Today at WWDC, Steve Jobs officially announced the new fourth-generation iPhone, to be called the iPhone 4.

Thanks to that whole lost prototype incident, we’ve known what the phone was going to look like for several months. But now we have confirmation of the final design as well several of the 100 new features and specifications.

The new phone is powered by an A4 CPU (the same chip used in the iPad) and sports a 3.5-inch screen with 960×640 resolution, dual mics, and an upgraded camera system that will include HD video recording and editing capabilities.

Here are a handful of specs we’ve learned so far:

• 9.3mm thick, 24% thinner than current iPhone
• 3.5″ display, same as current iPhone
• 326 ppi display, 4 times the previous iPhone’s pixel density
• Case uses stainless steel and glass, including a glass back for the device
• Powered by the A4 chip
• Larger battery means 7 hours of talk time, 6 hours of 3G browsing, 10 hours of WiFi browsing, 10 hours of video, 40 hours of music and 300 hours of standby
• 7.2MB download and 5.8MB upload speeds, depending on carrier capabilities
• Gryroscope in addition to accelerometer
• 5MP camera with 5x zoom, tap to focus and LED flash
• HD video recording, and iMovie for editing video on the iPhone
• Front- and rear-facing cameras for FaceTime, the new video chat app
• iOS will allow for multitasking

Rumors about the latest iPhone, which has often mistakenly been called the iPhone HD have been flying around since early this year. At the end of March, the most substantive rumors were posted by John Gruber. Many of those features are included in the final product.

One of the most anticipated features of the new iPhone is iPhone 4.0 OS, or iOS. The new operating system supports multitasking, video chat, better file management and folders, iBooks, the new iAd platform and the Apple Game Center.

Current iPhone owners who have an iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS can also upgrade to the new iPhone OS 4.0, but only third-generation iPod touch, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 owners will be able to take advantage of multitasking.

The new iPhone is available in black and in white, with storage capabilities of 16 and 32GB. The device will be available starting June 24 in select countries. Pricing starts at $199 for the 16GB model with an AT&T; upgrade and 2-year contract. The 32GB device starts at $299.

If you want to learn more, or if you just want to watch some Apple-sanctioned iPhone porn, check out this video, ripped from the Apple site by the fine folks at Geekwood:

New data released from the National Venture Capital Association shows further evidence of a rebounding acquisitions and IPO market for venture-backed companies in the first quarter of 2010. We mentioned back in January about the slight uptake in activity in the final quarter of 2009, and it seems that trend has continued upward into the new year with record breaking M&A; numbers and rebounding IPO data.

In the first quarter of 2010, Thompson Reuters and the NVCA tracked a record of 111 M&A; deals for venture-backed companies, an all-time quarterly high from their history of tracking deals and the largest since Q1 2008's 109 deals. Of these deals, 31 disclosed their values for a total of over $5.5 billion, averaging over $180 million per deal. This is more than four times the average deal size seen a year ago.

Information technology companies represented nearly three quarters of the 111 M&A; deals (81 total), besting life sciences and non-high technology with just 21 and 9 deals respectively. Within the IT category, software and Internet snagged 61 of the 81 deals but accounted for just over half of the disclosed value of those deals. Life sciences companies continued to rake in more serious cash at a higher rate as over $2.9 billion was spent on their 21 deals; IT companies managed just over $2.2 billion.

Though 2009 saw just 12 venture-backed IPOs, Q1 2010 has already seen 9 IPOs, the largest quarterly amount since the offering-rich 2007 which saw 86 total IPOs valued at over $10 billion. This quarter's offerings were more evenly distributed among the sectors than the M&A; figures, as IT and life sciences saw 4 and 3 IPOs respectively. NVCA president Mark Heesen says the new numbers have "engendered a cautious optimism" within the VC industry.

