The keys are somewhat larger and spaced farther apart when in landscape mode, which is supported by only a limited number of applications. Touching a section of text for a brief time brings up a magnifying glass, allowing users to place the cursor in the middle of existing text. The virtual keyboard can accommodate 21 languages, including character recognition for Chinese.
Alternate characters with accents can be typed from the keyboard by pressing the letter for 2 seconds and selecting the alternate character from the popup. The 3.0 update brought support for cut, copy, or pasting text, as well as landscape keyboards in more applications. On iPhone 4S, Siri allows dictation.
Email and text messages
The iPhone also features an email program that supports HTML email, which enables the user to embed photos in an email message. PDF, Word, Excel, and Powerpoint attachments to mail messages can be viewed on the phone.[114] 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[169] and Kerio Connect.[170]
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[when?] supports the platform (including push email) with the release of iPhone 2.0 firmware.[171][172] The iPhone will sync email 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 email program can access almost any IMAP or POP3 account.[173]
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 has built-in support for emailmessage forwarding, drafts, and direct internal camera-to-email picture sending. Support for multi-recipient SMS was added in the 1.1.3 software update.[174] Support for MMS was added in the 3.0 update, but not for the original iPhone[51][52] and not in the U.S. until September 25, 2009.[175][176]
Third-party applications
See also: iOS SDK and App Store
At WWDC 2007 on June 11, 2007, Apple announced that the iPhone would support third-party "web applications" written in Ajax that share the look and feel of the iPhone interface.[177] On October 17, 2007, Steve Jobs, in an open letter posted to Apple's "Hot News" weblog, announced that a software development kit (SDK) would be made available to third-party developers in February 2008. The iPhone SDK was officially announced and released on March 6, 2008, at the Apple Town Hall facility.[178]
It is a free download, with an Apple registration, that allows developers to develop native applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, then test them in an "iPhone simulator". However, loading an application onto a real device is only possible after paying an Apple Developer Connection membership fee. Developers are free to set any price for their applications to be distributed through the App Store, of which they will receive a 70% share.[179]
Developers can also opt to release the application for free and will not pay any costs to release or distribute the application beyond the membership fee. The App Store was launched with the release of iOS 2.0, on July 11, 2008.[172] The update was free for iPhone users; owners of older iPod Touches were required to pay US$10 for it.[180]
Once a developer has submitted an application to the App Store, Apple holds firm control over its distribution. Apple can halt the distribution of applications it deems inappropriate, for example, I Am Rich, a US$1000 program that simply demonstrated the wealth of its user.[181] Apple has been criticized for banning third-party applications that enable a functionality that Apple does not want the iPhone to have: In 2008, Apple rejected Podcaster, which allowed iPhone users to download podcasts directly to the iPhone claiming it duplicated the functionality of iTunes.[182] Apple has since released a software update that grants this capability.[161]
NetShare, another rejected app, would have enabled users to tether their iPhone to a laptop or desktop, using its cellular network to load data for the computer.[183] Many carriers of the iPhone later globally allowed tethering before Apple officially supported it with the upgrade to the iOS 3.0, with AT&T Mobility being a relative latecomer in the United States.[184] In most cases, the carrier charges extra for tethering an iPhone.
Before the SDK was released, third-parties were permitted to design "Web Apps" that would run through Safari.[185] Unsigned native applications are also available for "jailbroken" phones.[186] The ability to install native applications onto the iPhone outside of the App Store is not supported by Apple, the stated reason being that such native applications could be broken by any software update, but Apple has stated it will not design software updates specifically to break native applications other than those that perform SIM unlocking.[187]
As of January 2011, Apple has passed 10 billion app downloads.[188]
Accessibility
The iPhone can enlarge text to make it more accessible for vision-impaired users,[189] and can accommodate hearing-impaired users with closed captioning and external TTY devices.[190] The iPhone 3GS also features white on black mode, VoiceOver (a screen reader), and zooming for impaired vision, and mono audio for limited hearing in one ear.[191] Apple regularly publishes Voluntary Product Accessibility Templates which explicitly state compliance with the US regulation "Section 508".[192]
Vulnerability
In 2007, 2010, and 2011, developers released a series of tools called JailbreakMe that used security vulnerabilities in Mobile Safari rendering in order to jailbreak the device (which allows users to install any compatible software on the device instead of only App Store apps).[193][194][195] These exploits were each soon fixed by iOS updates from Apple. Theoretically these flaws could have also been used for malicious purposes.[196]
In July 2011, Apple released iOS 4.3.5 (4.2.10 for CDMA iPhone) to fix a security vulnerability with certificate validation.
