Trevor, David, Shayan, Geoffrey, Tasheel

=iPhone Applications=

Problem
With the growing rate at which technology is produced as well as with the growth of popularity in regards to the iPhone, are the applications of the iPhone taking over our lives and are we relying on these applications far too much?

Argument:
Every release of new technology will be met with considerable cheer and also considerable contempt. The iPhone was one of the most anticipated technological releases over the past decade, and hardly any phone has been given more attention. The applications give the user the ability to control almost every aspect of their life, from business, to friends and family, shopping, investment, entertainment, and everything in between. The applications can put nearly every aspect of your life into one compact place and manage them better than any human ever could do on their own. It’s so easy to fall in love with the convenience, but do the great abilities of all the applications really make life better? We would argue that yes indeed, the applications of the iPhone make life easier and more efficient for everyone using them, and that while we rely on them, this is not detrimental to our lives.

iPhone


The iPhone is a multimedia smart phone with internet capabilities designed by Apple Inc. The phone includes a multi-touch screen as opposed to other touch screen phones with a single-touch screen. The phone does not have a physical keyboard but an integrated keyboard that is used through the touch screen interface. The phones major highlighted functions include the camera, a portable media player and an Internet Client. The Apple IPhone was announced January 9th, 2007. The software has been designed to only run software that is approved by Apple themselves, which is called a cryptographic signature. This restriction can be overcome by “jail breaking” the phone, which includes updating the software on the phone so that it does not check signatures on the applications themselves to see if they are verified.

How the iPhone came to be


The iPhone is a greta technological device which has changed the mobile industry. It has swept everyone off their feet and has inspired most elgible consumers to either want or actuall purchase this fine device. But little do people know that it took Apple many hard working years to perfect the iPhone. Comments made by Jobs in April 2003 at the "D: All Things Digital" executive conference expressed his belief that tablet PCs and traditional PDAs were not good choices as high-demand markets for Apple to enter, despite many requests made to him that Apple create another PDA. He did believe that cell phones were going to become important devices for portable information access, and that what cell phones needed to have was excellent synchronization software. At the time, instead of focusing on a follow-up to their Newton PDA, Jobs had Apple put its energies into the iPod, and the iTunes software (which can be used to synchronize content with iPod devices), released January 2001. On September 7, 2005, Apple and Motorola released the ROKR E1, the first mobile phone to use iTunes. Jobs was unhappy with the ROKR, feeling that having to compromise with a non-Apple designer (Motorola) prevented Apple from designing the phone they wanted to make. In September 2006, Apple discontinued support for the ROKR and released a version of iTunes that included references to an as-yet unknown mobile phone that could display pictures and video. On January 9, 2007, Jobs announced the iPhone at the Macworld convention, receiving substantial media attention, and on June 11, 2007 announced at the Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference that the iPhone would support third-party applications using the Safari engine on the device. Third-parties would create the Web 2.0 applications and users would access them via the internet. Such applications appeared even before the release of the iPhone; the first being "OneTrip", a program meant to keep track of the user's shopping list.On June 29, 2007, Apple released version 7.3 of iTunes to coincide with the release of the iPhone. This release contains support for iPhone service activation and syncing.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the iPhone is manufactured on contract in the Shenzhen factory of the Taiwanese company Hon Hai Wayne Westerman and John Elias are the two engineers who are responsible for much of Apple's multi-touch technology found in the iPhone and notebook trackpads. Westerman and Elias originally founded a company called Fingerworks in 1998 and developed a number of multi-touch input devices including keyboards and touch-pads. Apple then acquired Fingerworks in 2005 and Westerman has been a senior engineer at Apple since. Many of the multi-touch patents coming out of Apple have since credited Westerman as the lead inventor. While Fingerworks' input accessories did receive critical praise during their lifetime, they never achieved significant mainstream success before the acquisition. Apple has been more cautious by slowly introducing multi-touch into their Macs. At present, multi-touch technology is limited to notebook trackpads and the iPhone itself. Apple, however, is continuing to hire more multi-touch engineers. Their latest job listing is seeking a "Gesture Algorithms Engineer" -- a position that likely didn't exist even a year ago. This potential hire would become part of the engineering team responsible for creating Apple's "next-generation input devices and displays". Apple has been hiring Multi-Touch specialists for almost a year now, and previous patent applications show the possibilities of what could be accomplished with advanced gesture recognition.

First Party Applications
First Party Applications are applications that are designed by Apple to be standard applications that you receive with your operating device. These applications have the sole purpose to make the operating device run the way it should from the very beginning. Some of these applications in regards to the IPhone include the iTunes, Camera, Maps, Weather, and the Email. Of course these first party applications can be updated with plug-ins, as well as third party applications.

