iPhone Specifications And Features

The arrival of the Apple iPhone has set yet another new standard in the vastly competitive and cutthroat market of mobile phones. Jam-packed with its great features, the iPhone truly upholds Apple's name with its functionality and quality. Here are the features of the iPhone that has made it a cut above the rest.

Call Features

The iPhone supports call merging, call holding, conferencing, and caller ID and has the ability to integrate the other iPhone functions and network features. For instance, if the user is listening to music and a call comes in, the song being played will fade out. Once the call is over, the song would fade back in.

Voicemail Features

The iPhone has a Visual Voicemail feature that allows the user to preview the voicemail messages on the screen. There is no need to call the voicemail number to retrieve messages. Different from other systems, the voicemail messages can be managed, like listen to and delete, through an on-screen list.

Ringtone Features

On September 5, 2007, Apple introduced a ringtone feature that will let the users create their own customized ringtones from an iTunes music they purchase. The additional fee for this would be more or less the same as the charge for a song. The customized ringtones range from a length 3 seconds to 30 seconds. They can be any portion of a song, with the options to fade in and out or pause when looped.

Text Messaging Features

Text messages are sorted chronologically with a format that puts all text from the recipients and the replies altogether for convenient viewing. The text messages are shown under the recipients' names in speech bubbles, resembling the format in iChat. However, it does not support Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), multi-recipient Short Messaging Service (SMS) and instant messaging.

Camera Features

The camera of the iPhone is a 2.0 megapixel camera, which is situated on the back and can be used for digital pictures. However, the camera does not support video recording. The iPhone also has software that enables the user to view, upload and send photos through e-mail. The user can zoom in and zoom out the pictures through "pinching" and "unpinching" them on the touch interface.

Multimedia Features

The music library's layout is different from the older iPod versions, in the sense that the sections are sorted alphabetically, using a bigger font. However, like the older iPod versions, it enables the user to classify the media library according to artist names, song titles, albums, play lists, videos, composers, audio books, podcasts, genres and compilations.

Similar to the Fifth Generation iPods, the iPhone can also play videos. However, they can only be played on a landscape view, unlike images. The user would need to rotate the phone sideways when viewing videos. A way of switching from the full screen to the wide screen playback would be to double tap the screen.

Users also have the option of buying and downloading music through the iTunes Store. Downloading can be done over Wi-Fi, not through cellular data network.

Web Connectivity Features

For Internet connectivity, the iPhone has integrated Wi-Fi. This enables the user to access the Internet using a wireless network and a customized Safari Internet browser. It can also connect using the EDGE network of AT&T. However, it does not have 3G capabilities, which may be an update in future versions.

The web browser of iPhone is able to display the web pages completely, unlike the simplified web pages on the majority of non-smartphones. However, it does not have the ability to support Java or Flash technology.

The iPhone has a version 2.0 Bluetooth built-in that can only work with Bluetooth headsets, which are like wireless earpieces. A2DP (Advanced Audio Distribution Profile) or OBEX (Object Exchange), which is needed for common Bluetooth file transferring, is not supported.

E-Mail Features

HTML e-mail messages are supported by the email program of the iPhone. Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word and PDF mail attachments can be viewed on it, as well. The iPhone can synchronize the e-mail account settings using Microsoft Entourage, Microsoft Outlook and the Mail application of Apple. The settings can also be manually configured through the settings tool of the device. If the settings are correct, the e-mail program will have the capacity to access web-based accounts, which are IMAP or POP3-enabled, like AOL and Gmail.