I know its 5 in the morning, but I've been up all night packing for a trip and seeing as I was still up, I thought I'd check out
Job's keynote at Macworld. There's some iTunes stuff, a new PC & Mac ad, and stuff about Apple tv (or iTV), but that's not what sparked this very early morning post...
the iPhone did.Engadget's got an
awesome post with many pics shown at the keynote - well worth a look. Not sure what the situation is with using pics from engadget here, but I can't help it, here's a pic of the iPhone in action.
Its got a 8GB hard drive, wifi, bluetooth (nothing new), as well as some fancy Apple style sensors, but FINALLY,
someone decided to ditch the keypad and make the screen a touchscreen and make it as large as possible (like I've been saying in a
previous post). The UI looks very, very nice, typical Apple style - very cool icons, clean, uncomplicated design (unlike Windows Mobile, though I guess that's aimed at a different market) and quite intuitive & usable. Its also got some great media features and apparently runs a version of OSX.
There isn't much info on how text input is done, apart from the standard on-screen alpha-numeric keypad, so typing text messages will be interesting. This is Apple after all, surely they're not just gonna put T9 back in there...
Exact details are still a bit sketchy, but Apple's finally satisfied the iPhone rumours that have been floating around for ages, and given the mobile phone industry a much, much needed shake up. Touch-screen phones aren't new, and neither is the
absence of a keypad, but it took Apple to make it user-friendly enough to take it to the general masses.
That said, knowing Apple, integration with web-based services will probably be limited to its own (next to no info was given on its internet features), and I'm not completely sold on its UI just yet - not sure how well it integrates features together, such as adding an item into the calendar from a text message, or sending a photo taken to a photo service like flickr, or detecting a particular contact's status across web networks and offering that as an option in the contacts screen. And of course, there's still the age old bugbear of new mobile tech - battery life. Using processors that run OSX won't be cheap from a power perspective, so it'll be interesting to see how it stacks up.
That said, I've seen enough to say,
I WANT ONE! (It seems to be US only at the moment though, with the cingular branding - the US, for once, have the cutting edge phone before the rest of the world. Never fear, for there's eBay!)
Until of course, I make my own killer phone and kick Apple's arse. The humble mobile is the ultimate device to conquer - everyone basically has one, its with them 24/7, connected to the internet 24/7, and is a known concept. The mobile is a person's 24/7 lifeline to the wider world - it has become an extension of our bodies, and one most can't live without. Conquer that, and you'll have the most direct way to influence, connect with, and assist human beings as well as improving their lives on mass in your hands.
UPDATE: Just thought of something interesting, and Apple's probably thought of it too, but how about using haptics to replicate the experience of pressing a button? That's one of the biggest issues with touchscreen devices - the lack of sensation when interacting with them - and given that mobiles already have a vibration motor in it, a combination of visual, sound and haptic responses could improve the experience a lot.
UPDATE #2: Apple's iPhone site has gone live -
http://www.apple.com/iphone/. Don't have time to do another post, but quick thoughts - nice transitions, widget feature is great, the main text entry method is just an on-screen predictive QWERTY keyboard (just like Windows Mobile) - how boring, the full website browser and zoom-in look is pretty good, the conversational-style view for SMSes is nice too, the UI seems a bit broken in design - e.g. the design of the contacts screen is completely different to the in-a-call screen, still can't really see how you scroll through long lists like contacts, and I'm not convinced as to the value of multi-touch apart from the photo example.
The device is quadband though, so there's a strong possibility that Apple will make this worldwide soon - after all, its important enough to be given its own button on Apple's website. The battery life however, is really quite crap - up to 5 hours talk/video/browsing, or up to 16 hours audio playback. These numbers are usually overstated anyway, so expect to be charging this thing every day. I guess Apple just makes their devices appealing enough so people learn to live with shortcomings like this.
UPDATE #3: Times has a nice article summarising it, and its development -
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1575410-1,00.html. Price isn't so bad, though Cingular in the US must be over the moon right now, well when June 2007 comes along anyway.