More dibble dabbles about the iPhone…

First of all, I’d like to apologise for my lack of blogging, but I haven’t had time to blog anything as I am still without internet. This problem will hopefully be rectified shortly and without too many hassles. Now with that out of the way, let’s get down to business!

 

The iPhone. Docked in all its glory.

Well, I’ve been researching the iPhone at a more geeky level (reading forum discussions from those techno-dorks), and I’ve found that (as usual) people are kind of torn about their feelings for the iPhone. Some were very enthusiastic about it (albeit, probably Apple fan-boys), while some think it’s a really expensive piece of technology with very limited functionality. I’ll reserve judgement until I try the iPhone out for myself, but I’m very skeptical. What have I found?

The specifications as listed on Apple’s website are:

• Screen size: 8.9 cm (3.5 in)
• Screen resolution: 320×480 pixels at 160 ppi
• Input method: Multi-touch screen interface (the “Home” button is the iPhone’s only physical front panel button)
• Operating System: Darwin OS X
• Storage: 4 or 8 GB Flash memory
• Quad band GSM (GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900)
• Wi-Fi (802.11g), EDGE and Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR
• 2 megapixel camera
• Built-in rechargeable, non-removable battery with up to 8 hours of talk, 6 hours of internet use, 7 hours of video playback, and up to 24 hours of audio playback, lasting over 250 hours on standby.
• Size: 115×61×11.6 mm (4.5×2.4×0.46 in)
• Weight: 135 g (4.8 oz)
• Digital SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) of 0.974 W/kg

An analysis of the iPhone’s firmware has revealed that the main Samsung chip (designated S5L8900) contains an ARM1176jzf processor, together with a PowerVR MBX 3D graphics co-processor.  <Reference Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone> (Thanks Wikipedia! Where would the world be without you?)

Some useful (or not) facts:

• MMS not supported

• Bluetooth file transfer not supported

The reason I’ve chosen these two examples as to what isn’t supported by the iPhone, is to highlight that this provides boundaries for my idea. I had previously thought of ways for the user to send images to our servers via different methods, and the fact that the iPhone doesn’t support some file transfer modes, limits my possibilities. Looks like it’s back to the drawing board!