“It is,” Pogue reports.
“The new phone uses the same custom chip that’s in the iPad; it’s really, really fast. It makes a difference every time you tap the touch screen” Pogue reports. “It’s not the first phone with both a front and back camera. It’s not even the first one to make video calls. But the iPhone 4 is the first phone to make good video calls, reliably, with no sign-up or setup, with a single tap. The picture and audio are rock solid, with very little delay, and it works the first time and every time. This feature, called FaceTime is pure Apple.”
Pogue reports, “However, you can enjoy this classic ‘show Grandma the baby’ fantasy only if you and Grandma both have the iPhone 4, and only when you’re both in strong Wi-Fi hot spots. Both limitations may change in time; other software companies are free to create FaceTime-compatible programs for other gadgets. And Apple implies that next year, you’ll be able to make such calls over the cellular airwaves. Clearly, Apple is giving its ball and chain, AT&T, time to get its network ready.”
Pogue reports, “The new screen, with greater contrast, is excellent. It packs in four times as many pixels as before; at 326 dots an inch, it’s now the sharpest phone screen on the market.”
“Now, peculiar as it may sound, phone calls have always been the iPhone’s weak spot. It took too many steps to dial. Audio quality wasn’t state-of-the-art. And from Day 1, dropped calls in several big cities have driven people there wiggy,” Pogue reports. “With the iPhone 4, Apple tried to relieve the wigginess. Sound is much better on both ends of the call, thanks in part to a noise-canceling microphone and an improved audio chamber (which also helps speakerphone and music sound). The stainless-steel edge band is now part of the antenna…. Does any of this mean no more dropped calls in New York and San Francisco? No. But there do seem to be fewer of them.”
Read the full review here.
MacDailyNews Take: Ball and chain.
Seems a little high on snark, even for Pouge. And why does he throw a bone to Android? Not one of Pouge’s better efforts IMHO.
One thing that many of you have failed to notice is that Google is a fifth columnist.
It has allowed the Android platform to be used as the springboard for Asian competitors to colonize the American tech marketplace. Look at the Android smartphones: Asian Android makers thump American Android players by miles. HTC’s Evo leaves Google’s Nexus One and Motorola’s Droid in the dust.
Asian players don’t give a hoot about rhetorics such as “open” and “free choice” and they are happy that American players are tying their own hands and feet with such nonsense. They are getting a free lunch at the expense of American stupidity and naivety.
Asian competitors are learning fast and moving up the food chain while American players are content with the same mediocrity and lack of imagination. Soon another industry will be lost and Asian manufacturers will be collecting toll from American manufacturers because American commodity and copycat manufacturers have lost the art of design and panache. So far Apple is one of the rare few remaining that is holding the fort.
I believe David was being facetious when “praising” the competition.
AT&T;etc etc etc!
Uh—when I was running around Manhattan for a week recently, my iPhone 3GS mostly DID work. The only place I couldn’t use it at all, was inside the Met (although I could get reception in the courtyard with the skylight)
@rwahrens
@silverwarloc
Glad to know many DC natives are on here. AT&T service has been fairly decent around here. My problem has been on 395, just as you leave the city and are on the bridge, I lose my signal EVERY time. Seems like a weird place to lose it is so close to the capitol and the pentagon.