Hasta La Gadget!

Teardown king iFixit posted this exploded view of the iPhone 4.

Hardware and software tests of the iPhone 4 and iOS 4 have started to show up, and there are a few surprises. Those brand-new iPad owners looking jealously at the fancy new iPhone can relax, though: The iPad is still the fastest piece of Apple mobile hardware out there.

MacRumors has run the numbers using benchmark Geekbench and Checkup apps for iOS, and although the tests were complicated by the fact that not all the test software runs on all the platforms, the iPad came out tops, closely followed by the iPhone 4, with the iPhone 3G coming in last.

This is a little mysterious, as iFixit, the King of the Teardown, has already ripped open the iPhone4 to reveal that it does indeed use the same 1-GHz A4 processor as the iPad, and also has double the RAM (512 MB vs. 256 MB). We strongly suspect that the chip is being underclocked inside the iPhone to both keep things cooler in the tight confines of its case and to conserve battery life.

The iFixit teardown reveals some other surprises. The battery is not soldered in place, making it easy to replace. Very easy, in fact, as the two screws on the bottom edge release the back glass-plate panel, giving instant access to the battery. Not so good is the new bonded display. It may be tougher, and make the pixels look closer to the surface, but the glass, LCD and digitizer are all one unit, meaning cracked screens will be a lot more expensive to replace.

But what of older hardware? Well, if you have the older 3G, you might not want to upgrade the OS. Flickr user Adrian Nier has posted a side-by-side video of two iPhone 3Gs, one running the new iOS4 and the other still on iOS 3.1.3. In the video, he tests the startup time and the camera, loads a web page (the now-traditional NYT, of course), and accesses the settings. Surprisingly, the phone running 3.1.3 is significantly, obviously faster. See for yourself:

This is not so surprising. The iPhone 3G is capable of running iOS4, but doesn’t get many of its goodies, including multitasking. It is also a three-year-old hardware design, and if you bought one back then, you should be eligible for an upgrade to the new iPhone anyway. For the record, my latest-gen iPod Touch (32 GB) runs as fast as it did before. There seems to be no slowdown on an already very fast device.

To delve even deeper into the innards of Apple’s latest, head over to Chipworks, which carries on where iFixit leaves off. If you want to see pictures of the new 5-MP camera’s sensor taken with an electron microscope, that’s the place to go.

iPhone 4 Teardown [iFixit. Thanks, Kyle!]

Apple iPhone 4 Smart Phone — Teardown to the Silicon [Chipworks]

iPhone 4 is Faster than 3GS and Slower than iPad in Early Benchmarks [MacRumors]

iOS 4 Performance on iPhone 3G Camera and Settings [Adrian Nier/Flickr]

Image: iFixit

See Also:

• Gallery: iPhone 3GS Teardowns Reveal Underclocked CPU, More
• Teardowns
• iPad Dissection Reveals Its Secret Powers
• For iFixit, iPad Is D-Day + Super Bowl + Oscars

The official Twitter app is keeping up with the times by rolling out iOS 4 support in its latest build. With the program now able to run in the background, you’ll finally be able to send tweets while switching in and out of other applications. It also means you won’t have to relaunch the app every time you want to check up on the latest happenings, it’ll just keep your place like a good and loyal piece of software. Retina Display-friendly graphics are also part of the new package, along with “more secure” tweeting, if you ever felt insecure about the integrity of you shorthand missives. All it’s missing now are the millions of “sent from my iPhone 4” messages, a gap we’re sure you’ll be filling pronto.

Twitter for iPhone now ready for iOS 4 multitasking originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 02:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just when you thought a few lucky customers beat the rest of the world to getting an iPhone 4, some technology journalists with early access to the device just published their reviews.

Apple typically handpicks a select group of publications to get early review units, and the first round of reviews comes from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Engadget and others.

The reviewers agreed that the iPhone 4’s hardware is state-of-the-art industrial design. However, they debated about whether the handset solves the iPhone’s biggest recurring problem: handling phone calls on the overloaded AT&T network.

Priced at $200 for the 16-GB model and $300 for the 32-GB model, the iPhone 4 hits stores Thursday (though a few lucky pre-order customers are getting theirs as early as today).

Excerpts from the early reviews are as follows:

Josh Topolsky, Engadget:

The big question is obviously whether or not this fixes or helps with the constant dropped calls iPhone users on AT&T’s network have gotten used to. Well in our testing, we had far, far fewer dropped calls than we experienced on our 3GS. Let’s just say that again: yes, the iPhone 4 does seem to alleviate the dropped call issue.

Walt Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal:

In both hardware and software, it is a major leap over its already-excellent predecessor, the iPhone 3GS.

It has some downsides and limitations– most important, the overwhelmed AT&T network in the U.S., which, in my tests, the new phone handled sometimes better and, unfortunately, sometimes worse than its predecessor.

Xeni Jardin, Boing Boing:

The fourth incarnation of Apple’s iPhone is an incrementally improved, familiar device — not a new kind of device, as was the case with the recent introduction of iPad…. Apple’s focus on improvement is as much key to the quality of its products as innovation. But there’s one flaw it doesn’t eliminate: the unreliable quality of calls placed over AT&T, which remains the iPhone’s only U.S. carrier.

David Pogue, The New York Times:

With the iPhone 4, Apple tried to relieve the wigginess [of phone calls]. 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. The new phone is also better at choosing the best channel for connecting with the cell tower, even if’s not technically the strongest one. (Ever had four bars, but a miserable connection? Then you get it.)

Edward Baig, USA Today:

Cutting through the hype, Apple has given longtime diehards, and first-time iPhone owners, plenty to cheer about.

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

AT&T announced today that folks who didn’t pre-order their iPhone 4 devices won’t be able to get phones in stores until June 29.

Even pre-orders are in question, in fact: according to AT&T’s announcement page, “AT&T retail representatives will begin calling customers this week to let them know their iPhone 4 is available for pick up in store.” Notice the words “this week” and “begin.”

The official launch date for the iPhone 4 is Thursday, June 24, but some people who pre-ordered phones for home delivery on June 15 are starting to see them arrive early. Phones pre-ordered now will ship by July 14th, Apple says on their Web site.

Apple, however, will still have phones in retail stores on Thursday. On the official pre-order page, Apple says, “Limited iPhone quantities are available in store starting June 24.”

AT&T and Apple were overwhelmed by the pre-orders for the new iPhone 4, saying that they had processed more than 600,000 orders on the very first day of pre-ordering, June 15.

Aw, suki suki now! Looks like we’ve got our first iPhone 4 delivery here in the US, a full 24 hours before the first batch is supposed to land. The best news isn’t that throngs of pre-orderers are seeing their units “out for delivery” today, but that this Mac Rumors user was able to activate his unit already in seamless fashion. ‘Course, we highly doubt it’ll be so easy for everyone else crashing the servers tomorrow and Thursday, but there it is. So, anyone else seeing their iPhone 4 marked as “out for delivery?” Or better still, “in hand?” Give us a shout in comments below.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Update: We’ve moved the FedEx image past the break, as one lucky Mac Rumors member already has his in hand. And so it begins. [Thanks, Adam]

Update 2: A reader has sent us over the above picture of his own brand new iPhone 4, which has only just arrived. [Thanks, Mark!]

Continue reading First iPhone 4 units being delivered

First iPhone 4 units being delivered originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:06:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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