Intellectual property
Apple has filed more than 200 patent applications related to the technology behind the iPhone.[197][198]
LG Electronics claimed the design of the iPhone was copied from the LG Prada. Woo-Young Kwak, head of LG Mobile Handset R&D Center, said at a press conference: "we consider that Apple copied Prada phone after the design was unveiled when it was presented in the iF Design Award and won the prize in September 2006."[199]
On September 3, 1993, Infogear filed for the U.S. trademark "I PHONE"[200] and on March 20, 1996 applied for the trademark "IPhone".[201] "I Phone" was registered in March 1998,[200] and "IPhone" was registered in 1999.[201] Since then, the I PHONE mark had been abandoned.[200] Infogear trademarks cover "communications terminals comprising computer hardware and software providing integrated telephone, data communications and personal computer functions" (1993 filing),[200] and "computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global information networks" (1996 filing).[202]
Infogear released a telephone with an integrated web browser under the name iPhone in 1998.[203] In 2000, Infogear won an infringement claim against the owners of the iphones.com domain name.[204] In June 2000, Cisco Systems acquired Infogear, including the iPhone trademark.[205] On December 18, 2006, they released a range of re-branded Voice over IP (VoIP) sets under the name iPhone.[206]
In October 2002, Apple applied for the "iPhone" trademark in the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, and the European Union. A Canadian application followed in October 2004, and a New Zealand application in September 2006. As of October 2006, only the Singapore and Australian applications had been granted. In September 2006, a company called Ocean Telecom Services applied for an "iPhone" trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and Hong Kong, following a filing in Trinidad and Tobago.[207]
As the Ocean Telecom trademark applications use exactly the same wording as the New Zealand application of Apple, it is assumed that Ocean Telecom is applying on behalf of Apple.[208] The Canadian application was opposed in August 2005, by a Canadian company called Comwave who themselves applied for the trademark three months later. Comwave has been selling VoIP devices called iPhone since 2004.[205]
Shortly after Steve Jobs' January 9, 2007 announcement that Apple would be selling a product called iPhone in June 2007, Cisco issued a statement that it had been negotiating trademark licensing with Apple and expected Apple to agree to the final documents that had been submitted the night before.[209] On January 10, 2007, Cisco announced it had filed a lawsuit against Apple over the infringement of the trademark iPhone, seeking an injunction in federal court to prohibit Apple from using the name.[210] More recently, Cisco claimed that the trademark lawsuit was a "minor skirmish" that was not about money, but about interoperability.[211]
On February 2, 2007, Apple and Cisco announced that they had agreed to temporarily suspend litigation while they held settlement talks,[212] and subsequently announced on February 20, 2007, that they had reached an agreement. Both companies will be allowed to use the "iPhone" name[213] in exchange for "exploring interoperability" between their security, consumer, and business communications products.[214]
The iPhone has also inspired several leading high-tech clones,[215] driving both the popularity of Apple and consumer willingness to upgrade iPhones quickly.[216]
On October 22, 2009, Nokia filed a lawsuit against Apple for infringement of its GSM, UMTS and WLAN patents. Nokia alleges that Apple has been violating ten of the patents of Nokia since the iPhone initial release.[217]
In December 2010, Reuters reported that some iPhone and iPad users were suing Apple Inc because some applications were passing user information to third-party advertisers without permission. Some makers of the applications such as Textplus4, Paper Toss, Weather Channel, Dictionary.com, Talking Tom Cat and Pumpkin Maker have also been named as co-defendants in the lawsuit.[218]
Since April 20, 2011, a hidden unencrypted file on the iPhone and other iOS devices has been widely discussed in the media.[219][220] It was alleged that the file, labeled "consolidated.db", constantly stores the iPhone user's movement by approximating geographic locations calculated by triangulating nearby cell phone towers, a technology proven to be inaccurate at times.[221] The file was released with the June 2010 update of Apple iOS4 and may contain almost one year's worth of data. Previous versions of iOS stored similar information in a file called "h-cells.plist".[222]
F-Secure discovered that the data is transmitted to Apple twice a day and postulate that Apple is using the information to construct their global location database similar to the ones constructed by Google and Skyhook through wardriving.[223] Nevertheless, unlike the Google "Latitude" application, which performs a similar task on Android phones, the file is not dependent upon signing a specific EULA or even the user's knowledge, but it is stated in the 15,200 word-long terms and conditions of the iPhone that "Apple and [their] partners and licensees may collect, use, and share precise location data, including the real-time geographic location of [the user's] Apple computer or device".[224]
The file is also automatically copied onto the user's computer once synchronized with the iPhone. An open source application named "iPhoneTracker", which turns the data stored in the file into a visual map, was made available to the public in April 2011.[225] While the file cannot be erased without jailbreaking the phone, it can be encrypted.[226]
Apple gave an official response on their web site on April 27[227] after questions were submitted by users, The Associated Press and others.[228] Apple indicated that the data is a crowd-sourced location database cache, used to make location services faster, and that the volume of data retained was an error; they issued an update for iOS (version 4.3.3, or 4.2.8 for the CDMA iPhone 4) which reduced the size of the cache, stopped it being backed up to iTunes, and erased it entirely if whenever location services were turned off.