The Apple iPhone lives

The speculation and rumors and leaks were basically right:

Steve Jobs has announced the Apple iPhone. (Click here to discuss in the BillDay.com iPhone forum)

• Touch screen tech known as “multi-touch”, uses your finger, almost entire front of device is screen
• 3.5 inch 480 x 320 widescreen, 160ppi
• 11.6mm thick, “thinner than the Q and the BlackJack, all of them” says Jobs
• Syncs music, movies, and more with iTunes
• 8GB ($599USD with 2 year Cingular contract) and 4GB ($499 with 2yr) versions
• 2 megapixel cellcam built-in
• Top: 3.5mm headset jack, SIM tray, and a sleep-wake switch
• Bottom: Speaker, mic input, and an iPod connector
• Proximity sensor (knows when you bring it to your ear)
• Ambient light sensor (dims and brightens screen as needed, saves power)
• Accelerometer (switches automatically between landscape and portrait as you rotate iPhone)
• Quad-band GSM+EDGE, WiFi (b/g), Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR and A2DP
• Automatically detects and switches to WiFi from EDGE when it finds a hotspot
• Safari for Web browsing, full HTML support (Jobs cites Google Maps as an example)
• IMAP and POP3 email
• Jobs notes “Yahoo will offer free push-IMAP email to iPhone customers. This isn’t just IMAP, this is push-email, same as a BlackBerry.”
• Runs OS X (this apparently drew cheers from the MacWorld attendees)
• 5 hours battery life for calls or video, 16 hours for music playback
• Slated for US in Q2 2007, Europe in Q4 2007, and Asia in 2008

Discuss here. More deets to come. More images from the keynote below.

[Tip o’ the hat to Engadget’s keynote coverage]