Apple announces the iPhone

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

After a long series of rumors Apple finally announced the iPhone. Its more than a widescreen iPod with mobile phone and internet capabilities - one of the most innovative features of the iPhone is its user interface. No longer will we need buttons or stylus because the iPhone just requires…our fingers. The iPhone still has four buttons but they are the usual on/off and volume controls.

When using our fingers the device will adjust its user interface to display only the operations suited for the current activity. For example to type an e-mail or to write a text message the iPhone will display a keyboard. When the "button" to phone is pressed instead the iPhone will also show a recent calls and a favorites button. The iPhone is also smart enough to recognize and ignore unintended touches.

Apple also carefully designed the iPod capabilities of the iPhone. It will be possible to browse and select the multimedia content to play simply with our fingers. In addition to a simple list the user will also be able to navigate the content by looking at covers and posters (for the movies).

The same interface is used to browse the pictures (both those imported and those shot with the onboard 2 megapixels camera). The 3.5 inch screen is also able to detect the iPhone movement and use a portrait or landscape mode.

As for the phoning side of the iPhone, the Apple device is a Quad-band GSM mobile phone. The iPhone battery will support 5 hours of continuous talk time and 16 hours of playback. The iPhone will be priced at $499 and $599 depending on the amount of memory available (4GB or 8GB) and will be available starting from June (in the US).