Apple Announces iPhone 4 1184
In a keynote presentation today at WWDC, Steve Jobs officially unveiled the iPhone 4. It's powered by an A4 chip, has a glass front and back, and has stainless steel around the edges, which turns out to be part of the antenna system. The new iPhone uses what Jobs called a "Retina display," running at 960x640, or 326 ppi. The battery is also bigger, with a corresponding increase in battery life. The iPhone 4 supports 802.11n, has two mics for noise cancellation, and a three-axis gyroscope, which allows rotation and precision that accelerometers can't match. The iPhone 4's camera is using a 5-megapixel backside illuminated sensor, which Jobs said does better at low-light photography. It also records 720p video at 30 frames per second, with tap-to-focus. In addition to this, they've created an iMovie app, which allows users to easily edit videos on their phone. Several live blogs of the event, with pictures, are available. The device ships in the US on June 24. Apple's product page has been updated with specs and a video. Read on for more details.
Update: 06/07 18:34 GMT by S : Steve's "One More Thing" this time around: FaceTime, live video chat from one iPhone 4 to another. It is Wi-Fi only at the moment, but they're working with carriers to expand that in the future.
Jobs says the iPhone 4 OS is being renamed "iOS4," since it isn't just focused on phones anymore. The release candidate will be made available to developers today. He demonstrated multitasking, a unified email inbox, and folders for apps. In the App Store, you can expect to see an iPhone version of Netflix soon, as well as Guitar Hero and FarmVille. Jobs also announced that iBooks, the ebook application for the iPad, would be getting a few upgrades. Users will soon be able to make notes, and a bookmark button is on the way. It will put bookmarked pages into the book's table of contents. iBooks is also gaining support for viewing PDF files. On top of that, it won't be just for the iPad anymore; it's coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch as well, and it will sync between devices.
Update: 06/07 18:34 GMT by S : Steve's "One More Thing" this time around: FaceTime, live video chat from one iPhone 4 to another. It is Wi-Fi only at the moment, but they're working with carriers to expand that in the future.
No Verizon but.... T-Mobile? (Score:3, Informative)
One of the nuggets they slipped in there was that it was a Quad Band phone. Previously it only worked on AT&T's 3G frequencies.
One can hope.
iAds (Score:1, Informative)
Coming July 1st!
One more thing... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Want one so bad but won't buy (Score:5, Informative)
Just get an Android phone. From a hardware perspective, the newest Android phones like the Droid Incredible are pretty close to this (or even exceed it in a few areas still), and they don't have the draconian policies. My bet is that HTC will soon leapfrog Apple once again (afterall, this thing just barely bests the Incredible, which has been out for a month or two) pretty soon. My next upgrade isn't due until this December and I'm guessing there will be some REALLY nice stuff out by then (I know HTC will have jumped one iteration by then, but I'm crossing my fingers on them being two iterations forward by then).
Re:One more thing... (Score:3, Informative)
Oh sweet! Another innovation from Apple already available from others!
What abbreviation isn't taken nowadays? (Score:5, Informative)
If they had any intention of trying to sue over something like that, Nintendo would've been in court already.
For those playing at home, IOS4 is a really old version of the Cisco router operating system [wikipedia.org] and a version of the Wii kernel used to load the initial contents of a Wii console's flash chip [wiibrew.org]. But then what abbreviation isn't taken nowadays?
Re:Competition is a good thing (Score:5, Informative)
Re:One more thing... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:No Verizon but.... T-Mobile? (Score:5, Informative)
"Quad Band" means it supports 850/900/1800/1900 MHz frequencies, and all of those are GSM (voice) frequencies, not 3G (HSDPA/USM) frequencies. Unless it says 1700/2100 MHz for data access, T-Mo won't work. It's probably 850/2100MHz USM/CDMA which is what AT&T uses.
(Says the guy who owns a factory Nokia phone which only gets EDGE because of the above issue).
Price is $199 16GB / $299 32GB (Score:1, Informative)
Price is $199 16GB / $299 32GB. AT&T will upgrade you at subsidized cost if your contract expires at any time in 2010, and the 2 year contract is added to your existing contract. Preorders begin June 15, and US sales begin June 24. International shipping begins rolling out in July, but some countries will have to wait 'til August or September.