“The IPO volume, while not nearly enough to declare a recovery, has shown the most improvement since the financial crisis began and the pipeline of companies in registration continues to build. The record breaking number of venture-backed acquisitions is also encouraging as the quality of these transactions appears to have held strong. It is premature to suggest we have permanently turned the corner, but that corner is in sight and within reach as long as we can continue this positive upwards trajectory over the next consecutive quarters,” says Heesen.

What this all boils down to is that venture-backed companies are more likely to find merger and acquisition deals before them this year than they have in several years. Additionally, the IPO data suggests that more of these companies could be going public in 2010 than did during the 2008/2009 slump.

This is a great sign for startups because when more companies are being bought or are going public, that means the economy is starting to turn around and that VCs will likely be more willing to invest in new companies. As we mentioned back in January, VCs were expected to spend more in Q1 2010 after raising an increased amount of funds in the final quarter of 2009. VC spending data on this first quarter should be out in the next few weeks from the NVCA, so stick around to see how those figures hashed out.

After a surprisingly short wait in line at our local Apple Store, where about 100 people lined up for their reserved iPads – and another 100 who didn’t have a reservations – we finally took possession of our very own Apple tablet. We will take a closer look at all the apps, hardware and iPad-optimized web sites over the course of the next few days, but here are our first impressions after spending some quality time with the iPad.

It’s Very Fast, A Little Bit Heavy and a Little Bit Magical

Without a doubt, the first thing you will notice is the sheer speed of the iPad. Web pages render very fast, switching from landscape to portrait mode only takes a second – even in image and video-heavy apps like the Popular Science app or the ABC Player – and apps open extremely fast.

The device itself is light for its size, feels very solid, but still feels a bit heavy when holding it with one hand. Most of the time, we don’t think this will be an issue as you will probably hold the device with two hands – but if you have wrist issues, this is definitely something to keep in mind.

A More Intimate Experience

Apple uses the word “magical” whenever the company talks about the iPad. After using the iPad for a while, we can’t quite call it magical, but it’s definitely a huge step forward for personal computing. Being able to manipulate the web with your fingers directly on the screen, browsing through the New York Times or Popular Science app on the couch and checking up on your Twitter friends in the TweetDeck app just takes on another dimension when you are using the iPad. It is indeed, as Apple calls it, a more intimate experience.

Yes, the iPad doesn’t do multitasking, chances are that you won’t want to use it for heavy content creation tasks and the iPhone was more revolutionary than the iPad, but if you already use your iPhone to surf the web on the couch and keep up with email, the iPad is better at all of these tasks than the iPhone and more comfortable to use than a laptop or netbook.

Read on for more detailed impressions of some of the iPad’s hardware and software features.

Screen

Apple wasn’t kidding when it said that the screen on the iPad would be gorgeous. It’s not just that the extra screen estate allowed developers to build easier to use apps, but the screen really makes colors pop and the viewing angle is close to 180 degrees.

At the end of the day, though, it’s really the size of the screen that makes all the difference when compared to an iPod touch. While some developers have only re-purposed their iPhone apps for the iPad so far, some apps like the Epicurious cooking app are already making good use of this extra screen estate by putting tabs on the side and bottom of the screen.

We should note, though, that running iPhone apps that haven’t been optimized for the iPad isn’t a very magical experience. Regular iPhone apps work just fine, but the blown-up fonts look fuzzy and using those apps just isn’t a lot of fun.

Of course, we don’t have any hands-on experience about the iPad’s battery life yet, but we will update this post later today with more info once we get some more real-life data.

Virtual Keyboard

The iPad keyboard takes some getting used to. On a lap or on a table with the iPad in Apple’s nifty case, typing with two hands is easy. If your hands are big, you can probably use both of your thumbs to type in portrait mode. Typing in landscape mode with the iPad in your hands means that you can only use one hand, however, and the iPad can quickly feel a bit heavy if you are holding it with just one hand.

