Windows Phone Thoughts: APRIL FOOLS: Apple Will Be Entering the PDA Market!

Forget this story. It seems as though Apple have changed their stance on the whole issue about whether to enter the PDA market or not. Last week, I got in touch with an Apple employee, who has declined to release his name for obvious reasons. Following the current blooming success of Windows Mobile-based PDAs, Apple are looking to join in for some of the fun, with the Apple iPoc. It's an interesting (and quirky) name, and I wouldn't believe it at first, until I saw it with my own eyes (that's also when I started going crazy with my camera). The anonymous employee (hereafter, Mr. A) showed me the first takes on what appears to be a solid Apple-based operating system being run on an HP iPAQ. If you're interested, read on to find out more.

So why is it running on an HP iPAQ and not some fancy form of Apple-based hardware? Mr. A informed me that they were looking to get it running on a generic device before focusing on developing their own hardware to run it. Obviously, porting it over to Apple-based hardware takes a bit of work, but getting the foundations right is the most important thing - hence, the reason why they chose a Pocket PC to test things first.

Below are more pictures I took, each with a breakdown of what I was able to see and do with this flashy iPoc. The first picture you see (above) is of the iPoc on startup. Looks neat, huh?



This second screenshot shows you the main starting page of the OS in all it's glory. The usual Finder bar is located at the top, and evidently, has been compacted down to include a volume icon, the time, the Spotlight search feature as well as the standard menu button in the top left. The Spotlight search feature worked really well - it was easily accessible and performed searches very quickly. Next on the list of neat features is the desktop, which comes standard with three shortcuts: iPoc (for accessing the contents of the PDA), iSync (for synchronising, using .Mac technology), and Help (which I believe needs no explanation). More shortcuts can be added on the left and right, so effectively, you have room for two columns worth of shortcuts. The final feature worth talking about is the famous dock which sits at the bottom. As you can see, there are a plethora of icons accessible at the bottom. The ones shown can be customised, but you are only limited to ten due to space constraints. I found the default ones to be suffice, and it was interesting seeing mobile versions of famous applications on offer (e.g. Safari, Mail, iTunes, QuickTime, iCal and so on). iChat was not available, but I was told by Mr. A that it would be available in the final release. Since the iPoc was still in its beta stages, it was easy to see why it was absent.



So here's a compact version of iTunes in all its glory. Most of the extended features can be accessed from the menu by clicking on the Apple button in the top left. It supports playlists, album art, radio, as well as access to a mobile version of iTMS (although it was not available yet). I was quite impressed by its performance, and wait for it - yes, it does support gapless playback! The player can also be moved around the screen, with help from the stylus.

Microsoft do have a reason to be concerned, because from what I've seen, Apple could really do some serious damage with their iPoc. I hope these few paragraphs and pictures have helped you gain an appreciation for what will be available in the near future, and I'd like to thank Mr. A for offering his time showing me what Apple is doing for the PDA market. I know most of you love commenting, so be sure to post your thoughts. Apple iPoc, anyone?