iPhone

1. Look, I’m not going to talk too much about it, and besides wanting one bad, what else is there to say that won’t be said by the rest of the internets? But, I have to say, I wrote this in 2004:

Imagine an all aluminium iPod, around the same dimensions of the current iPod. On the outside there is the black and white display, the scroll wheel and navigation buttons, with the hinge on one side, and the release catch on the other (which magnetically retracts, a la PowerBook). Press the release catch and the iPod unfolds like a clamshell, revealing the colour touch screen on one side and a thumb board on the other. Nestled in the hinge is the stylus.

Running the PDA side of things is a mobile version of OS X, ported to run on Embedded Linux. Included is cut down versions of basic OS X productivity programs — Mail, Safari, Address Book and iCal — all of which ties in perfectly with the full calorie versions.

Bluetooth is enabled automatically when it is opened, and at the click of a button it’ll hook up with your phone and connect to the internet. mac.com you can synchronise your contacts and iCal. With iSync all your personal info would be transferred across, including all the Safari bookmarks. With a special cable into the dock connector you could plug in your digital camera and import new photos using mobile iPhoto, sort them into a new album, plug in the TV cable and show the day’s shots at a friends house. Including that short video shot with your digital camera. And in the morning it’ll make you coffee just how you like it too.

2. How ace was that? While my imagination failed with the form factor, an awful lot of functionality that I was lusting in 2004 has materialised in 2007. I wrote that around the time the project started, so maybe I was cosmically channelling an Apple engineer, or maybe the other way around; either way I don’t care, I just can’t wait to get my hands on one. If, and a big if at that, it’s ever sold in Japan.

Comments

  1. Mate Japan will have them for months before Oz sees them. Let along off contract. I’m never signing another contract thanks. Let alone to Voda or Optus here who will be the likely choices for the $999 2-year deal at $80 a month, excluding data, that we will end up getting. The data is really going to kill it here. Rates are still charged per KILObyte! It works in the US because of their $20 all you can download deals.

    Comment by Tim — January 12, 2007 @ 11:35 am

  2. Mate, data rates are charged in PACKETS here — as in 8 packets in a a kilobyte! The rates per packet are very low, but even checking your email adds up given the tiny unit of measurement. Not to mention that the Japanese all want phones that work the same, if you compare the user interface and the button layout of all the Japanese specific phones on the market here you’ll find very very few differences besides basic aesthetics. Japanese telcos control the device market with an iron clad fist that makes the Americans look like pussies, they dictate exactly what they want on the phone, and won’t sell a phone that doesn’t fit their specs, and as far as I can tell you can’t use unlocked phones here. Oh yeah, you can’t get a phone here without a contract of some kind.

    Apple’s not gonna get a run here, and even if they do there’s no reason to believe it would be successful. Back home I remember seeing tons of people sporting the white headphones, here I see more people with tiny Korean flash players than white headphones. Not to mention the iPhone isn’t a 3G phone, so the data services wouldn’t even work on the network here. Won’t be seeing this thing here for a long time to come I think.

    Comment by JohnK — January 21, 2007 @ 5:28 pm

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