Sébastien Page

Sebastien is the Founder and Editor in Chief of iDB. Once a BlackBerry user, Sebastien instantly fell in love with the iPhone when it was first announced in 2007. Shortly after, he decided to start sharing his knowledge of the iPhone and its nascent ecosystem, which led to the creation of this blog. Sebastien currently owns 14 iPhones, 4 iPads, a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, a MacBook Air, 2 Apple Watches, 3 Apple TVs, countless HomePods and AirTags as well as a few pairs of AirPods.

Everything You Need to Know About the iPhone 4

Sébastien Page ∙ June 7, 2010

Today Apple unveiled the long-awaited and imazing iPhone 4. Despite the fact Gizmodo spoiled the announcement, I'm still more than impressed with what I saw. Enough boring talk, let's see what this iPhone 4 has to offer.

Features of the iPhone 4 9.3 mm thick (that's 24% thinner than the iPhone 3GS) Front-facing camera Micro SIM LED flash for the camera A second microphone for sound cancellation Integrated antennas Glass on the front and the back 326 pixels per inch display Powered by Apple's A4 chipset The integrated antennas

If you look at the edge of the iPhone 4, you will see 3 lines that are part of the structure of the device. With the iPhone 4, Apple introduced something new. The stainless steel band around the iPhone is actually part of the antenna system.

In other words, the iPhone 4 has got integrated antennas right in the structure of the phone.

Retina Display makes the iPhone 4 an HD device

In any display, there are pixels. Retina Display dramatically increases the pixel density by 4 in the same amount of space.The result is that you get far more precised display.

Inside iPhone 4

Apple went with a Micro SIM because they needed the place for everything else, especially for the battery, which is the largest component of the iPhone 4.

A bigger battery

Because Apple gave the iPhone 4 a bigger battery and also because the A4 chip is better at power management, the battery life has been considerably improved. A fully charged iPhone 4 battery will get you as far as this

7 hours of 3G talk time 6 hours of 3G browsing 10 hours of wifi browsing 10 hours of videos 40 hours of music 300 hours in standby Three-axis gyroscope

Don't know what a 3-axis gyroscope is? Don't worry, I guess no one knew what it was until Apple introduced it today. I'm still very confused what this is about but I'm sure we'll learn more in the next few days.

My guess is that this is a much-improved accelerometer that will make your gaming experience better.

A 5MP camera

I was right when I predicted Apple will add a 5MP camera to the iPhone. Like Steve said, megapixels are nice but cellphone cameras are about capturing light. Apple kept the pixel sensors the same size while increasing them to 5MP.

Last but not least, the iPhone 4 also has a 5X digital zoom and a LED flash.

HD video recording

With such a nice camera, a powerful chipset, and a beautiful display like the iPhone 4, HD video recording doesn't really come as a surprise.

The iPhone 4 will record full HD videos, with 720p at 30 frames per second (that's just amazing) and will come with built-in video editing, and one-click sharing (YouTube, MMS, email, etc...).

iMovie for iPhone

Ok, now I'm going completely nuts just typing this. I can't wait to have my hands on the new iPhone 4.

For great videos, you need a great video editor. That's what Apple created with the iMovie for iPhone app.

With iMovie for iPhone, you will be able to edit your HD videos, add titles, transitions, import music from iTunes. According to Apple (and I believe it), there is nothing remotely comparable to this in terms of mobile video editing.

iMovie for iPhone will be for sale in the App Store for $4.99.

iPhone OS 4 is now iOS4

Apple renamed iphone OS to iOS. Why? I suppose the "phone" wasn't needed anymore now that the same OS goes into the iPhone, the iPod Touch and the iPad.

iOS4 comes with over 1,500 developer APIs, the biggest of them being multitasking.

iOS4 will come to the iPhone 3G, 3GS and iPod Touch for free on June 21st.

Unified inbox

That's one simple feature I've been waiting for a long time. Now you can get all your emails in one convenient spot.

Bing is not the default search engine

Remember the rumor saying the Bing would replace Google as the default search engine on the iPhone? Well, that was just a rumor. Although Bing will not replaced Google by default, it is an option you can choose in the settings, just like you can choose to make Yahoo your default search engine.

iBooks for iPhone

If you liked iBooks on the iPad, you will love it on the iPhone 4.

iBooks for iPhone has the same controls, the same highlighting, the same bookmarking, and the same PDF reading as iBooks for iPad. If you get a PDF in your emails, tap on it and you'll directly be taken to iBooks where you'll be able to read, bookmarks, create notes, etc...

Buy one book on your iPad and you can get it on your iPhone for free. Even better, all your notes and bookmarks will automatically sync between both devices.

FaceTime brings video chat to the iphone 4

This front-facing camera is going to be very useful to make video calling with the iPhone 4.

The downside is that FaceTime is only for iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 and only works over wifi. Apple says they are talking with cellular providers to get things ready for them. AT&T must be shaking right now...

