Apple's iPhone

Apple unveiled its hugely anticipated bid to take a bite out of the multi-billion dollar global mobile phone market yesterday with a "revolutionary" sleek, one-button device that combines iPod, internet and phone and will cost around £250 pounds ($499). Steve Jobs shows off the new iPhone on stage "Once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, as he demonstrated the iPhone to whoops and cheers from a 4,000-strong audience at Macworld in San Francisco. "Apple is reinventing the phone." Mr Jobs said the slim device was "five years ahead of what's on any other phone" and would change the way people thought about mobile communication devices. The iPhone has all the functions of smart phone as well as the technology of Apple's iPod digital music player. It can screen television shows and films, take photographs with two megapixel camera, browse the internet, send emails and text messages. "It's like having your life in your pocket. It's the ultimate digital device," Mr Jobs said. "After today, I don't think anyone's going to look at these [existing] phones quite the same way." advertisement In keeping with Apple's signature sleek simplicity, the 3.5 inch screen takes up most of the front of the device with just a single button at the bottom that returns users to the home page. Instead of the fiddly "plasticky" keyboards of most smart phones, Mr Jobs said, the iPhone does away with buttons. Instead it is operated by touching the screen with your finger, scrolling up or down through songs on the iPod function, for example, or typing out emails and text messages on the keyboard that appears when needed. Mr Jobs said the iPod contained in the phone was "the best we have ever made". Album covers are displayed on the screen when music is playing, and can be flipped over to read track listings. The screen has "multi-touch" technology so it ignores accidental touches when in a pocket, for example. The device also has a "proximity sensor" so when the user holds the phone to his face, the display and touch function disables and an ambient light sensor to automatically reduce the brightness of the screen. The iPhone will be available in Britain at the end of this year The iPhone has OS X, the operating system used on Apple computers, the web browser Safari, and syncs up with PCs and Macs to transfer data such as calendars, pictures, emails and contacts automatically. "It has desktop class applications and networking," said Mr Jobs, demonstrating as he accessed the front page of the New York Times on the phone. "It is a revolution of the first order to bring the real internet to your phone. It's the internet in your pocket for the first time ever." Apple teamed up with Google and Yahoo for some of the features on the iPhone, including Google maps. It will be launched in the US in June and be available in Europe late in 2007, Mr Jobs said. A 4GB version will cost $499 with a two-year contract, while a 8GB version will cost $599. Mr Jobs showed how it was possible to play music, take calls, send emails and search the web simultaneously by calling Apple's chief designer, British-born Jony Ive, who was in the audience. "It's been two and half years but I can't tell you how thrilled I am to make the first phone call with an iPhone," said the jeans and trainers wearing Mr Jobs. "Anything you'd like to say, Jony?" "It's not too shabby is it?" replied Mr Ive from where he was standing in the audience. Struggling to hide his excitement, Mr Jobs admitted to enduring a sleepless night before the launch, at which he repeatedly described the device as "awesome" and asked the audience, "isn't this cool?" In America, the iPhone will only be available on the Cingular network, a fact criticised by some analysts who said it might put off users. Hadley Stern, publisher and founder of Applematters.com, said while the device itself was "very revolutionary" he said it would be interesting to see how many people actually bought the phone considering it was tied to one network. "It was disappointing it was not an open device so that you could have any carrier or phone number."

iPhone is a widescreen iPod with touch controls that lets you enjoy all your content — including music, audiobooks, videos, TV shows, and movies — on a beautiful 3.5-inch widescreen display. It also lets you sync your content from the iTunes library on your PC or Mac. And then you can access it all with just the touch of a finger.

iPhone is a revolutionary new mobile phone that allows you to make a call by simply pointing your finger at a name or number in your address book, a favorites list, or a call log. It also automatically syncs all your contacts from a PC, Mac, or Internet service. And it lets you select and listen to voicemail messages in whatever order you want — just like email.

iPhone features a rich HTML email client and Safari — the most advanced web browser ever on a portable device — which automatically syncs bookmarks from your PC or Mac. Safari also includes built-in Google and Yahoo! search. iPhone is fully multi-tasking, so you can read a web page while downloading your email in the background over Wi-Fi or EDGE.

iPhone features the most revolutionary user interface since the mouse. It’s an entirely new interface based on a large multi-touch display and innovative new software that lets you control everything using only your fingers. So you can glide through albums with Cover Flow, flip through photos and email them with a touch, or zoom in and out on a section of a web page — all by simply using iPhone’s multi-touch display.

Intelligent Keyboard
iPhone’s full QWERTY soft keyboard lets you easily send and receive SMS messages in multiple sessions. And the keyboard is predictive, so it prevents and corrects mistakes, making it easier and more efficient to use than the small plastic keyboards on many smartphones.