“One of the most hyped consumer products ever comes pretty close to justifying the bombast. Apple has a history of using cutting-edge technology, slick design and friendly software to break the common logjam in which our machines have the capability to perform certain tasks, but developers haven’t figured out how to make the experience easy, even pleasurable, for users. That’s one reason why people, especially the tens of millions who love iPods, have been so eagerly awaiting the iPhone,” Steven Levy reports for Newsweek.
“The bottom line is that the iPhone is a significant leap. It’s a superbly engineered, cleverly designed and imaginatively implemented approach to a problem that no one has cracked to date: merging a phone handset, an Internet navigator and a media player in a package where every component shines, and the features are welcoming rather than foreboding. The iPhone is the rare convergence device where things actually converge,” Levy reports.
What about that virtual keyboard? “It took me a couple of days to get used to hitting the right keys using a single finger. Maybe I’m a spaz, but I’m only beginning to get the hang of two-thumb typing. I an impressed, though, with the iPhone’s ability to correct misspellings, and I’ve had the best results by blasting through despite my mistakes and relying on the intelligence built into the system to correct my errors. That said, I think that for most consumers the keyboard issue may be overblown,” Levy reports.
“One day I purposely ran the battery down; the iPhone winked out after 14 hours, including six hours of talking, Web-browsing, music-listening and the viewing of an episode of ‘Weeds,'” Levy reports. “…I’ve found that the glass screen cleans easily with a damp cloth or baby wipe. As for wear and tear, I’ve been jamming it in my pocket with keyrings, coins and pens, and so far it’s nearly as good as new.”
“During our iPhone conversation, however, Jobs professed that he wasn’t concerned about inflated hopes, and certainly not whether he would meet his own projections of 10 million sold in 2008: ‘I think we’re going to blow away the expectations.’ Certainly all those people lining up to buy iPhones will find their investment worthwhile, if only for the delight they get from dazzling their friends… [iPhone] finally fulfills the promise of people-friendly palm-top communication and computing,” Levy reports.
Much more in the full review here.
Based on the real hands-on iPhone reviews we’ve seen so far, Job is certainly on safe ground in thinking Apple will blow away the expectations. Just wait until Apple starts adding to and updating the iPhones in peoples’ hands!
R.I.P. NOKIA, SONY ERICSSON AND MOTOROLA.
You guys should be ashamed, you had 10 years head start infront of Apple to develop a device like this – BUT YOU BLEW IT! – and now your 10 years behind Apple.
Welcome to loss of market share!
Go for it Apple!!
When NeXt first came out, Steve talked about how companies could develop products 10-20 times fast than on any other platform.
He was not bragging it was the truth.
Companies that continue to follow the microsuck model will get what they deserve.
For years all of these companies have ignored us Mac users and now it is payback!!
WE ARE GOING TO STEAL YOUR LUCH BULLYS!!!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
got mac support now????????
AAPL headed to $500.00 a share !
Moonie
The fun has only just begun. By December, even Ballmer will own one!
MDN Re-Titles to:
“Newsweek review: iPhone fulfills promise of people-friendly palm-top communication and computing”
“USA Today’s Baig reviews Apple iPhone: Worth lusting after, worthy of the hype”
iLounge Re-Titles to:
“Newsweek, USA Today: iPhone not perfect, but hype-worthy”
I prefer my news to be a little less one sided. Even if I’m completely for that side.
Good bye! Enjoy iLounge! (I, personally, love MDN.)
nokia motorola sony samsung lg
all these makers make phones that need u to hire an it guy 24/7 just to be able to send and receive email from thier crap phones reliably
people WILL NOTICE THAT THE IT GUY IS NOT NEEDED WITH THE I PHONE
now the only proplem apple will face is that there is no government in somal to protect its patents..in every other country that has signed the trips agreement..all the above mentioned companies can just watch silently AS THE PEOPLE BECOME TRUELY FREE
Comment from: Global Acceleration
“The fun has only just begun. By December, even Ballmer will own one!”
Me thinks balmy has too much pride to own an Apple product.
Sad he and the richest man in the world can’t have the nicest things made (due to their foolish, delusional pride).
Lets hope theses “updates” don’t go the way of Leopards secret features.
I got the honor of being able to hold an actual iPhone in my hands today and play with it a little. It was only about 15 minutes, but that was enough to get the true feel of the interface and touch screen.
There is only one word to describe it: WOW !!! [excuse the pun]
This thing lives up to the hype in true Apple [Jobs] fashion!
If you are in the cellphone business and your name ain’t AT&T or Apple, you are soooo screwed!
This is what I thot when I first saw the iPhone—it’s a palm-top computer that just happens to make phone calls. Finally the promise of the Newton fulfilled.
Can’t wait to see what other applications they invent for this OS—vehicle navigation, home security, universal remote, who knows?
The iPhone is just the tip of the iCeberg.
Say buh bye, Win CE. (Or whatever it’s called now.)
> That said, I think that for most consumers the keyboard issue may be overblown
Exactly, because most consumers will be upgrading from phones that only have a numeric pad, not a physical alpha keyboard.
Other “overblown” non-issues.
* Battery life.
* Pricing of service plan.
* Scratches and smudges.
* Security.
iPhone is obviously exceeding everyone’s expectations.
Man oh, man. I want one reeeeally bad but try as I might, nothing’s coming to mind that would allow me to justify buying one. WAAAAAAAA!
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The MDN take is right on…..it’s all about the updates
When iPhone 2.0 comes out, THAT will be the one to have. My 1st gen iPod still works, but my nano is a finished product.
iPhone 2.0 will add…
microSD slot
3G
16/32GB flash memory
3rd party BlackBerry software
THAT is the phone I will stand in line for three days to have.
iScott
I prefer my news to be a little less one sided. Even if I’m completely for that side.
I’m not sure what you mean by that. The majority of the tech journalists have been falling all over themselves to attack Apple and denigrate the iPhone and none of those jack@sses have even touched one.
The people who have used it for two weeks have pronounced it as worthy of the hype. Given the level of the hype, that is an enormous endorsement and makes the haters look like the pathetic whiners they are. It’s not one sided if the news actually *is* all good.