[DM-MUG] killer app indeed

[Victoria L. Herring]

from the Macworld translation of the Jobs Keynote

The iPhone

"This is a day I've been looking forward to for two and a half 
years," said Jobs. "Every once in a while a revolutionary product 
comes along that changes everything."

In 1984, said Jobs, Apple introduced the Macintosh, and changed the 
computer industry. In 2001, Apple introduced the iPod, and changed 
the entire music industry.

"Well, today, we're introducing three revolutionary products of this 
class," said Jobs. "The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch 
controls. The second is a revolutionary mobile phone. The third is a 
breakthrough Internet communications device."

"These are not three separate devices," said Jobs. "This is one 
device. And we are calling it iPhone. Today Apple is going to 
reinvent the phone."

Jobs explained that smartphones provide phone and e-mail and what he 
called "the baby Internet. They're not so smart and not so easy to 
use."

"We don't want to do these," he said. "We want to do a leapfrog 
product that's way smarter than these phones and much easier to use. 
So we're going to reinvent the phone."

The iPhone does not use a keyboard, nor does it use a stylus, as many 
smartphones do today. The device uses new technology called 
"Multitouch."

"We're going to use the best pointing device in our world," said 
Jobs. "We're born with 10 of them, our fingers."

Multitouch is far more accurate than any touch display, according to 
Jobs. It ignores unintended touches, supports multi-fingers gesture. 
"And boy, have we patented it," he added.

The iPhone runs Mac OS X, said Jobs. "We start with a solid 
foundation," he explained.

"Why would we run such a sophisticated operating system on a mobile 
device? It's got everything we need," he said. "It's got 
multitasking, networking, power management, awesome security and the 
right apps. It's got all the stuff we want. And it's built right in 
to iPhone. And has let us create desktop-class applications and 
networking.

iPhone also synchronizes through iTunes. It syncs media, contact 
information, calendars, photos, notes, bookmarks, e-mail accounts. 
"All that stuff can be moved over the iPhone completely 
automatically," said Jobs.

The iPhone features a 3.5-inch, 160 dot-per-inch color screen. 
There's a small "Home" button it. It's also remarkably thin -- 11.6 
millimeters, thinner than any smartphone out there, according to Jobs.

On one side, the iPhone sports a ring/silent switch, volume up and 
down controls. On its silver back side is a 2 megapixel digital 
camera. The bottom features a speaker, microphone and iPod dock 
connector.

The iPhone also incorporates a proximity sensor that automatically 
deactivates the screen and turns off the touch sensor when you raise 
the device to your face. An ambient light sensor will sense lighting 
conditions and adjust brightness levels accordingly. And an 
accelerometer can tell when you switch from portrait to landscape 
mode.

Jobs' demonstration of the iPhone began with iPod-related features. 
An iPod icon along the bottom of the screen brings up a list of 
music, and Jobs flicked his finger to scroll up and down. He flipped 
the iPhone on its side and it reoriented to landscape mode, 
displaying album art in iTunes' "Cover Flow" mode. Jobs also showed 
video on the device.

"We want to reinvent the phone," he reiterated. "What's the killer 
app? The killer app is making calls! It's amazing how hard it is to 
make calls on phones. We want you to use contacts like never before."

The iPhone can synchronize contacts from a PC or Mac, and features 
"Visual Voicemail." He described it as "random access voicemail" that 
lets you navigate directly to the voice messages you're interested in.

iPhone is a quad-band phone that operated on GSM and EDGE networks. 
That's the most popular international standard, said Jobs, though 
Apple plans to make 3G phones in the future. It also integrates Wi-Fi 
and Bluetooth 2.0 connectivity.

Demonstrating the phone's ability to make calls, he touched the 
screen's phone icon and scrolled through his contact list, pulling up 
Jonathan Ive, senior vice president of industrial design. Phil 
Schiller then called Jobs -- visible through call waiting. Jobs 
pressed a "merge calls" button and then created a three way 
conference calling.

The iPhone's text messaging interface looks similar to iChat -- user 
dialogue is encased in bubbles, and a touch keyboard appears below. 
And the phone's photo management software enables you to use a 
"pinching" motion to zoom in and out of pictures.
-- 
Victoria L. Herring, Attorney, Civil Rights, Discrimination & 
Employment Law, <http://www.HerringLaw.com>;  Travel research, 
planning & Photography site and blog, 
<http://www.JourneyZing.com/blog>;  Des Moines, Iowa, ph.515-255-4475.
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