Jailbreak And Unlock iPhone 4

When the original iPhone was released on June 29, 2007, the cat-and-mouse game between hackers and Apple

had begun. Before the highly-anticipated launch, Apple had already announced on June 11 that year, that the iPhone will support only web-based applications, coupled with the fact that it will remain tethered exclusively to the AT&T network. These announcements were received with much resentment by the excited user community, since that meant slaughtering the true potential of Apple’s wonder-child. And hence the game started.

Editor’s Note: If you are looking for jailbreaking and unlocking guides, scroll to the bottom of this page. We will keep updating this page when new tools and methods for unlocking and jailbreaking iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad are released.

Just four days after the launch of the iPhone 2G, on July 3, 2007, DVD Jon bypassed the official activation procedure (through iTunes) and made the instructions publically available via the internet. Following suit, on July 10, the much-revered iPhone Dev-Team developed a partial unlock for the iPhone, allowing use of non-iPhone AT&T SIM cards with the device. Things began progressing.
On July 30, 2007, the first ever native, third party app was born; MobileTerminal, a terminal emulator application for the iPhone, had said hello to the world.
The month of August that year saw a rapid increase in hacking attempts, with British hackers especially keen on making the device work with non-AT&T SIMs, but the true breakthrough came on Aug. 24, when George Hotz (geohot) developed the first complete, hardware-based hack and unlock for his iPhone, and documented the procedure on his blog. This process got translated to many software-based unlocks, and we saw solutions like iPhoneSimFree, iUnlock, and AnySim (GUI based) surfacing rapidly, some free, some paid. Hackers eventually released a permanent jailbreaking tool for iPhone OS 1.0
With the release of firmware 1.1.1, Apple rendered many jailbroken devices useless. The iPod Touch 1st generation had also been released, and since it used the same firmware as the iPhone, it, too, was jailbroken using the same techniques.
On July 11, 2008, Apple released the iPhone 3G with firmware 2.0. July 20, 2008, the infamous Dev-Team released the great Pwnage tool (Mac only), offering the jailbreak in a GUI. The hacking game continued with iPod Touch 2G, and March 11, 2009 saw the release of redsn0w 0.1 (welcome Windows) from the Dev-Team, offering tethered jailbreak for iPod Touch 2G as well.
What had now begun was a chase for loopholes in Apple’s OS between the jailbreakers and Apple’s greatest minds. Hackers found and exploited loops, and Apple covered them up in their next OS release. In March 2009, Apple announced OS 3.0 for iPhones and iPod Touches, and three months later the Dev-Team released PwnageTool 3.0 and redsn0w 0.7.2, allowing jailbreak of both iPhone 2G and 3G, as well as iPod Touch running the new OS.
June through September 2009, Apple released not only the iPhone 3GS, but also the iPod Touch 3G and 2G MC models. The era also saw the OS going to version 3.1 (for which Dev-Team came up with Pwnage 3.1.3) and then to 3.1.2, for which the Dev-Team had no solution, and jailbreak community was left in the dark. All in all, it was ‘just another brick in the wall.’
On October 11, 2009, geohot again surfaced, ‘making it rain’ with his blackra1n tool, allowing jailbreak of all iPhones and iPod Touches upto 3GS and 3G, respectively, running firmware 3.1.2, although 3GS and iTouch 3G were tethered. Nov. 2, geohot updated blackra1n to RC3, adding the ability to tethered jailbreak iPod Touch 3G 8GB model, one that was using the latest bootrom. Hotz also released blacksn0w unlock for iPhone 3G and 3GS, capable of handling baseband 5.11.07.
At this point, it was expected that Apple would not release any new firmware update until the iPhone 4G, running OS 4.0, or maybe a new OS 3.2 would surface, at maximum. However, Feb. 2, 2010, out of the blue came firmware 3.1.3 upgrade, which not only closed the loophole used by blackra1n or redsn0w, but also upgraded the baseband to 05.12.01, which was unlockable by any means. Much speculation says that this release was intended only to force the jailbreak community to expose further known flaws in the OS, so that they can be patched before 4.0. However, if that was Apple’s intention, they failed miserably, since all the main players in jailbreak community refused to release any tool for this useless upgrade, and advised users to stick with 3.1.2.
Following is a chart from Wikipedia showing how hacks and new devices went head to head.