AT&T NEW 2GB data plan will kill this. (Score:3, Informative)
AT&T NEW 2GB data plan will kill this.
Re:Really? (Score:3, Informative)
Also, it's still missing a good carrier, tethering, and flash.
Sigh. US mobile carriers all suck. Some more than others. Right now AT&T has its issues because of the iPhone. Tethering has been explained over and over that it exists in the iPhone currently. The limitation is that AT&T as a carrier has not allowed it. As for Mobile Flash, it sucks too. I'm waiting to see if the new Mobile Flash beta on Android resolves some of the major problems. While performance wise I think it is fine, it still is a major battery drain.
Re:No Verizon but.... T-Mobile? (Score:0, Informative)
It depends.
"Quad Band" can mean "it works on 4 GSM frequencies, but only 2 or 3 UTMS frequencies".
Most phones that say "Quad Band" unqualified will mean this. Sometimes, if whoever is listing the specs is generous, they will list 3G frequencies separately (or say something like "quad band 3G" -- I think the Nokia N8 will be such a device?)
Re:Competition is a good thing (Score:5, Informative)
without a decent lens or good sensor, most of those pixels will be just noise anyway.
Apparently that's pretty close to what Jobs said in the keynote. He said the new camera not only shoots 720 but it does this with a larger sensor so the sensor elements still capture a decent amount of photons and don't lose quality. He also said they use better lenses. We'll see exactly how it pans out but the shots of pictures taken with the 3G model vs the new 4G model show that there's been a huge jump in quality.
Re:Really? (Score:2, Informative)
Also, it's still missing a good carrier
The iPhone 4 is quad band, so it theoretically can be used on T-Mobile (locks notwithstanding)
tethering,
iPhone 4 + AT&T have that. Actually iPhone 3GS has it right now, but AT&T doesn't allow it (but carriers in other countries do).
and flash.
IMO, that's a good thing (which I say as a Nokia E71 owner with Flash Lite). It's great if you like Flash overlay ads, but I can live without it on a mobile phone.
All of this made in a suicide ridden factory...
Dollars to donuts that the device you used to compose that post has components made at the same "suicide ridden factory"
Re:Want one so bad but won't buy (Score:2, Informative)
I'm guessing $199 w/ 2yr contract. That seems to be the going rate these days for the upper tier smartphones. They don't cut you any slack for how long you've had your current phone.
Yep, that's right--$199 for an 8GB 4G, $299 for the 32GB 4G $99 and for an 8GB 3GS. With 2-year contract, of course.
Re:IOS (Score:5, Informative)
They licensed the name iOS to Apple. mentioned in the cnet live feed http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20006866-260.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1
MEMS Gyroscopic Sensor (Score:5, Informative)
The Wii "wiimote" Controller has three MEMS linear accelerometers. The Wii "Motion Plus" adapters plug into the wiimote, and add three MEMS angular accelerometers, which are also very commonly referred as gyroscopic sensors. If the phone has the gyro sensors, it can sense relative tilt motions, but can't sense its own position relative to gravity when held still or sitting on a dock. The linear accelerometers work best at slow gestures, like those found in marble games or augmented reality windows. If it has all six sensors, which I expect it does, then there are a lot of quick and slow motion gestures you can do very accurately.
Re:Gyroscope vs Accelerometer (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, it has something like this 4x4x0.9mm ITG-3200 Triple-Axis Digital-Output Gyroscope [sparkfun.com]. Not one, but three real MEMS gyroscopes [wikipedia.org] in a single surface-mount IC package.
Yes, they actually can make them that small these days. Amazing, isn't it?
Re:Competition is a good thing (Score:4, Informative)
It's all smoke & mirrors (and some processing in the background). The primary limitation right now is the lens size, not the sensors or the quality of the lenses. You won't get a significantly better picture without increasing the size of the lens, which it doesn't look like Apple is doing.
Re:Competition is a good thing (Score:5, Informative)
Very true. It was hard to convince my mom that her $149 point and shoot digital at 12MP couldn't match my old (ancient, in technology terms) Canon Digital Rebel XT that was "only" 8MP. The reality though is that despite having only 2/3's of the pixel count, my camera takes pictures that look WORLDS better. Side by side shots finally convinced her.
Just like the Mhz myth for processors, cameras also can't simply be measuring in megapixels.
