iPhone, AppleTV: MacWorld Keynote Wrapup. Steve Jobs, Jonathan Ive, and Apple Rule!

Steve Jobs at MacWorld today introduced two new products, both of which are truly life-changing. The new AppleTV will enable you to watch and hear on your television any iTunes movie or music, wirelessly. $299, ships in February. Apple’s iTunes is the conduit that will sync your media. AppleTV can store up to 50 hours of video.

But the big news is the unveiling of Apple’s iPhone. This is the Holy Grail of electronics. The iPhone is a wide-screen, 40GB or 80GB full-featured iPod, a 2MP (mega-pixel) camera, and, of course, a cell phone. All less than one inch deep. No buttons. No keys. All touch-screen. But wait, it gets better! You can view whatever media you want, either horizontally or vertically. And it gyroscopically determines its orientation. Flip it "long-ways," and you are watching Battlestar Galactica in full-color, widescreen. A turn of your wrist and you are watching it as you would on most cell phones: vertically. The screen? A 3.5 inch screen that boasts the highest resolution – 160 pixels per inch – ever shipped (assuming on a handheld device.) But wait, there’s more!

The iPhone is (despite Steve’s obvious dislike of the term) a "smartphone." It runs OS X! It has a full QWERTY (touchscreen) keyboard. Of course, iTunes is the sync conduit. It will sync your address book, photos, movies, music, podcasts and bookmarks. And email! And calendars! And notes! It uses Safari as the browser – a fully-compliant HTML browser, not some defective WAP browser! You can view your photos as you would in iPhoto, and resize them by "pulling" them. It supports any IMAP or POP3 email account, but Apple will have a special deal with Yahoo! Mail. (Surprised not with Google’s GMail.) And, amazingly, you can even place calls while within  Google Maps (included!) (Steve called Starbucks and ordered 4000 lattes! They’re probably not too happy with him.)

One of the features I love is that when you put it, as a phone, to your ear to talk, the ambient light sensor and proximity sensor darken the screen. And it has a built-in speaker! Also, GSM + EDGE technology, so it will work over-seas, and it is (finally!) Wi-Fi and Bluetooth enabled! And, it conference calls! Similiar to a Blackberry, the iPhone will "push" an email to the phone. Steve said, "It’s the Internet in your pocket."

The iPhone will retail, with a 2 year Cingular contract, at $499 for the 4GB model, and $599 for the 8GB model. Unfortunately, it will not be released until June. It is Mac and PC compatible.

Also of interest, Steve had on stage, albeit separately, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt, Jerry Yang, co-founder and CEO of Yahoo, and Stan Sigman, CEO of Cingular (Cingular is the only carrier that will market iPhone.) Apple is dropping the "Computer" from its name. Apple Computer is now, Apple. Or Apple, Inc. Steve took a few moments early on to bring up Microsoft’s Zune. (Who would want one at this point?)

I think the overriding point of the new iPhone – assuming everything Steve mentioned today is true -  is that it absolutely redefines the user experience and, like the iPod, it is not a re-interpretation of an old product or idea. It is a new species.

Later today, you can watch Apple CEO Steve Jobs kick-off Macworld Conference & Expo 2007 with a keynote address from San Francisco’s Moscone West.

Thanks to the following for their reporting:

Apple Insider, MacRumors, MacNN, C|Net’s Apple Blog