05/30/2007, 5:35pm, EDT
Wednesday, May 30th
D5: Jobs on iPhone, YouTube on Apple TV
Giving his first significant appearance since the Macworld Expo in San Francisco where the iPhone was unveiled, Apple CEO Steve Jobs was interviewed by Walt Mossberg at the D5 "All Things Digital" executive conference in Carlsbad, California. While keeping tight-lipped about any upcoming product releases or changes, Jobs did drop some hints about where Apple's entertainment devices are headed -- in particular hinting that we may soon see YouTube integration on the Apple TV. He also commented on the tremendous growth in Mac shipments that has occured since making the transition to Intel processors. All things Digital has posted a more complete transcript and is expecting to post a video.
iPhone Jobs told Mossberg that iPhone is still scheduled to ship in the latter part of June. When asked if that meant the last day of June, Jobs replied "Yeah, probably."
He also commented on the reasons why AT&T/Cingular was so keen on the iPhone as a catalyst for subscriber adoption: a desire to exploit expensive data networks that haven't yet seen much useful application and an attempt to establish the first genuinely successful music/phone combination.
When asked why the iPhone doesn't support 3G, Jobs hedged and said that WiFi (supported by the iPhone) is proliferating so quickly that it may, in a sense, obviate the need for 3G networks.
Jobs also downplayed the ability to purchase media on the iPhone, saying that purchasing items over the airwaves is too costly.
In perhaps the most important statement of the conference, Jobs gave the strongest indication yet that the iPhone may open for third-party application development. He said that while outside development currently represents a potential security and stability debacle, Apple "would like to solve this problem and if you could just be a little more patient with us, we'll do it.”
Finally, responding to inquiry about the iPhone's touchscreen keyboard, Jobs told Mossberg that "Once you learn to trust the keyboard, it’s a better keyboard. I'll bet you dinner that you’ll love it."
On software Jobs used the D5 conference to continue driving the following point home: software is the key to Apple's success. Again using the line "the iPhone's software is 5 years ahead of anything else," Jobs reiterated that the iPhone runs OS X (not Mac OS X), and was then asked if Mac OS X applications could run on the device, to which he responded "No," as such applications are not designed for a handset.
On Apple TV In a surprise announcement, Steve Jobs revealed that YouTube will be accessible from the Apple TV after an upgrade that will ship sometime in June. Calling Apple TV "the DVD player for the Internet age," he streamed several clips from YouTube to the device as a demonstration.
As Apple previously stated by Apple, the company is recognizing revenue from the Apple TV as on a subscription, amortized basis, meaning that this upgrade likely won't carry the same controversial paid-for requirement of the infamous 802.11n upgrade for Core 2 Duo-based Macs.
[Images courtesy of allthingsd.com]
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Q? When are you planning to ship? Like the last day of June? It will be available in volume?
A. Late June... I hope not! I hope so!
He is saying not the last day of June and hopes its in volume.
dw9
Apple had it already posted on their website with a PICTURE LINK at the bottom of their main page_
And "you may see YouTube integration" - there is no question about it that it's coming_
Come On MacNN - Can't You Stop Playing Catch Up for once ?
I mean, you go thru the bother of having it detect whether it's in landscape or portrait automagically, and to not have a landscape mode keyboard would be kind of SLAPTARDED...
"Additionally, an optional landscape mode for text entry with the virtual keyboard has been mentioned by Apple executives as a possibility for iPhone, but Apple has not yet come to a final decision as to its inclusion in the shipping version of iPhone. A possible advantage of landscape text entry would be the availability of larger keys to ease text entry, especially for individuals with larger fingers."
Why are some people itching so much to dump on anything, just for the sake of dumping?
"As Apple previously stated by Apple,..."
"When asked why the iPhone doesn't support 3G, Jobs hedged and said that WiFi (supported by the iPhone) is proliferating so quickly that it may, in a sense, obviate the need for 3G networks."