Exploring the Features of the new iPhone 4

A new iPhone doesn’t come out with any shortage of buzz, and 2010’s launch of the iPhone 4 has proven to be no different.

While many people are simply focusing on the iPhone 4’s issues, as the The Australian might be, there’s a lot to the iPhone 4 that makes you wonder how well it would have been received if not for the PR nightmare resulting from the iPhone “death grip.”

So let’s move on from that grip and explore exactly what separates the latest iPhone incarnation from its ancestors.

Multi-tasking

For you non-stop multi-taskers who are by definition almost always up to something, the iPhone 4 finally makes accommodations for you by allowing for multi-tasking features you couldn’t find in previous iPhone products. As Gizmodo notes, double-tapping on your home icon will allow you to check out all of your currently-running applications and easily switch from one to the other, much like a computer desktop works. It’s a great feature for people who have difficulty focusing one just one interesting feature at a time.

We should also note that easy App switching allows you to “freeze” what you were doing on one App while you multi-task over to another App; this is kind of like running TiVo on your LCD TV and pausing one channel while skipping past the commercials on another channel. Definitely a great feature for people who constantly pick up their iPhones and set them back down throughout the day.

For many people, the multi-tasking feature would have been reason enough to justify a new generation of iPhones, but there are a number of other new functions you can multi-task between, as well.

The Body

You don’t think of the iPhone as having a body, but the some changes in the iPhone 4 brought the actual hardware of the iPhone to the forefront: a thinner, stainless steel-with-glass-screen body feels nice in your hands.

The body is 24% thinner than the 3GS - the previous incarnation of the iPhone - which allows for easier storage and a more comfortable feeling in your pocket for when you’re on the go.

New Apps

A lot of people appreciate the differences in the actual, comes-with-the-iPhone applications that you can check out as soon as you purchase your own. A new mail application is superior to old versions, which is especially important to those of you who have been frustrated with the essentially unchanging email Apps that date back to 2007 - a lifetime in the world of smart phones. New features such as email threading allow for a more intuitive experience and actually replicate what you’re used to when you use email on your computer.

A new App that you might recognize if you’ve used an iPad is the iBooks reader App, an application that allows you to download Ebooks and read them on the go. This blurs the line between an iPhone and an iPad just a little more and helps iPhone loyalists who never switched to the iPad to gloat just a little bit.

Bluetooth Keyboard Support

Another reason the iPhone is becoming similar to an iPad: you can bluetooth a keyboard to your iPhone in order to have a similar typing experience - heck, basically the same typing experience - that you’re used to on your usual laptop. Pair this with the new email App and you’ll have no problem conducting a lot of business on your iPhone.

While the iPhone 4 is not without a few flaws, for many people, these new functions are more than enough to justify the investment they made in their smart phone technology. In the world of smart phones, new isn’t always better. But frequently, as in the case of the iPhone 4’s improvements, it is.