Capping literally
years of speculation on perhaps the most intensely followed unconfirmed product in Apple's history -- and that's saying a
lot -- the iPhone has been announced today. Yeah, we said it: "iPhone," the name the entire free world had all but unanimously christened it from the time it'd been nothing more than a twinkle in Stevie J's eye (
comments, Cisco?). Sweet, glorious specs of the 11.6 millimeter device (that's frickin' thin, by the way) include a 3.5-inch 480 x 320 touchscreen display with multi-touch support and a proximity sensor to turn off the screen when it's close to your face, 2 megapixel cam, 4GB or 8 GB of storage, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, WiFi that automatically engages when in range, and quad-band GSM radio with EDGE. Perhaps most amazingly, though, it somehow runs OS X with support for Widgets, Google Maps, and Safari, and iTunes (of course) with CoverFlow out of the gate. A partnership with Yahoo will allow all iPhone customers to hook up with free push IMAP email. Apple quotes 5 hours of battery life for talk or video, with a full 16 hours in music mode -- no word on standby time yet. In a twisted way, this is one rumor mill we're almost sad to see grind to a halt; after all, when is the next time we're going to have an opportunity to run
this picture? The 4GB iPhone will go out the door in the US as a Cingular exclusive for $499 on a two-year contract, 8GB for $599. Ships Stateside in June, Europe in fourth quarter, Asia in 2008.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
C @ Jan 9th 2007 1:16PM
Wow.
LordObento @ Jan 9th 2007 1:17PM
EDGE??? aw why?
Shark @ Jan 9th 2007 1:23PM
Yes Please!
Jennifer @ Jan 9th 2007 1:25PM
How much? How much?
When?? @ Jan 9th 2007 1:29PM
WHEN is it going to be released?? i am not a apple fan, but DAMN this is NICE and i want one as soon as they come out!
Rocker @ Jan 9th 2007 1:32PM
It'd be perfect if it was 3G and had a little more storage so it could really replace my iPod.
AgentLos @ Jan 9th 2007 1:35PM
I could care less if it ran on GPRS I WANT THAT PHONE.
Plus we all know that cingular lock it to edge to wait a year to sell that 3g verison for more money lol.....
wako @ Jan 9th 2007 1:41PM
This thing has nothing on my smartphone
hesh @ Jan 9th 2007 1:44PM
Wow, that's freakin slick!
Micah @ Jan 9th 2007 1:50PM
10:47 am FCC approval takes 2 months
10:47 am crowd says "awwww"
10:47 am available: shipping in June
10:47 am 8GB model - $599
10:47 am 4GB model - $499
10:46 am crowd laughing
Micah @ Jan 9th 2007 1:56PM
Oh and prices include 2yr contract.
Micah @ Jan 9th 2007 1:57PM
10:48 am cingular is the exclusive partner in the US
10:47 am asia 2008
10:47 am Europe by Cal4 this year
D @ Jan 9th 2007 1:58PM
Except it beats any other phone design out there. Although I agree, I'd like to see it run winmo.
Brandon @ Jan 9th 2007 2:06PM
I just hope it can be unlocked for T-Mobile.
resource @ Jan 9th 2007 2:10PM
You want it to run Windows Mobile?
Are you fuc**** serious?
Clearly you've never used Windows Mobile or you have no idea what Apple is about
Omagus @ Jan 9th 2007 2:11PM
I really don't understand some of you people and your comments.
Rocker: EIGHT GIGS is not enough memory for you? On a PHONE? C'mon, now be realistic. Eight gigs is plenty enough, especially considering everything else that it can do.
D: Is that a serious comment? Windows on an device by Apple? What possible sense would it make for Apple to do that?
I do understand questions about why it runs EDGE instead of UMTS. But I also think that people tend to get carried away with wanting whatever the latest and greatest is without considering if it is actually necessary. I find that EDGE works perfectly fine for most browsing and if you DO need a faster connection for downloading or something, this does have wifi. Gotta admit, I can't wait until I have a chance to play with one myself.
ralph @ Jan 9th 2007 2:29PM
I think this will give the apple stock so many boosts, investors wont know what to do with all that cash...Maybe buy one of these for themselves?
