Capping literally years of speculation on perhaps the most intensely followed unconfirmed product in Apple's history -- and that's saying a lot -- the iPhone has been announced today. Yeah, we said it: "iPhone," the name the entire free world had all but unanimously christened it from the time it'd been nothing more than a twinkle in Stevie J's eye (comments, Cisco?). Sweet, glorious specs of the 11.6 millimeter device (that's frickin' thin, by the way) include a 3.5-inch 480 x 320 touchscreen display with multi-touch support and a proximity sensor to turn off the screen when it's close to your face, 2 megapixel cam, 4GB or 8 GB of storage, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR and A2DP, WiFi that automatically engages when in range, and quad-band GSM radio with EDGE. Perhaps most amazingly, though, it somehow runs OS X with support for Widgets, Google Maps, and Safari, and iTunes (of course) with CoverFlow out of the gate. A partnership with Yahoo will allow all iPhone customers to hook up with free push IMAP email. Apple quotes 5 hours of battery life for talk or video, with a full 16 hours in music mode -- no word on standby time yet. In a twisted way, this is one rumor mill we're almost sad to see grind to a halt; after all, when is the next time we're going to have an opportunity to run this picture? The 4GB iPhone will go out the door in the US as a Cingular exclusive for $499 on a two-year contract, 8GB for $599. Ships Stateside in June, Europe in fourth quarter, Asia in 2008.

The iPhone combines three products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching — into one small and lightweight handheld device. iPhone also introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting you control everything with just your fingers. So it ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, completely redefining what you can do on a mobile phone.

Multi-touch Screen
The 3.5-inch widescreen display (320×480 px at 160 ppi) touch screen is specifically created for use with a finger (multiple fingers can also be used at the same time); no stylus is needed (furthermore, no stylus can be used as it requires bare skin to operate). The photo album manipulation is an example of multi-touch sensing. The control buttons for the phone have the ability to be reprogrammed to whatever control scheme the user wishes. To unlock the phone touch screen the user must slide a finger from left to right at the bottom of the screen.

The device uses a virtual keyboard made possible by the touchscreen. It features automatic spell checking and predictive capabilities. The virtual keyboard appears when needed and disappears when the user is finished typing.

Instead of a windowed desktop metaphor, the iPhone uses a Zooming User Interface. It is possible to zoom in and out of objects such as webpages and photos by respectively "unpinching" and "pinching" them, that is, placing two fingers (usually thumb and forefinger) on the screen and moving them farther apart or closer together as if stretching or squeezing the image.

The device also features three sensors: a proximity sensor that shuts off the touchscreen when the iPhone is brought close to an ear (to save battery power and to prevent accidental contact with the user's face and ears from triggering phone features), an ambient light sensor that adjusts screen brightness and saves power, and an accelerometer, which senses the orientation of the phone and changes the screen accordingly.



Phone
The iPhone allows conferencing, call holding, call merging, caller ID, and integration with other iPhone features. A playing song fades out when the user receives a call. Once the call is ended the music fades back on without delay.

iPhone will include a Visual Voicemail feature in conjunction with Cingular which allows users to view a list of current voicemail messages onscreen, without having to call into their voicemail. Voicemail messages will play when selected by the user.

Text messages are presented chronologically in a mailbox format similar to Mail, which places all text from recipients together with replies. Text messages are displayed in speech bubbles (similar to in iChat) under each recipient's name.

Camera
The iPhone features a 2 megapixel camera and a photo management program 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.

iPod
The layout of the music library differs from previous iPods, with the sections divided more clearly alphabetically, and with a larger font. The Cover Flow, like that on iTunes, shows the different album covers in a scroll-through photo library. Scrolling is achieved by swiping a finger across the screen.

Like the fifth generation iPods introduced in 2005, the iPhone can play video allowing users to watch TV shows and films. Unlike other image-related content, video on the iPhone plays only in the landscape orientation, when the phone is turned sideways. A two-fingered tap is used to switch between wide-screen and full-screen aspect ratios. Internet communicator
The iPhone has built in WiFi, with which it will be able to access the Internet (through a wireless network) via the Safari browser. The iPhone will also be able to connect to the Internet through Cingular's EDGE network but will be unable to utilize Cingular's 3G network at launch. The web browser displays full web pages as opposed to simplified pages as on most other phones. Web pages may be viewed in portrait or landscape mode and support automatic zooming by "pinching" or double-tapping images or text. Direct downloading of files from iTunes Store is not supported. The iPhone also has Bluetooth built in and works with wireless earpieces that use Bluetooth 2.0 technology and for file transfer.

The iPhone also features an HTML e-mail program, which also enables the user to embed photos in an e-mail message. Yahoo! will be providing a free Push-IMAP e-mail service similar to that on a BlackBerry; IMAP and POP3 mail standards are also supported, including Microsoft Exchange.

Widgets, similar to the ones available in Mac OS X v10.4's Dashboard, are included on the iPhone. The examples given in the Macworld 2007 keynote were Stocks and Weather widgets.

An agreement between Apple and Google provides for access to a specially modified version of Google Maps — in map, local list, or satellite form, optimized for the iPhone. During the launch of the product, Jobs demonstrated this feature by searching for nearby coffee shops and then placing a call to one within a single tap. Other
The iPhone, like other iPods but unlike most mobile phones, features a built-in battery that is not intended to be user-replaceable. The battery is capable of providing five hours of video, web browsing, or talk time. The battery life for music playing is 16 hours. It is as yet unclear how long the batteries last in sleep mode.

There will be new headphones which are similar to those of current iPods, but which incorporate a microphone. Calls can be answered and ended by squeezing the microphone. Wireless earpieces that use Bluetooth technology to communicate with the iPhone will be sold separately.

The loudspeaker is used both for handsfree operations and media playback.

The iPhone has the ability to synchronize with Apple's iCal (for calendar and notifications), Address Book (for phone numbers), and iTunes. Windows users will be limited to iTunes synchronization. The email program Outlook for Windows cannot be synchronized with the iPhone for the time being. There is no enterprise email connectivity unless it supports IMAP push.