I have never coveted an object so much in my entire life
So, the iPhone has been revealed. Excuse me while I try and mop up some of this drool. This is a triumph I can hardly believe. In terms of user interface design, interaction design, and sheer bloody beauty this is a totally revolutionary device. I have never gotten excited by a phone before ever. Nor have I by an MP3 player, although I must admit to being completely seduced by the iPod Shuffle this Christmas—but that was more a “awww, it’s so pretty” thing, rather than a “oh my God, this will change my life forever” thing. As for handheld computers? I’ve never even owned one. (Although I did think the Nokia 770 was cool, at least until I saw the iPhone.) But this? This is one of the most exciting things I have ever seen. Everything about it is just new. A new way to do email, a new way to do SMS, a new way to Voicemail, a new way to interact with a device of any kind whatsoever. Hell, even the interface for making a call is new. And all of it is an improvement. It is simply one of the most amazing devices I have ever seen, and I can well imagine myself being one of those people actually queueing up to buy one when they come out here later this year. One thing is pretty sure: Blackberry, Palm and all those other has beens are pretty much dead in the water from this moment on.
January 13th, 2007 at 11:46 am
Ha!
Finally the Reaity Distortion Field ™ takes effect.
Had they been available for sale Tuesday, stright after the Stee show, I was ready to buy one (or 2 or 3) online instantly.
January 13th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
I don’t think I’m under the influence of the Reality Distortion Field! There are plenty of things wrong with the iPhone. Paul Kedrosky lists five, and Scobleizer lists another four. Thankfully Apple have six months to iron some of these things out before launching in the US, and then another six months to fix all the problems they discover before they launch in Europe. These are the biggest problems I see with it:
1. 2G. Something like the iPhone has to be 3G, and should support a high speed protocol like HSDPA. (I suspect it will be by the time we get it in Europe. I suspect that it is currently only 2G/EDGE because that’s what Cingular wanted.)
2. Battery life is poor. That needs to be drastically improved. (Although apparently it is comparable to what other “smartphones” can do. Apple need to reinvent the battery!)
3. No GPS. Seriously, that is insane. Especially with the Google Maps widget. (Why is this? Would further increase battery usage? Are GPS antennae big, so it would unacceptably bulk out the phone? I think GPS is a killer feature for something like the iPhone, allowing geo-tagging of blog posts, photos, etc.)
4. Not an open platform for the 3rd party developers. That is insane. The first thing I did after seeing the iPhone was email the guys at 82ASK to discuss developing an 82ASK widget. Now it turns out that whilst it is possible, it is likely to be very hard and probably very expensive. All the 82ASK guys download Java games and apps on their phones, and I know that for at least one of them not being able to play Tetris on the iPhone will be a show stopper!
So actually the iPhone as announced is kinda crappy. It doesn’t change the fact that it is also the most revolutionary device I’ve ever seen. The whole touch screen thing, and all the UI and interaction design stuff has completely transformed my perception of the handheld computer, from something I wouldn’t want to touch with a barge pole to something I desperately want to get my hands on.
Of course my biggest problem with it is Apples continued use of DRM, something the rest of the industry seems to finally be realising is a bad idea and my sole reason for still not owning an iPod.
January 13th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Another couple of things I’ve heard about which I reckon Apple will fix before they launch are: (1) at the moment you can’t sync the iPhone with your computer wirelessly, you have to dock it in its cradle; (2) you can’t download music directly to the iPhone from the iTunes music store, even though it is an internet device, instead you have to buy the music on your computer and then upload it to the iPhone. These must be trivial things for Apple to put right, and so I reckon they will.
January 13th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Huh. And according to this blog post, the iPhone camera won’t record video. Confirmed via email from an Apple analyst relations executive.
I really hope they add video recording at the last minute.
January 15th, 2007 at 9:06 am
Pretty but shite. Isn’ t that Apple’s slogan? When I read your blog I was going to write, “looks nice, but I’ll wait till I’ve seen some reviews.” Doesn’t look like I need to now.
As for UI, since when has a touchscreen been revolutionary? They’ve had them at the local corner shop for ages (actually that’s a lie: Seion doesn’t have a corner shop; it doesn’t even have a corner).
As for open platform, try Series 60 - Nokia are falling over themselves promoting it (there are C++, Pxthxn and Java SDKs).
I saw a Nokia phone at least a year ago, looked like a stick of chewing gum with flowers printed on it (probably designed by Jonathan’s sister. Hi Jonathan). The UI was entirely by voice (part from initial set up via a PC). VUIs are the future - in a few years phones and mp3 players will be stitched into our wing collars like in 70s sci-fi.
January 15th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
Ivan: yes, Nokia have an open platform and are doing good things. Until the release of the iPhone my money was still on them to be the first to bring out something I’d actually want to buy. But compared to what Apple have done with the iPhone, Nokia are light years behind.
As for the touchscreen, Apple’s touchscreen is like no other I’ve ever seen. For a start it is multi-touch, it has smart error correction, and the user interface and interaction design they’ve thought up to accomodate it is like nothing I’ve ever seen. Have you even watched the 10 QuickTime presentations on the Apple website? (On Linux, the MPlayer plugin plays them in Firefox just fine.) Unless you’ve seen those you are unlikely to appreciate why I am so excited.
It isn’t the device per se (apart from the multi-touch screen) I’m so excited about. It’s the UI. Believe me, it is a genuine revolution in user experience.
I agree that VUIs are also an important development. But they’ve been around for a while now and no one has got them quite right. Just like no one had got the touch screen quite right until now.
January 15th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
OK, I’ll go have a look at the movies. I agree it could be good.
January 22nd, 2007 at 6:36 pm
[…] The International Herald Tribune has an article suggesting that the major record labels are finally beginning to see the light about DRM. This seems to be in keeping with a Yahoo! article I mentioned earlier. The big question is whether Apple will ever see the light on this? I suspect that one of the reasons the record companies are now beginning to back-peddle on this issue is they’ve only just realised that they’ve sold their souls to Apple. Of course it was them who insisted that an online music store would have to have DRM in the first place, and Apple were only too pleased to go along with them. But the upshot is that Apple now have an almost total monopoly on the MP3 player market and online music sales, and that clearly isn’t good for the record companies. […]