The Verizon iPhone 4
Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 5:27PM | Print Article Although not very exciting for us Brits, Apple have finally unleashed the iPhone 4 on Verizon in the US. Fundamentally the device is the same, however there have been some minor hardware and software modifications to allow it to take advantage of the Verizon network and services. These changes include:
Antenna Design: All previous iPhone's were designed for GSM networks which are used by the majority of the world's mobile operators, such as AT&T, Vodafone, Orange, O2, etc. Verizon however use a competing standard known as CDMA, which utilises a different network architecture and requires the mobile hardware to be CDMA compatible. As a result Apple have had to tweak the iPhone 4 hardware design, specifically a revised antenna design and the removal of the micro-SIM slot (as CDMA networks do not require a SIM). Apple have not detailed if they have made any other changes to the antenna design to resolve the reported "Antennagate" issue experienced at the iPhone 4 launch, however initial reports state that the Verizon iPhone exhibits no visible signal loss when attempting "the death grip".
The image below shows the minor antenna design change, where a new black band has been added at the top of the iPhone on both sides. As a result of this change the mute and volume buttons have been lowered, meaning that the original iPhone 4 cases may not be 100% compatible.
iOS 4.2.5: Unsurprisingly the new Verizon iPhone uses a new iOS version (4.2.5 compared to 4.2.1). First reports show that the only visible change to the user is the addition of the "Personal Hotspot" found under "Settings". This new feature allows you to share the iPhone's 3G data connection with up to five other devices (mobile, tablets or laptops) over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. This is an enhancement of the previous tethering service and makes the iPhone a feasible Mi-Fi replacement.
It is believed that this new feature will be made available to all versions of the iPhone 4 in a future iOS release, however it will be up to the individual mobile operators to enable service (probably at an additional charge).
The Verizon iPhone will be available on 10th February. Initially the US users will have to pick between the GSM (AT&T) or CDMA (Verizon) iPhone 4 as they are physically different hardware, although I fully expect Apple to utilise a unified chip for future iPhone designs. For more information head over to Engadget.