Apple today introduced iPhone, combining three products – a mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, searching and maps-into one small and lightweight handheld device. iPhone introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting users control iPhone with just their fingers. iPhone also ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, which completely redefines what users can do on their mobile phones.
“iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO, in the press release. “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.”
iPhone is a revolutionary new mobile phone that allows users to make calls by simply pointing at a name or number. iPhone syncs all of your contacts from your Mac, Windows PC or Internet service such as Yahoo!, so that you always have your full list of up-to-date contacts with you. In addition, you can easily construct a favorites list for your most frequently made calls, and easily merge calls together to create conference calls.
iPhone’s pioneering Visual Voicemail, an industry first, lets users look at a listing of their voicemails, decide which messages to listen to, then go directly to those messages without listening to the prior messages. Just like email, iPhone’s Visual Voicemail enables users to immediately randomly access those messages that interest them most.
iPhone includes an SMS application with a full QWERTY soft keyboard to easily send and receive SMS messages in multiple sessions. When users need to type, iPhone presents them with an elegant touch keyboard which is predictive to prevent and correct mistakes, making it much easier and more efficient to use than the small plastic keyboards on many smartphones. iPhone also includes a calendar application that allows calendars to be automatically synced with your PC or Mac.
iPhone features a 2 megapixel camera and a photo management application that is far beyond anything on a phone today. Users can browse their photo library, which can be easily synced from their PC or Mac, with just a flick of a finger and easily choose a photo for their wallpaper or to include in an email.
iPhone is a quad-band GSM phone which also features EDGE and Wi-Fi wireless technologies for data networking. Apple has chosen Cingular, the most popular carrier in the US with over 58 million subscribers, to be Apple’s exclusive carrier partner for iPhone in the US.
iPhone is a widescreen iPod with touch controls that lets music lovers “touch” their music by easily scrolling through entire lists of songs, artists, albums and playlists with just a flick of a finger. Album artwork is stunningly presented on iPhone’s large and vibrant display.
iPhone also features Cover Flow, Apple’s amazing way to browse your music library by album cover artwork, for the first time on an iPod. When navigating your music library on iPhone, you are automatically switched into Cover Flow by simply rotating iPhone into its landscape position.
iPhone’s 3.5-inch widescreen display offers the ultimate way to watch TV shows and movies on a pocketable device, with touch controls for play-pause, chapter forward-backward and volume. iPhone plays the same videos purchased from the online iTunes Store that users enjoy watching on their computers and iPods, and will soon enjoy watching on their widescreen televisions using the new Apple TV. The iTunes Store now offers over 350 television shows, over 250 feature films and over 5,000 music videos.
iPhone lets users enjoy all their iPod content, including music, audiobooks, audio podcasts, video podcasts, music videos, television shows and movies. iPhone syncs content from a user’s iTunes library on their PC or Mac, and can play any music or video content they have purchased from the online iTunes store.
iPhone features a rich HTML email client which fetches your email in the background from most POP3 or IMAP mail services and displays photos and graphics right along with the text. iPhone is fully multi-tasking, so you can be reading a web page while downloading your email in the background.
Yahoo! Mail, the world’s largest email service with over 250 million users, is offering a new free “push” IMAP email service to all iPhone users that automatically pushes new email to a user’s iPhone, and can be set up by simply entering your Yahoo! name and password. iPhone will also work with most industry standard IMAP and POP based email services, such as Microsoft Exchange, Apple .Mac Mail, AOL Mail, Google Gmail and most ISP mail services.
iPhone also features the most advanced and fun-to-use web browser on a portable device with a version of its award-winning Safari(TM) web browser for iPhone. Users can see any web page the way it was designed to be seen, and then easily zoom in to expand any section by simply tapping on iPhone’s multi- touch display with their finger. Users can surf the web from just about anywhere over Wi-Fi or EDGE, and can automatically sync their bookmarks from their Mac or Windows PC. iPhone’s Safari web browser also includes built-in Google Search and Yahoo! Search so users can instantly search for information on their iPhone just like they do on their computer.
iPhone also includes Google Maps, featuring Google’s groundbreaking maps service and iPhone’s amazing maps application, offering the best maps experience by far on any pocket device. Users can view maps, satellite images, traffic information and get directions, all from iPhone’s remarkable and easy- to-use touch interface.
iPhone employs advanced built-in sensors — an accelerometer, a proximity sensor and an ambient light sensor — that automatically enhance the user experience and extend battery life. iPhone’s built-in accelerometer detects when the user has rotated the device from portrait to landscape, then automatically changes the contents of the display accordingly, with users immediately seeing the entire width of a web page, or a photo in its proper landscape aspect ratio.
iPhone’s built-in proximity sensor detects when you lift iPhone to your ear and immediately turns off the display to save power and prevent inadvertent touches until iPhone is moved away. iPhone’s built-in ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the display’s brightness to the appropriate level for the current ambient light, thereby enhancing the user experience and saving power at the same time.
iPhone will be available in the US in June 2007, Europe in late 2007, and Asia in 2008, in a 4GB model for US$499 and an 8GB model for $599, and will work with either a Mac or Windows PC. iPhone will be sold in the US through Apple’s retail and online stores, and through Cingular’s retail and online stores. Several iPhone accessories will also be available in June, including Apple’s new remarkably compact Bluetooth headset.
iPhone requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 port, Mac OS X v10.4.8 or later and iTunes 7; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4), Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 2). Internet access is required and a broadband connection is recommended. Apple and Cingular will announce service plans for iPhone before it begins shipping in June.
