Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iPhone
iPhone runs Leopard says Ihnatko
You can add Andy Ihnatko to the short list of people who have played with an actual iPhone, not a paper cutout. Andy spent a good 45 minutes clicking around the interface and let's us know that the how experience was smooth. The phone reacted quickly to his commands (something my Q doesn't do) and he even claims that the virtual keyboard let him type faster than a physical keyboard (that is something I'll have to try myself before I form an opinion of it).The most interesting note Andy has is that the iPhone is running Leopard. Those fancy onscreen effects are courtesy of Core Animation. Sadly, Andy also confirms that a Flash plugin for the web browser isn't in the cards, at least not yet but we have months to go before the iPhone ships.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
cameron hunt said 9:46PM on 1-18-2007
Andy said he asked about Real and Macromedia plug-ins, and Apple said that all the plug-ins would be made in house. They didn't say no Flash, just not from Macromedia (er... I mean Adobe)
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Rob said 10:21PM on 1-18-2007
Does the inclusion of core animation = running Leopard? The announcement about core animation was included in the keynote address.
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Leonard Nimrod said 10:39PM on 1-18-2007
"Does the inclusion of core animation = running Leopard?"
Since Core Animation requires frameworks that are only available on Leopard, I'd say, yes... yes it does.
Why is is when Inhatko says it's running Leopard it's news, but when Jobs indirectly says it's running Leopard (and many people make comments about this) no one notices?
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Mark D. said 1:19AM on 1-19-2007
Leonard:
Well, it's quite simple. After years of strategically placed 'booms' it's become difficult to acknowledge anything big from Steve Jobs without his classic highlighting word.
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ceriumcv said 7:13AM on 1-19-2007
Mark:
Haha, I second that.
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Aebhric Coleman said 5:53AM on 1-19-2007
One thing I haven't seen anyone mention.. Perhaps the iPhone will only be compatible (to sync) with your Mac provided it has Leopard.... Perhaps Tiger won't be supported. Who knows? That would slow sales down seriously, no? Also, what's the deal for people wanting to sync to their PC (fortunately, I'm not one of them). For example, the iPod only really took off when it became functional on PCs. Which might mean that Apple plans to launch some more PC compliant software? Your thoughts?
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Lars said 7:57AM on 1-19-2007
Take a look at the Apple TV tour
http://www.apple.com/appletv/tour.html
Click on settings. It shows the screensaver... but if that isn't Core Animation... It even looks like the "building towers with photos" demonstration Apple provided a while ago.
So I guess the Apple TV *also* runs Leopard...
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Alex S. said 1:45PM on 1-19-2007
Aebhric -
Apple already has the iPhone's PC compliant software: it's called iTunes. Jobs already said in the keynote that iTunes will be the sole synching software that the iPhone uses. No iSync needed. Leopard shouldn't be needed to sync up.
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Eric Carroll said 1:22PM on 1-19-2007
I kinda assumed Leopard when I saw the NOTES thing, since NOTES is a new features of Leopards Mail 3...
Aebhric: As you stated, and seem to already know, the iPod already syncs with PCs, even Addresses, Calendars and Photos, even if it isn't quite as elegant as it is on a Mac, I have no doubt that the iPhone will ship with the SAME, if not more PC Compatibility. If it wasn't going to be compatible with PCs they would have said that, because if they spend 6 months hyping it and then tell 90% of the world they can't use it or at least they can't take full advantage of it... that would be bad for Apple.
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Andrew Knott said 5:37PM on 1-19-2007
It's interesting what will become of Flash... Core Animation is hardware accelerated (on top of Quartz) where flash isn't... Flash's ability to create a fluid UI just doesn't stand up to the potential created by hardware accelerated 2d.
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Trevor said 3:57PM on 1-19-2007
let's us know --> lets us know
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Reg said 8:21PM on 1-19-2007
If Flash isn't already planned, they should really, really think about it.
Many Web 2.0 sites are emerging that make full use of Flash as a powerful client-side runtime engine. It is being used to do the sort of things client-side Java promised but never fulfilled. It has gone way beyond those annoying animated intros.
One example is Google's (and others') innovative share chart tracker:
http://finance.google.com/finance?q=google&hl=en
The install base of Flash, something like 98%, allows web authors to assume most users have it. It is often used to take over where Ajax (JavaScript) runs out of steam, eg, for web sites like http://www.pandora.com/ or http://www.youtube.com/
Even slow-to-get-it Microsoft has realized how important Flash is to the Web 2.0 world, which is why they're putting so much effort into WPF/E as a competitive choice for their loyal developers.
If the iPhone's internet communicator isn't to be a "baby internet device" (Steve Jobs' own words used to disparage other phone based browsers), then including Flash is pretty near mandatory.
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Matt Sephton said 4:49PM on 1-21-2007
Unless Adobe release a version of Flash for the iPhone (unlikely) the only option is for Apple to build a version of Flash from the SDK. Unfortunately, as Wii Opera users already know, this currently means Flash 7 only. Still, it'd be better than nothing.
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