Apple Announces The iPhone

[nemaslov]

From the New York Times.

Remember most people don't read or post here:

In other words, it’s not what you’d normally think of as a cellphone. It has elements of a desktop computer (it actually runs a version of Mac OS X), a wireless Internet tablet, and an Archos-type pocket video player.

But what you can’t get from any printed description is how it’s all sewn together with typical Apple polish and grace, with delicious animations and gorgeous graphics. (The crowd went nuts when Steve Jobs demonstrated how you scroll through your iTunes music list: you flick your finger upward or downward on the screen. The list flashes by, slowly coming to a stop like a roulette wheel.)

Now, there will be plenty of people who will pass on the iPhone: people who have no Cingular service where they live (that’s the exclusive carrier); who are disappointed that, as a GSM phone, the cellular Internet service is slow; who find the iPhone too big (though incredibly tiny for what it does, it’s big for a phone); who would prefer typing e-mail with a dedicated thumb keyboard than hunting and pecking with one finger on the iPhone’s on-screen keys; and who consider $500 too much for a phone.

Everyone else, however, will be beating a path to the iPhone’s door. The iPod showed us how breathtaking beauty and effortless simplicity can trump any number of practical quibbles in the real-world marketplace.

This thing will go through the roof, exactly according to Apple’s master plan. Prepare for a replay of the iPod lifecycle: other cellphone companies will rush out phones that match the iPhone’s feature list, but will fail to appreciate the importance of elegant, effortless, magical-feeling software.

The hard part will be waiting for June to come.

 

[slffl]

The phone is awesome, but how am I going to stream Slingbox over EDGE? I guess give them something to 'upgrade' in future versions.

 

[savanahrose]

what is 3g?

I keep seeing this 3g. Exactly what are you talking about? A 3rd generation of a video ipod?

 

[zoozx]

I think Apple's market researchers might dig a bit deeper than the MR comments.

Well of course they do,
but I doubt seriously they would have ever expected the 50 - 50 response they received here. This site is core Mac user's, Apple loyalist nuts and apple checks it often knowing it.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

I keep seeing this 3g. Exactly what are you talking about? A 3rd generation of a video ipod?

Third generation mobile phone technology.

 

[silentknight]

NEWTON LOVERS ARE HOME AGAIN!!!!

The lack of "vision" by those with negative comments on this thread is breath-taking.

Not a "Mac" Product? Check again. What do you call a device that runs "Mac" OSX? This is the most amazing portable "mac" ever, even if it sports a different name.

Noticed how apple.com refers to it running "OS X" rather than "Mac OS X"?

The Apple Style Guide (January 2006)(pdf) itself says:

"Mac OS X Always use the full name; don’t shorten to OS X or X."

Just interesting, I thought.

G'night.

 

[asphalt-proof]

This is such a winner for me. I really want!
Couple of questions though: Will it sync to Outlook... It states on Apples site that it is Win compatible and will load contacts.

Also, Will it have Pages/Keynote? If so, I could conceivably dump my laptop at work, and use this as a work computer (IF a third party comes out with a docking station that has VGA out and a usb.

For a first run, this phone is excellent! Yes more storage would be great, but flash is getting cheaper every month! My contract with CIngular is up next month so maybe I can get a deal by June from them. Here's to hoping. I don't find the cost outragous at all. Price the new Treo 750 on Cingular. Oh and add a 4 or 8 gig SD card onto the cost. What!? it costs more! I'm shocked. Just Shocked! No, the price is NOT bad at all for what you are getting.

BTW... all those who are whining: Read Thread #500. I think Apple is stating quite clearly that this is the new future. All those who are complaining about no Mac Pro, i"m sure they will be making announcements in the next month or two. Until then, just stand where the puck was.

My only complaint is the wait.

 

[space1nvaders]

iPhone (great) Cingular (not great)

Would love the phone, but not switching to Cingular for it.

This phone is so cool that I can't believe Apple would even need an exclusive agreement. You would think all EDGE carriers would want it. Cingular has a bad reputation around here for poor quality reception in my opinion and many of my friends agree. I love T-Mobile and they have EDGE. This has to hurt Apple unless Apple buys a carrier or becomes one.

 

[Aardy]

Take a deep breath ...

