Apple on Monday announced the next version of the iPhone, called the iPhone 4, during Steve Jobs’s keynote to kick off the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

Jobs described the phone as, “beyond a doubt, the most precise thing and one of the most beautiful things we’ve ever made” before highlighting a number of its new features.

Updated design

Apple says the iPhone 4 is 9.3mm thick, or 24 percent thinner than the iPhone 3GS. It includes new camera with an LED flash on the black, but a second, front-facing camera as well. There are new volume buttons, a mute button, plus a second microphone on the top for noise cancellation. Just like the iPad, it now incorporates a micro-SIM tray.

Apple has also engineered three integrated antennas into the design: one for Bluetooth, one for WI-Fi and GPS, and one for UMTS and GSM.

Improved display

A new screen technology called a retina display add much higher precision to the iPhone. In fact, at 326 pixels per inch, it’s double the 163 pixels per inch resolution of the iPhone 3GS.

The new display is the same 3.5 inches diagonally, but at 960 by 640 it has four times as many pixels as the previous model. And the 800:1 contrast ratio is also four times that of the iPhone 3GS. It uses the same IPS display technology as the iPad and the iMac for good color fidelity, brightness, and viewing angle.

New processor

Designed by Apple, the A4 chip is tiny and has good power management. Apple went with the micro-SIM design to save space, mostly for a new battery that—coupled with the new chip—Apple says provides 40 percent more talk time. The company says talk time is up from 5 hours to 7 hours; 6 hours of 3G browsing; 10 hours of Wi-Fi browsing; 10 hours of video; 40 hours of music; and 300 hours of standby.

Environmentally, the new iPhone is arsenic free, BFR-free mercury-free, PVC-free, and made from highly recyclable materials.

It comes in sizes up to 32GB of storage (the same as the iPhone 3GS) and includes quad-band HSPDPA/HSUPA networking with a maximum of 7.2Mbps down and 5.8 Mbps up.

“That’s theoretical because the carriers don’t support it yet,” said Jobs.

There’s also 802.11n Wi-Fi wireless networking, an improvement from 802.11g in the previous model.

Gyroscope

The iPhone 4 add a three-axis gyroscope for measuring angular velocity. It can figure out pitch, roll, and yaw; and rotation about gravity. The gyroscope plus the accelerometer provide six-axis motion sensing. There are also new CoreMotion APIs that developers can call for extremely precise position information—ideal for games.

New camera system

The iPhone 4 has a new, 5-megapixel camera with 5x digital zoom and an LED flash. It also adds 720p HD video capture at 30 frames per second. To go along with the new video capabilities, Apple has created a version of its iMovie consumer video-editing application for the iPhone. With it, you can record or edit you videos (and add photos as well). You can add titles, changes themes, and use music from your iTunes library.

iMovie for iPhone will be available for $5—“if we approve it,” Jobs joked, in reference to the App Store.

Video chat

For Jobs’ patented (well, probably not, but it should be) One More Thing moment, he sat down on a chair to show off the iPhone 4’s video chatting capabilities. Using either of the two cameras, you can make video calls—a feature called FaceTime—between iPhone 4 phones over Wi-Fi only—at least through 2010. Jobs said Apple needs to “work a little bit with the cellular providers in the future”. You can switch between cameras and chat in landscape or portait mode.

Pricing and availability

The iPhone 4 will come in black and white, at $199 for 16GB and $299 for 32GB (with the same qualifications and two-year contract with AT&T as in the past). Apple will also add an 8GB iPhone 3GS for $99.

Jobs said that AT&T is going to make “an incredibly generous upgrade offer.” If your contract expires any time in 2010, you’re immediately eligible for that pricing, for up to six months early eligibility. The iPhone 4 will be available from Apple and AT&T’s retail and online stores, as well as at Best Buy and Wal-Mart stores.

The iPhone 4 goes on sale in the U.S., France, Germany, the U.K., and Japan on June 24, with pre-orders starting on June 15. It will ship in 18 more countries in July, in 24 more in August, and in 40 more by the end of September.

Apple also showed off some accessories: a $29 dock and a $29 case that comes in different colors.

