Date Added: 13:11 PM, 14 June 2010 | Author: Ian Crow
Hot on the heels of the release of the iPad, Apple has now announced the launch, later this month, of the iPhone4. http://www.apple.com/iphone.
The current iPhone is one of the most iconic designs in mobile phone history, along with the “banana” phone from Nokia and the first clamshell or flip phones from Motorola it will feature in history books (or blogs) for decades to come.
However clever the design is for the iPhone it does have its weakness, namely that the phone is poor and despite the hugely successful App Store you can only use one app at a time. Phone’s using the open Google Android system are catching up with the current iPhone so it was only a matter of time before Apple put that right and upgraded their market leading product.
The iPhone 4 is a major upgrade featuring the following changes
Upgrade to the operating system using the same A4 chip that drives the IPad, giving greater battery life, faster processing and allowing multi-tasking
Upgrade the camera to 5Mp, so you can shoot HD movies and edit them using iMovie and post to YouTube all from your iPhone
In addition to the upgraded camera you get a front facing camera, allowing video phone calls over a wireless network, albeit to only another iPhone 4. Apple are calling this Facetime and is making the software available to developers to extend the feature beyond Apple products.
There are improvements to the size, (25% thinner than the current phone) and the glass (which is on the back) is antiscratch, similar to that used in watches.
There are many other smaller enhancements which make the iPhone top of its league again. Apple has always taken ordinary features and made them much better and easier to use. Google Android phones can already multitask, but have nowhere near the number of Apps available in their “App store”. Video calling has been around for a while if you use Skype, but the quality is poor and not too reliable, Apple’s version will be significantly more intuitive. The camera upgrade is nothing special but with I-movie added it gives the iPhone something no camcorder can do.
For those of you who reads my blogs regularly I am the proud owner of an iPad (http://www.pelicanpress.co.uk/Blog.aspx?id=8) and I can see most of these upgrades coming the way of the iPad, especially if they get a forward facing camera in the iPad for video calls.
The iPhone is now starting to be used in the printing world. At IPEX Heidelberg announce the launch of an App that mean a press’s performance can be monitored from your phone; give key performance indicators of uptime, number of sheets printed and reporting any faults. A number of pre-press suppliers are developing Apps so that artwork can be uploaded straight into your print providers workflow and it follows that proofs can be viewed on your iPhone (although the iPad will be better for this with its bigger screen).
We are also in discussions with a number of software providers about developing an App for Pelican Press. The App will give you up to date information about lead times and allow you to get simple quotes on your phone in the same way you do with our online quoting now.
We are only scratching the surface as far as Apps are concerned and how technology will improve the print process. The future looks very interesting.
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