iChat Mobile: is it the iPhone (part forty bajillion)?
By Ryan Block 
posted August 2nd 2006 7:53PM
posted August 2nd 2006 7:53PM
[Thanks, Harlan]
posted August 2nd 2006 7:53PM
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Cool. I wish Sprint would pick it up...
NO SPRINT! GSM so I can buy one and pop my cingular chip in it.
theres no way. they would have to hit up gsm for access to the most subscribers, right?
The text on the bottom rear looks a bit faked, otherwise it looks awesome and regardless, I hope it's real.
But please, please, let this work with CDMA (Alltel)!
It's fake, Apple wouldn't put the camera on the backside. They would want it on the front so you could see yourself and the other person during a video conference.
If that's supposed to be "sexy" (from another atricle), I'm Brad Pitt. And that is too thin/long! It's worse than SLVR!
It's not hideous, but there's one design flaw in this mock-up... the camera is on the back. How are you supposed to have a video chat with someone if the camera isn't on the same side as the screen?
Plus, there are no iPods with screens that don't have a clickwheel. It would be a nightmare to navigate long menus with the Shuffle's controls (try it in Front Row... total nightmare).
I'm sure it'd be WiFi or Bluetooth based and not a cell phone per se.
Having said that, wouldn't they put a camera on the front for video conferencing?
@ Trevor - good call. I would believe the same thing, but even if this isn't real, I'd hit it.
Ditto, Trevor. Also, how would a Shuffle/Remote-like set of buttons work for a cellphone? One would expect something more sophsticated and innovative.
Judging by the naming and the looks this product would seem to be a WiFi VOIP handset and not a cellular product.
Or it could just be a fake...
i pray to god this is not real... but i don't have to pray hard its obvious that the circle buttons are photoshopped the light seems to hit them all differently, a slide like this would be of the actual device not a concept, I believe. Apple would not make a slide of their phone's UI that ugly, it looks way too busy and totally unappealing. If this is Apple's idea of a good looking phone I will never again utter the words Apple and Good design in the same sentence again unless it is:
"Apple has mostly Good designs, except their ugly cellphone"
It looks too long and uncomfortable for the hand or to keep in the pocket.
(sorry for the following flamebait :p)
So, is it a half baked phone with a half baked mp3 player on it? Or is it a half baked mp3 player with a half baked phone?
Not to mention that the supporting text doesn't seem quite right... wouldn't it be "Everything you expect from a Mac, *in* a phone" ?
Can anybody imagine apple showing Date as "Mon 9:10 AM" ? Without a date and month???
Looks like a Sony Ericsson K600i
Props to the guy/girl for putting in the effort but this screams fake to me. Also, the name isn't good for a mobile phone, I'm sure Apple has a better name than tagging mobile to an IM client.
If it was real, it'd be available in biack, too. That's Apple's new thing.
The design is absolutely horrid. If this is real, Apple should be ashamed of themselves. All their other products are masterpieces... literally - they are in MoMA for God's sake.
The camera, the black greyish keyboard, and
the "glass" effect sitting the exact same place
front and back - This thing is brought to via
Adobe ;-)
LOL this is a hilarious photoshop...
-camera on back taken straight from the imac/mb
-very messy screen layout
-back panel doesn't appear to be removable so no GSM or battery change or storage
-# buttons look perfectly flat, which would be crappy design
if you're gonna fake it, atleast make it look nice!
Maybe this phone doesn't need an iSight on the front. Apple does have a patent for imbedding a camera into an LCD display.
http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/26/apple-patent-embeds-thousands-of-cameras-among-lcd-pixels/
Ps. Engadget, your site search function isn't very good.
Looks like a fake from a number of the reasons above, but I still hope this is fake because it's absolutely horrible looking.
Fishes,
narco.
Just like the iPod, LAME.
I wonder how they will market this one, or will they count on the marketing success of the iPod and Mac's to carry over and people will demand these to keep up with the latest trend?
so how can you get this thing, i realy wish that they put out something to compete with the sidekick or a palmpilot
No way, thats no Apple design!
Could that design be User friendly?I don't think so!
That is an ugly-ass phone, even for a mockup. How big is the unit you have to carry around to power that monster from 1987.
