“When Steve Jobs stood on stage Tuesday at Macworld and showed off the iPhone for the gathered masses, he wasn’t just selling a phone. He was selling us the future — mobile, broadband-connected and ubiquitous,” Michael Calore writes for Wired News.
Calore writes, “It’s a well-worn vision, in fact, but one that suddenly seems tantalizingly close. His sleek little device runs an operating system born from Mac’s OS X. This gives the handheld the potential it needs to run real applications, not just widgets and ‘lite’ versions of desktop apps, as is the case with so-called smart phones powered by Microsoft’s Windows CE and PalmSource’s Palm OS.”
Calore writes, “The iPhone then is not just a phone, or a combo MP3-video player, but rather a portable computer. And, like a magician, Jobs has performed a sleight of hand in which the computer itself seems to disappear, just as the word has disappeared from Apple’s corporate name, leaving only its function behind. ‘I think this is a very big deal,’ says Silicon Valley technology forecaster Paul Saffo. ‘Cyberspace was a wonderful thing, but the only place you could enter cyberspace from was your desktop. We’ve had some brain damaged ways of accessing it from the places where we actually live our lives, but until now, they’ve all been compromised. If the iPhone works as advertised, it’s a no compromises node, and that’s a huge deal.'”
“‘This isn’t the next computer,’ Saffo continues. ‘This is the next home for the mind. Computers have had a nice long run, and laptops will always play at least some role. But the center of gravity is now slowly shifting from the desk to the device in your pocket.’ One thing seems certain. As software moves from the desktop to the web and as handheld devices get more powerful, it becomes more likely that we’ll see these little touch-screen communicators ruling our lives one day,” Calore writes.
Calore writes, “To be sure, the computer hasn’t literally disappeared with the advent of the iPhone, and it likely never will. It’ll just continue to get smaller and more powerful. How small and how powerful is now the subject of furious debate among software developers who really want to know: Is the iPhone in essence a slimmed down Mac?”
“The answer for now quite clearly is no. One of the salient features of a genuine computing platform is the ability to run third party applications, and currently the betting money says Apple won’t be opening its mobile platform to outsiders, at least for the foreseeable future,” Calore writes.
Full article here.
We disagree only with one of Calore’s statements: a “genuine computing platform” does not have to have “the ability to run third party applications.” Take your Mac and run only Apple applications and you certainly have a “genuine computing platform” with a world-class operating system, web browser, email, word processing, media editing, content management, presentation creation, and on and on and on. Just because Apple is the only company that’s realistically capable of providing a such a platform without any third party involvement today does not make it any less of a “genuine computing platform.”
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20 unanswered questions about Apple’s iPhone – January 11, 2007
Report: iPhone could be upgraded to 3G with software update if Apple wishes – January 11, 2007
Report: Rogers Communications to offer Apple iPhone in Canada – January 11, 2007
David Pogue: hands on preview of Apple’s iPhone, ‘gorgeous and so packed with possibilities’ – January 11, 2007
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NewsWeek’s Levy interviews Apple CEO Steve Jobs about iPhone – January 11, 2007
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Can you own and use an iPhone without having access to a computer?
Not yet.
That’s what is missing and will be worked out before iPhone’s release.
We will be accessing and downloading media from The iTunes Store with just the iPhone, no computer needed.
At the very least the iPhone is the future of Mac fans’ pockets.
I agree that computers are becoming less relevant; consoles and mobile devices offer alternative ways to enjoy our media libraries and connect to the Net. I am not saying they are always superior means of accessing this content but they do make it less necessary to use a computer all the time.
@Viridian, my respected colleague, I’ve had a video of the multi-touch big screen for a while. I’m not downplaying the potential technology shown in the i-or-Phone [ “devastatingly superior GUI” ] nor the potential of the product to morph/spawn into other products, something we can assume Apple is working on as fast as it can. In fact, I stated in an earlier post – no doubt in a moment of exhuberance – that this could eventually spell the end of Windows. It probably spells the end of the dock too and the way forward beyond OS X (though still mouse-driven on desktops).
All I’m saying is that rhe device as demonstrated is primarily a phone, despite what others, including MDN, might like to call it – no doubt in a moment of exhuberance. And yes, it’s only the first iteration of Apple’s vision of a phone, of which we will get a clearer picture as its shipping date approaches.
@ChrissyOne – Photoshop/Illustrator on even a laptop is almost impossible for me. On something smaller, yes, it’s unthinkable.
Apple’s not describing the iPhone as a “computing platform”. They describe it as a communications device. Want more apps? Get a Mac.
-jcr
Quote Viridian, “When, not if, when more powerful CPU’s, faster, more capacious RAM, higher capacity hard drives become available, a device such as the iPhone may well become the primary computer for the majority of people. Just slot it into the dock, which connects to a full-sized keyboard and monitor, and you have all the functionality you might require in your pocket”….
I was about to make this exact point but you beat me to it! Think home on iPod, the idea that your home folder is carried on your iPod (or iPhone). That will be just the start. Then as you say, throw in your major apps – effectively Wordpro, spreadsheet and email/calendaring with possibly presentation stuff – and you have a whole new paradigm.
Now throw in a new type of Apple store with terminals and docks together with a coffee machine – a sort of Starbucks on steroids -and you can see where we’re going with this.
Now that *would* (will?) be truly world shaking.
@iMacUK: But Jack Schofield in the Guardian didn’t think a lot of it (after all it’s not made by MS) so it’s bound to fail
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It’s obvious that what other people dream about, Apple delivers.
“When I saw the iPhone presentation I thought this is the future of personal computing and Steve just killed the PC.”
Will the next iMac lie flat on your desktop (instead of standing vertically) and have a 30″ none-touch screen with full size virtual keyboard? I’ll have to clear my desk a bit first!
I doubt if a desktop computer can be compelling without a mouse – the most physically economical way of navigating the screen. So no, you won’t be swiping both hands on your screen or yelling commands at the computer (an even more inefficient navigation method). As for replacing the menu bar with pop-on buttons, we’re a long way off too because you can’t have different applications using wildly inconsistent control systems. New guidlines would have to be established, encouraged and facilitated (XCode).
For systems where a mouse is impractical – handhelds, for example – the Phone shows the way forward. But even that has issues because text entry without tactile feedback is going to be more difficult (unless you can get pixels to pop up – patent a solution early).
The short answer for desktops is that screens are best standing up and navigation best done by mouse.
Apple will never release a “Home Server”. That’s an entirely antiquated concept that nobody save an IT professional (and MicroSoft) wants to do. Apple is taking a much simpler approach that allows each computer to network without servers. iTunes and iPhoto both double as media servers on any wireless network. I am running multiple macs and we all have full access to each other’s drives. iTunes streams recorded TV programs from my desktop to the latops without a stutter even with 802.11G. Adding TV (Rev N) will make it even better. What on earth does a home Mac user need a server for?