Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you get in touch with technology? With
Speaker 1: tech Stuff from how stuff works dot com. Hello again, everyone,
Speaker 1: welcome to tech Stuff. My name is Chris Pollette and
Speaker 1: I'm an editor here at how stuff works dot com.
Speaker 1: Standing across from me as always, the senior writer, Jonathan Strickland.
Speaker 1: Just remember what your old friend Jack Burton says, Yes, sir,
Speaker 1: the check is in the mail. All right, then that's
Speaker 1: that's from That's from Big Trouble in Little China. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's a great movie. Has nothing to do with our
Speaker 1: podcast today, No, because we're actually going to talk about
Speaker 1: the the iPhone for Yes, this was a topic that
Speaker 1: we ever received many, many many requests about. In fact,
Speaker 1: we received requests about it before the iPhone for debuted.
Speaker 1: And here's a secret for you guys. We don't get
Speaker 1: uh pre release devices ever. Really uh. We don't have
Speaker 1: companies send us these things. We don't review them. So
Speaker 1: it's hard for us to report on things that haven't
Speaker 1: come out yet because we don't get our hands on
Speaker 1: them ourselves. We have to rely on information just like
Speaker 1: most of you do. But now that the iPhone ford
Speaker 1: has been out for a while, and uh for a
Speaker 1: while being a couple of days. Uh, we can kind
Speaker 1: of talk a little bit about it and what makes
Speaker 1: it different from the previous iPhones. Now, we are going
Speaker 1: to avoid, for the most part, discussions of iOS four
Speaker 1: because we're going to do that in a separate podcast,
Speaker 1: since the operating system works on devices besides just the
Speaker 1: iPhone four, So we're mostly going to look at the
Speaker 1: hardware here and what we may talk about a couple
Speaker 1: of features that are iOS for you know, features, but
Speaker 1: they're unique to the iPhone four right now, so let's
Speaker 1: start by talking about how it's different from previous iPhones.
Speaker 1: And if you were to set an iPhone for next
Speaker 1: to an iPhone three G S, you would notice some
Speaker 1: differences right away. That's for one thing, it's flat like
Speaker 1: an halibut. Yes, and an alibut his name is eric Um.
Speaker 1: So the old ipho three G and three gs. And
Speaker 1: actually that every design up until the iPhone four had
Speaker 1: kind of a rounded back, yes, which meant that it
Speaker 1: wouldn't sit flat when you set it down on a tablet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well not. It kind of wobbled a little bit because
Speaker 1: it was rounded just enough so that it would kind
Speaker 1: of not sit perfectly flat UM, and some people thought
Speaker 1: that was irritating. Some people didn't care. In fact, a
Speaker 1: lot of the reviews I've read where they've talked about
Speaker 1: the design, they've said, you know, we didn't have any
Speaker 1: issues with the old design, but it is kind of
Speaker 1: cool to see a new design. The Apple is moving forward.
Speaker 1: They're not resting on their laurels. Well, this one is
Speaker 1: flat flat can flat on both sides, and glass on
Speaker 1: both sides. That's true on like previous versions, UM, the
Speaker 1: the iPhone four has glass on both sides. UM. It's
Speaker 1: point three seven inches thick, four and a half inches tall,
Speaker 1: two point three one inches wide, waste four point announces
Speaker 1: has a three and a half inch display with pixels
Speaker 1: per inch UM and the glass, by the way, it's
Speaker 1: aluminum based ceramic glass. It's very, very tough, although you know,
Speaker 1: don't go playing soccer with it because it will break.
Speaker 1: If you drop your iPhone four and it breaks, and
Speaker 1: you say, well, tech stuff said it was really tough.
Speaker 1: I think when they say really tough, they're saying, well,
Speaker 1: we figured eventually got to put it in a pocket
Speaker 1: with your keys, and it might win a fight with
Speaker 1: your keys or your cat's claws, but it probably will
Speaker 1: not win a fight with a set of concrete steps.