Good signs began showing just one week after this release, when @sherif_hashem found the first hole in the new baseband, which he handed over to the dev-team. Shortly after, @geohot and @musclenerd too, claimed to have found two working loopholes. However, no release was announced to make sure Apple doesn’t get what it aimed for with this 3.1.3 OS. Dev-Team tweaked the pwnage tool and redsn0w to make them capable of jailbreaking iPhone and iPod Touch on 3.1.3, but 3GS and 3G Touch were still left without solutions. A new player also entered the jailbreak game, iH8sn0w, with his sn0wbreeze tool, which allowed iPhone (all) and iPod Touch (1G and 2G only) to be jailbroken with 3.1.3, but with older bootroms only. 3GS was still tethered.
In the current scenario, situations have changed from what they were when the original iPhone was first launched. The world saw the first hack coming right after four days of launch, and it was at the time when the understanding of the OS was not very thorough. Today, not only does the hacking community better understand this Apple’s marvel of engineering, but also has three working loopholes already in their pocket. The number of players have also increased; Dev-Team, GeoHot, iH8sn0w are among the key players. Then there is the Chronic Dev Team, who are reportedly working on a new jailbreak tool, Greenpois0n, which is being held back only to see the release of iPhone 4G and the new OS 4.0, and utilize the flaw in Apple’s software for this major release.
Looming ahead is the anticipated launch of iPad, for which it has already been announced by Apple that it will not allow being tethered. Hence, jailbreaking the iPad has already become a priority for hackers.
The question now stands at this: what will Apple do? Will there be an OS 3.2 release? Will they directly go for iPhone and iPod Touch 4G, with OS 4.0? And when? How will the jailbreakers tackle this? Will they release a jailbreak/unlock if Apple goes for iPhone OS 3.2, or will they sit this one out as well? And more importantly, who will be the first to release the jailbreak/unlock for both iPhone 4G and iPad? Will it be the Dev-Team? GeoHot? iH8sn0w? Chronic Dev Team? Or some new player? Only time will tell.
Stay with us as we continue to explore new developments on this front. Our updates will continue to follow.
Update: The iPhone OS 4.0 beta has been jailbroken. We will keep you updated when it is released.
Update 2: Jailbreak for iPhone 3G OS 4.0 (beta 1) is out for developers. At this moment it is Mac only. Grab it here.
Update 3: The iDevices operating system will now be called iOS 4 and the devices will be named as iOS Devices. Follow the latest updates here.
Update 4: If you are looking to Unlock iPhone after upgrading to iOS 4, have patience. We will update this page as soon as it is out. Also note that iOS 4 only connects with iTunes 8.2.
Update 5: Jailbreak for iPhone 3G running iOS 4 GM is out, check the full step-by-step guide here.
Update 6: Unlock for both iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS running iOS 4 is out. Check out the full-step-by-step guide here.
Update 7: Redsn0w 0.9.5 has been released for Windows. Read the step-by-step guide for jailbreaking here and here.
Update 8: The unlock for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS running iOS 4 on all basebands, including 04.26.08, 05.11.07, 05.12.01, and 05.13.04 is out. Check out the guide here.
Update 9: Find out if your iPhone 3GS has a new bootrom or old bootrom with this simple tool iDetector.
Update 10: Looking to downgrade your iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS? Follow this guide.
Final Update: The most useful and easiest way to jailbreak your iPhone 4 is to use JailbreakMe. The unlock will be out soon and we will update this post when it is available. If you used JailbreakMe to jailbreak your iPhone 3G/3GS, running iOS 4.0/4.0.1, then follow this guide (for unlocking).

Ten reasons why an Iphone 4 is a bad idea

Steve Jobs, the Liberace of the tech world, showed off the latest Iphone 4 smartphone with the idea that it will replace his stonklingly successful 3G gizmo. However here are ten reasons why buying an Iphone 4 is not a good idea.
1. Most of the problems associated with living in Apple's walled garden are still not fixed. You are still too dependant on having Steve Jobs decide what you can download and when. Since Jobs thinks that Adobe Flash is bad and won't allow it on Apple devices, you can't see half of what's out on the web.
2. The name implies that it is a 4th generation mobile phone when it is actually still 3G. Apple says that it is the Iphone 4, however some might be dumb enough to believe that it can use the 4th generation wireless broadband standards, although it really can't.
3. The Iphone 4 appears to have trouble with WiFi. Apple is historically quite bad at engineering WiFi products that work. Many of its flaws have been related to Airport. When Jobs attempted to show off the Iphone 4 yesterday the WiFi did not not work. Jobs claimed it was because there were too many people using WiFi in the Moscone conference centre, but we have to take his word for that. The Apple Ipad has a similar problem in that you have to be practically sitting on a wireless router for it to get a decent WiFi connection. This is ironic as the Iphone 4 has a stainless-steel band around the outside edge that Apple says is designed to improve WiFi network reception, but it still doesn't seem to work very well.
4. The Iphone 4 is selling on its video-calling program, called FaceTime. However this is limited to WiFi networks for now, which means that the best thing about the Iphone 4 will not work in most locations unless you happen to be near a WiFi hot spot. Also you can only conference with other Iphone 4 users.
5. The Iphone 4, while thinner, still has that easy to slip out of your hands shape. This means that you have to buy those covers which bulk the thing out again. It also still has a plastic back which can be scratched and break.
6. A 16GB model is priced at $199, and a 32GB version will sell for $299. The markups on the devices are outrageous. The monthly charges on contracts are higher than with other smartphones because not only are the network operators subsidising Apple's ridiculously high prices for the devices, but Apple also demands a cut, said to be up to 30 per cent, of users' monthly charges, further driving up the cost.
7. Judging by Apple's previous behaviour the Iphone 4 will be out of date within a year, although most mobile phone contracts are for two years.
8. Something more Androidish in a smartphone does more for the same price, without the Apple lock in.
9. The Iphone 4 is built by Chinese wage-slaves working 12-hour shifts in conditions that have led to a rash of suicides, and Apple has called police to suppress freedom of the press. While the Iphone 4 is not 'less moral' than the Iphone 3G, users now have less excuse to turn a blind eye to how the product is made.
10. It uses Bing instead of Google for Internet search. µ

iPhone 4G problems

The iPhone 4G seems to attract problems. First, the phone was leaked long before Apple wanted it to be. Then, the iPhone 4G problems came in pre-ordering and delivery. Next, white iPhone 4G problems abounded. Now, the final straw – iPhone 4G reception is proving problematic.

