Time Magazine Names iPhone Invention Of The Year

jfisher
#1. November 2nd, 2007, at 1:13 PM.

iphone - invention of the year. because it’s pretty. and not an invention.

>>’Most high-tech companies don’t take design seriously. They treat it as an afterthought. Window-dressing.’

o rly? how about usability?

>>’A tiny little orange airplane zooms into the menu bar!’

you can of course turn the radio off on most phones.

>>’But cute little touches like that are part of what makes the iPhone usable in a world of useless gadgets.’

usability is what makes gadgets usable. and apple aren’t the best at it. blackberry are

>>’It speaks your language. In the world of technology, surface really is depth.’

Now he sounds like jobs.

>>’Apple’s engineers used the touchscreen to innovate past the graphical user interface’

All the ui/multitouch features have been floating about on youtube in the year before the iphone appeared, including scrolling and panning/zooming- what they did do first was put it in a consumer product.

>>’ (which Apple helped pioneer with the Macintosh in the 1980s)’

He means ’stole from xerox just like everyone else’

>>’illusion of actually physically manipulating data with their hands—flipping through album covers, clicking links, stretching and shrinking photographs with their fingers.’

again - not-apple. this had been around way before the iphone was in development

>>’Touching is the new seeing’

with no tactile feedback you’ll have trouble typing without looking at the screen. in fact, you can’t.

>>’one reason so many cell phones are lame is that cell-phone-service providers hobble developers with lame rules about what they can and can’t do. AT&T gave Apple unprecedented freedom to build the iPhone to its own specifications. Now other phone makers are jealous. They’re demanding the same freedoms. That means better, more innovative phones for all.’

the only carrier specific feature is visual voicemail which is extremely trivial. if apple attempted to include their own wifi voip solution that bypassed the wireless carrier at&t would’ve told them to ******** (this most likely happened).

>>’It’s not a phone, it’s a platform’

as is blackberry, symbian, pocketpc etc etc

>>’The iPhone gets applications like Google Maps out onto the street, where we really need them.’

googlemaps was available for blackberry and other mobiles several months (if not a year+) before iphone appeared.

>>’meaning people other than Apple employees—will be able to develop software for it too.’

which of course every other mobile platform allows you to do by default from day one. how innovative.

>>’And it’ll be even cheaper.’

the current iphone is incredibly expensive. ‘even cheaper’ - it’s not cheap now….

d_fisher
#4. November 2nd, 2007, at 3:21 PM.

I have to agree with jfisher (no relation). The iPhone might be the best new thing this year. But really, is it actually an invention? Nothing on it is new, just wrapped better than others. I guess the thing I don’t like is the work invention.

Bill Andrews
#5. November 2nd, 2007, at 6:18 PM.

What a joke! Did they actually try to use it for something other than music?

MKDC
#6. November 2nd, 2007, at 7:06 PM.

Let’s see, who owns Time? Hmmm

hellno
#7. November 2nd, 2007, at 7:46 PM.

lighten up fellow BB users. Anyone with half a brain knows the the iPhone is a generation ahead of anything and everything else out there. The haters and doubters refused to believe and/or understand when Steve Jobs speaks and Apple executes we were in for a industry changing, revolutionary device. Sure there are things Apple can make better, but for a v1 device I think they nailed it, the Time article has merit. Perhaps those throwing stones would like to compare the v1 blackberry with the v1 iPhone to see where things match up. The iphone is a invention, the iPhone is a portable computer, its not a PDA or a smartphone.

There are bugs and things Apple can do better. For instance battery life is less than adequite, typing on a pane of glass is not as intuitive, nor as productive as having qwerty or SureType. The old 30 pin proprietary cable and port needs to be upgraded to industry standard mini-usb. The email app, when dealing with more than one email account, and pop mail is a J O K E.

The iphone is a work of art though, the form factor is close to perfect, Apple’s technology is going to continue to push the industry hard to try to catch up. Apple’s dealings with the carrier should open doors for other top tier manufactures to keep the service providers from messing with the devices and concentrate on the service.

Again the iPhone getting good reviews doesn’t make you guys any less pretty, nor does it take anything away from the fact that our BB’s in some ways still have qualities which shows the iPhone the way. But the iPhone is a huge plus for the industry, wether one is smart enough to admit that or not. Not that RIM doesn’t innovate, but bet everyone can agree RIM’s (and others) R&D have been working OT since January 9, 2007 and THAT is a plus for all of us.

Thought
#8. November 2nd, 2007, at 7:51 PM.

I agree with hellno: it is so obvious that the iPhone has changed everything in the mobile space. That doesn’t take away from BlackBerry at all.

The iPhone is like a breath of fresh air for mobile phones, and indeed, it is far more than that, it is a pocket computer. This was a no brainer award for Time; it could go to no other device this year, and indeed, I expect the iPhone to win every “gadget of the year” type of award available.