Apple's iPhone runs Mac OS X Leopard - report
Apple's new iPhone, which isn't due to begin shipping until June, runs a version of the company's Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" operating system slated to ship around the same time, a published report said Thursday.
Writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, renowned Mac columnist Andy Ihnatko said he recently had the opportunity to spend 45 minutes with the iPhone, which features the "most beautiful freakin' display" he's ever seen on a cellphone of PDA "in range of color and level of detail."
"Everything I've learned (both in official briefings and 'you and I never spoke, all right?' sort of discussions) says that it truly does run Leopard, the upcoming 10.5 OS that will be released for the Macintosh late in the spring," he added.
Ihnatko went on to say that the spiffy user interface animations seen during Apple chief executive Steve Jobs' introduction of the device and subsequent demonstration all "come courtesy of Leopard's Core Animation suite."
Contrary to other first hand accounts, the columnist claims that the device's virtual keyboard "is a huge improvement over the mechanical thumbpads" found on the Treo and any other smart phones.
"The buttons are significantly larger, you don't have to hit them dead-center, you lightly tap them instead of punching them down, and the software is smart enough to know that you meant to type 'Tuesday' instead of 'Tudsday,'"he wrote.
"After 30 seconds," he continued "I was already typing faster with the iPhone than I ever have with any other phone."
Ihnatko's claims raise the possibility some of user interface attributes present on the iPhone could make their way into the version of Leopard that will ship for Apple's Mac line of personal computers.
Apple has maintained that Leopard is on track to ship later this spring.
For dozens of high-quality iPhone interface close-ups, check out our iPhone software photo gallery, iPhone hardware photo gallery and other galleries in our Macworld coverage news archive.
A glass-enclosed iPhone runs a UI demo at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco.
Writing for the Chicago Sun-Times, renowned Mac columnist Andy Ihnatko said he recently had the opportunity to spend 45 minutes with the iPhone, which features the "most beautiful freakin' display" he's ever seen on a cellphone of PDA "in range of color and level of detail."
"Everything I've learned (both in official briefings and 'you and I never spoke, all right?' sort of discussions) says that it truly does run Leopard, the upcoming 10.5 OS that will be released for the Macintosh late in the spring," he added.
Ihnatko went on to say that the spiffy user interface animations seen during Apple chief executive Steve Jobs' introduction of the device and subsequent demonstration all "come courtesy of Leopard's Core Animation suite."
Contrary to other first hand accounts, the columnist claims that the device's virtual keyboard "is a huge improvement over the mechanical thumbpads" found on the Treo and any other smart phones.
"The buttons are significantly larger, you don't have to hit them dead-center, you lightly tap them instead of punching them down, and the software is smart enough to know that you meant to type 'Tuesday' instead of 'Tudsday,'"he wrote.
"After 30 seconds," he continued "I was already typing faster with the iPhone than I ever have with any other phone."
Ihnatko's claims raise the possibility some of user interface attributes present on the iPhone could make their way into the version of Leopard that will ship for Apple's Mac line of personal computers.
Apple has maintained that Leopard is on track to ship later this spring.
For dozens of high-quality iPhone interface close-ups, check out our iPhone software photo gallery, iPhone hardware photo gallery and other galleries in our Macworld coverage news archive.
A glass-enclosed iPhone runs a UI demo at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco.
Comments
I think easy use of the keyboard is relative.
I'm sure when tiny Blackberry keyboards first came to market people found typing on those tiny buttons awkward and difficult. But people eventually got used to it.
The same is likely with a virtual keyboard. It may be awkward and difficult at first but people will get used to it.
http://www.informationweek.com/story...ed_IWK_Windows
I think it's awesome that he keeps downplaying Apple's threat...one day it'll bite him and MS in the ass GOOD.
Finally, someone who's actually USED the keyboard offering their opinion on it. Maybe this will shut up those who claim it sucks before even touching it.
Not much chance of that. The orgy of "the iPhone that won't ship for 6 months and which I have never so much as seen up close, much less use, sucks and is completely worthless and will be an abject failure in the market because of x,y and z" is unstoppable.
Contrary to other first hand accounts, the columnist claims that the device's virtual keyboard "is a huge improvement over the mechanical thumbpads" found on the Treo and any other smart phones. "The buttons are significantly larger, you don't have to hit them dead-center, you lightly tap them instead of punching them down, and the software is smart enough to know that you meant to type 'Tuesday' instead of 'Tudsday,'"he wrote. "After 30 seconds," he continued "I was already typing faster with the iPhone than I ever have with any other phone."
Okay, I am very sceptical about this one. Got to get my little potatofingers on it! But as JeffDM allready mentioned, Universal Access (system preferences) could be my guardian angel.
Ihnatko's claims raise the possibility some of user interface attributes present on the iPhone could make their way into the version of Leopard that will ship for Apple's Mac line of personal computers.
Great! So, I'd love to see the new multi touch gestures applied on the new MBP's trackpad. And as Multi Touch is gonna be the next evolutionary thing after the mouse and clickwheel, why not getting rid of Mighty Mouse and have a standalone trackpad instead! Something iPhone sized!
Oh yes, it's gonna be the end of running short of desk space as you don't have to physically move the mouse on your desk. Just use your fingers on the wireless trackpadcontroll!
Not much chance of that. The orgy of "the iPhone that won't ship for 6 months and which I have never so much as seen up close, much less use, sucks and is completely worthless and will be an abject failure in the market because of x,y and z" is unstoppable.
Do you know the English language and did you ever hear of the phrase run-on sentence?
- The iPhone is nothing more than windows mobile with an apple logo pasted in. MS should sue!
- My 4 year old x phone can do everything the iPhone can do.
- the iPhone is a bad copy of the Linux based OpenMoko phone (nevermind that it only has GPRS, no WiFi, no bluetooth, and only 128MB of memory.. it has a touchscreen!)
People are crazy.
Do you know the English language and did you ever hear of the phrase run-on sentence?
People from all walks of life post here. Nit picking on gramar isn't a useful contribution to the discussion.
Besides I think you meant to say:
Do you know the English language and have you ever heard of the phrase run-on sentence?
Do you know the English language and did you ever hear of the phrase run-on sentence?
The run on sentence you speak of was contained within these things called "quotes." You may have heard of them. They're an essential part of this English language that you speak of.
Besides, Addabox is probably one of the most elegant speakers on this board.
Well as it isn't really running OS X, just a mobile version, they could attach any name to it! Calling it Leopard is pretty irrelevant.
If it's not running OS X, then what is it running? Did they port Core Animation to some other OS instead of merely eliminating the parts they didn't need for their mobile device? Of course not, it's a FULL version of OS X Leopard in that it uses the same kernel and core frameworks that the Mac uses. Not having the same UI veneer does not make it a different OS.
I really can't wait until this thing is dissected and how Apple trimmed the fat on OS X Leopard to make it mobile. I'm guessing that the iPhone will not have every language installed by default--like with OS X for Mac--I think you'll have a restore DVD with the option to choose your language during setup.
Well as it isn't really running OS X, just a mobile version, they could attach any name to it! Calling it Leopard is pretty irrelevant.
No, we've been over this: http://forums.appleinsider.com/showp...5&postcount=25
I bet that keypad is going to be great...The only think I am going to miss is not have the 'feel' of the keys... That's going to be tough to get over...
I'm hoping it has the internal "clicker" like the iPod so you can "feel" the keys.
The "clicker" inside the iPod allows the user to feel the interface moving and reacting to your touch.