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1 <!doctype html> 2 <html lang="en"> 3 <head> 4 <meta charset="utf-8"> 5 <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> 6 <title>Apple Reinvents the Phone? - Chris Bracken</title> 7 <link href="/css/site.css" rel="stylesheet"> 8 <link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="180x180" href="/favicon/apple-touch-icon.png"> 9 <link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="32x32" href="/favicon/favicon-32x32.png"> 10 <link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="16x16" href="/favicon/favicon-16x16.png"> 11 <link rel="manifest" href="/favicon/site.webmanifest"> 12 <link rel="mask-icon" href="/favicon/safari-pinned-tab.svg" color="#140f42"> 13 <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon/favicon.ico"> 14 <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#603cba"> 15 <meta name="msapplication-config" content="/favicon/browserconfig.xml"> 16 <meta name="theme-color" content="#ffffff"> 17 </head> 18 <body> 19 <header id="header"> 20 <div class="site-title"> 21 <h1><a href="/">Chris Bracken</a></h1> 22 </div> 23 24 <nav class="site-navbar"> 25 <ul id="menu" class="menu"> 26 <li class="menu-item"><a class="menu-item-a" href="/">Home</a></li> 27 <li class="menu-item"><a class="menu-item-a" href="/about/">About</a></li> 28 <li class="menu-item"><a class="menu-item-a" href="/code/">Code</a></li> 29 <li class="menu-item"><a class="menu-item-a" rel="me"href="https://bsd.network/@cbracken">Fediverse</a></li> 30 </ul> 31 </nav> 32 </header> 33 <main id="main"> 34 <article> 35 <h2 class="post-title"><a href="https://chris.bracken.jp/2007/01/apple-reinvents-the-iphone/">Apple Reinvents the Phone?</a></h2> 36 26 January 2007 37 <p><em>Update (2009-02-28)</em>: Alright, guilty as charged. “No wireless. Less space 38 than a nomad. 39 <a href="https://slashdot.org/story/01/10/23/1816257/Apple-releases-iPod">Lame</a>.”</p> 40 <p>After watching the Steve Jobs iPhone keynote, I have to say I’m a little 41 disappointed. While this phone has a slicker GUI than any other phone I’ve 42 seen, it’s not so much the $499 US price-tag, but the stone-age functionality 43 of the phone compared to what we have here in Japan that makes my jaw 44 drop.</p> 45 <p>Here in Japan, 3 years ago in 2004, for 1 yen, I had the following in a 46 cellphone:</p> 47 <ul> 48 <li>3G download speeds of 50 Mb/s.</li> 49 <li>Two-way video-phone.</li> 50 <li>Built-in fingerprint scanner (for security checks).</li> 51 <li>MP3 player and download service.</li> 52 <li>Edy BitWallet (like Interac, except you swipe your finger on the 53 phone’s scanner to accept the transaction).</li> 54 <li>Can be used as a <em>Suica</em> train pass.</li> 55 <li>Can buy movie tickets and scan in at the theatre, bypassing the 56 lineup.</li> 57 <li>Can wave it at vending machines for food and drinks.</li> 58 <li>Will figure out train routes, transfer locations and times, and 59 ticket prices.</li> 60 <li>Can scan barcodes which take you to websites – eg. scan at the bus 61 station to pull up the schedule or scan a magazine to order a 62 product.</li> 63 <li>MP3 player and download service.</li> 64 <li>Decent email (+ attachments), SMS, calendaring, notepad.</li> 65 <li>Automatic location triangulation (by determining which antennae are 66 nearby) and location-aware mapping, shopping/restaurant listings.</li> 67 <li>Interactive mapping of current location with zooming and scrolling.</li> 68 <li>Integrated graphical web-browser.</li> 69 <li>1 megapixel Camera, Video camera.</li> 70 <li>Display/graph your phone usage to the day.</li> 71 <li>Can write and deploy your own Java/C/C++ applets.</li> 72 </ul> 73 <p>If you go for a high-end phone with more than the above (e.g. built-in TV 74 tuner), you’ll need to pay more than one yen, but the price range is normally 75 below ¥20,000 ($200 Canadian). In its current state, the iPhone won’t sell in 76 Japan even if it’s free; Apple is going to have to do some major work if it 77 wants to compete with even the bare-bones models on the market in Japan.</p> 78 </article> 79 </main> 80 81 <footer id="footer"> 82 <div class="copyright"> 83 <span xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#"> 84 The content of this site by 85 <a rel="cc:attributionURL" href="https://chris.bracken.jp/about"><span rel="cc:attributionName">Chris Bracken</span></a> 86 is 87 <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0">CC BY 4.0</a>. 88 </span> 89 </div> 90 </footer> 91 </body> 92 </html>