Why Apple can make a white iPad and a white iPhone not

A participant in a press conference on the Apple iPad 2 is testing a white tablet.

Apple added another piece to this puzzle on Wednesday when it introduced the iPad 2 in two versions: white and black.

Of course, after the presentation, those invited to the event received their first impressions of the test samples of both colors. You can recall June 2010, when Apple showed reporters a room, not far from here, filled with black and white iPhones 4. It is

needless to say that Apple still does not sell its latest iPhone model in a color other than black. However, previous 3G and 3GS models were offered with both white and black back covers.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs hinted at a problem with the iPhone during the presentation, focusing on the phrase: “We will start delivering white iPads from the first day of sales”, which caused a general laugh in the hall.

At least two key factors prevented Apple from shipping the white version of the new iPhon, not only by the start, but even by the 251st day from the start of the sale, Apple developers said.

The white iPhone, assembled from the details of the Chinese supplier, which is used by one of the founders of Apple, Steve Wozniak, as he explained, was rejected by Apple. The phone’s camera takes pictures of poor quality when the flash is on, and the white material (the case on the 4th iPhon’s glass - approx. Translator) distorts the proximity sensor data, Wozniak said.

“The first samples of parts were of poor quality, so we decided not to put them at all,” Wozniak said in an interview with Engadget. “I took two photographs: with and without a flash, the photograph that looked with it looked like I had made it through cellophane.”

These constructive obstacles affected the latest version of iPhon. In the iPad, the camera is located at the back, and the back of it is made of aluminum, not of the same material as the front (the front camera also has an iPad - translator's note) . And there is no flash in it at all.

The new tablet also lacks an proximity sensor. This mechanism is used in iPnone, for example, when it is pressed against an object, usually to your head during a call to turn off the backlight (in previous versions of the phone, this problem was not observed because both versions had a black front part).

Instead of the proximity sensor, the iPad uses built-in magnets to determine when the screen is covered by a cover and the backlight must be turned off or on if the screen is open. And the light sensors, the same as in the iPhone, allow you to adjust the brightness of the backlight.

For the first time, Apple announced a delay in the supply of white iPhones two weeks before the start of sales in June, saying that they would be available in the second half of July. Then, in July, Apple promised that the elusive white would appear later this year. Then, in October, Apple again postponed the release until the spring of 2011.

Despite its mythical character, the white model has become not only the Grail (such a thing in religion, about which there are many rumors: the king’s blood, denoting the descendants of Jesus, is this or this is the holy cup where the blood of the aforementioned crucified character flowed) for geeks, ready to lose the guarantee and attach non-original parts to their device, it also became some symbol of the city of Cupertino in California, Apple headquarters.

Jony Ive, chief designer of the company, was seen using his white iPhone 4 in the product showroom after the iPad 2 was introduced on Wednesday.

The fact that this is my first topic and therefore I will not write to tram pairs, but I will be glad to accept comments and suggestions regarding the translation.