7 reasons why iPhone 4 is great news for gamers

It was hardly a shock that Apple announced a host of new features for its iPhone 4 at the WWDC 2010 keynote in San Francisco, especially as the phone itself had already been inadvertently revealed last month.

What was a more pleasant surprise is the number of these features that directly benefit the gaming experience.

We've covered the full list of features in more detail in our dedicated iPhone 4 round-up feature and liveblog, so here we'd like to briefly celebrate the seven reasons for iPhone gamers to be especially cheerful about the latest addition to the Apple family...

1. More storage space means more space for games and apps
Doubling the previous iPhone drive space up to 32Gb means space for more apps and games or, more likely, for a similar number of bigger and better digital entertainments.

2. More powerful processor enables faster games
The A4 is not only a great motor vehicle, it's the chip that powers this latest iPhone and gives grunt to enable fast framerates and more demanding games, as well as ensuring the other new functions don't slow the experience.

3. A front-facing camera for gesture recognition and DSi-style antics
Although it may have been demonstrated for video-calling (hello? Surely even Apple can't rescue that lame duck), the real opportunity here is for apps and games to employ gesture recognition and face-fitting features a la the DSi, some other smartphones, and project Natal.
4. OS 4.0 as standard with Game Center and more
We've already waxed lyrical about the game-friendly features in iPhone OS 4.0 in previous articles, but features like multi-tasking and the eagerly awaited Game Center are worth mentioning again here as they'll all be integrated from day one. 5. Ultra hi-resolution screen for slicker visuals
Again, the demonstration was clearly a bit rubbish (fonts and flowers Steve? Get with the program), but more pixels (326 pixels per inch here, meaning you get 78 per cent of resolution of current iPad) means sharper visuals making existing titles look slicker and opening up the possibilities for even more console-challenging visual quality from the next generation of games.

6. Longer batter life, means more gaming on the go
One of the common complaints of any iPhone gamer (or any user of a portable Apple product come to that) is the battery runs out way too quickly. Apple has addressed the issue here and promises the new system has a bigger battery, enabling a massive 300 hours standby, 40 hours music and ten hours video or browsing.

The latter is closest to gaming, but even if we knock off a couple of hours and say seven or eight that's still a big boost from the current setup and should comfortably see most train or plane journeys filled - hurrah!

7. Gyro-scope enables Wii-style gaming
In true Steve-note style we've saved the best for last, focusing for our final ray of happiness upon the three-axis gyroscope which adds pitch, roll, and yaw to the existing inputs offered by touchscreen and accelerometer.

This time round there's no need to imagine the Wii-style gaming implications, though, as Stevey boy himself chose a Jenga-style block game to demonstrate the twisting and twirling movements that all self-respecting iPhone gamers will need to add to their existing touch and twist movement repertoires.

Suffice to say we're expecting a host more reasons to be cheerful from the next generation of games themselves, which we hope to be revealed over the weeks ahead, but for the moment we can declare ourselves really rather chuffed with Apple's latest bundle of joy. Boom indeed.