State of the Art: Silver Screen and LEDs Join at Last

And now, finally, projectors.

Projectors are amazing these days — the ones in corporate boardrooms, the ones in home theaters and the ones that fulfill both functions. But most still have a regular old light bulb inside. A very, very bright one that gets very, very hot and costs very, very much to replace — maybe $300 or $400. And that’s after about 2,000 hours of use.

If you could replace that hot, expensive bulb with LED lights, you’d use half as much power, so you’d be polluting less. Because it would need less cooling, your projector could be much smaller and lighter.

Above all, you’d never have to replace the bulb. The LED projectors in this roundup are rated at 20,000 hours or more — at least 10 times the life of a regular bulb. That’s long enough for you to watch a different movie every night for 27 years, or the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy twice.

I tried out seven LED projectors priced at $1,000 or less. Each comes with carrying case and remote control. Each offers every conceivable input — VGA so you can plug in your laptop, HDMI for Blu-ray players and game consoles, USB and memory-card slots (so you can project PowerPoint files and slide shows and movies without even needing a computer). All produce a 1,280-by-800-pixel image. A few, with the purchase of a Wi-Fi adapter, can display videos and slides wirelessly from a phone, tablet or laptop.

These LED projectors tend to fall into two categories, mobile projectors and business projectors.

Mobile projectors are tiny, tiny boxes; the smallest could be mistaken for a brownie. Then again, the power-cord brick is nearly a third the size of the projector.

These models are cheap and plastic. There’s no height adjustment. The speaker inside is usually 2 watts, mono — awful for watching a movie. You’ll want to connect a real speaker.

The image from these mobile models is nothing like the huge, bright, even, crisp picture that a $1,200 traditional projector gives you. But for their size and cost, these projectors display a surprisingly big, bright image. In a dark room, the image is still bright enough when it’s maybe eight feet wide; with the lights on, you’d probably want to go no larger than five feet wide. (Of course, an actual movie screen — as opposed to a wall — works wonders.)

The mobile models manage 300 or 500 lumens, which are the units of projectors’ light output. That seems pretty feeble compared with the 2,000 lumens of traditional projectors, but our eyes perceive brightness logarithmically. Doubling the lumens doesn’t double the brightness. A 500-lumen projector isn’t half as bright as a 1,000-lumen model; it looks brighter.

And that concludes the science lesson. Here’s what stands out among the mobile LED projectors:

DELL M115 ($520) At about four inches square and 13 ounces, this 450-lumen model is the smallest and lightest projector in the roundup. You could cover it up with a hamburger.

And yet this tiny, black plastic Dell is among the best mobile projectors. The picture is bright and the colors are true, especially in the dark. The buttons on the projector light up when you touch them, which is useful, but their labels are dark gray on black, and therefore pretty much impossible to read. The slot accommodates only Micro SD cards, not standard ones. And a remote is $25 extra (booooo!).

But you can transfer one gigabyte of PowerPoint, Word, Excel, PDF, picture, music and movie files into the projector, turning it into a self-contained, ready-to-use presentation device that fits in your pocket.

AAXA SHOWTIME 3D ($450) This 450-lumen projector offers cheap black plastic, inscrutable no-words menu system, no card slot, orangey skin tones and bursts of blotch in fast scene changes. Not impressed.

Social Networks in a Battle for the Second Screen

The companies were seeking more than just bragging rights.

Facebook and Twitter both see the social conversation around television as a way to increase use of their sites and win a bigger piece of advertisers’ spending, which eMarketer estimates will be $171 billion across all types of media this year in the United States. In recent months, they have engaged in an escalating battle — publicly and behind the scenes — to claim the title of the nation’s digital water cooler as they woo networks and advertisers.

Sorting out which site deserves the crown, however, is tricky. Each company uses its own standard for determining social TV conversation, and unlike other types of Internet traffic, there is no neutral arbiter.

Twitter, citing data calculated by Nielsen’s SocialGuide service under a confidential formula, said about 600,000 people had posted more than 1.2 million messages, or tweets, about the “Breaking Bad” finale over about a 10-hour period surrounding the East and West Coast broadcasts. But that included retweets, which are messages that simply pass along what others have posted.

