Apple interface wows this techie

On Tuesday, Apple announced its much-anticipated iPhone. The iPhone is a combination mobile phone, iPod and Internet communications device.

One of the first things you will notice about the iPhone is the lack of any physical buttons. That’s because the new iPhone boasts a brand new multi-touch display which means you can control everything by using only the touch of your fingers.

Now I know a lot of people will be wondering what Apple could do to a cell phone to make it any better than any of the hundreds of other cell phones already on the market. Well, the answer, in my opinion, is clearly in the interface. For example, the iPhone now lets you list your voice mails on the display just as if they were e-mails. A simple touch on a voice mail entry and you can listen to your voice mails in any order you want.

The iPod portion of the iPhone does everything your standalone iPod already does but again, the new interface is stunning. The new CoverFlow interface allows you to scroll through your music library by album artwork which makes it feel like you are selecting music from an old style jukebox. And since the new iPhone display is no longer square, any videos you put on your iPod can be viewed widescreen, the way they were intended to be viewed.

Which brings me to one of my favorite features. You can hold the iPhone in your hand like a normal phone but when you start to play a video you just turn the iPhone sideways and built-in sensors automatically switch the display to widescreen. These same sensors detect when you have put the phone up to your ear so the display can be turned off while you are talking to save battery power.

Lastly, the iPhone features built-in wireless and Bluetooth technology which means you can surf the Internet anywhere you can pick up one of these connections. The web page display on the iPhone is by far the best I have seen yet. Web pages are no longer cut off and fit nicely on the display. And if the web page appears too small, a simple touch on the screen and you can zoom in on a specific portion of the web page.

My only disappointment with the iPhone? It’s not yet for sale.

This post was originally broadcast Friday, January 12, 2007 on “Tech Talk with Noobie”, a weekly radio show on WCBK 102.3 FM in Martinsville, Indiana. Tech Talk with Noobie airs every Friday at 11:30 a.m. If you have a question you would like Noobie to answer on the air, simply e-mail your question to .