Re:No Verizon but.... T-Mobile? (Score:5, Informative)
On their specification Page. [apple.com]
UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz)
GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)
sonofabitch.
Re:Want one so bad but won't buy (Score:1, Informative)
$199 for 16GB* 4G
Re:Want one so bad but won't buy (Score:4, Informative)
From a hardware perspective, the newest Android phones like the Droid Incredible are pretty close to this (or even exceed it in a few areas still)
I just got an htc EVO 4G on Friday, and I'm actually not feeling any buyer's remorse, even post-iPhone 4, which is nice. I DO like the iPhone 4's pixel density, but it's much smaller than the EVO 4G's 4.3" display, which is one of the main reasons I got the phone I did. I don't know what the pixel density is, but the quality of the text is flat-out amazing, so I've got no complaints there. The EVO 4G has a higher resolution main camera, and the front-facing one doesn't require WiFi to do video chat. I've not messed much with the camera on my phone yet, so I don't know the quality of it, as megapixels aren't everything. The EVO has dual LED flash; not sure about the new iPhone. You'd think with Apple basing their business around iPhones and iPads, that they would've announced some kind of tethering or hotspot capability for them to work in concert, but I didn't see anything like that announced (might've missed it). I guess if you have an iPad w/o 3G, you can just get an EVO and turn on its hotspot and not have to deal with AT&T. :)
To me, the deal-breakers with the iPhone 4 are _still_ being restricted to AT&T (insane), and of course, the draconian developer policies (which DO affect users, even though most users never know it).
Android phones evolve MUCH quicker than Apple's, especially htc (and to a lesser extent, Motorola). We'll see 1.5gHz Android phones this year, and quite possibly the dual-core phones will start trickling out in Q4, as well. Hopefully by this time next year, we'll have 720p displays on LTE-enabled phones, as well. The new chipmaking process shrink coming to the industry at the end of the year will enable processor to sip much less juice than they do now, so battery life should get better as well, though that will be dependent on the eternal struggle with faster chips, too, so we'll see. Fun times! Computers are much less interesting right now, tech-wise, than cellphones.
Re:This kinda tells about power of your brand... (Score:3, Informative)
Considering the current hate between Adobe and Apple, I'm a bit surprised myself.
Stevie J. may be pissed off at Adobe right now (they'll probably make nice eventually) but PDF is the native display format used by OS X* so he probably doesn't have a problem with it on the iPhone.
*I'm not sure if that carries over to the iPhone OS--uh, I mean, iOS--or not. Anyone out there who can fill me in on that?
Re:backside illuminated sensor (Score:5, Informative)
Worst name EVAR!
A more accurate name would be "back-wired sensor". Like the human eye, older cameras had the wiring in front of the sensor elements. Back-illuminated ones have the wiring in the back. That gets you about 45% more light, because it doesn't have to make it past the wiring and transistors.
Been around for a while, but only making its way into the consumer space recently. Basically boosts your low-light performance by roughly half. That means you can either double the number of pixels per space and still get the same performance (which is what apple did), or leave the spacing alone and make killer security cameras and astronomy sensors.
In either event, this really is a major jump in camera tech. I'll be interested to know if they also used Sony's CMOS process for it.
Maury
Re:Competition is a good thing (Score:5, Informative)
Very true. It was hard to convince my mom that her $149 point and shoot digital at 12MP couldn't match my old (ancient, in technology terms) Canon Digital Rebel XT that was "only" 8MP. The reality though is that despite having only 2/3's of the pixel count, my camera takes pictures that look WORLDS better. Side by side shots finally convinced her.
Just like the Mhz myth for processors, cameras also can't simply be measuring in megapixels.
Another huge factor is the quality of the glass. The lowest-noise, highest-contrast, most-linear, biggest Dmax sensor in the world isn't going to give you good results if it has a cheap-o plastic lens in front of it. (Unless you're looking for that effect, like you get with a Lens Baby.)
Futhermore, designing and manufacturing high-quality lenses is really quite difficult. Putting high-quality glass in a phone-sized device is, currently at least, impossible.
My brother purchased an iPhone when they first came out, and put his photos up on the social networking site Multiply. Downsampled, they looked pretty good. Then, I tried screwing around with them a little in Photoshop to understand more. Full resolution, they suck. Sure, they're not bad for a phone, but are worse than the contemporary point-and-shoot I was using, and far, far worse than my DSLR.
