What Does the iPhone Have to Offer?

The Apple iPhone is the company's attempt to combine cellular phone and iPod technology into a single device. The iPhone is set to launch June 11, 2007 and will be available primarily through Apple itself and Cingular Wireless. It will launch for a suggested retail price of $499 for a 4 GB model and $599 for an 7 GB model with a two-year service plan contract through Cingular.

The iPhone itself will serve as a camera phone, multimedia player and Internet service for those on the go. It will combine the features of a cell phone, PDA and MP3 player into one simple device that can be used anywhere. One of the biggest features of the iPhone is the touch-screen technology used. Similar to a tablet PC, the touch-screen will be used to control most functions on the phone as well as a display to check e-mail, instant message and surf the world wide web.

The touch-screen itself is designed for use with the finger, much like the touch-pad on the iPod. It will display 320x480 pixels at 160 pixels per inch, roughly about 3.5 inches of display. The touch-screen itself does not require a stylus and will only respond to bare skin to be operable. The display itself responds to touch and a sensor that will automatically shut it off similar to the iPod displaying going dark after a few seconds. This is to save battery power, and it will respond to you touching it as well as bringing it in close contact to your skin. A virtual keyboard can be used on screen that functions both online and for test messaging services. Spell check and word completion filters are built in so that the iPhone does the best work it can for you.

A single button is part of the display. It serves the function of bringing up the main menu, and you can select beyond that from this focal point. Context menus splashed across the display will help guide you to what function you want to use, and you can control everything else, including the back button feature, via the scroll wheel and touch-screen features.

The iPhone uses a virtual scrolling feature that you directly interface by going through a touch, drag and lift motion on the touch-screen. You can change the speed at which it scrolls, and you can also change how you it responds by how you drag your finger across the screen. The scroll will continue to work when you lift your finger from the display before fading into the background. The scroll will also control the photo album and web page zoom in and out functions. You can move objects, zoom in and out, by using the display to hold them and then scrolling in or out. Most of the display is streamlined and can be tweaked through the options; the use of widgets, popular in Mac OS X, also make an appearance.

The iPhone has a built-in battery similar to iPods and will use a similar type of headphone but with a built-in microphone. Bluetooth headsets will also be compatible. A speaker phone option is also built-in for both calls and projecting music and video sound.

The main features of the iPhone include: Cellular phone service, the iPod media player, a 2.0 mega pixel digital camera and use of WiFi to access the Internet.

The iPhone itself functions as a multi-purpose cell phone. It allows three way conferencing, call waiting, caller ID and visual voicemail unique to the device. Visual voicemail allows a user to browse the list of voicemail messages onscreen without dialing into their inbox. They can be listened to in whatever order desire. E-mail messages, too, are presented in a similiar format and text messages will be displayed as speech bubbles like the iChat feature on Mac computers.

Music will be organized alphatbetically and focus on a larger view of the song and artist titles through the iPod function. As you scroll through, you can see album art as the defining characteristic much like you would scroll through the photo albums. You can watch videos, photo slideshows and other programming from the iTunes Music Store; a nifty feature using a two finger tap allows you to switch between widescreen and fullscreen formats during video playback. If you receive a call during a song, the song will fade out until the call is done and resume when you hang up.

The 2.0 mega pixel camera allows for picture taking as well as video shooting. It also includes software to instantly upload photos to the Internet or view them on the device. You can also e-mail them to various recipients. You can zoom in and out of photos by using the scroll wheel feature and can edit photos by linking with the iPhoto software.

Internet and e-mail are a central feature to the iPhone and Safari will be the primary browser for the device. It has a built-in WiFi capabilities and will be able to access the Internet both through CIngular's network and WiFi hot spots. The iPhone will display web pages as you would browse them from home as opposed to mobile web pages other phones showcase. You can zoom in and out with the use of the scroll wheel. Apple has partnered with Google to create an interactive version of Google Maps that allows you to go from finding a place to calling it within a few taps of the display. E-mail features will include the use of a HTML interface, IMAP and POP3 standards and Microsoft Exchange.

If you are looking to consolidate your cell phone, MP3 player and PDA into one, the iPhone is right up your alley. The touch-screen technology makes it the one of the easiest devices to get the most out of if you are on the go between home, the office or school. Investing in it might be the best way to bring together the most important parts of your life, whether it be e-mail, music or phone calls on the run.