How far away is Blackberry software for the iPhone?

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Posted April 23rd, 2007 at 6:39 PM by JG Mason

Coming this fall, RIM will unveil software that will turn Windows Mobile 6 smart phones into a Blackberry clone, complete with push email, icons and 3rd party apps. RIM says there are benefits to running the virtualization software on a Windows based phone.

This is all well and fine, but pretty quickly I asked myself, “how far out is the iPhone version?” iPhone naysayers love to point out that it is not a business phone. Can Blackberry software inside change that? Would a flashy phone that achieves the same amount of email addictiveness be a hit with management? RIM confirmed they are working on supporting other platforms but would not confirm which ones. (Blackberry already offers this software for Symbian and Palm-based Treos.)

Anyhow, I believe creating a virtual Blackberry would have been bigger news about a year ago. Today, Microsoft is offering push email with its Exchange servers and the iPhone will have it from Yahoo. But the idea of brining a simple service that everyone knows is attractive and I suspect RIM will do well with it, as now companies are not tied to the RIM devices.

Are we about to see some convergence in corporate America, no longer mandated to carry two devices? Will business folk downsize to just a smartphone vs. todays seemingly standard of a Blackberry and a phone if it still means constant connectivity? It looks to me like the folks at RIM are working hard to remain relevant; and that could be the answer.

Apple could be onto a good thing with the iPhone

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Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 2:30 pm

A recent Piper Jaffray study reports that 84% of the students surveyed knew about the iPhone and that 25% said that they would purchase one at the standard retail price of $500. Apple could be onto a really good thing with the iPhone.

Analysts have been predicting that iPhone sales for 2007 would be around 660,000 units, with some 4 million units being shipped in 2008, but if this recent survey is anything to go by, these figures could be very conservative.

However, there is a difference between saying that you'll buy something for $500 and actually buying it. Also, there are a lot of unknowns surrounding the iPhone. Sure, it looks good and no doubt will exude that Apple "cool," but I'm interested in things like battery life and usability. Teens make a lot of use of SMS test messaging and I'm still not sold on the ergonomics of a hard touchscreen for fast text input. "Sexy" wears off with cell phones real fast, but it wears off incredibly quickly if the phone can't handle the basics well.

I don't believe that the price will put people off, especially the young. Handsets such as the Motorola RAZR cost about $500 when new and they sold. If the iPhone is as good as Steve Jobs says it is, then there's no doubt that there are phones on the market that cost more and do less.

Personally, no matter how good it is, I'd hold off until at least the next version. Hopefully by then Apple will have ironed out the kinks.

Two-sided UpStage - iPhone has a two-faced challenger

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By Gary Krakow
Columnist
MSNBC
Updated: 9:17 a.m. ET April 23, 2007

While the cell phone industry awaits the release of Apple's iPhone, Samsung has come up with an ingenious design for an all-in-one, wireless device. And although being called two-faced is not usually complementary, in this case, it's an apt description for the company's new handset.

Samsung's UpStage, marketed by Sprint, features a cell phone display and dial pad on one side; on the other, there’s a larger screen with controls for the built-in MP3 music player.
Everything about the UpStage is cool. The device itself is small and sleek — 1.73 by 4.07 by 0.37 inches and only 2.57 ounces. The phone side has a 1.4-inch TFT display and the music player has a 2.1-inch TFT display. It operates on the Sprint CDMA and high-speed EVDO networks.

The handset’s Lithium ion battery is good for up to 2.5 hours but that’s not even half the story. The UpStage comes with a good looking
faux-leather carrying case with a large, built-in second battery inside. The phone and the case combine for a whopping 6.3 hours of talk time.

The number of features included is somewhat staggering: advanced stereo Bluetooth, a 1.3-MP camera with 5x zoom, SMS voice and text messaging, PictBridge (to print images on a compatible printer), enhanced voice recognition, speech dictation and voice memo capabilities.
Then, there are the built-in entertainment and music features. The MP3 music player is linked to the internal microSD card slot (64MB card provided). You can plug in a pair of stereo earphones (3.5mm jack) via the enclosed adapter. You've got the ability to buy/download music files from the Sprint Music Store, watch Sprint TV and On Demand content (which includes news, sports, weather and entertainment) and stream music with access to Sirius, VH1, MTV and Sprint Internet radio stations.

