iPhone

Apple iPhone: Beyond the hype

Next on the cards

What's there in the iPhone

· The iPhone App Store, a drop-dead simple online catalogue of new programmes and updates. Around 1,700 applications are available to browse, download and install directly on the iPhone; they don't have to be transferred from a computer. Most applications are listed free or are priced at as low as Rs 40.

· The new iPhone has a true global positioning system. Ingenious sensors show your location on a map by analysing nearby cell-towers and WiFi hot spots.

· The iPhone is the best handheld gaming machine. The games, listed on App Store, feature excellent 3-D graphics and tilt control. For instance, in one driving simulator you turn the iPhone itself like a steering wheel.

· Web browsing on the iPhone 3G will blow you away. The pokey EDGE network might not be as great an experience but pull out the handset when in a WiFi range and you will realise Apple's genius.

· The camera application ?Geotags? photos with the user's GPS location (with prior permission, of course!)

What's not there in the iPhone

· Key features that are commonplace on other devices such as multimedia messaging and copy-paste functionality in the SMS.

· There's no voice-dialing, memory-card slot, Bluetooth stereo audio or phone-to-phone photos.

· Apple also missed out on enabling video camera support, another commonplace feature on even low-end mobile phones.

· Apple's infamous software keyboard rotates with websites when used with Safari (Apple's Internet browser), but the company did not expand that functionality to any other aspect of the device.

· Higher end phones are capable of tethering ? acting as a modem for a computer through USB or Bluetooth ? but Apple has overlooked this feature.