The upside? Apple is going to make FaceTime an open industry standard. I'm not sure but I think this means that devs will be able to work around it to integrate it in their apps (Skype?).

AT&T offering early upgrades

Steve Jobs confirmed that AT&T will be offering generous upgrade offers to anyone whose iPhone contract expires sometimes in 2010. If you're one of those happy people, you'll be able to get the new iPhone 4 at the same $199 or $299 as a new AT&T customer.

iPhone 4 for sale on June 24

Forget the crazy rumor saying the iPhone 4 would be on sale the same day as the announcement. That was just silly.

The iPhone 4 will be available for pre-order on June 15 and will be for sale in 5 countries on June 24 (US, France, UK, Germany and Japan). 24 more countries will get it in July, and 88 more in September.

Colors and Pricing

The iPhone 4 will come in black or white, in 16GB ($199) or 32GB ($299). I'm kinda disappointed about the poor storage capacity...

Conclusion

First, I really want to thank Ryan Block and all the Team at GDGT who provided me with all the images and part of the info contained in this article. Thanks GDGT.

I really trashed Apple and the iPhone 3GS last year because this device didn't bring anything new. This year though, it's an all new device, much more powerful and packed with features I couldn't have dreamed of.

This is the Apple I like. This is a product I want to buy. This is something I believe in. The iPhone 4 is more than ever the phone of the future.

I'm not into waiting in line but I will pre-order my iPhone 4 as soon as it is possible.

What do you think of the iPhone 4? Are you impressed? Surprised?

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iPhone 4 is the New iPhone

Sébastien Page ∙ June 7, 2010

No more guessing about what the name of the new iPhone is. Steve Jobs just announced the new iPhone, called iPhone 4.

When Steve Jobs revealed the name and what it looks like and said "stop me if you've already seen this", a nice little joke relating to Gizmodo leaking this last month.

The WWDC is still going on. Check the blog back in a few minutes for more info about the iPhone 4.

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Steve Jobs Reveals the 3 Reasons That Can Get Your App Rejected

Sébastien Page ∙ June 7, 2010

How many times have we heard of iPhone apps being rejected for no know reason? Yes, like about one thousand times.

Today at the WWDC, Steve Jobs revealed more information about the amount of apps submitted and the 3 reasons that sometimes get them rejected.

Every week, 15,000 apps are submitted for approval in the App Store. 95% of these are approved within 7 days. The 5% remaining is rejected for one of the following reasons.

The number one reason: it doesn’t function as advertised. It doesn’t do what the developer says it does, so we tell the developer to change the app or the description.

The second reason: the developer uses private APIs. If we upgrade the OS and the app breaks, we won’t have a happy customer.

And the third most frequent reason: they crash.

If you were in our shoes, you’d be rejecting apps for the exact same reasons. I just wanted to give you the facts — sometimes when you read some of these articles, you may think other stuff is going on.

So now you know. [Credit image: gdgt]

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Netflix for iPhone Coming This Summer

Sébastien Page ∙ June 7, 2010

Good news for Netflix customers. The Netflix app was previously available for iPad only, and even though a quick hack could get it to work on your iPhone too, that wasn't really ideal.

Netflix CEO Reed Harding just announced on stage at Apple's WWDC that the Netflix iPhone app would be available this summer.

I'm not sure what "this summer" means but I would assume it's going to be in the next month or so. [Image gdgt]

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New iPhone Announcement Coverage

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 24, 2016

Steve Jobs and crew will be announcing the new iPhone in about 3 hours. As usual, I'll be frenetically typing and updating the blog with the latest information available.

So come back in a while to get up-to-date info about the newest, coolest and bestest iPhone ever.

If you don't feel like refreshing the page every 5 minutes, you can also follow me on Twitter where every new blog article published will be syndicated.

Yeahhhhhhh!

Are you excited?

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Jailbreak & Unlock for the New iPhone Coming This Month

Sébastien Page ∙ June 6, 2010

Some good news just came from a tweet from Dev Team member MuscleNerd who confirmed that a jailbreak and unlock for the new iPhone, whatever its name, will be available this month.

This jailbreak/unlock will be for iPhone OS 3.1.3 and 4.0 and will be compatible with all basebands to date for iPhone 3G/3GS as well as the new iPhone.

I'm trying not to get too excited because history showed us that sometimes things don't go as expected and the release of a jailbreak and/or unlock could very well be delayed.

Still, I'll cross my fingers.

Wouldn't it be great if we could get the new iPhone and not wait too long for a jailbreak? That'd sure be another reason to update. What says you?

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iPhone & iPad News You Missed This Week

Sébastien Page ∙ June 6, 2010

This is a summary of the articles that were published on the blog this week.

