By: Chris Pope –  TechJives.net / CEDSolutions.com

Steve Jobs takes the stage around 10:00am PST with the words “It’s great to be here”, one loud audience member yells “We love you Steve!” and Steve’s reply… “Thanks.. I think”. Anyone watching the growing sensation that Apple’s co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs has become might note that although he’s skinnier and a little more pale than the past, his powerhouse presence on stage is still going strong!

• Glass on the front and the back
• Stainless steel on the sides which is used as part of the antenna
• 24% thinner than the original iPhone
• 9.3mm thick
• Thinnest smartphone to date
• Front and back cameras with LED flash
• New volume button designs
• Micro-SIM support
• Mute
• Noise Cancellation Mic
• Sleep and Wake button
• Support for Wi-Fi, UMTS, GSM, and BT
• Retina Display which can increase pixel density and generate a “Really really sharp text”
• The display is 326 ppi (Pixel Per Inch). Also stated “Once you use a rentina display you can’t go back”
• Resolution is 960×640 800:1 contrast ratio
• 3.5 display which is the same as the previous size
• Apple A4 chip (such a small chip will provide great battery life)
• 32 GB storage capacity
• 7.2 mbps download support
• 5.8 mbps upload support
• 802.11n dual support
• 3-axis for pitch/roll/yaw
• 6-axis motion sensing
• CoreMotion API (Excellent addition for gamers!)
• 5 megapixel rear camera with illunimating sensors
• Camera has 5x zoom within the camera app including tap to focus and LED flash
• HD recording capabality with the camera at 720p 30fps (also includes built-in editing)

Steve Jobs thinks the new display will set the standards for the next 7 years. He made the comment “We don’t think anybody’s going to come close”. One of the comedic moments of the presentation is when Steve Jobs tries to demonstrate the Wi-Fi features and is unssuccessful. An audience member yells out “Try using Verizon!”. After leaving the stage and allowing other people to address the crowd, Steve later returns and states that 570 Wi-Fi stations are currently in the room and asks yet again to please turn off Wi-Fi devices and shut down laptops.

iPhone OS 4 Facts (Now called iOS 4)

• The iPhone OS 4 is now renamed to “iOS 4”
• Has over 1500 APIs
• 100 new user features
• New Multitasking support

• Includes themes, titles and transitions
• Records directly into a timeline
• Works almost exactly like the desktop version with the exception of a smaller screen
• Camera can record geolocational information into the video
• Ability to add music, including items from the iPod library
• Starting price will be at $4.99

• 8 GB 3GS iPhones will be priced at $99 with a new 2 year contract
• 16 GB iPhone 4 will run you $199 with a new 2 year contract
• 32 GB iPhone 4 is priced at $299 with a new 2 year contract

• iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 Support
• Anywhere there is Wi-Fi
• Zero setup required
• Portrait and landscape
• Front and rear camera
• Amazing video and audio quality

The iPad

Steve began his keynote by talking about Apple’s “magical” device known as the iPad. “A whole new way to interact with Internet” as he put it. Over 2 million iPads have been sold, which is approx one iPad every 3 seconds since the release back in April. The iPad is now available in 10 different countries throughout the world and that number will grow to 19 within the coming weeks.

Publishers have taken a huge interest in developing newspaper apps and other eReader type of material for the iPad. One might speculate that alot of the publishers out there really haven’t got much of a choice consider the massive demand and success of this device.

iBooks

The use of iBooks is one of the very next things Steve movies into after talking about the iPad, stating that over 5 million books were downloaded in the first 65 days of the iPad release, which comes out to around 2.5 per iPad. Steve ends that comment with “Terrific”. 5 of the 6 biggest publishers in the United States are stating that the iBookstore has 22% of the market of eBooks now.

Some of the new iBook features will include new bookmark capabilities, in-line note Post-it like features as well as the ability to read PDF using iBook format. Speaking of the PDF feature, they are updating the software with a new bookshelf that will be dedicated directly for that format.

App Store

In discussing the App Store, Steve begins by talking about the dual nature of support for open HTML5. In stating this, he always mentioned that Apple’s browsers are currently leading in HTML5 support. Developers have had and will continue to have the right to write apps for the iPhone OS and MAC using the HTML5 format.

• There are now over 225,000 apps in the store with around 15,000 apps submitted per week.
• A surprising 95% are approved within the first 7 days of submission.
• Over 5 billion total downloads on the App Store last week
• Over $1 billion paid to developers

Netflix App

CEO of Netflix Reed Hastings takes the stage to discuss the Netflix App.

Hastings stating the following:

• Stop, Pause and Resume functionality included on any device that supports the app, as well as queue management cabilities.
• An Adaptive bitrate feature allows the capabality of switching between networks on the go.

Farmville App

CEO of Zynga Mark Pimcus took the stage to discuss Farmville on the iPhone. Farmville is slated as having over 70 million monthly active users which blows away records of any web based online gaming community.

Functionality of the iPhne app includes:

• Most of the same functionality as Facebook
• Push notifications as one might expect

Guitar Hero

Activision SVP Karthik Bala discussed the new mobile Guitar Hero. Fuctionality of the new Guitar Hero includes:

• Multi-touch Strumming
• Customizable 3D rock stars
• Gameplay that matches the classic versions as closely as possible

Finishing Comments
In finishing up this article I would like to make it clear that although I might have thrown out some silly sarcasm about certain things, I like many others have drank the Apple cool aid and plan to get the new iPhone 4G as soon as I can!

Feel free to email any questions or comments at Chris (@) TechJives.net (Email split up to protect from spam bots)

Chris Pope is a Certified Technical Trainer for CED Solutions in Marietta, Ga as well as he hosts numerous podcasts for The Tech Jives Network. You can also follow him on Twitter at http://www.Twitter.com/thechrispope