Blogs were stormed in record numbers, and IMs were frantically typed around the globe. Jobs’ newest iSensation, the most anticipated gadget announcement ever - finally came to be. After years of waiting, Apple-lovers rejoiced as Jobs’ spoke down to them, telling how he planned to change everything. Once again.

As I watched the announcement on video, I thought instantly I must have one. By
the end of it, I was pretty sure it wasn’t right for me. The iPhone is a revolution
in certain ways, but grossly dated technology in others.

I figured I’d let the dust settle before sharing thoughts on the iPhone… let the details solidify some, let there be a bit of dialogue and critical thinking about the device and what it brings to the mobile industry. I’ve gotten a lot of email anticipating an entry on what I think about it, so get ready - here comes an earful. Just keep in mind… I speak as a mobile tech evangelist and power user.

The revolutionary aspects of the iPhone are no-brainers… it’s the ideal convergence device for consumers that carry both their iPods and cells with them at all times. I don’t take my iPod with me when I walk around town, but I see tons of peeps that do. I’m a gym and road-trip iPod user for the most part.

The slick UI is just breath-taking. Jobs focused on it during the announcement, and Apple made sure videos of a lot of the UI was available immediately on Apple.com. While handy in some ways questionably difficult in others (how easy will poking that on-screen qwerty keyboard be with your fingers?), you can’t deny it’s the most innovative and sexy interface for a mobile device to date.

Apple is giving other manufacturers a challenge on the front of smart (and sexy) hardware. We all knew that when Apple actually entered the mobile game (the piece of crap ROKR phone never counted, even in Apple’s book), they’d bring a ton of sexy to the table. What came as a big, welcomed surprise was the addition of motion-sensing hardware features… allowing software to rotate the screen as you rotate the device, and turn off the screen when you hold it to your ear. In a world where the Nintendo (via the Wii and Gameboy DS) is bringing new interactivity to gaming though motion detection hardware, the iPhone uses it to automate certain helpful device functions. Pretty damn sweet.Now the bad news - and I’m afraid I have a lot of it to give - primarily because Jobs says this phone is “5 years ahead” of other mobiles. He’s hoping you just believe him blindly, evidently…. because the iPhone undoubtedly uses some pretty dated and crippled technologies. It seems after all of this awesome Apple innovation they put in the iPhone, they stack in on the feature set of a cell phone from 2005.

There, I said it. How the hell do I figure this? Let’s look.

It’s got only a 2MP camera and no flash. Better camera phones come free with service nowadays. I’ll admit I have high expectations for camera phones, but at the end of the day, the situation to any consumer is the same: if the camera isn’t good, they won’t use it. This phone is at the bottom of the barrel in this category.

It’s got a real web browser, but no 3G data capabilitie. If you think Cingular’s (AT&T’s now, I guess) Edge network is sufficient for browsing the real web, think again. It’s dial up. I don’t care how long your bus ride is, loading Gizmodo on the edge network is gonna be painful.

It’s not a smartphone. Apple is making the iPhone a closed platform - despite it being some child of OS X - and refusing third-party developers the chance to create applications and tools for their device. Since by definition, a smart phone is a phone that lets you install software, Jobs had to comment on his choice by saying, “Cingular doesn’t want to see their West Coast network go down because some application messed up.” Much like with the sea of third-party accessories for proprietary iPod ports, I think it’s more likely Apple wants a cut of any software going near this thing.

Unlike current mobiles over the last couple years, there are no over-the-air music downloads. This is a ridiculous one. You can buy songs from pretty much any carrier on your cellphone with other handsets.. but I can’t buy tracks using… the iPhone? The most musical-oriented handset ever? Well, it looks like you’ll have to sync with your home machine to get tracks on there, that’s fine. However….

You can’t sync to iTunes or your machine at all, using WiFi. For any other phone, this could be forgivable, but this phone’s sole purpose is to sync with iTunes. Why deny people the ability?

In true iPod fashion, there’s no removable (or easily replaceable) battery. If you think it’s annoying that your iPod battery barely holds a decent charge like it used to, imagine how annoying that problem would be on your phone. However, for 100 bucks (50 if you do it yourself, I believe) you can get a new battery installed in an iPod, and presumably the iPhone as well. Ouch. And I doubt you’ll get a loaner.

While this isn’t a positive or negative yet, confirmation will make soon make it one or the other. Wireless music via stereo bluetooth? (A2DP support not confirmed by Apple). Honestly, this could turn out to be my biggest praise or biggest disappointment. Apple raises the bar for mobile music via iPod features. If they didn’t (but more than likely did) cripple the bluetooth in the iPhone, and would just add bluetooth with A2DP support to the iPod family’s feature set, nobody would be dealing with wired headphones. And nobody is going to want to buy a headset for the friggin’ iPhone that doesn’t let you listen to music over it. I’m hoping Apple confirms that the phone will support stereo bluetooth… if they do, this paragraph is definitely moving up to the green section.

Now, I’m bound to get some astounded readers, wondering why I’m being so hard on Apple’s entry into the mobile market. My answer? Again, Jobs says this phone is 5 years ahead of other handsets. It’s just not. It brings a full iPod into your mobile, and some slick software, but isn’t going to threaten the likes of today’s new smartphones that rock 3G network speeds, 5 megapixel cameras with hi-res video, wireless music and syncing, and a respect for integrating with a thriving community of software developers and powerful, popular web services.

For example, you couldn’t compare the iPhone with the Nokia N95. They’re entirely different animals. For the iPod lover, the iPhone’s basic phone fuction will rock as the perfect phone/iPod hybrid. That goes uncontested, regardless of my gripes of greatly missed features. However, if you want a mobile that allows you to you communicate, and to create and share media in a fully-connected device, go with a smartphone powerhouse like the Nokia N95. It’s actually living up to the promise of a next gen feature-set.

While I certainly didn’t plan on creating a vlog entry for this, when the booze comes out, sometimes the camera phone isn’t far behind.  The footage is a bit spastic, but we were as well. :)

Had a great time in NY with my Vancouver friends, and got to catch up with some close friends of mine that moved there.

Filmed on an N73.  And you guessed it, that naked individual is Amanda Lepore (see her on Tyra for a kick).

Nokia announced the N76 at CES today. And while I typically focus on the highest of the high-end handsets, the Nokia N76 strikes me as significant; it’s the most appealing mass-market N Series devices to date.

Typically, mass-market and Nokia N Series weren’t something I felt really went hand-in-hand. After all, N Series is known as Nokia’s cutting edge multimedia computer line, most focused on pushing limits of device capability than getting love from carriers.

This is where the N76 comes in and mixes things up. The N76 is slated to be the answer to the RAZR loving crowd, that has finally realized that their phones are 4 year-old technology in a flat metal case. And while most N Series devices are a big-time investment, the N76 should only bang you up for $300 bucks before carrier subsidies. Not too shabby.

What are you getting for it? Some awesome stuff to help the average Joe ease into his N Series capabilities. First of all, check out that it has external music controls, expandable memory of up to 2GB, and 3.5mm industry-standard headphone jack. For the love of God, thank you. The fact that any mainstream handset parading itself as a music phone doesn’t have a 3.5mm jack is a joke. It’s got a decent 2.0 megapixel camera that you can also operate while the phone is closed, with integrated services on the phone to upload to sites like Flickr.

When it comes down to it, I can see myself recommending this handset in the future to quite a few people looking to upgrade to something a little nicer than the free RAZRs every carrier is throwing at passersby. We’ll have to see how it hold up when I get a chance to review one. In the meantime, check out the slick video on the Nokia’s N76 CES web site.