Chris @ Jan 9th 2007 2:33PM
Omagus, this isn't being marketed as a phone, it's being marketed as a widescreen iPod and a PDA. It should have more storage.
christopher Groves @ Jan 9th 2007 2:35PM
2:33 pm est and apples stock is up $5.62 a share! NICE!
Paul @ Jan 9th 2007 2:45PM
Great looking,useful enough 2 make me keep my Cingy month 2 month cell acct until it is ready.
Xmas 2007 will be in June 2007!
Micah @ Jan 9th 2007 2:51PM
I agree Chris, in his speech Steve alluded to the fact that this would replace your current iPod. If it was 20gigs and 3G I'd be all about the $599 price tag.
Edge and Cingular Video just don't work that well together, but the wifi will help in the meantime.
Hein @ Jan 9th 2007 2:58PM
any idea when it may launch in Canada?
Omagus @ Jan 9th 2007 3:01PM
Micah,
The majority of iPods sold are eight gigs or less.
matt @ Jan 9th 2007 3:16PM
T-O-T-A-L-C-R-A-P! Apple just took a big steaming dump on common sense and 20-30 years of cell phone design. I have to have it (just kidding)... I can't wait to find some one carrying this so i can tell them how f-ing stupid they are... "runs osx" Ill bet it runs the os x kernel, but i doubt you'll be running os x apps natively... if that happens i'll maybe change my mind a little bit...
JR @ Jan 9th 2007 3:24PM
Big screen needs lot of energy. 5 hour talk time and 16 hour music time? I don´t think so.
No 3G means slow internet using. This device is not for me.
geno @ Jan 9th 2007 3:35PM
I agree with some people, I wish it had more storage. I would like this to replace having to carry my ipod and my phone. And on my ipod, I like having all my music. Which is more then 8 gigs.
Rob Reale @ Jan 9th 2007 3:46PM
If you have used 3G, you realize that it is the first "normal" speed for email/internet, and EDGE is just unreasonably slow.
I agree the price tag is outrageous. Some guy on YouTube was saying it was going to be 249 and 449. That I would do. I wouldn't touch this knowing full well I would want to upgrade in a year. I don't know about you but I work too hard to spend $55 a month on my cell phone unit in addition to the monthly usage bill!
JizzyJerry @ Jan 9th 2007 3:55PM
VZW just shat themselves. This is the new foundation for advanced phones. F winmo by the way. OS X will be the only stable mobile OS - watch.
Convergenista @ Jan 9th 2007 4:14PM
Am I halucinating or did about 238 comments get lost? Anyhow -- the phone looks GREAT! It's small enough that I can take it with me everywhere, and mult-functional enough that I can make it my sole device (note to self and Apple developers -- it WILL support Categories in Contacts, right? It WILL have at least a downloadable app that mimics (or surpasses) the Outlook Calendar, right?) In response to some criticisms from the phantom comments: I love touch screen UI's because they adapt to input needed for the app you're using without redundantly taking up too much handset real estate. And if you're worried about cracking your touchsreen, you know there're going to be a zillion iPhone cases coming out that make "drawing" the phone out of them as easy as opening a sliderphone so you're covered if you're a clutz (like me). Yipee! Looking forward to June '07.
ExcavatE @ Jan 9th 2007 4:20PM
Ok, maybe it's too soon to ask but:
1. Will this be exclusive to Cingular forever ?
2. Will there eventually be a CDMA version ?
I'm sure I'll have more questions in a minute ;)
AgentLos @ Jan 9th 2007 4:24PM
For the people complaining about it not having 3g think for a sec.Cingular 3g is still small and only at metro areas it makes more sense to have WiFi and edge than 3g where there are more hot spots.
Also 8 gigs is HUGE for an american smartphone , hell sony just came out with an 8 gig card for the psp and that retails for $300.
This is not an ipod people this is a SMARTPHONE with new tec and OSX even though it only has 8 gig it still holds more stuff than any phone out with mp3 play back in the US.
