Apple’s newest must-have sensation is the iPhone. This revolutionary multi-use product has been highly anticipated for quite some time. Rumors of a cell phone/MP3 device from Apple have been hovering around since the Apple iPod became the most common portable audio device ever. The future production of the iPhone was confirmed by Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, during his Macworld 2007 keynote speech in San Francisco, California.
The 3-in-1 device will be available starting in July for the United States, the first country to get the iPhone. Apple will release the iPhone later this year in Europe and early next year in Asia. The Apple iPhone will be sold exclusively through Cingular (soon to be AT&T) and you can bet that it will be a hard one to keep in stock. The iPhone carries a semi-hefty price tag compared to other MP3 enabled devices but this is not uncommon for any Apple product. The 4GB model will start at $499 when you sign a two year contract. The 8GB version will go for $599, also with a two year contract from Cingular.
Although it may be a little more expensive than one of the other MP3 enabled phones on the market, the Apple iPhone separates itself from its competitors with a unique and state of the art design. The user interface is very unique and innovative. You won’t find your standard numeric and menu keypads on the iPhone; only one home control key is located on the iPhone. The iPhone is controlled almost entirely with its 3.5 inch, high resolution screen. All of the iPod/MP3 features as well as your regular cell phone features are controlled by a touch-screen interface. Definitely a very unique and probably industry changing feature in today’s cell phone market. Another innovative feature to the screen is the screen shift mode. The iPhone automatically adjusts the display to a horizontal view when you watch videos, a feature any 2.5 inch video iPod user will envy. Apple ditched the standard click wheel design that we are all used to and introduced a very interesting scrolling feature on the touch screen. All of your cell phone controls from dialing number to typing text messages will be done on the touch screen.
Apple didn’t make very many sacrifices with the new iPhone and included all of the top features to compete with the leaders in the cell phone market today. The iPhone is a quad-band (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) world phone so you can take it just about anywhere. As well as including the common features that are standard on today’s cell phone, Apple went a step further with a new feature called Visual Voicemail. After someone leaves you a voicemail, it is added to a list on your screen so instead of calling your voicemail and wading through all your new and saved messages, you can simply click on the message you want to listen to and it will be instantly available to you.
The video and music player will have all the same features you are used to on other Apple products. The 4GB and 8GB models are flash memory and won’t have any restrictions on how many songs or movies you can put on it like some other cell phone/MP3 combinations. You can load all your music and videos through a USB connection similar to the iPod. The new iPhone runs on the Mac OS X operating system and will feature a 2 megapixel camera with photo management software. Another great feature of the large widescreen display will be the ability to view photos however they were taken, portrait or landscape. Other standard cell phone features on the iPhone include conference calling, a speakerphone, text and multimedia messaging, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Pop3 and IMAP4 e-mail and a web browser. It has been speculated but not confirmed that there will be some sort of personal organizer as well. The iPhone will feature Safari as its Internet browser which will sync with both PC’s and Mac’s. Built-in to Safari are the top search engines, Google and Yahoo. One of the more impressive Internet features is the integration of Google Maps which will get directions, traffic information and allow you to view maps and satellite images.
Apple is introducing some unique features that you won’t find on many other cell phones with censors. It puts a whole new meaning to the term “smart phone.” The revolutionary sensors record information about how you use your phone and adjust the settings accordingly. There is a proximity sensor that detects when your phone is up to your ear so it can dim the bright screen and shut off the touch screen feature so you don’t accidently make any changes when the phone touches against your face. Another sensor detects light and adjusts your screen brightness to optimize usability and battery life.
As for now, there are very few downsides to the iPhone other than the steep price tag. Apple did not include 3G data support on the iPhone which is becoming quite standard, especially with higher end phones like the iPhone will be classified. One of the basics for a cell phone review is the call quality which is yet to be determined for the Apple iPhone. Regardless of these few small oversights, Apple will have no problem flying through their inventory and the iPhone will undoubtedly have availability issues similar to the Sony PS3 and Nintendo Wii. So get your hands on one if you can and enjoy the hottest new gadget on the market.
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