Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage today at the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, where he unveiled the next-generation iPhone. The already much-anticipated product announcement drew even greater attention in the wake of the now-infamous leak of an product prototype to tech blog Gizmodo in April. Here, live reaction to the new product from across the blogosphere:
At long last, the price tag: "So when will you be able to get an iPhone 4 and for how much? The iPhone 4 will cost $199 for a 16-gigabyte model and $299 for a 32 GB model. The iPhone 3GS will drop to $99. The new phone will go on sale in the United States and four other countries on June 24, and on presale June 15." — NYT
(2:45 p.m.)
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You won't be able to video chat with just anyone: Of course, the new FaceTime feature "only works on Wi-Fi and only between iPhone 4s. Older phones are shut out." — Yahoo News
(2:34 p.m.)
Mobile video chat — the future is now: Jobs unveils the new "FaceTime" video chat feature. "Video and audio quality is great." — Mac Rumors
(2:34 p.m.)
Amazement in advertising: The new in-app video advertising service — known as iAd — "really looks amazing. It is also interactive. ... You can enter a contest through the ad to win a car. And you can shake the iPhone and change the color of the car." — NPR
(2:28 p.m.)
Coming soon, iBooks on your iPhone: "The [iBooks] software is now available on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. ... Users will be able to download the same book to all devices at no extra charge. (The audience claps, but I think this is the same as Amazon's Kindle software.)" — WSJ
(2:22 p.m.)
Steve Jobs talks up his operating system: "He calls it 'the most advanced mobile operating system in the world.' And he gives it a new name, dropping the 'phone' part. It is now iOS 4, since the software powers non-phone devices like the iPad and the iPod Touch. Of course, it has multitasking, a feature that Android phones have had for some time." — NYT
(2:11 p.m.)
Now you can make high-quality movies on your smartphone: "Wow. They just showed off a film recorded and edited using the iPhone. It looked amazing." — NPR
(2:03 p.m.)
iPhone 4 will compete with flip cams: "Camera is upgraded to 5 megapixels, with 5x digital zoom and the aforementioned 'illuminated sensor' (don't call it a flash -- Apple hates Flash). Also records video in HD resolution. Flip cameras are in trouble." — Yahoo News
(1:56 p.m.)
New feature, a gyroscope: "It provides six axis motion sensing and it's perfect for gaming. ... It’s a pretty amazing the way you can rotate around and move objects inside of the iPhone. He’s got a big fake wooden block in the viewer and he’s pulling out strips of wood." — NPR
(1:53 p.m.)
Oops — the Wifi went out in the middle of his presentation: "Mr. Jobs is staying calm, but one can imagine his internal fury, given the enormous amount of prep that goes into these things. 'I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to show you much,' says Mr. Jobs as he sighs. (Wonder who will get fired for this. Or maybe there will be a new venue next year?)" — WSJ
(1:47 p.m.)
A new high-resolution display: "As rumored, 960 x 640 pixels of resolution on the 3.5-inch display. That's unheard of on a cell phone and actually approaches what most smaller laptops have. 78% of the pixels that the iPad has." — Yahoo News
(1:46 p.m.)
It really is better: The difference between the old iPhone and iPhone 4 "is fairly amazing." — Mac Rumors
(1:43 p.m.)
iPhone, squared: The new iPhone "is a bit more squarish than the old ones. It is 24 percent thinner too, just 9.3 millimeters. ... As expected, the phone has a front-facing camera, useful for video chats." — NYT
(1:36 p.m.)
More than 100 new features: "Mr. Jobs declares: 'We're going to take the biggest leap since the original iPhone ... this is really hot ... well over 100 features.' No one has ever called Mr. Jobs modest." — WSJ
(1:34 p.m.)
Still ahead of the competition (for now): "Now Jobs is talking about the iPhone. In first quarter of 2010, he says, iPhone market is over three times that of the Android. There’s a chuckle in the audience." — NPR
(1:30 p.m.)
Size matters: "I wonder if watching movies on Netflix will be as popular as Netflix on iPad. I really don’t like watching movies on a tiny screen." — NPR
(1:19 p.m.)
'Netflix, at long last, is coming to the iPhone': "Looks a lot like the iPad application, letting you stream video and manage your queue on your iPhone. ... And — big news — it will work over the cell phone network as well as Wi-Fi. AT&T must be cringing already." — Yahoo News
(1:16 p.m.)
iPhone sales, by the numbers: "Mr. Jobs begins his keynote with a discussion of the iPad. It is mostly stuff we already knew: Apple has sold more than 2 million iPads, one every 3 seconds, since the tablet was released. It is now available in 10 countries, and Mr. Jobs says that Apple is working to produce them as fast it can. There are 8,500 native apps for the device, downloaded 35 million times, or 17 apps per iPad." — NYT
(1:08 p.m.)
He's received like a rock star: "The crowd is going nuts as Steve Jobs takes the stage. The cell phone truly is today's cigarette lighter in concert halls." — WSJ
(1:03 p.m.)
Apple's had an incredible run — will it continue? "It seems like the last year in particular has been more of a frenzied media circus than in the last decade. Apple is so clear the hot company right now. When Steve Jobs opens his mouth everyone seems to dwell on his every word." — NPR
(12:41 p.m.)
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