Tech Times - This delicious slice of Apple lives up to all expectations - by Sebastian Stent

This delicious slice of Apple lives up to all expectations


July 10, 2007 Edition 1
Sebastian Stent

Last week I got a phone call from Bonnie Schneider, a Capetonian who lives in New York. She had some interesting news - her fiancé, Benjamin Rouah, had just bought an iPhone, and they were both in town. Did I want a go? Have a go on possibly the first iPhone on the continent? What a proposition. Of course …
My interest piqued, it was with bated breath that I awaited their arrival. Would the iPhone live up to expectations? And was it really that hard to get?
Rouah was quick to dispel the rumours. Apparently, although the AT&T stores sold out enormously quickly, and there was queueing at the Apple stores, Rouah only had to wait an hour or so to get his hands on one, and not the three days parked on a kerb that many of us believed was de rigeur for those intent on purchasing one.
Schneider was unimpressed by the hype and had tried to dissuade Rouah from being sucked in.
As they stood in a lift, she had commented that all the fuss was a prime example of everything that was wrong with America. A fellow lift-traveller had told her to go back where she came from then. It's funny, but Americans really do defend their right to spend rabidly.
However, Benjamin got to the front of the queue and was quite surprised to be able to buy his iPhone with relative ease. He hasn't looked back since.
As he went through its functions, it was amazing to see the way in which all of the functions of the iPhone are so intuitive to use.
Every application is laid out on a central menu, and the interaction between these different functions make it almost appear as if the iPhone is thinking for you.
Rouah gave me an example. One day, travelling on a subway, he was listening to his music using the iPod function.
The volume dimmed and the phone rang, alerting him to the fact that he had an incoming call. Just touching the tiny bar on the headphones linked him to the call.
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It was Schneider - calling to tell him to meet her at a restaurant in Manhattan. She rang off, the music returned to its previous volume and with a simple touch of the screen Rouah was in the Google Maps application. Merely typing in the name of the restaurant brought up its location, and by spreading his fingers across the screen, he was able to zoom in and see exactly where it was, where he was and exactly how to get there. Simple.
The phone has a number of great utilities. YouTube works so fast it is hard to believe that it is streaming, with no buffering or waiting around.
Web pages appear as they do on a computer and you can zoom in and out with a flick of your fingers.
SMSes are revolutionised and a conversation plays out in speech-bubble boxes, showing who said what in a clear and accessible way.
Then there is the iPod, whose display is like a three-dimensional jukebox, allowing you to rotate through your albums by their cover and then access songs therein immediately, compiling your playlists in a visually arresting and simple way.
Finally, Rouah showed me the shareprice function. While this was cool, the coolest thing about it came when he pulled up the Apple stocks.
A jump of $13 dollars since the iPhones release? Now that's the true power of Apple - building hype to such great heights that their shares skyrocket. An investor's dream.
This couple had come back to South Africa to visit Schneider parents and Rouah had been given strict instructions to make sure that this time he came with a ring.
Maybe the Schneiders were about to introduce Mr Rouah to the South African concept of lobola. Not so much a ring, as ring, ring …
bigeyeddeer@yahoo.co.uk