iPhone, AppleTV and a Company Rename!
- January 09, 2007
- 8 comments
I still haven’t seen the video of Steve Jobs’ keynote speech, but the Internet is already abuzz about the announcements he made.
The biggest announcement is obviously the unveiling of the new iPhone. When I first heard the rumors about the iPhone several weeks back, I didn’t get that excited about it. There have been other smart phones that tried to combine your phone and MP3 player before, and they mostly failed to catch on. After viewing Apple’s iPhone Web site, I can see that they have definitely done it right.
It’s got a 3.5” wide-screen display. No buttons. It uses a patented, new touchscreen technology so you can control the whole thing with your fingers. It has a built-in accelerometer to know what orientation you’re viewing your pics, videos, etc and changes the display to match it! Proximity sensors know when you have the phone to your ear and turn off the display to save power. An ambient light sensor will adjust the brightness of the screen based on your surroundings. Holy crap!
Aside from the hardware specs, it combines the features of an iPod, a mobile phone and a Web browser. The interface for all three is seemless. All three modes have a similar look and feel for easy navigation. Apple’s iPhone site has a great tour of the interface in action.
The one downside to the announcement is you can only use it with Cingular. LAME!! I abhor Cingular. In fact, I hate them so much it’s enough to keep me from getting an iPhone when they come out. If it ever becomes available for Verizon customers, I’m all over it.
The next major announcement is the new AppleTV. It’s a slim device that can easily fit in with your other home electronics. It allows you to watch movies and TV shows, listen to music and podcasts and view photos from your Mac or PC on your TV. All the content is managed with iTunes on your computer and synched with the AppleTV.
It’s a cool announcement, but not as cool as I thought it was going to be. I hate to say it, but Microsoft’s recent announcement of IPTV on the Xbox 360 was more exciting for me, especially since I already own one. That said, AppleTV should be a hit.
The last major announcement is that Apple has renamed itself from Apple Computer Inc. to just Apple Inc., showing their shift from simply computers to consumer electronics. This is pretty big and will be good for Apple. I just hope their computers and software continue to be as awesome and innovative as they’ve always been.
I’ve learned some more about the iPhone. It’s quite thin, less than half an inch. It also sports a 2 megapixel camera on the back. This really is a kickass phone. I want one… really, really bad, but will have to wait until it comes out for Verizon customers.
exp:monkey
January 9, 2007
I’m in the same boat with Verizon, Chris. Cingular in this area is horrid. The problem is, this phone will NEVER be offered by Verizon. There is no way that Verizon will allow you have all of that access to your free information between your computer and your phone. Everything Verizon has built their empire on is based on disabling built-in phone features so you are forced to use whatever media interchange services they want you to use. Plus, Verizon is making no signs of caring to switch to GSM, as CDMA gives them much better bandwidth in crowded areas. It would be completely unrealistic to expect that Verizon would offer a phone to its customers that they are unable to sell their Get-It-Now features and their own media to.
You’re right about Verizon disabling their phones, and I do have to hand it to Cingular for partnering with Apple on something this cool. Still, I get a signal everywhere I go with Verizon and I’ve had decent customer service experience with them.
My first mobile phone was with Cingular out in the sticks in Arkansas. When I signed the 2-year contract with them, they were swearing up and down that they were going to add several new towers to the area within a year. That was about 3 years ago, and they STILL only have 1 tower in the area. I can’t get a signal whenever I visit my family there. On top of that, they tried to charge me the early termination fee when I cancelled the contract half a year early, even though I could never get a signal and rarely used the phone. They eventually dropped the charge when I showed them how little I had used it and how much money they had already received from me through monthly service payments. That’s pretty crappy customer service.
From other people I’ve talked to, they also don’t like Cingular even though they’re signed up with them. Cingular used to be pretty decent until they merged with AT&T. It would take a lot to get me to like Cingular again.
Well… if by the time the phone hit’s European markets you still can’t get it from Verizon just drop me a line and I’ll try and get you an unlocked device over here and mail it to you 
. Seems like Switzerland’s telco’s are not quite as restrictive. You’ll probably have to live without some of the carrier specific services that Cingular is putting in place for the iPhone like visual voicemail -but that shouldn’t be that bad.
Visual Voicemail doesn’t seem to be a huge innovation anyway – I already get all my voicemails vie email and can check them online… I’m sure building an interface that just plays them straight on the phone shouldn’t be that hard.
I am absolutely crushed that iPhone is only available to Cingular customers. sigh