Finally, The iPhone 4 Debuts

Apple is finally releasing the iPhone 4 on June 24, which just misses Father’s Day, but close enough. What a great gift for your dad or spouse. My lucky husband, he’ll be getting the iPhone 4 “from our daughter.”

“iPhone 4 is the biggest leap since the original iPhone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “FaceTime video calling sets a new standard for mobile communication, and our new Retina display is the highest resolution display ever in a phone, with text looking like it does on a fine printed page. We have been dreaming about both of these breakthroughs for decades.”

Some of iPhone 4’s highlights include the new Retina display, a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, HD video recording,Apple’s A4 processor, a 3-axis gyro and up to 40 percent longer talk time. Not to mention it’s a significant 34 percent thinner than the current iPhone 3GS.

The Retina display has 960 x 640 pixels (four times the amount on an iPhone and 78 percent of the pixels on an iPad). The resulting 326 pixels per inch is so dense that our human eyes are unable to distinguish individual pixels when the phone is held at a normal distance, which makes the text, images and video look sharper and more realistic. The iPhone’s new camera on the front of the phone has a 5x digital zoom with a backside illuminated sensor with a built-in LED flash that allows you to take great pictures/video in a low-light environment.

In addition, this new camera allows you to do video calling with FaceTime (iPhone 4 to iPhone 4) over Wi-Fi. Soon it will be available for 2010. You also can record and edit video with the new iMovie for iPhone. It allows you to cut your video clips, and add still images and a music soundtrack from your iPhone. Once your video is done, you can export it to 360p, 520p and 720p.

The A4 processor (what the iPad has, too) boasts a Cortex-A8 main processor unit paired with a PowerVR SGX 535, which handles the HD graphics of this new iPhone. These are directly connected to each other and two low-power 128 MB DDR SDRAM chips, allowing for faster data processing. The gyroscope gives the new iPhone the ability to detect pitch, roll and yaw. Coupled with the existing accelerometer you have a 6-axis motion sensing capability. As for the additional talk time, Apple claims you can talk for seven hours over 3G, browse for six hours over 3G, browse with Wi-Fi for 10 hours, watch video for 10 hours, listen to music for 40 hours or be on stand-by for 300 hours.

The biggest “fix” that comes with the iPhone 4 is the ability to multitask with the OS4 software.

Hopefully it’ll be able to run efficiently without consuming too many resources and battery power.

Also, there’s a second microphone that allows for noise cancellation, and the iBooks app is included (Apple’s iBookStore). iPhone 4 comes in black or white and costs $199 (16GB) and $299 (32GB). You can pre-order online on Apple’s Web site (www.apple.com) or fight the crowds June 24 at your nearest Apple Store, AT&T Retail Store, Best Buy or Walmart. Note: If you’re an existing iPhone user, an early upgrade will cost you $399/$499, so be sure to check with AT&T on your eligibility.