iPhone 4G problems: Reception

Though the design of the iPhone 4G is geared toward actually improving the reception of the phone, many users have been discovering a quirk. The steel-band antenna around the iPhone 4G quickly kills all reception if a user touches the bottom-left corner of the phone. Apple’s solution to this problem is simply “just don’t hold the phone that way.” You could also spend money above and beyond the phone, iPhone apps, your data plan and your voice plan to get a case. Either way, the iPhone 4G reception problems appear to be an Apple-admitted design flaw. Perhaps duct tape would fix it?

iPhone 4G problems: Colors

Sure, there isn’t any difference in the technology behind the iPhone 4G black and iPhone 4G white, but there are “manufacturing issues.” The promised iPhone 4G white will not be available for at least a few more weeks, if not months.

iPhone 4G problems: Ordering and delivery

Though the problems with the iPhone 4G ordering and delivery are slowly working themselves out, it has been a long time coming. The promised delivery date for the iPhone 4G was changed several times. First, the online AT&T store crashed. Then, the Apple store shut down orders. Next, the delivery date was pushed back. Even still, some customers were told they had successfully pre-ordered a phone when they hadn’t, and visa versa. Finally, FedEx appeared to have iPhone 4G problems of its own — with delivery happening only sometimes.

iPhone 4G problems to come?

The iPhone 4G problems stem, partially, from the extreme demand for the device. However, there are structural problems that the iPhone 4G has which simply are not being fixed. IPhone 4G reception being killed by how most people hold the phone is a design “feature” that has existed since the last incarnation. Not having reception may be a good thing though — because AT&T’s new data plans are structured in a way that you will be able to download maybe 2 TV episodes before you go over data allowances for the month.
Are you having iPhone 4G problems? How have you fixed them?

Ten convoluted Solution for how to fix an iphone 4gs antenna

The Apple iPhone 4G was released to the slathering crowds of white guys with glasses who comprise the Lunatic-Grade segment of Apple's user base. Initially the phone was greeted with great acclaim, however within hours of its release, rumors began to circulate around the Internet about problems with the phone's reception, specifically with the placement of the antenna. By holding the phone in certain ways, cellular reception suffered dramatically. Holding the phone in your hand, for example, seemed to be a problem.
Because I've never missed the chance to take a drunken swing at Apple, upon hearing this news, I immediately donned my swinging pants and started drinking.
Swinging Pants.

Here then is a list of advice for how to correct you faulty iPhone 4G, assembled with the help of my tightest polyester pants--which although they may not possess the design flair the iPhone does, are measurably better at placing phone calls, if only because of the roll of quarters I keep in there at all times.

__________
Change Your Grip
By changing the way you hold your phone, you can uncover the antenna, a thin metal strip at the base of the phone, and improve your reception. Holding the phone with your left hand seems to cause the biggest reception problems, so try switching the phone to your right hand, grasping it lightly between your teeth or placing it between your breasts and shouting down your shirt during phone conversations.
Scotch Tape
By placing a thin buffer over the antenna, you can create enough of a gap between it and your meaty palm for valuable cellular gravitons to escape your sweaty clasp. Several blogs have reported that placing scotch tape over the antenna seems to do the trick, so you might want to give that a shot. Of course, whether you want to mar your beautiful new phone is up to you. Perhaps you could find a more stylish and attractive nationality of tape, like Italian tape?
Carrying Case
Carrying cases are those silicon and leather sleeves which fit over phones, and are used primarily by people who accidentally forget to not crack walnuts with their cell phones, or people who want to protect their phone's appearance by making it look horrible. Morons, basically. However, as with the Scotch Tape idea above, a carrying case can provide a gap wide enough for celluloidal transduction.

If you don't want to spring for an expensive and unattractive carrying case, consider homemade solutions. After conducting some experiments with objects I found around the Cracked offices, I've determined that placing your phone in an extra thick "Ruff-Rider" condom seems to improve reception in all situations and locales, and depending on the specific locale, can be a great way to get phone numbers that you can call later, further improving the utility of your phone.
Tin Foil
Covering your phone in tin foil will probably be more aesthetically pleasing than using a carrying case, as well as trick people into thinking you're talking into a powerful sandwich. It will however drastically reduce your radio reception, and has no place on this list. We apologize for including it, and for including this apology, which has only just further wasted your time.
Steel Bowl
Purchase a simple steel mixing bowl from a kitchen supply store, or make one yourself using basic metallurgical principles. Then, using your iPhone as a template, cut a rectangular hole in the bottom of the bowl, and mount the iPhone so the base protrudes into the bowl an inch or so. You've now created a rudimentary parabolic dish, and provided that you always keep your phone and neck angled in the direction of the nearest cellular tower, all of your life's problems will be solved.
"You've got to take me back Beth. I've turned my whole life around and... Hold on, I can't hear you. Yes, I'm listening to you, I just can't hear you. It's my phone. Hang on while I adjust this. I said hang on! ARGH JUST SHUT UP FOR ONE DAMNED SECOND, FOUL HARPY!"A Better Phone
By now, hackers have almost certainly cracked the 4G's security and are releasing updated firmware for the unit. By simply using this firmware, a better phone and some duct tape, you should be able to mount the other phone to your iPhone, tether the two, then use that phone's network access to make all your calls via Skype.
Hire a Child to Hand Deliver Messages
You know who has an iPhone now? Everyone. You know who gets children to hand deliver messages for them? No one. The last people to do it were the British rulers in 19th century India, and they seem like they had things pretty figured out.
"Dear Alice, today while strolling through the jungle, I realized I am an abominable monster."

