A long time between drinks isn’t necessarialy a bad thing, and the same goes for blogging. I’ll spare the usual dialog around how I will blog more often, because who knows if that will actually happen.

So what has me so excited that I am writing a blog? The new iPhone of course! Apple annoced its fourth generation iPhone, iPhone 4, at WWDC 2010 today. Apple has their typical spiel up at their website (htp://www.apple.com/au/iphone/), but I thought I would have my own recap.

First I should note I have an iPhone 3G, so I am fairly desperate for a new phone. Too much bias to write a fair blog? I think not!

The most important aspect of the new phone to me is the multitasking. Yes we knew about this for some time, but the new hardware is what makes this special. The 1GHz A4 processor is amazing, and I am glad they did this. I could certainly use the 40% extra battery life.

This hardware is further helped along by the ‘Retina Display’. Odd name yes, but with four times the pixels over the iPhone 3GS, this screen ought to look amazing. So it should be, considering the camera is 5 megapixels and shoots 720p video at 30fps.

FaceTime, with the new front/facing camera, received much fanfare. Good to see video chat on the phone, shame it only works when on Wi-Fi (pretty sure AT&T has screwed 3G video calls for the rest of the world).

When the leak about the lost iPhone surfaced, I didn’t doubt this was going to be the finalised design. I thought it was a little blocky then, but it actually looks nice with the glass front and back. Two colours, black and white. I still prefer the black one though.

This is quite a substatial upgrade, with some amaizing functionality included. I am pretty certain my iPhone 3G may soon be retired.

Not all is rosy, though. My biggest concern is the launch date. Australia was left out of the initial launch of June 24, only being told we will have it in ‘late July’. Apple, last time I looked around, Australia was in the same year as you. I’d be confident in saying we are somewhere at the top of the iPhone ownership list on a per capita basis. Never forget us like that again!

Hopefully this launch they will have enough stock in store when I go purchase it. I was one of the first few (hundred) to order mine at the Optus store in Brisbane. My phone was on order for three weeks before I got it. This put me off quite a bit, but the iPhone charmed me back. You’ll have to try harder this time Apple.

Overall, I think this iPhone is well worth me upgrading. Writing this post has certainly reinforced that view. Hopefully I can get hands on one soon. My iPhone feels so old now!