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Introduction
When the iPhone 4 first came out, it had a big impact on phone companies. AT&T was the first carrier of iPhone, just recently Verizon saw the rate of how fast the iPhone 4 was growing and decided to carry it as well. The iPhone 4 claims to have about 100 new features and it is introduced as the thinnest smart phone on the planet. Compared to the previous iPhones, iPhone 4 has volume controls on the side of the phone along with an accessible microSIM tray. It also features a front-facing camera, and the back has a microphone. The iPhone 4 has many potential benefits; it's very easy to use for all ages. It's made for business man, teenagers, college students, teachers, lawyers, and even a housewife. However; some lawsuits were filed against AT&T and apple because of the signal of the phone. iPhone 4 did face some security problems, which involved hackers cracking the iPhone's password, but Keeper, a program was designed to help keep the passwords secure. Despite of having a lot of good features, overall technology has some bad social issues on the society.
Background
The iPhone 4 had the most number of people excited for the release time. It was pre-ordered by over 600,000 people, most of them already using the pre version iPhone 3GB. It was released in June 24. 2010, and one million of the device was expected to go for sale on that day. They ended up selling 1.5 million iPhones were just on the release date. After its release the apple stock price was $270.00 the highest of all four of them. The iPhone was announced in January 9th, 2007 at $499 for the 4GB and $599 for the 8gb, it took about two months for the numbers sold to reach 1 million iPhones (iPhone). The iPhone 4 has a better camera with more MP, a modern fancy design, build in light and a camera on the top of the front screen for video phone calls. The bands around the side of the iPhone 4 which is also identified as the antenna that supports all the iPhone 4’s wireless capability, such as 3G, Wi-Fi Bluetooth, and GPS along with cellular communications. (Ogg) The screen is much clearer and the resolution is four times bigger than on the iPhone 3gs. It has 960 pixels impossible for the human eyes to see the pixels no matter how close you are on the screen. If you would go close on a computer screen or any other devise with a monitor you would be able to see small micro squares formed the whole picture. It is much thinner and lighter the stainless steel frame is not only good for stability, but also a part of the antenna for the 3G network and WLAN. The iPhone 4 not only has great features on the outside, it actually has many more features within the phone. It has a bigger battery for more life time, a 512MB ram which makes multitasking more fast and the faster processor (apple A4 chip) lets the apps pop up faster. The A4 chip is the Cortex-A8 CPU, two 256MB DDR SDRAM and a powerVR SGX35 Grafic chip. The purpose of the A4 chip is to make the iPhone work faster as each part is able to work individually.
Potential Benefits
The iPhone is very popular amongst everyone; it's a very wanted device by all ages. It's a smart phone that looks nice, and is much faster than all the other smart phones. The iPhone has great graphic appearance, lots of applications that will benefit all ages. These applications feature learning languages, playing almost all kinds of games, religious applications, exercising and much more. iPhone has changed the way people use their mobile phones. Using the iPhone people can surf the web, launch applications, send and receive emails, play games, text friends, book tickets, and so much more. Most people use the iPhone 4 to scan all of their discounts cards for stores like Shoppers and Hallmark, so that they can recycle their cards; and that's a benefit to the environment as well. In the iPhone device you are basically getting a whole iPod, which stores all the music that you want. iPhone has sensors that save battery, the sensors are there to deactivate or adjust the touch screen according to the environment and to turn it off if you are on the phone talking. The iPhone 4 has so many features that could help basically anyone; the popularity level is way above imagination. The smart phone can fulfill almost any need starting from shopping to doing business, so it saves people a lot of money and time.
Legal and Ethical issues
Many law suits were filed against Apple since the iPhone 4 came out into the market. In Maryland, two iPhone 4 owners filed a suit against Apple and AT&T, accusing the companies of negligence, misrepresentation and other alleged offenses. In Texas, a similar suit was filed Tuesday against Apple. In California, three separate suits were filed against the Cupertino, Calif., tech company. When apple was informed they did not immediately respond for a comment, and when they were contacted by ABCNews.com, an A&T spokeswoman said the company didn't have a comment at this time. These iPhone 4 owners say that holding the phone in a certain way blocks the external antenna which causes the calls to drop and leads to reception issues. When this issue was investigated by apple, they found out that the formula that they were using to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display was totally wrong. The formula displayed 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. To solve this problem Apple decided to release a free software update. (Diaz)
Security problems
Many experts were concerned about the security issues on the iPhone even before the iPhone hit the store shelves. "Researchers at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute have discovered a way for hackers to access passwords stored on a locked iPhone in only six minutes, without even cracking the phone's pass code" (Callpod). This system allows almost anyone to access your personal information that is stored in your iPhone keychain. This raises a big issue for people that use their iPhones for almost everything. However; the solution to this problem is Keeper software from Callpod." Keeper is an application for the iPhone and other operating systems that stores your passwords and secret information using 128-bit AES encryption, Keeper is approved by the U.S. Government and supports the protection of top secret information" (Callpod). Using this software your personal information doesn't pass through the iPhone keychain and it is not accessible to the hackers. According to some estimates, smart phones-packed with personal data, that are always connected are now being infected with viruses at twice the rate of PCs. There's an actual map that can steal your account information, and direct the smart phone to call or text other people and send spam texts to your contacts (Anonymous). In the beginning the iPhone didn't have data security features, but after some time passed and new generations of the iPhone came out, now the iPhone 4 is one of the most secure phones.
