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Excerpts from

 

Apple unveils long-awaited iPhone

By Hiawatha Bray

The Boston Globe

 

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SAN FRANCISCO -- Steve Jobs made it official yesterday: His company is no longer Apple Computer Inc. but simply Apple Inc.

 

Jobs made the pronouncement at the annual Macworld trade show, where the company already better known for iPod portable music players than its Macintosh computers unveiled two devices -- a digital entertainment server for the TV and a radical music player and telephone -- that could complete Apple's transition from computer company to America's leading consumer electronics manufacturer.

 

"You're looking at the birth of the next Sony," said James L. McQuivey, professor at Boston University's College of Communication. "That's what their ambition is."

 

In perhaps the clearest evidence of Apple's growing clout, the company said its new products are backed by alliances with some of the world's biggest communications and entertainment companies. When Apple began selling movies online last year, only the Walt Disney Co., where Jobs sits on the board, was willing to play along. Yesterday, Jobs said Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures would make over 100 of its titles available for iPod, iTunes, and Apple TV, and McQuivey predicted other studios would soon hop onto the bandwagon.

 

 

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But the Apple TV was overshadowed by the Apple iPhone, a single-button touch-screen device which Jobs declared would "reinvent the phone."

 

"Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything," the company's chief executive said during his keynote address at the annual Macworld Conference and Expo. "It's very fortunate if you can work on just one of these in your career. . . . Apple's been very fortunate in that it's introduced a few of these."

 

The iPhone will be sold exclusively by AT&T Inc.'s wireless provider Cingular, which worked with Apple to design features such as a displays of voice mail messages that lets the user listen to them in any order.

 

The chief executive of Cingular, Stan Sigman, was on hand to gush over the new phone. "Every time I see this, it's just wow," Sigman said. "It's really, really cool."

 

Just as effusive were the chieftains of the most powerful companies on the Internet -- Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., both of which collaborated with Apple to provide services through the iPhone. Google chief executive and Apple board member Eric Schmidt appeared with Jobs to showcase a service that puts Google's popular online mapping service onto the Apple phone, allowing users to see satellite images of any spot on earth.

 

And Yahoo cofounder Jerry Yang joined Jobs to showcase a feature that delivers Yahoo Mail messages to users of the Apple iPhone free of charge.

 

The new products came as no surprise to Apple-watchers. Indeed, Jobs previewed the entertainment server last year under the name iTV. And rumors that Apple was working on a combination iPod player and cellphone have been circulating for a couple of years. Nevertheless, the official launch of the products boosted the company's stock price 8 percent yesterday, to $92.57.

 

 

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The iPhone bears little resemblance to any other phone -- or to Apple's trademark iPod music players. It has just one pushbutton. Nearly everything else is controlled by touching icons that appear on the phone's large video screen. But there's no need for a plastic stylus used in many other portable touch-screen devices. Apple invented a new technology that accurately recognizes touches from human fingers. "It's far more accurate than any touch display that's ever been shipped," said Jobs. "And, boy, have we patented it." Jobs said Apple has filed 200 patents on technologies it invented for use in the iPhone, which will sell for $499 for a version with four gigabytes of memory, or $599 for eight gigabytes . Jobs said the iPhone will go on sale in June, pending testing and approval by the Federal Communications Commission. He said that Apple has set a goal of selling 10 million by 2008.

 

"All of the technical pieces add up to a device that works really well, that's a pleasure to use," said Charles Golvin, principal analyst for Forrester Research in Cambridge, who had a chance to try out the iPhone.

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Uh-oh.

 

We hate to break it to everybody who thought the inevitable Apple phone was going to be called the iPhone, but Cisco, which has apparently had the trademark on the name since the 90s, is launching a line of Linksys "iPhone" VoIP devices (yes, that's right, lower case "i", uppercase "P"). Why wait until now to launch the iPhone name? We can't say for sure, but we imagine Cisco was probably trying to work behind the scenes to sell the rights to the name to Apple, but things didn't pan out -- but since "iPhone" is already a fairly ubiquitous brand without even being launched, hey, why not run with it? We won't dwell long on the loss of the name iPhone to describe the Applephone (which is what we'll henceforth be calling it), so on to the gear. Expect to see the $180 iPhone Dual-Mode Internet Telephony Kit for Skype CIT400 (pictured), which from what we can tell, is merely a Skype handset; also, announced is the $200 iPhone Wireless-G Phone for Skype WIP320 (pictured after the break), a SIP VoIP phone. So, that's it; Cisco cashes in on the iPhone name, current VoIP products get rebadged to the new label, and we all rest easy knowing that our cellphone investments are still safe for at least another three weeks or so.

 

http://www.engadget.com/2006/12/18/cisco-n...ed-voip-phones/

 

Other interesting reads on "that" iPhone:

 

http://gigaom.com/2006/12/17/iphone-is-available-but-not-that-iphone/

 

Heard on the news today that Cisco is planning to sue Apple for copyright infringement because Cisco has owned the trademark on the name iPhone since the 90s.

 

Bad news for those eagerly awaiting the release of the iPhone.

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A ROSE by any other name is still a ROSE

 

True that.

 

Cisco's product is pretty lame... it functions as a handset for Skype users mostly.

 

Thing is it will throw a kink in the plans to launch iPhone because legally, Apple cant use the name until they settle this issue.

 

A trademark owned is a trademark owned after all.

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i'm a mac user, this is very exciting! running osx on a mobile phone is just crazy. i have watched the launching from apple site, steve discussed & did the demo for an hour & a half. whew!!!

 

i'm a mac user, this is very exciting! running osx on a mobile phone is just crazy. i have watched the launching from apple site, steve discussed & did the demo for an hour & a half. whew!!!

