Well, as Kyle assumed, an Apple post was bound to be coming from me. I began to love the Apple brand about a year ago, when they announced the MacBook Pros (of which I’m an owner). It’s a great product, and with the switch to Intel, I’d recommend a Mac to just about anyone.
Today, Apple unveiled the iPhone (I’d really recommend checking out some of the videos they have on the website). From everything I’ve seen and read, it looks like it’ll be my phone of choice when it is released this summer. On the front, there’s only one button. Why? Because the rest of it is a monster touchscreen. The idea is that every app you use might want a different UI, so why limit you to a set number of buttons that just take up permanent real estate?
They’ve really done some great things with the touchscreen UI, which you’d really just have to see for yourself to appreciate. If you’re looking at a picture, put two fingers on the screen and spread them apart, it zooms in; bring them closer together, and it zooms out. Let’s say you’re looking at a list of songs on it (oh, that’s right–it’s also an iPod, hehe), you just scroll your finger down the screen and it scrolls. Then tap on a song, and it’s playing. Tilt the phone horizontally while it’s playing a video, and it flips the video to play widescreen. Nice.
The phone’s OS is actually OS X (the Mac operating system), so it includes a full-features browser, mail app, and supports all kinds of widgets. It has built-in support for Google search, Google Maps, Yahoo! mail, and more. During his keynote as Macworld, Steve Jobs demoed the use of Google Maps, and it was very impressive. He searched for a Starbucks in his area, clicked on it, and it began to dial the specific location. It also has built-in WiFi, so that these features are much faster when you’re around an open network. That’s a great idea, IMO.
Now as excited as I am about the phone, it does have a few issues. First, it’s Cingular only. Boo. I’ll be willing to make the switch, I’m sure, but still… Secondly, Time reported that although the device has Bluetooth and WiFi, you can’t sync it wirelessly with a computer. That’s ridiculous. The ability to sync your phone through a Bluetooth connection is a standard features nowadays. As of yet, there’s also no mention of games. My personal hunch is that they’ll be there. If it’s running OS X, there’s no reason they couldn’t be. Still, it leaves a bit to be desired when they don’t explicitly mention it.
Finally, it is rather pricey. For 4gb, it’s $499. For 8gb, it’s $599. That’s with a two year contract. Yikes. On the other hand, it’s basically a Nano and a smartphone in one. A nano will run you $200 for 4gb, and right now Verizon is telling me a Treo 700w will cost you a clean $400 with a 2-year contract. The math is pretty simple. That doesn’t even take into account that the technology difference between a Treo and the iPhone’s touchscreen.
[Update:] I figured I’d throw in a link right here to the Time article I got a bit of my info from.
January 10th, 2007 at 7:13 am
I’m wondering if this product will fall into the pool of Apple products that get significant (read: necessary) feature upgrades and price downgrades after a year’s worth of consumer market testing.
Also, for as little as it does, isn’t the Apple TV a little steep in price, too?
I still want both.
January 10th, 2007 at 9:51 am
I actually don’t think the inability to synch through Wifi/Bluetooth matters that much, because like the iPod it will synch when you plug it in to charge.
As for games, if you thought the click-wheel wasn’t best for gaming (and actually it’s just great for Texas Hold’em and Mini Golf), I think the touch-screen won’t work too well for most games. Could be wrong on that.
January 10th, 2007 at 10:40 am
Regarding OS X running on the iPhone, I have a really bad feeling that this is not really OS X. I could be wrong, but from what I’ve read, it seems like it might be a pretty closed OS, like the iPod OS. Steve Jobs, when asked about the ability for users to install their own apps, replied in a circuitous manner, saying something to the effect of “don’t think of this as a computer - we’re reinventing the phone”. I have a hard time believing that a phone is able to handle all of the libraries that OS X uses (Cocoa, Core Audio/Video/Animation, networking, etc.). If this is the case, than nearly any OS X app should be able to be ported relatively easily. Steve’s silence on the mechanics of OS X on the iPhone make me think that this is not the case - that it doesn’t really use any of the OS X libraries, and that nobody besides Apple (and their partners) will be able to port OS X apps over to the iPhone.
January 10th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
[…] UPDATE: Jared at the DKS Weblog points out that the iPhone is also incapable of any syncing via WiFi or Bluetooth, despite having support for both. What gives? Read his post. […]
January 10th, 2007 at 1:39 pm
i guess my point about the syncing is why force you to do it through the dock? let’s say you’re traveling, have a travel charger (which i assume will be made available), and a laptop. what, now you can’t sync? it just doesn’t seem like it’d be a feature to leave out in $600 hardware.
for games, i didn’t expect anything too fancy, but i’m sure you could throw some solitaire or sudoku on there. i certainly agree that it wouldn’t work for every type of game, nor should you expect it to. but, once again, basic games on phones (or, at least the ability to download them) seem more like standard features to me than options.
