The iPhone’s here! The iPhone’s here!
TEXT OF INTERVIEW
Scott Jagow: Oh my gosh, it’s here! The iPhone!
We went to the Pasadena Apple store. The first person in line was high school student Jerry Holmes. He was resting comfortably on an air mattress. Jerry’s buying two iPhones. Then he’s reselling them for a $400 profit. That’s so he can buy something else:
Jerry Holmes: I’m part of a paintball team. So I’m probably gonna spend it on making my gun really good.
Whatever floats your boat.
Lots of people are gonna be selling the iPhone. Joining us now is Kevin Pereira. He’s the host of G4 TV’s “Attack of the Show.” Thanks for coming in.
Kevin Pereira: My pleasure, thanks for having me.
Jagow: Is this gonna be a problem for Apple? Are they trying to stop it?
Pereira: It’s not a problem for Apple, ’cause they’re selling units regardless. I don’t think Apple really cares where those iPhones end up after they leave their store and they’ve been paid for. But this is a problem for the consumers. You know, we’ve seen this countless times in the past with Xbox, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, the Nintendo Wii, where there’s even . . . in Japan, there’re even organized mobs, like mafia activity, putting people in line, hundreds of people in line, to create this artificial demand for the product so that they could resell it for a profit online.
Jagow: All right, let’s just skip with all this stuff and get right to the device. You just saw it.
Pereira: Yes, got my hands on it for the first time. And I had nerd trembles through my entire body. It was almost impossible to touch the screen. It is well worth the hype, from a design standpoint alone.
Jagow: Yeah?
Pereira: Absolutely.
Jagow: Exactly what is it?
Pereira: Well, you know, I think we’re so used to seeing mobile devices, cell phones in particular, where you have to hit 40 buttons and go through 20 menus to find the one item that’s going to allow you to take that photo and send it off, and you have to wait for your camera to boot up. The iPhone is all about the user experience. The interface is streamlined. Apple knows how to make something just work. And within 15 seconds, I was literally using two fingers to use the onscreen keyboard. It doesn’t have a physical keyboard.
Jagow: That was the big feature that everybody’s been talking about. That’s the one difference between the other smart phones.
Pereira: Correct. And it’s a make-or-break for this device, really. I mean, if the onscreen keyboard doesn’t function the way that Apple says it’s going to, well then the device is fundamentally useless. If you can’t easily e-mail and text people, who wants the phone?
Jagow: And what’s the verdict?
Pereira: And it worked . . . the first sentence I typed, it took me a matter of seconds, and it went just as fast, if not faster, than it has on a Trio or a Blackberry or any other phone with a hardware keyboard.
Jagow: And what if you have fat fingers? I heard that that’s a problem.
Pereira: Yeah. I think if you have the, as we call them, the “Pepperidge Farm hands,” you need to stay away. No sausage fingers need apply. And in cold-weather environments as well — the iPhone will not work with gloves. So if you’re in winter season in New York, I’m sorry, you might need to switch to a different phone if you want to actually text when you’re out and about.
Jagow: Well, you did write an article that was pretty negative about the iPhone a couple weeks ago. So is actually seeing it turned things around for you?
Pereira: You know I’m . . . there’s a certain techno-lust that gets satisfied when you hold a device like the iPhone. [It] was thinner and lighter than I thought it would be. The user . . . the operating system was more responsive than I ever could have hoped for. With that said, there’s no 3G support. There’s no high-speed data support. So if you don’t have Wi-Fi or wireless Internet in an area you’re in, the phone’s not going to be nearly as amazing. There’s no flash on the camera, so good luck taking a picture in anything other than outdoors with bright sunlight.
Jagow: Well Kevin, you’ve talked all about the phone, you’ve played with it today, but I don’t see one in your hands. Where is it?
Pereira: I noticed this glaring problem as well, believe me. And if I had the solution, it’d be there. I’m trying to get a friend to wait in line for me right now.
Jagow: All right Kevin, good luck getting your phone.
Pereira: Thank you, I appreciate it.
Jagow: Kevin Pereira, the host of G4 TV’s “Attack of the Show.” Thanks for being here.
Pereira: My pleasure, thank you.
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