Ihnatko: Hands-on with Apple’s iPhone (which runs Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard)

“I have used the Apple iPhone. I had a private briefing the day after Steve Jobs’ keynote and spent about 45 minutes noodling around with the device,” Andy Ihnatko reports for The Chicago Sun-Times. “You may touch the hem of my robe if you wish.”

Ihnatko reports, “Here’s what I can tell you so far, based on my hands-on impressions, my talks with Apple and general first-hand sniffing around:”

1. The touch-interface works flawlessly.
2. I think the iPhone’s virtual keyboard is a huge improvement over the mechanical thumbpads found on the Treo and any other smart phones of its size.
3. It’s the most beautiful freakin’ display I’ve ever seen on a phone or PDA, both in range of color and level of detail.
4. The apps that were functional at the time of the demo give the satisfying, protein-rich experience of “real” software.
5. Apple will keep a very tight rein on software development.
6. The iPhone runs the same OS as the Macintosh… everything I’ve learned (both in official briefings and “you and I never spoke, all right?” sort of discussions) says that it truly does run Leopard, the upcoming 10.5 OS that will be released for the Macintosh late in the spring.
7. The iPhone is still under development and isn’t feature-complete… Any complaints about what the iPhone can’t do are premature. Remember, it won’t ship for six months.

Details in the full article here.

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