judging by both sales figures and customer satisfaction reports, the strategy is working. And the iPhone 4 — even without 4G, OTA updates, a physical keyboard, etc, etc, etc — will prove that once again.

iPhone 4:  Yesterday, Steve Jobs re-revealed it, telling us about the remaining details.

Here’s the exhaustive guide to all the features of the new iPhone 4.

The design

The hardware design hasn’t changed from the one we already knew about. It uses the same materials as the prototype: Black glass and stainless steel rim. It fits with the rest of the Apple product line, from the hard edges to the Dieter-Ramsesque utilitarianism of the iMac and the iPad.

The size is smaller than the previous generation: 34% thinner than the iPhone 3GS. Although it is 3 grams heavier. According to Apple, it’s the thinnest smartphone ever. It has split buttons for volume, unlike the current iPhone 3GS, all made in stainless steel.

The stainless steel rim
The stainless steel rim gives the structure to the iPhone, and acts as part of the antenna for 3G and Wi-Fi. In theory, this will greatly increase the reception abilities of the new iPhone 4.

Physical size
The iPhone 4 is 4.5 x 2.31 inches, and 0.37 inches thick. It weighs 4.8 ounces (137 grams).

The hardware

The new big brain
It has an Apple A4 chip inside, just like the iPad. Inside the A4 there are a few interconnected chips: A Cortex-A8 main processor unit—the main brain—paired with a PowerVR SGX 535, which handles the high definition graphics of the new iPhone. These are directly connected with each other and two low-power 128MB DDR SDRAM chips. Since all these components are in the same chip, Apple claims the iPhone 4 can process data more quickly while consuming less battery than before.

The A4 also consumes less power because its sub-components can be switched on and off when they are not needed, shaving watts whenever it’s possible.

Battery life
The battery is 16% bigger than the current one. Coupled with the A4 processor and new display, it results in a longer battery life: Apple claims 40% more talk time. Here are their figures:

• Talk over 3G: 7 hours.
• Browsing over 3G: 6 hours.
• Browsing over Wi-Fi: 10 hours.
• Video: 10 hours.
• Music: 40 hours.
• Stand-by: 300 hours.

The display
The 3.5-inch multitouch screen has a resolution of 960?×?640 pixels. Apple calls is the Retina Display, and it has four times as many pixels as the current iPhone 3GS’ display. The screen has 326 pixel per inch resolution, a higher definition than your typical magazine, a quality that shows in the screenshot.

Apple claims that this IPS-based display—the same technology as used in the iPad—also has 800-to-1 contrast ratio which is four times better than the 3GS, with a higher viewing angle.

The apps will take automatic advantage of the increased relative resolution, which mean they will be a lot sharper for text, 3D graphics, and vectorial art. However, developers will need to include higher resolution bitmap images to make the app look perfect.

Like the iPhone 3GS and the iPad, the display has an oleophobic layer that makes it easier to clean.

The main camera
The new iPhone has a bigger sensor for the main camera. It’s backlit and has bigger lenses too. Instead of having a higher resolution, however, the sensor maintains the same 5 megapixel count. They are bigger dots, however, so it has a higher ISO—or sensitivity to light. That means that you would be able to take better photos and video in low light conditions, and your pictures will look a lot better.

The camera also has a LED-based flash, which works both for photographs and video. To focus, both for photographs and video—you just need to tap on the screen.

The video conferencing camera
In the front, there’s a video conference camera, with standard VGA resolution. This camera will be used with third-party applications, as well as Apple’s own video conference solution.

Gyroscope
The new iPhone 4 has a gyroscope built-in. This means that it can track movement with a very high precision, much higher than the built-in accelerometers in the previous iPhones. It’s 3-axis, so it’s capable of detecting pitch, roll, and yaw. Couple with the accelerometer, you have 6-axis motion sensing.

Other
• Like the iPad 3GS, the new iPhone uses the new micro-SIM standard.
• It has an additional microphone on the top used for noise cancelation.

The software

iOS4
The new iPhone 4 comes with iOS 4, a new moniker for the iPhone OS. The biggest new feature is, of course, selective multi-tasking, Apple’s way to multitask some application features without consuming too many resources and battery power.

The new iOS 4 supports Apple’s Retina display using resolution independence. This means that applications will automatically get scaled for the new resolution, but looking sharper, not pixelated. That includes typography, 2D vector graphics, and 3D graphics. However, developers will have to include higher resolution images for buttons or other screen controls (something that many have already, since this was already exposed in the last WWDC).

Video calling
However, the biggest feature of the new iPhone 4 is probably video calling, thanks to its front camera. Apple calls it FaceTime, and it works iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 over Wi-Fi—at least for 2010. Apple claims that in the future it will be available over 3G.

The iPhone 4 can use both cameras for video calling, so you can broadcast what is in front of you to another iPhone 4.

iMovie for iPhone
The new iPhone 4 will be able to use a new editing software from Apple: iMovie for iPhone. It comes with 1,500 new features.

The new iMovie for iPhone works on even 720p high definition. You can use it to cut the video clips, add automatic Ken Burns effects for still images and a music soundtrack taken from your iPhone’s tunes. After you are done with your movie, you can export it to 360p, 520p, and 720p.

It’s a separate application, however, it doesn’t come built-in with the iPhone 4.

iBooks
iBooks will also be available for the new iOS4. Apple claims that the new iPhone 4′s 325 pixel-per-inch display will make the books perfectly readable. It will use the same controls as the iBooks application in the iPad.

Price and availability

The Phone 4 will be available in black or white on June 24, and will cost $199 and $299 for 16 and 32GB if you are a new user or you are eligible for an upgrade.

If you are an existing iPhone user, the early upgrade will cost you $399 and $499. Without contract, the iPhone 4 is $499 and $599.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple’s next-generation iPhone, which CEO Steve Jobs is widely expected to unveil Monday, will have to really set new standards in multimedia content and function to wow Wall Street and consumers.

Apple’s challenge may be to dream up game-changing innovations, since the iPhone is already an unqualified blockbuster that is the company’s main profit growth driver, and its share price hovers near record highs. The bid is made tougher with the early success of the iPad tablet computer, which many say has already created a new market.

Competition from a host of well-received smartphones based on Google’s Android operating system is also growing, pressuring Apple to raise the bar even higher.

The “iPhone 4.0 will keep them ahead of the game. Is it as easy as last year to stay ahead? No. I think Android has made huge progress,” said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi.

Only last year, Research in Motion Ltd was seen as Apple’s top rival. While the company’s Blackberry remains the smartphone of choice for many corporations, Apple has made strides in that market as security concerns addressed by the Blackberry have eased.

More than 70 percent of Fortune 100 companies have deployed or piloted the iPhone, according to Apple.

But the iPhone’s prime target — for now — remains the consumer, in a market where it increasingly goes head-to-head with Android phones from vendors like HTC, Motorola and Samsung Electronics.

Longer-term, investors are squarely focused on the iPhone’s spread into international markets including China, Apple’s pricing strategy, and when the device will be available through another U.S. carrier besides AT&T.

Jobs takes the stage at Apple’s developers conference in San Francisco on Monday following a hectic public schedule of late, where Wall Street is expecting to get its first formal look at the fourth-generation iPhone.

The phone will likely be faster, have more capacity, a better screen and battery life, and a front-facing camera — all nice additions, but none of which move the competitive needle very much.

“There will be some pretty cool things on stage with Steve, but at the end of the day we know the general functionality,” said Broadpoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshall.

Some features that iPhone users have long clamored for, such as multi-tasking, will also be added.