But wow. That is one sweet-looking phone:
Sweet, glorious specs of the 11.6 millimeter device (that’s frickin’ thin, by the way) include a 3.5-inch wide touchscreen display with multi-touch support and a proximity sensor to turn off the sensor when it’s close to your face, 2 megapixel cam, 8 GB of storage, Bluetooth with EDR, WiFi that automatically engages when in range, and quadband GSM radio with EDGE. Perhaps most amazingly, though, it somehow runs OS X with support for Widgets, Google Maps, and Safari, and iTunes (of course) with CoverFlow out of the gate. A partnership with Yahoo will allow all iPhone customers to hook up with free push IMAP email. Apple quotes 5 hours of battery life for talk or video, with a full 16 hours in music mode.
The Google AND Yahoo partnership is amazing. Click to call. EDGE + Wifi.
Yeah, I’m excited…it’s like a new age of computing + mobile has dawned.
Prediction on biggest complaints: availability, screen scratches/broken-ness, battery life.
Availability, indeed. Hopefully they’ve got 5 million of things sitting around in a warehouse in Shanghai, because the demand will be pretty huge. Here are a bunch more photos from the announcement.
Apparently they’re not available until June, 2007. Conveniently, that’s exactly when my old cell phone package runs out.
UPDATE: Waxy points to the immediate effect the iPhone has had on the companies that make Blackberries and Palm Pilots.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
iPhone looks amazing. Let’s hope a Canadian provider is knocking down Apple’s door right now to partner.
Wouldn’t this be done through Rogers? They are rogers/at&t right?
However, cingular is providing the cellular service and apparently, cingular is being evil
http://www.blork.org/blorkblog/2007/01/09/the-trouble-with-the-iphone/
You’re lucky: our contract expires in April. We’re on Verizon. I’m not sure what to do. I desperately need a cell phone, because my Treo cuts out on me 10 seconds into every phone call.
Palm VS. iPhone; The Sound Of One Hand Clapping.
This ‘phone,’ and that is too limited a descriptor for this offering, changes everything. I’m an early adopter and I’m stunned.
Poor Palm CEO Ed Colligan must be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder when he told a New York Times reporter “PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”
That kind of ignorance of technology’s unrelenting progress rings eerily familiar to the kind of quotes I imagine were spoken exactly 100 years upon the opening of the world’s first banked motor racing track in Surrey, England.
“Race tracks are for horses, not automobiles.”
The 4-11 on the iPhone, as far as I know.
– Some are being sent out to the famous people this week. So people like Sarah McLaughlin will have them this month.
– The delay until June is for FTC approval in the US. There’s not Canadian date but Europe will be the end of ’07.
– It’s always hard to tell how long we’ll have to wait until something from Apple arrives in Canada. The iPods hit the same time here as they did in the US, but things like the iTunes store came later (we still don’t have movies or TV shows in ours).
– It’s a GSM phone so that means you’ll have to pick between a Rogers or a Fido (owned by Rogers) plan. Telus has been considering (very quietly) going GSM at some point since CDMA is just a provincial frequency limited to Canada, the US and some latin American countries. GSM is the world standard, and that’s why Apple choose it.
– Apple will be selling the phones both through Cingular and it’s own stores / website. Whether the ones bought through Apple will be locked for use only with Cingular isn’t confirmed yet but it’s likely given their deal. There is a (slim) chance that it’ll also be sold in an unlocked variety through Apple as the Nokia N-Gage phone was.
The N-Gage was sold through EB stores, and was unlocked, giving a buyer the potential to go through any GSM carrier. The N-Gage tanked, so that’s one reason Apple went with a carrier alliance.
– Most GSM phones can be unlocked, and eBay will have unlocked iPhones probably very shortly after they hit the shelves in June. It’s possible to buy them unlocked from the US and use them on Rogers or Fido here in Canada.
– Using a grey market phone generally means the internet settings are not properly configured to the network. It’s not impossible to do, but it’ll be tricky. Also the visual voice mail component will most likely only work with supporting carriers.
– It sounds like iTunes songs will not be able to be used as ringtones. That’s a ridiculous example of cowtowing to Cingular who wants to sell $3 versions of songs for ringtones.
Unlike Europe and Asia in the US and Canada we’re used to getting really cheap phones on contract. Even with a 2 year deal the iPhone is going to be $499 US. That means I don’t think it’ll sell as well as you might think, since the best selling phones are always the free ones. The Motorola Razr didn’t start selling well until it came down to around $100.
Now the iPhone is far more than any phone I’ve seen. I want one really bad, but it’s success depends as much on how Apple can make the value versus cost argument to a population who equate cell phones with being free. It’s doable, the success of the BlackBerry Pearl proves it, but still you can get 2 Pearls for one iPhone. $499 (USD) is at the very high end of market. Apple’s priced themselves out of being competitive before, and I hope it doesn’t happen again.
Also I’m still not convinced that convergence is really a good thing. I’ve had MP3/camera phones for years now but never used them much as either. I like the fact that I have an iPod, and a phone. I like that I can leave my phone at home when I go out for a walk, and take my iPod.
I’m actually waiting until next Fall when the new round of iPods come out. Then hopefully a lot of the new design features will start appearing in the standard iPod line. A 100 gig iPod video with that touch screen is almost more interesting to me than the iPhone.
Having said that I’m still selling my mother to get one.
Also I think the fact that it has yet to appear on Apple.ca, but is up on Apple.com, suggests that we won’t be getting it in June. I’m sure Apple is in talks with Rogers now, or will be soon, but until it’s actually announced I’m not sure.
Rogers likes to test hardware on their network before approving it for sale, and because Apple was so secretive about this it’s likely that their techs haven’t had a chance to see one, which could be part of the hold up on an announcement. But with Local Number Portability coming to Canada in March I’m sure Rogers would be keen to have the iPhone lined up and announced to keep people from leaving for Telus / Bell, and to start getting people thinking about leaving Telus / Bell for them.
Not wanting to be a curmudgeon, but I just can’t help but associate the Newton to the iPhone. I was the first non Apple employee to demo the Newton, I was an employee of Apple Computer Inc when Newton died it’s horrible little death, so clearly I’m still traumatized.
It’s just the touchscreen thing and “innovative” interfaces to make touchscreen less um touchscreenish.
I mean am I the only person who is on his fourth blackberry? Sure, one got run-over by a bus, and another dropped in a toilet, but at least two of them just didn’t last the wear and tear of daily, near-constant use.
And we all know that the iPod is already a delicate little darling, so I can’t imagine “rugged” will be a word used to describe it.
Again, not relishing my “wet blanket” post but feel it has to be made, at least until Rogers or Telus gets them in Canada.