iPhone to come to Cingular?

(Credit: Ministry of Tech)

As we told you yesterday, iPhone rumors in the past year have become like I Love Lucy reruns--you just can't get away from them. But in recent days some of the most interesting gossip has emerged with a report that a Taiwanese company has received an Apple order for 12 million iPhones. This is the latest picture of the supposed device, but as with every other "iPhone" photo we've posted, we have no way of knowing whether it's real or fake.

We're also hearing again that Cingular will be the exclusive launch carrier for the phone. If that's true, it goes without saying that it would be a huge coup for the carrier and would erase any bad customer feelings left over from last year's ill-fated Rokr. On the other hand, it would be a bit surprising. Since Apple doesn't always play well with others, I expected the company to start an MVNO.

Most reports agree that the phone will be available next spring, which may give Apple enough time to announce the device, but not release it, at January's Macworld.

[kazrell]

Nice Looking Phone

Nice design, qwerty keypad and a ipod functionality is a dream come true. I would have perfered it on the best phone network in the US, Verizon. Lets hope they get it right this time with the functionality.

[i_am_still_wade]

Do you ACTUALLY belive the commercials?

Do you know what Verizon bases their best network slogan on? A study funded by Verizon. As Crichton stated in his book State of Fear, studies favor those who fund them. (Of course, his point was lost because of the global warming zealots thought it was an affront to them, it was not; it was an attack on biased studies using global warming as a backdrop.) I do agree, however, that Verizon is a good cell phone company. Just don't believe the lies in commercials.

In reality, unless we all go GSM, we will always be behind the rest of the world. So, putting the iPhone on GSM is the best thing Apple could do.

[fleurya]

Ipod w/ phone function, keyboard is a joke!

The overall design is good, but it would be nice for Apple to come up with
something more original than just redesigning the Ipod to make phone calls;
which leads me to believe this is a hoax photo.

"QWERTY keyboard is a dream come true" Yeah, maybe if you're a 5 year old
in Taiwan with very narrow fingers!! I can't see any way a normal person could
type on that unless they use a stylus to hit the "keys" (dots) Just look at the
"keys" in comparison to the ear buds which are about the size of the end of
an average person's finger.

For Apple to put out a true cutting edge phone, it would need:

1. BT 2.0 w/ A2DP support (since MBP's don't have A2DP, I don't see that
happening; guess Apple thinks it'll cut into their Ipod sales)

2. Unlimited song storage, up to memory limit. (since that would also cut into
Ipod sales, don't see it happening, like my SLVR 100 limit; thank goodness for
hacks)

3. UMTS/3G capability (almost a no-brainer since this will be the new
standard, but I've seen Apple ignore/pass up oother tech that is now
standard, such as fingerprint readers on laptops)

If they somehow get all of this right, I'll get in line.

[Alegoo92]

That is NOT the iPhone

if anyone can notice-- this is an old iPod photoshopped to a phone-like
interface. Apple would never release such an atrocity..

Personally, I like the concept of the iTalk design: http://youtube.com/watch?
v=Nf4iS6-73g8.

..hope that iPhone is cingular--so i can get it.

[tcnoble]

Problems With 'iPhone Photo'

I am quite sure that this is not what the iPhone will look like. Whoever made
this picture just took the touchwheel and buttons off of an old 3g iPod. There
probably won't be an ugly black border around the viewable area of the
screen(as seen above), it's just not very elegant and is not seen on current
iPods. I doubt that the real thing will feature any sliding parts or a qwerty
keypad.

If you think about it, you will realize that if this design were implemented, the
middle section would have to be fairly thick so that it would be comforatable
to hold and so that it wouldn't break in two. If that were the case, it would
leave much of the rest of the case hollow, either above or below the keypad
section, which just doesn't seem plausible because it would be unbalanced
and prone to breakage unless you used thick/sturdy steel frame and sliding
mechanism.

There is no trace of a stylus, which you would want to touch the screen and
also to press these ridiculously small buttons (which even appear to be
recessed thanks to the addition of a drop shadow by the author of the photo).

There are more issues with this mock-up and with the probable feature-set
of the forthcoming product, but they are too numerous and speculative to
really spend much time on.

[dmill2828]

This is not accurate.

That picture of the "iPhone" is definitely not the latest image. That iPhone
mockup is based on the old iPods. There are much newer, better mockups
based on the iPod nano and Video iPod form factors...

[Ryo Hazuki]

In one word: ugly (IMHO).