Apple iPhone in and out: The next step

Apple iPhone isn't exactly the best kept secret in the world. The odds are it's either on your Christmas wish list or you may as well already have it. Love it or hate it, the iPhone has set the bar pretty high in terms of interface and user-friendliness and, almost six months after its launch now, the competition has not yet managed to fight back with a product likely to generate the same buzz.

Apple iPhone official pictures

Now, don't get us wrong, the iPhone is not the perfect gadget. It has its flaws and most of them stem from the tendency of the people at Apple to oversimplify things. Plus, they have taken good care that the only way to upload or download content to and from your iPhone is via iTunes. It's an expression of their closed-ecosystem product portfolio - if you want their hardware, you must use their software. Our hopes for a 3G-enabled Euro-iPhone went down the drain; the 2-megapixel camera has not changed either; official third-party application support will not be available before February 2008 and, finally, on the Old Continent the device will cost 1.4 times more (with the current exchange rate) than back in US. Why all the fuss then, you might ask. Actually, to get a feel of that, you must have held the handset in your hand and tried it for real. It's nothing like anything you've seen. Touch sensitive screens are nothing new, but Apple have created a unique user interface that reacts to your touch in an almost physical way.

Now that the air is thick with jailbreaking and unlocking, seems like the right time to step back from what iPhone is and look at what it could be. We know there's enough of you who don't like spending hours reading stuff on the Internet just to enhance their phones. So we are looking at some applications that take the capabilities of the device to another level. And just as a refresher in case you were not caught in the "Jesus phone" stir, you are welcome to read our Apple iPhone overview.

We do not endorse jailbreaking or unlocking your iPhone and we are certainly not encouraging you to take any of these actions. But if you're interested in what your gadget is capable of, we take a look at the fun world of modding the iPhone. So it's up to you whether you take the blue pill or the red pill. Stay tuned, we're back after the jump.