Running Commentary During Steve Jobs' iPhone Announcement

January 9, 2007, 3:19 PM by Scott M. Fulton, III

Scott Fulton, BetaNews: The Macworld 2007 keynote is not being carried on any live streaming services that we can see, including from Apple itself. This has happened before. We're keeping tabs on many of the Apple bloggers who have live connections, and will be adding analysis here from our CES correspondents and analysts.

One report says Steve Jobs has just quoted Microsoft's outgoing president, Jim Allchin, from his now infamous memo where he said, "I would buy a Mac today" (a few years ago, pre-Vista). Then apparently Apple showed all or part of Microsoft's Vista advertising.

Our source is saying Jobs' revealed a few specifics about the "Apple TV" set-top box device, one being a high-def output of 720p. At least that will be compatible with some older HDTV sets (downward compatibility, anyone?).

Sharon Fisher, BetaNews Senior CES Analyst: Awesome! In September, I'll be able to go buy from Apple what my Xbox 360 already does today!

Scott Fulton: Now, news on the iPhone, and that does appear to be Apple's final name for it. A "widescreen iPod with touch controls," "breakthrough Internet communicator," and "revolutionary mobile phone," show slides.

Sharon Fisher: How are they calling it "iPhone?"

Ed Oswald, BetaNews: Please tell me it's not Cingular-only.

Scott Fulton: The details are trickling in, and it's phenomenal: We're talking about a handheld device with a 3.5" touch-sensitive screen that encompasses the entire device, and that [correction] does not use a stylus. And apparently, according to two sources, it runs OS X.

Indeed, there is a Cingular logo in the upper left corner of the widescreen, in one picture seen on Engadget. Jobs may not have mentioned it yet officially, but there's your carrier. And congratulations to Cingular for a spectactular job of keeping things quiet.

Sharon Fisher: OK, a magic patented interface, but does it have a patented magic anti-fingerprint and smudge interface?

Scott Fulton: It's on CNN now. Apple stock plummeted in value at about 12:20, when statements abounded online that Apple wouldn't actually make a phone announcement today. Then the chasm was more than made up for about 12 minutes later. Stock value is up nearly three points at 1:09 pm ET.

Sharon Fisher: I've got to say, that interface looks sweet, and the screen resolution looks very nice.

Scott Fulton: AT&T stock also starting a nice comeback, up about a third of a point. AT&T is the parent company - the sole one, now - of Cingular Wireless.

The broadband connection of choice here is EDGE (not a surprise now, with Cingular out of the bag), and there's a partnership deal with Yahoo to provide IMAP e-mail. Now that we know it runs OS X (I guess we don't call it "Mac OS X" in this context), we can see it also runs Safari as its Web browser.

Ed Oswald: Man, I'd hate to be some of the cellular phone makers at CES. In a matter of 45 minutes, Apple has just stolen any thunder they might have had. It's going to be fun watching everyone play catch-up.

Sharon Fisher: Half the people commenting on sites are saying they need a towel and a cigarette now that it's over, and the other half are bummed out about it being Cingular-only. They wish it was iPod-only without the phone, and wish it had 3G instead.

Nate Mook, Editor-in-Chief, BetaNews: My first reaction: Where's the 3G? All of these great browsing and PDA features seem wasted on just EDGE capability. Sure, you've got Wi-Fi, but the dream of citywide, seamless Wi-Fi remains far away and hotspots far too pricey and few. I'll be hard pressed to drop my UMTS-capable Blackjack for the iPhone, even if the browsing and features are superior, because it will be like going from cable back to dial-up.

The interface looks fantastic, but I think we'll have to see the touch-screen keyboard in action before making any judgment. Jobs noted the keyboard is "error correcting," but those folks with wider fingers may find it difficult without any actual buttons to press. With included push IMAP e-mail from Yahoo and Safari Web browsing built-in, I hope the keyboard is up to par, or else we may see the device fall flat once consumers actually get their hands on it.

Eric Steil, BetaNews: Looks like Apple managed to partner with both Yahoo and Google for this. I noticed Google Search and Maps are both built-in, as is e-mail from Yahoo. That's impressive.

Scott Fulton: And that Apple stock value is going through the roof now, up 5% in very active trading on the NASDAQ.