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iPhone from Apple | View information about iPhone from Apple within our Technology Website Directory section by reviewing this area of our website. We provide a wealth of information online to help our visitors become better informed about Computer Buzz. |
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iPhone from Apple
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Apple hit a grand slam over the center field wall in mid-2007 with the introduction of the iPhone. Even its goofy name couldn't keep the iPhone from being a smashing success. Everyone agrees: Apple has done it yet again.
It's far more than a phone; it's an iPod (of course), a camera (aren't they all?), an email client, a Web browser, a contact manager, a photo album, a stock ticker, and more. Everything it does, it does better than just about any of its competition, and it does it with only a single hardware button on its face.
Computer Buzz has a few gripes about the iPhone, albeit fairly minor ones. The smallish on-screen QWERTY key pad that some of its apps require will be a bit of a challenge for most adult males and large women with fat fingers; its telephone function does not include voice dialing, and the speaker-phone function is not nearly loud enough; the battery is adequate but not user replaceable; the phone has to be bundled up and sent back to Apple for that; unlike its iPod cousin, the iPhone's sonic output plug is recessed so that a clunky adapter (not included) is required for most headphones and/or external speakers; and the price;$400 for the less expensive model reminds us that this is cutting edge technology.
The iPhone is easily the smartest of all the smart phones. It's hard to say if it's really a PDA in smart phone clothing, or a very sophisticated iPod, or a...? Whatever it is, telephony is one of its lesser functions. It excels at almost everything it essays, and Computer Buzz gives it two thumbs up.
Official Website: www.Apple.com/iPhone/
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It's a phone!
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The iPhone is first and foremost a mobile telephone. You can punch in your favorite phone numbers with the on-screen QWERTY key pad, but it's easier just to sync it up with the address book function on your PC. It supports Outlook, Outlook Express, Apple's Address Book, Windows Live Mail, and Yahoo.
At the moment, you can sign up with any US mobile phone carrier you like, as long as it's AT&T. The entry level deal is a two-year contract with 450 prime minutes (5000 minutes on nights and weekends) for $59 a month (plus all the usual incomprehensible state and federal taxes and phony surcharges). AT&T is not Computer Buzz's favorite phone service, but so far our test phone's service in the Dallas area has been excellent.
Computer Buzz laments the iPhone's lack of voice dialing; that shortcoming will undoubtedly be corrected in the future. The speaker phone function is not very loud; you can barely hear it in busy office or a moving automobile.
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It's an iPod too!
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In recent years, Apple has become as famous for its iPods as for its Macs. So, it's no surprise that the iPhone is also a kick-ass music machine. The cheaper iPhone has a 4-GB flash drive that will hold at least 1000 tunes; the more expensive version has an 8-GB drive.
Frequency response is 20-20,000 Hz, more than adequate for any human ear on Earth. Audio formats supported are: AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 1, 2, and 3), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV.
The 3.5-mm stereo headphone minijack on the bottom edge of the iPhone is recessed (for no good reason Computer Buzz can see) so that it can be accessed by Apple's included headphones, but the rest of the headphones and external speakers in the world will require a clunky adapter (not included, but available from Belkin) in order to be plug-compatible.
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It's a camera.
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A mobile phone without a built-in camera is like a Texas gas station without a beer license, there just ain't many of 'em around any more. The iPhone has a camera alright, a 2.0 megapixel unit that is easier to use than just about any phone-cam we've ever tested, and it makes decently good photos. How good, you ask? Let's face it, nobody ever used a phone-cam to shoot the Playboy centerfold layout .We'll make you a deal: you don't try to photograph the back side of the moon with our iPhone, and we won't try to talk on your Nikon.
As you might expect, the iPhone syncs nicely with Apple's iPhoto software. You can carry around your entire photo album in this gizmo. And if you're viewing a pic in portrait mode, you can rotate the iPhone 90 degrees, and the image will magically rotate to landscape mode. Computer Buzz wants to ask: How do it know?
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...and it's a browser.
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Apple's Safari Web browser is built into the iPhone. It will link up with any available wi-fi connection, or, lacking that, it will pull the Internet right out of the air courtesy of AT&T. Needless to say, wi-fi is almost always faster, but mobile phone signals will do if you're not in a real big hurry.
Safari displays miniature images of Web pages that you can zoom in on and scroll through. Some Web sites don't work as well as they were intended because Safari doesn't yet support Flash, Real Player, Java, Windows Media, and a few other multimedia formats.
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Magic Maps
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One of the coolest features of the iPhone is the way it can display Google maps and/or aerial photographs. And you can drag the maps around the screen with your finger tip. It will also display the route between two given locations and give you the driving directions in large, easy to read text.
But wait. With your map or aerial photo on the 480-by-320-pixel display, you can take your thumb and forefinger and make a pinching-like motion on the iPhone's glass screen, and the map will zoom out and resize as if by magic. Reverse the motion—spread your finger tips back apart on the screen—and the map will zoom back in. Cool.
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