If any single gadget can represent an entire era, then a contender for that gadget would certainly be the iPhone. The iPhone is without doubt an icon of the first decade of the twenty-first century. Here we will take a brief look at the history of that wonderful machine.
It was on 9th January 2007 at the Macworld Conference and Expo in San Francisco that Steve Jobs made the announcement that introduced the iPhone to the world. It was based on the iPod that was already a barnstorming success, but it was more than a music player and mobile phone combination. It was effectively an entire computer that could also be used to make phone calls.

Where this little gadget opened new doors was that it was able to integrate the mobile web into a handset with such efficiency and panache that users could surf the web as easily as they could make a phone call or send a text message. It boasted a touch screen that was more impressive than any touch screen that had preceded it, and was able to display web pages and graphics with stunning quality.

There were some teething problems with the early models and some billing issues too. The most famous one was a three hundred page iPhone bill that was received by Justine Ezarik of which she made a video and pasted on YouTube.  The bill was as large as it was because every item of data transfer had been itemised including all the background information that goes with messaging, web browsing and emailing. Her video received over 8 million views.
It did not take long for Apple to fix the bugs and improve the machine. 2008 a 3G version was introduced. Originally it came with 4GB of memory, but that was upgraded to 8GB. Soon it became apparent that 3G is what the iPhone is all about. The increased data transfer speeds enabled the iPhone to really show off its web surfing credentials leading to many units being sold by retailers such as phones4u amoungst others visit phones4u now for more infomation on the latest iphone
Apple is now preparing the iPhone 4G and a couple of prototypes have surfaced. It seems that a new feature is a front facing camera that will enable the device to be used for video chat.