Crunch time
Apple’s new iPhone is here – but, asks David Phelan, should you buy into the hype?
Few gadgets have been as anticipated as the Apple iPhone – and, after the extraordinary build-up, we are happy to report it is highly desirable. It’s a sleek mobile phone with an iPod built in – as beautifully designed as an iPod, too. For a start, it’s virtually button-free: the colour screen covering almost the entire front of the phone is touch-sensitive. You scroll through music tracks by brushing your finger up and down. Turn the iPhone sideways and it knows, replacing the track names with album cover art to flick through.
You can also surf the internet (this is fastest in an internet coffee shop or other Wifi hotspot), again by tapping a finger on the screen. Double-tapping zooms you in to the web page.
There’s a camera built-in and displaying the shots you take is easy – you can enlarge or shrink them by simply pinching your fingers together. It comes with Google maps so you can find your way around and the phone lets you play back video from YouTube over the air.
If there’s a fault, it is that typing a text message is daunting, although it works better than you’d think – and users outside of the US will miss the faster data transfer speeds 3G phones offer. The iPhone is due in Europe before the end of the year, with no news yet on a Gulf date – but it’ll definitely be worth the wait. www.apple.com
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