To learn more about iPhone, please visit Apple.com or watch the video of the iPhone introduction at http://www.apple.com/iphone/keynote
Related article:
Video of how Apple’s rumored touch-screen Tablet Mac could work – February 13, 2006
Ok, a few points if i can remember them all.
1. I think the iPhone is running OSX 10.5.
2. If it was called anything Mac-related or iPod-related it would hurt sales. There are MANY people who would never buy a Mac but own iPods and there are a few whining people who don’t want iPods (because they’re apple) but they may buy an iPhone. Also, businesses would frown upon buying a bunch of iPods (versus buying a bunch of iPhones) for their executives.
3. iLife ’07 and iWork ’07 will have a lot of tying into Leopard, so they can’t be released before Leopard is released, and Leopard is not quite ready.
4. I forgot the rest.
Today Apple Computer Inc changed their name to Apple Inc to reflect their growing product line.
In related news Microsoft Inc announced they would change their name to Micro Inc to reflect their share price.
us aussies have to wait till 08.
thats not cool at all.
*sigh*
Huh…the new device looks interesting…Apple finally decided to look ahead a little…but not 5 years, as Steve suggests. I would have been more interested if it had more storage and battery life…that would have made it almost impressive. But alas…it’s just another gimicky toy, as have been all Apple products since the Mac emerged. …and since when did any Apple product toting person ever consider theirselves serious computer people let alone “computer professionals”…I mean…really…go to school and learn some real technology. Use something that doesn’t have to bastardize itself to work with Microsoft, just to stay alive after it’s ridiculous years proprietary overpriced shlock software. Apple and professional shouldn’t even be in the same sentence exccept when pointing out the joke of it. “Apple”…huh…how ’bout “crapple”.
Errr…. that last comment is actually quite offensive. I use a mac every day at work. So just to really piss you off here it is in one sentence “I use an Apple Mac and I’m a professional creative developer”. I don’t struggle to make things work with PCs they just do. Oh and guess what we have very close ties at work with Adobe who are now responsible for some serious programs such as Flash and Flex Builder….. and the last demo they did for us….they were ALL using macs. Go back to 1994 where you belong. FYI I went to school for 3 years to learn the software and skills I have.
@ Kevin
So what would have made it more interesting to you is a bigger HD and a bigger battery. Out of all the things iPhone has going for it, THAT would impress you? Do you think you maybe need to get out a bit more? Huh, okay.
Every time Apple updates any product, they tend to increase both those things, and that really impresses you, does it?
“It’s been done before.” – Kevin
-c
MW: ‘did’ (you see the scrolling???)
So take a look at
” rel=”nofollow”>this. I’ll bet you ANYTHING that Apple put it in that plastic case because it would be a lot harder for your camera to auto-focus on. ^_^. Sly bastards.
ChrissyOne…
No…”bigger HD and bigger battery” as you put it, are not what I said…”more storage and a longer battery life” is what I said. …and yes it would have almost been impressive if they had pulled those off, without increasing the size of the device. As it is, the device is just a version of technology already available, technology that works with more than just one provider, I might add.
BTW: Pinning theirselves to Cingular only, was a huge mistake.
I will almost give Apple a compliment on the size…but reducing the size of a PDA phone, and leaving it with a small amount of storage and battery that has very little talk time is not impressive engineering. Any engineer can see they obviously sacrificed usability to bring the size down.
What we really need, is a phone that is small, and is not dependent on proprietary rechargeable batteries. Use AAA batteries for goodness sake…at least you can recharge them, or opt for new ones, if you are stuck in an airport or somewhere that it is inconvenient recharge the darn thing every 3 hours…which is the reality of the maximum talk time, provided you don’t use any computer functionality.
Yes…I want real engineering…I want a real breakthrough…not a crappy low storage ipod with phone “capability”.
Jeremy…
I’m sorry you seem offended. Surely you have a “Mc” instead of a “Mac”…as in career at “Mc”Donald’s. Personally, I would not consider waiting for fries to cook as a career in creative development. Just for fun…let’s go back to 1994, when Macs where completely proprietary…and you had to buy overpriced software and peripherals that used the oh so chatty Appletalk protocol…spending days in resedit, playing with the order of loading extensions, because the only developers that would write for Macs, were McDonald’s graduates looking for a quick buck from unsuspecting technical neophytes. Nope…not for me. You can have your Apple and live with the worm (jobs)at the center.
