The iPhone is a multimedia and Internet-enabled quad-band GSM EDGE-supported mobile phone designed and sold by Apple Inc. The iPhone's functions include those of a camera phone and a portable media player ("iPod"), in addition to text messaging and visual voicemail. It also offers Internet services including e-mail, web browsing, and local Wi-Fi connectivity. User input is accomplished via a multi-touch screen with virtual keyboard and buttons.
The iPhone has been available since June 29, 2007 in the United States from Apple retail and online stores, and from AT&T Mobility. The current price is US$399 for an 8 GB model. On September 18, 2007, Apple announced in a special event that the iPhone will be available on November 9, 2007 on the carrier O2 in the United Kingdom.[1] On September 19, 2007, Apple and Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile announced the iPhone would go on sale November 9, 2007 throughout Germany.[2] On September 20, 2007, France Télécom also announced they would be selling the iPhone in France.[3]
Contents [hide]
1 Features
1.1 Outputs
1.2 Inputs
1.3 Functions
1.4 Software
1.5 Miscellaneous
2 Pricing and availability
2.1 United States
2.2 United Kingdom
2.3 Germany
2.4 France
2.5 Others
3 Specifications
3.1 Package contents
4 History
4.1 Advertising
4.2 U.S. Release
4.3 Sales
4.4 Price drop controversy
4.5 Domain name
4.6 Activation and SIM lock bypassing
4.7 Custom application development
5 Disputes
5.1 Trademark
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
Features
Apple has released a video explaining many of iPhone's features through a series of demonstrations.[4]
Outputs
Touch screen
The 3.5 in liquid crystal display (320×480 px at 160 ppi) HVGA touch screen topped with optical-quality, scratch-resistant glass[5] is specifically created for use with a finger, or multiple fingers for multi-touch sensing. Because the screen is a capacitive touch screen, no stylus is needed, nor can one be used.[6][7] The requirement for bare skin to be used has caused concerns for users in areas with winter climates; unless wearing electrically conductive gloves[8] they would have to be removed to use the touchpad.[9]
The user interface also features other visual effects, such as horizontally sliding sub-selections and co-selections from right and left, vertically sliding system menus from the bottom (e.g. favorites, keyboard), and menus and widgets that turn around to allow settings to be configured on their back sides.
Audio
When music is played on the iPhone, album art is shown on most of the screen, with play controls beneath.The iPhone's headphones are similar to those of current iPods, but also incorporate a microphone. Calls can be answered and ended by squeezing a bud, toggling the microphone. The 3.5 mm TRS connector for the headphones is located on the top left corner (as seen from front upright). Wireless earpieces that use Bluetooth technology to communicate with the iPhone are sold separately.
The loudspeaker is used both for handsfree operations and media playback, but does not support voice recording.
Inputs
Touch screen
For text input, the device implements a virtual keyboard on the touchscreen. It has automatic spell checking, predictive word capabilities, and a dynamic dictionary that learns new words. The predictive word capabilities have been integrated with the dynamic virtual keyboard so that users will not have to be extremely accurate when typing—i.e. touching the edges of the desired letter or nearby letters on the keyboard will be predictively corrected when possible. The keys are somewhat larger and spaced further apart when in landscape mode (currently, only using Safari). Reviewers, writers and analysts have pointed out several areas in which the iPhone falls short. The virtual keyboard has been considered its chief weakness and a risk for Apple.[10] David Pogue of The New York Times and Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal both tested the iPhone for two weeks and found learning to use it initially difficult, although eventually usable. Pogue stated use was "frustrating" and "text entry is not the iPhone’s strong suit" but Mossberg considered the keyboard a "nonissue." Both found that the typo-correcting feature of the iPhone was the key to using the virtual keyboard successfully.[11][12]
Scrolling through a long list works as if the list is pasted on the surface of a wheel: the wheel can be "spun" by sliding a finger over the display from bottom to top (or vice versa). After the finger is lifted from the display the wheel continues to "spin" for a short moment before coasting down. In this way, the iPhone simulates the physics of a real object, which gives a natural feel to the process.
The iPhone varies from common desktop interfaces by using a direct manipulation model of scrolling. Where a typical desktop GUI achieves scrolling by using a scroll-arrow to push a view-window down and thus the content itself up (or the reverse, clicking up to move content down), the iPhone interface enables the user to move the content itself up or down by a touch-drag-lift motion of the finger, much as one would slide a playing card across a table. Additionally, the speed desired for scrolling is computed based on the speed and acceleration with which the drag motion is performed.
The photo album and web page magnifications are examples of multi-touch sensing. It is possible to zoom in and out of objects such as web pages and photos by respectively "unpinching" and "pinching" them, that is, placing two fingers (usually thumb and forefinger) on the screen and moving them farther apart or closer together as if stretching or squeezing the image. This scaling is done uniformly and proportionally based on the image in question so there is no distortion of the image itself, as would be the case if the image were actually stretched or squeezed.