In fact, the only potential downside to using children to ferry messages around for you is that you might start looking like a drug dealer, which, the more that I get into this sentence, I realize could actually be a pretty big problem.
A Strong Arm
This one's simple. Type in a text message, then throw your iPhone at the recipient. They read your observation, note down their reply ("lol wut") and throw it back.
Telephone
If you want to place a call to someone, simply whisper your message in to the ear of the person standing closest to you. Assuming they're cool, they'll pass it on to the person standing next to them, and so on. Eventually your recipient gets the message, and stands there angry and not laughing, because some idiot along the way got the inflection of your joke all wrong, and now your friend thinks you did horrible things to the corpse of his recently deceased pet, when really you were just kidding.
Break into Apple HQ, start shaking random Apple employees until they smarten up
This may be illegal, and the scientific literature reports inconclusive findings on whether intense agitation can increase intelligence. So bearing that in mind, we can only cautiously recommend this, and then only as a part of a regular fitness regime.

Apple releases the iOS 4.2 beta to developers

Apple has released the first iOS 4.2 beta to developers. The release will be available for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch. With the 4.2 release, the big news are perhaps to the iPad users, with the introduction of multitasking, folders and all the enhancements introduced by Apple with the iOS 4 series.
Two interesting new features are introduced with the iOS 4.2:
- AirPrint, that allows users to print documents through a wireless network connected to a printer;
- AirPlay, for the audio/video streaming sent through wireless networks to compatible devices.
The final version of the iOS 4.2 is scheduled to launch in November.

NEW cases and Accessories

Since the iPhone 4 body design is completely different from earlier models, it is physically incompatible with the majority of cases that were previously released for iPhone and iPhone 3G/3GS devices, save for sock-styled elastic sleeves. New cases have been announced by many leading manufacturers and are expected to be in stores within three or four weeks of iPhone 4’s debut. Early releases from Speck Products, Hard Candy Cases/Gumdrop, Incipio and United SGP are already available in some stores.
Apple has released its own “cases” for the iPhone 4 called iPhone 4 Bumpers, which sell for $29 each and come in six colors. The Bumpers are two-tone plastic and rubber bands that fit around the stainless steel edge of the iPhone 4, covering all of the metal while slightly recessing the device’s glass front and back in the process. Apple describes them as “a fun and unique way to personalize your iPhone 4,” and sells the six colors separately, without making any promises as to their protective virtues. They’re unimpressive for the price, and we wouldn’t recommend them except to especially desperate users.
iPhone 4 is electronically compatible with the various Works With iPhone (now Made For iPhone) speakers that have been released over the last several years, and has its own Universal Dock Adapter insert, sold in three-packs by Apple for $9. It also remains compatible with car kits, headphones, and other accessories that have been released for the iPhone: as the included Earphones with Remote and Mic suggest, the headphone port continues to support Apple’s three-button remote controls and microphones. Charging continues to work with prior-generation iPhone chargers.
Like the iPhone and iPhone 3G/3GS, iPhone 4 also has its own Dock, which is considerably smaller than Apple’s device-agnostic Universal Docks, and designed solely to hold the iPhone 4 without a case—it doesn’t work with Bumpers, either. Mesh-grilled bottom vents enable the speakerphone to work while in the Dock, and as always, Dock Connector and line-out ports are found on the back. It’s the smallest iPhone dock yet released, and one of the smallest docks Apple has ever released for a portable device.

IMovie

In addition to support for gyroscope-assisted six-axis motion controls, hardware that’s presently unique to the iPhone 4 but will likely appear in future iPod touch and iPad models as well, iOS 4 is capable of running first- and third-party iPhone 4-specific applications, including iMovie for iPhone, which are prevented from running on earlier iPhones due to screen and processor hardware differences. The number of iPhone 4-only applications is currently tiny, with screen- and gyroscope-based applications outnumbering ones that require iPhone 4 processor hardware for other reasons.
iBooks. Apple’s free ePub and PDF reading application iBooks 1.1 runs on iPhone 4, with the same features discussed in our iBooks 1.1 review from earlier this week. On iPhone 4, text and graphics alike benefit from four times the screen resolution of the iPhone 3GS, a fact that enables iBooks 1.1 on the iPhone 4 to display more words on an ePub-formatted book’s page than on earlier iPhones, but fewer than on the iPad. The application is otherwise the same from device to device.
iMovie for iPhone. Released the morning of June 24, Apple’s $5 video editing program iMovie for iPhone is a miniaturized and streamlined version of the Macintosh iLife program iMovie ‘09, enabling iPhone 4 users—and only iPhone 4 users—to perform more sophisticated movie making than with the device’s built-in clip editor: photos, music, text, and transition effects can be added to video clips, which can be cut and spliced together. The program outputs files at 360p, 480p, or 720p HD resolution for instant viewing through the iPhone, recompressed YouTube, MMS, or e-mail sharing, and full-sized synchronizing to a computer. We will review iMovie for iPhone in a separate article.
Third-Party Applications. Developers have scrambled to release updated versions of their earlier iPhone applications with higher-resolution graphics for the iPhone 4 screen, and/or support for the multitasking features of the iOS 4 operating system; a couple of others have debuted new applications with iPhone 4 support built in. Several noteworthy initial titles include:
Pandora and Slacker Radio. These applications allow you to stream music from Pandora and Slacker Radio, competing on-demand Internet Radio companies whose software lets you create “stations” with songs similar to ones you already enjoy. On iOS 4, these apps can now run in the background while you’re using other programs, identically to the integrated iPod music player, but with greater battery drain and the need for an Internet connection to load new songs.
Real Racing. Firemint’s breakthrough 3-D racing game for earlier iPhones has seen repeated updates to improve its performance from generation to generation of Apple’s devices. This week, a new free update added improved graphics on the iPhone 3GS and iPod touch 3G, as well as high-resolution artwork and gyroscope support for iPhone 4 players. Real Racing’s tracks now curve without jagged polygonal lines on the iPhone 4.
Turn-by-Turn GPS. TomTom hurried to update its same-named GPS navigation software for iOS 4, resulting in a version that looks nearly identical from device to device, but features smoother and more accurate vector and rotation data on the iPhone 4 versus the iPhone 3GS. By contrast, our favorite iPhone 3GS navigation program, the less expensive CoPilot Live 8, displays a scrambled screen when used on iPhone 4—it is in need of an update.
Rubik’s Cube. This application simulates several different variations on the real Rubik’s Cube, as well as ones that wouldn’t be possible in the real world. iPhone 4’s gyroscope is used to rotate the Cube, while you touch its surfaces to solve each puzzle.
Eliminate Gun Range. Ngmoco’s game is a series of shooting ranges that are unlocked by hitting a specified number of targets per stage, with multiple guns that are unlocked by succeeding on multiple stages and earning credits. Though the stages are highly repetitive, the game demonstrates both the possibilities of the iPhone 4 gyroscope and the detailed graphics that can be placed on the screen.