Actually using the double-sided handset is an interesting experience. Making and receiving phone calls is pretty straightforward. Changing from the phone to the music player (or vice versa) is accomplished by pressing a small FLIP button on the side panel. Turning one side on turns off the display on the other side.

The phone side works, well, like a 21st Century cell phone should. People heard me when I called. I heard them too. I appreciate phones that work when you need them. For the record, not all do.

The UpStage’s high-speed data capabilities are terrific. It’s nice to see Web pages load wirelessly and very quickly on a cell phone. Phonebook and calendar functions are on the basic side (more like a cell phone than a smartphone).
While the phone has real phone-dialing buttons and controls, the music player side has a touch-sensitive pad to handle all the features. I found these music player touch buttons are somewhat vague and difficult to control. They are especially annoying because you need to use them to control all of the phone’s internal settings. I personally prefer real buttons to virtual controls.

You control the music for the phone via Sprint’s Music Manager Software (for Windows PCs, CD included). The newly released Windows Vista refused to install on my computer (the Web installer failed in numerous tries) but the Windows XP version installed perfectly on my XP laptop.

You can download songs via the Music Manager software or directly onto the phone. Songs cost 99 cents (plus tax) for both a phone (very compressed file) and PC (less compressed MP3) download of the music file. By the way, that’s 99 cents for subscribers with the Sprint Power Vision data plan. Sprint Music Store users are not subscribed to a Power Vision plan will pay $2.50 per full-track download (and data transfer fees may also apply.)

Tiny phone file downloads sound OK on the phone’s tiny speaker. The larger downloaded files sound OK on my computer. I also transferred a few large MP3 files from CDs I have burned. They sound even better than the downloaded songs. The only annoying fault I could find with handset's music playback is that there is an unexpectedly long pause (5-6 seconds) between songs.

On the other hand, the Music Manager software automatically found all the ripped music files on my computer and easily allowed me to synchronize those songs to the phone. And I have to admit that it was fun to listen to the music — even using the phone's built-in mini-speaker. The UpStage turned out to be a neat little package for carrying everywhere you go.

The big question, though, is how the UpStart will compare to the iPhone. That’s difficult to determine until the final version of the Apple phone is released. I will say that the Samsung is very competitive. I like its size, shape and functionality.

Plus, despite what I said about the Samsung's music player controls, the UpStage has physical buttons rather than iPhone's software-only system. We’ll have to wait and see what it’s like having to constantly put your fingers on a phone’s screen to control all of its functions.

Then again, I’m guessing that Apple will come up with a clever way of overcoming any and all obstacles to combine a iPod and a smart phone. We’ll see soon enough.

The Samsung UpStage is sold by Sprint for $149 with a two-year service agreement. A $50 service credit will be available with new activations when you purchase the phone on Sprint’s Website.
© 2007 MSNBC Interactive

Leopard Delay, iPhone Hype - Apple Knows What It Is Doing

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Instead of debuting Leopard at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, CA, this June 2007, Apple Inc. (AAPL) will release "a near final version" of Mac OS X 10.5, a sort of preview of the complete feature set at that time. Bad news? Perhaps for the fierce Mac users, but overall? Hmmm. Let me check the facts first.

iPhone is right on track – passing several required certification tests and is expected to start shipping in late June as originally planned. The device is touted to have the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has come with a price. Engineering resources at AAPL have reportedly been diverted from Leopard to the mobile device, possibly indicating the firmness of Apple's belief that the market holds tremendous promise and business opportunities for the entity.

Despite its forecast of modest sales in the initial year of release, Apple may capitalize and leverage on the hype surrounding the iPhone (e.g., integration of perceived faults of the device such as 3G technology) to eliminate any negative effect on third quarter Mac sales. However, there will still be an earnings hit for that quarter, albeit minor, and Apple knows that its stock may trade on the mobile communication device for a number of weeks.

Apple Inc. has learned well from Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) failure to generate positive buzz on Vista. Besides preventing a spill of the negatives associated with Vista's failure over to AAPL's Leopard, it is possible that Steve Jobs has realized that the Mac has been over-rated as a near-term sales driver! Thus, Jobs is positioning the iPhone for short-term cash infusion and the Leopard as the icing on the cake for the long-term haul because, after all, the complete integration of a new OS in both the enterprise and individual level takes around 10 to 12 months. And the decision to allocate resources from one division to another highlights Apple Inc.'s inherent ability to quickly move and shift talent; a lean and mean company with no bloated head count overhead. It also underscores an important fact in the industry, i.e., that a first-release product demands more resources in terms of testing and integration.

