iPhone euPhoria

Well, Apple finally unveiled its iPhone at the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco. For some odd reason Steve Jobs won't allow a video stream of his keynote (even through paid subscription), so "watching" the keynote has to be done via an irc chat channel or auto-updating website. Sharing in the sense of international buzz is still 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 hijacking Apple HQ, kidnapping Steve Jobs, and demanding 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. Amazing bluetooth headset

On the downside, 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 ones 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 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?