Speaker 1: It might not even win a fight with your keys
Speaker 1: over a prolonged, prolonged use. So here's the thing, is
Speaker 1: that the iPhone four is brand new, so it's really
Speaker 1: until people have had this for a while, and these
Speaker 1: these phones have had some uh some pretty good use um,
Speaker 1: and we're not really going to know for sure. We're
Speaker 1: not gonna know it. Maybe that the scratches show up
Speaker 1: in time, but but it seems to be a pretty
Speaker 1: hardy design so far. Also, that that glass we talked about,
Speaker 1: it has an oleophobic coating which is supposed to kind
Speaker 1: of keep smudges away. Uh, it's supposed to, you know,
Speaker 1: the oleophobic means that the oils and your skin aren't
Speaker 1: supposed to be able to cling to that glass. It's
Speaker 1: supposed to not accumulate um. But from what I've seen,
Speaker 1: it's a smudge magnet um. If it's like the coating
Speaker 1: on my first generation iPod Touch, it's how we're going
Speaker 1: to do a reasonably decent job at avoiding smudges. If
Speaker 1: it's more like the coating on my iPad um. It
Speaker 1: will end up needing to be wiped down about every
Speaker 1: twenty three seconds or so. Yeah, I'm thinking it's going
Speaker 1: to be more like the iPad um. So the especially
Speaker 1: from what I've been reading. I don't own an iPhone
Speaker 1: for nor do I, so we can't really talk about
Speaker 1: this from personal use perspective. Um, I have held one alert? Yeah,
Speaker 1: where was that? I got friends who own one? You've
Speaker 1: been cheating on me with other people who know things
Speaker 1: about tech I've got all right, I've got some friends
Speaker 1: who are Apple fanatics. Yeah, I mean I'm I like Apple,
Speaker 1: all right. I know I got the anti mac bias
Speaker 1: rep early on and tech stuff, but that's just not true. Um,
Speaker 1: but I'm not a fanatic. You know. I don't go
Speaker 1: out there and buy the product as soon as it
Speaker 1: hits the market. I do that for Android. Uh. The
Speaker 1: I've never I've never stood in a line for an
Speaker 1: Apple product, And that's not true. That was the very
Speaker 1: first iMac. That was the last time I stood in
Speaker 1: a line. So you're older and wiser now, at least older. Well,
Speaker 1: I just don't feel like standing a line anymore. So
Speaker 1: you're older and lazier now. So the Yeah, the the
Speaker 1: it's a it's a neat little device. I mean it's
Speaker 1: you know, it's nice design. I like it a lot.
Speaker 1: They have they have done have made quite a few
Speaker 1: improvements to it. For example, the camera. Yes, it's a
Speaker 1: five megapixel camera. Yes, UM has a larger the the
Speaker 1: most important thing since we've done the megapixel myth busting
Speaker 1: in our previous podcast. And it has a larger image sensor. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's got it's got a really good color detection and
Speaker 1: uh contrast features as well. From what I understand, the
Speaker 1: pictures that you take with this camera do tend to
Speaker 1: be very sharp and and the colors are very true
Speaker 1: to what the actual colors are. So apparently, you know,
Speaker 1: as a camera in a phone, it serves quite well.
Speaker 1: And and in fact we should go ahead and say
Speaker 1: there's not just one, there two because it's one on
Speaker 1: the back that that it has people traditionally use I
Speaker 1: guess if you will, for the for taking photos that
Speaker 1: you might say upload to Flicker or you know, put
Speaker 1: on your Facebook profile. That's that's the big one. That's
Speaker 1: that's the larger photo size and UM photo sensor on it.
Speaker 1: So yeah, there's a forward facing in and back facing camera.
Speaker 1: The forward facing camera is used for other features like
Speaker 1: FaceTime when you can also use the back facing camera
Speaker 1: for FaceTime if you want to. And we'll get into
Speaker 1: FaceTime and a little bit. That's one of those i
Speaker 1: iOS four features that is unique right now to the
Speaker 1: iPhone four. Yes, I'm sure eventually it will come to
Speaker 1: other devices, but right now the iPhone four is the
Speaker 1: only thing that can run it. Um. Before we leave
Speaker 1: the camera thing, though, you feel like I should mention
Speaker 1: the l E ED Oh yes, it has a flash.
Speaker 1: I feel like if it's an l D maybe we
Speaker 1: should put flash in quotes. But it does function that way.
Speaker 1: You can turn it on even for video mode. If
Speaker 1: you want to record video. You can use your I
Speaker 1: S I phone for for that purpose. Hello, let me
Speaker 1: trip over that. And uh, you can use the LED
Speaker 1: flash to take still photos or leave it on for
Speaker 1: video recording. Yeah. So now you don't have to worry
Speaker 1: about those low light situations as much, where you know,
Speaker 1: you take the photo and then eventually you look at
Speaker 1: it and you realize you can't make out any of
Speaker 1: the details. The l a ED should help a little
Speaker 1: bit with that. Not grant, you're still not gonna be
Speaker 1: able to go into pitch black and rooms and take
Speaker 1: a picture and expect full D detail. But it'll help. Um,
Speaker 1: you were mentioning the display, the three t six pixels
Speaker 1: per square inch display, it's a the The full resolution
Speaker 1: is ninety six forty pixels. UM that three six pixels
Speaker 1: per square inch. The the When Jobs announced this at
Speaker 1: the Worldwide Developers Conference, UM, he called it a retina display,
Speaker 1: and the claim was that the human eye is only
Speaker 1: capable of detecting around three hundred pixels per inch at
Speaker 1: a distance of around ten or eleven inches from your face.
