iPhone

iPhone Technology

2008-10-31T11:35:00.000-07:00

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.

iPhone Features

2008-10-31T11:33:00.000-07:00

The iPhone allows audio conferencing, call holding, call merging, caller ID, and integration with other cellular network features and iPhone functions. Voice dialing and video calling are not supported by the iPhone.

A music ringtone feature was introduced in the United States on September 5, 2007. For a fee equal to the price of the song on iTunes, the user is allowed to create their custom ringtones. It is not yet available in all countries where the iPhone has been released. The ringtones can be from 3 to 30 seconds in length of any part of a song, can include fading in and out, can pause from half a second to five seconds when looped, and never expire. All customizing can be done in iTunes, and the synced ringtones can also be used for alarms on the iPhone. Custom ringtones can also be created using Apple's GarageBand software 4.1.1 or later (available only on Mac OS X) and third-party tools.

The iPhone includes a visual voicemail feature allowing 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 and deleted in a non-chronological order by choosing any message from an on-screen list. AT&T, O2, T-Mobile Germany, and Orange modified their voicemail infrastructure to accommodate this new feature designed by Apple. A lawsuit has been filed against Apple and AT&T by Klausner Technologies Inc. claiming the iPhone's visual voicemail feature infringes two patents.

Multimedia

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 full-screen video playback.

The layout of the music library is similar to iPods and current Symbian S60 phones, with the sections divided more clearly alphabetically, and with a larger font. Just like iPods, the iPhone can sort its media library by songs, artists, albums, videos, playlists, genres, composers, podcasts, audiobooks, and compilations. 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.

The iPhone supports gapless playback.

The iPhone allows users to purchase and download songs from the iTunes Store directly to their iPhone over Wi-Fi with the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, but not over the cellular data network.

Internet connectivity

The ubiquitous Internet connection offered by the iPhone has been widely utilized by users. According to Google, the iPhone generates 50 times more search requests than any other mobile handset. According to Deutsche Telekom CEO René Obermann, "The average Internet usage for an iPhone customer is more than 100 MBytes. This is 30 times the use for our average contract-based consumer customers."

The iPhone is able to access the World Wide Web via a modified version of the Safari web browser. Web pages may be viewed in portrait or landscape mode and supports automatic zooming by pinching together or spreading apart fingertips on the screen, or by double-tapping text or images. The web browser displays complete web pages similar to a desktop web browser and supports zooming by double-tapping the screen.

The iPhone does not support Flash nor Java technology. However, starting in firmware version 2.1, the iPhone supports SVG and the HTML Canvas. The SVG support currently features scripting but no SMIL animation.

E-mail

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, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint attachments to mail messages can be viewed on the phone. Apple's MobileMe platform offers push email, which emulates the functionality of the popular BlackBerry email solution, for an annual subscription. Yahoo! offers a free push-email service for the iPhone. IMAP (although not Push-IMAP) and POP3 mail standards are also supported, including Microsoft Exchange and Kerio MailServer. In the first versions of the iPhone firmware, this was accomplished by opening up IMAP on the Exchange server. Apple has also licensed Microsoft ActiveSync and now supports the platform (including push email) with the release of iPhone 2.0 firmware. The iPhone will sync e-mail account settings over from Apple's own Mail application, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Entourage, or manually configured using the device's Settings tool. With the correct settings, the e-mail program can check almost any IMAP or POP3 account.

Camera

The iPhone features a built in 2.0 megapixel camera located on the back for still digital photos. It has no optical zoom, flash or autofocus, and does not support video recording.

The iPhone 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 and Aperture software on the Mac and Photoshop software in Windows. In version 2.0 of the iPhone OS, users can choose to allow location data to be embedded in the pictures producing geocoded photographs (geotagging).

Others

The built-in Bluetooth 2.x+EDR supports wireless earpieces, which requires the HSP profile, but notably does not support stereo audio (requires A2DP), laptop tethering (requires DUN and SPP), or the OBEX file transfer protocol (requires FTP, GOEP, and OPP). The lack of these profiles prevent iPhone users from exchanging multimedia files with other bluetooth-enabled cell phones, including pictures, music and videos.

