iPhone Roundup

Some of you are tired of the blizzard of coverage the iPhone is getting, so this roundup of iPhone stories is running off the main page. First off, EMIce points out what seems to be plenty of prior art (as well as a booming research scene) on the multi-touch interface that Steve Jobs demo'ed, boasting of having "filed for over 200 patents." FastCompany has a profile of NYU researcher Jefferson Han and his killer demo of a multi-touch interface at TED. Next, Toreo asesino writes in with Microsoft's Steve Ballmer's take on the iPhone; the Microsoft CEO doesn't sound very impressed. And finally, an anonymous reader notes CNet's article on why the iPhone, once it's in the hands of consumers, may be the most muggable item of consumer electronics ever.

Patents

[axlrosen]

Jobs said that they've filed for over 200 patents on the iPhone overall, not multi-touch specifically. You can see it in his slide here:

http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.engadget.com/med ia/2007/01/dsc_0232.jpg [blogsmithmedia.com]

Possible Anti-Mugging prevention

[abb3w]

Old news [appleinsider.com].

It might be amusing to add a GPS system. Then, write an app that, on receiving a certain type of SMS from Apple, proceeds to start phoning the police asking for help, and posting its position and a picture of its surroundings to a website. Screaming for help [appleinsider.com] might be another nice touch... or perhaps just making the sound of police sirens as an unsubtle hint.

Yeah, it's a problem; however, there are enough easy solutions that I'd be surprised if Apple doesn't stuff one (or more) in by deployment time.

Re:Not impressed

[avalys]

Your comment makes no sense. What brains are missing? We've already seen what the phone can do in the Keynote and the Apple website: play music, play videos, surf the web (rendering pages correctly), check e-mail, send text messages, visual voicemail - the list goes on and on, and it looks likely that Apple will allow the release of third-party widgets, if not full-fledged applications.

And it will do all of this with Apple's usual ease-of-use and pleasant aesthetics. Not to mention, they have six months to refine it further.

What brains are missing, exactly? I can't really think of much else that I want a smartphone to do. 3G would be nice, but I can live with that omission for now.

Re:Most muggable item?

[Junior J. Junior III]

I don't really see this working too well. iPhone will be eminently lo-jackable. It's got the cell phone's GPS, and is a closed platform meaning that the thief probably won't be able to disable it. Steal it, and you're inviting the cops to come pick you up.

Apple bought the company

[pjcreath]

Apple bought FingerWorks [fingerworks.com] several years ago.

You may remember them for their Multi-Touch keyboard [slashdot.org] nearly 4 years ago. Apple first began incorporating the technology into their scrolling trackpads [apple.com] about 2 years ago. Now it has found its way into the iPhone.

Re:Hiding the iPhone

[Andy Dodd]

"I know Verizon will blacklist the ESN of a phone that has been reported stolen, and they don't have to share these numbers around, as there are only 2 CDMA carriers that I know of (can you unlock a phone between Sprint/Verizon?)."

You used to be able to unlock the programming mode of Sprint phones and reset the access codes to 0000, which allowed you to activate the phone with Verizon.

You couldn't go the other way - In addition to a stolen phone blacklist, Sprint keeps an ESN whitelist of phones they have sold. Sprint will refuse to activate anything not on that whitelist. I have heard rumors that Verizon has recently started doing this too, but back in the days before Verizon sold the Treo 650, unlocked Sprint phones were a common way to combine the 650 and Verizon service.

BTW, there is a third CDMA carrier (Alltel), but they're small.

Re:Biggest problem: No Push Email

[Anonymous Coward]

> Until then it can't hope compete with Windows Mobile, Palm, or Blackberry.

Actually, no that's incorrect. In the keynote, Jobs mentioned that it will have push mail support from Yahoo Mail, for free. No exchage server needed.

Hopefully GMail will also be able to do push mail, and third party plugins for the various enterprise mail servers could allow push mail from anything.

Re:Not impressed

[Vitriol+Angst]

And the lack of third-party applications disqualifies it from the moniker smartphone.

Because we all know, that only Smart Phones require a slew of installs to do anything useful.

It's a smart phone, because a person can just USE all the advanced features. I love the gestures, rather than backing up on a selected web page, choosing option, choosing zoom, and then scrolling here -- oops, over there.

90% of that Treo functionality goes to waste. I have a semi-advanced phone, and I've yet to play even an MP3 on it. I took perhaps 5 pictures -- how do I get them to my computer? Well I bought some app off eBay because Motorolla was selling it for a premium. One of these years I will install it, but it is Windows Only, and while my 5 year old Mac runs fine, I have to repair my XP machine again.

How many people out of 100 ever add another application to their phone? With this phone, you will add those functions with iTunes, and you will update your contacts, your photos, music and movies the same way. And like 200 million people already use this application. 2 Billion songs served. ... now where was I going with all this... I don't know, but I need to hang up my web surfing app in treo, and take a picture. This response has taken only 30 minutes to type out by the way. Whooosh this phone is smart!

Re:Most muggable item?

[Crizp]

General Packet Radio Service has nothing to do with triangulating your position but lots to do with achieving higher data speeds (for WAP etc) on the GSM network.

Triangulating a mobile phone is just like triangulating a pirate radio broadcaster; it has everything to do with signal strength and knowing exact positional data on the GSM towers the phone is connected to.