REVOLUTIONARY -IPHONE FROM APPLE

Manufacturer Apple Inc.

Carrier AT&T Mobility (formerly Cingular Wireless)

Available June 29, 2007, 6:00pm local time
2007
Q4 2007
2008
2008
Screen 3.5 in, 320x480 px at 160 ppi

Camera 2.0 megapixel

Memory 4 GB, 8 GB, internal flash memory

Built-in rechargeable, non-removable battery with 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.[

Networks 2G GSM Quad band (850/900/1800/1900 MHz), GPRS/EDGE, data speed up to 384 kbit/s

Connectivity Computer via 30-pin iPod dock connector, Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), Bluetooth 2.0

Physical size 115×61×11.6 mm (4.5×2.4×0.46 in)
Form factor Candybar

Weight 135 grams (4.8 ounces)

Media capabilities As iPod (5G)

Features

Apple has released a Guided Tour video explaining all of iPhone's features through a series of simple demonstrations.[28]

Touch screen

The 3.5 inch (8.9 cm) liquid crystal display (320×480 px at 160 ppi) HVGA touch screen topped with optical-quality glass[29] is specifically created for use with a finger, or multiple fingers for multi-touch sensing. No stylus is needed, nor can an ordinary one be used, as the touch screen requires touch by something with the physical properties of bare skin to operate.[30]

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. Notably, 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. Additionally, an optional landscape mode for text entry with the virtual keyboard has been mentioned by Apple executives as a possibility for iPhone, but Apple has not yet come to a final decision as to its inclusion in the shipping version of iPhone. A possible advantage of landscape text entry would be the availability of larger keys to ease text entry, especially for individuals with larger fingers.

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.

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. 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 seems to simulate the physics of a real object, which, it is thought, should give a natural feel to the whole process.

The UI 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.

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.

Other inputs

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 an accelerometer, which senses the orientation of the phone and changes the screen accordingly, albeit in only one 90 degree direction.

A single frontal hardware button 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.

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.

The iPhone will include a Visual Voicemail feature in conjunction with AT&T Mobility, formerly Cingular Wireless, which allows users to view a list of current voicemail messages onscreen, 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 completely reworked their voicemail infrastructure to accommodate this new feature designed by Apple.

SMS 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.

Camera

The iPhone features a built in 2.0 megapixel camera located on the back, the camera cannot record video at this time. 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 will interact with iPhoto on the Mac.

Multimedia

The layout of the music library differs from previous iPods, with the sections divided more clearly alphabetically, and with a larger font. 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. A two-fingered tap is used to switch between the video's true wide-screen aspect ratio (with black bars on the top and bottom of the screen) and a zoomed mode (to fill the iPhone's screen).

Internet

Wikipedia on the iPhone's Safari web browser.

The iPhone has built-in Wi-Fi, with which it will be able to access the Internet (through a wireless network) via a modified version of the Safari web browser. The iPhone will also be able to connect to the Internet through AT&T's EDGE network but will not be able to utilize AT&T's 3G/HSDPA network, however Steve Jobs' mentioned at the Keynote presentation that 3G support would be a future feature.[30] The web browser displays full web pages as opposed to simplified pages as on most non-smartphones. However, as of WWDC 2007, the iPhone does not support Flash technology.[31] 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. It works with wireless earpieces that use Bluetooth 2.0 technology and allows file transfer.

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. 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.[7]

E-mail

The iPhone also features an HTML e-mail program, which enables the user to embed photos in an e-mail message. Yahoo! will be providing a free Push-IMAP e-mail service similar to that on a BlackBerry; IMAP and POP3 mail standards are also supported, including Microsoft Exchange. The iPhone will sync with e-mail programs such as Outlook, entourage and web based email accounts such as Gmail, .Mac mail and AOL.[32]

OS X

Apple has confirmed an optimized version of the Mac OS X operating system (without unnecessary components) will run on the iPhone, although differences between the operating system (OS X) running on Macs and the iPhone have not been officially explained.

It takes up around 700 MB.[33] It will be capable of supporting as-yet undetermined bundled and future applications from Apple.

Apple intends to offer a smooth method for updating the iPhone's operating system, in a similar fashion to the way that Mac OS X and iPods are updated, and touts this as an advantage compared to other cell phones.[34]

Widgets, similar to the ones available in Mac OS X v10.4's Dashboard, are included on the iPhone. They include Stocks and Weather widgets.

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.