After all is said and done, one thing is crystal clear: Apple understands what it is doing. It expects modest sales (iPhone) in the first year. But wait. What if it overshoots its initial target of 10 million units? Possible? You bet! Steve Jobs has that gift of creating hype and excitement around his products and cementing it with releases perfectly in-tuned to the times. And coupled that with luck, maybe Jobs can repeat history. After all, the Nintendo (NTDOY.PK) Wii was initially laughed at (it was just a year ago that Sony's PlayStation (SNE) and Microsoft's Xbox were the king and queen of the video game industry), and everyone sneered at the iPod when it first came out (everybody said Sony's Walkman was, i.e “invincible”). Tsk.

Investment banks support Apple's decision to delay the debut of Leopard in light of the perceived future success of the iPhone. And why are they are not at all worried? As stated earlier, the delay of the Leopard is earnings driven and could be viewed as a buying opportunity. The delay is indeed a temporary setback for AAPL but, admit it or not, it is a wait designed to ensure and promote long-time success for the company and its products.

Steve Jobs firmly believes the iPhone as the key factor to drive the next phase of the company's growth. The company has a major strategic advantage over other phone manufacturers, i.e., they have iTunes and the license agreements to sell digital music from the majority of the record labels. And you better believe that AAPL will capitalize on these. And being the key driver and all, another delay is the mobile phone's release would do a significant amount of damage to the credibility of both the firm and Jobs than a temporary setback in the debut of Leopard. Do remember that the iPhone was officially introduced way back January 2007, not counting the rumors and buzz on the blogosphere. However, its commercial debut was set for June 2007, which further prolonged the wait of fierce loyal Apple followers and the rest of the world.

And why half a year, you ask. Maybe, Jobs wanted to know how Microsoft Corp. will do with its Vista, particularly the acceptance of the OS with consumers. This is very important for Apple Inc. because its Leopard was also set to be introduced in the same year as Vista's. And with the Vista threat out of the picture, Jobs and company possibly can't do anything wrong with their decision to allocate additional resources for the iPhone, ensuring that all the perceived flaws and shortcomings of the device are well taken care of. All the hype that surrounded the iPhone and the long, long wait has favored Apple and its products well...people wouldn't mind a setback in the Leopard's release but they will with the iPhone! Thus, with this strategy, the public will have their iPhone "on time" as Jobs successfully buys more time for his buddies at Apple Inc to iron out the bugs, kinks and stinks in Leopard, the OS that will bring in the money for the long haul.

And I am reiterating it again: Jobs has this gift of successfully timing his product launches in-tuned with the times. The success of the iPod has made Apple Inc believe that the sky is indeed the limit. And with a little luck and a very good marketing roadmap, the iPhone may open up another sky for AAPL.

Apple OS Sacrificed to iPhone

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So the rumors were right. Apple has delayed the launch of Leopard, its next-generation Mac OS X, a competitor of Microsoft Windows, until October, four months past its June 11 due date.In a statement issued late Thursday after the market closed Apple blamed it on the iPhone.Engineering resources were tight, it said, and it had to move them to the iPhone to get that out in June as planned.

According to Apple, "iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price - we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned. While Leopard's features will be complete by then, we cannot deliver the quality release that we and our customers expect from us. We now plan to show our developers a near-final version of Leopard at the conference, give them a beta copy to take home so they can do their final testing, and ship Leopard in October."

"Life often presents tradeoffs," it added, "and in this case we're sure we've made the right ones."

The iPhone Is Having OS Issues Again

Source

Yes. More rumors to tempt you, tease you, and taunt you with. Ars Technica is reporting in its blog that a solid inside source at Hon Hai/Foxconn says there are still a number of software/OS bugs to be worked out with the iPhone. They conclude that at best only a "trickle" of iPhones will be available at launch. The iPhone roller coaster continues its twisted, torturous ride.

Just a day after AT&T COO declares that it is expecting the iPhone to ship on time, saucy insider info has come to light that casts serious doubt on AT&T's statement of confidence. Ars Technica's unnamed source said the following: "Apple knew two months ago that Leopard was going to be delayed since all of the key engineers are now in Taipei." Um, correct me of I am wrong, but wasn't it only several weeks before the announced delay of Leopard that Apple confirmed the OS would be available on time this spring? Hmm...