One disadvantage of multi-touch with regards to AJAX web sites is that there is no mechanism for right clicking on a UI element. That is, there are no separate paradigms for emulating certain functions of a multi-button mouse. However, 'hovering' over a UI element can still be achieved by touching and holding a UI element.
The iPhone's touch interface has been compared by some media to the HTC Touch,[13][14][15][16] which also features a touchscreen designed for fingers, although it can also be used with a stylus and lacks multi-touch.
Other
The display responds to three sensors: a proximity sensor that shuts off the display and touchscreen when the iPhone is brought near the face to save battery power and to prevent spurious inputs from the user's face and ears, an ambient light sensor that adjusts the display brightness which in turn saves battery power, and a 3-axis accelerometer,[17] which senses the orientation of the phone and changes the screen accordingly. Web browsing and music playing support three orientations, while videos play in only one widescreen orientation.
A single "home" hardware button below the display brings up the main menu. Subselections are made via the touchscreen. The iPhone utilizes a full-paged display, with context-specific submenus at the top and/or bottom of each page, sometimes depending on screen orientation. Detail pages display the equivalent of a "Back" button to go up one menu.
The iPhone has three physical switches on its sides: sleep / wake, volume up / down, ringer on / off. All other multimedia and phone operations are done via the touch screen.
Functions
Phone
The iPhone allows conferencing, call holding, call merging, caller ID, and integration with other cellular network features and iPhone functions. For example, a playing song fades out when the user receives a call. Once the call is ended the music fades back in. Voice dialing is not supported by the iPhone.
The iPhone includes a Visual Voicemail feature in conjunction with AT&T which allows users to view a list of current voicemail messages on-screen, without having to call into their voicemail. Unlike most other systems, messages can be listened to in a non-chronological order, by choosing messages from an on-screen list. AT&T modified their voicemail infrastructure to accommodate this new feature designed by Apple.
A ringtone feature, introduced on September 5, 2007, allows users to create ringtones from purchased iTunes music.
Text messages are presented chronologically in a mailbox format similar to Mail, which places all text from recipients together with replies. Text messages are displayed in speech bubbles (similar to iChat) under each recipient's name. The iPhone does not support instant messaging, MMS, multi-recipient SMS, or copy/cut/paste capability.[18] The phone's lack of 3G network support has also been a source of criticism.[19]
Camera
The iPhone features a built in 2.0 megapixel camera located on the back for still digital photos, but not video recording. It also includes software that allows the user to upload, view, and e-mail photos. The user zooms in and out of photos by "unpinching" and "pinching" them through the multi-touch interface. The software interacts with iPhoto on the Mac.
When the iPhone is tilted into landscape when in iPod mode, CoverFlow is activated.Multimedia
The layout of the music library differs from previous iPods, with the sections divided more clearly alphabetically, and with a larger font. Similar to previous iPods, the iPhone can sort its media library by songs, artists, albums, videos, playlists, genres, composers, podcasts, audiobooks, and compilations. The Cover Flow, like that on iTunes, shows the different album covers in a scroll-through photo library. Scrolling is achieved by swiping a finger across the screen.
Like the fifth generation iPods introduced in 2005, the iPhone can play video, allowing users to watch TV shows and films. Unlike other image-related content, video on the iPhone plays only in the landscape orientation, when the phone is turned sideways. Double tapping switches between wide-screen and fullscreen video playback.
Web connectivity and e-mail
The iPhone has built-in Wi-Fi, with which it is able to access the World Wide Web (through a wireless network) via a modified version of the Safari web browser. The iPhone is also able to connect to the web through AT&T's EDGE network, but is not able to utilize AT&T's 3G/HSDPA network; Steve Jobs mentioned at the Keynote presentation that 3G support would be a future feature of a new version.[7] The use of the EDGE network instead of 3G has been criticized by analysts. When the user is not in a Wi-Fi hot spot, the iPhone's network connection will use the older EDGE network; before the launch, reviewers found that the EDGE network was "excruciatingly slow," with the iPhone taking as long as 100 seconds to download the Yahoo! home page for the first time.[11] Immediately before the launch the observed speed of the network increased to almost 200 kbit/s.[20] This is probably due to the new "Fine EDGE" upgrades AT&T has been making to their network prior to the launch.[21] The EDGE network does benefit iPhone users by providing greater availability than 3G, although 3G continues to be expanded to most major cities in the United States.[22] The iPhone does not provide tethering for laptop users.
Wikipedia on the iPhone's Safari web browser.There was some criticism stemming from the iPhone's inability to download iTunes content wirelessly.[23] Apple partially addressed this criticism on 5 September 2007 when they announced the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store which was first introduced on the iPod touch. This feature was released with the 1.1.1 software update on September 27, 2007, allowing users to purchase and download songs from the iTunes Store directly to their iPhone over Wi-Fi. This feature will only work when connected to a Wi-Fi network.[24]
The web browser displays full web pages as opposed to simplified pages as on most non-smartphones. The iPhone does not support Flash or Java technology.[10][25] Web pages may be viewed in portrait or landscape mode and support automatic zooming by "pinching" or double-tapping images or text. The iPhone also has Bluetooth 2.x+EDR built in, which only works with wireless earpieces that use Bluetooth technology, but does not support A2DP or common Bluetooth file transfer (OBEX).
