Peter Wooley’s Blog

So, Kevin Rose wasn’t lying and the iPhone does exist!The MacWorld Keynote ended a while ago, and I was watching MacRumorsLive.com the whole time (it auto-updates so you can be kept up on all the Keynote action!).All in all, it was a wonderful keynote, at least from what I’ve read about it. Apple released both AppleTV and the iPhone, which looks like they’re going to be killer products, if the features work as well as they were touted and their prices drop a bit, especially the iPhone (which starts at $499).All in all, the AppleTV now allows Apple into the realm of Tivo, Slingbox and all those Media Centers flying around. I can imagine that it’s going to be smooth- and easy-to-use. The crux off the issue will be how locked down it is, either by DRM or just having to use iTunes, sync through iTunes, etc. Only time will tell, and actually using it!Now, onto the iPhone. The revolution of the year, thus far (The Wii was for 2006). The iPhone looks like an answer to the question not many people have been asking, “Is there a cell phone that has actually had time taken in both its hardware and software design?!” The Motorola Razr is by far the favorite for its looks, but, from what I’ve used, the software is only so-so. It’s nice software for a cell phone, but do we really need to lower the bar of expectation just because “it’s a cell phone”? I’d like to think we don’t have to, and here Apple is to confirm that. Their iPhone is running “OS X” in whatever capacity Steve Jobs meant. It’s definitely not like firing up your MacBook or Mac Pro, but then who could actually use a full operating system on a 3.5″ screen?No matter how much OS X is really in there, the UI is awesome. It’s entirely touch-controlled and even allows for multi-touch—which is the ability to touch more than one point on the screen and have them be recognized as two separate inputs. This, to me, is the biggest advancement. Geeks have been ogling over this for years now, and it’s finally coming to a consumer device. I can’t wait to play with it, Apple Store, get ready to see a lot of me.The other awesome part is that it truly is an iPod. You can listen to your music just as you would on any iPod, accept you can access it with you finger, scroll through album art by pushing your finger across the screen, listen via a Bluetooth headset (as far as I could tell) and basically just rock out in new and pretty ways, but with the same great features of the iPod.In addition, they actually added some sweet Wii-inspired sensors to the iPhone. There is a proximity sensor that turns off the display and lowers music volume when it gets close to your ear (although, I don’t think this was shown, but I wasn’t there and haven’t seen the video yet) and an accelerometer that detects when the iPhone has been flipped into landscape mode. And best yet, instead of just taking this data and turning it into a clunky interface, they use OS X’s built-in Core Animation to make all these things look great. When you turn the iPhone over, the UI actually spins to meet you and changes the appropriate aspect ratios to be just right by the time the motion is done. Everything fades in and out, or bumps in and out. It’s just a well throughout UI that will make several users drool on themselves.It also uses WiFi and EDGE (from Cingular, I think) to connect to the Internet. It runs Safari and even it has had some nice additions to compensate for the small screen. You can have multiple pages open in a “tab” sense, where you actually move the pages off of the screen left or right and then scroll back too them. It’s a pretty great idea… now only if someone could hack Firefox to get on there and work similarly. Then I could have all my Extensions!Lastly, one thing that wasn’t shown was the iPhone’s Camera. Now, I’m not sure why, but the conspiratorial side of wants to think that the camera wasn’t working well, so Steve just skipped over it. I’d hate to think that it just wasn’t worth their time, as a 2 megapixel camera phone with built in iPhoto capabilities just sounds great! Until I’m proved otherwise, I’ll think it’s not ready.There was no “Oh, one more thing…” from Steve this time. I even waited like 10 minutes after it had ended, hoping he would come back. I was really hoping he would say he dropped the price on the iPhone (which is $499 for 4GB capacity and $599 for 8GB), or that he would say Cingular was not the only network they’d be on. But, those were pipe dreams.I will say, however, that I believe the first iPhone I will be buying will be from the 2nd Generation, Revision 2. Hopefully the bugs will be worked, because I’m sure there will be bugs.Oh, and Apple Computer, Inc. is now finally Apple, Inc.