Additional apps

The following applications received only minor updates, generally higher-resolution text, on iPhone 4.
App Store. As a main Home Screen application, App Store is the most important shopping app bundled with iPhones and iPod touches. Unlike iTunes, it is solely devoted to selling and giving away additional apps for Apple’s portable devices, including iPhone 4, and instantly installs each app after wirelessly downloading it. As with iTunes, cellular downloads are limited to a maximum of 20MB per app, though any sized app can be downloaded over Wi-Fi, assuming you have the space. There are no iPhone 4-specific enhancements to this application apart from higher-resolution text and images.
iTunes. As a main Home Screen application, iTunes is the second of two shopping apps now bundled with every iPhone and iPod touch. It sells music, movies, TV shows, audiobooks, and ringtones from Apple’s iTunes Store, while offering free downloadable access to the Podcasts and iTunes U sections of the Store. Cellular downloads are limited to a maximum of 20MB per file, though any sized file can be downloaded over Wi-Fi, assuming you have the space. In addition to swapping the prior text and graphics for identical versions at higher resolutions, iTunes on iPhone 4 defaults to offering users the higher-priced HD versions of movies and TV shows, adding an “Also available for purchase in standard definition” button to the bottom of each listing page. “The HD version of this movie will be downloaded to this device and the SD version will be available for download to your computer,” it says, without noting that the iPhone’s wireless transfer times for even the SD versions can be very long.
Calendar. As a main Home Screen application, Calendar shows the current day of the week and month on the iPhone’s Home Screen, and opens to reveal three types of calendar views: a list of all upcoming events, a list of the day’s events, or a grid-styled month view with a scrollable list of each day’s events at the bottom of the screen. Calendars can be synchronized from a Mac, PC, or online account using iTunes. There are no iPhone 4-specific enhancements to this application apart from higher-resolution text.
Contacts. Placed by default on the second Home Screen, this application merely duplicates the functionality of the Phone application’s Contacts button, providing you with an editable list of names, addresses, phone numbers and dates that can be used for phone calls, FaceTime video calls, e-mails, map searches, web pages, and birthdays of your friends, family, and business contacts. With the exception of higher-resolution text and photos, as well as the additional FaceTime button that appears at the bottom of a contact’s listing if you’re on Wi-Fi and FaceTime is enabled, Contacts is the same on iPhone 4 as on earlier iPhones.
Stocks. As a main Home Screen application, Stocks enables you to track the prices of a scrollable collection of publicly traded stocks, as well as industrial averages, with links to related news stories and up to two-year price charts for each entry. Apart from higher-resolution text and images, there are no iPhone 4-specific enhancements to this application.
Weather. As a main Home Screen application, Weather provides six-day forecasts for multiple cities, with one six-day high/low/condition chart per page. Apart from higher-resolution text and images, there are no iPhone 4-specific enhancements to this application.
Notes. As a main Home Screen application, Notes provides a yellow notepad for keyboard entry of text notes, as well as the iOS 4-enhanced ability to automatically wirelessly sync the notes you create with some Mac and PC e-mail programs and multiple IMAP e-mail accounts. Apart from higher-resolution text, there are no iPhone 4-specific enhancements to this application.
Clock. As a main Home Screen application, now hidden within the Utilities folder, Clock includes four features: user-selectable world clocks to track times around the globe, multiple alarms to wake you from ringtones, a stopwatch with a lap timer, and a countdown timer with a ringtone sound. Apart from higher-resolution text and images, there are no iPhone 4-specific enhancements to this application.
Calculator. As a main Home Screen application, now hidden within the Utilities folder, Calculator features both standard and scientific calculation features, alternating between the simpler and more complex interfaces based on how you turn the iPhone. Apart from higher-resolution text and images, there are no iPhone 4-specific enhancements to this application.
Nike + iPod. Hidden on the iPhone 4 unless you enable it from the Settings application, Nike + iPod is a fitness application, designed solely to be used with the $19 Nike+ Sensor and optional Nike+ remote control accessories. Nike + iPod provides voice and musical accompaniment while you run or walk, using the Sensor to track the distance you’ve covered while calculating the time and calories burned through each workout. Nike + iPod syncs your workout information to iTunes and the Nikeplus.com web site. Apart from higher-resolution text and images, there are no iPhone 4-specific enhancements to this application.

