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News from the Future

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Old Jan 11, 2007 | 04:24 AM
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A CNet News report from Macworld 2008:

Apple introduces one-button iPhone Shuffle

The vast and adoring audience at Steve Jobs' annual Macworld performance heaved a sigh of relief when the Apple CEO announced the radically minimal new iPhone Shuffle. The company's first sub-$100 iPhone extends the iPhone line both a downprice and a downscale direction, beyond the $200 candy-bar-sized iPhone Nano, introduced last September.

"Now our iPhone and iPod lines are comlementary, top to bottom", Jobs said.

Like the iPod Shuffle, the new iPhone Shuffle has no display. It's an all-white rectangle with a little green light to show that a call is in progress. While the iPhone Shuffle superficially resembles the iPod Shuffle, its user interface is even more spare. In place of the familiar round iPod "wheel", the iPhone Shuffle sports a single square button. When pressed, the iPhone Shuffle dials a random number from its phone book.

"Our research showed that people don't care who they call as much as they care about being on the phone," said Jobs. "We also found that most cell phone users hate routine, and prefer to be surprised. That's just as true for people answering calls as it is for people making them. It's much more liberating, and far more social, to call people at random than it is to call them deliberately."

Peter Hirshberg, Chairman and CMO of Technorati said, "I look forward to having my iPhone in shuffle mode and reconnecting with old friends. So much cooler than LinkedIn."

Josh Bernoff, an analyst with Forrester Research, said, "We expect the iPhone Shuffle will do as much to change the culture of telephony as the iPod has done to change the culture of music listening."

Safety is another concern behind the one-button design. "We all know thousands of people die on highways every year when they take their eyes off the road to dial or answer a cell phone," Jobs said. "With the iPhone Shuffle, all they have to do is press one button, simple as that."

For people who would rather dial contacts in order than at random, the iPhone Shuffle (like the iPod Shuffle) has a switch that allows users to call their phone book in the same order as listings are loaded from the Address Book application.

To accommodate the new product, Apple also released Version 6.0.1 of Address Book, which now features "phonelists" modeled after the familiar "playlists" in iTunes. These allow the iPhone Shuffle's phone book to be populated by the same 'iFill' system that loads playlists from iTunes into iPod Shuffles.

A number of Apple rumor blogs reported that Apple is working with Cingular, its partner cell system operator, to allow free calls between members who maintain .Mac accounts and keep their data in Apple's Address Book. A few of those blogs also suggested that future products in the Shuffle line will combine random phone calling and music playing, allowing users to play random music for random phone contacts
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Old Jan 11, 2007 | 05:55 AM
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Originally Posted by Ron,Jan 11 2007, 08:24 AM
... the iPhone Shuffle sports a single square button. When pressed, the iPhone Shuffle dials a random number from its phone book.

"Our research showed that people don't care who they call as much as they care about being on the phone," said Jobs.
WTH???


Not for purpose driven people who fill their days with actions to achieve their goals, like surfing s2ki.com.
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Old Jan 11, 2007 | 06:04 AM
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It's a joke, Phil.
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Old Jan 11, 2007 | 06:05 AM
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You are forgetting - the purpose behind iTunes is you only have the music you want loaded in, so same will go for the phone. You'll only have people you want to talk to in your iPhone Shuffle, so it won't matter who you call!

Plus, it will come in candy colors!
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Old Jan 11, 2007 | 06:20 AM
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Funny!

During President Bush's speech last night...I kept thinking how hilarious it would be for him to simply hold up the iPhone!!! I actually dreamed it...or...maybe it was a vision in the shower (quiet Ron)...that Bush simply picks up the iPhone and the world is SHOCKED...

Get ready folks...America has the iPhone!
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Old Jan 11, 2007 | 06:37 AM
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Can't be quiet!

Admitting you fantasize about Bush and iPhones in the shower is outside our acceptable use policy (AUP). Please report to the S2KI principal's office for a talking-to.
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Old Jan 11, 2007 | 06:39 AM
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Not a spanking? I've been a bad boy...I think I need a spankin' to learn my lesson.
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Old Jan 11, 2007 | 06:41 AM
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...It's much more liberating, and far more social, to call people at random than it is to call them deliberately."

I'm laughin' my ass off...
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Old Jan 11, 2007 | 06:58 AM
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When do the iBrain implants come out?... I am tired of toting all of this crap around. I just want to plug my head in....... download and go.
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Old Jan 11, 2007 | 10:40 AM
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There's gonna be a huge market for that...
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