iPhoneStuff.org

When the iPhone was first announced, Mac-enthusiasts the world over hit the internet hard, blogging about it, about how much they wanted one, and debating what would be good or bad about it. Now - just over a month after the iPhone was announced on January 9th at Macworld, is the buzz still king?

As you can see by this chart listing blog mentions by day of “iPhone,” the buzz peaked around Macworld, Jan 9th, but quickly tapered off to just under 1000 mentions per day, and now has settled at a lull of around 200 mentions per day.

Evidently, people still care very much about this new revolutionary phone, mp3 player, and internet connect device, however, the intial buzz has died out.

In the top 100 keywords, also provided by Technorati, iPhone was not even close to within the top.

One thing is sure about the upcoming launch; as the time gets closer, we’ll see these numbers picking up again, enough to easily surpass the numbers around Macworld.

Some sexy iPhone icons for your OS X desktop were released a few days ago over at INTERFACELIFT.com. This is surely only the first of many iPhone icons, as there are many versions of the popular iPod product in icon form, as well as iMac, Mac Pro, and more. Get them while they’re hot!

iPhoneMatters.com recently had an interesting poll about why one would opt out of getting an iPhone.

The choices were:

1. Cingular
2. Way too expensive
3. I despise everything Apple, I am a troll
4. The lack of a real keyboard
5. I’m getting one!

…and the results were:

1. 41.66% Way too expensive
2. 25.97% Cingular
3. 21.80% I’m getting one!
4. 6.75% I despise everything Apple, I am a troll
5. 3.81% The lack of a real keyboard

It would appear that most percieve the iPhone’s price to be it’s biggest downfall. Another thing of note is that very few - perhaps only the business types - would say they wouldn’t get an iPhone because it lacks a real keyboard or the ability to use with a real keyboard. As always, there’s lots of angst for Cingular.

What drives your opinion? Will you be getting one? Why? Why not?

Ars Technica got some great information from a well-known professional usability expert, Bruce Tognazzini, including his opinions on whether the iPhone’s touch-screen interface will be the next big thing, or the next big flop. You may find the results surprising.

Naturally, besides a few elite media people, and Steve Jobs himself, no one has really had a good “hands-on” with the iPhone to test it out for usability, however, perceptions and predictions can be formed.

Bruce…

Loves:

Gives ordinary people widespread access to technologies that have otherwise been very limited for public consumption (such as multitouch and whatnot)
Very approachable, even for older folks
Visual, random-access voicemail. “It’s about time.”
Hates:

Five hour battery life, and non-replaceable battery (without a crowbar…). “That’s a bad interface,” Tog says.
Relying on public WiFi (”Public WiFi is a mess”) for Internet access, or expensive cell networks affect fundamental reliability
SMS, e-mail, and voicemail are all separated out as much as possible. “I should not have to visit three different places on my phone every few minutes to see what is happening.”
Widgets are the only add-on path for the iPhone. “I can only hope that changes.”
Needs a keyboard. Touchscreen keyboard is nice and all, but not good for extended use and takes up much of the screen.
Nits:

Desperately needs to be tested for ruggedness (is that a hint for me, Tog?)
SMS should include an interpreter to expand upon common abbreviations
Camera should be higher resolution
Facial recognition “would be a plus”
iPod interface potentially confusing, much more complex than phone interface
Safari browser on iPhone may and may not be forgiving to web pages that are not totally strict on HTML. Forgiving will be much better in the long run than not.
Maps on the iPhone should just “know” where you are and tell you how far, distance and time-wise, you are from appointments that are on your calendar

He did, however, comment on how much of an improvement on current cell phones this phone from Apple really is, saying “Traditional cell phones are dull, limited, and at end-of-life. iPhone is glorious, and it is only the beginning.”

Yes, if we can learn one thing from our technologically and cell-phonically advanced neighbours in Japan, it’s that cell phone innovation has to start somewhere, but where it leads to with competition, is limited only by imagination.

Apple’s iPhone may be the only king of touch-screen phones in North America, but the Japanese have had country-wide 3G service for a while now, touch-screens are nothing!

In this article from Joystiq, it explains that the phone - called the D800iDS - has dual screens that resemble the Nintendo DS, and no keys.

Its’ features include a PictoChat-like utility, enabling users to scrawl messages to eachother, and focus mainly on games and fun.

While North America anticipates the arrival of its’ first innovative cell phone in… forever, Japan quietly puts out highly superior products on a regular basis. Will this phone ever be available in the United States or Canada? Most likely not.

In a recent interview, New York Times reporter John Markoff sat down with Steve Jobs and pointedly asked a few probing questions regarding what the iPhone can, and can’t do.

The following is a transcript of one of Markoff’s questions:

Markoff: “And what are you thinking about Flash and Java?”

Jobs: “Java’s not worth building in. Nobody uses Java anymore. It’s this big heavyweight ball and chain.”

Markoff: “Flash?”

Jobs: “Well, you might see that.”

Markoff: “What about YouTube–”

Jobs: “Yeah, YouTube—of course. But you don’t need to have Flash to show YouTube. All you need to do is deal with YouTube.”

So, Steve Jobs, you “don’t need to have Flash to show YouTube” do you?

The help section off the YouTube homepage has this to say:

The video won’t play—what’s wrong?
All of the videos on YouTube are streamed through a Flash player, so you need to have the latest version of Macromedia Flash installed on your computer. To download it, please visit Adobe.

In other words, if Apple does plan on giving full support to YouTube, then we can expect they will give full support to having a Flash player on the upcoming iPhone.

Yesterday Apple met the expectations of all the rumor-mongers in the blog sphere when CEO Steve Jobs announced that Apple was reinventing the phone.
The iPhone by the newly renamed Apple Inc. (throwing away ‘Computers’) is to be released in June of 2007. Apple enthusiasts everywhere set their alias on instant-messaging services to a variation of “150 days to iPhone!”

The idea of the iPhone is, not to reinvent, but rather to completely redesign the wheel. Phone, PDA, iPod, all in one, but not with a clumsy keyboard with hard to depress buttons, rather, a touch screen with intuitive controls. The idea is incredible, and Steve Jobs made sure to announce that Apple patented the heck out of it.

As good as the iPhone sounds, it was not without some drawbacks in the minds of many. Cingular, a US cell phone service provider, is to be the sole provider of service with an agreement with Apple. The problem being that Cingular, despite being on of the larger networks, also has many critics. Many say that Cingular’s service is sketchy at best and reception is not too great as soon as one leaves heavily towered areas.

Those of us living outside the United States are left wondering who Apple might make a deal with in our country, or if the iPhone will be service provider independent? Will it cost more if the service provider hasn’t already been decided?

The iPhone will run at a cost of $499 US for a 4GB capacity model, and $599 for an 8GB.