[iBook] The iPhone: Touchscreen interface, runs Mac OS X, ships in June (Keynote notes)

[Angus Wallace]

Hi Tom,

Sorry if I caused offense - I wasn't intending to be patronising.

I'd call myself an Apple fan too, but not a rabid one either ;-) (I don't think
AppleTV is very exciting, for example, and I don't like the ITMS)

I think the big difference between the iPhone, and phones running Windows
Mobile, is that the iPhone is running OSX - not OSX-lite (or something
similar). It will have a slightly different window manager, but it is very
likely (in my opinion) that Apple will release a developers kit to enable
anyone to write applications for the iPhone.

The iPhone will be much more independent than a PDA - you won't need to sync it
in the same way, because we'll stop using computers to do things like email,
addressing, and just use the phone. Laptop computers will be consigned to tasks
where we need the power, screen, storage etc that we don't get with the phone.
This is kind of similar to the way that laptops have somewhat displaced
desktops.

The name iPhone is really a misnomer. It seems to me that this is a
sub-subnotebook computer, with a touch-screen interface, that happens to have a
phone built in. I don't think it will run 'Pocket Office Applications' - I think
it will run the applications themselves.

People will install drivers, so that the iPhone can be used with a Bluetooth
mouse and keyboard. It might even be possible to drive an external display.
Hell - the iPhone is probably powerful enough to perform voice recognition!
(which is already in OSX, so is probably standard on the iPhone too)

People will use it as a remote control for their computer or TV. I'm sure
they'll be streaming video/audio/photos to AppleTV.

Because the iPhone is running BSD underneath, you will be able to use it to
remote access computers elsewhere, through WiFi. 

I think that anything you can do on a laptop, you'll be able to do on the
iPhone.

And.. probably by next year, they'll have 16GB of storage too ;-)

Maybe it won't live up to expectation - I realise I'm expecting a lot! ;-)
But... Apple have pulled it off in the past, and my current gut feeling is that
they're doing it again here...

Having said all this - I probably won't get one.. at least for a while. I don't
need it, and it would definitely fall under the 'toy' catagory :-). But... I
reckon a lot of people will be able to justify it - and even more will buy it!

(I _am_ looking forward to playing with one in a store though! ;-)

-Gus