Speaker 1: That's not entirely true, um, Your ability to detect that
Speaker 1: kind of resolution. The number of pixels per inch depends
Speaker 1: on several factors, the main one being distanced from your eyes.
Speaker 1: So yeah, between like nine and twelve inches. It maybe
Speaker 1: somewhere in the realm of four hundred pixels per inch.
Speaker 1: That's not to say that the display isn't gorgeous. It
Speaker 1: is beautiful. It's probably the best looking display I've ever
Speaker 1: seen on the phone. I still haven't seen one in
Speaker 1: person yet. I have not seen the EVO, which has
Speaker 1: a very good screen as well. But out of all
Speaker 1: the ones, I have seen. It is the sharpest image
Speaker 1: I've ever It's beautiful. The colors are very vibrant. Um.
Speaker 1: You don't really see that pixelation that you can see
Speaker 1: on a lot of other devices. So even though the
Speaker 1: claim that this is that it's a greater resolution than
Speaker 1: the human eye can possibly detect is probably not entirely accurate,
Speaker 1: I don't think it matters. That's nitpicking. Yeah, Like if
Speaker 1: I were to stand up, Mr Jobs, I I beg
Speaker 1: to differ at ten inches, I can detect four hundred
Speaker 1: and seven pixel per edge, and that's greater than your
Speaker 1: three whatever. Um, I would expect to be ejected immediately
Speaker 1: from the conference because that is nitpicking. The display is
Speaker 1: a amazing um so. Uh. Another thing that you'll notice
Speaker 1: if you're just looking at the phone before you've even
Speaker 1: turned it on. It has buttons. Yes, it does have buttons. Yeah,
Speaker 1: something that you don't expect to see on an Apple device.
Speaker 1: Necessarily they try to get away from that as much
Speaker 1: as possible. But yeah, it has has dedicated volume up
Speaker 1: and volume down buttons as opposed to the little mono
Speaker 1: button that it used to have. Yeah. Yeah, they found
Speaker 1: out that people actually want that. I think. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think I think it just works better. Also, another thing
Speaker 1: that is noticeable is that it has sort of an
Speaker 1: aluminum border along the edge. Well it's not actually aluminium, No,
Speaker 1: it's not, but that's what looks like, oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's Um, it's actually that's the that serves as an antenna.
Speaker 1: Actually to antennas, yes it does. There's one that's the
Speaker 1: WiFi Bluetooth antenna. One that's the edge three G antenna.
Speaker 1: This also has caused some issues which I guess we
Speaker 1: can talk about really quickly. Um. It turns out that
Speaker 1: if you hold the phone a certain way known as
Speaker 1: now and forever the wrong way, um, that you could
Speaker 1: bridge the gap between these two antenna and by bridging
Speaker 1: the gap, you sort of create one long antenna. And
Speaker 1: the thing about antenna, one of the things about antenna
Speaker 1: is that, uh, the length of the antenna helps determine
Speaker 1: how efficient that antenna isn't picking up the signals. It
Speaker 1: needs to be a particular length in order to pick
Speaker 1: up certain frequencies of radio signals efficiently. So if you
Speaker 1: hold the phone in a certain way so that you're
Speaker 1: bridging that gap, you've created a long antenna. It's not
Speaker 1: as efficient at at picking up signals, and you may
Speaker 1: notice that your reception suffers as a result. People have
Speaker 1: said that, you know, they'll look at the phone, it'll
Speaker 1: have let's say four bars of reception, and then they
Speaker 1: pick the phone up and they look at it and
Speaker 1: it either loses one or two bars immediately. Well, it's
Speaker 1: because they're bridging that gap. Apple's response to this, Steve
Speaker 1: jobs response to this actually in an email, was you're
Speaker 1: holding it wrong. So either don't hold it that way,
Speaker 1: or buy one of our Apple iPhone four cases that
Speaker 1: will create you know, by putting it into the case,
Speaker 1: you no longer going to have contact with the antenna.
