iPhone 10

Software

The iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad run an operating system known as iOS (formerly iPhone OS). It is a variant of the same Darwin operating system core that is found in Mac OS X. Also included is the "Core Animation" software component from Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard. Together with the PowerVR hardware (and on the iPhone 3GS, OpenGL ES 2.0), it is responsible for the interface's motion graphics. The operating system takes up less than half a gigabyte. It is capable of supporting bundled and future applications from Apple, as well as from third-party developers. Software applications cannot be copied directly from Mac OS X but must be written and compiled specifically for iOS.

Like the iPod, the iPhone is managed with iTunes. The earliest versions of the OS required version 7.3 or later, which is compatible with Mac OS X version 10.4.10 Tiger or later, and 32-bit Windows XP or Vista.The release of iTunes 7.6 expanded this support to include 64-bit versions of XP and Vista,and a workaround has been discovered for previous 64-bit Windows operating systems.Apple provides free updates to the OS for the iPhone through iTunes,and major updates have historically accompanied new models.Such updates often require a newer version of iTunes — for example, the 3.0 update requires iTunes 8.2 — but the iTunes system requirements have stayed the same. Updates include both security patches and new features.For example, iPhone 3G users initially experienced dropped calls until an update was issued.

Interface

The interface is based around the home screen, a graphical list of available applications. iPhone applications normally run one at a time (not including iOS 4, which includes running applications in the background ) , although most functionality is still available when making a call or listening to music. The home screen can be accessed at any time by a hardware button below the screen, closing the open application in the process.By default, the Home screen contains the following icons: Messages (SMS and MMS messaging), Calendar, Photos, Camera, YouTube, Stocks, Maps (Google Maps), Weather, Voice Memos, Notes, Clock, Calculator, Settings, iTunes (store), App Store, and (on the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4) Compass. Docked at the base of the screen, four icons for Phone, Mail, Safari (Internet), and iPod (multimedia) delineate the iPhone's main purposes.On January 15, 2008, Apple released software update 1.1.3, allowing users to create "Web Clips", home screen icons that resemble apps that open a user-defined page in Safari. After the update, iPhone users can rearrange and place icons on up to nine other adjacent home screens, accessed by a horizontal swipe.Users can also add and delete icons from the dock, which is the same on every home screen. Each home screen holds up to sixteen icons, and the dock holds up to four icons. Users can delete Web Clips and third-party applications at any time, and may select only certain applications for transfer from iTunes. Apple's default programs, however, may not be removed. The 3.0 update adds a system-wide search, known as Spotlight, to the left of the first home screen.