iPhone World

The majority of iPhones are sold with a SIM lock[citation needed], which restricts the use of the phone to one particular carrier, a common practice with subsidized GSM phones. Unlike most GSM phones however, the phone cannot be officially unlocked by inputting a code. The locked/unlocked state is maintained on Apple’s servers per IMEI and is set when the iPhone is activated.

While the iPhone was initially sold on the AT&T network only with a SIM lock in place, various hackers have found methods to “unlock” the phone from a specific network.[178] Although AT&T is the only authorized iPhone carrier in the United States, unlocked iPhones can be used with an unauthorized carrier after unlocking.[179] More than a quarter of the original iPhones sold in the United States were not registered with AT&T. Apple speculates that they were likely shipped overseas and unlocked, a lucrative market prior to the iPhone 3G’s worldwide release.[180] Unlocking iPhones in the U.S. is done because many would-be users dislike switching carriers or consider AT&T’s monthly fees too expensive.[31]

The iPhone also features an e-mail program that supports HTML e-mail, which enables the user to embed photos in an e-mail message. PDF, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint attachments to mail messages can be viewed on the phone.[16] Apple’s MobileMe platform offers push email, which emulates the functionality of the popular BlackBerry email solution, for an annual subscription. Yahoo! offers a free push-email service for the iPhone. IMAP (although not Push-IMAP) and POP3 mail standards are also supported, including Microsoft Exchange[123] and Kerio MailServer.[124] In the first versions of the iPhone firmware, this was accomplished by opening up IMAP on the Exchange server. Apple has also licensed Microsoft ActiveSync and now supports the platform (including push email) with the release of iPhone 2.0 firmware.[125][126] The iPhone will sync e-mail account settings over from Apple’s own Mail application, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Entourage, or it can be manually configured on the device itself. With the correct settings, the e-mail program can access almost any IMAP or POP3 account.[127]

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 iChat) under each recipient’s name. The iPhone currently has built-in support for e-mail message forwarding, drafts, and direct internal camera-to-e-mail picture sending. Support for multi-recipient SMS was added in the 1.1.3 software update.[128] Support for MMS was added in the 3.0 update, but not for the original iPhone[47][48] and not in the U.S. until September 25, 2009. [129][130]

The iPhone (and iPod Touch) run an operating system known as iPhone OS. It is based on a variant of the same Darwin operating system core that is found in Mac OS X. Also included is the “Core Animation” software component from Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard. Together with the PowerVR hardware (and on the iPhone 3GS, OpenGL ES 2.0),[3] it is responsible for the interface’s motion graphics. The operating system takes up less than half a GB of the device’s total storage (4 to 32 GB).[82] It is capable of supporting bundled and future applications from Apple, as well as from third-party developers. Software applications cannot be copied directly from Mac OS X but must be written and compiled specifically for iPhone OS.

Like the iPod, the iPhone is managed with iTunes. The earliest versions of iPhone OS required version 7.3 or later, which is compatible with Mac OS X version 10.4.10 Tiger or later, and 32-bit or 64-bit Windows XP or Vista.[83] The release of iTunes 7.6 expanded this support to include 64-bit versions of XP and Vista,[84] and a workaround has been discovered for previous 64-bit Windows operating systems.[85] Apple provides free updates to iPhone OS through iTunes,[82] and major updates have historically accompanied new models.[86] Such updates often require a newer version of iTunes — for example, the 3.0 update requires iTunes 8.2[3] — but the iTunes system requirements have stayed the same. Updates include both security patches and new features.[87] For example, iPhone 3G users initially experienced dropped calls until an update was issued.[88][89]

The iPhone and iPhone 3G feature a built in fixed-focus 2.0 megapixel camera located on the back for still digital photos. It has no optical zoom, flash or autofocus, and does not support video recording, however jailbreaking allows users to do so. Version 2.0 of iPhone OS introduced the capability to embed location data in the pictures, producing geocoded photographs. The iPhone 3GS has a 3.2 megapixel camera, with auto focus, auto white balance, and auto macro (up to 10 cm). It can also record VGA video[131][132] at 30 frames per second. It can then be cropped on the device itself and directly uploaded to YouTube, MobileMe, or other services.

The iPhone includes software that allows the user to upload, view, and e-mail photos. The user zooms in and out of photos by sliding two fingers further apart or closer together, much like Safari. The Camera application also lets users view the camera roll, the pictures that have been taken with the iPhone’s camera. Those pictures are also available in the Photos application, along with any transferred from iPhoto or Aperture on a Mac, or Photoshop in Windows.

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