Speaker 1: You won't make that problem happen. Uh. This has caused
Speaker 1: some journalists to criticize Apple because it's the first time
Speaker 1: that they've offered an actual Apple case for for one
Speaker 1: of their products for sale for one of their products,
Speaker 1: and the well, not the only time, but yeah, that bumper,
Speaker 1: And it does appear in the sense that it's not
Speaker 1: a this instead of going with the third party thing,
Speaker 1: they've gone this is an Apple produced case that is
Speaker 1: supposed to solve this problem, and it's an additional thirty
Speaker 1: dollars so for the say conspiracy theorists. They might say, oh,
Speaker 1: so you're not going to give us a free uh bumper,
Speaker 1: which is what Apple is calling it. Um, so you're
Speaker 1: automatically you knew about this and you're doing this. This
Speaker 1: is what some conspiracy or they're or they're just saying like, oh,
Speaker 1: so what you're telling us is you've you've got a
Speaker 1: flaw on your design. And instead of instead of fixing
Speaker 1: it or giving us a fix the legitimate customers, you're
Speaker 1: telling the customers like, oh, well, here's the device, but
Speaker 1: if you want to work, you need to buy this.
Speaker 1: It's almost like extortion. Um. That's what some people are
Speaker 1: criticizing Apple about again. UM. Now, personally, I did not
Speaker 1: notice this because I did not know about that that
Speaker 1: particular issue when I was handling the iPhone for so
Speaker 1: I didn't even think to look for it. Um. I
Speaker 1: had not heard about it. So I can't report from
Speaker 1: personal experience if it's you know, the case or not. Well,
Speaker 1: apparently some it seems to affect people who are left
Speaker 1: handed a little bit more frequently. Yes, And I am
Speaker 1: of the sinister persuasion, so it would hit me. Um.
Speaker 1: And apparently a from what I read there is a
Speaker 1: left handed uh group and that center group, Yeah, that
Speaker 1: sent a criticism to Apple about it. UM for what
Speaker 1: it's worth, And I mean, I haven't used it, and
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's anything uh, you know, wrong,
Speaker 1: if they're actually doing something for for nefarious purposes or not.
Speaker 1: But let's just say it's it's part of the design. UM.
Speaker 1: Ours Technica actually talked to UM, an organization known as Antennesis. UM.
Speaker 1: They're involved with mobile device antennas and UM Basically they
Speaker 1: asked them, you know, is this legitimate? Is there you know,
Speaker 1: something strange going on? And apparently from what from what
Speaker 1: Antennesis told Ours Technica, UM, the iPhone four isn't the
Speaker 1: only phone to have a some kind of problem along
Speaker 1: these lines. UM. Partly this is because of FCC restrictions
Speaker 1: on where radiation can emit from a phone, and they
Speaker 1: try to put uh the antenna towards the bottom, away
Speaker 1: from your head, towards where your job would UM. And I'm,
Speaker 1: you know, thinking back on it my motor role razor
Speaker 1: back a couple of years ago when I used one
Speaker 1: of those the antenna is, if I'm not mistaken, down
Speaker 1: towards the bottom, the fat end of the phone where
Speaker 1: the microphone is as well. Um, because they don't want
Speaker 1: that up near your brain, I guess. Um. So apparently
Speaker 1: others like the HTC Droid Incredible um and Google's Nexus
Speaker 1: one Android phone and some Nokia phones also have a
Speaker 1: version of this problem where the antenna is placed on
Speaker 1: the outside of the case and you can actually touch
Speaker 1: it and create that uh antennas circuit problem and it
Speaker 1: will cause reception problems and possibly dropped calls. Um. But
Speaker 1: it's not just apparently, it also has to do with
Speaker 1: the way the manufacturer tries to get around the SEC
Speaker 1: regulations and you know, work with that, and it has
Speaker 1: a lot to do with a lot of different people apparently,
Speaker 1: but certain phones, including the iPhone for have that problem.
Speaker 1: Now we've talked a lot about what's on the outside
Speaker 1: of this device, why don't we when we dive into
Speaker 1: the device little bit and talk about some of the
Speaker 1: stuff that makes it go okay, like maybe the gyroscope.
Speaker 1: I was gonna actually start with the processor. Oh, let's
Speaker 1: go with the processes. You know, it's it's a one
Speaker 1: giga Hurts arm cortex A eight chip. It's the same
Speaker 1: thing that you find in the iPad except ours technical
Speaker 1: says that it does not move quite as quickly. It's
Speaker 1: not as brisk as the the iPads processor, at least
Speaker 1: in they're testing, um and does things. It does things
Speaker 1: almost as fast, but it's not as fast. Now maybe
Speaker 1: that's a result of having the other iPhone guts in
Speaker 1: there and it's having to run all that other stuff
Speaker 1: could be but um, it also may not be quite
Speaker 1: as fast. But yeah, Apple says it's a one gigga
Speaker 1: Hurts processor. Uh, it's got phone or in twelve megabytes
Speaker 1: or ram um and uh. Now we're going to go
Speaker 1: into the whole gyroscope thing now. So it has an
Speaker 1: accelerometer like the previous iPhones, which allows you when you
Speaker 1: you know, turn it from portrait to landscape. That's what
Speaker 1: makes the screen flip. Uh, and can sense motion in
Speaker 1: certain directions. Now it has also a three access gyroscope. Yes,
Speaker 1: Steve Jobs used in his keynote speech for the announcement
Speaker 1: of the iPhone for to play Jenga in front of
Speaker 1: a whole auditorium full of people, right, and he got
Speaker 1: roundly mocked by the Tech for Us for playing Jenga.
