Drumroll: Introducing Apple's iPhone

You've surely heard about the hot new Apple iPhone by now, unless, of course, you've been hibernating or vacationing off-planet since January. As one of just a few people who have actually laid hands on a working iPhone, I've been asked roughly a zillion questions about it over the past few months. Here's my insight into what it is, what it does, and why it rocks.

When Steve Jobs introduced iPhone in his Macworld Expo keynote address last January, he said he was proud to introduce three revolutionary new products:

1. A wide screen iPod with touch controls
2. A mobile telephone with a built-in digital camera
   and
3. A breakthrough Internet communications device

The kicker was that all three products are a single device — iPhone.

Perhaps the most unique feature is that iPhone has no physical buttons and no stylus. Rather, it has a 3.5-inch super high-resolution (160 pixels per inch) touch screen that you operate using a pointing device you're already intimately familiar with, namely, your finger. I'm guessing that you've never seen a more beautiful display on a hand-held device in your life.

Another feature that knocked my socks off were iPhone's three built-in sensors. There's an accelerometer, which detects when you rotate the device from portrait to landscape mode and automatically adjusts what's on the display accordingly. There's a proximity sensor, which detects when the iPhone gets near your face so it can turn off the display to save power and prevent accidental touches. And there's an ambient light sensor, which adjusts the display's brightness based on the current ambient lighting situation. Let's see your Motorola Razr or RIM Blackberry do that!

Bottom line: There's never been a mobile phone like iPhone. For additional information, point your browser to http://www.apple.com/iphone/.