iPhones in india

2008-06-29T23:34:00.000-07:00

The iPhone is an Internet-enabled multimedia mobile phone designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It has a multi-touch screen with virtual keyboard and buttons, but a minimal amount of hardware input. 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 uses UMTS and HSDPA.^[22]

Apple announced the iPhone on 9 January 2007.^[23] The announcement was preceded by rumors and speculations that circulated for several months.^[24] The iPhone was initially introduced in the United States on 29 June 2007 and is in the process of being introduced worldwide. It was named Time magazine's Invention of the Year in 2007.^[25] On 9 June 2008, the iPhone 3G was unveiled, which supports 3G phone standard including HSDPA - and Assisted GPS.

Hardware

Screen and interface

The 9 cm (3.5 in) liquid crystal display (320×480 px at 6.3 px/mm (160 ppi)) HVGA touchscreen topped with optical-quality, scratch-resistant glass^[26] 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.^[27]^[28]^[29]^[30]

Almost all input is given through the touch screen, which understands complex gestures using multi-touch. The iPhone user interface enables the user to move the content itself up or down by a touch-drag motion of the finger, much as one would freely slide or flick a playing card across a table with a finger. Zooming in and out of web pages and photos is accomplished by placing two fingers (e.g. thumb and forefinger) on the screen and spreading them farther apart or closer together, as if stretching or squeezing the image. 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.

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.^[31] Photo browsing, web browsing, and music playing support both upright and left or right widescreen orientations, while videos play in only one widescreen orientation.^{[citation needed]}

A software update allowed the first generation iPhone to use cell towers and Wi-Fi networks to locate itself despite lacking a hardware GPS. The iPhone 3G includes A-GPS but also uses cell towers and Wi-Fi for location finding.

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 return to the parent menu.

The iPhone has three physical switches on its sides: wake/sleep, volume up/down, and ringer on/off. These are made of plastic on the original iPhone but metal on the iPhone 3G. All other multimedia and phone operations are done via the touchscreen.

Audio

The iPhone's headphones are similar to those of current iPods, but also incorporate 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 (as seen from front upright). The headphone socket on the original iPhone is recessed into the casing and is narrow when compared to some headphone jacks, making it incompatible with most headphones without the use of an adapter.^[32] The iPhone 3G has a flush mounted headphone socket.

Wireless earpieces that use Bluetooth technology to communicate with the iPhone are sold separately. It does not support stereo audio.

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.

Battery

The iPhone features a built-in rechargeable battery that is not intended to be user-replaceable, similar to existing iPods, but dissimilar to most existing cellular phones.^[34]^[35] If the battery prematurely reaches the end of its life time, the phone can be returned to Apple and replaced for free while still in warranty,^[36] one year at purchase and extended to two years with AppleCare. The cost of having Apple provide a new battery and replace it when the iPhone is out of warranty is US$79 and US$6.95 for shipping.^[37]

Since July 2007 third party battery packs have been available^[38] at a much lower price than Apple's own battery replacement program. These kits often include a small screwdriver and an instruction leaflet, but as with many newer iPod models the battery has been soldered in. Therefore a soldering iron is required to install the new battery.

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.^[26] 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",^[39] 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.^[21]

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.^[40] Though the battery replacement service and its pricing was not made known to buyers until the day the product was launched,^[40]^[41] a similar service had been well established for the iPods by Apple and various third party service providers.

Storage

The iPhone was initially released with two options for internal storage size; either a 4 GB or 8 GB flash drive (manufactured by Samsung) model was available. On September 5, 2007, Apple announced they were discontinuing the 4 GB models.^[43] On February 5, 2008, Apple announced the addition of a 16 GB model to the iPhone lineup.^[44] The iPhone does not contain any memory card slots for expanded storage.

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.^[45] It will be capable of supporting bundled and future applications from Apple.

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.^[46] The release of iTunes 7.6 expanded this support to include 64-bit versions of XP and Vista,^[47] and a workaround has been discovered for previous 64-bit Windows operating systems.^[48]

The iPhone' applications can not 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, which, by design, are platform agnostic applications.

Applications

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.^[49]

The YouTube application streams videos over Wi-Fi, 2G, or 3G after encoding them using QuickTime's 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.^[50]

At WWDC 2007 on June 11, 2007 Apple announced that the iPhone will support third-party "applications" via the Safari web browser that share the look and feel of the iPhone interface. On October 17, 2007, Steve Jobs, in an open letter posted to Apple's "Hot News" weblog, announced that a software development kit (SDK) would be made available to third-party developers in February 2008. Due to security concerns and Jobs' praise of Nokia's digital signature system, it was suggested that Apple would adopt a similar method. The SDK will also allow application development for the iPod touch.^[51] The iPhone SDK was officially announced on March 6, 2008, at the Apple Town Hall facility.^[52] The SDK will allow developers to develop native applications for the iPhone and iPod touch, as well as test them in an "iPhone simulator". However, loading an application onto the devices is only possible after paying a Apple Developer Connection membership fee. Developers are free to set any price for their applications to be distributed through the App Store, of which they will receive a 70 percent share. Developers can also opt to release the application for free and will not pay any costs to release or distribute the application beyond the membership fee. The SDK is available immediately, while the launch of applications will require waiting until a firmware update on July 11, 2008^[53]. This update will be free for iPhone users, however, there will be a charge for iPod touch owners.

Many third party Safari "applications" and un-signed native applications are also available.^[54] 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

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. 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 and Photoshop 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)

Specifications

Features common to both versions

Screen size: 3.5 in (89 mm)
Screen resolution: 480×320 pixels at 163 ppi
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^[84] ARM 1176 processor, PowerVR MBX 3D graphics co-processor)^[85]
Memory: 128 MB DRAM^[86]
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)
Size: 4.5 inches (115 mm) (h) × 2.4 inches (61 mm) (w) × 0.46 inch (11.6 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.^[26]
Headphone jack (recessed)
Digital SAR of 0.974 W/kg^[87]^[88]

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.^[21]
Tri band UMTS / HSDPA: UMTS 850 / 1900 / 2100
Assisted GPS, with preference to location based on Wi-Fi or cell towers

Iphones in india