Apple iPhone
Expected
June 2007 (united States) 9th January 2007
For news on the UK version
click
here.
It's been a long, long time coming..
but the Apple iPhone is now official. Announced at Macworld
Expo today, the iPhone isn't so much a phone.. it's
an ultra-compact handheld computer.
First the basic technical specifications
- this is a quad-band GSM device with EDGE and WiFi
support, it has a 3.5" 320x480 pixel touch-sensitive
display it comes with a 2 megapixel digital camera and
either 4Gb or 8Gb of memory. The internal operating
system is a version of the Mac's OS X.
It would be easy to get carried away
with the hype.. and it does appear to be a highly
desirable device.. but ultimately the Apple iPhone is
not too dissimilar to devices such as the Nokia
7710, Nokia
N800, Sony
Ericsson P990i or any number of Windows-based HTC
handsets. But because this is an Apple device, you can
expect a little more polish and a lot more attention
to usability.
Apple are pitching the iPhone as an
all-in-one music player, widescreen video player, phone,
internet device (using the Safari web browser) and a
fully featured handheld computer too. Again, this is
pretty impressive.. but the competition's Windows and
Linux devices offer the same sort of range of features.
But the Apple edge is in the user interface - the iPhone
is designed to be incredibly simple to use with your
fingers (rather than a stylus). There's an onscreen
keyboard for those people that need to do some typing,
but otherwise this is very much a point and click (or
tap) operation.
So
far, so impressive.. but there are a couple of things
that are immediately obvious as drawbacks. Firstly,
the landscape/portrait modem 480x320 pixel display is
impressive, but we feel that internet devices need at
least 640 pixels in width, and the Nokia N800 beats
the iPhone with a 4" 800x480 pixel display that
the iPhone simply cannot match. The other drawback is
that it isn't a 3G device, although it does support
EDGE. Thankfully though, Apple made this a quad-band
GSM handset, so this means that it should be available
worldwide.
The Apple iPhone has a number of very
clever tricks. It will automatically detect if its in
landscape or portrait mode and will change the display
accordingly. When the iPhone is lifted to the user's
ear, it detects this and turns off the display to save
power and prevent accidental "clicks", and
the iPhone also has a light sensor so that it can adjust
the brightness of the display to match ambient conditions.
It's this sort of attention to detail that makes this
an Apple device.
OS X is a novelty on a handset such
as this, but in fact Apple's operating system is closely
based on Unix - as is Linux - and it has roughly the
same requirements as a Windows smartphone. The ease
of use of OS X and the applications that run on it are
of critical importance to the success of the iPhone..
and so far it looks promising.
Let's not forget that this is an iPod
too.. so the iPhone has an excellent music player with
nice touches such as a music browser that displays the
album cover. The internal 4Gb or 8Gb of storage allows
for plenty of music tracks to be stored, but perhaps
this is one device that would have benefited from a
large internal hard-disk for the true "all your
music anywhere" iPod experience.
The Apple iPhone is a sleek, elegant
looking device with a black-and-metal design. At 115
x 61 x 11.6mm, the iPhone isn't as big as you might
expect.. and the 135 gram weight is pretty reasonable
for this type of smartphone.
Initially the Apple iPhone will be available
on the Cingular network in the United States at an anticipated
cost of $499 for the basic 4Gb version and $599 for
the 8Gb version, although it may be available with a
discount from some carriers in the future if taking
out a new contract. It should be available in June 2007
on Cingular, but the availability on other carriers
worldwide is not known.
We have to admit that we've been a little
cynical about the iPhone, but we are impressed with
Apple's attention to detail with the device which might
just make it a success.
You can see more of the iPhone at Apple's
official
iPhone site.
[Images courtesy
of Apple Inc]
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|
Apple
iPhone at a glance
|
Available:
|
Q3
2007
|
Network:
|
GSM
850/900/1800/1900
|
Data:
|
GPRS
+ EDGE + WiFi
|
Screen:
|
320x480
pixels
|
Camera:
|
2
megapixels
|
Size:
|
PDA-style
device 115x61x12mm /
135 grams
|
Bluetooth:
|
Yes
|
Memory
card:
|
No
|
Infra-red:
|
No
|
Polyphonic:
|
Yes
|
Java:
|
No
|
Battery
life:
|
5
hours talk / 16 hours video
playback
|
OS:
|
OS
X
|
|
|