Facebook said three million people had chimed in on its service. But that counted original posts, comments on those posts and even “likes,” the quick thumbs-up that people can give to a friend’s Facebook item. And the service looked at everything in a 24-hour period that included the broadcasts.

The public relations blitz shows how important old-fashioned television has become to the Internet-era social networks, particularly Twitter. The company, based in San Francisco, has signed TV-related deals with dozens of advertisers and content distributors over the last year, like Verizon Wireless and ESPN, to burnish its growth prospects as it prepares to sell stock to the public for the first time. That initial public offering is likely to take place next month.

Neither Facebook nor Twitter has disclosed how much revenue it makes from advertising related to TV, and some industry experts doubt they are earning much.

Still, there is little question that television is a favorite topic for users. About half of Americans visit social networks while watching TV, and one in six Americans posts comments about shows during their broadcasts, according to a coming report by eMarketer, which found that people in some countries like China and India are even more active in their chatter.

Live events like sports attract the highest engagement. “Sports events comprise somewhere between 2 and 3 percent of TV programming in any given month but generate close to 50 percent of the Twitter activity” around TV, said Sean Casey, senior vice president for product at Nielsen’s SocialGuide unit.

Nielsen has found that the average audience for Twitter messages about a TV show is 50 times the number of people posting messages about the show. If 2,000 people are posting messages about a show, for example, an average of 100,000 people are seeing those messages. The research firm also found that heavy Twitter activity around a popular broadcast can drive more people to both the show and Twitter.

That kind of potential impact intrigues networks and advertisers, and this week, Nielsen began reporting detailed Twitter activity along with conventional TV audience ratings to its clients.

For viewers, the line between what they see on TV and what they see on their smartphones and tablets is quickly blurring.

During this year’s United States Open, for example, the beer maker Heineken sponsored the tennis tournament in New York, the television broadcast and video highlights posted on Twitter, including a remarkable 54-shot rally between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. Potential viewers could catch up on the matches from anywhere.

“We were trying to bring people to the event who weren’t there,” said Ron Amram, senior media director at Heineken USA. “All of us have realized how powerful Twitter can be to get the conversation going.”

Twitter, considered by many to be the leader in social conversation around live TV, has spent much of 2013 courting networks like Fox and MTV and consumer brands like Heineken. Last week, for example, it signed a deal with the National Football League to distribute football clips sponsored by Verizon Wireless and other companies.

Such partnerships have created a significant new revenue stream for Twitter.

“We’ve built a business around working collaboratively with TV,” said Adam Bain, Twitter’s president of global revenue. “We really see our role as a force multiplier.”

Although Mr. Bain declined to provide financial details about the initiative, the public may learn more when the company files information for prospective investors, which could occur as soon as this week.

Facebook, whose social platform is built more around each individual’s web of relationships than rapid-fire conversation, has a more complicated relationship with TV.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: October 3, 2013

An earlier version of this article misstated, because of erroneous information provided by Nielsen, the average audience for Twitter messages about a TV show. The number of viewers of such messages was found to be 50 times the number of people posting the messages (some posters send multiple messages); it is not the case that an average of 50 people see each tweet. 

Gadgetwise Blog: Tip of the Week: Make a Mac Screen Recording

The QuickTime Player program included with recent versions of Mac OS X can do more than just play back video clips. It can also make a recording of the action on the computer screen, which can be helpful when creating tutorials or demonstrating how to do a  task. To get started, just go to the Mac’s Applications folder and open the QuickTime Player program.

Once the program is open, go to the File menu and select New Screen Recording. If you plan to provide narration, click the white triangle on the right side of the program’s window to choose your audio-recording options from the internal microphone; you can also choose a video quality setting here, and whether to make mouse clicks visible on screen in the recording.

When you are ready to capture a screen action, click the red recording button on the QuickTime Player window. Choose to record the whole screen or just a selected portion, and perform the action you want to capture. Click the Stop button. Apple’s site has more information on using QuickTime Player for screen recording, movie recording (with the Mac’s built-in camera), video editing and other tasks.

Gadgetwise Blog: A Fitting Screen Protector for the iPhone 5

While clear film phone screen protectors can be a good idea, applying them requires a lot of patience and some skill. Otherwise you end up with a bubble-filled membrane that is hard to type on and see through.

