iPhone, Gateway to the Future.

So, there I was, reading MacRumor's play-by-play of the MacWorld Keynote 2007. Trying to get some work done, I managed.

20 minutes into the speech and my eyes begin to glaze over as the Apple TV is announced. You see, the Apple TV is not impressive to me right now. Let me reintegrate the RIGHT NOW part. I think the public missed their opportunity when they didn't realize the Mac Mini is the perfect home media center...

// side note
I have a Mac Mini sitting on top of a 200 GB external hard drive the same shape as the Mini, hooked up to an Eye TV coax, as well as many other video signals, to digital video converter with wireless internet plugged into a simple DVI input 32" flat screen LCD. It allows me to manage my music collection, personal photos, personal video, make my own DVDs, manage my home email, surf the web, video chat with my friends in NY and Seattle, watch TV with DVR features and even play my old NES and SNES games all from my living room TV. The clutter space is minimal, much less then having a DVD player and a game system hooked up to a standard TV, and the whole system costed me around $3,500. About the same price people pay for a mid-level TV.

The things I can do with the setup amazes my friend each time they come over and probably should have credit for converting one of my last PC friends. At a recent party 6 of my friends and I sat around watching "Ask a Ninja" on youtube.com on it. What a great time, wine, funny videos about Ninjas and great friends all brought together around a Mac like it was a warm camp fire. Imagine it.... such a beautiful site. But I should move on to the subject at hand.
// end side note

...then out of nowhere, iPhone is announced. Well, not out of nowhere, the rumors have been going for YEARS now and I think when everybody gasp it was a gasp of relief. Or a gasp to say "about F*&ing time Jobs". How long do you have to keep us loyal servants on pins and needles before giving any release. I mean, I just signed up with Verizion and bought a new phone 3 months ago. 3 MONTHS! I also just bought a new iPod, so the next thing to come out with the mult-touch screen will be an iPod and I'll be kicking myself again. I went almost 3 years without updating, waiting for something cool enough to interest me to come out and then SMACK like a flying cod at Pike's Place it hits me upside the head.

That's okay though, I'm sure someone will be interested in buying my fresh, clean, almost like new iPod when the new ones come out for about $50 dollars less then they would pay for a new one, right? Anyone? Anyone? Hello....?

The real reason for this post is not to talk about how I wetted myself over the new iPhone, I think we all know I gave it up like some freshman girl in the back of the team caption's Escalade. What a gear whore I'm becoming. The reason is to talk about the direction this is taking the world of computing. I love that everyone is thinking how this is going to change the face of cellular carries and the whole cell phone experience, cause God knows, it needs it. But for me, this is the first step in the direction of where computing is really going.

Let me paint you a scenario, and explain what will make me excited about the Apple TV:
// load iPhone scenario 1
There you are, travel to work listening to music on your iPhone then someone calls, music fades and you answer the call. No big deal now, right? Right. You talk on the phone for a bit then get back to rocking out to the new Magic Numbers album. Then you get a new email, its an updated scope document from one of your programmers that needs to be approved so he has something to work on while you're out at meetings all day. You look over it, make a few revisions and send it back approved. Everyone see's this coming, right? Right.

Well, you get to your office to begin the morning routine, answering emails, checking appointments, printing out last minutes obscene notes to leave on your Art Director's desk, but instead of turning on your computer you set your iPhone down, press the "monitor" button and get asked if you want to sync with the local monitor/keyboard setup. You say yes and then BAM!, your iPhone's monitor is projected to the 30" inch cinema display on your desk and the wireless mouse and keyboard setup sitting there ideal takes control of your system.

You go through your process, checking out your latest YouTube subscriptions, Google Reader updates, do a little work and are now ready to head to your meeting. You press the disconnect button, the only thing you see on your iPhone, place it back on audio and walk out to your car with all the documents for you day of meetings ready to go.

You get to your first meeting, a long term client wanting to go over the latest analysis of their web statistics, walk into the conference room and see their Apple TV hooked up to their 40" flat screen. You hit the "monitor" button and your iPhone ask if you want to sync with the "Client X Apple TV". You say yes and then your iPhone's monitor, again, is projected to the 40" flat screen. But wait, there is no mouse and keyboard. That's okay, your iPhone's interface has changed to a keyboard and the body of your iPhone becomes your mouse. Like the Wii, you simply move your iPhone to move the mouse on screen and then simply type on the keyboard shown on your iPhone when text input is needed.

In this case you simplely go to your documents, Client X Jan 2007 Stats Analysis presentation, and open it. Your presentation opens up, all 40 inches of the screen, and you walk through it using the photo flip motion to change slides. Once completed you disconnect your iPhone from the Apple TV and head off to the next meeting.

Oh what a world it will be.
// unload iPhone scenario 1

The truth to the matter is the technology is here for this, now. Let me point out the components.

1. iPhone.
The iPhone, apparently, is running a version of the soon-to-be-released OS X Leopard. If it doesn't support work applications when it goes on sell, such as Word, Excel or iWorks, it should shortly after. Besides, who wants a do-it-all smart phone that doesn't do it all. It has wireless support, bluetooth support and motion censoring technology with a dynamic user interface that becomes, pretty much, anything you need.

2. Apple TV
Apple TV supports TVs of any technology, wireless and has a built in hard drive. An interface override program that simply displays what your iPhone monitor is broadcasting is needed. It just needs to hide the Apple TV menu when synced with an iPhone then re-display it when the iPhone is disconnected. The key to this program is to have no Apple TV action activation ability. Thus, it can not be activated via Apple TV, only the iPhone. It must be a one-click scenario that the iPhone says to connect and to disconnect only. If you have validation from both systems, it surely will be a pain in the ass to use.

3. Wireless Mouse and Keyboard
Need I say more? (check back for my bitching of how out of date this input method is)

4. 30" Cinema Display
Because Apple controls all this why not build into their displays the ability to wirelessly be feed their signal? I'm sure there are engineers out that asking me if I know what that would take, and my answer would be "no". But I tell you, if it had that built into it, and I had my iPhone that would sync up, I would sure as hell buy me one of those monitors for my desk.

5. Standard, none Mac TVs without Apple TV (the catch)
The catch is non-Apple based products. How to connect with them? Good question. Simply answer is don't buy them, but then that is just naive. But lets say this, if 500 million people buy an iPhone, and an iPhone can sync with monitors as such, how long would it take other TV manufactures to integrate that technology? That's what I thought.

Overall, this scenario is very plausible, and if I had even the simplest understanding about how to hack an iPhone with an application to do such as what I talk about, I would, and I would give it as a gift to the world. But first I would wow all my friends with it for a few months then share.

To sum up my points, I think Apple has not only reinvented the phone, but took the first step into 21st century computing. I would give almost anything to be a part of it. Up to this point there have been OS updates, but nothing from hardware that has proven to be advancing computing. In fact, it has been depressing as a person who buys a hardware device at least every 8 months. The only other thing I think would be as equal to what Apple has just release is a solution to the damn keyboard and mouse fiasco. I'm personally at my ends with this type of user input method. The whole thing is so disconnected from the way I want to work and invasive to my process. But now, that's another post.

I will get an iPhone, I just pray Cingular is smart enough not to financially rap the people who are willing to invest in this growth. If they do, then the whole thing can go down the toliet, and quickly.