iPhone

[(>_<)]

that cover flow shit is amazing. what if i just want a wifi enabled, wide-screen ipod? do i have to get a 2 year contract with cingular? if yes, then i call bullshit.

[Sid]

It looks cool, but I'm a little confused regarding how this reinvents the phone. There are already phones using wifi, edge, and play mp3s. I still think the browsing will suck unless you're able to connect through wifi. And then trying to scroll around viewing pages in safari? yikes. I dunno. I'd have to see it first.

[Vahn Roi]

I think it has to do with the fact that it has no buttons, it's all touch screen.

[Jesoy]

it's not like there weren't ipods before mp3 players either....

[wnoodle]

Now I'm waiting to see what the competition comes up with. Otherwise, I think I know what my next phone might well be

[slackerbot]

honestly, i wish this was a Newton. it would be a kick ass PDA. i don't care too much for the phone or ipod functionality.

[Remy]

Originally posted by Sid
It looks cool, but I'm a little confused regarding how this reinvents the phone. There are already phones using wifi, edge, and play mp3s. I still think the browsing will suck unless you're able to connect through wifi. And then trying to scroll around viewing pages in safari? yikes. I dunno. I'd have to see it first.

maybe it doesnt reinvent the phone but instead adds some 'gee thats cool' functionality to the phone. you should take a look at the demos at macworld to see whats different about it. it has some nice features:

-going from vertical to widescreen automatically when tilted
-touchscreen w/o the need for a stylus
-tiny size
-and the list goes on im too lazy to type

apple has a nice little demo on their site.

having used some the latest pda phones and blackberrys i have to say the internet browser on the iphone is the closest thing to computer web browsing on any device on the market.

Originally posted by ocd
I'm curious about the durability.

durability is my greatest concern too.

better not scratch like my ipod.

better take being dropped better than my ipod too.

[Iago]

It's interesting that in the agency I am working with, 3 out of the 5 designers don't have iPods and greeted the iPhone with mild amusement and reserved wonder while the IT department next to them geeked the fuck out.

If anything, chitchat in the design area was mostly about how well Apple and Uncle Jobs is capable of launching a cool product and hyping it up as a must have item. The guy could come out and sell you a bag of honey roasted peanuts with pizzaz.

Originally posted by slackerbot
honestly, i wish this was a Newton. it would be a kick ass PDA. i don't care too much for the phone or ipod functionality.

it runs osx.

i'm assuming this means software can be loaded on it.

should be something PDA about that worth looking forward to.

hopefully.

[Iago]

Didn't most of the Newton team form the Palm Pilot?

[wnoodle]

From Wiki: "Palm Computing was co-founded by ex-Apple employee Donna Dubinsky."

[xsk8teboyx]

It's not enough to replace the smartphone, at least in this early stage. I believe it doesn't let software to be installed?

No 3G.
No over the air iTunes Store downloads or WiFi syncing to your host machine.
No expandable memory.
No removable battery.
No Exchange or Office support.

[mangamonster]

Originally posted by xsk8teboyx
It's not enough to replace the smartphone, at least in this early stage. I believe it doesn't let software to be installed?

No 3G.
No over the air iTunes Store downloads or WiFi syncing to your host machine.
No expandable memory.
No removable battery.
No Exchange or Office support.

I love everything that the iphone claims to be so far, but dayummmmm, no removable battery????? This is scaring the hell out of me. Hopefully this will be resolved before production time.

[mangamonster]

First hands on review of the iphone... sort of a pre-review From gizmodo.com

Apple just gave us 15 minutes with the iPhone. To be frank, I was surprised -- Apple doesn't usually grace us with this kind of love. I guess they liked our iPhone posts from last month. The legends say Woz and Steve love to pull pranks.

What do I really think of it? Well CD players and iPods both play music. But elegant design at the fundamental level of how it plays tunes is what helped it transcend the category. From what I saw, first hand, I think the iPhone is going to do this for cellies. I have a bit of sympathy for our friends at RIM and Nokia

First thing I did? I called my mom.

"Mom," I said. "I'm calling you from an iPhone"

Mom says, "Where? Huh? Who?"

I said, "Uh, its a gadget people have been waiting for for a long time. Never mind, I'll call you later."

Then I dug into the features.

It's easy to say how it worked -- it did just the way it's supposed to, per the Keynote. The experience is very OS X like. So, lets go through each feature. Keep in mind this isn't the final firmware or hardware. They have months to fix whatever I bitch about.

Phone calling: Sound is clearer than average. The number pad is tucked away, so they depend on you having most numbers in speed dial. That's ok. Soft buttons are never going to be as fast as hard buttons. These were good, there wasn't much delay. But wihtout tactile feedback, its a little strange. (The faux dialtones are cool.)

Screen: Most gorgeous ever. Flawless. Dark, and contrasty. Bright colors. Photos looked natural. Touchscreen was better for multigestures, but the screen itself had a bit of rubbery feel as I flicked through with a single figner.

Gestures: They work! Multitouch is great for zooming photos. I likey.

Video: The pirates of the caribbean video was supposedly 640 by 480, but looked kind of blown up. I'm being picky, though. You can set the video to native res, instead of filling the screen. Maybe that was the 320 version of Pirates. I'm being picky.

Music: Um, I flipped through some songs, but without headphones, I didn't listen.

Images: You saw it from our liveblog. Thumbnails, and zooming using gestures. As you'd expect.

Browser: Perfect rendering of the page (saw the apple page and Google news) Like the opera browser, it scales down images. Didn't check Flash or Java/Javascript support. Flipped to landscape when I tilted (but only one side.) Zooming in with a touch and then back out made sense. And landscape mode is awesome.

Keyboard: The softkey, on screen buttons are small. Think index finger, not thumb. Maybe I wasn't doing it right. The keys pop up when I put my finger down on the keys, but do you think the proximity sensor knows when I get close (but before I touch), and if I hover with my digit, it'll blow up the keys so they're easier to hit? (Am I making sense?)

SMS: Didn't try.

Email: Typed around a bit. Wish the fields for To, and CC were smaller fonts. But I guess when you go to the main message field, it scrolls down.

Google Maps: Perfect. Maps DL'd slower than I'd have liked, esp considering the demo was on wifi (Was it on WiFi? I believe so, but will let you know if I am wrong.)

Widgets: Weather and Stocks are identical to the OS X Dashboard Widgets. Great

Camera: The camera didn't refresh fast in the dark meeting room. I wasn't that impressed, but it was pretty dark.

RAM Vmail: Didn't check, but looked at the messages, seemed straight forward.

Multitasking: Didn't have time to check!

We'll email Apple and ask them if you have any questions, and we'll update this post as we find out more from other journalists themselves. –Brian Lam


http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/macworld2...mmy-227582.php