Just one huge more thing: Steve Jobs just shocked everyone on Earth, I think, by introducing a combined cell phone-slash-iPod-slash-PDA. This thing is ridiculous. I can’t do it justice. (I promised that I would eat my hat if the iPhone rumor was true, so I guess I’m going to have to find a fork and knife.) And the entire rest of the cellular industry is going to have to catch up to their stiffest competition, just like the mobile-music industry — but there’s a lot more money on the line right now. The Times says:

In an exclusive partnership with Cingular, the nation’s largest cellular phone carrier, Mr. Jobs brought his legendary product design sense to bear on one of the world’s most ubiquitous products. He said Apple had set the goal of taking 1 percent of the world market for cell phones, or 10 million phones per year, by the end of 2008.

Underscoring the transformation of a quirky computer maker that during the past half decade has come to dominate the world of digital music, and signaling his ambition to become a force in new markets, Mr. Jobs announced that the Apple was dropping the “computer” from its name and would henceforth become Apple Inc.

[…]

Touting the fact that the new iPhone is powered by the same core OS X operating system that runs Macintosh computers, Mr. Jobs showed a series of applications including e-mail, advanced voice mail, photo collections and visually appealing Web searching all on a device that will be priced beginning at $499. That model will have four gigabytes of storage, and an eight-gigabyte model will be available for $599.

The iPhone will offer five hours of operating time and 16 hours of audio playback, Mr. Jobs said. The phone will be compatible with Cingular’s digital EDGE data network as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth networks.

[Link]