Two weeks ago, I offered my peerless prognostications of Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ announcements during his Keynote Address at this week’s Macworld Expo. Now that the Keynote is over and done, how’d I do?

Continued strong sales of iPods and music? Nailed it. More major film studios selling their wares online through the iTunes Store? Yep - Paramount signed on with their extensive catalog. High-definition movies (720p) available soon for Apple’s set-top iTV (now called “AppleTV”, for sale now and shipping in February for $299)? Got it.

What did I miss? I predicted Jobs would demonstrate more features of the upcoming Mac OS 10.5 “Leopard”, as well as new versions of Apple’s iLife and iWork digital lifestyle and productivity suites. Didn’t happen. I also divined new octo-core Mac Pro computers and Apple Cinema Displays with built-in iSight webcams. Nope. There were no new iPods, either. In fact, considering it was a “Macworld” there were no real “Mac” computer announcements at all.

The star of the show turned out to be a product I termed a “possibility” two weeks ago. You’ll remember at that time I also talked about “revolutionary” products, pointing out that real ones (versus “evolutionary” products) are few and far between. As computer companies go, Apple certainly has a history with revolution. Back in 1984 they designed the Macintosh, the vestiges of its operating system evident on every personal computer since (especially after Microsoft copied it a few years later). In 1998 Apple broke the personal computer mold again with the iMac, which eschewed stodgy beige-box PC looks and useless-in-the-digital-world floppy disks. In 2001 the iPod came on the scene, and along with the iTunes Music store, has not only defined the personal digital music player, but the online music sales market as well.

This last Tuesday, with almost six years after the iPod’s debut qualifying for “far between” status, Jobs announced three revolutionary devices: a widescreen, touch-controlled iPod; a feature-rich mobile phone; and, a powerful internet connection device. In true form, Apple engineers combined the three devices into one product, and called it the “iPhone”.

Now, before you say, “C’mon, Pete. It’s just another smartphone in an already crowded marketplace”, hear me out. To paraphrase one tech analyst, if the Motorola Q, Palm Treo, and Blackberry are all smartphones, the new iPhone is a “brilliantphone”. The iPhone redefines the smartphone, just as the original Macintosh and the iPod redefined their species.

Today’s smartphones all look pretty much alike, both in form and function – a small color screen above an array of tiny plastic buttons above a full QWERTY keyboard composed of more tiny plastic buttons. The operating systems that run the phones (Windows Mobile, Palm, and Symbian) provide pretty complicated, menu-driven interfaces that are manipulated either by buttons or an easily misplaced stylus.

While they perform the iPhone’s functions (music, video, phone, email, and internet), current smartphones use more of a “jack of all trades, master of none” approach. Apple’s intent with the iPhone is to “master all trades”, and they’ve succeeded, with signature Apple flair and panache.

Let’s look at some of the “tech specs”. The iPhone is 4.5 inches tall, 2.5 inches wide, and a little over 1/2 inch thick. That makes it the same width and about ten percent (1/2 inch) longer than the current 30GB “video” iPod. It weighs the same as the 30GB iPod as well. Pretty trim.

The front face of the iPhone consists of a 3.5 inch diagonal high-resolution color screen and one button – a “Home” button that brings you back to the main screen. That’s it. The ON/OFF switch and headphone jack are on the top side. A ring/silent and volume slider switch adorn the left side, and the bottom side bears a standard iPod connector, a speaker, and a microphone. The back face of the iPhone contains the lens opening for a two megapixel digital camera.

The iPhone is charged on an iPod-like docking stand, which also connects it to the computer (Mac or PC) to sync to music, movies and other data via iTunes. On a Mac, “other data” means contacts, calendars, Safari web browser bookmarks, etc. It’s not clear at this time how Windows PC users will move contacts, calendars, etc. to the iPhone.

The iPhone will ship with two memory configurations: 4 and 8 GB of flash RAM. Apple claims five hours of battery life when talking/watching/browsing, and up to 16 hours of audio playback.

There are three sensors hidden behind the iPhone’s face. One is an accelerometer, which tells the iPhone its orientation. When you turn the iPhone on its side, video and photos become widescreen and web pages expand horizontally. When you put the iPhone up to your ear to answer a call, the accelerometer combines with a proximity sensor to turn off the touch-sensing screen, saving power and keeping your face from pushing a virtual button while you’re on the call. There’s also an ambient light sensor to control screen brightness, again saving precious battery life.

So, with no buttons and no stylus, how do you get anything done? Seems almost all people (except clumsy chefs and carpenters) come with five hard-to-misplace styluses attached to each hand. They’re called fingers. The iPhone’s screen is touch-sensitive. Now, touch screens are certainly not revolutionary, but the iPhone’s touch screen sports some patented capabilities not seen, certainly on a phone, outside of a sci-fi movie.

Turning on the iPhone brings up the “Home” page, which displays button icons representing the phone’s four main capabilities – Phone, Mail, Web and iPod, and other buttons for often-used functions. As is the case with other Apple products, what distances the iPhone from other smartphones is not necessarily what it does, but how it goes about doing it. More next time.

© 2007 Peter F. Zimowski