Okay, you've got an iPhone 4 - now what? |
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Whether you were lucky enough to score an early delivery, blazed through a pre-order reservation line, or camped out all night, you're going to want to take full advantage of your hard-won new iPhone 4 once you get it home. As we said in our review, the core experience of using an iPhone hasn't changed too dramatically with iOS 4 and the new hardware - it's instead been refined and extended with some new capabilities. That means you'll need to poke around a little and download some updated apps to really see all the benefits - there's some fun stuff to uncover. So without further ado, let's run down the list of things to try and do with your new iPhone, as well as highlight some essential apps that'll let you get the most out of your new toy. Read on!
Apart from the new design and the Retina Display, the biggest addition to the new iPhone are the new cameras - the five megapixel unit on the back, and the VGA camera on the front. So you've definitely got to play with those - here's some things to try:
- Once you've taken a bunch of photos and videos, check out the new features in the Photos app - you should see a new Places option that uses the phone's GPS chip to tag and sort your photos by where you took them. If you plug your phone into a Mac with the latest version of iPhoto, you'll also get a Faces menu - your computer can try to recognize people in your photos and specifically load pictures of them onto your phone. It's neat. And... terrifying, in a way.
Interestingly, Apple added a gyroscope to the iPhone's complement of sensors, but didn't include any apps that really show it off. However, the latest version of Real Racing and a new ngmoco game called Eliminate: Gun Range (pictured) both support the gyro for improved motion controls.
Okay, this is where it gets good: iOS 4 now does a number of things that enable you to functionally multitask apps, and the iPhone's new A4 processor makes things nice and fast. We've got a longer list of iOS 4-ready apps right here, but here are some of our favorite apps to show off:
Twitter for iPhone has been updated for iOS 4 and the new iPhone, complete with new Retina Display-ready graphics. It's free, so get on it.Apple's iBooks app is free, but it's not preloaded on the iPhone, so make sure you hit the App Store and grab it - text looks pretty amazing on the iPhone 4's display.ESPN ScoreCenter and the New York Times app have both been updated with fast app switching, so you can pop in and out of them with zero fuss.MotionX GPS and Trapster both support GPS in the background - MotionX is a traditional navigation app, while Trapster is a free app that alerts your to speed traps.We love IRC apps, and both Colloquy and Rooms have been updated to stay connected in the background.The Dropbox app can now upload files in the background, and Evernote can record audio notes and sync while you use other apps.
There are a lot of other little tweaks and additions to iOS 4 - here's some stuff to play with if you want to get really wonky.
So - that should keep you busy for a while, we think. Obviously there's a lot of other things to play with on the new iPhone, and things will get even more interesting as developers really start targeting their apps to the new hardware, but right out of the box there's a lot of new stuff going on. Let us know what else you find out, won't you? |
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 | App Store, Apple, Camera, Design, Developers, Game, GPS, Graphics, iOS 4, iPhone, Motion, Racing, Twitter |  | Phones, Miscellaneous |  | 21:07, Thursday, June 24, 2010 |  | 194 |
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