iPhone Is Here, Sorta

First the good news, the long awaited iPhone is here. It's 320x480, runs OSX, comes with iTunes, iPhoto, Dash Board, and various other OSX things. No, it's not OSX for embedded, but a regular OSX. It uses Safari for browser, Apple Mail (which is based on NeXT Mail) for mail, as such supports both POP and imap. They've arranged a free Yahoo imap account with each iPhone. But the real partner is Google. Google Map and Gmail are on the phone too, as well as very tightly integrated navigation technology based on Google Map. It has Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP (Stereo profile) support, also has 802.11. The support for 802.11 is excellent because well, OSX supports 802.11 quite well. The phone will automatically switch to wifi for data if you come into range with any 802.11 access point you've setup. So you can still get phone call from GSM, but surf using 802.11.

The Cingular exclusive, which for some of you is a negative, expires 2008. The price they listed, $499 for 4gig version and $599 for 8gig version is with 2 year contract. You can't buy the phone any other way. On the other way, you can set any image you have on the cellphone as wallpaper and caller id, you can set any music you have in your iTune as ringtone. No need to buy anything from Cingular.

It's quad band+EDGE. So no 3G technology such as UMTS. And it's 2 megapixel camera. Which while lovely for US, in Japan/South Korean, this places it in mid-range.

The phone's UI is very well designed, you can check out the demos here. The phone will be available in June in US. Asia isn't till 2008. I don't know how well the phone will do in Japan. While having wi-fi is nice, not having 3G support in Japan is hard to endure for the Japanese High School Girls, who download and buy tons of media/apps. The touch screen usage could also be a negative. As A said, she's not sure if her super texting skills will translate, since she's used to buttons.

And yes, Apple is permitted to use iPhone. When Cisco registered the trademark two years ago, Apple approached them about licensing the name 6 month later. They've worked out a deal.