An agreement between Apple and Google provides for access to a specially modified version of Google Maps—in map, local list, or satellite form, optimized for the iPhone, which also provides optional real-time traffic information. During the product's announcement, Jobs demonstrated this feature by searching for nearby Starbucks locations and then placing a prank call to one with a single tap.[26][27] Google's ownership of YouTube means that viewing videos on the website can be achieved on the iPhone through a specialised application built into the system.
The iPhone also features an e-mail program that supports HTML e-mail, which enables the user to embed photos in an e-mail message. PDF, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft Excel attachments to mail messages can be viewed on the phone.[28] Yahoo! is currently the only e-mail provider offering a free Push-IMAP e-mail service similar to that on a BlackBerry for the iPhone; IMAP and POP3 mail standards are also supported, including Microsoft Exchange.[29] The iPhone will sync e-mail account settings over from Apple's own Mail application, Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Entourage, or can be manually configured using the device's Settings tool. With the correct settings, the e-mail program can check many IMAP or POP3-enabled web based accounts such as Gmail, .Mac mail, and AOL.[30]
Software
OS X
Apple has confirmed that an optimized version of the Mac OS X operating system (without unnecessary components) runs on the iPhone, although differences between the operating system (OS X) running on Macs and the iPhone have not been officially explained. The iPhone's version of OS X includes the software component "Core Animation" which is responsible for the smooth animations used in its user interface. Core Animation has not yet been released for Macs, but will be part of Mac OS X v10.5. The operating system takes up about 300 MB of the device's total 8 GB storage according to the size of the OS partition.[11] It will be capable of supporting bundled and future applications from Apple.
As the iPhone's CPU is an ARM-based processor, the version of OS X that runs on iPhone differs from the desktop version in that code written in high-level programming languages is compiled to, and code written in assembly language is written in, instructions from the ARM instruction set architecture (ISA) instead of the x86 and PowerPC ISAs that Mac OS X uses.
Applications
There are several applications located on the "Home" screen. The YouTube application streams videos over Wi-Fi and/or EDGE after encoding them using QuickTime's H.264 codec, to which YouTube has converted about 10,000 videos. They are expected to convert the entire catalog by Fall 2007. As a result, the YouTube application on iPhone can currently only view a certain selection of videos from the site.[31] Also, because YouTube displays videos using Flash, the iPhone can only view videos through the YouTube application as opposed to accessing the website using Safari.
At WWDC 2007 on June 11, 2007 Apple Inc. announced that the iPhone will support third-party "applications" via the Safari web browser that share the look and feel of the iPhone interface. The applications must be created in Ajax or JavaScript to maintain device security.[32] The iPhone cannot officially install full programs from anyone but Apple,[33] although Steve Jobs has hinted that future third-party applications are in development.[34][35] Enthusiasts have demonstrated the possibility of unauthorized native code with a simple "Hello, World" program,[36] as well as a fully functional terminal emulator.[37]
Analysts also claim that iPhone lacks any type of firewall, which some experts claim is posing a data security risk.[38] It is not confirmed by Apple or by independent analysts that used the actual device for tests that it doesn't have a firewall. Daniel Eran writes: "Dulaney doesn't know if the iPhone has a firewall, has no reason to suggest that its installation of OS X wouldn't offer a firewall, and offers no reasons why a mobile device would need a firewall anyway."[39]
Platform support
The Apple Bluetooth Headset and a quarter for scale.The iPhone is compatible with Mac OS X version 10.4.10 or later, and 32-bit Windows XP or Vista. For each, the user must download iTunes version 7.3 or later. The iPhone is not compatible with any 64-bit version of Windows such as Windows XP x64 or any 64-bit edition of Windows Vista.[40]
Software updates
Apple provides updates to the iPhone's operating system through iTunes, in a similar fashion to the way that iPods are updated, and touts this as an advantage compared to other cell phones.[41] Security patches as well as new and improved features, such as a mobile chat client, Flash support, and voice recording, may be released in this fashion.[42]
The first iPhone software update, 1.0.1, was released on July 31, 2007[43] to patch an exploit, discovered on July 23, 2007. It allowed hackers to take complete control of the iPhone via Wi-Fi connection or by luring a person to a website with that included malicious code. Once the hacker had control of the iPhone they could download the entire content of the iPhone, make phone calls, or turn the phone into a covert listening device.[44]
The first full update, 1.1.1, was released on September 27, 2007. In addition to the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, this update also adds home button shortcuts and other features from the iPod touch.[45] It also disabled 3rd party apps and hacks. See the Activation and SIM lock bypassing section for further information.
Miscellaneous