The Apple iPhone and Other "Smart" Phones

Summary

A "Smart" phone including the Apple iPhone is a multimedia and Internet-enabled mobile phone.

Their functions include those of a camera phone, a multimedia player, and mobile phone. They also offer Internet services including e-mail, text messaging, web browsing, Visual Voicemail, and sometimes local Wi-Fi connectivity.

In the case of the Apple iPhone, user input is accomplished via a multi-touch screen with virtual keyboard and buttons.

The Apple iPhone is a 2.75G quad-band GSM phone. Apple plans to include 3G technology in future releases. The service provider in the United States is Cingular (AT&T).

The iPhone suffers from two important disadvantages: It is not available in a CDMA version and the SIM card cannot be unlocked. The advantage of CDMA is that it is a more reliable network. It has better noise immunity and fewer dropped calls. The advantage of GSM is that GSM is the technology in use in Europe and most of the world so that if one often travels internationally, the phone will work almost anywhere.

The advantage of being able to unlock and change the SIM card is that one can replace it with a local card in a foreign country so that the phone then has a local number. Then there are no international roaming charges and people in that country do not have to make a long distance call to the U.S. to reach the phone.

Link to the Apple iPhone Website

San Francisco Chronicle News Stories

LAUNCH OF THE iPHONE - FAQ San Francisco Chronicle, 06/28/07 We've been getting a bunch of e-mails about this new thing called the iPhone. Apparently, it's pretty big. So we decided to look into it and answer some of the questions people have been asking about it. Here we go: What is it? Why is it getting so much..

THE NEXT GENERATION - Apple's iPhone will change the very nature of mobile communications with its dazzling design and interface Ryan Kim, San Francisco Chronicle, 06/25/07 Call it the iPhone effect. That's what you get when you throw a potentially game-changing device from an innovative pioneer into an established but still evolving industry. Apple's uber-phone, a media and Internet device that goes on sale Friday, has the...

Can iPhone change the way we live? Ellen Lee, San Francisco Chronicle, 06/26/07 The iPhone won't stop global warming. It won't bring peace to the Middle East. But if it lives up to even a portion of the hype, it does have the potential to change how people interact with their cell phones, computers and each other. Apple Inc.'s iPhone

Can iPhone change the way we live? Ellen Lee, San Francisco Chronicle, 06/26/07 The iPhone won't stop global warming. It won't bring peace to the Middle East. But if it lives up to even a portion of the hype, it does have the potential to change how people interact with their cell phones, computers and each other. Apple Inc.'s iPhone...

Smartest of the smart phones: Whether you use it as an organizer, an e-mail device, a cell phone or all of the above, getting a smart phone is a smart move.

17-year-old hacker unlocks iPhone's secrets

Norwegian hacker says he can bypass AT&T on iPhone

Link to Jon Johansen's Website for By-Pass Code

Unlocked iPhones Go On Sale Tomorrow

Other "Smart" Phones

THE NEXT GENERATION - Plenty of rivals ready to rumble Ryan Kim, San Francisco Chronicle, 06/25/07 It has been six months since Apple announced the iPhone. Since then, the list of its rivals has grown enough to make a gadget freak reconsider the collective lust directed at Apple's all-in-one device. OK, maybe not entirely. But the industry hasn't waited...

CDMA

GSM