Speaker 1: Although from what I understand, the people who were actually there,
Speaker 1: who were not jaded tech journalists, thought it was kind
Speaker 1: of cool. As they were developers. They were looking at
Speaker 1: it not from oh this is such a goofy little demo.
Speaker 1: They were thinking of, oh my gosh, what are the
Speaker 1: potential uses for this technology. Yes, maybe Jenga is not
Speaker 1: the most UM useful application for adding a gyroscope, but
Speaker 1: it does give you much more control, much more precision
Speaker 1: of the control that you can the motion controls in
Speaker 1: the iPhone. So the gyroscope gives you pitch yaw and
Speaker 1: rolla y'all, and the accelerometer helps. Uh. When paired with
Speaker 1: the accelerometer and the gyroscope, you've got a six axis controller, yes,
Speaker 1: and you know you have can you have motion detection
Speaker 1: along six different axes of motions. So that means that
Speaker 1: developers can create games or other applications that um can
Speaker 1: really take advantage of this in ways that the previous
Speaker 1: iPhones could not handle. And it's also it's it's starting
Speaker 1: to sound a lot like things like the we mote
Speaker 1: and the Sony's Move controller, which also have these these
Speaker 1: gyroscopes and accelerometers in them in order to translate your
Speaker 1: emotions into actions. In a in a virtual environment. So
Speaker 1: now the iPhone four could theoretically do the same sort
Speaker 1: of stuff. I would not be surprised to eventually see
Speaker 1: iPhone type uh apps that would allow you to control
Speaker 1: console based uh actions. It might take a while because
Speaker 1: you're gonna have you know, and I'm sure they would
Speaker 1: be branded by whatever company it was that was, you know,
Speaker 1: running the console. But so we think about that, you
Speaker 1: could actually theoretically, because of the the capabilities of this phone,
Speaker 1: you could turn it into a video game controller for
Speaker 1: specific console. Well, the iPhone has already been used to
Speaker 1: some degree as a controller, yeah, for different for different applications.
Speaker 1: For remote you can use as a remote controller for
Speaker 1: certain uh, certain electronic devices. So yeah, it's it's unheard of,
Speaker 1: but this will make it far more functional in that
Speaker 1: in that regard. Now, I don't know if anyone would
Speaker 1: ever go through the trouble to actually do that, I mean,
Speaker 1: but it's a potential. Yeah, it's it's it's not unheard of.
Speaker 1: So um, it also has uh there's something else that
Speaker 1: kind of the battery. Yeah, it's gonna talk about the
Speaker 1: battery life. Yes, So one of the things about the
Speaker 1: iPhone for is that the battery life is actually much
Speaker 1: longer than it uh than previous iPhones. Um. In fact, uh,
Speaker 1: even though it's a thinner device, the weight of the
Speaker 1: phone might surprise some people. They think like, oh, it
Speaker 1: should be lighter than the old iPhones because it's thinner. Um,
Speaker 1: it's about the same. Yeah, And some people think that
Speaker 1: the reason why it's about the same is because the
Speaker 1: battery is actually larger. So even though it's lost some
Speaker 1: some girth, it's it's still it's still the same way
Speaker 1: because the battery. Apple says that the battery will give
Speaker 1: you up to seven hours of talking time without without
Speaker 1: a need to recharge, or six hours of browsing if
Speaker 1: you're on a three G network, or ten hours of
Speaker 1: browsing if you're on WiFi, and over three hundred hours
Speaker 1: of standby power okay, which is pretty awesome. Ours Technical
Speaker 1: found about twenty five hours of general use, um video,
Speaker 1: about eleven and a half music about you know this
Speaker 1: is what this is what's kind of interesting because Apple's
Speaker 1: claims are way lower than those numbers. But I guess
Speaker 1: that's probably part of the thing is that you know,
Speaker 1: they don't want to make a claim and then have
Speaker 1: someone come out with it saying, oh, it's nowhere near
Speaker 1: that I and I wouldn't want to either. I understand
Speaker 1: why they would do that. The recharge cycle to that
Speaker 1: they found was about an hour and a half, which
Speaker 1: really not bad, not bad at that is phenomenal. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know what, as much as I've said, like I'm
Speaker 1: not really interested in getting an iPhone or whatever, the
Speaker 1: iPhone for a lot of the features have me interested in.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've thought about the potential of once my
Speaker 1: contract is up, moving to A T and T and
Speaker 1: getting an iPhone. Um, that would be a good segue
Speaker 1: because I was going to add this point. Yeah, Um,
Speaker 1: last night, the day that we're recording this, the rumors
Speaker 1: started breaking. Last night, Bloomberg business Week said that they
Speaker 1: had heard rumors that Apple might be bringing the iPhone
Speaker 1: for two Verizons network. Now we've heard departure from A
Speaker 1: T and T being the exclusive provider here in the
Speaker 1: United States right now, and we should we should point
Speaker 1: out a couple of things. First of all, uh, we
Speaker 1: are we well, first of all rumor. Second of all,
Speaker 1: we are aware that in other countries, the iPhone can
Speaker 1: be found on multiple carriers within certain countries, that's awesome here.
