I say while back, I mean when it was launched (make sure no one think I had insider info, which I didn’t). anyway, back to the iPhone.

Don’t get me wrong. I use apple products a lot (even though I work for Microsoft). I have a Mac Pro, which I run Windows XP on pretty much exclusive (until I need to do photo editing, then back to OSX and Aperture). I have a 60Gb iPod which I use in the car (my Pioneer head unit has an iPod connector). but I also have a Zune, which I use when I am not in the car. I am starting to prefer the Zune more and more! I use that when not in the car. But, anyway, back to the iPhone, again.

An Apple VP has confirmed that its a closed API and third party applications cant be installed. This kind of makes me wonder about the keynote. In the keynote, Jobs stated that if an app wants to use different buttons, etc, with a non iPhone, they cant because of the default buttons. but Apple are the only ones going to write software for it. so, dev’s cant get into it. That puts a stop to a DivX player, WMA player (if wanted), FireFox for the iPhone (if you don’t like Safari) and, probably the most important thing, sat nav software.  

Other things about this that make it something I definitely don’t want. no 3G or HSDPA (think 3g on speed). no keyboard. Again, something that came up in the keynote was the idea of the “bottom 40% taking up space, and cant be removed when not needed”. Mr Jobs has never heard of Sliding Keyboards (think HTC BlueAngel or HTC Hermes) or folding keyboards (Think HTC Universal).

Now, I’m not just bashing the iPhone here. There are 2 really cool things that have been shown with this. 1 is the fact that you can get 8Gb of memory, and the rest, into a phone that’s 11mm thick (or thin). the second is that multi touch display. now, yes, there are patents on the multi touch, but lets see if HTC can come out with something a lot cooler!

Finally, and this is just a point I have though about. Why only 8Gb? yes, its thin at 11mm, but if they made it a bit thicker (say the width of an iPod) and stuck in a 60 – 80 (or even 100) gb 1.8″ disk, then we might be talking slightly differently. And don’t say no one would carry it around if it was a bit thicker. a lot of people, if they get this, will probably have both this and their regular 80Gb iPod. who wants to carry around “Only” 8Gb of music?