MacRumors

As expected at today's WWDC keynote event, Steve Jobs announced the next iPhone model, dubbed iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 features a new design relative to previous models and is identical to the model obtained by Gizmodo earlier this year, over which a search warrant was issued and criminal charges are being considered.

The new iPhone will have Apple's own A4 chip and a larger battery that will offer 40% more talk time than the previous model. It will also be capable of HSDPA/HSUPA speeds of 7.2Mbps down and 5.8Mbs up. Surprisingly, the iPhone will not see a storage bump in this generation, maxing out at 32GB like the current iPhone 3GS.

Other new additions include 802.11n Wi-Fi, a gyroscope to detect motion on 6 axes, as well as an LED flash to supplement the new 5-megapixel auto-focus lens. The updated camera will have 5x digital zoom and will record 720p HD video at 30 frames per second. Videos captured can be edited on the device using the new iMovie for iPhone.

The new iPhone 4 will also have a secondary microphone on the top for noise cancellation, as well as a front-facing camera for video calls. It will also use the smaller micro SIM, making use of the smaller SIM standard like the iPad.

Size-wise, it will be just 9.33mm thick, which is 24% thinner than the current iPhone 3GS. It will have a glass front and back with a stainless steel band that wraps around all sides. This band is used as part of the antenna system for the GSM, UMTS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth radios.

iPhone 4 will also have a Retina Display, a new display technology that packs in 326 pixels per inch, compared to the current iPhone's 163 ppi. Noting that the detection limit of the human eye is 300 ppi, Jobs described that the iPhone 4's display will "comfortably" exceed this and that text will be seen as a "fine printed book." The new iPhone's display will be the same 3.5-inch size of the current iPhone 3GS but with a resolution of 940 x 640 pixels and an 800:1 contrast ratio and the same IPS technology used in the iPad's display.

The new iPhone 4 model will go on sale on June 24 in the U.S., France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom. In the U.S., it will cost $199 for the 16GB model and $299 for the 32GB model with a new 2-year contract. iPhone 4 will be available in 88 countries by the end of September.

AT&T will be offering an early upgrade special for current iPhone users in the U.S., allowing the lower upgrade pricing up to 6 months earlier than the company normally does.

An 8 GB iPhone 3GS will also be available and will be priced at $99 in the U.S. with a new 2-year contract.

MacRumors users are already planning meetups using our iPhone 4 Meetup forum.

At today's WWDC keynote event, multiple new major apps for the iPhone were announced. First, Steve Jobs announced that the popular Netflix application, currently available for iPad users only, will be released for the iPhone this summer. In addition, Zynga's popular Farmville online game and Activision's Guitar Hero will also be coming to the iPhone.

Reed Hastings, Netflix's CEO, came on stage to demonstrate how the app works. It contains the same functionality as the iPad version, allowing users to search for movies, add items to the Instant Queue, and more. The app will also allow streaming over 3G cellular data networks.

Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga, also took the stage at the keynote to talk about Farmville, noting that the application has over 70 million active users. The iPhone app will offer push notifications to let users know about withering crops and other events, and will also offer in-app purchases for the game's marketplace. Farmville for iPhone will be released by the end of June.

Activision's Senior VP, Karthik Bala, announced the immediate availability of the Guitar Hero app for the iPhone and iPod touch. The app will include classic rock songs by Queen and the Rolling Stones as well as newer artists. The app costs $2.99.

At today's WWDC keynote, Steve Jobs announced that the iPad's iBooks app will receive an update later this month that will add the ability to view PDF documents within the app. Additionally, the app will get an updated bookmarking control and users will be able to add notes to books and documents.

Jobs noted that PDF viewing has been the most requested feature from iBooks users. PDF documents will be shown on a separate virtual bookshelf within the app.

Notes will be displayed as yellow sticky notes, imitating the Stickies application in Mac OS X, and both notes and bookmarks can be viewed on a new Bookmarks page when reading a book or document. iBooks will also be arriving for iOS 4 (previously known as iPhone OS 4) devices, which include the iPhone and iPod touch.

With just under two hours to go before Apple CEO Steve Jobs takes the stage for his keynote address at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, it's time for us to set the stage with final details on the latest rumors and coverage information.

Coverage

As we noted over the weekend, MacRumors will be offering live text and photo updates from the keynote through MacRumorsLive.com. The main MacRumors.com page will automatically redirect to MacRumorsLive as we get closer to the event, so stay tuned here. We will also be providing Twitter updates through our @MacRumorsLive account.

For those who wish to hold off on all keynote-related coverage and announcements, we've also posted our traditional spoiler-free page and forum thread for people to be notified when Apple posts full video of the event later today.

