Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Keynote and new iPhone

Jobs' Keynote is online.
More reporting soon, but the new iPhone is a very impressive piece of hardware. Built-in gyroscopes... 330 pixels per inch display! ...

I must say that while the specs and looks are really impressive, they seemed more like evolutionary upgrades, so I was not really sure why they called it their biggest step since iPhone 1. Until I saw the marquee feature, revealed near the end. That's admittedly very cool, and I sure it'll be a milestone in telephony (though for a while it'll only work in wifi spots). If you want it revealed now, go to Apple's home page or the page for this feature, instead of directly to the keynote.

13 comments:

Michael Burton said...

I want that kind of display for my computer.

I think it was when OS X 10.5 was introduced that Apple told developers to write resolution-independent code. Time now for a 300-dpi display to make all text look as sharp as the printed page.

Off-topic: In a tribute to the gulf oil spill, today's word verification is 'refinin'.

Apple's motto: Refine, baby, refine! (This content may not make sense outside the United States. I'm sure someone will note that it doesn't make sense inside the U.S., either.)

Timo Lehtinen said...

Built-in gyroscopes...

Only one.

330 pixels per inch display! ...

326.

... and I sure it'll be a milestone in telephony (though for a while it'll only work in wifi spots).

Milestone? Video calling has long been available on, for example, Nokia phones. Over 3G.

It hasn't been very popular, though. Partly because cell carriers charge a lot for it, and partly because overall it hasn't worked well enough, I guess.

Also, WiFi-to-WiFi video calling has been long available on all kinds of devices (laptops, netbooks, small Linux gadgets, etc.)

I'm sure the feature will become much more popular with iPhone 4. But calling it a milestone? I don't understand where you are coming from.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

A small fishing village in Denmark.

I thought he said more than one gyro. But it's three-axis anyway, which normally would take three.

330 or 326 pixels, I may have been imprecise, but in practice I don't think the difference matters for the user.

The tech educated always see all the steps leading up to anything, but for the general public and in the long run, it'll be a mile stone.
(After all a mile stone is not a quantum change, it's just a stone or stick stuck into the ground somewhere. It's a perceived mark on the road.)

Bronislaus Janulis / Framewright said...

iPhone 4 will probably have less rough edges than iPad 1, see previous post. As to the mileystoness of it, that will probably be in the interface. Maybe Apple will actually make video telephony work.

The ease of use of all of the features of the iPhone is one of the machines charms; few want to read a manual in order to use a feature.

Apple also seems to understand that a simple interlink with a desktop machine, unlike Palm, is important. Palms were great gadgets, but obtuse in connecting to the desktop

Robb in Houston said...

Very nice presentation.
The real question FOR ALL OF US:

- is it a need
- or just a want?

Robb in Houston said...

A gyro implies that it's 3D based.
Funny how these definitions work.
Right?

Ganesha Games said...

Hmm it says the entry level price is $199, how can that be? Here everybody calls iPhones "the 600 euro mobile" so I was always assuming the price was more $599 plus taxes...

Ganesha Games said...

ok I have discovered it. It's 199 if you do a two year contract with a carrier. Not for me.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Yes, and I think in the US you can't buy one without a carrier.

And if you could, there would only be AT&T who has a GSM network in the US anyway...

Philocalist said...

Read today somewhere that apparently it will either be unavailable in the UK for the foreseeable future, or if it IS made available, it will be impossible to use it fully (including many of the better 'toys'), apparently due to shortfalls in the carriers we have here; a problem that cannot be rectified without massive spending by them on network upgrades, which it is believed is not going to happen any time soon!
I'm SO happy that I'm personally not chomping at the bit over this phone (many of the features of which have been available on other phones for years!)
Sometimes, I'm actually relieved to feel like a fledgling Luddite! :-)

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Notice I've not yet owned an iPhone yet.

The UK part seems unlikely. I didn't notice any features which would demand grade A networks (the video chat is only for wifi for the moment). And from what I hear about the coverage in the US (which has much greater land mass), the general coverage there is hardly better. There could be some specific feature, but if it's missing in the UK, it must surely be missing in many countries, and they would be unlikely to make it an important feature in a new iPhone.

I'm impressed that for once they're launching here at the same time as US.

Ganesha Games said...

well the best part of the keynote for me is that ibooks will read pdfs natively. This is very good news for me both as a consumer and as a producer of gaming products.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Yes, that and note-taking in the app was two of the points mentioned in a recent article about how the pad would do in a student environment.