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the product itself is pretty fascinating and promising as well. Just make sure it has a pretty long battery life, add 3G capability on it, and make it a bit cheaper (wishful thinking, hehehe) and I'm pretty much sold to have it as my next cellphone.

 

as for the trademark lawsuit, I think a settlement will be reached eventually. besides, what comes to mind to most people right now when they hear the word "iPhone"? the one by Cisco or the one by Apple? biased as it may be, I think we all know the answer to that one. :)

 

a bit OT lang. I was watching Steve Jobs' demo of the iPhone at YouTube last night and one thing that caught my attention was the fact that he played some Beatle tracks on the iPhone. Given the fact that Apple Inc. has been involved in a lawsuit with the Beatles' company Apple Corps for quite some time now, either Jobs wants another lawsuit from Apple Corps or something else is cooking at this point. Has Apple and Apple finally reached some agreement? Does this also mean that the long awaited availability of digital downloads (in iTunes Store at least) from the Fab Four in the offing as well? Let's wait and see about that in the coming months.

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This iPhone is very exciting indeed!

 

This trademark conflict, as much as it is a distraction, will create more buzz towards the iPhone of Apple. But, surely, Apple needs to sort this out. Conflicts like this will only help inthe short term.

 

Cisco has a good case here. I hope that Steve Jobs can exude his extraordinary charm and impose his negotiating skills to get that iPhone name.

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the product itself is pretty fascinating and promising as well. Just make sure it has a pretty long battery life, add 3G capability on it, and make it a bit cheaper (wishful thinking, hehehe) and I'm pretty much sold to have it as my next cellphone.

 

as for the trademark lawsuit, I think a settlement will be reached eventually. besides, what comes to mind to most people right now when they hear the word "iPhone"? the one by Cisco or the one by Apple? biased as it may be, I think we all know the answer to that one. :)

 

a bit OT lang. I was watching Steve Jobs' demo of the iPhone at YouTube last night and one thing that caught my attention was the fact that he played some Beatle tracks on the iPhone. Given the fact that Apple Inc. has been involved in a lawsuit with the Beatles' company Apple Corps for quite some time now, either Jobs wants another lawsuit from Apple Corps or something else is cooking at this point. Has Apple and Apple finally reached some agreement? Does this also mean that the long awaited availability of digital downloads (in iTunes Store at least) from the Fab Four in the offing as well? Let's wait and see about that in the coming months.

 

 

If I remember right, Apple (Mac) won that case against Apple (Beatles). They are currently in negotiations to put the Beatles on iTunes...or maybe they already did.

 

Makes me wonder why Apple chose to partner with Cingular...why not offer it free from any carrier subscriptions? Like Nokia or Sony-Ericsson? Afterall, American cellular companies are pretty much backwards compared to the rest of the European telecoms, wouldn't it have been better to partner with a Euro telecom who can provide them with broader experience and more tech-savvy customers...then sell the iPhone model in the US just like a normal phone?

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Today, at Macworld 2007 Apple announced the long-awaited iPhone - a widescreen iPod, a mobile phone, a mobile Internet terminal, a digital camera and a portable PIM organizer all-in-one. Some of the most exciting features of the iPhone include the OS X it runs on and touchscreen control with multi-finger gestures with no need for a stylus whatsoever.

 

Equipped with 4 or 8GB of integrated memory, the Apple iPhone has got more than the needed storage space to bring your photos, videos and music to life straight into your palm. It's much like iPod in that respect and features a large 3.5" touchscreen TFT display with a resolution of 320x480 pixels. But unlike an iPod it can take pictures with the integrated 2 megapixel camera. It even has an accellerometer which allows it to tell whether you are holding the device in landscape or portrait mode so that it can turn the display orientation correspondingly. And all that mobile virtuosity comes at the meager thickness of 11.6 mm.

 

A quad-band GSM/EDGE mobile (sorry, no 3G/HSDPA support), the iPhone is a truly amazing smartphone that can not only make and receive calls, but can also store your contacts, tasks, notes, calendar events, etc., as well as synchronize them seamlessly with the PC. If that's not enough the device also has Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) and Bluetooth 2.0 support. Some sweet highlights of the device are the Proximity sensor, which turns the display off when you lift the iPhone to your ear, as well as the Ambient light sensor that automatically adjusts the display's brightness.

 

The other strengths of this multimedia device are more or less Internet-oriented, since the iPhone offers exceptional web browsing capabilities thanks to the Safari web browser with integrated Google search plus the Google Maps application that can take you all over the world - unfortunately without a GPS receiver. The user experience can be further enhanced through the use of various widgets, well-known and loved by all users of the Mac OS X.

 

Apple would be offering the iPhone to end customers in USA through the Cingular networks. Unfortunately, the device is expected to become commercially available in June 2007 only after it's approved by the FCC. Market availability in Europe is expected no sooner than Q4 2007, and as late as early 2008 in Asia. Initial pricing in Cingular networks will be 499$ for the 4GB model and 599$ for the 8GB one - both with a two-year contract.

Edited by Wyld
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I was seriously considering saving up some more and holding off from buying a Treo this year just for this, but I'm sure by the time this comes out, I'd have gotten a useful PDA phone and an ipod at a lower price. First gen is always iffy.

 

Potential issues here would be that this probably won't have a replaceable battery, the lack of 3G (for such a supposedly high-end remarkable phone, it's almost a sin), and the lack of a thumb keyboard.

 

Still, I'm sure Apple would have worked it out some more by the time they release this. I would seriously consider saving it up for this, and by the time I'd have enough, they just might 2nd gen out.

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