by Mishra Planeswalker

Created on: June 29, 2010

Just weeks ago, computer giant Apple announced the latest version of its line of smartphones: the iPhone 4.  This announcement comes hot on the heels of the unveiling of the iPad, and has Apple share prices seeing a steady rise.  

The iPhone 4 has undergone many major changes when compared to last year’s model, the iPhone 3G S.  Chief among them is the physical design of the smartphone, sporting a thinner, sharper, rectangular shape, as opposed to the curvature common to previous models.  This new package is a sparse 9.3 millimeters in length, making it the smallest iPhone on the market to date.  

Another change welcomed by iPhone users everywhere is the implementation of a super-high resolution screen: the most detailed ever put into a portable telephone with 326 pixels per inch.  The result of this improvement is the ability to render images and videos and unsurpassed quality.  

With this brand-new exterior, Apple also improved the inner functionality of it’s newest phone.  The addition of a new camera in the front of the phone has made the dream of video-calling a reality.  No longer the stuff of science fiction, iPhone 4 users can now communicate both orally and visually with their friends, family, and co-workers.  This new method of calling, affectionately called FaceTime, permits two connect iPhones to act in the same vein as a webcam, where both parties see and hear each other, enhancing the illusion of conversing face-to-face.   

For the more fun-inclined, the new iPhone 4 sports and advanced 3-directional gyroscope and accelerometer.  This innovation allows for apps that use the motion of the iPhone to run more fluidly and easier to the touch than ever before.  Game manufacturers will be ecstatic with the degree of complex motions that can be integrated into apps with the new iPhone 4.  

With the iPhone 4 comes the announcement of the latest update to the iPhone operating system.  This new system allows for many new features such as multitasking (using more than one app at a time) and encryption (protecting the data stored on, or transmitted by the iPhone).  

The latest version of the iPhone only prompts the question: “What will Apple think of next?”  The plethora of improvements and innovations that come bundled with every new release of the iPhone make one wonder just how many possibilities this ultralight phone can hold.  All that is certain, is that nothing is certain when it comes to the iPhone.  

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