On top of that, apparently 50 OS engineers are toiling 24/7 in Taipei to make sure that the iPhone ships on time. Wait. Only 50 engineers? Apple is trusting just 50 people to make sure it doesn't have egg on its face in two months? I can only hope that this is the number of people working on the software before it shifted Leopard OS engineers over to the iPhone team.

The source also laid some more woeful news upon us by saying, "It does not look feasible that Apple will be able to ship units out in May to make the shipping date in the US (June), so expect units to trickle by end of June or early July. It is doubtful they will have enough units on hand to meet the demand."

So much for AT&T COO Randall Stephenson's hope for a million of them at launch.

The only good news is that apparently the issues are not battery life related.

Youtube Video - Apple Keynote Speech - iPhone

The Apple Keynote Speech on the iPhone by Steve Jobs.... minus the non-iPhone part.
Thanks to 'xFu510nx' for the upload.
The Text for the Keynote can be found at the Bottom after the Videos
Thanks to Endgadget

9:42am - "Well today, we're introducing THREE revolutionary new products. The first one is a widescreen ipod with touch controls" The crowd goes wild. "The second is a revolutionary new mobile phone."

9:43am - "And the third is a breakthrough internet communications device." Tepid response on that last one, but he almost got a standing ovation on the phone. '

"An iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator. An iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator.... these are NOT three separate devices!"

"And we are calling it iPhone!"

"Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone. And here it is..." It's a gag image, cheers.

9:44am - "Before we get into it, let me talk about a category of things ... the most advanced phones are called smartphones. They typically involve a phone, have plastic little keyboards on them, the problem is they're not so smart and they're not so easy to use. If you make a biz school 101 graph, cellphones are at the bottom... smartphones are a little smarter, but they're harder to use."

9:45am - "We don't want to make either one of these things -- we want to make a leapfrog product, smart and easy to use. This is what iPhone is." How the hell are they calling it iPhone, now? Linksys? Cisco?

9:46am - A revolutionary UI, the result of years of development -- the result of years of development." Shows Q, Treo, E62, BlackBerry."

9:47am - "The problem is really in the bottom 40% -- keyboards that are there whether you need them or not. They have control buttons that are fixed in plastic. Every app wants a different button. You can't add new buttons. How do you solve this problem? We solved this problem -- we solved it in computers 20 years ago. A bitmap screen that can display anything we want -- with a pointing device."

"So how are we going to take this to a mobile device? Get rid of all the buttons, and just make a giant screen. So how are we going to communicate? We're going to use a stylus -- no. Who wants a stylus?? Yuck!"

9:48am - "So let's not use a stylus, we're going to use the best pointing device in the world -- our fingers. We have invented a new technology called multi-tuch. It works like magic, you don't need a stylus, far more accurate than any interface ever shipped, it ignores touches, mutli-finger gestures, and BOY have we patented it!

9:49am - "We have been very lucky to have brought a few revolutionary user interfaces to the market -- the mouse, the click wheel, and now Multi-Touch. Each has made possible a revolutionary product, the Mac, the iPod, and now the iPhone. We're going to build on top of that with software. Software on mobile phones is like baby-software. Today we're going to show you a software breakthrough. Software that's 5-years ahead of what's on any other phone."
"iPhone runs OS X!"

Huge cheers. "Why would we want to run such a sophisticated OS on a mobile device? It's got everything we need. Mulittasking, networking, power management, graphics, security, video, graphics, audio core animation..."

"9:51am - It let us create desktop class applications and networking, not the cripled stuff you find on most phones, these are real desktop applications." He's quoting Alan Kay -"People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware." "So we're bringing breakthrough software to a mobile device for the first time."

"The second thing we're doing is we've learned from the iPod, it syncs with iTunes. People know how to sync all their media with their iPod. iTunes is going to sync all your media to your iPhone -- but also a ton of data. Contacts, calendars, photos, notes, bookmarks, email accounts..."

9:52am - "We do that through iTunes." It shows 8GB on the screen.

9:52 - "The third thing -- I want to talk a little about design. We've designed something wonderful." 3.5-inch screen, highest resolution screen we've ever shipped, 160ppi. There's only one button, the "home" button.

"It's really thin, thinner than any smartphone. 11.6mm, thinner than the Q and the BlackJack, all of them. Ring and silent, volume up and down."

