iPhone euPhoria

Sharing in the feeling of international buzz over an Apple keynote is always a real trip, perhaps more so as watchers are effectively "blind" - though rapid photo uploading by sites such as MacRumors and Engadget made the experience considerably more visual.

As AME Info readers will know, Klaus our CEO recently switched to Mac, so like me he is salivating over the iPhone to the point of wanting to hijack Apple HQ, kidnap Steve Jobs, and demand the prototypes in exchange for his release. So why are we so excited? In brief, because among its many features, which you can read about on Apple's site, I won't go into full detail here, the iPhone:

1. Is unbelievably tiny and beautiful in its form
2. Has a fully functional version of Safari to browse the web
3. Runs widgets, meaning it will have loads of applications
4. Will play videos
5. Has an inbuilt camera
6. Has an amazing-looking bluetooth headset

Steve Jobs is on record saying that the market "needs to be told what it wants". Before the iPhone was unveiled, plenty of us Mac users had been praying for the rumoured Mac Book Pro Thin - a supposed ultra light Flash-based subnotebook that would replace the 12" Powerbook. Currently, Apple's smallest laptop is the 13" Mac Book.

We were also grumbling about the prospect of a smartphone. After all, Nokia has pretty much covered every feature and function we could think of with its impressive N-Series devices. What could Jobs possibly show us that would be significantly more interesting?

The Mac Thin never materialised, the iPhone did, and yet we were delighted. It's a different product from the N-Series, and chances are it will stay that way, keeping space for both brands in the market. The lens isn't Carl Zeiss, it's only 2 megapixels, there's no in-built Flash and it doesn't - so far as we know - capture high quality video and edit it. The N-Series features all that.

But the iPhone does look like taking the lead in web browsing and general applications. The rumour had been for some time that Mac OSX.4's Dashboard, which features mini applications called widgets, was a kind of beta-run for a mobile operating system. That now seems to be at least partly true, though it's not yet clear whether Dashboard widgets will be compatible with the iPhone. Hopefully they will at least be easy to port, because if so, there are already thousands and thousands of third-party applications ready to roll on the iPhone.

On the audio side, there were a few grumbles from fellow Mac users over the amount of storage on the iPhone. Those used to 60gb video iPods may feel a little squeezed with just 8gb. The solution to this may be internet storage: mp3s backed up to iDisks, ready for a quick sync when a user is bored of the current songs and doesn't have their main computer handy. Sadly that's not a great solution in the Middle East, where internet speeds are generally appalling and the price of broadband is extortionate in many countries.

And there were a few raised eyebrows over the lack of proper 3G: the iPhone features GSM and EDGE, which is techically 2.5G. It also has inbuilt WiFi and Bluetooth. Doubtless future versions of the iPhone will feature next gen telecommunications technology, as they become more widespread in the market.

The biggest downside to the iPhone is that the American version isn't out until June, and the European one (which should include the Middle East, seeing as Apple Middle East is run under Europe) in Q4 2007. The rest of Asia has to wait until 2008 - though doubtless they won't, and there will be grey market iPhones coming out of Hong Kong all over eBay by May.

But for a few months at least, the world will have to sit and wait. Hopefully over time more details will emerge, as I have many questions about the device:

- what processor will it have?
- how will it handle Flash-heavy websites that cause Safari to chug in my 800mhz TiBook?
- will existing Dashboard widgets be compatible with or portable to the iPhone?
- will the camera have macrofocus so it can be used as an emergency "scanner", like my old Palm Zire 71?
- can the camera record video or just stills?
- will video chat be possible, either in future models or via peripherals?
- will it easily accommodate peripherals, particularly a dock-with-proper-keyboard?
- how much will the Euro-model be, for those buying it without a mobile phone contract?
- as well as syncing, will it be mountable as an external Flash drive?
- will the Bluetooth headset allow listening to music, unlike on the Motorola iTunes RAZR where this function has been deliberately crippled?
- and how useable will it be for people with really fat, clumsy fingers?

There's also the slimmest of chances that the iPhone will have a different name by June, as Cisco and Apple have not quite finalised a trademark licensing deal. Cisco has owned the "iphone" trademark since 2000, but a licensing deal with Apple looks like happening any second now. If it doesn't happen, my suggestion is the "iPhod".