So the Stevenote announcing the iPhone 4 happened a couple of days ago. I've been thinking about what was announced, trying to decide if it's worth upgrading from my current phone (3GS). I probably won't rush into it and pre-order one, but... While most of the updates that have been made seem nice, I can see that there's two things that I'm not going to be able to fairly quickly dismiss as trivial.
Firstly, I'm a sucker for a nice screen. I've got a feeling that when I get the chance to play with one of the new iPhones I'm going to be suddenly very dissatisfied with my 3GS. Not that I think the 3GS screen is bad - I'm very happy with it. I watch quite a few movies and TV shows on it, I use it a lot as an e-reader, as well as for general casual web browsing. You can definitely see the pixelation though. (As a side note, why on earth did Apple design the iPad to be the resolution it is when they were bringing this to market so soon afterwards? I wish I could see the chain of reasoning that Apple went through to reach that conclusion.)
I've got a feeling the difference between 3G & 4 is going to be like the jump to HD TV. I wasn't really at all excited about HD TV, until I saw one in person showing a good quality HD signal. I was totally blown away, and started planning to get one. I'm a bit like that with sound quality as well, I guess most people are to some extent. (Another side note - most Australian HD broadcasting is terrible! There should be a compression limit you can't cross and still call it HD.)
The other really nice feature for me is the 720p video recording. I've been looking to replace my current handycam with something newer. Something cheap and cheerful like the Flip or one of those waterproof Kodak ones was seeming like a pretty good way to go. Depending on the quality of the video from the iPhone, those two could be pretty much crossed off the list. iPhone already one-ups them in one respect at least with the led "flash".
I'm really eager to see some actual footage recorded with the iPhone. Apple does have one snippet here. It does look fairly nice, with a reasonable amount of detail in the waves and froth crashing on the beach, but I'd really like to have some original "as recorded" video to download.
Still, with the iPhone not coming to Aus until (at least, if the iPad launch is any judge) July, I've got a bit of time to mull over any purchases.
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