9:53am - "We have a 2 megapixel camera built right in, let's take a look at the top. A headset jack, 3.5mm, SIM tray, and a sleep-wake switch. Let's look at the bottom, we've got a speaker, mic input, and an iPod connector."

9:54am - We've also got some stuff you can't see -- 3 advanced sensors. It's got a proximity sensor, bring the iPhone to your ear and your display shuts off and toushccreen shuts down. Ambient light sensor -- adjusts brightness, saves power. Third thing is an accellerometer, it can tell whether you're in landscape and portraid. Let's turn it on."

Cingular.

9:55am - "Let's start with the iPod. You can touch your music. Widescreen video, you can find your music faster, gorgeous album art, bilt-in speaker, CoverFlow, why not?"

"Let me show it to you.." Demo time!

9:56am - iPhone is up on screen. He's got digital video running out. He's starting the power on, and has a gesture. Unlocks the phone by sliding finger across -- something you can't do by accident in your pocket.

9:57am - "Here's the home screen -- simple icons. Push this icon -- boom, I'm in the iPod. How do i scroll through my list of artists? I just take my finger and I just scroll." Loud cheers, people are starting to lose it a little. He's picked the Beatles... a sign of things to come?

9:58am - Everything is totally touch, big shiny icons. "I turn my unit landscape mode, and look what happens! "it goes into CoverFlow... not the fastest scrolling. We wouldn't exactly say it scrolls like butter -- but close.

9:59am -"I just pick something and play something -- it's that easy." Plays more. "It's that simple, isn't that great?"

"Alright, I can play with this for a long time." You have been, over two years you say?

"I've also got audiobooks, I've videos. I've got TV shows and movies, this is an episode from the Office..."

10:01am - Touch play control overlays... it looks really good. You can drop into widescreen or pan and scan mode. "Again, on-screen controls, is this cool?"

10:02 - "So that is the iPhone. Pretty cool, huh? We've just started. So again, touch your music, scroll through your songs and your music. "

10:03am - "It's unbelievable. Here's some album art... no matter what you like, it looks pretty doggone gorgeous. ... with onscreen controls. I was giving the demo to someone a little while ago, and I finished the demo and I said what do you think? They said 'You had me at scrolling.'"

10:04am - "We want to reinvent the phone. What's the killer app? The killer app is making calls! It's amazing how hard it is to make calls on most phones. We want to let you use contacts like never before -- sync your iPhone with your PC or mac. Visual voicemail -- wouldn't it be great if you didn't have to listen to five of them to list to the sixth? Just like email you can go directly to the voicemails that interest you. iPhone is a quad-band GSM + EDGE phone." No 3G! "We have WiFi and Bluetooth 2.0"

10:05am - "This is what it looks like when you get a call -- this
is one of our ringtones. I want to show you the phone app, photos, calendar, and SM messaging. The kind of things you'd find on a typical phone. So let's go ahead and take a look. So let's go to our phone first, the phone icon in the lower left corner? Boom, I'm in the phone. I have favorites, contacts, ..." Whoa, they put Jonathan Ive's phone number up on screen. Ummm... not smart Steve, I hope that's a PAYG line.

10:06am - "I can't tell you how thrilled I am to make the first public phone call with iPhone." It's in speakerphone mode.

10:07am - "I remember when we first started working on this..." Phil Schiller's on the other line. "Steve, I wanted to be the first call!"

10:08am - "Hey listen, Phil called, you mind if I conference him in? I just push that right here and now I've created a conference call. "Attendees scrolling up on top. "So here we are and listen, I have to get back to my keynote... Johnny, do you have anything to say on the first phone call?" "It's not to shabby, is it?"

10:10am - "Phil, thanks very much I gotta get back to the keynote now." Demoing favorites, it looks pretty easy, no doubt. "It's that simple to edit these things. I've got recents right here, I can see all my recent phone calls... and those are all the calls I've placed or have gotten. If I want to dial the phone and I'm real last century, I can dial the numbers." Dialing digits, the numbers get smaller as he dials. "Now let me show you visual voicemail, this is a collaboration which I'll talk more about later. It allows us to have random-access voicemail. Oh, there's a voicemail by Al Gore."

10:11am - Tim Cook's voicemail was of revenue results: "You know, this can wait until later..." Laughter.

10:12am - "I can have multiple SMS conversations. Here's the conversation I've been carrying on [shows QWERTY keyboard on screen]. I've got this little keyboard that prevents error, it's really fast to type on, faster than the little plastic keyboards on all those smartphones. 'Sounds great, see you there." Some predictive text it seems, he'd probably rock this thing faster with thumbs. "I can just pick up that conversation where I left off."