Applications

The phone has several applications located at iPhone's "Home" Screen, including YouTube. It will stream the 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, implying that the YouTube application on iPhone will initially only be able to view a certain selection of videos from the site.[citation needed]

At the WWDC 2007 Conference on June 11th, 2007 Apple, Inc. announced that the iPhone will support third party applications via the Safari web browser. The applications must be created in Ajax or JavaScript to maintain device security.[35]

Other

The iPhone features a built-in battery that is not intended to be user-replaceable, similar to existing iPods. The battery is stated to be capable of providing up to seven hours of video, six hours of web browsing, or eight hours of talk time (depending on configuration). The battery life for music playing is stated to be 24 hours.[29] The battery will also allow for up to 250 hours of standby time.

There will be new headphones which are similar to those of current iPods, but which incorporate a microphone. Calls can be answered and ended by squeezing 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 will be sold separately.

The loudspeaker is used both for handsfree operations and media playback.

The SIM card is located in a slot at the top of the device.[28]

Pricing and availability

In a deal concluded through secretive discussions which began in February 2005,[36] AT&T Mobility, formerly Cingular Wireless, will be the exclusive carrier of the iPhone in the United States and will remain so until 2009 or later.[37][38] The iPhone may be purchased only with a two-year service plan with AT&T.[39]

Apple received FCC approval for the iPhone on May 17, 2007.[40] Jobs announced that the iPhone will first be available in late June 2007 in the U.S.,[41] during the fourth quarter 2007 in Europe, and in 2008 for Asia, Mexico and probably the rest of Latin America[42]. Also, Mac OS X v10.5, which was originally planned for release on June 11 at the Worldwide Developers Conference, is now delayed until October 2007, due to the fact that engineers from the Mac OS X team were diverted to work on the iPhone.[43] New commercials for the iPhone began airing on television starting on June 3, confirming a release date of June 29, 2007.

The initial U.S. release will be offered in two configurations with two different prices: a 4 GB model for US$499 and an 8 GB model for US$599.

Apple also announced that its goal is to capture 1% of the global mobile phone market, which would be approximately 10 million units being sold in the first full calendar year of iPhone availability. For comparison, Jobs announced that the Apple iPod commands 62% of the U.S. market share for MP3 players.[44]
iPhone Pricing PlansUSD/month 59.99 79.99 99.99 119.99 169.99 219.99
Minutes 450 900 1350 2000 4000 6000


All plans include visual voicemail, unlimited data (Email/Web), 200 SMS text messages, unlimited nights/weekends (with the exception of the 59.99 plan, which only includes 5000 minutes), Rollover minutes, and unlimited mobile to mobile (AT&T customers only) minutes.[45]

Criticisms

Analysts have made several public criticisms of the iPhone.
The iPhone's virtual keyboard has been considered its chief weakness and a risk for Apple.[67] The New York Times' David Pogue and Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg, who both tested the iPhone for two weeks, found learning to use it initially difficult, although eventually usable, with Pogue stating use was "frustrating" and "text entry is not the iPhone’s strong suit" and Mossberg considering the keyboard a "nonissue". Both found the typo-correcting feature of the iPhone was critical in using the virtual keyboard successfully.

When the user is not in a Wi-Fi hot spot, the iPhone's network connection will use AT&T's older EDGE network. The data rate for this network is 40kbps, similar to a landline modem connection.[69] One reviewer found that the older network resulted in the iPhone taking as long as a 100 seconds to download the Yahoo! home page for the first time.[33] The EDGE network is being boosted from 40kbs to 80kbps to coincide with project launch.
]
The rechargeable battery is non-removable, and once depleted, will need to be replaced by the manufacturer for a fee.

iPhone lacks any type of firewall, which some experts claim is posing a data security risk.[71] However without unsafe applications to firewall this might be a moot point, if the built in applications do not open unsafe communication ports.
iPhone is only available for those who subscribe to a two-year AT&T service plan.

iPhone offers no capacity to sync with corporate internal email systems
iPhone cannot install full programs from anyone but Apple.

The Safari browser in iPhone supports neither Adobe Flash nor Java.

iPhone lacks a number of common handheld features:
voice dialing
instant messaging
memory card slot
MMS
A2DP (stereo bluetooth)
text copy and paste
video recording with the built-in camera
support for MP3 files as ringtones

Some of these problems may be fixed with automatic future software updates.

GUIDE TOUR FROM APPLE
http://www.apple.com/iphone/phone/
http://www.mahalo.com/IPhone