OK, let's all take a deep breath, stand well back and relax ...

There's been so much hype about the iPhone that expectations have gone through the roof. For a year or so this thing has been vapourware, roumourware and media-hypeware. Things have got so out of hand it's unreal.

There's the usual whingers banging on about the carrier, the price, the size, the battery, the colour, the screen, the OS, the features, availability and about just about anything else imaginable. Nobody has managed to get their hot sticky little hands on it yet, much less actually test it, so, as they say over there in the US, "cut a little slack".

For those that want a 60GB iPhone, do you really want a hard disk jiggling about in your pocket? People treat their iPods far more carefully than they do their mobile phone, so until we get completely fail-proof hard disks, let's stick with flash memory. To get a sensible battery life out of a hard disk based phone you're going to need a far larger battery - back to the late 80s brick anyone? It's a flash based phone, solid state memory, less power usage than hard disks, so it's sensible. Like the nano, capacity will increase.

Availability and carrier: I'm in the UK, so we're not even going to see it for at least nine months. Apple is a US company, so I suppose it's sensible they release it there first, much like just about every other Apple product (remember iTMS - US only at first). Carrier: Go with the biggest there is in the initial market. Such is life and business models. The carriers subsidise the phone to make it much more affordable.

It doesn't have feature x : Are you so sure? Full specs haven't been released yet, so we don't know what it does/doesn't do. Just wait and see.

After you've taken the deep breath and the step back, have a good look at what's on offer: A mobile phone that has a user interface that makes current mobile phone interfaces look like a CP/M command line. A mobile phone that truly integrates all the different applications you want from a mobile device in a way hitherto unseen. A mobile device that has an enormous amount built into a form factor that is governed by screen size. Until the roll-up LCD screen truly becomes a reality, a big-screen phone is going to be big; it's the nature of the beast.

Like the original iPod five years ago, the iPhone is a premium device at a premium price. It is a premium device that looks so different and behaves unlike anything else currently available. Like all Apple top-end products, the price will come down and the specs will go up, such is the nature of technology.

Like the original iPod, Apple has shown everyone else that there is another way to do things, that there is a better method to access and use a device you use every day. Others will surely follow, but the door is open. Let's not bolt it shut before we've even had a chance to see if it's the right door.

 

[space1nvaders]

Can we just buy it for the purpose of a pocket computer???

I don't want to use Cingular so I wonder if you can just buy it as a pocket computer.

 

[VespR]

Great product, definitely an excited UK potential buyer here.

What I am concerned about though is the 2 year contract, and how this reflects on Apple's update ideas. I can't imagine many people would want to be tied to a device for two years, when Apple is releasing updates for the phone say every 6 months? That would suck. In the UK contracts are typically 12 or 18 months, not 24.

Also, I'm wondering if updates on this phone will be treated on a software basis, rather hardware (like software update), so the OS X part is always up to date, unlike with iPods where each revision adds a new software feature that isn't compatible with older models (like games etc).

I think they've got a lot of time to iron out bugs, and 1st generation models are typically designed to test the water with the consumer, although I'm happy to be a guinea pig here! I think by the time it's in the UK, it will definitely be 3G (at that size) and also think about the progression of flash based hard drives. Capacities and sizes are getting better every month so I'm sure that will all be incorporated into the iPhone over the coming months.

Well done Apple, very impressed! Look forward to the revisions!

 

[DakotaGuy]

is the battery going to be replaceable on the iphone?

Yeah, I would like to know this as well. A non replaceable battery might be ok on an iPod, but it seems like a person is a lot tougher on a cell phone battery. My batteries always get weak after about a year or so...so many charge-discharge cycles tend to wear them out. I would hate to pay 500-600 for a phone and after a year of heavy use have a weak battery and no way to replace it.

Of course, since I live in South Dakota the iPhone really does not apply to me because this is not a Cingular area. You have 3 choices in South Dakota (and most other midwest and western states for that matter) Alltel, Verizon and Sprint. Alltel and Verizon are your best choices between the 3 however.

I guess I will continue to use my RAZR V3c until my contact is up and then get a KRZR. The Apple iPhone is cool. Probably overkill for 85% of cell phone users, but for that 15% who have the money and live in the right area and need the capability it will be pretty neat.

