15 Features the Original iPhone Didn’t Have When First Announced

Sunday will mark the 15th anniversary of Steve Jobs introducing the original iPhone at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco, and while the device revolutionized the smartphone industry, it’s easy to forget how much the iPhone has improved since then.

iPhone 15 years
To celebrate the upcoming occasion, we’ve put together a list of 15 features the original iPhone didn’t have when it was first announced.

  • App Store: The original iPhone came with preinstalled apps like Phone, Weather, Notes, Calendar, Photos, and Calculator, but there was no way to install native third-party apps until the App Store launched in July 2008. Developers were able to offer web-based apps, but this was a subpar experience.
  • Copy and Paste: It may seem hard to believe, but the ability to copy and paste text was not added to the iPhone until 2009.
  • Front Camera: While selfies are now ubiquitous, there was no front camera on the original iPhone. In fact, there was no front camera until the iPhone 4 launched in 2010 with new FaceTime video calling.
  • Video Recording: The original iPhone can only shoot photos, with video recording introduced on the iPhone 3GS in 2009.
  • Flashlight: With no LED flash on the original iPhone, there was no built-in flashlight. When the App Store launched, some flashlight apps were released that displayed a white screen at max brightness to mimic a flashlight.
  • Photo Messaging (MMS): The original iPhone supported text messaging via SMS, but there was no ability to send photos. MMS capabilities were introduced with iPhone OS 3.0 in 2009, but only for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS.
  • GPS: While the original iPhone came with a Google Maps app preinstalled, there were no turn-by-turn directions, as the device did not have a GPS. Apple introduced a built-in GPS with the iPhone 3G in 2008.
  • Home Screen Wallpapers: It was not possible to set a custom Home Screen wallpaper on the iPhone until iOS 4 was released in 2010, and the software update did not support the original iPhone.
  • Verizon Support: AT&T was the exclusive iPhone carrier in the U.S. until Verizon began supporting the device in 2011.
  • Siri: Apple’s voice-based digital assistant launched with the iPhone 4S in 2011.
  • Touch ID or Face ID: While modern iPhones and iPads are equipped with biometric authentication systems like Face ID or Touch ID, the original iPhone could only be secured with a four-digit passcode. Touch ID arrived with the iPhone 5s in 2013, while Face ID debuted on the iPhone X in 2017.
  • Lightning Connector: Like many iPods before it, the original iPhone was equipped with a 30-pin dock connector. Apple switched to the smaller Lightning connector with the release of the iPhone 5 in 2012.
  • Retina Display: Introduced on the iPhone 4 in 2010, the Retina display featured four times as many pixels as the original iPhone and was the highest-resolution display for a smartphone ever at the time.
  • Wireless Charging: The first iPhones to support wireless charging were the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, and iPhone X released in 2017.
  • Water Resistance: Water did not play friendly with the original iPhone, but the latest models have IP68-rated water resistance.

Looking ahead, the iPhone 14 will get even more new features, so be sure to catch up on everything that we know so far.

Popular Stories

Apple Event in Spring 2022? Three New Products We Could See

Apple’s first major product announcements of the year often occur in March or April, so there’s a reasonable chance that trend will continue in 2022. Ahead, we recap some of Apple’s past spring announcements and look ahead to some of the first new Apple products that we might see this year.
Past Spring Announcements
Last year, Apple held an event on April 20 to unveil its AirTag item…

Leaker Says iPhone 14 Pro to Feature Pill-Shaped Camera Cutout With Face ID Under the Display

iPhone 14 Pro models will feature a pill-shaped camera cutout at the top of the display, with the notch removed, according to tweets shared by leaker @dylandkt, who has proven to be a reliable source of Apple-related rumors over the last year or so. To accommodate this change, the leaker said Face ID hardware will be moved under the display.
While it has been widely reported that iPhone 14…

WhatsApp Starts Rolling Out Profile Pictures in iOS Message Notifications

WhatsApp is testing a helpful new feature on iOS that displays profile pictures in system notifications when users receive new messages from chats and groups.
Image credit: WABetaInfo First spotted by app specialist WABetaInfo, the first new feature for the platform in 2022 uses APIs in iOS 15 to add the WhatsApp profile images to notifications in top-screen banners and in the Notification…

Intel Says New Core i9 Processor for Laptops is Faster Than Apple’s M1 Max Chip

Intel today unveiled new 12th-generation Core processors suitable for laptops, and as part of the announcement, it claimed that the new Core i9 is not only faster than Apple’s M1 Max chip in the 16-inch MacBook Pro, but is the fastest mobile processor ever.
The new Core i9 features a 14-core CPU with six performance cores and eight efficiency cores, while the 10-core M1 Max chip has eight…

Samsung Galaxy S22 Lineup Gets First In-Depth Closeup in Unboxing Video

Tech YouTuber Unbox Therapy recently shared a video looking at reputed dummies of Samsung’s forthcoming Galaxy S22 lineup, corroborating earlier leaks that suggest it will again consist of three sizes to compete directly with Apple’s latest devices, the iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13/Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max models.
From right to left: Samsung Galaxy S22, S22 Plus, and S22 Ultra (credit: Unbox …

Google Basically Pays Apple to Stay Out of the Search Engine Business, Class Action Lawsuit Alleges

Apple has an agreement with Google that it won’t develop its own internet search engine so long as Google pays it to remain the default option in Safari, a new class action alleges.
Filed in a California court earlier this week against Apple, Google, and their respective CEOs, the lawsuit alleges the two companies have a non-compete agreement in the internet search business that violates US…

Your iPhone May Be Sending Message Read Receipts Even If You Turned Them Off

A recurring iOS bug that makes Apple’s Messages app send read receipts despite the setting being disabled appears to be on the upswing again, based on reports from users running iOS 15.
In iOS, with read receipts enabled (Settings -> Messages -> Send Read Receipts), the “Delivered” text that a person sees under an iMessage they have sent you turns to “Read” when you’ve viewed it in the…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *