unique features about the iPhone OS

The iPhone OS or OS X iPhone is the operating system developed by Apple Inc. for the iPhone and iPod Touch.Like Mac OS X, from which it was derived, it uses the Darwin foundation.[3] iPhone OS has four abstraction layers: the Core OS layer, the Core Services layer, the Media layer, and the Cocoa Touch layer. The operating system takes less than half a gigabyte (GB) of the device's total memory storage.

The newest Apple cell phone to run a version of the iPhone OS inspired from Mac OSX is the iPhone 3G. This cell phone can support fast 3G wireless technology, GPS mapping and unlike older versions, enterprise features like Microsoft Exchange, which is used for programs like Outlook. Of course, it also plays music, takes pictures and displays video.

One of the most unique features about the iPhone OS, compared to Blackberry’s OS, Microsoft Mobile, Symbian and Android is that nearly all interactions with the phone are conducted through the touch screen.

The OS translates swipes, taps, pinches and reverse pinches into commands, without the use of a traditional keyboard or other buttons. A second exclusive feature is the voicemail function that allows voicemails to be listened to in any order, rather than just in the order they were received.

Though thousands of third-party applications are available for the iPhone, the included applications include iTunes, Stocks, Weather, Notes, Maps with GPS, a calendar, calculator, an iPod-type music player, a YouTube app and of course, phone features such as a contact organizer and voicemail.

For web browsing, it uses a mobile version of Safari, which is compatible with 3G, EDGE and WiFi technology. The iPhone OS email feature supports most IMAP or POP mail types, including MobileMe, Microsoft Exchange, Yahoo!, Google’s Gmail and AOL.