Well, Apple announced their brand new iPhone yesterday. Since I wrote an entry about it on 6th August 2006, when I thought it might be about to come out, I decided I’d better do a mini follow-up: Not to jump on the bandwagon, rather, to redirect those who’ve searched for ‘iPhone’ and landed here.

So, without further ado…

My personal opinions

Before it became reality, my favourite things about the iPhone were all the myths & rumours about what it would or could be like. Now that the iPhone exists it’s funny to see how wrong some people were. The best, I think, is that one of Rex’s predictions for 2007 is wrong already: "And the iPhone? Nope, never. Why? Cuz the iPhone is like God — if it really existed, you wouldn’t care that much." Heh.

I hope sites like the blog dedicated to pictorial guesses of what the iPhone might be like, continue to exist. For more iPhone myths, see Tao of Mac: iPhone speculation since 2004.

My favourite things on the real Apple iPhone

• The amazingness of web browsing: the page changes orientation automatically, you can zoom in, scroll with your finger… Watch the official video.
• It just looks so cool! The interface looks clean, clear, simple, elegant… All the things you expect from Apple.
• Did I mention how utterly, uberly pretty it is?!

Some notes

Please correct me if I’m wrong. Update: Thanks, Ian, for corrections!

• Not available yet. Due June, US; October-ish, UK.
• Only available on Cingular network.
• Price & memory: $499 for 4GB / $599 for 8GB
• Battery life: 5 hours of talk or video and 16 hours of audio
• No removable battery, no removable memory.

Better, more informed articles about the iPhone

• MobileWhack: Apple iPhone: Overview
• Endgadget: 10 iPhone articles &co & Endgadget: First iPhone pics! (So pretty!)
• Signal vs Noise: How can you dial the iPhone without looking at it?
• NY Times: It feels amazing in your hand… typing is difficult
• Jobs unveils iPhone to 4,000 drooling fans See their ‘Related stories’ for more.
• Pandagon: CNET notes that while Jobs refers to it as the iPhone, Cisco owns the trademark
• Wired: iPhone Takes Apple on New Path
• iPhone is awesome (restrictions apply): The main issue seems to be the ‘closed’ nature of the iPhone, i.e. the fact that you can’t put your own software on there, unlike with a Blackberry. Check out the comments for some informative discussion.

Hope that was helpful! Do let me know either way.