Apple news

“On first inspection, Apple appears to have made a quantum leap in terms of mobile handset usability.” The iPhone, the staff writers at tech.co.uk say, is “making the idea of the PDA sexy again,” offering “an elegant solution for the 21st Century handheld.” Enthusing over the onscreen keyboard, they write that “The iPhone keyboard is ‘intelligent’ in that it prevents and corrects mistyped words, a feature that’s bound to find favor with many. Find out more in our article: Why the iPhone keyboard rocks.”

“My overall thought,” remarks Larry Magid (CBSNEWS.com), “is that the iPhone’s software represents a truly remarkable accomplishment. Sure, the device’s ultra thin case and large 3.5 inch display are nice touches, but what really stands out is the user interface that can best be described as inspired.”

“The phone is so sleek and thin,” reports David Pogue (New York Times) in his review of iPhone, that “it makes Treos and Blackberrys look obese.” And the software transcends. “It’s fast, beautiful, menu-free, and dead simple to operate.” If you need “to answer a call, you can tap Answer on the screen, or pinch the microscopic microphone bulge on the white earbud cord. Either way, music or video playback pauses until you hang up.” As for email, it’s “fantastic. Incoming messages are fully formatted, complete with graphics; you can even open (but not edit) Word, Excel and PDF documents.” And “the Web browser,” he points out, “is the real dazzler.” No “stripped down, claustrophobic My First Cellphone Browser; you get full Web layouts, fonts and all, shrunk to fit the screen.

After testing the iPhone for two weeks in multiple US cities, Walter Mossberg and Katherine Boehret consider it “a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer. Its software, especially, sets a new bar for the smart-phone industry, and its clever finger-touch interface,” they say, “works well.” In addition to combining “intelligent voice calling and a full-blown iPod,” iPhone also “offers the best Web browser we have seen on a smart phone and robust email software.” It offers “the largest and highest-resolution screen of any smart phone we’ve seen, and the most internal memory by far.

Writing for USA Today, Edward Baig finds iPhone “indeed worth lusting after.” Apple, he says, “has delivered a prodigy—a slender fashion phone, a slick iPod, and an Internet experience unlike any before it on a mobile handset.” “The most chic cellphone I’ve seen,” iPhone is “a breeze to set up and fun to use, evident from the moment you slide your finger across the screen to unlock it. It’s a wonderful widescreen iPod and fabulous picture viewer.” And he tells us that “making calls was surprisingly simple. You can flick through your list of contacts or favorites … and then tap on a name to make a call or send a text message.

Finding it “a significant leap,” Steven Levy (Newsweek) calls iPhone “a superbly engineered, cleverly designed and imaginatively implemented approach to a problem that no one has cracked to date: merging a phone handset, an Internet navigator and a media player in a package where every component shines, and the features are welcoming rather than foreboding.  The iPhone is the rare convergence device where things actually converge.” iPhone, he says, “finally fulfills the promise of people-friendly palm-top communication and computing.”

A free lecture series for pro photographers and amateur enthusiasts, Aperture in Action travels to multiple US cities beginning in early July. In addition to receiving a free Aperture Tutorial DVD, all attendees will hear some of the best sports shooters discuss how Aperture helps them manage their field-to-studio workflows. Participants will also get to see the new Canon EOS 1D Mark III, one of the most advanced digital SLRs ever made.

iPhone customers will be able to choose from three simple, affordable service plans when iPhone goes on sale on Friday, June 29. All three plans include unlimited data, Visual Voicemail, 200 SMS text messages, roll-over minutes, and unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling. In addition to a one-time activation fee of $36.00, customers can sign up for a new two-year service plan with AT&T for a monthly fee of $59.99 (for 450 minutes), $79.99 (for 900 minutes), or $99.99 (for 1,350 minutes). Family plans are also available.

Rating it at 4.5 stars, Mike Curtis (Macworld.com) calls Final Cut Pro 6 a “solid upgrade featuring greater ease of use and enhanced workflow flexibility. For users of previous versions, the decision to upgrade will be a no-brainer, as the new ProRes and Open Format Timeline features alone are worth the price of admission. And when you factor in the new features of the suite’s other tools, especially Color, which was a $25,000 application before Apple acquired the technology, Final Cut Studio is an excellent value. For Mac users considering buying the suite for the first time, Final Cut St

“Sure it’s got a faster processor, but it’s the display that will blow you away,” writes Ken Mingis (Computerworld.com). “ I’m talking in this case about the latest MacBook Pro to grace my desk, the top-of-the-line 17-in. model with a glossy 1,920-by-1,200-pixel high-resolution screen.” That screen, he extols, “is without a doubt the best-looking LCD screen Apple has produced in what also happens to be the fastest laptop from the company yet. In a word: suh-weet.”