Rumors

Aside from the widely expected introduction of new iPhone hardware, a number of other possible announcements and introductions are possible. We summarized a number of them late last week, including the obvious iPhone OS 4 details and possible Mac Pro refresh and new 27" display, as well as possible cloud-based iTunes/MobileMe changes, Apple TV revamp, and Mac OS X 10.7, although those appear to be a bit farther off. Since that time, of course, additional last-minute rumors have popped up:

- Supply Shortages Hint at Possible Mac Mini Refresh
- Mac OS X 10.6.4, Safari 5 and Xcode 4 Coming at WWDC
- Apple's 'Magic Trackpad' or 'Magic Slate' Revealed?
- Final 'Get a Mac' Spot to Kick Off WWDC?

Update: Daring Fireball's John Gruber hints that the revamped Apple TV may in fact be making an appearance today.

Update 2: Unconfirmed last-minute claims regarding iPhone OS 4 include printing support, landscape orientation support for the home screen, and an iBooks "subscription service".

9 to 5 Mac reports that has received information that Apple last week filmed one final "Get a Mac" spot featuring John Hodgman as his usual "PC" character but without Justin Long's "Mac" character. According to sources, the spot pokes fun at the situation involving the iPhone prototype that made its way to Gizmodo earlier this year.

The commercial was filmed at a bar in Greenpoint, Brooklyn last week and get this: PC pretends to be a bartender and gets a guy drunk in order to get his hands on his new Apple prototype!!

Unfortunately, Justin Long isn't the guy he's getting drunk, he's not in this one.

The report suggests that the spot may be used to open Steve Jobs' keynote address later today, pointing to a similar theme used to open WWDC 2007 with "PC" attempting to pass himself off as Jobs.

Rumors of the demise of Apple's long-running "Get a Mac" campaign surfaced in early April in an interview with Justin Long, and were confirmed late last month when the company removed the videos and all other mention of the campaign from its site.

Engadget posts photos of what appears to be a large multi-touch trackpad accessory from Apple. Similar in styling to the Apple wireless keyboard, the peripheral appears to connect to computers via Bluetooth and is rumored to support a wide variety of multi-touch gestures and possibly even handwriting recognition.

New images received with a claim that the device supports handwriting recognition in addition to "every feature you can find on a Magic Mouse (and possibly features of a MacBook Pro trackpad)." This, from a person who claims to be personally testing it.

Rumors of such a gadget surfaced last October in a hint from John Gruber, and trademark applications for the terms "Magic Slate" and "Magic Trackpad" were linked to Apple in the following months, suggesting that Apple was taking the device rather seriously.

Engadget suggests that the device may make an appearance at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference today, although it is unclear whether that is based on specific claims or simply on the timing of the leak. One of the images showing the back of the device reveals a copyright date of 2009, suggesting that pictured image is not necessarily fresh off the manufacturing line.

On the eve of the WWDC 2010 keynote and what is believed to be the announcement of the next generation iPhone, AT&T seems to have adjusted user eligibility requirements forward for many customers. This means that several readers who previously were ineligible to purchase a new subsidized iPhone now find that they are eligible. Previously, dates for eligibility ranged from June to November depending on your rate plan.

Current AT&T customers can check at http://wireless.att.com by clicking on "Check Upgrade Options" after they log in. The improved eligibility requirements will allow existing customers to upgrade to the new iPhone with no early termination fees. Apple is widely expected to introduce the new iPhone at the WWDC 2010 Keynote on Monday, June 7th. The keynote begins at 10 a.m. Pacific.

WWDC 2010 is about to kick off with a keynote address on Monday, June 7th at 10am Pacific by Steve Jobs. MacRumors will be in attendance for live coverage. We'll have text and photo updates at MacRumorsLive.com. Our live system is also formatted specifically for the iPhone, so you'll also be able to watch real-time updates in mobile safari.

We've also reorganized our official twitter accounts. These include:

@MacRumors - official news
@MacRumorsLive - live updates for events only

We've also set up a Spoiler Free page for WWDC 2010 if you want to watch the keynote without any spoilers. The video is typically posted late in the day following the keynote address. There is no live video feed of the event.

Mac Generation reports that Safari 5 and Mac OS X 10.6.4 will be announced at WWDC. According to the published release notes for Safari 5, the update will include:

- Safari Reader: view articles on the web on a single, clutter-free page
- Improved performance. 25% faster Javascript, Better caching and DNS pre-fetching
- Bing Search Option
- Improved HTML 5 support
- Safari Developer Tools
- Smart Address field
- Tab settings
- Hardware acceleration for Windows

Meanwhile, MacRumors has heard that a major update to Xcode (version 4) is in the works and will also be demonstrated at WWDC.

A newly-posted YouTube video appears to show a Mac OS X version of Adobe Audition, the company's all-in-one application package dedicated to professional audio production, in action. Audition began life as Cool Edit Pro, but was acquired by Adobe in 2003, which rebranded it as Audition and continued development on the project.

Adobe Audition 3, the most recent version, was released in November 2007 and is available only on Windows. The tool-based Audition is considered to be a step up from Adobe's task-based Soundbooth CS5 targeting video professionals without a background in professional audio production. Soundbooth CS5 is already available for Mac either as a standalone purchase or as part of the Creative Suite 5 Production Premium or Master Collection.

