At WWDC 2010 Steve Jobs announced details of the new iPhone 4. As suggested on the iPhone 4G dissected post:

• Front-facing video chat camera (CHECK!)
• Improved regular back-camera (CHECK!)
• Camera flash (CHECK!)
• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM (CHECK!)
• Improved display. (CHECK!)
• What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack. (CHECK!)
• Split buttons for volume (CHECK!)
• Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic (CHECK!)

Other facts:

• Hitting the US stores on June 24 - three weeks!
• Aluminosilicate glass - 20 times stiffer, 30 times harder than plastic
• 326 pixels per inch - 960x480 resolution. Finally a decent super res on a small device!
• Based on the A4 processor - Apples own after recent purchase of P.A. Semi
• Gyroscope and Accelerometers - Means measuring direction and angular momentum - much more useful for gamming interfaces
• Shots HD (720p) Hi Def video with direct youtube integration
• Significantly increased battery life - finally!!!

A good round up of the details on a Silicon Alley Insider article. Trying to find out when it hits NZ!

From Gizmodo, a camouflaged iPhone 4 pulled apart to reveal lots of interesting things:

• Front-facing video chat camera
• Improved regular back-camera (the lens is quite noticeably larger than the iPhone 3GS)
• Camera flash
• Micro-SIM instead of standard SIM
• Improved display.
• What looks to be a secondary mic for noise cancellation, at the top, next to the headphone jack
• Split buttons for volume
• Power, mute, and volume buttons are all metallic

Good overview of the announcement from Apple last friday on iPhone OS 4 features. Scroll down quite a bit to get to the meat of the detail.

The most significant thing is full multitasking and app swapping. Very interesting to see how seemless it feels and although usability wise it's very simple it appears there is significant engineering innovation here. Especially if the drain on the battery is minimised. The APIs seem very straight forward and not only for the iPhone but for the iPad too.

The folder idea is excellent - one of my personal gripes about the iPhone is how hard it is to group like applications - so I'd glad to see this included.

Unified mail and multiple exchange accounts is good - finally be able to get all my calendars from my multiple hoster all in one place.

Probably one not to underate will be the social gamming network. This will bring some very very interesting possibilities!

iAd is interesting and an excellent platform - but they really need some better ad formats. Like Admixa :) !

Good video summing rumours on the iPhone 4G. Dual cameras, LED flash, slightly taller, dual core processor, more space, OLED screen. Personally I'm waiting for this rather than upgrading to a 3GS.

There has been loads of buzz recently that the Apple will be announcing a Tablet PC in January. At CES Microsoft debuted some new tablets in the form of slates with the usual lack of flair that we have come to except with Microsoft and Tablet PCs.

Myself personally - I'm a very heavy iPhone user and after using the iPhone I strongly believe a multi-touch slate is the way of the future for personal computing. To me an Apple slate represents a broadening of the type of interaction first properly seen on the iPhone. For me it's simple - you can use a device interactively without using some stupid thing in the way like a pen for example. My kids are shinning examples of how using an iPhone or an iPod touch can be so easy. Both of my kids learnt to use a iPod touch within minutes without any real instruction. (My boy learnt on my iPhone at 6 and my girl recently on an iPod touch at 3!).

So it is with huge anticipation I was reading gizomodo tonight and the whole Apple Tablet debate is not just warming up but about the be a blazing fire! Some outtakes from the article:

• The rumor is that the device will be called the "iSlate". The domain iSlate.com has been traced to Apple as well as a shell company called Slate Computing which has some trademarks registered against iSlate.
• The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco has been booked out for late January by Apple - a place often used by Apple for big media announcements.
• The likely cost will between USD$700 and $900 which would see it land in NZ for $1300 to $1700 at my guess.
• The device is rumored to be smaller than Apple's current laptops but bigger than the iPhone or iPod Touch. 7", 9", or 10"? Most people are saying 10-11".
• The chip used could either be an Atom or ARM based. Likely to be ARM given Apple's recent purchase of PA Semi.
• It could use and OLED screen - but at the price above?

Hopefully it all comes true this month - I know personally I'll be lining up for one!