Sweet Phone.....I Think.........

While 99 percent of the tech world is sleeping off its collective hangover at CES in Las Vegas, a tiny but very important minority can be found in foggy San Francisco, where Steve Jobs has just announced the latest goodies to come from Apple Computer.

Speculation has run rampant over the last few months since Jobs' last affair, with predictions ranging from iPod phones to high-definition TVs with Apple branding. Here's what actually went down, starting with the big news that people will be chatting about for weeks to come.

Apple iPhone

Despite trademark concerns, it really is going to be called the iPhone, and here it is. An all-new interface makes this slim rectangle completely button-free. The whole thing is a touchscreen. 4GB or 8GB of storage inside for your music. Cingular EDGE (no 3G service!) for your phone calls. Wi-Fi. It actually runs Apple's OS X and can do all manner of "smart phone" tasks...which is either going to be very cool or extreme overkill for people who just wanted a phone that could also play music. How long will it be before we start getting emails with a "Sent from my Apple iPhone" tag at the bottom of them? (Yahoo! Mail is included on the device, by the way, along with all manner of internet capabilities.)

Other features include a 2-megapixel camera and a standard iPod jack. It's also crazy slim at under 12mm in thickness. Wanna watch a movie? Just flip it on its side and you have a nice widescreen display. No keyboard: A virtual one pops up when you need it. We'll see how well that works over time.

There are so many other features on this phone that I could easily do a gigantic five-part post on the thing. $499 or $599 depending on storage. Arriving in June.

AppleTV

Formerly known as iTV, Apple's miniature set-top media streaming device is finally coming out. (This was announced last year.) The new product includes component video, an HDMI connector, optical audio, 802.11n networking (which should help with the bandwidth issues I wrote about last time), and a 40GB hard drive. Looks nice! $299.