Apple did the expectedly-unexpected and announced the iPhone.
It’s a widescreen iPod mixed with a mobile phone mixed with a teeny-tiny Mac for Safari and Mail. Put simply, this is the most awesome piece of consumer electronics I have ever seen, so far. And I’ve seen a lot.
$599 for 8GB version.
$499 for 4GB version.
So, some questions:
- Released in June in the US, but Q4 2007 IN EUROPE?! WHYYY? Oh the humanity.
- 5 hour talk/video battery life, 16 hour audio battery life… but what’s the standby life?
- Who will be the carrier partner in Ireland? I’m guessing this will be O2, since they’ve got a lot of ties with Apple, but…
- Why partner with Google for the maps and search, but partner with Yahoo for the mail?
How does it know where you are for the location-aware maps stuff? Cellular towers? Or is this a feature of 3G?
Update: Answered in the actual keynote – there doesn’t seem to be any location-awareness in the phone. Steve had manually entered “Moscone West” as as ‘saved location’ in the maps application- Are there any other differences between the two versions? Because I can’t imagine anyone not springing the extra $100 for the larger capacity one.
- What kind of graphics chip is powering this beast?
Oh yeah, and there was something about a media streamer that’s coming out in February, but who the shit really cares about that? Especially since it doesn’t even output in 1080p.
There are 911 requirements on all US phones to have GPS receivers embedded. There are no requirements to expose it to applications running on the phone though — only for 911 calls.
Some manufacturers do expose it though and it looks like Apple is one of those nice manufacturers.
“Or is this a feature of 3G?”
They didnt mention it was a 3G phone, did they? It is possible to do it by distance from cell towers, but its not terribly accurate (at least when I trialed a service from Vodafone a few years ago!). It’s also not absolutely clear that the iPhone is location-aware, as Jobs in the keynote manually entered his location, I think…
Two questions I want answered:
Can it be bought unlocked direct from Apple?
Can anyone develop apps for the mobile OSX, or is it going to be locked down? Thinking especially of the opportunity for games etc on that one…
Network operators can provide location data with plain-old GSM, it’s not a feature of 2.5/3G networks — although to make full use of it good data service coupling makes sense.
I doubt you’ll be able to buy it directly from Apple but I haven’t seen that confirmed/denied anywhere. The fact that it’s a 2 year contract with Cingular to get your hands on one would probably force Apple to price it higher than a Macbook 🙂
Steve has said that third-party software on the iPhone will only happen through Apple. So I’d expect to see TomTom and the likes but don’t expect TextMate Mobile or anything else from small ISVs.