Good luck…I’m sure your 3 years of Mac training from tech school of the week (Vatterott, Sanford-Brown, or Lincoln Tech)will get you far.
…something occurred to me. There is now no reason films can`t be shot in portrait orientation. I, Christina Wiley, hereby claim the original idea of films, TV shows, and other commercial features shot, edited, and presented in portrait mode.
Call my lawyers. ;P
Real Men Bitch About Semantics™
“I will almost give Apple a compliment on the size…but reducing the size of a PDA phone, and leaving it with a small amount of storage and battery that has very little talk time is not impressive engineering. Any engineer can see they obviously sacrificed usability to bring the size down.”
This, in your professional engineering opinion? I see. Well, then why didn’t some other brilliant engineer actually build one? Because said engineer would have gotten as rich as Apple is about to. Lots of profession engineers at Microsoft. Why didn’t any of them think of it?
Lots of talk, but there is only one horse running at the moment.
All the others just fell on their daces.
er… faces. ;P
-c
MW: ‘farm’ (out your OS development and this is what happens, Mike)
Dear AtAT, wherever you are…
JaaaaaAAAAaack! You’re missin’ iiiiiiiit!
I think there is a pretty good chance that all the people that used to pretend to be Zune enthusiasts are now employed pretending to be experts in engineering. I’ve looked at a couple of them and there sure aren’t many posts after November.
“BTW: Pinning theirselves to Cingular only, was a huge mistake. “
I know, because you have to please all your wonderful and glorious partners.
Why EDGE? HSDPA is being rolled out and is the technology of the future for AT&T. Let’s hope that Apple used one of the newer Qualcomm chipsets (MSM7200 or MSM7600) and the iPhone can be firmware upgraded to HSDPA in the very near future.
Also, these two chipsets include GPS capability for a much needed feature upgrade to the map function that Apple included in the iPhone.
Plus, if Apple went with the MSM7600 chipset it could easily support EV-DO through Sprint or Verizon, although an exclusive multi-year agreement with AT&T pretty much kills that option.
IMHO the GUI is the only real innovation that Apple brings to the cellphone market. You can’t deliver much content over EDGE and will need to be near a WiFi hotspot to download music or stream video. Advantage definitely goes to those phones with EV-DO or HSDPA.
Apple could redeem themselves somewhat by offering VoIP over WiFi. If nothing else, provide VoIP in the home to a Mac connected to an AT&T landline.
Let’s hope the engineering team used the MSM7600 chipset…
The name iPhone just doesn’t fit this device.
I vote for Apple Mac Mobile.
Mac Pro
MacBook Pro
MacBook
Mac Mobile
Makes perfect sense Steve. Your marketing people missed an opportunity here to define a new class of computer. Instead, Apple seems to be running away from the idea of being a computer company.
It is a MacOS X device for mobility.
Fire the marketing weenie that screwed this one up! (Jobs probably won’t fire himself.)
wow! one more time, an Apple product is touching my libido!!!
We have to wait much longer to see “The” phone in Greece… but it worth it…
I wish Apple never forget that is a computer manufacture comp.
Great job jobs
I was all ready to sell my existing 80 GB iPod and get the new iPhone. NOW I CANT! I have tons of music and videos that I love to have with me all the time. I cant lose that. I need the 80 GB iPhone!! Please Steve Jobs!
I’m disappointed. I’ve really wanted to purchase a wide-screen iPod, but I sure as hell won’t rent one. As for Apple associating themselves with Cingular, they should have done there research. Cingular has cheated me, and since then I’ve learned of three other friends that they’ve cheated in the same way. I rarely NEED to use my cellular phone so I have a low-minute plan with rollover minutes. In one month they eliminated ALL of my rollover minutes then billed me for an additional 1500 overage minutes. I argued with their representatives for hours over several days explaining how for nearly 2 years I had never used more than 200 minutes per month. I finally gave up and paid the $600+ bill fearing they’d shutdown my land-line business phone service that was managed by their parent company, Bellsouth. Since then I’ve completely weened myself from cellular service. It wasn’t hard to do. Frankly, I doubt many people really NEED a cell phone. We like the idea of having one for emergencies on the road, but frankly that isn’t worth $50 to $70 bucks a month. As soon as my contract expires on my cellular service I’m done with it.
I hope enough other people feel the same about the iPhone so Apple will release a simple upgraded widescreen iPod, perhaps add standard WiFi capabilities.
Is anyone else about tapped out on subscriptions? It sure would be nice to have a sense of ownership. To be able to enjoy movies and music purchased and archived on personal devices for years without having to pay subscriptions to access the stuff.
i wil like to order thing with credit cards in this company.
Hello Seller,
How are you today? my names are Mrs Dammy Kool , i live in Uk and i base in London and I was fortunate to spot your advert on the net and I like to know if it is still available for sale.If available,please get back to me with the following inquiries:are you the first owner? Last price?Present condition?Pics?
Where are you based ?
WILL PAY YOU BY PAY PAL MONEY TRANSFER
Mrs Dammy