Third Party Applications
Third party applications are programs that are created to use on various types of operating systems, but instead of being written by the corporation who makes the operating system, third party applications are made by individuals or outside companies. Third party applications can be plug-ins that adds functionality to already existing programs, or third party applications can be individual programs. The purpose of third party applications in regards to the iPhone are to add more use than the simple talk, text, web browsing, and music player that we see on the current iPhone. The way in which third party applications have revolutionized our life can be seen thoroughly. Although some applications can seem to be unnecessary and more or less useless, we can see that many applications are designed to customize the way that each iPhone user uses his/her phone. Third party applications can vary in a very broad way; such applications can include finding out the miles per gallon of your old classic car, or provide much needed assistance with an application that can keep track of your blood sugar levels. The purpose of third party applications is to create a much different experience to users of the iPhone than to those who are without an iPhone. We can see that the third party applications that run on the iPhone can be very beneficial to society. They are able to provide us with many tasks that run on a single device. For example, with the application that is able to track the blood sugar of a user with diabetes, this can save lives. If you are not able to bring the necessary equipment with you to track your diabetes, you are still able to track the blood sugar level, even if it is an approximation; you are able to track your well-being much easier.

The App Store
The App Store was released by Apple Inc. for the iPhone and iPod Touch to allow users to download applications for their device from the iTunes store. The App Store opened the morning of July 10, 2008 through an update to iTunes, however the applications available were unusable due to the software update not being available. On July 11, 2008 the iPhone software version 2.0 was made available and 500 available applications were now usable. As of today, there are over 25 000 applications available for download and nearly one billion applications have been downloaded in less than one year.

Business Lifestyle
The Applications of the IPhone have greatly affected this area in our everyday lives. Our business lifestyle is one of the most important lifestyles that we have. Of course, this affects our income which then in turn affects the quality of goods and services we are able to purchase. With the addition of the IPhone and its applications into our lives, we are able to increase the efficiency at which we are able to communicate with other colleagues, and execute business deals. The growing demand for business style applications has grown ever since the release of the IPhone. So much so that business websites, such as Real Business, have released lists for the top five business applications that each individual should have equipped on their phones. Some of these applications include applications that piggyback onto your company’s e-mail; as well we can attain applications that keep track of sales contacts and other contact-information onto your phone for easy analysis on the move. As well, we are able to use an application that lets us access word editors, and spreadsheets through the internet browser. As we can see the business lifestyle of the IPhone is completely covered through innovative programs that are able to help you in any facet of the business lifestyle. This is just one way in which the IPhone and its applications are able to help our everyday lifestyles.

Top selling applications for the Business Lifestyle

 * 1) Creative Whack Pack
 * 2) Recorder
 * 3) Speak Easy Voice Recorder
 * 4) Keeper
 * 5) PDF Reader Pro
 * 6) Record
 * 7) Recorder Pro
 * 8) ReaddleDocs
 * 9) iRec Voice Recorder
 * 10) Folders

Personal Lifestyle
The applications for the iPhone have also changed the way we live our day-to-day lives outside of work, which is our personal lifestyle. With the introduction of third-party applications, the iPhone has become more fun and has broadened its adaptability to a changing world. By adding applications around the already impressive multimedia player, the IPhone is able to keep you entertained for hours. Some of these applications can include simple games, or puzzles. The most interesting applications that are used for the fun aspect of our personal lifestyle are lie detector applications, as well as simple games such as shooting at targets. But, we cannot forget that people want to keep in-touch with friends and family as well, there are applications that allow you to attain a twitter application for your phone, so that you are still able to twitter on the go. As well as an application that allows you to access your Hotmail or Windows Live accounts. As well, applications have been designed to keep your everyday finances in check. As well, it seems that the iPhone and its applications have been designed to work around our everyday lives. There are endless waves of applications that are at our disposal, and the way in which we perform day-to-day tasks will never be the same.

Efficiency
As we can see from the previous sections, the iPhone has completely revolutionized the way in which we go about our daily routine. The iPhone has the ability to have every single application that you could possibly ever need for the rest of your life on the phone. It has the ability to take out smaller companies that would provide such services for a higher fee. Or it has the ability to incorporate other companies into their applications, such as receiving weather updates from the weather network. The applications that are present in this modern age are astounding and the ability for the app store to keep updating means that the iPhone is a sustainable technology and will never be outdated.

Examples of Applications Available

 * Midomi - can identify a song that you can’t. By just holding the iphone near a speaker for 10 seconds or so, it can identify a song that is playing and it will also tell you where you can buy the track for yourself.
 * Jott - transcribes speech to text allows you to write messages, e-mail, notes, call a number and it also takes your voicemail messages and put them to text for your and sends them in an e-mail or text message.
 * Paypal - allows you to send money to anyone from the iphone. It creates a simple fill in sheet which you fill out accordingly and wires the money instantly.
 * Jaadu - allows you to connect and control your desktop computer from anywhere in the world. Gives control of your mouse and keyboard and shows the display on your computer screen.
 * MPG - lets you figure out how many miles per gallon a car is capable of. It allows you to look through many makes and models through various years and the various MPG's are recorded in the program.
 * SugarTracker - this application can calculate your insulin/sugar levels if you have diabetes, and acts as a general guide for your dietary needs.