Apple’s Own Apps

We haven’t had a chance to fully appreciate Apple’s own email, contacts, calendar apps, but our first impression is that they are all well designed, work as advertised and – thanks to making use of the bigger screen – are generally much easier to use on the iPad than on the iPhone. Safari, of course, is the highlight here, where web sites render just about as fast as on a notebook and browsing even non-mobile optimized sites feels perfectly natural (though, of course, without Flash some sites just don’t work very well).

The iPod app now looks a lot more like iTunes, with a sidebar on the right (in portrait and landscape mode). Interestingly, Apple did not include cover flow here.

iBooks

iBooks, Apple’s e-book app, is a very capable e-book reader. Prices in the iBook store are typically between $9.99 and $14.99 (we also found a few books for $16.99 and Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged retails for $27.99). It’s worth noting that the store also features a huge selection of free books from Project Gutenberg. We will take a closer look at the iBooks app and compare it to the other e-readers on the iPad later today.

It’s quite inevitable, really: After Google announced free turn-by-turn GPS navigation for Android devices – followed by Nokia’s decision to offer the same on its smartphones – the price of full-featured GPS navigation apps on other platforms is hurtling toward zero.

Case in point: MapQuest 4 Mobile, a free GPS navigation app for the iPhone, now offers “basic voice guidance.“

The app will tell you when you need to take a turn and, if you get lost, it will warn you that you’re off route. Other features include the option to save maps and routes on MapQuest.com to retrieve on your iPhone, easy POI finding via the OS X dashboard-like Place Carousel, the ability to find you on a map or in relation to a route and free form search.

The app is available for free in Apple’s App Store.

Forbes has released its annual list of the world’s billionaires and when it comes to technology, the list includes many of the same faces we see year after year.

After regaining the throne last year, Bill Gates has once again been displaced as the world’s richest man – this time by Carlos Slim (who held that post back in 2007), but he remains the richest man in tech by a wide margin with an estimated net worth of $53 billion.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who fell off the list last year, has rejoined, tied with 20 others at #212 with an estimated net worth of $4 billion.

Check out how some other tech heavyweights weighed in:

Larry Ellison: $28 Billion

The Oracle founder and CEO is the sixth richest person in the world this year, sitting pretty with $28 billion as his estimated net worth.

Sergey Brin & Larry Page: $17.5 Billion Each

The two Google co-founders both place 24th on the list with $17.5 billion in estimated net worth.

Steve Ballmer: $14.5 Billion

Thanks to a rise in Microsoft’s stock price, Ballmer saw his net worth rise and he sits at #33 on the overall list.

Paul Allen and Michael Dell: $13.5 Billion

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen might appear to spend money like its water, but he’s still ranked at #37 on the list, tied with Dell founder and CEO Michael Dell.

Jeff Bezos: $12.3 Billion

The Amazon founder and CEO is ranked #43 with $12.3 billion in estimated net worth. That’s a lot of e-books!

Eric Schmidt: $6.3 Billion

Google CEO Eric Schmidt is ranked #117 this year, tied with News Corp. mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Steve Jobs: $5.5 Billion

Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs has watch his company’s stock price soar over the last twelve months. He’s ranked #136 with an estimated $5.5 Billion.

Pierre Omidyar: $5.2 Billion

The eBay founder is ranked #148 on the list.

George Lucas and Steven Spielberg: $3 Billion each

While most filmmakers don’t necessarily fall into the category of technology players, I think we can make an exception for the guy who gave us Jaws, E.T. and Minority Report and the guy that gave us Star Wars and Howard The Duck. Both directors are tied at #316.

Jerry Yang: $1.3 Billion

Hey, being ousted wasn’t the worst thing to happen to Yang – Yahoo’s stock was up 26% in the last year, buoying the co-founders net worth along with it.

According to recently released research from the Pew Center, we’re just as optimistic about the web as we were ten years ago during the Internet’s first boom cycle.

At the end of 2009, most Americans in this Pew survey have a dismal view of the 2000s. Between the Iraq war, the 9/11 attacks, economic and political distress and the curse of reality television, the decade has been voted the worst in our collective memory. But one of few bright spots in a tense ten-year period was and remains technological innovation, including the Internet, cell phones and email. Social sites, however, still have a way to go in the public eye.

