iOS

5 years in: The evolution of the iPhone OS

On the fifth anniversary for the iPhone and as we draw closer to the release of iOS 6 this fall (read our First Take from WWDC here), I can't help but think of how far Apple's iOS has come since the day the first iPhone was unveiled.

If you remember, that first iPhone was announced by Steve Jobs and Apple on January 9, 2007, and was more about the touch-screen interface than any extras, but it wasn't until June of that year the iPhone was released to the public. That first iOS wasn't even called iOS (… Read more

Five years of the iPhone

Five years ago today, at exactly 6 p.m. in each time zone, the original Apple iPhone went on sale in the United States. At the time I was outside the Apple store in downtown San Francisco witnessing tech history being made. And even though I've been to scores of other product launches since June 29, 2007, I can still recall the day vividly.

Editors' note: This story was originally published on June 29, 2011, but has been updated with the iPhone 4S.

The sidewalk in front of the Stockton Street store that evening was absolutely mobbed and a line of eager buyers stretched around the corner and out of sight. Indeed, as I was waiting to pick up our review model, I was nearly flattened against the store's glass wall when the enormous crowd began to surge toward the entrance.

Finally, as the magic hour struck and the doors opened, a line of applauding employees welcomed the first buyers. The line began to cheer "iPhone!, iPhone!" and a few minutes the first guy exited with his handset held high. I quickly sneaked inside to pick mine up and then hurried back to CNET's office with Donald Bell for a long night of writing the review (relive our review in real time!). Yet, that was after Brian Cooley got to take it out of the box on video. … Read more

Remembering my first iPhone

Editor's note: The iPhone is 5 years old. Last year, I reflected on my very first iPhone, and what owning one was like before the smartphone landscape had utterly changed...before the App Store...before iPads. What I wrote last year is still true now, maybe even more so, although one important event has transpired since: Steve Jobs died October 5, 2011, less than four months later. What follows is what I wrote, along with photos of that iPhone that I still have kicking around, compared with the iPhone 4S. Looking at them side by side, it's amazing how little has changed in terms of form.

It was only 2007 when the iPhone debuted. It seems like longer. My first HDTV, my Wii, and my PlayStation 3 all existed before the first iPhone. Yet, in 2007, BlackBerrys were all the rage. The Motorola Q was an eye-catching phone. Android didn't exist.

Also, my grandparents were still alive. I wasn't married. I didn't have a kid. I was freelance-writing a novel. My life was different then.

The iPhone lines were crazy, but if you picked the right time you could sneak into an Apple Store and buy one. That's because the first iPhone started at $499. No one knew yet whether the device was a smash hit. Apple didn't have a reservation system in place yet, or claim tickets. In the summer of 2007, the iPhone was a novelty. … Read more

Five years in, the iPhone's greatest legacy: Its apps

The very best feature the iPhone ever had didn't exist until a year after the iPhone first debuted. It wasn't the Web browser. It wasn't the touch screen.

It was the apps.

While I remember the magical parts of owning the first iPhone, those aren't really what I think it will be remembered for. After all, touch screens, cameras, and all its other iconic elements have been appropriated by competitors.

The lingering bombshell that the iPhone has birthed is, needless to say, the idea of apps.… Read more

iPhone 5 to reign as leading smartphone in 2013, says analyst

The iPhone 5 will be top dog in the 2013 smartphone arena, says J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz.

The new iPhone should debut this September, according to the analyst, with a rampup in production throughout the fourth quarter. Offering support for 4G LTE and other upgrades, the iPhone 5 will make a big splash this year, ensuring its dominance into 2013.

"We think that a combination of revolutionary hardware enhancements and software-driven services (i.e., Passbook, Maps, FaceTime over cellular) stand to reaffirm the iPhone as the leading smartphone in 2013," Moskowitz wrote in an investors note … Read more

Facebook iPhone app to get speed bump next month

To say that Facebook's iPhone app is slow could be considered generous. In truth, it makes the tortoise look like the hare.

It seems almost inconceivable (and yes, I do think that word means what I think it means) that a Web-focused, modern company could produce such a slow rendition of its product on the most popular mobile product on the planet.

But, not to fear, Facebook has heard the crowing (and has seen the one-star reviews) and plans to update its iPhone app, according to The New York Times.

The New York Times managed to get two unnamed engineers to reveal that the Facebook iOS app has been completely retooled and will feature the only thing that really matters in social-networking apps -- speed. … Read more

Zynga's Matching with Friends for iOS is likely to be a hit

Matching with Friends (2.99, full version - Free, ad-supported version) is another in a long line of Zynga apps that let you play turn-based games with a friend on mobile devices. But instead of playing word games loosely based on Hangman, Scrabble, or Boggle, this time you'll be strategically placing matching colored blocks on a gameboard, then sending your move to a friend.

Like other Zynga games, Matching with Friends makes getting connected with your friends easy. Upon launch you'll be asked to sign in through either your Facebook or Twitter account. Once logged in, you can search for other players from your friends list or get automatically matched with a random player.… Read more

Apple wins patent for rotating and scaling documents on touch screens

When considering the bitter rivalries that have emerged in the smartphone industry between Apple and its competitors (Samsung, Google, HTC, Nokia), one needs only to review the patent portfolio of each company to see from where it all stems.

To argue that the patent system is broken is another article for another day, but with Apple receiving the grant from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for document translation, rotation, and scaling, it is safe to assume that the intellectual property battles will only heighten.

Sure, in 2007, just as the iPhone was released, Apple had to teach the … Read more

Apple spins out Podcasts app ahead of iOS 6

It appears that rumors of Apple planning to spin out the podcast feature from iTunes in iOS were true.

Apple today quietly released a standalone app for podcasts (iTunes), specialty software designed for listening and subscribing to audio and video podcasts.

Podcasts are prerecorded audio shows of varying genres that users can subscribe to and download for offline listening. Apple jumped on the podcast bandwagon in mid-2005, promising to take the medium "mainstream by building everything users need to discover, subscribe, manage, and listen" into what was then version 4.9 of iTunes.

A report from All Things … Read more

Second iOS 6 beta given to developers

Apple has given developers an updated version of its iOS 6 software ahead of a public release later this year.

It's the first such update to the software, which Apple provided to developers in beta form, at its annual developers conference earlier this month. Several more betas are expected ahead of a release to the general public, which Apple said will come in the fall.

Apple-centric blog 9to5mac has posted screenshots and a full change log of the update, which weighs in at 299MB for the iPhone 4S, 322MB for the iPhone 4, and 497MB for the third-generation iPad. … Read more