iPhone

iPhone

The iPhone is a multimedia and Internet-enabled quad-band GSM EDGE-supported mobile phone designed and marketed by Apple Inc. User input is accomplished via a multi-touch screen with virtual keyboard and buttons. The iPhone's functions include those of a camera phone and a portable media player ("iPod"), in addition to text messaging and visual voicemail. It also offers Internet services including e-mail, web browsing, and local Wi-Fi connectivity.

The iPhone has been available since June 29, 2007 in the United States from Apple retail, online stores, and from AT&T Mobility. The current price is US$399 for an 8 GB model. At a special event on September 18, 2007, Apple announced the iPhone will be available on November 9, 2007 for Telefónica's O2 service in the United Kingdom. Pricing is UK£269 and the phone is available through The Carphone Warehouse, Apple retail and online stores, and O2. On September 19, 2007, Apple and Deutsche Telekom's T-Mobile announced the iPhone would go on sale November 9, 2007 throughout Germany for EU€399 including VAT. On October 16, 2007, Apple confirmed that France Télécom's Orange would be the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in France with a release date of November 29, 2007 and similar pricing to that of Germany. Due to French laws,[citation needed] the iPhone will also be available in an unlocked version for an as-of-yet undisclosed price.

The iPhone allows conferencing, call holding, call merging, caller ID, and integration with other cellular network features and iPhone functions. For example, a playing song fades out when the user receives a call. Once the call is ended the music fades back in. Voice dialing is not supported by the iPhone.

The iPhone includes a Visual Voicemail feature allowing users to view a list of current voicemail messages on-screen without having to call into their voicemail. Unlike most other systems, messages can be listened to and deleted in a non-chronological order by choosing any message from an on-screen list. AT&T modified their voicemail infrastructure to accommodate this new feature designed by Apple.

A ringtone feature, introduced on September 5, 2007, allows users to create custom ringtones from their purchased iTunes music for an additional fee, the same price of a song. The ringtones can be from 3 to 30 seconds in length of any part of a song, can include fading in and out, can pause from half a second to five seconds when looped, and never expire. All customizing can be done in iTunes, and the synced ringtones can also be used for alarms on the iPhone.

Apple has released a video explaining many of iPhone's features through a series of demonstrations.