DV, i have the seem feeling as you regarding OS X. i’m almost certain it’s some stripped down version of the os i’ve come to love. i actually try to read as much as i could with regard to whether or not you will be able to install your own apps, and it seems like you can’t. that’s no fun. you would think that cocoa, in the least, would be available on the phone. who knows how things will change with rev B, though. apple’s second round of any product seems to best the first in more than one place.
all said, i still think it’ll be a great phone. it’s just there are definitely things that would keep me from giving it that 10.0 review when it’s released. apple and steve jobs must surely know that. so why leave things out (or use EDGE instead of something faster)? i suppose apple could address some of my complaints between now and when the phone is actually released, but that’s probably just my optimism taking over.
and kyle, i agree the apple tv is pretty pricey. t looks like it’s got a great interface, but once again it’s got its problems. you can only sync with itunes (no surprise, really, but still..), only supports 1080i, and so on. pesonally, i’ll probably just jump for a slingcatcher. the advantage consumers seem to have in this area is that there’s actually some viable competition.
January 10th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
On games: Dude, they’re using Widgets for weather, time, etc. These look to be the same Widgets in OS X. I’m guessing you’ll be able to use most of the same Widgets you’re using on your Macbook Pro on the iPhone. Hell, you may even be able to build your own. I have a Sudoku Widget up and play it all the time. Works great.
January 10th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
“i guess my point about the syncing is why force you to do it through the dock? let’s say you’re traveling, have a travel charger (which i assume will be made available), and a laptop. what, now you can’t sync?”
You can. You see, the way the travel chargers for iPods work is this: you get a wall-wart with a firewire (or these days, USB) port that you plug your regular cable into. So if you have the travel charger, you also have the cable for the iPod and so can hook it up to the computer. In fact, if you have the computer with you, why the hell did you bring a travel charger? It’s meant for when you want to charge your iPod when you don’t have a computer available. (Or back in the day, when you had a PC and used USB which couldn’t power it until iPod started supporting USB 2.0).
Of course without the actual iPhone not yet being available this is only speculation but I very much doubt they’ll change this concept seeing as how it works so well.
January 10th, 2007 at 8:03 pm
hm. that’s a point well taken. in retrospect i suppose it was more of a complaint about the hassle of syncing multiple computers with my phone (will you even be able to do that with the iphone? i suppose that’s another matter altogether). right now, both of my desktops and my laptop sync with my phone, and it’s easy–they all do it through bluetooth. if i add somebody new to my phone, it’s a simple matter to also add them to the computers around my house.
sure, it wouldn’t be much harder to drag a cord around, but why should i have to? i guess that’s the crux of the issue, for me. i shouldn’t have to. likewise, say i run over to a friend’s house, and i decide to give him all the contacts on my phone? why shouldn’t i be able to transfer them through bluetooth (or wifi)?
looking back, my first example really wasn’t that good. nonetheless, the issue is there. it just doesn’t seem “right” that my current phone can do it, but the iPhone won’t be able to, despite the fact that the technology for it is there. hell, my phone is over on my dresser right now and i’m syncing with it just because i can. why again? just because i can.
January 10th, 2007 at 8:53 pm
First, I’m going to have to reiterate this little part of my comment:
“Of course with the actual iPhone not yet being available this is only speculation”
So with that in mind, let me say that syncing your phone and sending someone contacts or files or whatever is an entirely different deal. Most decent phones can sync, meaning they periodically update their contacts with what’s on the computer and vice versa, and separately from that can send contacts via bluetooth as VCards: a one-time thing. I think the iPhone will be no different. This is the single easiest way for bluetooth-enabled people to send their contact info to other people. You don’t want to sync your phone to someone else’s generally (I think the amount of people who might want to do that just doesn’t warrant the effort of implementing it), you want to send them one or sometimes maybe a couple of contacts. Bluetooth has standards for this so it’ll work with all the phones out there.
I don’t think we’re going to be able to sync iPhones to multiple computers. It’s too much of a hassle to get going trouble-free. And I very much doubt that Apple (or should I say RIAA) will allow it for the iPod-part. So then you’d get a situation where you can sync one part of the phone to multiple computers, but not the other. I don’t think that is where apple wants to go with this.
