- Joined
- Sep 7, 2003
- Messages
- 11,349
- Reaction score
- 361
APPLE is hoping to bring its mystique to the mobile phone market with the confirmation that it will start selling a touchscreen-based mobile communication device under the iPhone moniker.
Details of the device, which combines a mobile phone, a widescreen iPod and a desktop-class internet browser, all accessible through touchscreen controls, were announced by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs today at Macworld in San Francisco.
The iPhone is scheduled to go on sale in the US in June 2007 and Europe later this year but is not scheduled to hit Australian shores until next year.
"The iPhone is like living your life in your pocket," Jobs said.
"iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone."
Sporting a 3.5-inch LCD screen with 160 pixels per inch resolution, the device ditches many of the familiar controls of existing mobile phones, PDAs and music players in favour of a totally touchscreen-based interface, dubbed Multi-Touch, built around the OS X operating system.
"We will get rid of all the buttons and create a giant screen," Mr Jobs said.
"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 design also incorporates a 2 megapixel camera and three sensors to automatically detect the device's orientation, ambient light and proximity to the user's face.
The Multi-Touch interface means users can make calls simply by pointing at a name or number. A screen-based QWERTY keyboard can also be used to input new numbers or to compose SMS messages or emails, while the software also includes predictive features to prevent and correct mistakes.
All applications can be synched with data in phonebooks or calendars already existing on the user's PC or Mac.
The phone uses the quad-band GSM standard and also features Wi-Fi and EDGE technology for data networking.
In the US, the device will be offered through a partnership with the local mobile carrier Cingular. No announcement has yet been made on which Australian carrier is likely to partner with Apple when the iPhone ships next year in Australia.
In iPod mode, the screen can shift between portrait and widescreen modes and allows users to browse through playlists of album covers with a flick of their fingers.
Movies and TV shows can also be viewed in widescreen with touch controls for play-pause, chapter forwarding and volume, while photo images can be resized on-screen by a pinch of the fingers across the LCD.
As an internet device, the iPhone will offer desktop quality push email in full rich HTML. A Safari web browser will provide what Apple claims is the first fully useable HTML browser on a phone, capable of displaying full web pages and able to zoom in on page items of interest.
The device will also offer a Google Maps application, allowing users to view maps, satellite images, traffic information and directions.
The device will offer a five-hour battery life for phone and internet applications and 16 hours of audio play.
The company also announced that it will ship Apple TV, a media server allowing the user to wirelessly beam content from an iPod or through iTunes onto a big screen TV, in Australia next month.
With a 40GB hard drive, capable of storing 50 hours of video, the Apple TV will sell in the US for $449.
There were no announcements, however, on its Macintosh computers line. Indeed, the company's embrace of technologies beyond core computing was reflected in the announcement that it had changed its name from today from Apple Computer to Apple Inc.
Or flip the keypad & use it like a normal phone keypad simple.
