Apple iPhone | Comments (7)
Posted in Apple on 10th January 2007, 1:13 am by Stuart
You’re probably sick to the back teeth by now of all the coverage of the new iPhone but there’s no wonder there’s such a buzz around this device. It’s a geek’s dream with it’s combo of useful features in one small package.
Looking at the info at http://www.apple.com/iphone/ it’s clear to see the that the interface interaction is a thing of beauty. The animations as you change from one app to another certainly eye-catching and sure to illicit the “Ooohhhhhs” in the same way as every-time someone uses the transitions in Keynote for the first time. Whether these would become distracting over time is another thing.
The touch-screen makes it possible to navigate easily around the interface and the addition of Cover Flow to the ipod part of the iPhone looks amazing. As the iPhone has built-in sensors it will automatically switch to widescreen mode as you put it on it’s side. Something Apple has always done well is making interfaces ‘just work’ so that they appear seamless and intuitive.
Roger Johansson has noted the lack of real keys but I think that it will be something that you would get used to over time. I would suspect that the iPhone would have something like the click feedback on the ipod clickwheel to provide some audio feedback to touchscreen “key” presses.
The fact that the iPhone is running what I assume to be a cut-down embedded version of OSX means that there’s no real limit to what the iPhone can do in the future. One would also hope that the way the wi-fi works will be every bit as easy to use as the airport cards in the full version of OSX. At this point the geek in me hopes that somehow locked away in there is a terminal and it will be possible possibile to run remote sessions from the iPhone. Now wouldn’t that be cool?
The next question is; when will these little beauties be available in the UK?
I love this phone, yes. But, where is the 3G? That is sucky connectivity for Europe.
I agree that the phone is a thing of beauty and I want one but I’m holding my breath to see how the UK phone networks handle it’s release over here. For individuals Blackberry type contracts are costly and act as a barrier to entry for most people. Whatever happens the people at Orange, Vodaphone etc must be thinking that they’ve just been handed a license to print money (not that they don’t already have one)
Also like Tom I worry about the usefulness of many of the features outside of a wi-fi environment. Surfing the net for example over anything other than 3g is a chore and a lot of specific features such as a list of all your voicemails just isn’t available and I assume is a cingular feature.
I would like to think that 3G will be added by the time this phone hits these shores, I can’t see it working out in Europe otherwise.
Also by 4Q 2007 (which is apparently when it’s due in Europe) there should be more of the unlimited data packages available from carriers. As I understand it the one that 3 have launched is working out to be popular.
Steve’s keynote speech says that they plan to launch 3G phones in the near future.
I’m going to renew my injury, aparently now we can’t develop applications for it. What’s the point of having OS X in your pocket if you can’t muck about with it?!
I’m going to get a Nokia N95 when it’s realeased in February. With an 5 megapixel autofocus camera and GPS I’m not sure Nokia are quite beaten just yet.
@Tom: I certainly won’t be waiting for the iPhone to come out and I’m pretty tempted to get a Nokia E61 now. The querty keyboard and the lack of a half-assed camera really do it for me, though I must admit the N95 does look pretty corking.
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