Settings, Messages, Mail, Compass, Maps and GPS, and Safari

The balance of iPhone 4’s applications are largely identical to the ones on iPhone 3GS apart from the impact made by their higher-resolution fonts and imagery. We note the basic features of these well-established apps, as well as iPhone 4 changes, below.
Safari. Located initially in the bottom-of-screen Dock, Apple’s web browser uses iTunes-synchronized and other bookmarks, or manual keyboard entry, to guide you to web pages that have been scaled down to fit the iPhone’s screen. It can keep up to eight pages open at once, though it typically dumps and reloads pages that weren’t recently used in order to free up memory. Safari benefits from higher-resolution text and graphic capabilities than the version found on prior iPhones, though large scaled-out web pages remain nearly as difficult to read with the additional microscopic pixels as they were without them.
Maps and GPS. As a main Home Screen application, Maps provides users with instant access to Google’s satellite and street level photographs of the world, as well as line art renditions of streets, realtime traffic data, and a massive points of interest database. Individual locations can be looked up, and turn-by-turn directions calculated in text form, with the barest assistance from a blue pulsing GPS dot and an integrated compass.
Apart from the higher-resolution imagery it displays—smooth-curved line art and more detailed photography—and the benefits it derives from the iPhone 4’s more stable compass (see Compass, below), there are no iPhone 4-specific enhancements to this application. Maps still does not provide spoken turn-by-turn directions, automated guidance, or a widescreen mode akin to the iPad’s, though it remains capable of using your Contacts database to locate addresses.
It’s worth a brief note that third-party turn-by-turn navigation applications and Maps both benefit from what seems to be more accurate, timely GPS data by comparison with the iPhone 3GS. The same TomTom application running on both devices simultaneously showed smooth driving paths and roughly time-accurate turns on the iPhone 4 but not the 3GS, which lagged a little behind and struggled with turns. Our belief is that the turn performance has improved in part because of…
Compass. As a main Home Screen application, now hidden initially within the Utilities folder, Compass uses a magnet-based sensor inside the iPhone to determine your rough cardinal orientation, and the GPS to give you your current longitude and latitude. A button press takes you over to Maps to see your position on a satellite image of your neighborhood. In the past, Compass frequently brought up magnetic interference warnings and was less than totally reliable at judging the current direction, floating 20 degrees even when being held still. On iPhone 4, Compass provides what appears to be a more reliable, stable current orientation, potentially due to the device’s new gyroscope hardware, which most likely accounts for iPhone 4’s superior judgment of turns during use of Maps and third-party navigation applications.
Voice Memos. As a main Home Screen application, now hidden within the Utilities folder, Voice Memos enables users to record audio using either the iPhone 4’s integrated microphones or one attached to either of its accessory ports. It also provides simple trimming and sharing tools, enabling audio clips to be sent via the Messages or Mail applications depending on your needs. Apart from a subtle redrawing of the old-fashioned microphone graphic used on the main screen, which appears in lower-resolution form on iOS 4.0-installed iPhone 3G and 3GS devices, there are no iPhone 4-specific enhancements to this application. Notably, Voice Memos does not appear to benefit from the noise-canceling microphone system on iPhone 4, as ambient noise is recorded as clearly as voices are.
Mail. Located initially in the bottom-of-screen Dock, this application collects and sends e-mail from multiple accounts you’ve synchronized with iTunes or set up on the device. It can display the contents of PDF, Office, and iWork documents either within e-mails or using a full-screen viewer, as well as opening certain documents in separate standalone applications—including Apple’s free downloadable iBooks. Mail does not benefit from any obvious iPhone 4 hardware-related changes other than text and image detail tweaks.
Messages. As a main Home Screen application, Messages sends abbreviated text, audio, photo, and video messages using the cellular phone network rather than e-mail, with a set charge for each message sent or received by your phone. On iPhone 4, Messages benefits from being able to send pre-recorded photos and videos from the device’s front-facing camera, a method of quickly communicating more personally even with people who don’t have iPhone 4s for video calling purposes. The text used in this application is noticeably a little thinner than on the iPhone 3GS and earlier iPhones, which may make it a little more difficult for some users to read.
Settings. As a main Home Screen application, Settings is a text and list-based collection of iPhone-wide and application-specific settings, varying between on-off switches, sliders, buttons, and text entry forms. It hides a huge collection of important device features, including switches to turn on and off iPhone’s cellular, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth wireless capabilities, change its default ringtone, wallpapers, and screen brightness, and tweak the behaviors of both Apple and certain third-party applications.
There are very few changes to the Settings application for iPhone 4. The Wi-Fi option looks no different from iPhone 3GS or iPhone 3G, but now finds and joins 802.11n 2.4GHz networks in addition to 802.11b and g networks. Included wallpaper looks the same as on iPhone 3GS, but contains higher resolution versions of the same artwork and photography. Under Regulatory, which shows the international certifications iPhone 4 possesses, the new device is shown to have far fewer regulatory approvals than iPhone 3GS, pending its release in additional countries. The Restrictions menu for iPhone 4 adds a FaceTime on/off switch, which enables the FaceTime feature to be locked down separately from the Cameras, which are collectively locked with another switch. On a related and final note, the Phone menu includes a switch to turn FaceTime on and off; if disabled, callers will not know you have FaceTime as an option, and will not be able to send FaceTime requests.