It's people like some of you here that makes selling phones hard . Alittle common sense goes a long way......
kookoobirdz @ Jan 9th 2007 4:27PM
Well I think this looks great. Apple certainly blows everyone away in the style department. Again and again. I'd like to see this thing a litle shorter, by about the length of the black part at the top. Then it would be absolutely perfect size. But I'm sure it was hell to get it this thin and the technology will catch up at some point and make shorter possible too.
Was scared for a second that it didn't have qwerty but the touchscreen is such a clever way to eliminate some thickness without sacrificing that feature. I'll be interested to see how easy it is to type fluidly with fat fingers and without any tactile feedback. (tried that laser projection keyboard thing one time and it was difficult to be accurate)
The iPhone site crashes both Firefox and IE for me (something to do with the Quicktime maybe) so I couldn't stay on it long enough to see if it has any expansion slot. Does it have micro SD or anything? Assuming not. With 6 or 8 gigs, another 1 or 2 isn't adding much.
The question I have to ask is... fingerprints? I feel like we'll constantly be wiping the face of this thing on our shirts to get the fingerprints and smudges off. Any word on that or the related need for scratch protection?
Stee @ Jan 9th 2007 4:31PM
If this thing scratches easily I will cry.
kookoobirdz @ Jan 9th 2007 5:01PM
I get it that this is a phone, not an iPod, but I continue to look for that full convergence of phone, PDA, mp3 player, and camera into a single personal appliance. We're almost there. Give this thing 30-40gb, 3 more megapixels, some kind of expansion slot for media-yet-to-be-determined, and a bump up in speed and you're basically done (assuming you can edit office application documents). I know we'll get there in the not too distant future, but this is really starting to solidify that vision. Then we can really pimp it out with voice recognition and holograms and lasers and whatnot. The Borg might actually show up and be like, "So uhh... can you get Warcraft on that thing?"
Chris @ Jan 9th 2007 5:14PM
Again, this is not a smart phone, Stevie said it himself, it's an iPod, a phone and an internet device. I think 8GB is ridiculously small to be a device for music AND videos.
Mike @ Jan 9th 2007 5:23PM
The lack of a keyboard (how many of us type without looking? good luck with that on this), no way to synchronize with MS Exchange, not likely a Slingbox player anytime soon, no storage expansion, and Cingular exclusivity makes this a complete deal breaker for me.
Sorry Apple...stickin' with my Treo.
cyberkazoo @ Jan 9th 2007 5:28PM
I understand UTMS/HSDPA isn't fully deployed nation wide, but c'mon... With prices that high, any smartphones in that price range are now 3G ready.
It was almost perfect. Now I think I'll wait for 2nd gen model. :(
Lethal Weapon @ Jan 9th 2007 5:36PM
I'd like to know how long it will be before hackers get WinMo 5/6 running on this thing. Now THAT will be something to see.
Jacob @ Jan 9th 2007 5:39PM
CHECK OUT THE DEMO @ www.apple.com/iphone
Bittermormon @ Jan 9th 2007 6:29PM
I like how its a touchscreen with no stylus. Damn I just got a dash. How will I convince the wife that I "need" this now??
Not a lot of mention of PIM, hopefully that part is up to snuff.
Mike @ Jan 9th 2007 6:53PM
I am wondering the CPU speed.
www.tangshop.com
Jeff Williams @ Jan 9th 2007 7:19PM
Gorgeous form and function, as expected. But if this is truly to take the place of my iPod as well, then it's gotta have more memory.
Plus, what's the deal with Cingular? Didn't they just diss Apple by opening their own music store? I have a long-term business commitment to Sprint and there is no way I will ever use Cingular.
Personally, if this thing takes off, I could easily see Apple getting into the market as a provider. computers = mac.com, iTunes = ITMS, iPhone = one more profitable market to enter and potentially dominate.
Who knows?