A diagram of the Tru-Fit assembly.

Trü Protection is trying to simplify the process for iPhone 5 owners with a mounting system intended to automatically align a phone and a screen protector.

It’s called Trü-Fit, and here’s how it works.

Inside the package are screen cleaners, two protective screens and a tray.

Obviously, use the cleaners to clear your phone screen. When the glass is prepped, take the protective screen cover and slide it into the tray. You then peel back a tab that exposes an adhesive. Then the phone goes into the tray, face down, over the sticky screen protector. Press your phone into the tray firmly, then pop it out of the tray. The screen protector should be affixed.

It should, but I failed at my first two tries. By the third, I figured out exactly how to line up the protector in the tray, which must be just so.

It is easier than applying a protective screen without a tray, but still requires some attention and patience.

By the third try the protective screen came out reasonably well centered and I was able to press the few small bubbles out from under the protector to the edges where they disappeared.

The screen protectors are $20 a pair and have a matte anti-glare finish. I thought the matte finish made the screen easier to see once I increased my screen brightness, but that eats more battery power.

It is impossible to say how much protection you get from a film like this, though. As I have written before, there is no standard for testing these protective films. At the very least, it’s not likely to do any harm.

Gadgetwise Blog: Tip of the Week: Customize the Windows 8 Start Screen

For many people who upgrade from earlier versions of the system, Windows 8 and its colorful Start screen can be a little overwhelming. The Start screen, like the Start menu in older Windows editions, is meant to be the go-to place for all the computer’s files and programs. Like the Start menu, the Start screen can be customized according to personal needs and tastes.

The Start screen’s tiles — those colorful, clickable squares that serve as shortcuts to files, folders, programs, bookmarked Web sites, contacts, games and more — can be dragged around the screen into an order that makes more sense to the individual user. Tiles can also be sorted into new groups, resized or even removed so the most important things are more easily found. Microsoft has more tips and a demonstration video for customizing the Windows 8 Start screen on its site.

Pogue's Posts: An Easy Way to Capture Live Video of Your iPhone’s Screen

Reflector works by tricking an iPhone into thinking that your Mac or PC is an Apple TV.

As alert readers might have discovered, my videos are back. They’re called “60 Seconds with David Pogue,” and they illustrate whatever my column is about. I make one about every other week. (Here is last week’s, on light bulbs.)

The thing is, more and more often, creating tech videos requires filming the screen of the phone, and that’s a nightmare. There’s grease, there are reflections, there are exposure problems. And there are blocking problems — as you demonstrate some phone feature for the camera, you can’t help your hand getting in between the camera and the phone, blocking the very thing you’re trying to film. (The camera starts focusing on your hand instead of the screen, and things just keep getting worse.)

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If you saw my video about Google Maps, you might have noticed that I’ve solved this problem. I’ve found a way to capture the live video from the iPhone’s screen — brilliantly, clearly, easily and without using a camera at all.

It’s a $13 Mac program called Reflector (a time-limited trial is available), and it transmits the iPhone/iPad/Touch’s video image to the screen of your Mac or PC. From there, you can record it or project it.

The clever part is how it works. AirPlay is Apple’s wireless video-transmission technology. Most people use it to view their Mac, iPhone or iPad’s screen image on a big TV — for example, to watch a Netflix or Hulu show on the TV screen instead of the laptop. (Your TV requires an Apple TV box, about $100.)

But Reflector turns AirPlay inside out. It tricks the iPhone into thinking that your Mac or PC is an Apple TV.

Both have to be on the same network. When you’re ready to project the iPhone to the computer, you double-press the Home button. The usual app switcher appears. Scroll it to the right until you see the AirPlay button. Tap it, choose Reflector’s name, and boom: the iPhone’s live video image shows up on the computer’s screen, with incredibly high resolution and clarity. (It also works with the iPad or iPod Touch.)

Reflector transmits audio, too. In other words, the computer plays whatever the phone is playing.

You can opt to see a frame around the image, representing the body of the phone or tablet itself. You can even specify which iPhone/iPad color you want that frame to be.

