Wednesday, January 17, 2007
I happens every year: thousands of consumer technology companies gather at Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to show of their new products for the coming year, in what's literally the biggest trade show on the planet.
Then Steve Jobs gives the Macworld San Francisco keynote address and generates more press than all of CES put together.
Without question, the biggest announcement of last week was the Apple iPhone, a combination cell phone, iPod and handheld computer with a revolutionary touchscreen interface.
The biggest innovation with the iPhone is that it has almost no physical buttons, so nearly all the buttons are onscreen. Tap one button and you get the phone interface, tap another to see the e-mail, iPod, or Web browser screens. Trace gestures across the front to perform common actions, like locking the controls.
The iPhone is tall, but surprisingly slim. Apple has managed to stuff a lot into that small package, including a sensor that locks the screen when you hold the phone to your face, a 2-megapixel camera, and a visual voicemail system that lets you listen to messages in any order.
Sadly, the iPhone will be tied to just one carrier, Cingular, when it's released in July, and Apple won't be selling an "unlocked" version, which could be used on T-Mobile, the other GSM network, anytime in the near future. Sprint and Verizon users will also be out of luck.
O ne big theme at CES and Macworld was convergence, with new ways to share your music, videos, and photos among different devices.
Apple was here, as well, with a new product called Apple TV. It will let you wirelessly stream media from your Mac or Windows PC to a television. The new Slingbox SlingCatcher, unveiled at CES, will work in much the same way.
The products have been announced. Now for the agonizing wait until they're in stores and I can actually try them out.
CONTACT Troy Dreier at loggedon@mac.com.
http://news.google.co.th/nwshp?ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&q=iphone%20&tab=in
