I was going to start with the tech stuff,
but the Conan O'Brien iPhone parody is
really the must-view clip of the bunch. You
gotta love the ending (can you hear me
now?):
Now, the technical stuff. Leading the
list for short-and-sweet is TechRestore's
60-second (57, actually) iPhone unboxing and
teardown video. It gives you a quick look at
the device's innards.
The real must-watch teardown comes from
Semiconductor Insights. TechOnline's Patrick
Mannion posted a detailed companion story,
here. Here's the five-minute teardown
video. Check out how the guy opening up the
iPhone approaches it like a surgeon. I
half-expected him to anesthetize the device
first. FYI, the audio quality on this clip
is poor, so crank up your volume control
before you press play.
What clip collection would
be complete without a look at the main
pre-release story, which was the hordes
camped out in cities across the country in
advance of the 6 pm June 29 launch. Here's
an amateur video shot outside the Apple
Store on 59th Street in New York City. Note
the highly non-PC voiceover. "It's a media
circus; it's retarded," says the narrator.
"They must have their iPhone. You got the
Starbucks people here. . .You got people
sleeping. . . Pure madness. " (Capsule
review: 60 seconds of this stuff is more
than sufficient.)
Speaking of railing against the iPhone,
here's Steve Ballmer commenting on the
device well in advance of its launch. "That
is the most expensive phone in the world,
and it doesn't appeal to business
customers," Ballmer says in this clip from
January.
Here's an interesting anti-iPhone video.
It's a comparison of the Apple device with
the Windows Mobile-powered HTC Touch phone.
Since the clip is sourced from the
Windows Smartphone and PocketPC Tips
blog, you guess who wins. (Warning: For
those offended by bad music, this video
comes with an intrusive Asian techno-pop
backing track.)
Okay, so this is old and it's not about the
iPhone. But "Microsoft Redesigns the iPod
packaging is a classic. It was widely
distributed a year ago, and is worth a quick
look, if you missed it:
Here's a long (6 minutes) clip from
February. It's a little out of date, but
it's notable for its dogged attempt to
present the details of iPhone apps. (I know,
you can just go out and buy the thing and
use the apps now.) This video is also a
quick way to get the sense of Jobs's iPhone
keynote at MacWorld, without having to watch
the whole thing.