10:13am - "The third app I want to show you is Photos -- we also have the coolest photo management ever. Certainly on a mobile device, but I think EVER. Let me go to photos, scroll through here... to go through pictures I just swipe them. There's one that's landscape, I can just turn my device and there it is. I can swipe while I'm in landscape." Audience guy: "Awesome." Steve: "Isn't this awesome??"

10:15am - "So photos, SMS, and the phone app -- that is part of our phone package for iPhone. Really great call management, scroll through contacts with your finger, all the information at your fingertips. Favorites, last century [shows dialer], calendar, SMS texting, incredible photo app, the ability to take any picture and make it your wallpaper. I think you'll agree... we've reinvented the phone."

10:14am - I can just take my fingers and I can move them together and further apart, and make the photo bigger or smaller." HUGE applause -- touch gesturing apparently really hit a chord with these people.

10:16am - "Now let's take a look at an internet communications device. We've got some real breakthroughs here. We've got rich HTML emails on iPhone. It works with any IMAP or POP3 email service. We wanted the best web browser on a phone -- so we picked the best one in the world, Safari. We have Safari running on iPhone -- it's the first fully-usable browser on a cellphone. We have Google Maps." Big applause.

10:17am - "We have widgets, it communicates with the internet over WiFi and EDGE -- you don't have to do anything, it connects to the WiFi seamlessly."

10:18am - "It connects to any POP3 or IMAP email -- Yahoo Mail, MS Exchange, Mac Mail... POP3: Gmail, AOL mail, and most ISPs... let's highlight one, Yahoo mail. Today we are announcing Yahoo will offer free push-IMAP email to iPhone customers. This isn't just IMAP, this is push-email, same as a BlackBerry."

10:19am - "I'd like to show you mail, Google maps... I've got my inbox here, this is running live on Yahoo IMAP email. I've got inline photos, rich-text email. Let's look at another one... again, inline photos, rich text. Shopping list, rich text, pretty cool. iPhone parses out phone numbers, they're in blue and I can just call this place."

10:20am -

"I can look at my email in a split view, just like I'm on my computer. I like the fullscreen view -- we have the standard inbox, drafts, all the folders, real email just like you're used to, right here on your phone. Again, free IMAP email from Yahoo. Let me create an email message, let me show you what that's like... I just type PH and boom, address completion." He's typing slowly... but hey, he's only got one thumb since he's holding the device for the demo. We can't wait to see it in landscape.


Now I want to show you somethign incredible, I want to show you Safari running on a mobile device. I'm going to load in the NYT, rather than just give you the WAP version, we're showing you the WHOLE NYT web site. I can put this into landscape mode and there it is, I can scroll up and down here..."

The resolution is unbelievable looking from back here. We don't yet know the dimensions, but It looks unbelievably fine grained.

10:23am - "I can double-tap and it'll zoom in -- I can make this text bigger if I want to, and there it is. Isn't this cool? There is the New York Times. Unbelievable. You can look at multiple web pages as well, I just push this button in the corner, shrinks it down, and I can add a new page. Let's go to Amazon. I like looking at what DVDs are selling -- I like especially when Disney DVDs are on top."

10:24am - Page is loading, albeit a bit slowly. "And here we are, and there's a section over here, and these are the top sellers. Oh look, Als' An Inconvenient Truth is number one. Now I can go back to the NYT if I want, I can get rid of these by just hitting the X." Looks a bit like the UIQ browser, but much more slick.

10:25am - "I hope you never really know how incredible this is... it's bad out there. This is a revolution of the first order. I'm going to load stock information off the web, and right onto the phone here." Apple's shares up over $2.50. Ha.

10:26am - "I can go look at the weather, let's see what it's like outside... 49 degrees, but we'll just stay in here until it warms up." Showing various time zones, scrolling left and right. "Now, to conclude with the internet device section, I want to show you google Maps on iPhone -- it comes up and I'm going to go to Moscone West. And here we are, boom, I'm going to want a cup of coffee afterwards, so I'm going to search for StarBucks." Shows Gmaps POI info including number and address, which drops right into the dialer. He's calling StarBucks.

"Yes, I'd like to order 4000 lattes to go please. Sorry, wrong number thank you!" Huge laughs, huge applause.

