AppleInsider Staff
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.
"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.
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66 Comments
I was hoping someone like Andy would do a little more indepth review.
I bet that keypad is going to be great... Once we all get off our Treos and Blackberry habits. That's what I see as the bar. Personally, I like the shallow touch, I bi**h if I have to use a keyboard that makes me press down more than a half an inch... That is TOPS I'm willing to do. I also like that flat feeling. 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...
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.
I'm amazed he got it for so long. Even Pogue only had it for ten minutes. He thought the keyboard was a bit difficult, but he might have felt he had to rush through because of the time limit.
Seems obvious to me if it runs a full version of OS X, by June that will be Leopard.
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.