The iPhone is an internet-connected multimedia smartphone designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a flush multi-touch screen and a minimal hardware interface. The device lacks a physical keyboard, so a virtual keyboard is rendered on the touch screen. The iPhone's functions include those of a camera phone and portable media player (equivalent to the iPod) in addition to text messaging and visual voicemail. It also offers Internet services including e-mail, web browsing, and local Wi-Fi connectivity. The first generation phone hardware was quad-band GSM with EDGE; the second generation also adds UMTS with HSDPA.
Hardware
Rear view of an original iPhone. The back is made of metal and black plastic. A highlighted view of the proximity and ambient light sensors on the first-generation iPhone.The proximity and ambient light sensors on the iPhone 3G.
Screen and interface
The 9 cm (3.5 in) liquid crystal display (320×480 px at 6.3 px/mm, 160 ppi) HVGA touchscreen with scratch-resistant glass[ is specifically created for use with a finger, or multiple fingers for multi-touch sensing. Because the screen is a capacitive touchscreen, bare skin is required; a stylus or a normal glove prevents the necessary electrical conductivity.
The display responds to three sensors. A proximity sensor shuts off the display and touchscreen when the iPhone is brought near the face to save battery power and to prevent inadvertent inputs from the user's face and ears. An ambient light sensor adjusts the display brightness which in turn saves battery power. A 3-axis accelerometer senses the orientation of the phone and changes the screen accordingly. Photo browsing, web browsing, and music playing support both upright and left or right widescreen orientations.
Almost all input is given through the touch screen, which understands complex gestures using multi-touch. The iPhone's interaction techniques enable the user to move the content itself up or down by a touch-drag motion of the finger. For example, zooming in and out of web pages and photos is done by placing two fingers on the screen and spreading them farther apart or bringing them closer together. Similarly, scrolling through a long list in a menu works as if the list is pasted on the outer surface of a wheel: the wheel can be "spun" by sliding a finger over the display from bottom to top (or vice versa). In either case, the list continues to move based on the flicking motion of the finger, slowly decelerating as if affected by friction. In this way, the interface simulates the physics of a real 3D object. There are 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
The iPhone's headphones are similar to those of most current smartphones, incorporating a microphone. A multipurpose button in the microphone can be used to play or pause music, skip tracks, and answer or end phone calls without touching the iPhone. The 3.5 mm TRS connector for the headphones is located on the top left corner. The headphone socket on the original iPhone is recessed into the casing. The recess is narrow when compared to many headphone jacks, making them incompatible without the use of an adapter. The iPhone 3G has a flush mounted headphone socket.
The loudspeaker is used both for handsfree operations and media playback, but does not support voice recording.
Composite or component video at up to 576i and stereo audio can be output from the dock connector using an adapter sold by Apple.
Wireless earpieces that use Bluetooth technology to communicate with the iPhone are sold separately. It does not support stereo audio.
Battery
The iPhone features a built-in rechargeable battery that is not user-replaceable, similar to existing iPods, but dissimilar to most existing cellular phones. If the battery prematurely reaches the end of its life, the phone can be returned to Apple and replaced for free while still in warranty, one year at purchase and extended to two years with AppleCare.
The original iPhone's battery was stated to be capable of providing up to seven hours of video, six hours of web browsing, eight hours of talk time, 24 hours of music or up to 250 hours on standby. Apple's site says that the battery life "is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity after 400 full charge and discharge cycles", which is comparable to the iPod batteries.
The iPhone 3G's battery is stated to be capable of providing up to seven hours of video, six hours of web browsing on Wi-Fi or five on 3G, ten hours of 2G talk time, or five on 3G, 24 hours of music, or 300 hours of standby.
The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, a consumer advocate group, has sent a complaint to Apple and AT&T over the fee that consumers have to pay to have the battery replaced. Though the battery replacement service and its pricing was not made known to buyers until the day the product was launched, a similar service had been well established for the iPods by Apple and various third party service providers.
SIM card
The original iPhone's SIM card slot shown as open, with ejected SIM card.
The SIM card is located in a slot at the top of the device, which can be ejected with a paperclip or a SIM card ejection tool which is included with the iPhone 3G. In most countries, the iPhone is usually sold with a SIM lock preventing the use of SIM cards from different mobile networks.
Storage
The iPhone was initially released with two options for internal storage size; either a 4 GB or 8 GB flash drive model was available. On September 5, 2007, Apple announced they were discontinuing the 4 GB models. On February 5, 2008, Apple announced the addition of a 16 GB model to the iPhone lineup. The iPhone does not contain any memory card slots for expanded storage.
Included items
Both the iPhone and the iPhone 3G came with a series of included accessories and items when purchased.
Items common to both versions
- Documentation
- Stereo headset with microphone
- Dock connector to USB cable (standard USB cable for connection)
- Cleaning/polishing cloth
Original iPhone
- Dock
- Standard USB power adapter
iPhone 3G
- SIM ejector tool
- Mini USB power adapter (North America)
- Standard USB power adapter (Everywhere except North America)
Software
iPhone OS is the operating system that runs on the iPhone and iPod Touch. It is based on a variant of the same basic Mach kernel that is found in Mac OS X. iPhone OS includes the software component "Core Animation" from Mac OS X v10.5 which, together with the PowerVR MBX 3D hardware, is responsible for the smooth animations used in its user interface. The operating system takes up considerably less than half a GB of the device's total 8 GB or 16 GB storage. It is capable of supporting bundled and future applications from Apple, as well as applications written by third-party developers and published through the iTunes Store.
Like an iPod, the iPhone is managed with iTunes version 7.3 or later, which is compatible with Mac OS X version 10.4.10 or later, and 32-bit Windows XP or Vista. The release of iTunes 7.6 expanded this support to include 64-bit versions of XP and Vista, and a workaround has been discovered for previous 64-bit Windows operating systems.
The iPhone's applications cannot simply be copied from Mac OS X and have to be written and compiled specifically for the iPhone. Additionally, the Safari web browser supports web applications written with AJAX.
Applications
The photo display application. The YouTube application streams videos over Wi-Fi, 2G, or 3G after encoding them using the open H.264 codec, to which YouTube has converted about 10,000 videos. As a result, the YouTube application on iPhone can currently view only a certain selection of videos from the site.
There are several applications located on the Home screen: Text (SMS messaging), Calendar, Photos, Camera, YouTube, Stocks, Maps (Google Maps), Weather, Clock, Calculator, Notes, Settings, and iTunes (store). Four other applications, docked at the base of the screen, delineate the iPhone's main purposes: Phone, Mail, Safari, and iPod.
Many third-party Safari "applications" and unsigned native applications are also available. The ability to install native applications onto the iPhone outside of the App Store will not be supported by Apple. Such native applications could be broken by any software update, but Apple has stated it will not design software updates specifically to break native applications other than applications that perform SIM unlocking. As of September 15, 2008, iPhone software version 2.1 is still "exploitable" by the same method that enabled unsigned applications in software versions as early as version 1.1.3, indicating that Apple is making good on their promise not to intentionally cripple unofficial development.
Software updates
Apple provides free updates to the iPhone's operating system through iTunes, in a similar fashion to the way that iPods are updated. Security patches, as well as new and improved features, are released in this fashion.