10:29am - "Pinch if I want to, or I can double-tap to zoom in. Let's go somewhere else..." People are rapt, everyone is actually literally leaning forward and on the edge of their seat. We've never seen a presentation like this before.

"Isn't that incredible? Right on my PHONE! Look at this, the Eiffel tower -- isn't that incredible? Here's the last one, the colliseum in Rome."

10:30am - "All these amazing things -- this is a breakthrough internet communicator built right into iPhone." Reviewing the features... "Incredible new technology for entering text, a real browser on the phone, we can zoom in, Google maps, Widgets... it's the internet in your pocket for the first time ever. You can't really think about the internet without thinking about google."

10:31am - "From google what we have on the phone is google search built right into the browser and google maps. We've been working closely with them.. it's my pleaseure now to introduce Dr. Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO."

10:32am - Eric: "I've had the privilege of joining the board and there's a lot of relationships... if we merge the companies we can call it Applegoo -- but I'm not a marketing guy. You can actually merge without merging. Each company should do the absolutely best thing they can do every time, and he's shown it today." Huge applause, again.

10:33am - "We can take the enormous brain trust of the Apple team and the open protocols of companies like google and put them in an environment for end users. From a gooogle perspective we've pushed very hard to partner with Apple and working with many many different data service, -- Steve showed a little bit. It comes together seamlessly. This is the first of a whole new generation..."

"Steve, my congratulations to you, this product is going to be HOT."

10:34am - "As a board member you'll get one of the first ones!" Har. "You also can't think about the internet without thinking about Yahoo. We've got Yahoo search built right in, and we've got Yahoo IMAP email services. So it's my great pleasure to introduce Jerry Yang, co-founder and Chief Yahoo!"

10:35am - Jerry's up on stage, "Thank you Steve. I'm not a board member of Apple, but I'd love to have one of these too. We're really proud of Yahoo to be partnering with Apple. One of the things we're going to be doing is launching some of our new services , Yahoo Go and One Search on this phone. Mail is a killer app on the phone, Yahoo is trying to redesign the web and email experience on mobile devices. The best spam protection, address books, and calendar when you're on yahoo -- It's like BlackBerry without an Exchange Server."

10:36am - "We want to take what Apple's doing reinventing the phone and do that on the internet -- great form factors, user experiences, and UI, and translate them into a seamless internet experience. We want to take the Web 2.0 into the device world -- you have my address Steve, please send it to me."

10:37am - "It's been great having the two greatest companies on the web right down the block. Thank you guys so much, you've really helped us put the internet in the phone.

10:38am - "So, an internet communicator, an iPod, and a phone. Let's put them all together and see what you can do in a real-life scenario..."

10:39am - Another hands-on demo. "Let's see what happens when a phone call comes while listening to music -- music fades out and the call comes through."

10:40am - Phil wants photos to use as his screen saver, one of the phones from Hawaii. Go figure! Steve is emailing the photo -- shrinks, compose window pops up (he's still on the phone with Phil, mind you), and he sends it.

He ends the call, and the music pops right back up, no pauses, no fuss. Uproarious applause.

10:41am - "Today Apple is reinventing the phone. How does this stack up? Let's look at the competition..." Treo, BB, E62, Q... comparing mail, contacts, calendars, web... "Let's see the web, we tried to make it look as good as we could. And this is what you get." Comparing music...

"After today, I don't think anyone's going to look at these phones the same way agaoin."

10:42am - Accessories: stereo headphones with a tiny dongle, mic and a switch. Push it together to answer or hang up on a call.

Bluetooth accessory: headset, black and thin "incredibly small" one button on the top, automatically pairs, "It's really simple."

"It's the coolest one we've ever seen."

Battery life: "A lot of these phones have low battery life. We've managed to get 5 hours of battery of talk time, video, and browsing. 16 hours of audio playback."

10:44am - We've been pushing the state of the art in every facet of this design. We've got the multi-touch screen, miniaturization, OS X in a mobile device, precision enclosures, three advanced sensors, desktop class applications, and the widescreen video iPod. We filed for over 200 patents for all the inventions in iPhone and we intend to protect them."

"We've advanced the state of the art in every aspect of design. It's the ultimate digital device. So what should we price it at?"

10:46am - "Our most popular iPod is $199 -- what's a smartphone cost? Somewhere around $299 with a two year contract."

