Technology

Apple's 'magical' iPhone unveiled

US firm Apple has confirmed its move into the telecom industry, unveiling the long-awaited iPhone. Users will be able to download music and videos with the phone, demonstrated by Apple boss Steve Jobs at the annual Macworld Expo in San Francisco.

Jobs praised the phone's design and told the audience the "magical device" would "revolutionise the industry".

The phone, which will cost from $499 (œ257) to $599, will be launched in the US in June and Europe later this year.

Apple is not yet saying how much the iPhone will cost in the UK, but using the comparison of a Mac mini computer the 4 gigabyte (GB) model would be about œ335.

Also revealed at the Macworld Expo was Apple TV, a device to stream music and movies from a computer to the living room.

The announcement ended months of speculation about the iPhone, which has no conventional buttons but instead uses a large touch-screen.

The firm has patented keyboard technology on the 11.6mm thick phone, calling it "multi-touch".

It is essentially a computer with a blank screen that users configure so they can operate the monitor with their fingers. "We are all born with the ultimate pointing device - our fingers - and iPhone uses them to create the most revolutionary user interface since the mouse," said Jobs.

A full touch keyboard is available for text messaging and there is a built-in two megapixel camera. Jobs said the iPhone was a "revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone".

"It works like magic... It's far more accurate than any touch display ever shipped. It ignores unintended touches.

It's super-smart." He demonstrated the phone by playing the Beatles' Lovely Rita, Meter Maid. He said: "The iPod changed everything in 2001. We're going to do it again with the iPhone in 2007."

The phone will use the network of AT&T's mobile unit, Cingular and will run Apple's OS X operating system.

It will come in two versions - one with 4GB of storage space, the other with 8GB.

AFP

Fuel economy - key factor in selecting new vehicles

General Motors Corp. promised to make a hybrid car that travels 40 miles on a battery before its gasoline engine kicks in. Ford Motor Co. introduced a redesigned Focus compact with a voice-activated music player to attract young buyers.

Toyota Motor Corp., meanwhile, showed off a five-passenger, 381-horsepower pickup, while the star of Honda Motor Co.'s presentation was a sports car with a V-10 engine.

US and Japanese automakers have traded places at this week's North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The Americans, trying to wean themselves from the gas-guzzling pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles they pushed in the 1990s, have rediscovered the car and fuel economy. The Japanese are going for the big and powerful.

"The simple equation 'the larger the car, the better' doesn't apply very much to this market any more," said Daimler Chrysler AG's chief executive, Dieter Zetsche, in an interview at the show.

Five years ago, Zetsche said, people would ask what would happen if one of Daimler's Smart subcompacts disappeared into a pothole in New York City. Today, the company has had 500,000 inquires about Smart on its Website and plans to sell the two-seat mini-car in the US in 2008.

In a survey last week, 89 percent of auto executives questioned described fuel economy as the top factor when consumers are selecting new vehicles, compared with 58 percent in 2002.

KPMG International, a New York-based accounting and consulting firm, surveyed 150 senior executives at automakers and suppliers in the US., Germany, Korea, Japan, China and other countries.

"If nothing else has become clear in the last 12 months, it's that we cannot be assured of an uninterrupted supply of oil at a stable price," GM's chief executive, Rick Wagoner, told reporters at the show. "That's a problem for our consumers and for us."

Detroit's problem is that it hasn't developed a car-based profit model that replaces its SUV- and pickup-based strategy of the 1990s. During the first nine months of 2006, GM lost $3.0 billion and Ford lost $6.99 billion. Toyota earned $10.2 billion.

From 1990 to 1997, Ford earned $13 billion of its $14.6 billion in total profits from a single vehicle, the Explorer SUV, according to a Ford deposition in a rollover lawsuit. Ford sold 179,229 Explorers in 2006, down 25 percent from 2005.

Bloomberg