 

[christian_k]

No UMTS? Why?

Hello,

why just GSM/EDGE?

I am very disappointed about this. Here in Germany, only T-Mobile hast EDGE and even they only habe it at few locations.

UMTS in contrast is now widely available and much faster (HSDPA = 1,8 MBit/s!!), all operators here have decided to put the money in UMTS and not EDGE.

That means I would have a super high tech phone, but only a slow GPRS connection. As I also want to use it to connect my notebook wirelessly on the go this does not make sense to me.

I hope they change theyr mind soon. Since I can get (unlocked!) UMTS phones for less than 300 Euros now, a pure GSM (EDGE is nearly useless here!)iPhone is not good enough, not for the price tag it will have.

 

[Orge]

Noticed how apple.com refers to it running "OS X" rather than "Mac OS X"?

The Apple Style Guide (January 2006)(pdf) itself says:


Just interesting, I thought.

G'night.

It's pretty likely that it runs on an embedded processor - i.e. not powerpc or intel. Would that explain the differentiation?

J

 

[lord patton]

After you've taken the deep breath and the step back, have a good look at what's on offer: A mobile phone that has a user interface that makes current mobile phone interfaces look like a CP/M command line.

well put. I think the iPhone makes a Blackberry look like a rotary phone. Or makes the Jetsons look like the Flintstones.

 

[redskinsf]

This phone is so cool that I can't believe Apple would even need an exclusive agreement. You would think all EDGE carriers would want it. Cingular has a bad reputation around here for poor quality reception in my opinion and many of my friends agree. I love T-Mobile and they have EDGE. This has to hurt Apple unless Apple buys a carrier or becomes one.

Not sure where you're at... but Tmobile sucks in the Bay Area... Cingular is great. My company switched everyone over to Tmobile and crackberry's 2 yrs ago, and its the worst reception, and dropped calls in history.

Good for Apple and Cingular!

 

[ageis]

OK, let's all take a deep breath, stand well back and relax ...

There's been so much hype about the iPhone that expectations have gone through the roof. For a year or so this thing has been vapourware, roumourware and media-hypeware. Things have got so out of hand it's unreal.

There's the usual whingers banging on about the carrier, the price, the size, the battery, the colour, the screen, the OS, the features, availability and about just about anything else imaginable. Nobody has managed to get their hot sticky little hands on it yet, much less actually test it, so, as they say over there in the US, "cut a little slack".

For those that want a 60GB iPhone, do you really want a hard disk jiggling about in your pocket? People treat their iPods far more carefully than they do their mobile phone, so until we get completely fail-proof hard disks, let's stick with flash memory. To get a sensible battery life out of a hard disk based phone you're going to need a far larger battery - back to the late 80s brick anyone? It's a flash based phone, solid state memory, less power usage than hard disks, so it's sensible. Like the nano, capacity will increase.

Availability and carrier: I'm in the UK, so we're not even going to see it for at least nine months. Apple is a US company, so I suppose it's sensible they release it there first, much like just about every other Apple product (remember iTMS - US only at first). Carrier: Go with the biggest there is in the initial market. Such is life and business models. The carriers subsidise the phone to make it much more affordable.

It doesn't have feature x : Are you so sure? Full specs haven't been released yet, so we don't know what it does/doesn't do. Just wait and see.

After you've taken the deep breath and the step back, have a good look at what's on offer: A mobile phone that has a user interface that makes current mobile phone interfaces look like a CP/M command line. A mobile phone that truly integrates all the different applications you want from a mobile device in a way hitherto unseen. A mobile device that has an enormous amount built into a form factor that is governed by screen size. Until the roll-up LCD screen truly becomes a reality, a big-screen phone is going to be big; it's the nature of the beast.

Like the original iPod five years ago, the iPhone is a premium device at a premium price. It is a premium device that looks so different and behaves unlike anything else currently available. Like all Apple top-end products, the price will come down and the specs will go up, such is the nature of technology.

Like the original iPod, Apple has shown everyone else that there is another way to do things, that there is a better method to access and use a device you use every day. Others will surely follow, but the door is open. Let's not bolt it shut before we've even had a chance to see if it's the right door.