Re:iAds (Score:2, Informative)
I'm willing to bet that developers will allow users to choose between cheap apps with advertisements and apps that cost more but are advertisement free. This is happening right now in the app store even without Apple providing an easy way for developers to implement advertisements. The users win because more choice is almost always better, if you do download a free app and see that it has a ton of advertisements then no harm, remove it from your device and either get the paid version or move on to another app.
Adblock is a good add-on for your browser and it'd be nice to have for mobile Safari but I don't think it's a good thing if it also works on purchased apps. App developers do a lot of work on building these apps and they deserve to get paid for their efforts, if they want to be paid. Allowing people to get an inexpensive, advertisements-supported app and then block the advertisements would be cheating developers out of their work.
The market will balance all these things out. If an app goes overboard and charges too much or has too many advertisements then someone else will come by and eat their lunch with a better app. It happens all the time, competition is a good way to correct these sort of things.
As far as the bandwidth to Apple's advertisement servers, how do you know if it does count toward your carrier bandwidth? There hasn't been any announcement about it. There are several services on the iPhone that don't count toward your bandwidth, I believe that App Store purchases are one of them. We'll see how it pans out but I bet that the advertisement bandwidth will not count towards your total bandwidth.
Re:Competition is a good thing (Score:4, Informative)
I don't know if I'd agree with this. If you look at the smartphone market at the time the iPhone launched, things were pretty barren. Similarly, the iPod was entering a market that didn't understand that no matter how much capacity you might have, you still need to fit into people's pockets. The iPhone 3G covered a major weakness in the original iPhone (2g browsing really, really sucks). Jobs brought to the market something that people wanted, and made the interface simple enough that it just works. That's a pretty good accomplishment.
And if you think that every apple product sells like hotcakes, you're missing quite a few. As a short list.
iTV ( that useless thing that isn't quite an Xbox 360 )
Motorola ROKR ( anyone remember Apple's pre-iPhone phone? )
eMac ( like a rehashed iMac, but long after laptops made them irrelevant )
Pippin ( that useless computer / video game console that wasn't quite a Playstation )
20th anniversary macintosh
Mac Cube
Mac TV
Quicktake ( a digital camera / giant blob of plastic )
Newton ( a PDA before PDA's existed ).
eMate ( a netbook based upon Newton before netbooks existed )
Re:could care less about the iphone... (Score:3, Informative)
Traditionally WWDC is the iPhone launch keynote, and the iPod related updates (iPod, iTunes, etc.) happen at a September event.
Re:iAds (Score:4, Informative)
Marketing - the screen is higher than 300ppi, which is a resolution greater than the human eye can resolve.
Re:iAds (Score:5, Informative)
I think Bill Hicks summed advertising up quite accurately:
"There's no rationalisation for what you do and you are Satan's little helpers. Okay - kill yourself - seriously. You are the ruiner of all things good, seriously. No this is not a joke, you're going, "there's going to be a joke coming," there's no fucking joke coming. You are Satan's spawn filling the world with bile and garbage. You are fucked and you are fucking us. Kill yourself. It's the only way to save your fucking soul, kill yourself."
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
Re:This kinda tells about power of your brand... (Score:3, Informative)
Considering the current hate between Adobe and Apple, I'm a bit surprised myself.
Stevie J. may be pissed off at Adobe right now (they'll probably make nice eventually) but PDF is the native display format used by OS X* so he probably doesn't have a problem with it on the iPhone.
*I'm not sure if that carries over to the iPhone OS--uh, I mean, iOS--or not. Anyone out there who can fill me in on that?
Quartz is Quartz. Display PDF is Display PDF. The implementations into the OS services is where they are different.
Re:Noise cancellation with two microphones (Score:3, Informative)
The Nexus One has two mics for exactly this purpose.
Re:Gizmodo (Score:5, Informative)
It's called Gorilla glass, and even the lowly Storm uses it (and has since introduction).
Only apple can get away with touting this as a "new" feature instead of a "new to us" feature and have people think its awesome.
Re:Want one so bad but won't buy (Score:5, Informative)
I'm curious, specifically which draconian policy would impair your use and enjoyment of the phone?
