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Most books covering the development of apps for the iPhone tend to overlook the underlying hardware of the device and instead dive immediately into the software development environment. This is a shame because the iPhone is an incredible technical achievement that we are already starting to take for granted.
Take, for example, the iPhone 3GS. This is a sleek device that is 115.5mm long, 62.1mm wide and 12.3 mm deep and weighs a mere 135 grams. This pocket sized device can make phone calls, sent and receive email, SMS and MMS messages, stream and play audio and video, detect when it is moved or rotated, vibrate, adapt the display brightness based on the ambient lighting, surf the internet, run apps from a selection of hundreds of thousands, take high resolution photos, record video, tell you your exact location, provide directions to your chosen destination, play graphics intensive games and even detect when you put the device to your ear,. Now, compare the size of your laptop or desktop computer to your iPhone. Then take a look at the specification for your computer and see if it has built in GPRS, EDGE and 3G wireless support, a digital compass, GPS, an accelerometer, a proximity sensor, an ambient light sensor, Bluetooth capability, Wi-Fi, a multi-touch screen, a vibration generator and a 3.5 megapixel autofocus camera. The chances are your much larger and heavier computer has only a small subset of these features. Next, check the expected battery life of your laptop and see if will allow you to play music for 30 hours or video for 10 hours, or talk non-stop to a friend for 12 hours without needing a recharge. When you consider these capabilities you will hopefully begin to appreciate the engineering achievements behind the iPhone and other similar smartphone devices.
Now that we have set the scene, we can move on to discuss some of the hardware features built into the iPhone in a little more detail. Once again, we will do this within the context of the iPhone 3GS.
