Despite a much-publicized media leak of its next-generation iPhone, Apple CEO Steve Jobs still managed to rev up fans and developers Monday as he unveiled iPhone 4, a powerful successor in its smart phone line.

“Stop me if you’ve already seen this,” Jobs quipped as he introduced the iPhone 4 to a packed audience at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco.

From his customary spot on the stage, Jobs previewed the new, slimmer hardware, which comes equipped with a much improved screen, two cameras including one facing the user for video conferencing, a faster processor, a gyroscope and a mobile version of Apple’s video editing program, iMovie.

“That is the iPhone 4,” Jobs said. “We think it’s the biggest leap we’ve taken since the original iPhone.”

The phone, which will go on sale June 24 for $199 (16 gigabytes) and $299 (32 gigabytes), will also ship with the latest version of the iPhone operating system, now dubbed iOS 4. The new operating system includes multi-tasking, application folders, the iBooks e-reader app and a new mobile advertising platform.

IPhone 4 should provide a boost for Apple as it seeks to fend off rising competition from smart phone competitors, most notably Google, whose Android operating system is powering a slew of iPhone rivals. There are three times as many iPhones in the market compared to Android devices, but recent quarterly Android sales are now similar to the iPhone.

Many of the iPhone 4′s larger hardware developments were predicted after gadget blog Gizmodo purchased a lost iPhone prototype in April for $5,000 and ran an exclusive story on the components of the new device. The story shed light on many of the new features, including the two cameras and a bigger battery, as well as the boxier look of the device.

But Jobs summoned his ring-leading skills to highlight the specific advancements of the iPhone 4, saving until the end a new video chat feature called FaceTime, which will enable iPhone 4 users to easily conduct video calls at the push of a button. The service will only work over Wi-Fi between iPhone 4 devices in 2010.

“I grew up dreaming of video calling and now it’s real,” Jobs said.

Jobs also spent a considerable amount of time showing off the iPhone 4′s new display, which doubles the pixel density of the iPhone screen and eliminates the perception of pixels. At one point, however, Jobs ran into trouble during the demo when his device couldn’t access Apple’s private Wi-Fi network because of all the mobile Wi-Fi routers in use at the keynote. He actually paused and asked the bloggers in the audience to turn off their Wi-Fi to allow him to proceed with the demonstration.

The new device will feature the same 1 GHz A4 processor powering the iPad as well as a new gyroscope that, when combined with the iPhone’s accelerometer, allows the iPhone to work as a six-axis motion sensor. Developers believe the added sensor can bring about new applications in gaming.

The iPhone 4′s camera has been upgraded to 5 megapixels and includes digital zoom, an LED flash and advanced light-sensing technology that mimics the performance of dedicated cameras. The video camera can also shoot in 720p high-definition.

Users will be to stitch their pictures and videos into polished movies using a new $4.99 iMovie app for the iPhone.

Much to the chagrin of some consumers, Jobs made no mention of a second iPhone running on Verizon Wireless, a popular rumor among Verizon users. The iPhone 4 will stay an exclusive of AT&T, which also replaced its unlimited smart phone data plans Monday with cheaper but limited data tiers of $15 (200 megabytes) and $25 (2 gigabytes) a month.

Avi Greengart, an analyst with Current Analysis, said the Gizmodo leak may have taken some of the surprise out of Jobs’ keynote. But he said the details and execution in the iPhone 4 ensure the device is still the smart phone to beat.

“Just because a publication got some of the features doesn’t mean it’s not impressive,” said Greengart. “I am very impressed. Apple was ahead to begin with and this just puts them further ahead.”

Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research, said the new iPhone may sell more to existing iPhone users, rather than expand Apple’s reach. But he said he was most impressed by the display and the FaceTime video technology, which Jobs said Apple was releasing as an open standard.

“If they can drive the adoption of video calling, we might finally see the realization of video telephony,” he said.

For developers such as Ge Wang, founder of musical app maker Smule, the inclusion of the gyroscope meant yet another tool for application programmers.

“This is definitely a step forward for Apple,” he said of the iPhone 4. “It’s not only the technology but Apple’s vision for the future. Clearly, Apple isn’t standing still.

 

Google’s Nexus One phone may have been one of the most anticipated devices of the last few weeks. But since the smartphone’s launch last Tuesday, it has left a string of unhappy customers in its wake.

Nexus One has been plagued by consumer complaints including spotty 3G connectivity, a high early termination fee, poor customer support from Google and problems with the touchscreen.

“There are some aspects of the experience that Google didn’t think through as carefully as they should have,” says Charles Golvin, an analyst with Forrester Research. “This has implications for the store they have launched and their future ambitions for it. Google, clearly, has a lot of work ahead of it.”

Google introduced the Nexus One as the first device to be sold by the search company itself, rather than a manufacturing or carrier partner. The Nexus One, which runs Android 2.1, has been designed by HTC and works with T-Mobile’s network in the United States.

But contrary to initial speculation, the device isn’t free. It will retail for $180 with a 2-year contract with T-Mobile. An unlocked version is also available for $530 — a price similar to most other smartphones — and that version will work on other GSM phone networks worldwide as well as AT&T in the United States, although with some limitations.

The difference, though, is the Nexus One is available only through Google’s online store. Unlike with a Motorola Cliq or a HTC G1, users can’t walk into a T-Mobile store and buy the Nexus One.

They can’t even count on T-Mobile’s customer service representatives in store or the company’s phone support to solve their problems.

It’s a strategy that has backfired on Google. The company’s support forums are full of customer complaints around the Nexus and the company’s poor service.

“A lot of complaints and frustration that people are expressing would normally be handled by going back into the store or by calling the support help line,” says Golvin. “Having a physical location where you can take your phone back helps customers and Google seems to have underestimated that.”