Multitasking
Here’s how it’ll work: If you’re running an app on the iPhone — anything from the core Mail app to, say, a game like Tap Tap Revenge — you just double-click the Home key to pull up a small window shade at the bottom of the screen, which can show four apps at a time (just swipe to scroll through more running apps). Tap an app in the new multitasking “dock” and you’ll switch to the app, with the first app’s state saved in the background.

So, will all these apps actually be running in the background? Well, no (if they did, they’d slow iPhone performance to a crawl and eat up battery life, Jobs said). That said, Apple will be allowing a few selected processes to run in the background, including music, VOIP, and location-based apps.

For example, Pandora will still play music while you’re browsing on Safari (you can even pause Pandora or skip tracks using the iPhone’s “lock” control bar), you’ll be able to answer and maintain VOIP calls (think Skype and the like) while you’re working in other apps, and location-aware apps like Loopt will be able to track your location in the background via cell-tower triangulation. (An icon will appear in the iPhone’s top status bar to warn you if a background app is tracking your location; you’ll also get to tweak a series of new location-based privacy settings).

Universal e-mail inbox
Here’s a feature that’s been a long time in coming. Currently, iPhone users checking multiple email accounts have had to switch back and forth between those accounts to see their respective in boxes (a process that takes several more clicks than it should). With iPhone OS 4.0, however, users will at last get a single, unified in box, just like BlackBerry users have enjoyed since … well, forever. You’ll also be able to “fast switch” between accounts, sort messages by thread, and open attachments with a third-part app (nice). Also, good news for Exchange users: No longer will you be restricted to a single Exchange account.

Home screen enhancements
You know how the iPhone won’t allow you to select wallpaper for the home screen? (That’s the home screen with all your app icons, not the lock screen with the digital clock and the “slide to unlock” thingy). That’s all set to change once iPhone OS 4.0 comes out. You’ll also be able to create “folder” icons that contain a series of apps — say, for all your games — effectively boosting the number of apps that can be displayed on the iPhone’s home screen from 180 to more than 2,100.

Social gaming network
The Xbox 360 has Xbox Live, the PS3 has the PlayStation Network, and now the iPhone will have Game Center, a new social gaming system that’ll let you earn achievements, invite pals to your personal gaming network, compare top scores on leaderboards, and square off with other players via matchmaking. Third-party developers who’ve already set up their own social gaming networks for the iPhone (such as Gameloft and OpenFeint) aren’t gonna like this one bit.

A word from our sponsors
Plenty of iPhone apps already feature in-app advertisements, but Steve Jobs (unsurprisingly) thinks Apple can do it better — thus, iAd, a framework for dynamic new in-app, HTML5-powered ads that “deliver interaction and emotion” (I know, I know). Jobs showed off a series of demos, including a full-motion app for Pixar’s “Toy Story 3″ (shocker!), a Nike ad that lets you design your own shoe, and a Target ad that lets you set up your dorm room. Ads won’t pull users out of a running app, Jobs promised, and you’ll also be able to play videos, games, download wallpaper, and view maps from within the ad itself. Last but not least: Apple says it’ll split ad revenue with advertisers 60-40, with Apple keeping the 40-percent cut. Look who just got into the advertising business.

Other enhancements
Expect the iBookstore to come to the iPhone with OS 4.0, along with a series of enterprise enhancements (in-app encryption, wireless app deployment for an entire workforce, etc.) and support for Bluetooth keyboards.

Which iPhones/the iPad will be compatible with OS 4.0?
The iPhone 3GS and the third-generation iPod Touch will be fully compatible with the new OS, multitasking and all, Jobs said. If you have the iPhone 3G or the second-gen iPod Touch, they will run “many things” in OS 4.0, but multitasking won’t be one of them. Finally, the iPad will also be getting all the new OS 4.0 features — including multitasking — but not until this fall. Jobs didn’t mention the original iPhone or iPod Touch, nor did he mention a fee for iPod Touch users wishing to upgrade (as we’ve seen in the past).

What we didn’t get
No Flash support (just “no,” Jobs reportedly said). No status-bar notifications for new email or SMS messages (which already exist on WebOS and Android phones). And no mention at all of an iPhone for Verizon.