Camera, Photos, Youtube, Ipod

Camera. Located on iPhone 4’s Home Screen, Camera is the single most improved application on iPhone 4, backed by some of its most impressive new hardware. The heart of Camera remains its ability to capture still photographs that are instantly ready to share via e-mail, but successive gradual improvements to past iPhones have added one-tap focusing, video recording, and most recently a 5X digital zoom to certain earlier models. On iPhone 4, there are now two cameras to choose from, each with still and video capture capabilities, and the rear camera has optional assistance from a small but bright LED flash.
As noted in earlier sections, one camera faces frontwards and offers VGA-quality resolution, while the other camera faces backwards and has a 5-Megapixel (2592x1936, or 5,018,112 pixels) sensor. When the rear camera is active, a button on the top left of the screen toggles the LED flash between auto, on, and off settings, while a top right button switches between the cameras. Tapping on the screen to focus in still camera mode also causes a sliding digital zoom bar to appear; adjusting it does nothing more than create a cropped version of the 5-Megapixel original image, blown up to fill the same 2592x1936 pixels of a fully zoomed-out image. This isn’t a replacement for an optical zoom lens, but serves as a convenient alternative to using a third-party application to crop the raw image taken by the camera.
The rear-facing camera’s sensor has seen tremendous quality and speed improvements from the ones on past iPhones. It doesn’t just capture bigger and more detailed pictures than before under a wider variety of lighting conditions—it also snaps and saves shots quickly enough to let you grab new full-resolution images roughly once per second. Even in the dark of night with limited outdoor lighting, iPhone 4’s new backlit photo sensor is capable of capturing usable—albeit grainy—images, and its LED flash is optimized to brighten up subjects several feet away from the device. Under poor light outdoors the camera has more of a tendency to exhibit slight motion blur because it’s keeping the shutter open longer, but some shots come out stable, and the results compare so favorably to prior-generation iPhone cameras that it’s hard to really complain.
We shot photos in pitch black rooms that were illuminated only by iPhone 4’s LED flash, and though they’re pared back in color rendition in a manner that approximates Sony’s NightShot night vision camera features, they capture so much more detail than earlier iPhones that the results aren’t even comparable. The shot above shows a picture taken in a hallway that was pitch black, other than illumination from the iPhone 4 LED. Autofocus was dicey under low-light conditions like this, but otherwise remarkably good.
Under superior lighting conditions, iPhone 4’s camera really begins to shine. Images fall only modestly short of the dynamic range seen in low-end to midrange point-and-shoot cameras, and in some cases look indistinguishable apart from resolution; in other cases, color bleed and blown-out colors make iPhone 4’s images look less polished than they could be. While iPhone 4 lacks for optical zoom, it has great macro and depth of field capabilities, enabling deliberate blurring and sharpening effects that are more impressive than on iPhone 3GS or most point-and-shoot cameras. A tap on the screen shifts the focus to nearby or faraway subjects, softening either the foreground or background even if you’re very close to the object you’re shooting. Moreover, the images are instantly GPS tagged, then preserved at full size or resized at your choice of three smaller sizes for immediate e-mailing, features that very few cameras offer today. Consequently, iPhone 4 can serve as a truly viable substitute for a low-end still digital camera, handily surpassing its capabilities while on the road or in the dark. Photos transfer at full resolution to your computer’s photo management program upon wired connection, generally ranging from to 1.2 and 3.1 Megabytes each, depending on the color spectrum and detail captured by a given shot. A complete collection of photos comparing the iPhone 4’s camera to a Canon PowerShot S90 is available on Flickr.
Video from the rear camera is a somewhat different story, though not a bad one. It’s recorded at an unchangeable 1280x720 resolution—720p in TV parlance—which is achieved by a combination of resizing and substantially cropping the output of the 5-Megapixel still camera. As a result of the cropping, and despite a change in aspect ratio that might normally make videos look wider than photos, videos shot through the rear camera actually have a much narrower width than still photos, appearing more like closeups than wide shots. Within minutes of our first comparative test, it was obvious that videos were being recorded with considerably greater actual detail than ones created with the iPhone 3GS—iPhone 4 isn’t just creating oversized files from a low-end sensor. The iPhone 4’s ability to change focus during video recording distinguishes it from low-end standalone digital camcorders such as Flip’s Ultra HD, which maintains a nearly fixed focus that keeps everything looking pretty sharp, rather than being capable of deliberate artistic blurs.
However, the iPhone 4 rear video camera’s focus system, sensor, and overall performance make comparisons to rival products somewhat challenging. Because of its ability to shift focus, iPhone 4 is more versatile than low-end video recording rivals, but videos may accidentally wind up looking a little softer if the tap-to-focus feature is used incorrectly. The sensor captures a ton of detail at 1280 by 720 resolution, but also exhibits a jelly-like jiggling effect when it’s moved around, and tends to blow out sunny backgrounds relative to foregrounds. A sample video we filmed shows the camera hunting for the proper balance of sky and foreground colors, and other videos showed a decidedly brighter, arguably overexposed tendency, improving the color balance only when the tap-to-focus feature was used. We would give the iPhone 4’s camera the edge on detail per frame under the right circumstances, with superior macro performance and a tie at distance shooting, but the Flip Ultra HD takes the edge on automatic color balance. They’re a rough draw. But the fact that a very popular phone is capable of rivaling a physically larger, single-feature device should be a point of serious concern for Flip and similar budget camera developers. A collection of videos comparing the iPhone 4’s video to that of the Flip Ultra HD and iPhone 3GS can be found here.
