Hands on the iPhone, and History of iPhone?

[MacRumors]

Time.com was given some information about the development of the Apple iPhone. Of particular interest, especially to those who follow Apple rumors, is a tidbit about how the iPhone interface came to be. According to the author, "a few years ago" Steve Jobs noticed all the research money spent into Tablet PCs and had a team of Apple engineers working on a tablet interface with touch screen.

When they showed him the screen they came up with, he got excited. So excited that he thought he had the beginnings of a new product.

And so, the iPhone was born. What is interesting is that around this time, rumors of an Apple tablet had reemerged. Whispers of an Apple Tablet project began to resurface in late 2002 and peaked prior to Macworld SF 2003. No tablet came, but the description was an 8-inch multimedia device running Mac OS X. It appears that these rumors were likely true and based on this project.

This author as well as David Pogue had some one-on-one time with the device, and provides these additional details and observations:

- Can't download songs directly from iTunes Store
- Can't sync iPhone with a computer wirelessly.
- "Web speed was OK—not great, but OK."
- "Apple went through numerous iterations of the glass surface, trying to find one that’s not too slick or too rough, or that shows grease and fingerprints too much. "
- "It feels amazing in your hand"

According to Engadget, the iPhone is not open to 3rd party development at this time. Only Apple is providing (built-in) applications for the device.

[J Radical]

Interesting. Apple is a truly enigmatic company, I wonder where they'll go with iPhone in a few years time.

Anyone else feel no wireless syncing is a letdown?

[cowbellallen]

So how are you supposed to sync it?

Edit: Oh duh.

[Grimace]

Originally Posted by J Radical

Interesting. Apple is a truly enigmatic company, I wonder where they'll go with iPhone in a few years time.

Anyone else feel no wireless syncing is a letdown?

I think they could always enable wireless synching later on -- maybe just for phone/contacts/calendar. 8GB of music over Bluetooth would take forever!!

Difficult to type doesn't sound promising. I suppose I could say the same of my Treo.

[Xeem]

Originally Posted by Macrumors

"Web speed was OK—not great, but OK."

I noticed this during the keynote, too. Does anyone else think that it loaded the web sites slower than they should over broadband internet?

[Agamemnon]

Originally Posted by J Radical

Interesting. Apple is a truly enigmatic company, I wonder where they'll go with iPhone in a few years time.

Anyone else feel no wireless syncing is a letdown?

Indeed, I thought .mac integration would be THE highlight.

[technocoy]

I'm still stoked about it, but it'll obviously take some criticism and iterations to get it perfect... look at how long the iPod has taken to evolve to what it is.

It's still leaps better than the other smartphones out as far as usability goes I would imagine...

Plus, typing on my E62 OR my treo, wasn't what I would call easy. and it takes some getting use to each device.

We'll see in 5 months, they have some time to tweak things.

[c-Row]

It provides no wireless sync in its current state. Keep in mind that there are still six months to go.

[madamimadam]

Originally Posted by carletonmusic

I think they could always enable wireless synching later on -- maybe just for phone/contacts/calendar. 8GB of music over Bluetooth would take forever!!

Yeah, so it is a good think it has WiFi

[balamw]

Originally Posted by Xeem

I noticed this during the keynote, too. Does anyone else think that it loaded the web sites slower than they should over broadband internet?

Perhaps the pipes were saturated by the audience trying to get live updates out of the auditorium.

B

[ForeverUnknown]

Originally Posted by Xeem

I noticed this during the keynote, too. Does anyone else think that it loaded the websites slower than it should over broadband internet?

It only has EDGE which would be a reason for slower speeds.

[balamw]

Originally Posted by Agamemnon

Indeed, I thought .mac integration would be THE highlight.

If anything, the Yahoo! IMAP Mail integration almost makes it sound like .Mac is either on its way out or will change radiacally later this year.

Originally Posted by ForeverUnknown

It only has EDGE which would be a reason for slower speeds.

I'm pretty sure they were using the iPhone's WiFi connection, not EDGE.

B

[DoktorFaust]

Originally Posted by Macrumors

According to Engadget, the iPhone is not open to 3rd party development at this time. Only Apple is providing (built-in) applications for the device.

Actually, read that link and the discussion about it more carefully. It's not at all clear that there's any truth to that statement, and the poster (Ryan) admits that the source (Michael Gartenberg) might just be spewing speculation as fact.

In reality, Apple hasn't stated anything one way or another. Personally, I think it's very likely that this phone will allow third party development. It's running a version of MacOS X and building a community is vital to keeping a product alive.

