{"id":551309,"date":"2007-01-19T06:20:07","date_gmt":"2007-01-19T06:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/551309-apple-looks-peachy.html"},"modified":"2007-01-19T06:20:07","modified_gmt":"2007-01-19T06:20:07","slug":"apple-looks-peachy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/551309-apple-looks-peachy.html","title":{"rendered":"Apple looks peachy"},"content":{"rendered":"

You would be forgiven for not knowing that Gates delivered a keynote address at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas last week. Apple CEO Steve Jobs, speaking in San Francisco at the Macworld expo, stole all the attention from the Microsoft cofounder. Jobs had the Mac faithful \u2014 and technology journalists \u2014 eating out of his hand last Monday when he announced details of the long-awaited iPhone. \u201cToday,\u201d he told 4000 cheering Macworld delegates, \u201cApple is going to reinvent the phone.\u201d <\/font><\/p>\n

At CES, 670km away, Gates delivered a keynote about \u201ca new generation of connected experiences\u201d \u2014 about how static and mobile devices will interact seamlessly online. We\u2019ve heard it all before. One journalist described Gates\u2019s address as nothing more than a \u201clong infomercial\u201d that delivered nothing new of interest. Gates has been promising these \u201cconnected experiences\u201d for the best part of a decade. Yawn <\/font><\/p>\n

Jobs, on the other hand, didn\u2019t disappoint. News of the iPhone, which will be launched in the US in June and in SA in 2008 (maybe), sent Apple\u2019s share price soaring nearly 10%, pushing the company\u2019s market capitalisation above US80bn for the first time. <\/font><\/p>\n

Investors have good reason to be excited. Not only is the iPhone an Internet smartphone and wide-screen iPod music and video player in one, but Jobs has once again stolen a march on his chief rival. Microsoft, with its recently introduced Zune media player, has been attempting to unseat Apple in the market for digital music players and online music sales. With the iPhone, Apple has left the Zune in the dust. <\/font><\/p>\n

The 135g iPhone, which runs a version of Apple\u2019s acclaimed Mac OS X operating system, has a number of features that sets it apart from its rivals. The most impressive of these is a new user interface using a patented technology that Jobs calls \u201cmultitouch\u201d. This touch-screen system allows you to control the device by using your fingers, rather than a stylus, to glide through music albums, flip through photos and zoom in and out of Web pages on the high-resolution, 320×480-pixel screen. <\/font><\/p>\n

What has also set tongues wagging is the iPhone\u2019s use of sensors that detect when the device is rotated. The picture is automatically adjusted to portrait or landscape mode depending on whether you hold the device vertically or horizontally. This is useful when watching video or reading Web pages. <\/font><\/p>\n

The iPhone has built-in Wi-Fi for browsing the Web and making Internet phone calls. Controversially, the quad-band iPhone lacks support for fast 3G networks. When away from a Wi-Fi hotspot, users will have to rely on slower Edge technology. Smartphones from the likes of Nokia and Sony Ericsson already support both Wi-Fi and 3G. Apple has hinted, however, that a 3G version of the iPhone could be in the offing. Perhaps by the time the product is launched in SA it will support 3G. <\/font><\/p>\n

There\u2019s little doubt that the iPhone represents a big problem for Microsoft. The Zune, already a poor second cousin to the iPod, looks prehistoric next to the iPhone. Will Microsoft, which has shunned the idea of developing its own branded cellphone in favour of providing its Windows Mobile software to third-party handset manufacturers, build its own iPhone-like device and risk alienating its hardware partners? It\u2019s already done it in music with the Zune, so why not with cellphones too? <\/font><\/p>\n

Perhaps CES delegates won\u2019t need to bring pillows to next year\u2019s keynote by Gates. But don\u2019t bet on it. <\/font><\/p>\n

Comments<\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates likes to boast that his company is a leader in innovation. But Apple\u2019s announcement last week of the iPhone demonstrates that it is Apple, not Microsoft, that is leading innovation in consumer electronics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-551309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551309"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551309\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}