Has Apple ever exposed its API, though? I thought that was the reason that Windows took off over Mac the way it did early on, because Gates exposed the Windows API. (There’ve been arguably as many problems as solutions because of that, but still…)
I think it’s clear that Cisco had to sue. When you have a trademark, you have to defend it, or else it’s worthless. In this case Cisco had been negotiating with Apple, but Apple didn’t sign the contract. (And this isn’t the first time that Apple has knowingly violated a trademark; remember the cases filed by Apple Corp?)
I think it’s so the sound won’t be muffled if you have it lying down on a flat surface.
Anyway, IMO anyone who expected the iPhone to be a must-have solution for everyone has unrealistic expectations. The current iteration of the iPhone is jammed with features to justify its high price tag; I’m more interested in seeing these new goodies trickle down to lower-priced gadgets in Apple’s future product line.
Er… yes, of course. If they hadn’t, there’d hardly be any third party apps for MacOS, because every developer would have to reverse engineer the operating system. The Mac API is well documented because Apple wants third party apps.
Seriously? I don’t know about pre-OSX, but since 2001 Apple has made the availability and quality of developer information a high priority. See the Apple Developer Connection. Plus, Apple makes their core operating system, Darwin OS, available as open source under the FSF APSL license. (Since the XNU kernel is a hybrid of the academic open source development of the Mach microkernel, substantial elements of the FreeBSD kernel, and a significant amount of code and form in Quartz from OpenStep.) It is fully and transparently POSIX compliant and will essentially run any Unix-based program via its FreeBSD heritage, and will support X11 (either rootless or in its own isolated app within Quartz), or you can dual boot directly to Darwin instead of full OSX with a simple edit.
Not that there aren’t a lot of problems with the way Apple has done business, and their hot-and-cold relationship with OpenDarwin and FreeBSD developers makes Liz Taylor and Richard Burton look like songbirds, but for a company providing a commerical operating system their developer support is second-to-none, in no small part probably because, for the most part, they aren’t selling “killer apps” like Microsoft Office[sup]TM[/sup] and so they aren’t competing with developers while at the same time begging their support.
Microsoft documentation for their Windows APIs are limited, incomplete (probably deliberately so), and often arcane or obscure. Windows won over the Mac on a price and features basis; while the performance of Intel-based PCs was jumping leaps and bounds, Apple was sort of inching along, trying to maintain consistancy and quality in both OEM hardware and third-party software. I’d say they were going for stability by limiting hardware vendors and demanding rigorous interface standards that were tightly controlled by Apple rather than the industry free-for-all that happened with the PC, but some smart-alec will come along and point out that pre-System 7 MacOS was about as stable as a Type-II bipolar patient who ran out of lithium last month and has been experiementing with home shock therapy.
You can make plenty of jabs about Apple, and judging from the transcript of his performance at the MacWorld Expo, Jobs is just as much of an ass as he ever was. (I’d still rather be stuck in a small room with him than Steven “Crack Monkey” Balmer, though.) But the accessibility and stability of OSX is not a good target for criticism.
Stranger
I hope you meant “up to and including System 7”… I never really used OS 8 or 9, but 7.x was the least stable OS I’ve ever used on any platform. (At least when Win98/ME locked up hard, there was an easily accessible reset button on the front of the PC. I can’t count how many times I had to pull the plug on my mom’s Performa when the three-finger salute didn’t work.)
It starts with an “i” and it looks flashy.
It doesn’t do anything the latest Blackberry “Pearl” model doesn’t do - actually, it’s decidedly inferior as far as I can tell, unless you just have to have a touchscreen for some reason.
The Cingular-only thing is so profoundly retarded that I’m not sure I believe it. They cannot possibly be that stupid.
I’ve been thinking about how the iPhone looks like in comparison to the iPod Nano. IMHO, the iPhone just doesn’t look that distinctive compared to the iPod Nano. I’m also thinking that the iPhone doesn’t use the Gold Ratio in its design like the iPod does. This makes the iPhone look disproportionate. Does anyone else have the same feeling?