1) Standards & Development:
My Nexus One acts as a hard drive with my computer. It uses standard USB cables to connect to it. Tethering with the nexus one had no hassles whatsoever. The Nexus One worked flawlessly with Linux and Windows without the need for drivers, and I did not have to pay for a developers license to start playing with it.
2) Usability:
The Android supports multitasking and as such, has a much more useful "homescreen", which is actually several screens that can contain widgets with uptodate information. The home screen is just an app, I can replace it. The keyboard is just an app, I can replace it. Email is just an app, I can replace it. I can run services in the background with a proper notification system so that I can be properly notified should I choose it from whatever app I install. If I don't like Google's idea of Android, I'm free to install any version of Android I want. I'm free to install any OS that can work with my Nexus One I want.
3) Upgradability:
I can swap the 4gb MicroSD card for a 32gb MicroSD card should I chose to do so, and only pay the costs of the microsd card.
4) Flexibility:
There are no or very little limitations to the kinds of apps available on the market, and nothing stops me from installing apps outside of the market as well. As a developer, I am not limited to what I can make my app do. I am not limited to one programming language to make my app.
iPhone has the exact opposite of all four of these points, and I find that to be horribly draconian.
If I am going to shell out $600 for a device, I intend to use it as I see fit and not be dictated by anyone on how I should use my shiny new toy.
I like Apple's focus on fine-pitch displays... (Score:1, Informative)
I agree, for smaller portable devices, you never want fixed layout like PDF. Reflowed content is much better than doing some horrible viewport scrolling around a page larger than your screen. People get a fetish about all the multitouch scroll and zoom, but frankly that is no way to read a large document.
But, I remember being impressed by the LCD on my ipod nano. I hope for the day they push the industry towards 300 ppi in a larger format display, such as ipad or a laptop. I think with resolution like that, PDF can really start to be nice, e.g. it looks like a printed page for most purposes.
Re:Competition is a good thing (Score:1, Informative)
And don't forget Nokia's Meego phones!
Remember, we had 800x480/4" on all 3 Maemo internet tablets, starting long before anyone (well, anyone outside Japan) had it on phones. Then we got the N900 800x480/3.5" when HTC's HD2 was stuck with 480x800/4"; one can only hope the next step is cramming more pixels in the same 3.5". (Though personally, I'd rather a 1024x600 at the same dot pitch.)
Re:What abbreviation isn't taken nowadays? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:One more thing... (Score:2, Informative)
Wifi only because AT&T will never allow it. It would be nice if there was a standard for video calls on phones.
Of course, there IS a standard, called Video Share [wikipedia.org] and AT&T has had it for years.
Maybe you're thinking of the other carriers, which still don't support it?
Why does everybody on this site bitch when Microsoft spreads FUD about linux, and then they turn around and do the same of AT&T ?
There are legitimate issues with AT&T, but this ain't one of them. Neither is signal quality in 2010. Enough is enough.
Re:iAds (Score:5, Informative)
Re:backside illuminated sensor (Score:1, Informative)
That means you can either double the number of pixels per space and still get the same performance (which is what apple did),...
Actually, it's not. The pixels are the same size, which means they have the same number of pixels per space. They didn't increase it at all, they just added more pixels at the same size.
Re:Still no keyboard... (Score:3, Informative)
And no mention of bluetooth drivers to support a bluetooth keyboard.
how hard did you look?
http://www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/ [apple.com]
Re:Trademark infringement with FaceTime (Score:5, Informative)
Come on Apple, how do you expect others to respect your trademarks if you don't respect other?
Ever think of checking your facts before commenting? From the FaceTime IM company web site:
"Our agreement with Apple to transfer the FaceTime trademark to them comes as we are rebranding our company to better reflect our capabilities. We will be announcing a new name in the coming months."
Re:One more thing... (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah, and it will probably only let you talk to other iPhone users. But, hey, that way you can maintain your illusion that this is something new or unique to Apple. Wouldn't want to have your preconceptions challenged, would you now.
Except that it will be released as an open standard [appleinsider.com]. But, hey, that way you can keep thinking anything Apple does is evil. Wouldn't want to have your preconceptions challenged, would you now ?
Simon
Re:iAds (Score:5, Informative)
Quantity != quality
You know, nobody bought that argument when mac users were saying the same thing about PC applications.
Re:I love this.... (Score:5, Informative)
It was a pretty funny comment from the crowd, I laughed.