There’s a Start Recording command right there in the menu. It creates a movie of whatever you’re doing on the phone, which is handy for people who make tech videos (ahem).

I couldn’t believe how simple and smooth the answer was to the problem I’ve had for years. Reflector is terrific for anyone who wants to make videos, but it’s also great for trainers, teachers or product demos. It means that, for the first time, there’s a high-quality way to project the phone’s image onto a big screen (via a projector attached to the computer) — and to amplify its sound.

I haven’t researched Android equivalents — if they exist, maybe you can let us know in the comments to this post. But for iPhone and Mac, Reflector is a brilliant solution to a sticky problem.

Gadgetwise Blog: Q&A: Putting the iPad on the Big Screen

Is there a way to show iBooks pages on my iPad on an HDTV screen? If so, what would I need to do it?

You can display the pages of an iBook currently on the iPad’s screen on the television with the built-in “video-mirroring” technology in the iPad 2 and current Retina display models. In addition to books, you can mirror apps, games, movies or whatever else your iPad is showing at the moment.

Depending on your setup, you can mirror the iPad’s screen with an HDMI cable and an adapter (like Apple’s Digital AV Adapter) that connects the tablet to the TV. In addition to a model that fits the older 30-pin Dock Connector ports on older iPads, Apple’s digital adapter is also available in a version that fits the Lightning port connector on the new iPad Mini and fourth-generation iPad model.

If you prefer to do it without wires instead, you can stream the mirrored image over a wireless network and through an Apple TV (second-generation or later) connected to the television. This approach requires buying one of Apple’s $99 set-top boxes and having a home network that uses the 802.11a, 802.11g or 802.11n standard if you do not have these in place already.

If you opt to connect the iPad to the TV with the HDMI cable and adapter, use the television remote control to switch the TV to display the input from the iPad’s screen. Once you open an iBook on the iPad, the image should be mirrored on the TV.

If you choose the Apple TV and wireless method, switch the TV’s input display to the Apple TV. Open the iBook you want to show. Double-click the iPad’s home button to show the row of recently used apps and swipe from left to right until you see the AirPlay icon. Tap it to open the menu, where you can select the Apple TV as the display screen and tap the Video Mirroring button to On. Apple has illustrated instructions for video-mirroring the iPad screen with AirPlay here.

Gadgetwise Blog: Q&A: Turning Off Mac Screen Notifications

Ever since I upgraded to Mountain Lion on the Mac, I get distracted by little balloons that appear on the screen when I get new e-mail messages. I looked in the Mail preferences and didn’t see a way to turn these off. Is this an irreversible feature?

Those little alert balloons are part of the Notifications feature of OS X 10.8, the system otherwise known as Mountain Lion. You can change their appearance or turn them off entirely, but to do so, you need to visit the preferences for Notifications.

To get there, click the System Preferences icon in the Dock or go to the Apple Menu in the top left corner of the screen and choose System Preferences. In the System Preferences box, click the Notifications icon in the top row.

In the list of programs on the left side of the box, select Mail. On the right side of the box under “Mail alert style,” click the None icon. Other controls in the Notification box allow you to adjust other audio and visual alerts for incoming messages.

Alerts for other programs on the Mac — including Calendar, Twitter, and the FaceTime video-chat service — can be adjusted in the Notifications Preferences box. You can also rearrange the vertical order in which messages from programs appear in the OS X Notification Center list; you can see your Notification Center messages by clicking the icon on the top right corner of the Mac’s toolbar.

The Best Games to Show Off Your iPhone 5’s Big Screen

The iPhone 5 is here! The taller screen gives users more room for Maps, Mail and many other key iOS apps. But perhaps coolest of all, the additional screen real estate is already being put to good use by iOS game developers large and small.

The new screen is just a half-inch bigger, but that small amount of extra space makes a huge difference when it comes to making a handheld gaming experience not feel cramped. We’ve compiled a list of the iPhone 5-ready games that best show off the new phone’s extra space:

Jetpack Joyride  (IGN Review)

Jetpack Joyride isn’t a graphical powerhouse, but it’s still a perfect example of just how handy a extra half-inch of screen space can be. Objects fly at hero Barry Steakfries from right-to-left. One hit, and it’s game over. So with a longer screen, gamers have extra time to dodge out of the way. The iPhone 5 should make it easier for gamers to live longer and set higher scores.