Videos created by the iPhone 4 rear video camera are saved by default as 1280x720 (wide) or 720x1280 (tall) depending on the orientation you’re holding the iPhone in at the start of recording—tall videos are presented right-side up, but look odd playing back on a monitor. They’re encoded with H.264 for video at a data rate of 10.5Mb/second, and monaural AAC format audio at 44.1KHz. Expect 30-second clips to consume around 41 Megabytes at full resolution, or roughly 82MB per minute.
iPhone 4 automatically compresses the 720p videos for e-mailing. Sample files arrived at 568x320-pixel resolution (or, when tall, 478x849 resolution) with a data rate of roughly 0.78 Mb/second, including monaural AAC audio at 44.1KHz. A 30-second video clip thereby shrinks to 3 Megabytes, or 6 Megabytes per minute. In addition to the loss of resolution, compressed video is noticeably softer than the original video, and compression artifacts are occasionally noticeable—no huge surprise given that over 90% of the original data is being lost during the compression process. Videos are capped at a little over 5MB for e-mailing, so you’ll need to choose your favorite 52 or so seconds of any longer video in order to meet the cap.
By comparison, videos and still photos shot with the front camera both are recorded at 640x480 resolution, without any change in aspect ratio, and benefit less from the quality and focus improvements of the rear camera. This camera is really designed to be used with FaceTime and for low-quality self portraiture, but its recordings are entirely usable, just with reduced detail, and downscaled to 480x320 resolution—again, softening the quality—when e-mailed. The front camera has poor low-light capabilities, impacting both recording and FaceTime video calling features in dark rooms; stick with the rear camera for proper low-light results.
Photos. As a main Home Screen application, Photos is designed to display individual photos and albums synchronized using iTunes, as well as pictures and videos made with the iPhone’s camera, and images captured using either the iPhone’s screenshot creator, the “save image” feature found in Safari, or image saving tools in some third-party apps. Though Photos now supports “Faces” and “Places” sorting of images, features carried over from the Mac application iPhoto ‘09, these features are part of iOS 4 for earlier iPhones, as well; the only changes on iPhone 4 relate to the very obvious visual improvements offered by the new 960x640 display, which make pictures look more detailed and color-accurate than before. As with iPhone 3GS, the iPhone 4 version of Photos contains a Camera Roll that holds both pictures and videos taken by the built-in cameras. It features the same photo transitions found on iPhone 3GS.
iPod. Located initially in the bottom-of-screen Dock, Apple’s iPod application is a storage and playback area for music, movies, TV shows, podcasts, and audiobooks, capable of playing individual files, playlists, or randomized collections. It performs audio through the iPhone’s speaker, headphone port, or Dock Connector port, and video through either the screen or the Dock Connector port. As with the speakerphone, iPod output through the bottom speaker is louder on the iPhone 4 than on the 3G and 3GS: setting the 3GS at maximum is equivalent to the iPhone 4 at around 70%, and the iPhone 4’s a little clearer at that level, with room to go louder.
As a music player, iPhone 4 is virtually the same as the very good- to excellent-sounding iPhone 3GS: for instance, headphone port audio between the devices is not identical, but might as well be. We tested the iPhone 4 against the iPhone 3GS using three different pairs of high-end earphones, including two different versions of the $1,150 Ultimate Ears UE 11 Pros and Shure’s $500 SE530s, finding that the iPhone 4 had what sounded to be a very modest, targeted reduction in treble, which in some songs resulted in a softening of sizzle and a very slight lessening of sharp treble detail in others The difference was so minor that we had to listen to numerous songs repeatedly to hear it; users of most headphones will never notice the change. We’re still finishing testing of the Dock Connector audio, but it suffices to say that the sonic similarities between the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS from the bottom port appear to be very considerable.
As a video player, iPhone 4 is largely excellent, and more capable than iPhone 3GS in several ways. First, as noted earlier in this review, the 960x640 iPhone 4 display is capable of rendering greater than DVD-quality detail natively, so standard-definition movies and TV shows look as sharp and colorful as they would on a great home TV. Additionally, the iPod application benefits from support for HD video playback—downsampled from a maximum of 1280x720 resolution down to some portion of the 960x640 iPhone 4 display, or output via video cables (sold separately) to a separate TV or monitor. With Apple’s Component AV Cable, DVD-quality videos can be output to a TV at full resolution, and HD videos are automatically downsampled; the Composite AV Cable is built for older, lower-resolution displays. Unlike earlier iPhones and iPod touches, iPhone 4 works with Apple’s iPad VGA Adapter to connect to VGA cable-equipped computer monitors, and it’s subject to the same limitations when using that accessory: neither HD nor SD iTunes movies will play through the Adapter, but self-encoded movies at 720p or lower, and HD or SD iTunes TV shows will play without complaint. iPhone 4 also supports unconverted playback of 720p Motion JPEG AVI files created by certain digital cameras, a feature that makes more of a difference on the iPad, where it was first introduced, than here.
YouTube. As a main Home Screen application, YouTube is a browser for the Google-owned video sharing service, enabling users to stream free videos directly from YouTube’s servers to the iPhone screen. Though Apple doesn’t market YouTube as having improved over the iPhone 3GS version it largely resembles, the new application does play back HD versions of YouTube videos when it finds them over a Wi-Fi connection, resulting in visibly but not hugely improved detail relative to the standard-definition versions of the same videos—the difference is not as noticeable as it is when playing HD YouTube content on an iPad. That having been said, recently encoded SD and HD videos viewed on YouTube are hugely better on iPhone 4 than early YouTube videos were two years ago on earlier models, and are capable of being output through video cables as an alternative to the iPhone’s built-in screen.