[iam1080]

If wireless syncing was implemented, it would be done via WiFi, not bluetooth. This would include all data; including music / movie / photo.
Furthermore, it could stream wirelessly to an appleTV. This will all happen...eventually. Also, the touch screen interface is gold. Tech Specs claim 15+ hours battery of just music playback. Expect to see the Album Flow interface w/ touchscreen on ALL iPods. 6 months is a long time to go.. Just watch them release a new widescreen iPod w/ album flow sans camera and phone before then. We said it here first.

[balamw]

Originally Posted by DoktorFaust

In reality, Apple hasn't stated anything one way or another. Personally, I think it's very likely that this phone will allow third party development. It's running a version of MacOS X and building a community is vital to keeping a product alive.

And Dashcode is just the tool to make it super-easy. Maybe I won't start seasoning my hat just quite yet...

B

[yoak]

I´m feel quite sure it will be able to sync wirelessly with the Mac when it´s released, at least via BT.
That´s the nice thing about my W800i now, turn on BT and sync away.
An extra dock on my desk will not be welcomed

[iMacZealot]

It does look like typing is a bit of a task. I'm concerned that it may be a little sluggish, as that's how it looked.

Oh, and did anyone catch the comment Steve squeezed in saying that they will make a 3G one?

[joose]

Summary:
- No 3G/umts
- No SIP
- No iChat support
- No iChat videoconferencing support

we have had these GSM+EDGE phones for a long time now and almost every new phone is 3G phone these day. Who wants to go back to slow EDGE? And no SIP-support, which corporate wants to buy these things to workers?

What I would like to see, is (to osx) iChat with SIP-support and (to iPhone9 3G + SIP w/ video conferencing support.

- Joose

[iMacZealot]

Originally Posted by balamw

If anything, the Yahoo! IMAP Mail integration almost makes it sound like .Mac is either on its way out or will change radiacally later this year.

I had the same idea! Although, I doubt they'd get rid of it since they have the whole iWeb thing, and advertise it on their adverts.

[DeSnousa]

Originally Posted by yoak

[cut]

An extra dock on my desk will not be welcomed

...but it will also charge the iPhone, so I think it would be great / cool to have it standing (docked) next to your Mac.

[aschrock]

How long do you think Apple can hold off releasing the API for OSX lite (or whatever you want to call it)? It seems to me that a lot of the niche demands for functionality on the iPhone could easily be handled by 3rd party developers. Just look at the number of widgets alone created for OSX.

[SeaFox]

Originally Posted by balamw

If anything, the Yahoo! IMAP Mail integration almost makes it sound like .Mac is either on its way out or will change radiacally later this year.

Maybe Yahoo will take over running the .Mac email addresses.
Hey, I'll finally be able to exercise some control over the junk filter and the mail service wont be "unavailable" once a month.
Oooh! Snap!

[Xeem]

Originally Posted by balamw

Perhaps the pipes were saturated by the audience trying to get live updates out of the auditorium.

B

I suppose that is definitely possible, but you'd think Apple would have thought of it ahead of time.

[darwen]

I read this article a few hours ago. A great read for anyone interested in how the phone came to be.

I found it very interesting that the phone started as a tablet, a response to the tablets that are on the market today. Steve said this has been going on for 2.5 years, Cingular said they have been involved for 2 of those years.

2.5 years ago - Apple decides to invest in tablet technology.
2 years ago - the ipod comes out and apple start thinking about what is next.
~2 years ago - Apple starts talking to Cingular about a phone.

Here is what I found interesting. When Apple put in the patent for the multi-touch technology in September everyone thought tablet. That is what Steve thought! Shortly after people started talking about it being a part of the iPod... 2 years ago it did the same thing! Then people took it to the phone... Apple did it the same way!

I loved how consumers like us speculated the exact same transition Apple did 2 years after Apple. Once we saw the technology we thought just like Steve (and in about the same time frame). I thought that was cool.

EDIT: I dont know where I got 2 years from. I heard it somewhere today (to many sources now to count). The iPod has been around for 6 years. Maybe they were talking about the 5G ipod which came out 1.5 years ago... Not exactly sure, sorry for the mess up. My point still remains w/o that though.

[deadkenny]

My first opinion on the iPhone was: This is slaughtering the zune. At least it looks a lot like the zune. It has a lack of memory though. You can get Nokia cellphones with 8GB of flash and most smartphones have SD-Card slots so their memory is expandable.
The iPhone is quite nice for a smartphone but not revolutionary I think.
It has a large screen and can play vertical but it only has 8GB so not much video will fit on there.