Apple iPhone Multi-touch Technology and Flick Scrolling

I put the iPhone in the cradle, and it immediately fired up and said something like "activated" on the screen, and began syncing with my MacBook Pro.  About five or ten minutes later, it had completed the sync which included photos from my iPhoto library, songs, TV shows and movies from my iTunes library.  It also synced all of my contacts, my calendar and my bookmarks from Safari (Apple's web browser). 

Probably the coolest thing to me, though, was that it automatically configured my 3 email addresses their corresponding mail servers.  Let me repeat that - I did not have to configure my email.  I have 2 earthlink addresses and one .mac address.  I went into settings and it was all there, including passwords, incoming and outgoing mail servers.  The email application on the phone is a full-blown email client, as is the web browser. 

The iPhone is based on "multi-touch technology," which allows for the many interesting touch screen interface operations.  While many manufacturers are working on this technology, Apple is the first to bring it to market.   Operations such as the slider and "flick" scrolling are examples.  What is "flick" scrolling, you ask?  If you are in the phone mode, looking at a list of your contacts, just take your finger and "flick" up or down on the screen, and the contacts list scrolls up or down, at a speed determined by the thrust of your flick.  Imagine watching a video slot machine in Vegas - it's that kinda thing.  Another interesting use of the multi-touch is when you are viewing a web page or a photo.  If you want to enlarge what you are looking at, take your thumb and forefinger and place them on the screen as if you are squeezing, and expand them.  The image enlarges.  Bring them back together (think "pinch"), and the image reduces.  It is really cool, and a totally effective way to surf or navigate photos or Google maps, for example.

As for size, the iPhone is slimmer and smaller than I expected.  It is .46" thick, and is 2.4" wide by 4.5" tall.  In comparison, it is less than half the thickness of my trusty Nokia 6620, and if the Nokia were not rounded it would be about the same size (width and height).  It weighs a mere 4.8 oz.  The rear of the phone is constructed of what feels like anodized aluminum with a small black plastic section on the bottom (which would presumably be the location of the antenna).  The front of the machine is black with a chrome trim around the perimeter, and the screen is a gorgeous 3.5 inch diagonal widescreen with 480 x 320 pixel resolution at 160 dpi.  There is only one button on the front face - a round "home" button centered at the bottom and flush with the surface.  On the left side is a volume rocker and a mute switch to silence the ringer.  On top of the unit you will find the headphone jack (more on that below), the SIM card slot, and the on/off button.  When a call comes in, pressing the on/off button once silences the ring, pressing it a second time sends the call directly to voicemail.  When you flip the ringer switch on the side of the unit, the screen shows an icon of a muted bell and a short vibration lets you know you have entered silent mode. 

The 2.0 megapixel camera lens is located in the top corner on the rear of the phone, and the camera seems to take decent photos, although I have not yet tried anything critical.  The phone is Quad-band GSM, operating at 850, 900, 1800 & 1900 MHz.  For wireless data, the phone operates using Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), EDGE, and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR. 

Much has been discussed about Apple's decision to go with the slower EDGE technology.  Last week some users reported exponential speed jumps in AT&T's EDGE network, leading some to believe that AT&T and Apple had been working on a speed bump, but that has not been confirmed.  Apple has responded to the criticism by suggesting that many people find themselves in a Wi-Fi area more often than not when using their devices, so they opted for the robust Wi-Fi system for the iPhone.  Apple tends to think forward rather than current, so this makes sense when you start to think how many people have Wi-Fi at home and at their office, and with everyone from Starbucks to airports to entire cities beginning to offer wireless net access, they assume that this is where things are headed. 

Also included as features of the iPhone from the home screen are SMS Text Messaging, Calendar, Photos, YouTube, Stocks, Maps, Weather, Clock, Calculator and notes.  And of course, a full-featured, touch screen video iPod.