Whatever; all of the pre-2000 MacOSs are really a blur to me. I was never impressed with MacOS until the FreeBSD-based OSX, and even then, the first swipe at it was not performance-comperable to even a heavily loaded Windows 2000 system. OSX.2 and higher, on the other hand, have been kick-ass operating systems with only minor gripes, and while I’m not a huge user of AppleScript, I have to admit that it’s better thought out and more comprehensively implemented than any of the numerous attempts to glob application interoperability and control in any Windows OS. OSX cures, or at least patches, a lot that standard Unix-type implementations leave to be desired, while retaining most of the virtues. Even the top-heavy GUI isn’t significantly worse, performance-wise, than the bloated but apparently irreplaceable X11, and it does it with far more style and consistancy than even GNOME or GNUstep manages.
In two years, the iPhone will either be the major revolution that Jobs claims it to be, it’ll crash harder than the Hindenburg, or somewhere inbetween. (Guess which option I’m voting for.) The coolest features will probably be imitated–in some fashion–by competitors at a fraction of the price, and Apple will innovate or give up the market and leave the techonlogy unfortuantely orphaned in technically impressive but unmarketable limbo; see the Apple Newton for examples of the latter.
In the meantime, I’ll stick with the Blackberry and reliable CDMA service from the excreable but functional Verizon, the insufferable bastards.
Stranger
Well, I just got less excited. Looks like they might do a Sony on this one. Damn.
Steve Jobs confirms that the iPhone won’t run third-party apps:
Of course, that’s all BS - every carrier already offers smartphones, and people load and run their own apps on them every day without causing the kind of havoc Jobs hilariously suggests in an MSNBC interview.
This thing is turning out to be a $200 phone with a $600 price tag. Why bother with an iPhone when you can get a smartphone for less, or a regular cell phone and an iPod with ten times the storage?
Am I the only person who thinks it looks unbelievably chunky? Can’t imagine anyone looking cool whilst holding something that looks to be the size of a current iPod against your head…
There’s the deal-breaker. I would actually have considered buying one of these things a year or two down the road (provided I could get it not-locked-to-Cingular, cause they suck), but I can’t live without installing my own applications. In the Symbian, Palm, and Windows Mobile worlds, we’ve been installing our own applications for years and we’re not having the sort of problems that idiot is suggesting.
I would like to see an iPhone bring down a GSM network because I installed Tetris. That just doesn’t make any sense. What also doesn’t make any sense is that there doesn’t appear to be any expandable storage.
Ignoramus, it’s 4.5" x 2.4", which is pretty big for a phone, but normal for a PDA. But part of the reason I’m not nuts about PDAs is that most of them are hard to use one-handed. And looking at this thing’s gesture support, I bet it’ll be damn near impossible to use one-handed.
For those of you who just can’t wait for the iPhone, I suggest you go here.
Couple of updates. Cingular is dead. AT&T has brought its mobile division back into the main company, so by the time the iPhone comes out it will be on an AT&T network. I have no idea what implications this has for deals that Apple had with Cingular. Presumably, the lawyer-types have done a good job of protecting whatever agreements existed, but who knows.
David Pogue has some FAQs regarding the iPhone up on the New York Times website.
If and when it comes out in Japan, I’m betting that it will be 3G instead of GSM since GSM isn’t used here. I’m hoping that they keep the GSM capability too, so it’s possible to use it overseas in places that haven’t switched to 3G yet. Either that, or I’m hoping that 3G penetration gets much better in the US over the next year or two.
If you watch the keynote, Jobs specifically (though briefly) states that the phone will have 3G in the next year or so. That tells me that they’ll probably make it available for other phone providers in the US at that time.
Cisco apparently lost the rights to iPhone last year.
There’s more, and most of it not in eyeglazing legalese. In short, Apple’s got a pretty strong case against Cisco.
The Conan iPhone commercial. 
Perhaps the only thing more hilarious than that skit is the reaction from the apple fanboys.