(i like me phones teeny tiny)
I'm an Apple user, and I would buy that phone. Twice. I'm getting sick of the design snobbery among some mac users. It looks perfectly functional to me. Anyway, it is embarassing to be a fanboy for a company when so many fellow fanboys are completely useless and ridiculous. Just saying.
There's another flaw to this photoshop. If you look very carefully, there is a diagonal on this image. Apple products do that, to show the glossy-ness, however, this product cuts abruptly, short of the end. This is obviously a simply extended photoshop.
I guess most of you failed to realize what is stated in the article. It says that this particular rendition (as in a photoshop rendition). If you read it correctly, it says that it IS a photoshopped picture. I guess people were being too busy on getting ready to flame Apple for its design. Even though ITS FAKE!
Another thing, why would the top say iChat, why would all the buttons be totally one giant flat thing? how are we gonna dial? *push* *displays: 1345267980* and if you look closely, all those little "circles" for the hearing and talking are just tiny little iMac isights!
Hey!! They copied me!! No fair!! ;) I definitely called the phone's name after Saturday's Engadget iPhone post: "They already have a name for an Apple phone: iChat." (http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/29/wild-speculation-iphone-to-launch-in-august/2#c1816447)
I would still be psyched for an Apple iChat Mobile, but clearly this "photo" is a fake. Apple would never make something that ugly.
Give me great syncing with Address Book and iCal, plus som iTunes action and I'm standing in line.
that is NEAT!
That's a fake, they always are right before a major Apple event.
I agree with Vince. The Weblogs, Inc. "search" isn't that great...
I have yet to figure out why we would want this phone?
Weird, I know a Trevor Price, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't visit sites like this.
Anyway, the phone is insanely long (like, tv remote control long), I'm sure it's fake.
Its a apple remote, with some photo shop.......
Looks fake! look at the click wheel at the top, TOO SMALL to be functional.
Surprisingly, I made a phone just like this a few weeks ago, but never finished it, so I never posted it anywhere:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v300/pohatu771/bwiphone1.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v300/pohatu771/bwiphone2.png
The flaws of the black one are a bit more noticeable.
I also did a bit of advertising for a friend of mine... check Now Playing.
i have to give props to the guy or girl that designed this thing (assuming its a fake) this only had to been done in iether photoshop or illustrator cause thats the only programs i can do it in (but much easily in illustrator) but if apple wants to loose some promps from me as a designer and put this thing out as a cellphone then it atleast has to have these functions and do them twice as good as anything in the market out rite now
1) bluetooth or wifi
2) monkey simple syncing (at least easier than my L6 motorola)
3) and not to forget some iTunes action
and besides they should just redesign the newton and bring that back out
i have to give props to the guy or girl that designed this thing (assuming its a fake) this only had to been done in iether photoshop or illustrator cause thats the only programs i can do it in (but much easily in illustrator) but if apple wants to loose some promps from me as a designer and put this thing out as a cellphone then it atleast has to have these functions and do them twice as good as anything in the market out rite now
1) bluetooth or wifi
2) monkey simple syncing (at least easier than my L6 motorola)
3) and not to forget some iTunes action
and besides they should just redesign the newton and bring that back out
I guess no one had a problem with the tagline which states, "Everything you expect from a Mac, from a phone"
I would find that grammar very un-Apple-like. That's the very first thing that tipped me off as a fake. I would have definately used another preposition rather than using "from" twice.
Nah, I think that thing is real.
Let's face it...if it was shaped like a turnip and only worked on Tuesdays, mac fans would buy it and tell anyone within shouting distance that everything else was crap.
That's the magic of Steve J_bs (pbuh)
i want a turnip shaped phone
Oh please help me believe this, really i want to believe this.
OBVIOUSLY fake. With the Frontrow eye and the light appearing to fall on the shuffle control circle and the fake writing and IMO (and please nobody bitch at me for it I might be wrong) I believe the battery display is the wrong way around cuz on all their portable devices (a.k.a iPods =) ) it's the other way around =) Whatev.
-Chili Pepper
I played with the contrast/exposure: http://img421.imageshack.us/img421/2381/picture1rk0.png
You'll notice the drop shaddow on the navigation circle is very heavy, compared to nothing at all on the buttons on both sides of it.
I wish you would stop saying "Photoshop!" when it's clearly a 3D render.
And since when have Apple used 3D renders to show off their new products?