Jan 10, 2007 03:40 PM
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Apple just gave us 15 minutes with the iPhone. To be frank, I was surprised — Apple doesn't usually grace us with this kind of love. I guess they liked our iPhone posts from last month. The legends say Woz and Steve love to pull pranks.
What do I really think of it?
Well CD players and iPods both play music. But elegant design at the fundamental level of how it plays tunes is what helped it transcend the category. From what I saw, first hand, I think the iPhone is going to do this for cellies. I have a bit of sympathy for our friends at RIM and Nokia
First thing I did? I called my mom.
"Mom," I said. "I'm calling you from an iPhone"
Mom says, "Where? Huh? Who?"
I said, "Uh, its a gadget people have been waiting for for a long time. Never mind, I'll call you later."
Then I dug into the features.
It's easy to say how it worked — it did just the way it's supposed to, per the Keynote. The experience is very OS X like. So, lets go through each feature. Keep in mind this isn't the final firmware or hardware. They have months to fix whatever I bitch about.
Phone calling: Sound is clearer than average. The number pad is tucked away, so they depend on you having most numbers in speed dial. That's ok. Soft buttons are never going to be as fast as hard buttons. These were good, there wasn't much delay. But wihtout tactile feedback, its a little strange. (The faux dialtones are cool.)
Screen: Most gorgeous ever. Flawless. Dark, and contrasty. Bright colors. Photos looked natural. Touchscreen was better for multigestures, but the screen itself had a bit of rubbery feel as I flicked through with a single figner.
Gestures: They work! Multitouch is great for zooming photos. I likey.
Video: The pirates of the caribbean video was supposedly 640 by 480, but looked kind of blown up. I'm being picky, though. You can set the video to native res, instead of filling the screen. Maybe that was the 320 version of Pirates. I'm being picky.
Music: Um, I flipped through some songs, but without headphones, I didn't listen.
Images: You saw it from our liveblog. Thumbnails, and zooming using gestures. As you'd expect.
Browser: Perfect rendering of the page (saw the apple page and Google news) Like the opera browser, it scales down images. Didn't check Flash or Java/Javascript support. Flipped to landscape when I tilted (but only one side.) Zooming in with a touch and then back out made sense. And landscape mode is awesome.
Keyboard: The softkey, on screen buttons are small. Think index finger, not thumb. Maybe I wasn't doing it right. The keys pop up when I put my finger down on the keys, but do you think the proximity sensor knows when I get close (but before I touch), and if I hover with my digit, it'll blow up the keys so they're easier to hit? (Am I making sense?)
SMS: Didn't try.
Email: Typed around a bit. Wish the fields for To, and CC were smaller fonts. But I guess when you go to the main message field, it scrolls down.
Google Maps: Perfect. Maps DL'd slower than I'd have liked, esp considering the demo was on wifi (Was it on WiFi? I believe so, but will let you know if I am wrong.)
Widgets: Weather and Stocks are identical to the OS X Dashboard Widgets. Great
Camera: The camera didn't refresh fast in the dark meeting room. I wasn't that impressed, but it was pretty dark.
RAM Vmail: Didn't check, but looked at the messages, seemed straight forward.
Multitasking: Didn't have time to check!
We'll email Apple and ask them if you have any questions, and we'll update this post as we find out more from other journalists themselves.
MORE: Gizmodo iPhone Hands On Part Deux: Why Isn't it White and Other Questions
Macworld Keynote 2007 [Gizmodo]
Macworld Keynote 2007: Chronological order [Gizmodo]
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