Speaker 1: Not in the United States. Yeah, in the United States,
Speaker 1: A T and T is the only network that that
Speaker 1: carries the iPhone. There was an exclusivity agreement that I
Speaker 1: had heard originally spanned five years, and it was signed
Speaker 1: in two thousand seven, which would mean that we'd still
Speaker 1: have a couple of years to go before we see
Speaker 1: the iPhone on any other carrier. But it's really never
Speaker 1: been made public exactly how long that agreement is. Right,
Speaker 1: So the two thousand twelve figure may be made up
Speaker 1: of out of thin air, right, and maybe that that's
Speaker 1: not accurate, and that we could see an iPhone on
Speaker 1: Verizon by the end of the year. However, I will
Speaker 1: also say that these same rumors have been around ever
Speaker 1: since the iPhone debuted. Yes, that's true. A lot of
Speaker 1: people have been have been itching to see this happen. Um,
Speaker 1: So we're talking three years of rumors of the iPhone
Speaker 1: going somewhere else, and so far it stayed put. You know.
Speaker 1: One of the one of the aspects I've seen added
Speaker 1: to that rumor is that it would be on Verizon's
Speaker 1: LTE network, and that's that's four G communication. It's a
Speaker 1: competitor to y Max. I think we've talked about it
Speaker 1: at least once on our podcast. And the thing is, um,
Speaker 1: Verizon's network for G network is currently being built out. Um. Also,
Speaker 1: there are no LTE phones here in the United States yet,
Speaker 1: so I don't know that it would happen like Sprint
Speaker 1: has one, do they really? Yeah, Sprint has an lt Okay,
Speaker 1: because when I was reading this, I had seen something
Speaker 1: that said there weren't in phone. It might be actually
Speaker 1: I think it's Amax Max. Well, but yeah, so it's
Speaker 1: a four G phone. It's just not an ELTI phone. Um.
Speaker 1: Good because you know I actually read it in a
Speaker 1: news outlet. Um. The thing is, h I only get
Speaker 1: my news from illegitimate el but down the street tells
Speaker 1: me stuff Richards Scimmon Villany. Um, No, that would be
Speaker 1: a thing though, Um, if you're expecting it, you know, hey,
Speaker 1: it's January one, two thousand eleven. Where's my Verizon iPhone
Speaker 1: for it? Well, it probably if if that's if that's contingent,
Speaker 1: if the rumor is contingent on that happening, it's probably
Speaker 1: not going to be the very very first part of
Speaker 1: next year because there's a lot of work to be done.
Speaker 1: Building out the network to make it, to provide support
Speaker 1: for it even if it's not. Like the other big
Speaker 1: deal is that is that the iPhone runs on G
Speaker 1: S M technology. Yeah, the currents would be Verizon uses
Speaker 1: C d M A and whereas three G network. Right,
Speaker 1: but you have to imagine that a phone cannot be
Speaker 1: exclusively for G. I can't imagine why you would want
Speaker 1: to limit yourself to a network you're building out that
Speaker 1: way now, right exactly. It's just like just like phones
Speaker 1: right now, three G phones are not exclusively three G.
Speaker 1: They also run on the two G two networks networks
Speaker 1: because if you made them exclusively three G, you're you'd
Speaker 1: be very limited and where you can use that phone. Yes,
Speaker 1: so for phone calls that's not really so much of
Speaker 1: an issue. It's more of an issue. For data it
Speaker 1: can be an issue though. Let's say because it's a
Speaker 1: cell phone, it's portable, so you can move in and
Speaker 1: out of networks very quickly. And there's some areas that
Speaker 1: have a lot of three G support, but not not
Speaker 1: all of them, like in Atlanta, they're they're very You
Speaker 1: can go through a neighborhood and go from a three
Speaker 1: G supported area to two G. Well, what I mean
Speaker 1: is if you're going to use it to make phone calls,
Speaker 1: switching from a three G network to a two network
Speaker 1: isn't nearly as critical, right right as it would be
Speaker 1: if you're you know, surfing the web and then you know,
Speaker 1: you move to Q network and then because then you
Speaker 1: slow down significantly. Yeah, yeah, I was just telling that's
Speaker 1: what I mean, dropping a call perspective. Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: Switching well, I mean moving from one tower to another.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the handoff is not sweet, is not completely sweet,
Speaker 1: and then really that's the case for pretty much everybody.
