What's up everyone? Got done with all my chores of the day so I thought I would side down and give you guys a little peak of the new iPhone 4. I was lucky and was able to order on the pre-order release date. At&t shipped my phone early and its actually here a day earlier than the official release date.
Let's start with the new updates that are the big features on the apple.com website.
FaceTime - Haven't had a chance to test it out yet. None of my friends have their iPhones yet as far as I know. If you got your iPhone too, send me a message and we can try it out. **Update: Tried out FaceTime with a friend of mine. It reminds me of a webcam chat on a computer but it doesn't have any lag which is really nice. Both participants need to have a WiFi connection to be able to use the FaceTime feature.**
Retina Display - Wow, the new resolution for this screen is great. The text is a lot more crisp. I noticed it right away when I'm sending text messages. All other programs have an improved text clarity.
Multi-Tasking - A great new addition. Just double tab the home button and it will bring up all the recently used apps at the bottom of the phone. Great for switching between apps with ease.
HD Recording and 5 megapixel Camera - Played with the camera for a few minutes, haven't quite figured out the flash settings to take the best quality pictures.
Folders - I'm really glad that Apple put in this feature. I went from 5 pages worth of apps down to 2 pages. Being able to organize them into categories is great. The iPhone will even name the folder based off of the program types if you can't come up with a name by yourself.
Those were the main highlights from apple. One thing I've noticed that I personally appreciate is the improved speaker phone capability. I always thought the speaker on the iPhone 3GS was good for the ipod and youtube features. But the speaker phone volume always seemed very weak when I would make calls. This time around on the iPhone 4, I think there have been some volume improvements. I'll know better when I try to use the speakerphone in a setting with more background noise.
And now the CONS...
Not too many things to complain about. The activation process was very simple and easy to do. However, the iPhone 4 does not use a regular sim card rather its own built-sim card, much like the earlier iPhone models. This wasn't that critical to make it a major con but it will make selling the iPhone down the line in the future a little more difficult. **Correction: I did find a sim-card slot. It does mention that the iPhone comes with its own pre-install sim-card. Its located on the side of the iPhone rather than on the top like the 3GS.**
One thing that has been popping up on several other iPhone sources is that users have been complaining about reception strength drop when users are holding the phone by the antenna metal edge of the phone. This new antenna concept was supposed to help improve the signal strength of the phone and is a key structural part of the iPhone itself. Haven't made too many calls yet but I will keep my eye out for it and keep you updated. **Update: I had the reception problem when holding the phone with my left hand. I would have full bars on 3G coverage and then when holding the phone like normally and then the reception drops all the way down to no bars. I would still be able to call out but the reception was definitely not up to par. I ordered a hard rubber cheap $4.00 case on eBay and got it in the mail today. It significantly reduced the signal reception drop. If you're having problems, just get a case for it and it seems to do the trick so you're hand doesn't connect the two parts of the antenna of the phone.**
One last thing that I want to complain about is the lack of good cases available for the iPhone 4. With previous iPhones, there were a plethora of cases available on launch date. All of the big names in cell phone cases are either sold out or say coming soon for their iPhone 4 cases. I would like to be able protect my iPhone so having a case available to order would be nice. **Update: I found a few different websites you want to order a case. www.ideal-case.com, www.griffintechnology.com and www.case-mate.com are few websites with some good cases. I ordered the reveal case from the Griffin website. We'll see how it turns out when I get it.**
Until next time.
-Joel
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