After years of speculations and wild rumours flying around, iPhone finally made it’s debut at the MacWorld Expo. Even recently, it narrowly missed enlistment in the top Vapourware List of 2006, published by Wired News.
Apple CEO Steve added a super-punch to his shocking, stunning, surprising keynote address by unveiling the long awaited iPhone. The iPhone brings features of the iPod, digital camera, smart phones and even portable computing to one device - all under the same roof. To enhance the overall experience a widescreen display and an innovative input method called “Mutli-touch” have been thrown in.
While announcing the product, Jobs was noted saying, “Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything.” Jobs further added, “iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We are all born with the ultimate pointing device—our fingers—and iPhone uses them to create the most revolutionary user interface since the mouse.”
The iPhone completely redefines the concept of mobile telephony and ushers in a new era of software power & sophistication in hand-held devices. What makes it such a beautiful product that seems to have set new boundaries for innovation is that there are no keys, neither aerial stubs at the top. Communication isn’t done through pushes or stabs, but strokes and touches. Hopes are being raised that the device will serve as a whopper of an introduction for Apple into the mobile market (a market that’s much larger, and more valuable, than that for MP3 players) thus bucking the trend set by the Motorola and Nokia.
As per the new “Multi-Touch” technology, the iPhone features only a single physical button, called “home.” The phone is controlled by by sliding a finger across its touch-sensitive 3.5-inch display, which has a resolution of 320-by-480 pixels at 160 pixels-per-inch display.
Here’s a brief list of features:
- 11.6 mm (thickness)
- 3.5 in. (width)
- Runs Mac OS X (access to Safari Web browser)
- Touchscreen display with multi-touch support
- 2 megapixel camera
- 8 GB storage
- Bluetooth with EDR and also WiFi
- Quadband GSM (850MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, and 1900MHz) radio with EDGE
- EDGE or WiFi, the phone switches to WiFi when detected
- Seamless data syncing with a Mac, PC, or an Internet service
- Google Maps: Satellite directions, traffic monitoring, and normal maps.
- Random access voicemail
- Widgets: Weather and stocks
- Photo album lets you scroll through images with your finger and you can zoom in/out by “squeezing” or “pinching” the screen with two fingers.
- The orientation of the screen (landscape or portrait) will automatically rotate based upon the orientation of the device itself.
- Full iTunes integration
- 3G capabilities to come in the future…
The iPhone sports three smart sensors which help in controlling it’s behaviour. A proximity sensor shuts down the display and touchscreen when the phone is held to the ear. An ambient light sensor automatically adjusts screen brightness to save power. Meanwhile, an accelerometer lets the phone know whether to display in portrait or landscape mode.
iPhone runs on Mac OS X and even has the Safari browser bundled in, enabling it to view full-fledged web-pages as compared to its WAP-based cousins from other manufacturers.
Also an all new feature is the iPhone’s dual battery module giving you far longer operability with talk-times or video display upto 5 hours and while music can be played upto 16 hours.
As of now iPhone is available in 4GB and 8GB variants and costs $499 and $599 respectively. At this price range, it’s a real serious competitors to all the mobile phone out there that offer similar functionality. However, it’ll be readily available for shipping only from June 2007 and requires a two-year contract with Cingular, the exclusive U.S. carrier. Apple plans to bring the iPhone to Europe in the fourth calendar quarter of 2007, and to Asia in 2008.
Source(s): CyberNet News, Macworld