He's combined the two for a $499 for the combo-- "What should we charge for the iPhone? We should charge more for this stuff!... "

10:47am -

So how much more than $499 should we price it? We thought long and hard about it... it does so much stuff..." He's stalling for the drama. Enough Steve!

"What should we price it at? For a 4GB model we're pricing it at $499 -- no premium whatsoever.

"We're going to have an 8GB model for just $599."

10:48am - "When's it going to be available? We're shipping them in June -- we're announcing it today because we have to go get FCC approval... we thought it'd be better to introduce this today rather than let the FCC introduce this.

Europe in the 4th quarter of this year, Asia in 2008. "We've chosen Cingular."

"They're going to be our exclusive partner in the US -- it's a unique partnership though. We're going to be doing innovation together. We worked on visual voicemail, the first fruit of this collaboration. We'll be selling iPhone through our own stores and Cingular stores."

10:49am - "It's my pleasure to introduce the CEO of Cingular, Stan Sigman." Why hello Stanny boy.

"We entered into contractual agreement without ever even seeing the phone -- that's because of the confidence I have of Steve to deliver on his vision...

10:50am - "It's a real honor for Cingular to be partnering with Apple -- it's AT&T. Days ago Cingular became a part of the new AT&T..." AT&T logo up on screen.

10:51am - "We're announcing a partnership that takes the mobile phone experience to a new level by bringing together the best network with the best device. Networks are the foundation of what Cingular and AT&T do."

"When it comes to networks AT&T wrote the book -- their quality is legendary. Put this with Apple products together and what do you get? You get the best voice and data experience..." Man this guy is a total snoozer.

10:52am - We've immediately dropped back into cuecard keynote mode, stats on Cingular, stores, distribution, yadda. "We're pleased to partner with Apple to deliver one of the most eagerly anticipated products ever -- the iPhone."

10:53am - "We are changing the way companies work together. Apple and Cingular have a multi-year exclusive partnership. This is not an MVNO -- ours is a unique relationship that lets Apple be Apple, and let's Cingular be Cingular."

10:54am - "iPhone owners will be Cingular and AT&T customers -- they'll get the best network and service in the business. Apple... Cingular... and AT&T have come a long ways."

"I hope you're as excited as we are... this is going to be a terrific ride." Huzzah, he's off stage!

10:56am - And Steve's back... "As Stan's said, we started working together about two years ago, and we come from two different worlds. We love these guys, we're going to bring some great stuff to market over the years together. Let's take a look at this market and how big it is. So how big is this market..." Clickers are dead, even his replacement. "They're scrambling back stage right now." Laughter.

10:56am - "You know, when I was in high school, Steve Woz and I made this little device called the TV jammer -- this little oscillator that put out frequencies that would screw up the TV... We'd go into a dorm at Berkeley we'd screw up the TV while people are watching Star Trek." Ok, we're back...

10:57am -

26m game consoles sold, 94m digital cameras, 135m MP3 players, 209m PCs, 957m phones... 1% market share is 10 million phones. "Exactly what we're trying to do, 1% market share in 2008, 10 million units and we'll go from there."

10:58am - "So, today we've added to the Mac and the iPod, we've added Apple TV, and now iPhone. And you know, the Mac is the only one you really think of as a computer, and we've thought about this and we thought, you know, maybe our name should reflect this better than it does."

"From this day forward we're going to be known as Apple, Inc. We've dropped the computer from our name."

10:59am - "You know, I didn't sleep a wink last night, I was so excited about today. We've been so lucky at Apple, we've had some real revolutionary products. The Mac in 84, the iPod in 2001, and we're gonna do it again with the iPhone in 2007 -- we're VERY excited about this."

"There's an old Wayne Gretsky quote I love -- 'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it's been.' That's what we try to do at Apple. Thank you very, very much." Huge, huge applause, standing ovation.

11:00am - "Thank you, thank you. I'd like to highlight the folks that worked on this product... can all the folks here who worked on this product please stand up? Let's give them a round of Applause."

11:01am - "I also can't leave without thanking our families -- they haven't seen a lot of us in the last 6 months. Without their support we couldn't do what we do. You don't know how much we need you and appreciate you, so thank you."

"We've got a really special treat today, we don't have a lot of traditions at Apple besides making great products. One of them is that John Mayer has helped us at every Macworld over the years."

11:02am - "It's our pleasure to welcome John Mayer," who will now play the keynote off. Anyone else remember that Chappelle show sketch?

That's it!