Asphalt 7: Heat  (IGN Review)

Gameloft has updated several of its games to support the iPhone 5 and Asphalt 7 is probably the best of the bunch. The fast-paced arcade racer features dozens of single player events and online multiplayer for just $0.99. And of course, like all recent Gameloft releases, the game looks absolutely gorgeous. Even moreso on the new iPhone’s bigger screen.

Sky Gamblers: Air Supremacy (More Info)

Namco’s impressive aerial dogfighter looks and plays even better on the iPhone 5. In addition to the bigger viewing area, the game also takes advantage of the phone’s new A6 processor to speed up load times and improve some graphical effects. The iPhone 5 patch also squashed a few lingering bugs.

SpellTower (Trailer)

SpellTower might not be flashy, but Zach Gage’s fresh take on the word-making genre took the mobile gaming world by storm when it launched late last year. The game’s iPhone 5 update is unique because it actually adds fresh content. iPhone 5 owners can now access “iPad Puzzle Mode” – a mode previously only available to (you guessed it) iPad owners. It features a larger 8x14 play grid instead of the 8x12 grid previously featured on the iPhone version of the title.

Tiny Tower (Full Wiki Guide)

Like Jetpack Joyride, Tiny Tower won’t wow anyone with its cute pixel art graphics. But it’s a game that really helps gamers appreciate the iPhone 5’s slightly larger screen. Tiny Tower is a game all about developing your tower into a mega-structure 100 (or more) stories tall. A bigger screen means more employees and more floors are visible on-screen at once, reducing that always-annoying need to scroll through unwanted floors until you find what you’re looking for.

Plenty more iPhone 5-optimized titles are available, including Horn, Lili, Temple Run, Agent Dash and virtually every title from Pangea Software.

Over the next several weeks, newly-launched games will be a mix of titles that are iPhone 5 ready and titles that feature black bars due to running in the old iPhone 4 & 4S screen size. These titles are confirmed to support the new 4-inch screen at launch:

Real Racing 3 (More Info)

Year Walk (More Info)

Wimp (More Info)

Justin is Editor of IGN Wireless. He has been reviewing mobile games since the dark days of Java flip phones. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

Bits Blog: Designing for Multiple Screen Sizes Is About Consistency

A few years ago I taught a class at New York University in the Interactive Telecommunications Program, called, “1, 2, 10.”

The class explored the then-nascent challenge of designing apps and experience across the multiple screens that popped up everywhere in our lives. The numbers 1, 2, 10 defined the distance between a screen and a person’s face: The cellphone being approximately one foot away, the desktop computer and tablet about two feet away, and the television about 10 feet away.

Designing for these devices might sound like a trivial task, but figuring out how to portray consistency between a 4-inch screen that you can touch with a finger, and a 60-inch screen that comes with a clunky remote control, is not so simple.

Twitter has recently learned this. After the company released its latest iPad application on Tuesday, people complained that it was a step backward for the app. But, this is really one small step for Twitter, one giant leap for consistency across Twitter-built apps.

In the 1, 2, 10 class at N.Y.U., I encouraged students to design their applications for the greatest common denominator, then work backwards. For example, a student who set out to build an interactive cooking show that would allow people to order the recipe’s ingredients in real-time, designed the experience for the television first, then considered the user interface for the smartphone.

Another student, who built a unique location-based surf report that worked across 1 foot, 2 foot and 10 foot screens, built for the computer first, then adapted the design for the smartphone and television.

screenshot via AppleApple uses design cues from the iPhone in the iPad and Mac.

Apple has been doing this in recent years, too. The user interface for the iPad is an exact replica of the iPhone interface. It has slowly started adopting these design elements for the Mac, too. The company recognizes that creating a consistent design language that traverses its different screens is more important than creating a unique experience for each device. As Apple continues its march toward the 10 foot experience, you can be sure elements from iOS will carry in that direction, too.

