I am no fan of Apple nor this $500 low-speed boondoggle of theirs. But the argument that the touchscreen is going to break based on rumors you heard about years-old Palm devices is absolutely ridiculous.

It could be that what you're calling "pinch" is what Apple's calling Multitouch. Pinch is one type of motion used in Multitouch. The pinch motion involves the thumb and index finger. Moving your thumb and index finger together zooms out, moving them apart zooms in. Multitouch, otoh, is a broad term encompasing all of the ways to interact with the iPhone's touchscreen interface, including the pinch motion (requires thumb and index finger), glide motion (requires one finger), and the tap motion (requires one finger).

Take a look at the graphic on this page to see how to unlock the iPhone. There's a button in the bottom of the screen. To unlock the phone, you simply touch the button and slide/glide your finger across the screen along the indicated line. It's essentially a "click and drag" motion without the mouse. It's a one finger motion. So, you could easily hold the phone in the palm of one hand, and touch your thumb from that same hand on the button and drag it to unlock. Then you could use that same thumb to tap the screen, just like you would tap buttons using your thumb on a traditional mobile phone.

I watched the keynote and saw the various demos also, and I can assure you that I saw Mr Jobs using one finger most of the time when demonstrating Multitouch. The only times he used two fingers motion was when he was demoing zooming in and out, which is when the pinch motion is employed.

Jobs used his index finger tapping on the screen for dialing. He used the glide motion for unlocking, with one index finger.

If you sign a contract, you are not getting a phone for cheap or free or $29- you are merely paying it off at credit card rates over the life of your fixed two year contract. It is embedded in the price.

And if you advocate cheap phones because they wont break, well there is something caled insurance. And you are making an argument against ALL phones that are not "cheap", it is nothing to do with the Apple phone specifically, so why bring it up in this context? Makes no sense either. I could bring up arguments against radiation too - still applies to all phones nothing specific to Apple phone.

Anyone catch their ad last night during the Academy awards?

montage of lots of movies
End tag-line was, Coming in JUNE !!!
and unlike MS\palm\others, Steve and the boys will probably deliver on time.

for a lighter look, see Conan's take on it HERE

Just like the iTV!

http://www.macuser.com/huh/analyze_t...ayed_but_o.php
http://newteevee.com/2007/01/03/itv-...-appleinsider/
http://www.engadget.com/2007/02/26/a...due-mid-march/

I can't seem to get any info on a specific availability date or how to get one of these phones.

Neither the Cingular store, Cingular customer service, Cingular online sales, nor my corporate Cingular rep seems to have any idea when or how to get one. There's no waiting list that I can find, nor any ability to pre-order.

Anyone on this board know?

Bad news, Mikey likes it.

http://www.boygeniusreport.com/Documents/iPhoneATT.pdf

* iPhone will be available sometime in June. The exact date has not been announced, specific dates should not be provided to customers.
* Sales for the iPhone will be on a first come, first served basis. No wait list of names will be taken and NO pre-selling is allowed.
* Two models of the iPhone will be available, a 4GB will retail at $499 and have an 8GB will retail at $599. If asked what the price will be, answer that the prices have been announced as $499 for the 4G, and $599 for the 8G, respectively. There should NOT be any additional speculation/discussion about pricing.

I asked in my local Cingular store over the weekend. They said:

- On sale June 15 (Happy Fathers Day!!!)
- They definitely had a waiting list. Wanted to know if I wanted to be added.

(I'm just repeating what they told me.)

Are the $499/$599 prices full prices (ie: not a 2 year contract price)? That's the only question I have about pricing.

I know you are just reporting, but none of that information has been confirmed (or leaked) by Apple. The LAST people I would trust are the retail outlets.

In fact, I've seen an official memo from ATT that says there will be NO waiting lists or reservations.

I have the new prada phone and the new iphone will probably have the same problems this one has.

It will get a lot of scratches. you can not avoid this no matter how careful you are.

Also with a touchscreen you always need 2 hands to write emails or text messages, there is no way doing this with 1 hand really and you will always have to look at the screen as you are never sure if the phone accepted your "click" or not - unless you turn the sound on for the keys - which i find horrible.

So driving and writing = dangerous - even finding a number to dial can be hard when you are elsewhere occupied.

These things are major turn offs for me unfortunately.

You've got that right. I just had a Cingular store rep tell me 3G service would be available in my area this summer (probably much later, though no one will give a straight answer) because that's when the iPhone is coming out, and it's 3G (she said).

They will say or do anything. I'm not sure if it's just wanting to make a sale, or stupidity.

Does anyone have an idea if you can put a BT GPS device onto the iPhone and use it as an GPS?

Cheers,
Markus

BT is a standard, so they should. The question is about the availability of SW.But I am sure that will be available.

After all the iPhone is all about SW applications.

Since Google just updated all their mobile map applications to include GPS it would surprise me if they didn't do the same for the iPhone version.

Still amazed me that they didn't add GPS to the phone...

google maps
 

So, google maps (for ppc windows mobile) has always had GPS integration, at least since the 1.0 release last year.
What they recently added is support for devices with integrated GPS, or even LBS GPS from the network. Currently only a couple phone offers this and are supported, but I am sure more will come, But the GPS function with an external Bluetooth GPS has always been there. If the iphone does a good Bluetooth integration it should be able to link with the com integration that is in the general google mapping function.