ProSwitcher HD for iPad to be released soon SmokeScreen to play Flash videos on your iPhone/iPad Netflix hacked to work on iPhone Quickly change wifi network with YFiSelect Really cool iPad magic How to turn your iPhone into a webcam Mover+ transfers photos and more between iPhones over the air AT&T announces new data plans and tethering for iPhone Featured iPhone theme: Stickers Verizon will not have the iPhone anytime soon How to check your AT&T data usage How to mount a USB stick on the iPad What is Apple going to reveal at the WWDC? Circuitous updated for iPad Remove unwanted details from your pictures with CaPix
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App Switcher Circuitous Updated for iPad

Sébastien Page ∙ June 5, 2010

The excellent Circuitous has been updated for the iPad. For those of you who don't know Circuitous, it is a custom app switcher that shows your open applications in a dock on top of your springboard from where you can easily and quickly launch and exit apps.

To get Circuitous to work at its best, you will need to install Backgrounder and Activator.

Circuitous previously made it in our list of best jailbreak apps for iPhone. Something tells me it's now going to make it in our list of best jailbreak apps for iPad.

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What is Apple Going to Reveal at the WWDC?

Sébastien Page ∙ June 5, 2010

Damn you Gizmodo for spoiling the only event I'm excited about in the tech world!  If it wasn't for you Gizmodo, I'd still be dreaming of what the next iPhone will look like.

But sometimes I wonder if what Gizmodo revealed is really going to be what Steve Jobs will unveil this Monday at the WWDC. In my mind, all this "next iPhone debacle" can't be real. A 20-something kid from Apple can't be responsible for a new iPhone prototype. More importantly, he can't lose it in a bar. That just doesn't make sense to me.

On the other end, seeing how Apple ferociously goes after Gizmodo makes me believe they must do this for a good reason. I'm confused. I'm confused because I'm still not sure we know everything there is to know about the new iPhone. I'm confused because in my mind there can't be no surprise at this event.

So, what is Apple going to reveal iPhonewise on Monday? In the 10 predictions about the iPhone in 2010 I wrote last January, I gave a few hints to what I thought the iPhone would be like:

the new iPhone will still be for AT&T only (confirmed) improved battery life a 5 MP camera 64 GB of storage a louder speaker a new design backgrounding

I still stick 100% behind what I said. Seeing the leaked new iPhone, I'm glad to add to the list that it will most likely have a front-facing camera and a camera flash.

If all these features come with the new iPhone, I'll be a happy camper. The iPhone will then be the device it was meant to be with features really competing with all these new Android phones.

Still, I'm expecting Apple to surprise us all with something none of us expected. If you had to make a wild guess, what do you think Apple will announce for the iPhone on Monday?

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How to Check Your AT&T Data Usage

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated November 12, 2019

Yesterday I told you about AT&T's new data plans. While these plans will benefit a large majority of iPhone owners, there is still a few of us who'll have to closely monitor our data usage to make sure we don't go over board.

Checking your data usage on the AT&T network is pretty easy and straightforward and will prevent you from having bad surprises when the bill comes.

Checking Your AT&T Data Usage

How to check your data usage on AT&T's website

I think the best and most comprehensive way to check your data usage for your iPhone is to do so directly from AT&T's website. This will give you a nice graph showing the last 6 months of data activity, making it clear for you to see what you used through your 3G or EDGE data connection.

This graph excludes all data transferred over wifi network connections because this is not part of your AT&T data plan. That means you can download/upload as much as you want from your iPhone over wifi, you will never be charged for that.

How to check your data usage with AT&T's myWireless app

AT&T has a free application in the App Store called myWireless. On top of giving you important information such as how many voice minutes or SMS you've used, the app will also show you how much data you've used for the current billing period. That's a great way to monitor your data usage on the go directly from your iPhone.

I really like the myWireless app. It is clean and simple and it also allows you to pay your bill from your iPhone. I consider it a must-have.

That's it, now you should be able to manage and monitor your data usage efficiently. For those of you who decide to stay on the unlimited plan, that shouldn't be an issue at all.

If you have more tips and tips like this, please feel free to share them in the comment. [Credit images: TiPB - MacObserver]

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It’s Official, Verizon Will Not Have the iPhone Anytime Soon

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 6, 2019

How many times did I tell you that Verizon wouldn't have the iPhone this year? One? Two? Actually more than that but I'm not going to link to every article about it.

Verizon spokesperson John Johnson told Beet.tv that there is no plan for Verizon to support the Apple mobile devices, in the "immediate future".

Now we can play on the semantics of "immediate future" but to me it means, not this year, and probably not even next year. So forget all those unfounded rumors saying Verizon is testing the iPhone 4G or even the iPad on its network.

Again, Apple has a contract with AT&T to be the exclusive carrier for 5 years (there's another 2 to go) and according to Steve Jobs recent interview at D8 Conference, both Apple and AT&T have been doing quite well: "AT&T took a big leap on us and decided they were going to trust us to do the right thing with the phone. And that’s worked out quite well for both of us."

What does that mean? That means that whether you like it or not, Apple is sticking with AT&T and Verizon may have the iPhone in 2 years. But remember, Verizon is a CDMA network. CDMA is a dying technology and Apple is not used to betting on dying species, if you see what I mean...

How do you feel about that? Disappointed?

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