There are cell phones; there are smart phones; and now, there is the iPhone.

 

Unveiled Tuesday morning by Apple CEO Steve Jobs during his keynote speech at Macworld in San Francisco, the long-anticipated iPhone combines smart phone functionality with the revolutionary iPod music player, a touchscreen, and Apple's OS X.

 

"Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything," Jobs said as he showed his latest creation to a room crammed full of media, Mac enthusiasts, and Apple employees.

 

The iPhone is a slender device that looks a bit like a skinny, dark Sidekick without a keyboard or buttons. The iPhone ditches most buttons for a finger-operated touchscreen, which has been designed to be more accurate than other touchscreens and that can also handle multi-finger operations. It measures 3.5 inches, has a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels, and media such as photos, album covers, and videos can be viewed in portrait or landscape modes (thanks to an included accelerometer). The iPhone also includes a two-megapixel camera, a headphone jack, a speaker, and a 30-pin iPod connector.

 

Instead of a physical QWERTY keyboard, a touchscreen keyboard pops up on the device for applications such as SMS and e-mail. As mentioned above, the iPhone uses Apple's OS X, and it also comes loaded with the Safari Web browser. The device has 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, stereo Bluetooth, quadband GSM, and EDGE technologies.

 

It also has proximity and ambient light sensors, which turn off the display when users move the phone to their ears to accept calls, and adjust the screen's brightness in accordance with a user's environment, respectively.

 

The phone will sync with iTunes and can also sync contacts, calendar, e-mail account information, and more, from users' computers. It also includes Google maps, directions, and satellite imagery for looking things up on the go.

 

As far as brand new features that we haven't seen before, the iPhone sports something Apple is calling "visual voicemail." Like an e-mail Inbox, visual voicemail allows users to see who they've recieved voicemails from and when they were sent, all on the iPhone's screen. That way, they can listen to them and respond in whatever order they want.

 

At 0.46 inches thick, it will be the slimmest smart phone on the market when it's released in June ($499 for a 4GB iPhone; $599 for an 8GB iPhone). The iPhone will be available exclusively on Cingular's network and will be sold on both Apple's and Cingular's Web sites and in their retail stores.

 

"What we want to do is make a leapfrog product that is way smarter than any mobile deivce has ever been and super easy to use. This is what iPhone is," Jobs said.

 

Jobs announced two accessories that will be available with the iPhone: a tiny black Bluetooth headset and a pair of white earbuds with a microphone on them, reminiscent of the iPod's iconic earpieces.

 

Jobs made the first public call on the iPhone during his keynote, calling Apple Senior Vice President for Industrial Design Jony Ive. In the middle of their call, Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller called Jobs, and Jobs conferenced the three of them on one call.

 

Clearly giddy from presenting this device, Jobs called a local Starbucks while demonstrating Google maps' functionality and ordered 4,000 lattes to go. Then he quipped, "Sorry, wrong number" to the confused barista on the other end of the line and hung up.

 

Executives from Yahoo (Jerry Yang), Google (Eric Schmidt), and Cingular (Stan Sigman) were on hand to speak about the device, and all praised its features.

 

Sigman, CEO of Cingular, said the company entered into an agreement with Apple regarding the iPhone before it had even seen the device.

 

"It's really, really cool. You've exceeded my expectations," Sigman said to Jobs while addressing the keynote crowd.

 

A Cisco statement issued Tuesday said Apple made "numerous" requests to use the iPhone name over the years and that "it is (Cisco's) belief that with their announcement today, Apple intends to agree to the final document and public statement that were distributed to them last night and that addressed a few remaining items. We expect to receive a signed agreement today."

Jobs also announced that the product codenamed iTV (now officially dubbed Apple TV) is available for preorder for $299 and will ship in February. Apple TV streams photo, music, and video files from your PC to your TV and can show videos in high-definition up to 720p. Apple TV comes with an Intel processor, 802.11 b, g and Draft-N Wi-Fi, HDMI, Ethernet, USB 2.0 ports, and a 40GB hard drive capable of storing 50 hours of video.

One more note from today's keynote: Jobs announced that the company name is being changed from Apple Computer Inc. to Apple Inc.

For more information, visit www.apple.com.