“Solving customer support issues is extremely important to us, because we want people to have a positive Nexus One experience,” says a Google spokesperson. “We are trying to be as open and transparent as possible through our online customer help forums.”

Many of the customer complaints are centered about the device’s inability to connect to T-Mobile’s 3G network. The Nexus One does not pick up the 3G network or keeps switching to the slower EDGE network, say some users.

A Google spokesperson says the company is aware of the problem. “We are aware of the issues that have affected a small number of users and are working quickly to fix any problems,” the spokesperson told Wired.com in an email. “We hope to have more information soon. When we do, we will post it to the user forum.”

Add to all this Google’s decision to charge a separate early termination fee in addition to the one charged by T-Mobile. Nexus One customers who bought the subsidized, $180 version and then decide to cancel their contracts will have to pay $200 to T-Mobile.

But Google also charges users a $350 “equipment recovery fee” if you give up on the contract within 120 days.

Including all charges, Nexus One customers who want to bail early will end up paying $550. That’s significantly higher than the controversial $350 early termination fee imposed by Verizon last year.

“Google provides a subsidy for devices purchased with T-Mobile USA service. If a consumer cancels service after 14 days, Google recoups this subsidy in the form of an equipment recovery fee,” says the Google spokesperson.

“After 120 days, the equipment recovery fee will no longer apply. This is standard practice for third party resellers of T-Mobile and other operators, and you will find similar policies for other mobile service resellers. The T-Mobile early termination fee is separate and handled by T-Mobile.”

Despite the problems, Google can bounce back, says Golvin. Customer dissatisfaction is likely to be just a small speed bump in the road for Google’s mobile ambitions, he says.

“Google tends to have a bit of a Teflon coating,” says Golvin. “People tend to cut them a lot more slack — as they do with Apple — than they do with their mobile operator.”

“Convergence” is too bulky a word to do justice to all the pretty gadgets on display at the Consumer Electronics Show, or to describe how they are increasingly doing more to give consumers the content and connectivity wherever and whenever they demand it.

Here’s what it means, though: Televisions are becoming more like computers. Computers are becoming more mobile like cell phones. And mobile phones are becoming more like both computers and televisions.

The idea of breaking down barriers among these electronic devices has occupied the personal technology industry for years. The latest crop of products at CES may be the first to start making good on this promise.

Consider Toshiba’s flagship product at the show, Cell TV. It’s a 3-D-ready plasma set with a processing power 10 times faster than a standard desktop computer. Cell TV can connect to the Internet and comes with a video camera and microphone for videoconferencing.

Not all of the Internet-connected TV sets hitting the market will have the bells and whistles of Cell TV. But the coming generation of sets, unveiled at CES this week, showed that the line between characteristics of a TV and a PC continues to blur. Skype, the Voice over Internet Protocol service, is available on LG and Panasonic TV sets.

The universe of portable, Web-connected devices also is expanding to encompass not just smart phones, but netbooks and tablets. These computer-like hand-held gadgets made a splash at CES this year, with many manufacturers getting into these product categories for the first time.

And third-party applications, similar to the ones consumers put on their mobile phones, are proliferating for TVs. Samsung announced at CES that it is creating an application store that will serve up content for a variety of gadgets and be open to all developers. Partners including Blockbuster, Netflix, YouTube, Twitter and Picasa have signed up.

“TV can be your DJ, your gaming opponent or your weatherman,” said Tim Baxter, president of Samsung Electronics America.

In consumer technology, trends that seem visionary at the outset often go nowhere. Most consumers probably have forgotten about WebTV, a service in the mid-1990s that connected the TV to the Internet using a special set-top box. Microsoft acquired the company, but the service faded into obsolescence.

This time, advances in Web-connected TVs are encouraging more device manufacturers and content providers to jump onboard, said Ronald Jacoby, senior director and chief architect of Yahoo Connected TV. In other words, it’s not just a handful of companies pushing the trend, which means the chances of the technology’s survival is high.

As an example, Jacoby pointed out a new TV set and remote control by Vizio that is integrated with Connected TV. The remote has a slide-out keyboard, making it much easier to navigate the TV like a PC. Also new this year: A box by Viewsonic that can connect an older TV to the Internet.

These new products represent small steps that will lead to a fundamentally altered concept of TV, Jacoby said. “We’re getting to this ubiquity of platforms and democratization of content,” he said. Rather than a model in which several content providers determine the programming, tech companies are “enabling anyone to go out there and make a widget and get your content out there.”

These changes don’t come without friction, however, and companies disagree on how to deliver on an industry buzz-phrase like “TV everywhere.”

For Vivek Khemka, vice president of customer technology at Dish Network, ” ‘TV everywhere’ should mean you pay one time for your content and take it everywhere.”

Dish Network is launching a service this year that allows customers to watch live and recorded TV on a laptop or Web-enabled mobile phone. They also can use these portable devices to instruct their home set-top box to record programs. This is a similar service to one recently announced by Comcast, which is allowing subscribers to watch TV via a Web browser.

But streaming content on a mobile device is problematic because of bandwidth issues, said Bill Stone, president of Flo TV, which is billed as the only national mobile broadcast network in the country. Many consumers experience network hiccups, which result in a halting feed, he said.

“The premise and the hype is that, ‘Everyone’s got a mobile phone and everyone’s watching TV, so how hard can it be to put them together?’ ” Stone said. “It’s darn hard.”

It may take several more years for consumers to sort through the array of products and services as more choices hit the market. But the industry is moving toward a future where personalized content is available at any time on any device, said John Burke, senior vice president of broadband home solutions in Motorola’s home and networks mobility division.

“I think the scale and magnitude of the shift from analog TV to digital TV to the Internet era of television is an unprecedented evolution that’s happening today,” Burke said.