Speaker 1: I think that's not or or, but anyway, So G
Speaker 1: s M is the technology the A T and T
Speaker 1: n T mobile use the United States, also the technology
Speaker 1: that's most widely used throughout the rest of the world,
Speaker 1: whereas Verizon and Sprint both runs c d M A technology.
Speaker 1: So it's it's and the two are not patible. And
Speaker 1: we've talked about that and tech stuff before as well.
Speaker 1: So for the iPhone four to go to Verizon, it
Speaker 1: would also mean that you would need a c d
Speaker 1: M A chip in there instead of a G s
Speaker 1: M chip or in addition to and I'm guessing just
Speaker 1: based upon the form factor that there's not a whole
Speaker 1: lot of room to squeeze an extra components, so you
Speaker 1: would have to switch them out, so you're you wouldn't
Speaker 1: be able to take like you wouldn't be able to
Speaker 1: buy a uh an iPhone four with no contract with
Speaker 1: a T and T and then port it over to Verizon.
Speaker 1: Now you can see that with the Google Nexus one
Speaker 1: Android phone. Yeah, because there is one that can be
Speaker 1: used on C d M A and there's one that
Speaker 1: can be used on G S M. But you know
Speaker 1: you can't you can't between the two, right um. And
Speaker 1: by the way, you can buy an iPhone four without
Speaker 1: a contract if you want to, but that doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that you can move it to a different network. It
Speaker 1: just means that you're paying months to month as opposed
Speaker 1: to agreeing to a two year deal with a T
Speaker 1: and T. UM and UH I guess we should mention
Speaker 1: that they're two different UH capacity versions of the iPhone four.
Speaker 1: There's a sixteen gigabyte and the thirty two gigabyte, which
Speaker 1: is you know that the reason you need those larger
Speaker 1: sizes because you know before it used to be like
Speaker 1: eight gigabytes was the big one. UM. Now that now
Speaker 1: that they can capture video in a higher resolution and
Speaker 1: you can also do some video editing on the iPhone four. Um,
Speaker 1: you need that extra space otherwise you just run out
Speaker 1: pretty quickly. Also, they switched to from SIM to microsome
Speaker 1: for the iPhone four, and again the reason for that,
Speaker 1: at least what Steve Job says, the reason for that
Speaker 1: is so that they can make more room for the battery, right,
Speaker 1: so they had to go to microsom instead of keeping it.
Speaker 1: So you can't use your old SIM card in the
Speaker 1: iPhone four unless you shave it down. I'm gonna look
Speaker 1: this up real quick too, but I'm I'm willing I
Speaker 1: think if I'm not mistaken, Apple did the same thing
Speaker 1: with the iPad that the three G has a microsome
Speaker 1: in it, but I'm not certain looking that up as
Speaker 1: we talk, all right, well, then I will also for me,
Speaker 1: I will also mention that if you are curious as
Speaker 1: to how much radiation you are absorbing when you use
Speaker 1: your iPhone for according to the report I read in
Speaker 1: uh C net, it is has an essay R rating
Speaker 1: of one point one seven watts per kilogram, which is
Speaker 1: underneath the one point six watts per kilogram limit in
Speaker 1: the United States. And yes, the the WiFi and three
Speaker 1: G version of the iPad UH uses a micro sim
Speaker 1: card tray as well. So, um, I'm wondering if Apple's
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously it's more important for the iPhone than
Speaker 1: it would be for uh, you know, an iPad, But
Speaker 1: it seems to me that Apple's probably standardizing, as it
Speaker 1: usually does with things like this. They pick a format
Speaker 1: and go, Okay, this is the one we need for
Speaker 1: this purpose. So let's make it universal so we don't
Speaker 1: need to mess with the other chef. Let's talk very
Speaker 1: quickly before we wrap this up, I want to talk
Speaker 1: about one specific function of the iPhone four that is
Speaker 1: not found in any other Apple product right now, which
Speaker 1: is FaceTime. I mentioned it earlier in the podcast. So
Speaker 1: FaceTime is the video calling software that is included with
Speaker 1: iOS four, and only the iPhone four supports it. You
Speaker 1: can only use it with a fellow iPhone for user
Speaker 1: at this point. At this point, so as of the
Speaker 1: time that we're recording this podcast, there are very straight
Speaker 1: limitations on the FaceTime. You can use either the front
Speaker 1: or back facing camera when you're using it once you
Speaker 1: once you make your call, but you can only call
Speaker 1: other iPhone for users, and you can only do it
Speaker 1: over WiFi. You cannot do it over the three G
Speaker 1: or edge networks. So if you want to make one
Speaker 1: of these calls, you have to be in a Wi
Speaker 1: Fi hotspot and you have to call another iPhone for user.