Quick Intro to Line2 for iPhone from Toren Ajk on Vimeo.

The latest virus threat aimed at Facebook users is capable of stealing personal passwords, including log-in information for banking. The virus comes via a spam email alert falsely stating that your Facebook account password has been reset.

At least some of the emails have these words in the subject line (but expect variations): Facebook password reset confirmation customer support.

Do not open such an email because once you do it will begin downloading malware, including the password-stealing virus. Keep in mind Facebook’s policy is not to send any new passwords via attachments.

If you opened such an email or suspect your computer has been hacked, go to http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=1014.

The Alfa Romeo Pandion is a 2+2 sports coupe, and like the eagle it is named after, this concept car folds up its scissor doors like wings. How high? Try 12 ft. Why? “Glamour,” stated Bertone design director, Mike Robinson. The 53-year-old U.S.-born Robinson, who previously worked for Fiat, just stepped into his new position last autumn. He motivated his young and talented team to create a true Bertone concept for Alfa Romeo in less than five months. And not only does this concept look fabulous, but it also incorporates some remarkable details.

The Pandion’s mission is to shift Alfa Romeo into the future as the brand celebrates its 100th birthday this summer. For as beautiful (and dynamically superb) as the Alfa 8C sports car might be, stylistically it’s old fashioned, as it refers back to the Giulietta Sprint that Bertone once produced. With the Pandion, the typical Alfa face gets an LED shape of the future. The rear, on the other hand, which is made up of hundreds of blades, is for show only.

Styling is one thing, new technologies another. While the Pandion uses a shortened Maserati GT chassis and its 444-bhp V-8 drivetrain as its backbone, many of the body parts are made out of carbon-fiber. With the Pandion’s claimed curb weight of less than 2645 lb., it’s easy to imagine the performance improvement, along with fuel mileage and emissions.

The Pandion’s cabin is spacious, with ultra-thin bucket seats and no dashboard—all controls are arranged around the long steering column, while only the infotainment touch screen is placed between driver and passenger.

My entire life, the ketchup packet has remained a constant. Its saw-tooth edge and slightly bulbous form, enclosing not nearly enough ketchup, is something that, like a grand oak of food package design, you expected never to change. Well, my friends, Heinz has taken the extraordinary step of replacing a product everyone has been satisfied with for decades. And they may have actually improved it.

Virgin unveiled the latest addition to Richard Branson’s luxury fleet on Friday: an underwater plane that will fly riders into the depths of the Caribbean Sea.

Guests on Necker Island, a retreat in the British Virgin Islands, will be able to dive underwater in a submarine dubbed the Necker Nymph for $25,000 a week. But that’s only after shelling out around $300,000 for a one-week stay on Necker, the private island owned by billionaire and Virgin Group chairman Richard Branson.

Beginning on Feb. 20, two riders and a pilot and will be able to take the plunge from land, or from a boat. The underwater plane uses the downward pressure on its wings to fly through the water for up to two hours at a time, while an open cockpit will give riders a 360-degree view.

The Necker Nymph’s typical speed is 2 to 5 nautical miles per hour and it can dive more than 100 feet, said Karen Hawkes, a spokeswoman for Hawkes Ocean Technologies, the company that designed the Nymph.

A statement released Friday by Virgin Limited Edition, the luxury arm of Virgin Hotels, described the Nymph’s launch like a plane’s takeoff. “Gliding on the water’s surface like an aeroplane on a runway, one of the three pilots will operate the joystick to smoothly dive down.”

Vacationers will be able to fly the Necker Nymph while chartering the Necker Belle, Branson’s 105-foot yacht, or the submarine can be launched from shore. Necker Belle is rented out to guests for $88,000 a week, bringing the full Necker Island experience to more than $400,000 per week.

Riders must follow SCUBA procedures and be trained or accompanied by a certified pilot before entering the underwater plane. SCUBA tanks are mounted in the submarine and passengers must wear masks while underwater, said Hawkes.

The Necker Nymph claims “near-zero” environmental impact because its “positive buoyancy prevents the sub from landing on a reef, and its low light and noise emissions ensure the fragile ocean ecosystems remain undisturbed,” Virgin said.

Click to experience the wonder of a giant iPod Touch.