It wasn't too long ago that cellular phones were the size of house bricks and were the sole preserve of flash stockbroker types, whom shouted loudly into the oversized mouthpiece to make them heard above the din of the 'bullpen'.
How things have changed. In 2008, it seems that the world and his dog have access to some kind of cellular phone, from school children right up to the silver surfer generation of senior citizens.
As technology has reduced the size of cellular phones to ever-smaller models, some of which resemble shiny plastic matchboxes, there has also been an increase in the range of applications that can be carried out by a single phone.
In today's fast paced world where time is at a premium, a cellular phone that can send and receive e-mail, surf the web, take photographs, play music, stream videos and heck, even make phone calls, is a lucrative money-spinner for whoever can produce the best model.
Apple Mackintosh is a market leader in most of these fields and intuitively this had led to them creating what is widely regarded by many as the best cellular phone of 2008: The Apple i-phone3G.
Overview of The Apple i-phones' features
You're on a train and your grandma has fallen asleep. Giving into temptation you doodle your best moustache onto her and sit back to revel in your handy work, but there is no one around to appreciate your hilarious attempt at humour. To get the credit you deserve, you'll need a camera, a laptop to e-mail the pictures to the rest of your family and a phone to call an ambulance after she wakes up and reprimands you for the stunt. An mp3 player wouldn't go a miss either; it'll give you something to listen to on the trip to the E.R.
However, carrying all this equipment may arouse the suspicion of grandma, and she may not share your sense of humour.
All right, I'm only joking, I would never draw a moustache on my grandma (she already has one for one thing), but this unlikely scenario highlights the nuisance that carrying lots of different equipment to do different jobs entails, especially when travelling on public transport. The i-phone3G solves this problem in one handy package and this diversity is its strongest selling point.
The Apple i-phones' primary remit is to house all the essential peripherals we all use as well as a phone, such as a web browser, a camera and an mp3 player. However, the i-phone does all this and more in a stylish package; and for most of the people using it, it is the style of the phone that matters equally as much as what it can do.
Interface and Design Features
Apple have stuck to what they know best and pushed the boat out when it comes to the design of the i-phone, and how the user interacts with it.
The key feature of the phone is the touch screen capability, which allows you to touch and drag pictures into folders, like in the futuristic film Minority Report. Similarly, all of the key uses of a phone such as sending SMS messages and scrolling through contact lists and making calls are done via the use of this touch screen method.
When searching for mp3 tracks, directing your finger to the edge of the screen will scroll through the list of albums you have stored on the phone. You can even recreate the sensation of turning over a real CD or record by tapping an icon of a stored album, which turns to reveal the track list on the other side.
The housing of the phone has also been carefully considered, and the base is rendered in a tasteful but sturdy finish that lends a certain quality to the product. The response and sensitivity of the touch facility is also very intuitive, meaning even people new to cellular phones can grasp the basics of finding music, video and games in a relatively short period of time; a plus point in terms of accessibility to a wider market.
Overall the size of the phone is pretty user friendly and easily portable, fitting into the palm of your hand and is no thicker than 0.48 of an inch! When you consider all of the features that the i-phone can carry out it is astounding that so many applications can be housed into a unit of this size.
The Apple i-phones3G's features
Music Storage mp3 files
The 16GB model of the i-phone can store an incredible 3, 500 songs, which equates to an average 290 albums (with an average of 12 tracks on each). Acquiring music is done via the usual process, via Apples I-store where tracks can be purchased in single or album format, or can be transmitted onto the device via a USB cable from your existing collection.
The real beauty of the music feature of the i-phone is not just the terrific sound, but the way you select it. Turning the phone on its side allow you to access your entire album collection by scrolling through it via the touch screen method.
Another touch of the screen will also produce song lyrics to accompany your tracks, especially useful if you have for years thought Queen sang Bill Zebub has the devil for a sideboard.
Watch video
The i-phone3G also has a built-in You Tube application allowing you to view video files or watch video files you receive via e-mail.
Web Features, including Google Maps
The web browser of the i-phone is another of its primary selling features. Using the 'Safari' web browser, the phone allows you to surf the Internet using super fast wi-fi connectivity with built in Google and Yahoo search engines. Also within this umbrella, you can search Google maps to street level, giving you the ability to search for and then book restaurants using e-mail or the i-phone itself via an old fashioned phone call.
The option to rotate the entire phone through 90 degrees also means you can view pages in landscape as well as portrait, which is useful for viewing contiguous maps.
A very useful tool is also the ability to find your location anywhere where Google has a map, as the self-contained GPS system can triangulate your position via phone masts and wi-fi. Entering a keyword search such as bookstore will also show you where every available bookstore is within the immediate vicinity.
If you're running late for an appointment and unsure as to where you need to be, a satellite navigation system will show you your current position, and indicate how to get to your destination via an arrow.
Camera specifications
While the two million mega pixel camera is not the best you will find in a cellular phone, it is an adequate compromise considering the abundance of applications the phone has to process. The camera takes reasonable quality pictures, but makes up for this by transferring them straight to your computer the next time you connect it.
The familiar touch scroll method also allows you to view your photos as if you were flicking through the pages of a family photo album, which is a nice touch.
Conclusions
Overall the Apple i-phone3G represents a quantum leap in cellular phone technology, and substantially increases the availability of reliable and accurate communication hardware available to a mass market.
Although even the base models are prohibitively expensive at around $650 (445), the technology we see now will be available at two thirds of this price in a year. This means that more and more people can look forward to enjoying unlimited access to the advances in information technology, which will arguably enhance our lives, giving us more time to enjoy them.
The i-phone successfully encompasses multiple devices that were once only carried separately, and at some inconvenience. The ability to check your e-mail, then switch to take a photo, then find a restaurant on Google then book a reservation via e-mail, then listen to music, is something future generations will take for granted.
From what we had previously to the evolution of the i-phone today, in a relatively short space of time, shows just how good the I-phone is, and how deserving it is of the title 'Best Cellular Phone of 2008'.