Of course it turned out that there were something like 570 wifi base stations operating in the audience and it totally hosed the whole wifi network for the event. Since the iPhones were set to load their data over wifi rather than over the cell network it killed the demos. Once the organizers made people turn off their devices the demos went very smoothly. Funny how that works!
Re:Competition is a good thing (Score:5, Informative)
You won't get a significantly better picture without increasing the size of the lens, which it doesn't look like Apple is doing.
Actually, looking at pictures of the back of the 3GS and the iPhone 4 - that's exactly what they have been doing. Compare http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone#iphone-compare [apple.com] to http://images.apple.com/iphone/gallery/images/gallery01-20100607.jpg [apple.com]
Re:One more thing... (Score:3, Informative)
Video chats via an open standard are already a reality for many years, on hundreds millions of UMTS mobile phones.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videophone#Current_usage [wikipedia.org]
Re:One more thing... (Score:3, Informative)
Look, you obviously were unaware even of the fact that UMTS videocalling exists and you are surely just as unaware of how easy and straightforward it is
But it turns out it's just a gimmick, in the case of mobile device. People ususally at most did a few videocalls when it was a novelty for them and...moved on (and the same people can use, say, Skype video regularly - but it makes sense, when they sit comfortably in a private place, etc.)
Just because a phone implements a video calling technology, doesn't mean that the phone you are calling also supports it.
How...the frak...iPhone...is supposed...to improve that? O_o
And again, you just show how you are unaware of how straightforward UMTS videocalling is - it's integrated into phones, into their voice calling funcionality! If you inititate a voicecall with any UMTS phone that also supports videocalling, the option to switch during call will be there! (and to switch back to normal voicecall for that matter, too; all without hanging up)
If you throw "the tablet", why not Apple TV?
Re:backside illuminated sensor (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Competition is a good thing (Score:3, Informative)
Wrong. You said "NO ONE (AFAIK) made a screen that was 320x480 and within two years AFTER the iPhone's introduction we saw screens of that EXACT size from Palm"
A simple Google search would have revealed that Palm devices have run 320x480 screens since 2002. Tens of devices of this screen resolution were released. I present one of the first,
http://pdadb.net/index.php?m=specs&id=1195&c=sony_clie_peg-nr70v [pdadb.net]
Re:One more thing... (Score:1, Informative)
Come on. In Japan, NTT Docomo started offering Video calls on their cell phones in 2001! That's 9 years ago. Nowadays, video on cell phones is a trivially common feature in Japan. Nobody would brag about it. The few phones that lack it tend to be foreign "smartphones".
Apple are marketing geniuses and are fairly good at making things simple (by virtue of locking everything down and leaving out some of the most complex bits). But they're not a tenth as innovative as they want you to think (and the Apple cultists DO believe).
Re:I love this.... (Score:4, Informative)
I don't know a whole lot about wireless bandwidth, but one thing I did notice about this display is that the 3GS apparently had no problem loading the NYT website, while the iPhone 4 wouldn't load it. In my eyes it appeared to be more of a glitch with the hardware, rather than a problem with the network. Also, how else could the people in the audience use that same network (probably pretty slowly I'd guess) if the network were that saturated.
When you have an overloaded wifi spectrum like that usually what happens is that some devices manage to get a clean connection and some don't. It's very sporadic and unpredictable. It's not like every device's connection will fail. You might even have what looks like a good connection and then it will stall for no apparent reason.
There are also several bands on which they could possibly be communicating and it could just be that the 4G and the 3GS happened to be on different bands at that point. The 4G's band might have gotten over-congested and there was still some room on the band that the 3GS was on.
And, yes, there were a ton of reporters and people using devices in that audience. Wireless is great but it relies on the assumption that there will only be a certain amount of connections communicating at one time. Once you surpass that limit you get into the "odd things happen" zone.
apple didn't double pixels per space (Score:3, Informative)
The new sensor is bigger now, maintaining the same pixel size.
So you get more megapixels due to a larger sensor AND you get better sensitivity due to backside illumination.
I have a DSLR for quality pictures... for the rest, social situations and what not, 5 megapixels is plenty good and better low light performance just might make this good enough to obviate the need for a separate point & shoot camera.
I'd love to see some HTC Evo 8MP vs iPhone 4 5MP camera quality comparisons.