Chapter 1
Unveiling the iPhone
IN THIS CHAPTER
Looking at the big picture
Touring the outside of the iPhone
Checking out the iPhone's apps
Congratulations. You've selected one of the most incredible handheld devices we've ever seen. Of course, the iPhone is one heck of a wireless telephone, but it's actually four handheld devices in one. At least it's four devices right out of the box. Add some iPhone apps, and your iPhone becomes a PDA, an e-book reader, a handheld gaming device, a memory jogger, an exercise assistant, and ever so much more. We discuss optional apps - how to obtain, install, and delete them - throughout the book and particularly in Chapters 15, 17, and 18.
For now, we focus on the four awesome handheld devices your iPhone is the day you take it out of the box. In addition to being a decent cellular telephone, the iPhone is a gorgeous widescreen video player, a fantastic 8- or 12-megapixel camera/camcorder, as well as a tiny-yet-powerful Internet communications device.
In this chapter, we offer a gentle introduction to all four devices that make up your iPhone, plus overviews of its revolutionary hardware and software features.
The Big Picture
The iPhone X has many best-of-class features, but perhaps its most unusual feature is the lack of a physical keyboard or stylus. Instead, it has the highest resolution touchscreen of any iPhone yet (an astonishing 458 pixels per inch) that you operate using a pointing device you're already intimately familiar with: your finger.
WHAT'S IN THE BOX?
Somehow we think you've already opened the elegant box that the iPhone came in. But if you didn't, here's what you can expect to find inside:
- EarPods: Use them for music, videos, and, yes, phone calls. The EarPods for your iPhone X have a Lightning connector.
- Lightning-to-USB cable: Use this handy cable to sync or charge your iPhone. You can plug the USB connector into your PC or Macintosh to sync or into the included USB power adapter.
- Lightning-to-3.5 mm headphone jack adapter: An adapter that lets you use headphones sporting traditional 3.5 mm audio jacks with your iPhone X (which does not have a headphone port).
- USB power adapter: Use this adapter to recharge your iPhone from a standard AC power outlet.
- Some Apple logo decals: Of course.
- A quick start guide: Not much to it. You see the names of the buttons; how to turn on the phone; and where to learn more and get support. We save you the time of looking; you can learn more at
www.apple.com/iphone and get help at www.apple.com/support/iphone. You're welcome. - iPhone info sheet: Here's where you find safety warnings, legalese, warranty information, and regulatory and compliance gobbledygook, among other things.
- SIM eject tool: Just kidding. Apple once put a SIM eject tool in the box but hasn't in many years. No worries - just use a straightened paper clip or safety pin if you need to remove your SIM card. (See Chapter 16 for more on the SIM card.)
- iPhone X: You were starting to worry. Yes, the iPhone itself is also in the box.
And what a display it is. We venture that you've never seen a more beautiful screen on a handheld device in your life.
The iPhone's built-in sensors also still knock our socks off. An accelerometer detects when you rotate the device from portrait to landscape mode and adjusts what's on the display accordingly. A proximity sensor detects when the iPhone gets near your face, so it can turn off the display to save power and prevent accidental touches by your cheek. A light sensor adjusts the display's brightness in response to the current ambient lighting situation. The iPhone even has a gyroscope for advanced motion sensing and GPS sensors so your phone can determine where in the world you are. Our favorite example of motion sensing is that our iPhones rarely ask if we want to join a Wi-Fi network when we're in a moving car. That's a smart smartphone.
In this section, we take a brief look at some of the iPhone's features, broken down by product category.
The iPhone as a phone and a digital camera or camcorder
On the phone side, the iPhone synchronizes with the contacts and calendars on your Mac or PC, as well as contacts and events on iCloud, Google, Yahoo!, Outlook.com, and Exchange servers. It includes a full-featured QWERTY soft, or virtual, keyboard, which makes typing text easier than ever before - for some folks. Granted, the virtual keyboard takes a bit of time to get used to. But we think that many of you eventually will be whizzing along at a much faster pace than you thought possible on a mobile keyboard of this type.
The 12-megapixel camera is paired with iOS 11's improved Camera and Photos apps, so taking and managing digital photos and videos on your iPhone is a pleasure rather than the nightmare it can be on other phones. Plus, you can automatically synchronize iPhone photos and videos with the digital photo library on your Mac or PC.
The iPhone X cameras are the best ever, with all the features of the iPhone 8 Plus cameras, including autofocus with focus pixels to help prevent out-of-focus pictures. It also offers optical image stabilization, which uses data from the processor, gyroscope, and motion coprocessor to determine camera motion when you're shooting. It then provides precise lens movement to compensate for your shaky hands or low light. The iPhone X, which has two lenses and true optical zoom, shoots the best pictures and videos we've seen from any smartphone.
Don't miss the new Portrait Lighting feature that uses its dual lenses and facial landmarking to create studio-like lighting effects.
Another of our favorite phone accouterments is visual voicemail. (Try saying that three times fast.) This feature lets you see a list of voicemail messages and choose which ones to listen to or delete without being forced to deal with every message in your voice mailbox in sequential order. Now, that's handy!
Finally, your iPhone X includes Siri, an intelligent voice-controlled assistant that understands what you tell him or her (most of the time). We say "him or her" because you can choose the optional man's voice for Siri (see Chapter 5). Regardless of which gender you choose, Siri is even more useful and natural in iOS 11. Siri can figure out what you mean and determine which (if any) iPhone app should be used to find the right answer. And, like a real personal assistant, Siri replies in a natural sounding human voice. Furthermore, he or she has become even smarter in iOS 11 with proactive assistance, which provides the most relevant information and suggestions at a particular moment and on-device learning, which helps Siri deliver a more personalized experience based on your usage of Safari, News, Mail, Messages, and other apps.
One last thing: Both flavors of Siri - male and female - take dictation!
If you've tried voice control before, forget everything you've learned and give Siri a try. We think you'll be as impressed as we are (as long as you have a good Internet connection when you try it - Siri can be close to useless if your connection is slow) - and are in a relatively quiet environment or are using a headset.
We've mentioned just the highlights of the iPhone's superb set of features. But because we still have the entire book ahead of us, we'll put the extended coverage on hold for now (phone pun intended).
The iPhone as an iPod
We agree with the late Steve Jobs on this one: The iPhone is a better iPod than any iPod Apple has ever made. (Okay, we can quibble about the iPod touch and the iPad, as well as wanting more storage, but you know what we mean.) You can enjoy all your existing iPod media content - music, audiobooks, audio and video podcasts, iTunes U courses, music videos, television shows, and movies - on the iPhone's gorgeous high-resolution color display, which is bigger, brighter, and richer than any iPod display before it.
Bottom line: If you can get the content - be it video, audio, or whatever - into iTunes on your Mac or PC, you can synchronize it and watch or listen to it on your iPhone.
The iPhone as an Internet communications device
But wait - there's more! Not only is the iPhone a great phone and a stellar media player, but it's also a full-featured Internet communications device with - we're about to drop a bit of industry jargon on you - a rich HTML email client that's compatible with most POP and IMAP mail services, with support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. (For more on this topic, see Chapter 12.) Also on board is Safari, a world-class web browser that, unlike on most other phones, makes web surfing fun and easy.
Another cool Internet feature is Maps. By using GPS, Maps can determine your location, let you view maps and satellite imagery, and obtain driving directions and traffic information for much of the United States. You can also find businesses, such as gas stations, pizza joints, hospitals, and Apple Stores,...