Amazon also does this with its Kindle software, which works on almost every Internet-connected screen out there. Is the Kindle software groundbreaking? No. But it’s consistent. And don’t forget, it all started on the Kindle: a clunky black and white screen with an ugly scroll-wheel. Now, Amazon’s reading experience has been adapted for smartphones, computers, e-readers and tablets of all shapes and sizes.

screenshot via TwitterAfter an inconsistent iPad experience, the new Twitter app looks like the company’s smartphone apps.

For Twitter, its greatest common denominator experience is clearly the smartphone. It has since adapted this design language to the Web, and with Tuesday’s update — finally — the iPad. Is it a unique design for the iPad? No. Not by a long shot. But it is consistent. And in its quest to gain more mainstream users for the service, a design equilibrium is more important than anything else.

Gadgetwise Blog: Tip of the Week: Photos in Full Screen View

The ability to see photos in full-screen mode on the computer cuts down background distraction from icons cluttering the desktop. In Windows, when you open a photo in Windows Explorer, press the F11 key on the keyboard to expand the picture to the full screen. If it does not work, the manufacturer may have modified the keyboard function; try pressing the Function key and F11 or check the computer’s manual.

Pressing F11 when looking at a photo or video in Windows Media Player should also expand it to a full-screen view. The F11 key expands windows to the full screen as well. Press the Escape key to close the full-screen view.

In Mac OS X 10.7 and 10.8, you can click the arrows in the top right corner of a photo in the Mac’s built-in Preview program to expand it to the full screen. With the Quick Look function on the Mac, however, you do not even need to have the photo open in the Preview program — just click on the photo’s icon and press the Mac’s Option key and Space bar to see the image expand to the entire screen; the Quick Look shortcut also works in Mac OS X 10.6. Press the Escape key to return to the normal view.

Apple Introduces a New iPhone, With a Larger Screen and More Powerful Chip

Apple executives say that does not matter. They care more about building the best phone, they say, and combining technologies into the most attractive package, not being first with the latest bells and whistles.

“I feel the need to be the best,” said Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, in a conversation after the event announcing the new device, the iPhone 5.

“We don’t view our products as a checklist of features,” he added.

The new iPhone has a larger, four-inch screen, faster wireless Internet speeds and a more powerful chip than the previous version of the company’s smartphone. It is 18 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter.

This is the first time Apple has altered the dimensions of the iPhone’s display, which has measured 3.5 inches diagonally since the original iPhone was released in 2007. While the display at that time seemed gigantic compared with the tiny screens on most cellphones, Apple’s competitors have been far more aggressive in pushing bigger displays on their smartphones, with some screens approaching five inches.

Apple said the new display offered a bigger canvas for activities like reading books, browsing Web sites and watching movies.

The device will also work on the latest variety of high-speed data network with wireless carriers, known as LTE, which other companies have included in their products for some time.

Even though the product is not as startling as the original iPhone — the likes of which had not been seen before in the electronics industry — analysts still expect the iPhone 5 to be a hot seller this holiday season.

Investors seemed to agree, sending Apple’s shares up $9.20, or 1.4 percent, to close at $669.79 after the event.

The device, which will go on sale on Sept. 21, will start at $199 with a two-year wireless contract, a price similar to that of previous versions.

In what could be one of Apple’s more vexing moves with a new product, though, the company got rid of the traditional 30-pin dock connector for attaching the iPhone to power cables, stereo docking stations and other peripherals, replacing it with a smaller connector it calls Lightning.

The change means owners of existing iPhone accessories will have to buy an adapter from Apple so they can plug the new phone into those devices. The adapters are on sale at the Apple store for $30 for one version and $40 for another.

Apple said it made the change because the new connector was more durable, freed space for other technologies inside the iPhone and enabled the iPhone 5’s thinner design. The company said many of the functions of traditional iPhone cables, other than charging, were now handled by wireless connections like Bluetooth.

In a brief interview after the event, Philip W. Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said the company was offering the adapter to try to make the shift to the new technology as painless as possible for its users.

“At some point you have to move to the next generation,” he said

Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner, said the iPhone 5 showed how Apple approaches new technologies cautiously until it is sure it can deliver the best experience possible.

The first phones that supported LTE, for example, were often criticized for poor battery life, but Apple waited until it could offer a product that could hold a charge long enough, he said.

