Since Apple launched the first iPhone 3 years ago, the mobile phone industry has rapidly advanced, with most of today’s phones now offering apps, internet browsing and an email facility. Apple are seen as the leaders in innovation, with many other companies having to update their own products to compete with what Apple brings to the table, as Apple always seem to be in the forefront with new technologies. This does however mean that Apple have an increasingly difficult job to task, responding to companies such as Google, who are forever on their tails. With the release of the iPhone 4, Apple hopes to once again revolutionise the way we chat, whilst keeping competitors at bay!

The new iPhone 4 has a new look and feel, it has more of an industrial, functional look – it has rid the smooth shapely curves of previous models and it is 24% slimmer than its predecessors. The material used to make it has been designed to make it tougher and scratch resistant; in fact it is actually made from the same material used for helicopter windscreens.

Every iPhone 4 has a new feature called ‘Facetime’. The front of the iPhone 4 has a VGA camera, so you can see, and be seen by the person you are speaking to. These video calls will be made over a Wi-Fi network. Video calling never really took off in the UK, as the quality was so poor, but ‘Facetime’ has created something dramatically different – the images and sound are both extremely clear, with the audio also keeping in-sync with the video. Apple are actually planning to share this technology with other mobile phone companies, to actually make it a worthwhile tool – as let’s admit it not everyone has, or necessarily wants an iPhone.

The screen quality has vastly improved and Apple claims that the pixels are so small they cannot be detected by the human eye. The screen resolution is four times that of the previous model, meaning that anything on screen is pin-sharp, facilitating the introduction of iBooks. The pictures almost pop out of the screen, thanks to the clarity of items on screen – who needs an iPad?!

iPhones have never really had fantastic photographing capabilities, and Apple really needed to assess this to stay so strong within such a competitive market, and this they have done, and raised the bar. The camera has a built in LED flash and a five-megapixel camera, making the iPhone capable of taking amazing shots, even in lowlight conditions. The new front facing camera, used for ‘Facetime’ can also be used for taking self-portraits – something which can often be quite difficult. The iPhone 4 can also capture high-definition 720p video at 30 frames per second. Videos shot with this look fantastic, and can be edited on the phone with the newly introduced iMovie app, something which competitors will surely worry about.

With all these additions one has to think practically – what about the battery life? Well Apple have thought about this and improved it massively. The iPhone is also a lot nippier, and Apple have added the long-awaited feature of multitasking. This enables the user to open several apps at the same time, and switch between them instantly, freezing the application rather than leaving it running in the background. This means that there is no slow down in performance and has less of an impact on battery life. There are a couple of downsides to this though. As the apps are paused, applications like Facebook and Twitter do not continue to pull updates as you are working on something else. This is also restricted to apps which have been developed to run with iOS 4, however good news for 3GS users, they can download a software update for the new operating system, hence use the multitasking tool.

Overall, once again Apple have created a cracking smartphone - no wonder people were queuing since 5am in London on the launch day, and that pre-orders had reached unprecedented levels of around 600,00 on the first day they were available! They are very pricey at the moment, but it just shows how quickly technology is moving forward, and how Apple strive to maintain their market position. ‘Face-time’ really will revolutionise the way we communicate – better make sure we’re always looking good, you never know when it may catch you out!

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