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 currently has built-in support for e-mail message forwarding, drafts, and direct internal camera-to-e-mail picture sending. However, it does not yet have capabilities for delivery reports, MMS, or copy/cut/paste. Support for multi-recipient SMS was added in the January 2008 (v1.1.3) software update.

Virtual keyboard on the original iPhone's touchscreen.

For text input, the device implements a virtual keyboard on the touchscreen. It has automatic spell checking and correction, 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 farther apart when in landscape mode, currently available using the Safari web browser and certain third-party applications with Landscape Mode support. A lack of focus on text-messaging is widely considered a chief weakness of the iPhone, although a large number of users evidently have no issue using the device for this purpose. The lack of a physical keyboard allows for the keyboard to be optimized for different applications and languages via software changes only, instead of requiring a costly additional fabrication process.

Accessibility

According to Apple's accessibility statement "effective use of the iPhone 3G requires a minimal level of visual acuity, motor skills, and an ability to operate a few mechanical buttons. Use of iPhone 3G by someone who relies solely on audible and tactile input is not recommended." The iPhone 3G can be used with external TDD/TTY devices using a separately purchased adaptor cable. The iPhone 3G has not been rated under the United States Federal Communication Commission guidelines for hearing aid compatibility at either level M3 or T3.

iPhone Specifications

2008-10-31T11:31:00.000-07:00

Size comparison, from top to bottom, between:
-a first generation iPod Nano
-a first generation iPhone
-a fourth generation iPod

Features common to both versions

Screen size: 3.5 in (89 mm)
Screen resolution: 480×320 pixels at 163 ppi, with 3:2 aspect ratio
Input devices: Multi-touch screen interface plus a "Home" button
Built-in rechargeable, non-removable battery
2 megapixel camera
Location finding by detection of cell towers and Wi-Fi networks
Samsung S5L8900 (412 MHz ARM 1176 processor, PowerVR MBX 3D graphics co-processor)
Memory: 128 MB DRAM
Storage: 8 GB or 16 GB flash memory
Operating System: iPhone OS
Quad band GSM / GPRS / EDGE: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)
Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR

Original model

4 GB model (discontinued after two months) or 8 GB model
Size: 4.5 inches (115 mm) (h) × 2.4 inches (61 mm) (w) × 0.46 inch (11. mm) (d)
Weight: 135 g (4.8 oz)
Battery has up to 8 hours of talk, 6 hours of Internet use, 7 hours of video playback, and up to 24 hours of audio playback, lasting over 250 hours on standby.
Headphone jack (recessed)
Digital SAR of 0.974 W/kg

3G model

Color: Black (8 GB or 16 GB) or white (16 GB)
Size: 4.5 inches (115.5 mm) (h) × 2.4 inches (62.1 mm) (w) × 0.48 inch (12.3 mm) (d)
Weight: 133 g (4.7 oz)
Headphone jack (non-recessed)
Battery has up to 10 hours of 2G talk, 5 hours of 3G talk, 5 (3G) or 6 (Wi-Fi) hours of Internet use, 7 hours of video playback, and up to 24 hours of audio playback, lasting over 300 hours on standby.
Tri band UMTS / HSDPA: UMTS 850 / 1900 / 2100
Assisted GPS, with preference to location based on Wi-Fi or cell towers
Digital SAR Rating: 1.38 W/kg

Patents, copyrights, and trademarks

Apple has filed more than 300 patents related to the technology behind the iPhone.

LG Electronics claimed the iPhone's design was copied from the LG Prada. Woo-Young Kwak, head of LG Mobile Handset R&D Center, said at a press conference, “We consider that Apple copied Prada phone after the design was unveiled when it was presented in the iF Design Award and won the prize in September 2006.”^[

On September 3, 1993, Infogear filed for the U.S. trademark "I PHONE" and on March 20, 1996 applied for the trademark "IPhone". "I Phone" was registered in March 1998, and "IPhone" was registered in 1999. Since then, the I PHONE mark had been abandoned. Infogear's trademarks cover "communications terminals comprising computer hardware and software providing integrated telephone, data communications and personal computer functions" (1993 filing), and "computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global information networks" (1996 filing).^[ Infogear released a telephone with an integrated web browser under the name iPhone in 1998. In 2000, Infogear won an infringement claim against the owners of the iphones.com domain name. In June 2000, Cisco Systems acquired Infogear, including the iPhone trademark. On December 18, 2006 they released a range of re-branded Voice over IP (VoIP) sets under the name iPhone.