While a lot of people wouldn't want a 60GB phone to carry around, a lot of us wanted a 60GB+ widescreen ipod which I don't think apple will be releasing any time soon in light of this great gadget. I personally was a lot more interested in widescreen video with a ton of space than a phone.

Now, on the other hand, a apple communication device is awesome. I personally hate phones, but I love the concept of continuing my IM conversations and email which I do all day when I go out... but wait, I haven't read anything about iChat or IM in general being supported on a phone, which is my only big issue with purchasing this thing. They've got 6 months.. I hope they figure out how I can sign onto my screen name and IM other people on AIM.

Otherwise, 2 thumbs up!

 

[bousozoku]

What a bunch o' psuedo-entitled, whining b!tches. I've been a member of this Forum for a good long time and never heard so much cryin'.



It's not gonna make you breakfast or wipe your @ss. Get over it. Go outside. Get some air.

Damn.

Does it seem that way?

I haven't seen so many people complain since the PowerMac G5 missed 3 GHz.

 

[SpaceJello]

This IS the future!

I can't help but to be stunned with the potential of this iPhone. With all those patents and rumors, I was dying Apple would release something like this. They have and everything else is history.

This is ONLY the beginning. Remember the 1st Gen iPod? Then came the iPod Photo, Nano, Shuffle, iPod Video.... IMAGINE what this phone will become?

This IS the true convergence device. Wait a few generations, we will see this iPhone being able to add new widgets, new programs that read/edit documents, pdfs, get readings etc... with the iPod dock connection, this is going to be the all in one device that if your company needs an inventory scanning device, you just hook up a connector to the iPhone. The possibility is unlimited.

I can't wait to see Moto, Sony Ericisson, Nokia, LG, Samsung etc catch up to this, with Apple patenting EVERYTHING like crazy especially with the multitouch, this is going to be fun to see what these other companies do like how Apple had the click wheel on the iPod. No one has even come close to beating that one yet. Today, Samsung annouse a Sanza with a bigger screen to compete with the Nano...true innovation.... It is SAD that other companies can't do what Apple does... are they just afraid of hiring designers or UI people or something?

NOW, i am curious if the current generation can view FLASH on the web browser?

 

[Warbrain]

Okay, I'm sold on the iPhone right now. I think I can wait until June and shell out the 500 or 600 to get it.

The fact that it runs some version of OS X and is capable of doing almost everything that my iBook already does is amazing. It's small, it's eye-catching, and it'll work without any hassles. I won't need to buy additional software to make it sync and I won't need to deal with an OS that I hate.

Plus, the built-in Wi-Fi is killer for me. I wanted a PDA with built-in Wi-Fi but I also wanted something like a smartphone...now I got one in the same casing.

 

[m3henn04]

I like the idea of the phone and its feature but wish it had more storage space....I would love to be able to store a whole video library like you can on a n iPod with 30 or 80GB of space.

 

[crazyvato]

Too bad you won't actually be able to make phone calls

The iPhone looks like a great product. It's just too bad they partnered with Cingular. That partnership practically makes the iPhone worthless as a phone. In the SF Bay area, where I live, Cingular is the worst carrier. Surprising that Apple, being based in Cupertino, didn't note this. Cingular must have paid big $$$ for the exclusive rights.

Since I am not willing to switch phone carriers (I like to be able to actually make/receive phone calls) it would be nice to see this product without the phone capabilities -- basically a widescreen video iPod/PDA. That would be sweet. I would definitely purchase one of those!!! Here's to hoping.

 

[vendettabass]

I LOVE the iPhone... its insane!
I just hope they keep to their word about European release Q4.. my o2 contract expires in august!

good work Apple!

 

[tylerboyo]

Removeable battery? i think so, where else you gonna put your SIM?

 

[VespR]

The iPhone looks like a great product. It's just too bad they partnered with Cingular. That partnership practically makes the iPhone worthless as a phone. In the SF Bay area, where I live, Cingular is the worst carrier. Surprising that Apple, being based in Cupertino, didn't note this. Cingular must have paid big $$$ for the exclusive rights.

Since I am not willing to switch phone carriers (I like to be able to actually make/receive phone calls) it would be nice to see this product without the phone capabilities -- basically a widescreen video iPod/PDA. That would be sweet. I would definitely purchase one of those!!! Here's to hoping.

That's got to be the 6G iPod.