Social problems
Lately people are getting more and more dependable on technology that’s always around them. They use technology for almost everything, and that become an issue for some people. Usually people are constantly checking their phones to see if someone has contacted them via texting, but they could care less if the person sitting next to them is talking to them or not. These people are so revolved with modern technology; they pay very little attention to the needs and feelings of people close to them. If they have any problems they rather ask people on the internet for advice than asking a friend that hangs out with them a lot. Also people show a lot less compassion for their friends and family. Internet in iPhone 4 is a very useful tool, only when it's used to acceptable purposes. Such as sending emails, finding directions, and doing work related activities. However; we have a lot more reasons not to have internet in these smart phones. Such as playing games, being on social networks, chatting, and more features. Facebook has become another issue; people download the application on their iPhones and basically stay on Facebook all the time. This allows them to be nosy in other people's lives checking their profile almost every day through their phones. We have some people downloading iTunes for free, while thousands of people spend a lot of money everyday paying for their iTunes so they can spend it buying music. That’s raises a big issues on ethics of people that are basically stealing from iTunes so they can have music in their iPhones. It's really not fair to the people that actually work hard for the money they spend on buy iTunes.
Conclusion
The iPhone 4 has many great feature and factions, the glass screen gives it a sleek fancy look and the antenna improves call clarity. The touch screen displays a clear picture and is easy to operate. It is a very useful tools used by people all over the world. Almost every I know that owns an iPhone is completely satisfied with it. Of course unlike many other technology devices it has its pros and cons. But according to many people the pros definitely out numbers the cons. Apple's goal starting with iPods, phones, laptops and now even Television has been to build a lead in software. They have been working with phone companies and outside developers all over the country.
Works Cited
Anonymous. HOW DO I PROTECT MY SMARTPHONE FROM VIRUSES? (2011, March). Popular Science, 278(3), 90. Retrieved March 2, 2011, from Research Library Core.
There's an actual map that can steal your account information
The map directs the smart phone to call or text other people and send spam texts to your contacts
Callpod, Inc.; Security Experts Have Broken the iPhone Keychain: Keeper(R) from Callpod, Inc. Will Secure Your iPhone Again. (2011, March). Information Technology Newsweekly,1117. Retrieved March 1, 2011, from ProQuest Computing.
Keeper is an application for the iPhone and other operating systems that stores your passwords and secret information using 128-bit AES encryption
Keeper is approved by the U.S. Government and supports the protection of top secret information
Researchers at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute have discovered a way for hackers to access passwords stored on a locked iPhone in only six minutes, without even cracking the phone's pass code
Diaz, Jesus. First iPhone 4 Class Action Suit Filed against Apple and AT&T (updated). ( 2010 June). Gizmodo. Retrieved March 1st 2011.
A lot of people have been criticizing Apple about the issues with iPhone 4
After all the complaints thousands of users started to report reception and transmission problems in different countries around the world.
Several other law suits were filed against Apple, because of their antenna issues.
iPhone, (February 2011). The New York Times. Retrieved March 26th 2011, from topics.nytimes.com
In 2007 Apple's chief executive, Steven P. Jobs, introduced the iPhone, which instantly became really popular in very little time.
In 2010 apple introduced a new version of the iPhone that includes a front-facing camera for video chats
The Verizon company also decided to carry the iPhone because of it’s popularity
Ogg, Erica. First day iPhone 4 sales estimate: 1.5 million. (2010, June). News.Cnet. Retrieved February 28th 2011, from news.cnet.com
Talks about the device, the features, utility, design and quick fixes
Talks about the device, the features, utility, design and quick fixes
It has an antenna built on the outside of the phone for better service.
Ways have been determined to fix the antenna issues, which has been helpful to most of the people.
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