I see Apple stock zooming up. It looks gorgeous on the screen, hope it works as well in person. Puts Captain Kirk's communicator to shame. (Although he likely had more than 8 GB)
Dr. Evil @ Jan 9th 2007 7:34PM
Its all that and a bag of potato chips.
crispeto @ Jan 9th 2007 8:50PM
Just out of curiosity, would you take the iphone or the cingular 8525? They both seem to have their strengths and weaknesses.
downsouth821 @ Jan 9th 2007 9:00PM
Will the phone beable to be unlocked yes. Liscene passed a couple of months ago, you can take a phone and have it unlocked with no penalty's held against you.For the phone its nice, but you guys are crazy anything apple feed to you guys, you buy it. If this thing is anything like an ipod, they can keep it. I see 30% of ipods return because of problems. And since its going to cingular, which means the first 4-6 months you cant purchase insurance on it cause cingular dont offer it on new phones. And knowing cingular was rated second to last out of the 5 major carriers (consumer's report) sounds like this phone will be more problems than anything. And no 3g come on lets be serious. And no, edge is not true 3g. Im not talking to soon. But im a wireless expert, I have ties to all the carrier's, and mp3 vendors. I see more cell phones and mp3 then probaly engadget themselves lol
theburn16 @ Jan 9th 2007 9:46PM
downsouth821: you're very wrong about cingular my friend, we do offer insurance on new phones...our insurance company, which is the same one a couple other carriers use will not insure pda's or music phones. so no, unless there is a major change with Asurion (the insurance company) between now and june, the iPhone will not be insurable
glentomas @ Jan 10th 2007 3:11AM
Beautiful looking piece of machinery! I am a sucker for high res displays. They are such a pleasant experience.
Cutting to the chase:
1. No 3G! Wow, what a mistake! I live in Los Angeles. Cingular is unofficially rolling out 3G here (I own the 8525). 3G is awesome. One of the unique things on Cingular's 3G (which you I don't have with EV-DO 3G) is simultaneous voice and high speed data!!! You can't get simul voice/data with EDGE either.
2. I am not an Apple fan. Never have been. Don't own an IPOD (bought one for the wife - what a rip off: no power cable, no manual, not even a software CD!). If this were 3G, I would be an Apple fan! I still might try it anyhow just because of the high res display.
3. It will be curious to see how this new UI performs. Obviously, Apple is betting the farm on this UI.
4. Does this thing have IR? If so is it CIR?
We shall see.
Roy @ Jan 10th 2007 4:05AM
Hmmm, the iPhone looks ok, but for power users it's certainly not a very attractive device.
Looks like Apple are trying to carve a niche for themselves in between the Dumbphone and Smartphone markets to me.
Frankly it'll probably go down a hell of a lot better in America (where in my experience 3G is patchy at best) than it will in Europe so I expect they want to build up the hype and get some decent retail figures on the board with a Stateside release before trying to squeeze it into a European market where it probably won't do so well.
It's definitely going appeal to iPod lovers and the brigade of trendies who still can't be parted from their RAZR's, but I can't help feeling it could have been so much better.
Maybe the iPhone 2 will be more up my street - A true convergence device with better connectivity, keyboard, GPS, etc. But I doubt it, 'cause a lower-spec phone with mass market appeal is always going to make Apple more money than a high end device...
haloguy628 @ Jan 10th 2007 10:24AM
As the excitement and blindness from Jobs selling prowess subsides the hard truth will settle in. This is just pimped up 2G GSM phone with rediculous price. IMO Jobs miscalculated. If the phone was available now they could probably make some initial killing. As it is now since the phone will be available in 6 months, lot of people will get the fog out of their heads and see the reality. Don't forget, now all the other manufacturers know what Apple is planning, so they have time to come up with something similar for cheaper.
The fact is, give it 30GB storage, 3G capabilities, ability to sync with Exchange, and allow third party apps to run on the phone and you will have a winner. As it stands now this is another Segway. Lot of hype about "revolution" and no substance. Once the Apple fanboys buy one the market will dry up.
TZeruk @ Jan 10th 2007 11:19AM
'Once the Apple fanboys buy one the market will dry up.'
What? Do you see the market for iPods drying up any time soon? What a ridiculous comment.
If for nothing else, Apple is at least paving a new generation of connectivity. Sure, we have smartphones now...and you can knock all of the iPhone's downfalls but, like the iPod, this will change the way this industry works..and that's a fact.