January 10th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
oh yeah, it’s certainly all speculation and little more. still, it’s fun.
i certainly never thought you’d be able to sync your songs or videos to another computer. you can’t do it with the current ipod, so there’s no reason to think you’d be able to with the iphone. i think it has little to do with the riaa, however, as my iriver ihp-120 let’s me copy songs to and from any computer as freely as i wish. i think it’s more an issue of apple wanting to play nice, on account of their itms contracts.
as for syncing with multiple computers, though, i can do it now, and it’s very handy. on my laptop i can choose to sync contacts, calendars, or combinations and subsets of both. i can sync certain categories of contacts, particular events, etc. then i can jump over to my desktop and do the same thing.
the more i think about it, it will probably matter very little in day to day usage. it’d be great if there was an easy way to keep a set of computers, phones, and mp3 players (or whatever) synced, but right now there isn’t. perhaps i was hoping the iphone would be a device that helped fill that void, but unfortunately it isn’t.
regardless, i still think it’s strange that you can’t sync (at least your non-media data) wirelessly, if for no other reason than that anything wireless is kind of cool. it takes away (if only just minutely) from the awe factor of the rest of the phone. as you’ve pointed out, it’s probably not a huge deal, but i still think it should be there. who knows… maybe that’s one of the things they’ll change in a software update, anyway. like you said, it’s all speculation at this point.
January 12th, 2007 at 10:56 am
the next newton, apple is a marketing company, imac anyone? no? we see colors everywhere! integrated batteries on a cell phone??? it’ll be fun to send it in after your battery goes ipod on you. stolen name for the phone! (cisco will win big) and no removable memory, 8 whole gigs, mini sd and memory sticks can carry that load now and probably twice as much by the time the “macphone” or whatever they legally get to call it comes out.
January 12th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
As for the OS, whether its really OSX or not, how many apps are you planning on porting to a phone with a 4 or 8 gig hard drive. Honestly. When was the last time mac made a computer with even 20 gs? Thats just not enough to do anything a computer needs to do.
January 13th, 2007 at 3:13 am
Jesus.. This Is Bad.
January 13th, 2007 at 3:18 am
what is?
January 13th, 2007 at 9:59 am
if you can’t see what’s bad on your own, i’m not even going to tell you.
January 13th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
March 27th, 2007 at 4:51 pm
Will it be able to connect to my wireless internet at home so I don’t have to pay out loads for internet?
March 28th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
no, unless you’re standing within range of your router…
June 3rd, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Do anyone know if they will have a integrated navigation support system? I would like to use my phone to navigate without buying an external companion.
-Andre
June 4th, 2007 at 12:35 am
i have no idea, honestly. i think it would be great, but i would doubt it.
June 19th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
Guys hold on…I think many of you are missing the REAL point. Although Apple may be selling this thing as a “techie tool” it’s really going to be for the everyday person (the soccer moms even…I say that lovingly as one myself) Apple has made it’s success on being user friendly…not necessarily having all the greatest tools. It has many tools and just makes them soooooo much easier for everyone to use. And this is their latest example…you own an ipod, a phone and maybe a treo…why not have one gadget in your purse, bookbag or briefcase that can pretty much handle all the jobs in one. If you’re an Apple user this is AWESOME…you just sync and go. How much easier does that get…Apples were meant to use TOGETHER. Yes Windows people can buy (and will) this phone, but for the current MAC users doing everyday things (not needing every possible application known to man…just because they can☺) this phone will make life easy…plug and go. I’m just happy I’ll have one item in my bag that will take the place of three…all so easily…happy happy me!
June 21st, 2007 at 4:11 pm
i just honestly don’t know how much a $600 item is going to appeal to most soccer moms, especially if they’re as hard to get a hold of as a lot of people seem to think they will be.
June 27th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
I almost never got around to sync my phone with my computer (using a cable) until I got a phone with Bluetooth, now I sync my contacts, todo’s and calendar daily. So easy, just push a button on my phone and it’s done. It would feel like a giant step backwards to start using a cable again…:(
June 30th, 2007 at 11:08 pm
Its a good point. The iphone is going to make things easier, and of course, as with any new product, especially techie ones like this, there will be good and bad things. as a guy in australia, i can only look at the pictures and dribble onto my keyboard cos we have to wait so long for anything and by the time it gets here, its already old news. maybe i should relocate to the US just so i can buy this bloody phone! HAHAHAAHAHAHA
July 1st, 2007 at 12:06 am
all i can tell you is that so far i’m not disappointed in my purchase one bit.
September 15th, 2007 at 11:17 pm
I just saw on eBay people selling unlocked phones with the disclaimer - DO NOT UPGRADE THE FIRMWARE.
October 28th, 2007 at 5:53 am
I can sync it with my computer, but when Im on the go, I cant do either! And with no stylus or keyboard, how the hell am I supposed to put appointments on my phone ?!