Apple unveils new iPhone

Apple CEO Steve Jobs demonstrates the new iPhone 4 during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, the United States, June 7, 2010. (Xinhua/Qi Heng)

SAN FRANCISCO, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Apple Inc. on Monday unveiled the latest model of iPhone which is thinner and has new features such as better display and a front-facing camera.

Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive officer (CEO), provided details of the new iPhone 4 in a keynote address at the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference held in San Francisco.

"We're going to take the biggest leap since the original iPhone, " Jobs said, adding that the next generation of iPhone includes more than 100 new features.

Only 9.3 millimeters thick, the iPhone 4 is about 24 percent thinner than the previous iPhone 3GS, according to Jobs.

Featuring a new design of glass and stainless steel, the handset is touted by Apple as the "thinnest smartphone in the world."

The 3.5-inch Retina display of the new phone has 326 pixels per inch, four times as many pixels as the iPhone 3GS and 78 percent of the pixels on Apple's recently-launched iPad tablet computer.

In addition to a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash on the back, the iPhone 4 is equipped with a camera on the front and can allow users to make video calling through a feature named FaceTime.

"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," Jobs said in a statement released by Apple.

A journalist uses the new iPhone 4 during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, the United States, June 7, 2010. (Xinhua/Qi Heng)

In his keynote address, Jobs also noted that the new model has a longer battery life that will allow 40 percent more talk time of up to seven hours on 3G networks.

The iPhone 4, powered by Apple's new A4 processor, will come with iOS 4, the company's newest version of mobile operation system, and will feature a second microphone that can suppress unwanted background noise.

Most of the new features on the iPhone 4 were no surprise to industry watchers as the details were leaked earlier in April by technology blog Gizmodo, which purchased a prototype of the upcoming device lost by an Apple employee in a Silicon Valley bar and then posted photos and other specifications online.

Jobs joked about the Gizmodo incident before officially unveiling the new phone during his keynote address, saying "some of you may have already seen this" as the crowd burst into laughter.

The CEO later announced that the iPhone 4 is scheduled to go on sale on June 24 in five countries including the United States, France, Germany, Britain and Japan, and will be available in 18 more countries and regions in July.

Apple is also planning to roll out the iPhone 4 worldwide to 88 countries and regions by the end of September.

The new iPhone will come in black or white and will cost 199 U. S. dollars with a two-year contract in the U.S. for the 16- gigabyte model, and 299 dollars for the 32-gigabyte model.

Also on June 24, a new 8-gigabyte iPhone 3GS model will be available for just 99 dollars, Apple said.


Steve Jobs demonstrates the new iPhone 4 during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, the United States, June 7, 2010. (Xinhua/Qi Heng)

Apple CEO Steve Jobs demonstrates the new iPhone 4 during the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, California, the United States, June 7, 2010. (Xinhua/Qi Heng)

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