In the new product, Apple also chose not to support near-field communication wireless technology, which can be used to make wireless payments but has been slow to take off.

Mr. Cook said the four-inch display was the perfect size because it could be easily held in one hand. Apple made the screen taller, but not wider, than the previous generation of iPhone for that very reason, he said.

Apple Introduces a New iPhone, With a Larger Screen and More Powerful Chip

Apple executives say that does not matter. They care more about building the best phone, they say, and combining technologies into the most attractive package, not being first with the latest bells and whistles.

“I feel the need to be the best,” said Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, in a conversation after the event announcing the new device, the iPhone 5.

“We don’t view our products as a checklist of features,” he added.

The new iPhone has a larger, four-inch screen, faster wireless Internet speeds and a more powerful chip than the previous version of the company’s smartphone. It is 18 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter.

This is the first time Apple has altered the dimensions of the iPhone’s display, which has measured 3.5 inches diagonally since the original iPhone was released in 2007. While the display at that time seemed gigantic compared with the tiny screens on most cellphones, Apple’s competitors have been far more aggressive in pushing bigger displays on their smartphones, with some screens approaching five inches.

Apple said the new display offered a bigger canvas for activities like reading books, browsing Web sites and watching movies.

The device will also work on the latest variety of high-speed data network with wireless carriers, known as LTE, which other companies have included in their products for some time.

Even though the product is not as startling as the original iPhone — the likes of which had not been seen before in the electronics industry — analysts still expect the iPhone 5 to be a hot seller this holiday season.

Investors seemed to agree, sending Apple’s shares up $9.20, or 1.4 percent, to close at $669.79 after the event.

The device, which will go on sale on Sept. 21, will start at $199 with a two-year wireless contract, a price similar to that of previous versions.

In what could be one of Apple’s more vexing moves with a new product, though, the company got rid of the traditional 30-pin dock connector for attaching the iPhone to power cables, stereo docking stations and other peripherals, replacing it with a smaller connector it calls Lightning.

The change means owners of existing iPhone accessories will have to buy an adapter from Apple so they can plug the new phone into those devices. The adapters are on sale at the Apple store for $30 for one version and $40 for another.

Apple said it made the change because the new connector was more durable, freed space for other technologies inside the iPhone and enabled the iPhone 5’s thinner design. The company said many of the functions of traditional iPhone cables, other than charging, were now handled by wireless connections like Bluetooth.

In a brief interview after the event, Philip W. Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said the company was offering the adapter to try to make the shift to the new technology as painless as possible for its users.

“At some point you have to move to the next generation,” he said

Michael Gartenberg, an analyst at Gartner, said the iPhone 5 showed how Apple approaches new technologies cautiously until it is sure it can deliver the best experience possible.

The first phones that supported LTE, for example, were often criticized for poor battery life, but Apple waited until it could offer a product that could hold a charge long enough, he said.

In the new product, Apple also chose not to support near-field communication wireless technology, which can be used to make wireless payments but has been slow to take off.

Mr. Cook said the four-inch display was the perfect size because it could be easily held in one hand. Apple made the screen taller, but not wider, than the previous generation of iPhone for that very reason, he said.

Gadgetwise Blog: Tip of the Week: Photos in Full Screen View

The ability to see photos in full-screen mode on the computer cuts down background distraction from icons cluttering the desktop. In Windows, when you open a photo in Windows Explorer, press the F11 key on the keyboard to expand the picture to the full screen. If it does not work, the manufacturer may have modified the keyboard function; try pressing the Function key and F11 or check the computer’s manual.

Pressing F11 when looking at a photo or video in Windows Media Player should also expand it to a full-screen view. The F11 key expands windows to the full screen as well. Press the Escape key to close the full-screen view.

In Mac OS X 10.7 and 10.8, you can click the arrows in the top right corner of a photo in the Mac’s built-in Preview program to expand it to the full screen. With the Quick Look function on the Mac, however, you do not even need to have the photo open in the Preview program — just click on the photo’s icon and press the Mac’s Option key and Space bar to see the image expand to the entire screen; the Quick Look shortcut also works in Mac OS X 10.6. Press the Escape key to return to the normal view.