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OK - Time named the Apple iPhone "Invention of the Year."
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| Jem_hadar |
| Time named the Apple iPhone "Invention of the Year." This announcement created all sorts of buzz from people ranging from Apple lovers to Apple haters, and everyone in between. Some saying it's a well-deserved title, yet some contend that Apple didn't invent the cell phone--they just built their own. In CNET editor Kent German's Crave blog, "Did Apple invent the cell phone?", he states that he is a bit confused by all this and whether the iPhone should even count as an invention. Personally, I have to side with Kent as I'm a bit confused, too. Sure, Apple has improved on the concept of the cell phone and should be named as most innovative technology of the year, but should that count as an "Invention of the Year"? What do you think? The debate is on, and we'd all like to hear what you think. Also let take this to the poll, so get your vote in now. |
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| Jem_hadar |
Invention Of the Year: The iPhone
By LEV GROSSMAN
Stop. I mean, don't stop reading this, but stop thinking what you're about to think. Or, O.K., I'll think it for you:
The thing is hard to type on. It's too slow. It's too big. It doesn't have instant messaging. It's too expensive. (Or, no, wait, it's too cheap!) It doesn't support my work e-mail. It's locked to AT&T. Steve Jobs secretly hates puppies. And—all together now—we're sick of hearing about it! Yes, there's been a lot of hype written about the iPhone, and a lot of guff too. So much so that it seems weird to add more, after Danny Fanboy and Bobby McBlogger have had their day. But when that day is over, Apple's iPhone is still the best thing invented this year. Why? Five reasons:
1. The iPhone is pretty
Most high-tech companies don't take design seriously. They treat it as an afterthought. Window-dressing. But one of Jobs' basic insights about technology is that good design is actually as important as good technology. All the cool features in the world won't do you any good unless you can figure out how to use said features, and feel smart and attractive while doing it.
An example: look at what happens when you put the iPhone into "airplane" mode (i.e., no cell service, WiFi, etc.). A tiny little orange airplane zooms into the menu bar! Cute, you might say. But cute little touches like that are part of what makes the iPhone usable in a world of useless gadgets. It speaks your language. In the world of technology, surface really is depth.
2. It's touchy-feely
apple didn't invent the touchscreen. Apple didn't even reinvent it (Apple probably acquired its much hyped multitouch technology when it snapped up a company called Fingerworks in 2005). But Apple knew what to do with it. Apple's engineers used the touchscreen to innovate past the graphical user interface (which Apple helped pioneer with the Macintosh in the 1980s) to create a whole new kind of interface, a tactile one that gives users the illusion of actually physically manipulating data with their hands—flipping through album covers, clicking links, stretching and shrinking photographs with their fingers.
This is, as engineers say, nontrivial. It's part of a new way of relating to computers. Look at the success of the Nintendo Wii. Look at Microsoft's new Surface Computing division. Look at how Apple has propagated its touchscreen interface to the iPod line with the iPod Touch. Can it be long before we get an iMac Touch? A TouchBook? Touching is the new seeing.
3. It will make other phones better
jobs didn't write the code inside the iPhone. These days he doesn't dirty his fingers with 1's and 0's, if he ever really did. But he did negotiate the deal with AT&T to carry the iPhone. That's important: 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.
4. It's not a phone, it's a platform
when apple made the iphone, it didn't throw together some cheap-o bare-bones firmware. It took OS X, its full-featured desktop operating system, and somehow squished it down to fit inside the iPhone's elegant glass-and-stainless-steel case. That makes the iPhone more than just a gadget. It's a genuine handheld, walk-around computer, the first device that really deserves the name. One of the big trends of 2007 was the idea that computing doesn't belong just in cyberspace, it needs to happen here, in the real world, where actual stuff happens. The iPhone gets applications like Google Maps out onto the street, where we really need them.
And this is just the beginning. Platforms are for building on. Last month, after a lot of throat-clearing, Apple decided to open up the iPhone, so that you—meaning people other than Apple employees—will be able to develop software for it too. Ever notice all that black blank space on the iPhone's desktop? It's about to fill up with lots of tiny, pretty, useful icons.
5. It is but the ghost of iPhones yet to come
the iphone has sold enough units—more than 1.4 million at press time—that it'll be around for a while, and with all that room to develop and its infinitely updatable, all-software interface, the iPhone is built to evolve. Look at the iPod of six years ago. That monochrome interface! That clunky touchwheel! It looks like something a caveman whittled from a piece of flint using another piece of flint. Now imagine something that's going to make the iPhone look that primitive. You'll have one in a few years. It'll be very cool. And it'll be even cheaper.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2...-inline-sidebar |
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| millzy |
| thats kinda messed like 90% of the stuff that is on the iphone has been on nokia phones for awhile |
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| DigiNut |
| Just goes to show you how low Time has sunk. |
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| emonster4life |
| research in motion or blackberry is a better phone and company and its based out of Ontario whoo hoo |
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| jchung52 |
| quote: | Originally posted by emonster4life
research in motion or blackberry is a better phone and company and its based out of Ontario whoo hoo |
waterloo... my hometown ;) taught the ceo's son violin for 2 yrs... yet i dont have a blackberry.. wtf. hmm |
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| ÖZmözis |
iPhone is the Shizzzznat!
I <3 my iPhone! |
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| smuncky |
| its all about people buying into the hype. |
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| Leon Oziel |
| Britney Spears Time's Performance of the Year! I smell a bribe... I mean, there's this new product out there for diabetics which inserts the body through orally rather than injection. It's a mouth spray insulin and does the same job, or does that not count as an invention :/? |
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| Ub3rBreaker |
stupid
I read somewhere that some kind of ultra green car came in second?
again... stupid |
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| activate |
| while they may not have invented some of the technologies used in the iphone. whey defintely did invent the iphone as they were the firs to combine those technologies, mass produce and market them to great success. |
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| millzy |
| The nokia e70 has almost all the features of an iphone and some even better except the touch screen and has been out over a year. |
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