14 DAY TRIAL // A phone, a music player, and an advanced Internet device - it's the iPhone, of course! Although most things about it have been revealed, some of them are still somewhat blurry, and others need some research being done before being able to draw any conclusions. The good part about this whole Internet thing is that you get an idea, share it with the others, check their ideas, and in the end, a puzzle like the iPhone's capabilities can be solved much faster. Of course that we can't find out absolutely everything about it at this time, but let's see what do we know and what can be deducted using the information available so far...
Previously, what I have been able to figure out was that the iPhone doesn't support Java or Flash, but according to Steve Jobs, the device may have support for Flash when it comes up. In an interview for The New York Times, Apple's CEO said that "Java's not worth building in. Nobody uses Java anymore. It's this big heavyweight ball and chain.", but that we "might see" Flash support built into the iPhone. One more thing worth being mentioned here is that while Java is not supported, the iPhone comes with JavaScript capabilities. Sweet!
How shall we charge and sync the iPhone? Well, since we're talking about a device that is closely related to an iPod, the iPhone uses a charging/syncing dock, just like Apple's music and video players.
For those asking about the OS used in the iPhone, previous rumors that proved true in the meantime should answer the question - Apple's phone doesn't use a mobile "Tiger" or "Leopard", but a stripped down version of OS X, adapted to work with this device, and I think that we may even see it running on future iPods, but only time shall tell that...
Unfortunately, it seems there is no Bluetooth or Wifi syncing available for contacts and calendar at this time, but - maybe - we'll get them in time. After all, there are still six months to go...
A lot of people are wondering about speed dialing capabilities and external keyboards - well, the last problem seems to get attention from accessories manufacturers already, while the first one... well, there's nothing sure at this time, but there's enough time to solve it, as I said.
At last, I think I should point out some of the things that should emerge in the future, so that we know what to look for... we don't know anything about the CPU inside the device yet, and some of the features present in iPods are only "supposed to work" with the iPhone, but six months is a long time, so stay tuned for more info!