Speaker 1: We expect that will probably change over time, especially as
Speaker 1: Apple introduces new products. I mean, we may eventually see
Speaker 1: an iPod touch that has a camera or what I
Speaker 1: think is the most realistic UM development is we'll see
Speaker 1: an iPad with a camera that will allow you to
Speaker 1: make the video calls. Uh. And so I've heard that
Speaker 1: this feature is pretty neat. I hear that the video
Speaker 1: is is not bad. Uh, there's not a whole lot
Speaker 1: of issues with clipping and that kind of stuff. Um,
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily the highest resolution that you've ever seen,
Speaker 1: although if you're using the back facing camera it will
Speaker 1: the quality be a little bit better. You just will
Speaker 1: be able to see the other person, at which point
Speaker 1: I'm wondering, why are you're bothering with a video call
Speaker 1: in the first place. But it's it seems like it's
Speaker 1: a pretty cool feature. Now. I don't know how other
Speaker 1: developers are going to respond to the to the whole
Speaker 1: face time thing like developers, like let's say people behind Skype,
Speaker 1: where you think, well, why are you allowing this Apple
Speaker 1: backed video calling service, but you won't allow necessarily the
Speaker 1: Skype version, like why can't we tap into that same thing?
Speaker 1: And Skype version is only for voice right so you
Speaker 1: can't do the video call right now. So it remains
Speaker 1: to be seen how that plays out, whether or not
Speaker 1: FaceTime will be opened up enough so that other developers
Speaker 1: can take advantage of that and uh and build a
Speaker 1: new um new features, or whether or not will get
Speaker 1: opened up to the point where people who are on
Speaker 1: other devices that aren't even owned by Apple, if they
Speaker 1: can do video calls with someone who has an iPhone.
Speaker 1: For that would really surprise me to see that. I
Speaker 1: would be shocked if let's say that Android, there's an
Speaker 1: Android handset that comes out that also has a camera
Speaker 1: that also can do video calls, because I mean, this
Speaker 1: is not the first phone that could do video calls.
Speaker 1: There have been other ones before it. Um, it would
Speaker 1: really shock me if Apple opened it up enough so
Speaker 1: that the Android user and the iPhone user could do
Speaker 1: a video call between the two, or if somebody else
Speaker 1: came out with an Android app that would work on
Speaker 1: say a BlackBerry, like a third party software developer that
Speaker 1: came out with something that worked on BlackBerry, Nokia, uh Android,
Speaker 1: and they wanted to put it in the iPhone apps
Speaker 1: or whether Apple would actually go you know, yeah, so
Speaker 1: we'll have to We'll have to keep an eye out
Speaker 1: on that. But that's the skinny on the iPhone for
Speaker 1: hope that satisfies all of you people who have written
Speaker 1: in multiple times asking us to do an iPhone for podcast.
Speaker 1: It does look like a pretty cool device and um,
Speaker 1: and I admittedly I am attempted to switch over once
Speaker 1: my contract is up, assuming there's not some amazing Android
Speaker 1: device available for me to upgrade. Two well, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: since I'm still holding off on the smartphone thing, I'll
Speaker 1: just keep watching and see what happens. But I do
Speaker 1: think that the uh the iPhone is the kind of
Speaker 1: device that ups the anti for everyone else. Um, which
Speaker 1: is good I think because I think it will also
Speaker 1: inspire the HTC and Motorole and some of the others
Speaker 1: to continue building um fantastic new devices with more and
Speaker 1: more capabilities. And it's you know, it's going to be
Speaker 1: good for the market in UM. In general, I think
Speaker 1: to have new devices with a better technology like that,
Speaker 1: Competition is always a good thing. Oh yeah, so that
Speaker 1: wraps up this discussion. If you guys have any questions,
Speaker 1: if you want us to cover any other specific kind
Speaker 1: of technology, let us know. You can write us. Our
Speaker 1: email address is tech stuff at how stuff works dot
Speaker 1: com and Chris and I will talk to you again
Speaker 1: really soon. If you're a tech stuff and be sure
Speaker 1: to check us out on Twitter tech Stuff hs wsr handle,
Speaker 1: and you can also find us on Facebook at Facebook
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