At Long Last, Apple Unveils the iPhone

After years of rumors, Apple, Inc.'s Steve Jobs has just taken the wraps the iPhone, his company's upcoming combination smartphone and iPod.

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As expected, this device will support the iTunes music service, and it will sport either 4 GB or 8 GB of storage. It will support both music and video, which will be playable on its 3.5-inch, 320-by-480-pixel, 160 ppi display.

The iPhone will have a touchscreen, but not include a stylus. Instead, users will be expected to control it with their fingertips.

It will be 4.5 inches tall, 2.4 inches wide, and just under a half inch thick. It will weigh 4.8 ounces.

OS X Inside?

This smartphone will run what Jobs promises is OS X, the same operating system Apple's desktop and laptop computers run. It reportedly will be able to run some OS X applications, including the Safari web browser.

According to Apple, the iPhone will also offer HTML email and applications such as widgets, calendar, text messaging, Notes, and Address Book. iPhone will be fully multi-tasking, allowing users to read a web page while downloading email in the background.

Update: According to an industry analyst, Apple will not allow other companies to create software for this smartphone. Read more on this topic in this article.

The iPhone will be a Quad-band GSM/GPRS device. It will include EDGE, but not UMTS/HSDPA. It will, however, have Wi-Fi b/g and Bluetooth 2.0.

This device will also have a 2 megapixel camera.

The iPhone is expected to debut this summer from Cingular for $500 (4 GB) or $600 (8 GB).

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