Compared to the $199 price point of the standalone Soundbooth CS5, Adobe Audition 3 is priced at $349 for the full version and $99 for upgrades. Audition also competes with Apple's Logic platform in a number of areas, although the two applications obviously currently operate exclusively on different platforms.

SquareTrade, a popular electronics warranty company offering coverage for a wide array of devices including the iPhone and iPad, has rolled out a revamped iPhone warranty program temporarily priced at $99 for two years of coverage, with a regular price of $124. The warranty provides coverage against drops, spills, and general hardware failures, accidental claims typically requiring a $50 deductible and standard hardware failure warranty claims requiring no deductible. Premiums and deductibles are the same for all iPhone models.

AT&T has been rumored to be introducing an iPhone-specific version of its MobileProtect insurance plan through Asurion to be priced at $13.99 per month with deductibles ranging from $99 to $199 depending on the model of iPhone involved in the claim. While considerably more expensive than SquareTrade's new plan, AT&T's plan does also cover loss or theft in addition to the out-of-warranty hardware failures covered by both plans.

SquareTrade's plan offers free overnight shipping both ways for repairs, and claims that most repairs are done on a same-day basis. If SquareTrade is unable to repair a broken iPhone, it will provide cash value to the owner for a new replacement phone. Users must enroll in the service within 90 days of the purchase of their iPhone, compared to a 30-day window for AT&T's plan. If a customer purchases a SquareTrade warranty on the same day as their iPhone, coverage begins immediately, but policies purchased on a later date within the 90-day window are subject to a 30-day waiting period for accidental damage coverage.

In anticipation of the introduction of new iPhone models on Monday, SquareTrade has already populated its drop-down menu with options for users to select an "iPhone 4G 32GB" or "iPhone 4G 64GB". Those options will presumably be quickly adjusted to reflect the actual product names and capacities once they are announced.

The New York Times reports that AT&T is currently considering taking steps to accommodate users wishing to activate unlimited 3G service plans for the iPad Wi-Fi + 3G before the plan is discontinued on Monday but who have been unable to obtain a device due to shortages.

According to an executive at the company, who would not be identified because the company's efforts were still in discussion internally, AT&T was exploring allowing customers who pay for an iPad before June 7, but don't get the device in hand, to still sign up for an unlimited data account.

Until the company's solution is announced, though, consumers have until 11:59 p.m. on June 6, just three days from now, to buy an iPad with 3G capability and sign up for the unlimited plan.

Apple's own online store already suggests that such a policy is in place, claiming that the unlimited 3G service plan for the iPad is "available if ordering iPad from the Apple Online Store by June 6" and making no mention of a requirement that the device also be received and service activated by that deadline.

All iPad 3G unlimited data users on AT&T should be aware that they must maintain their unlimited data plan in order to remain to eligible. Should a user cancel his or her no-contract unlimited plan at any time after June 6th, they will have to choose one of AT&T's new limited plans if they wish to activate 3G service again in the future.

Update: An AT&T representative has confirmed on the company's Facebook page that users who place orders for the 3G-capable iPad by June 7th will be eligible for the unlimited data plan. It is not clear whether customers will be required to sign up for the data plan in some form prior to the 7th and prior to receiving their iPads or if there will be a mechanism put in place that allow those customers to have their devices verified as having been ordered prior to the deadline for activation at a later date once they arrive.

As if all of the evidence from late last month, including the removal of a "Select" button from the iPhone 3G in Apple's own online store, wasn't enough to convince people that the iPhone 3G is on its last legs, Boy Genius Report points to an apparent internal memo to AT&T retail store employees notifying them that the company is officially out of stock of the device.

June 4, 2010

iPhone 3G 8 GB is Out of Stock

Effective immediately, iPhone 3G 8GB is Out of Stock. Please refer all customers to iPhone 3GS 16 GB and 32 GB models.

FAQ:
Q: When will we receive inventory for iPhone 3G 8GB?
A: At this time, we do not know when more iPhone 3G 8GB will arrive.

Q: Are there any iPhone 3G 8 GB available in COR if my customer can purchase there?
A: Check with your local COR stores to see if they have any inventory available.

The memo appears to be targeted at the selected AT&T authorized retailers permitted to carry the iPhone and refers them to local company-owned retail stores (COR) to check for any remaining stock they might have as the company closes out its inventory of the device.

Apple is widely expected to introduce its next-generation iPhone at its Worldwide Developers Conference next week, with many observers expecting Apple to continue offering the 16 GB iPhone 3GS and slide it down to the entry-level $99 price point currently held by the 8 GB iPhone 3G. Wal-Mart stepped to the front early last week by doing exactly that even before the next-generation iPhone appeared, dropping its price on the entry-level iPhone 3GS to $97 from its previous $197 price point.