In October 2002, Apple applied for the "iPhone" trademark in the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, and the European Union. A Canadian application followed in October 2004 and a New Zealand application in September 2006. As of October 2006 only the Singapore and Australian applications had been granted. In September 2006, a company called Ocean Telecom Services applied for an "iPhone" trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and Hong Kong, following a filing in Trinidad and Tobago. As the Ocean Telecom trademark applications use exactly the same wording as Apple's New Zealand application, it is assumed that Ocean Telecom is applying on behalf of Apple. The Canadian application was opposed in August 2005 by a Canadian company called Comwave who themselves applied for the trademark three months later. Comwave have been selling VoIP devices called iPhone since 2004.

Shortly after Steve Jobs' January 9, 2007 announcement that Apple would be selling a product called iPhone in June 2007, Cisco issued a statement that it had been negotiating trademark licensing with Apple and expected Apple to agree to the final documents that had been submitted the night before. On January 10, 2007 Cisco announced it had filed a lawsuit against Apple over the infringement of the trademark iPhone, seeking an injunction in federal court to prohibit Apple from using the name. More recently, Cisco claimed that the trademark lawsuit was a "minor skirmish" that was not about money, but about interoperability.

iPhone Restrictions

2008-10-31T11:20:00.000-07:00

SIM Lock removal

While initially iPhones were only sold on the AT&T network with a SIM lock in place, various hackers have found methods to "unlock" the phone; more recently some carriers have started to sell unlocked iPhones. More than a quarter of iPhones sold in the United States were not registered with AT&T. Apple speculates that they were likely shipped overseas and unlocked. AT&T has stated that the "iPhone cannot be unlocked, even if you are out of contract".

On carriers where removal of the iPhone's SIM lock is allowed the carrier can submit a request to Apple which will then remove the carrier locking on the next restore of the iPhone through iTunes. Customers of the carriers Optus and Vodafone in Australia, and Netcom in Norway, have so far been successful in unlocking their phones to work on any network. Note that in certain countries, where unlocked phones are required to be available by law, the iPhone is sold without a contract and without a SIM lock; on average, such units carry prices of US$700+ for the 8GB model. Examples include Hong Kong, Italy, and Russia. Optus in Australia officially supports SIM unlocking for customers on post-paid contracts at no additional charge.

Activation

The iPhone normally prevents access to its media player and web features unless it has also been activated as a phone with an authorized carrier. On July 3, 2007, Jon Lech Johansen reported on his blog that he had successfully bypassed this requirement and unlocked the iPhone's other features with a combination of custom software and modification of the iTunes binary. He published the software and offsets for others to use.

However, on the network in the United Kingdom, users can buy the phone online and activate it via iTunes, as with the previous model. Likewise, in Australia, iPhones purchased as a pre-paid kit do not require in-store activation, but require activation online at the Optus website and iTunes. On the Movistar network in Spain, users can activate it via iTunes also. However for their convenience, shops usually offer to activate it for them.

Unlike the original, the 3G iPhone must be activated in the store in most countries. This need for in-store activation, as well as the huge number of first-generation iPhone and iPod Touch users upgrading to iPhone OS 2.0, caused a worldwide overload of Apple's servers on July 11, 2008, the day on which both the iPhone 3G and iPhone OS 2.0 updates were released. After the update, devices were required to connect to Apple's servers to authenticate the update, causing many devices to be temporarily unusable.

Third party applications

The iPhone's operating system is designed to only run software that has an Apple-approved cryptographic signature. This restriction can be overcome by "jailbreaking" the phone, which involves replacing the iPhone's firmware with a slightly modified version that does not enforce the signature check. Doing so may be a circumvention of Apple's technical protection measures, which in the United States would be legal under special provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that allows for circumvention for the purpose of connecting a wireless telephone to a wireless telephone communication network.