Over a five-day period, the Pew Center interviewed 1,504 American adults and asked them to weigh their feelings about culture and technology over time. The respondents’ answers are enlightening.

While positive feelings outweigh negative ones for almost every cultural epoch from 1960 until 1999, our feelings about the 2000s are predominantly unhappy. Fully 50 percent of respondents have an overall negative impression of the past decade, while only 27 percent said they felt positively about these years.

However, almost across the board, technological advances in basic online and mobile communication tools have been a bright spot in our shared perception of this decade’s progressions and events.

Cell phones, email and the Internet were viewed very favorably among all types of Americans, and online shopping and smartphones evoked positive reactions from a majority of respondents, as well. Blogs and the social web, however, earned a solid “meh” from those surveyed.

It is worth noting that the greater a respondent’s age, the less likely he or she was to view these technological changes positively. For example, 45 percent of folks between the ages of 18 and 49 – a huge demographic – saw social networking websites as having positive effects on our society. But after the 50-years-old mark, that percentage lowered significantly to between 25 and 21 percent.

It’s also interesting to note that the dot-com crash hasn’t effected our late-nineties optimism about where the Internet would take us. Most of us still feel, as we did in 1999, that the Internet is having an overall positive effect on Americans.

Again, these responses were subject to age. Around three-quarters of younger respondents saw the web as a positive change, but only 42 percent of people age 65 and older felt the same way. But these older Americans didn’t seem to think the Internet was necessarily negative, either. Their responses indicated that they were unsure of its impact or thought its influence was negligible. Another correlation in this opinion was between a positive view of the Internet and a college education. A full 82 percent of folks with a college degree said the web is doing good things for America.

For more details, read the full study, and do let us know in the comments what you think of the 2000s and where the Internet will take us in the 2010s.

First Paris Metro, then Yelp, now London Buses. The newest is even selling database layers through in-app purchases.

It has been widely reported that the API required to display Augmented Reality (AR) layers of data on top of the camera view of a non-jailbroken iPhone 3Gs would not be publicly exposed until the launch of the next version of the iPhone Operating System, expected this Fall. Many developers are patiently waiting, but some have now found a way around the restriction. We just received word of the 3rd AR-enabled app hitting the iTunes store.

Earlier this week we reported on Paris Metro Subway as being apparently the first AR-enabled app to be accepted into iTunes. Then, this afternoon Robert Scoble discovered that the new Yelp app includes an AR easter egg that any 3Gs owner can turn on by shaking their phone. Now we’ve received an email from Presselite, the same company that made Paris Metro Subway, letting us know that its London Bus app has been updated to include AR overlays and is also live in the App Store.

The London Bus app is even selling data sets through in-app purchases. From its iTunes description:

It is now possible to add new Point of Interest (POI) databases to London Bus application via in-app purchase. These options allow you to activate Food & Drink POI, Leisure POI, Attractions POI and Accommodation POI all over the UK.

This AR economy is moving faster than we expected.

All three of these were existing established apps that received AR capabilities in an update, not dedicated AR apps seeking admission for the first time. We’ve been unable to determine how this was achieved technically (Presselite of course won’t say), but rumor has it that the apps may be leveraging a third-party code base called ARToolkit (or iPhoneARToolkit). Others point to software called ChromelessImagePickerController.

Can Apple now fairly deny other apps that seek to bring AR to the iPhone? We can’t imagine that they would shut down Yelp’s wildly successful app.

Presumably many developers will continue to wait, hoping that the software they’ve already built will be enabled as soon as next month. Others will probably try to get their apps in ahead of the official announcement of AR support from Apple. That’s got to take some wind out of the sails of those companies that have been waiting patiently.

They may only be the beginning and they may not be high-profile or officially supported by Apple yet, but it couldn’t be clearer: Augmented Reality apps have come to the iPhone.