Hack the iPhone

Technical information

During the MacWorld keynote speech in January 2007, Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone. He targeted sales of 10 million units in 2008 for the iPhone. This would represent 1% of the 1 billion dollars in market sales for cellular phones worldwide for 2006.

iPhone Tech specs Size and weight: Height: 4.5 inches Width: 2.4 inches Depth: 0.46 inch Weight: 4.8 ounces In the box: iPhone Stereo Headset Dock Dock Connector to USB Cable USB Power Adapter Documentation Cleaning/polishing cloth
Capacity: 4GB or 8GB flash drive (see note 1) Display: 3.5-inch (diagonal) widescreen multi-touch display 480-by-320-pixels with a resolution of 160 dpi Support for display of multiple languages and characters simultaneously Operating system: OS X GSM: Quad-band (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) Wireless data: Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) EDGE Bluetooth 2.0+EDR Camera: 2.0 megapixels Audio: Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz Audio formats supported: AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 1, 2, and 3), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV. Video: Video formats supported: H.264 video, up to 1.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Low-Complexity version of the H.264 Baseline Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; H.264 video, up to 768 Kbps, 320 by 240 pixels, 30 frames per second, Baseline Profile up to Level 1.3 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats. Headphones: Stereo earphones with built-in microphone Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz Impedance: 32 ohms
Mac system requirements: Mac computer with USB 2.0 port Mac OS X v10.4.10 or later iTunes 7.3 or later Windows system requirements: PC with USB 2.0 port Windows Vista Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate Edition; or Windows XP Home or Professional with Service Pack 2 or later. iTunes 7.3 or later Environmental requirements:1 Operating temperature: 32 to 95 degrees F Nonoperating temperature: -4 to 113 degrees F Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet Input and output: iPhone 30-pin dock connector 3.5-mm stereo headphone minijack iPhone Dock Dock connector Power and battery: Built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery Talk time: Up to 8 hours (see note 2) Standby time: Up to 250 hours (see note 3) Internet use: Up to 6 hours (see note 4) Video playback: Up to 7 hours (see note 5) Audio playback: Up to 24 hours (see note 6)

Note 1. 1GB = 1 billion bytes; actual formatted capacity less.

Note 2. Talk Time: Testing conducted by Apple in May and June 2007 using preproduction iPhone units and software. All talk time testing was done connected to a 1900MHz network. All settings were default except: Call Forwarding was turned on; the Wi-Fi feature Ask to Join Networks was turned off. Battery life depends on the cellular network, location, signal strength, feature configuration, usage, and many other factors. Battery tests are conducted using specific iPhone units; actual results may vary.

Note 3. Standby Time: Testing conducted by Apple in May and June 2007 using preproduction iPhone units and software. All settings were default except: Call Forwarding was turned on; the Wi-Fi feature Ask to Join Networks was turned off. Battery life depends on the cellular network, location, signal strength, feature configuration, usage, and many other factors. Battery tests are conducted using specific iPhone units; actual results may vary.

Note 4. Internet over Wi-Fi: Testing conducted by Apple in May and June 2007 using preproduction iPhone units and software. Internet over Wi-Fi testing conducted using a closed network and dedicated web and mail server, simulating browsing to 20 popular URLs and checking mail once an hour. All settings were default except: Call Forwarding was turned on; the Wi-Fi feature Ask to Join Networks and Auto-Brightness were turned off; WPA2 encryption was enabled. Battery life depends on the cellular network, location, signal strength, Wi-Fi connectivity, feature configuration, usage, and many other factors. Battery tests are conducted using specific iPhone units; actual results may vary. Internet over EDGE: Testing conducted by Apple in May and June 2007 using preproduction iPhone units and software. Internet over EDGE testing conducted over a 1900MHz EDGE, using a dedicated web and mail server, simulating browsing to 20 popular URLs and checking mail once an hour. All settings were default except: Call Forwarding was turned on; the Wi-Fi feature Ask to Join Networks and Auto-Brightness were turned off. Battery life depends on the cellular network, location, signal strength, EDGE connectivity, feature configuration, usage, and many other factors. Battery tests are conducted using specific iPhone units; actual results may vary.

Note 5. Video Playback: Testing conducted by Apple in May and June 2007 using preproduction iPhone units and software. Video content was a repeated 2 hour 23 minute movie purchased from the iTunes Store. All settings were default except: Call Forwarding was turned on; the Wi-Fi feature Ask to Join Networks and Auto-Brightness were turned off. Battery life depends on the cellular network, location, signal strength, feature configuration, usage, and many other factors. Battery tests are conducted using specific iPhone units; actual results may vary.

Note 6. Audio Playback: Testing conducted by Apple in May and June 2007 using preproduction iPhone units and software. The playlist consisted of 358 unique audio tracks, a combination of content imported from CDs using iTunes (128-Kbps AAC encoding) and content purchased from the iTunes Store (128-Kbps AAC encoding). All settings were default except: Call Forwarding was turned on; the Wi-Fi feature Ask to Join Networks was turned off. Battery life depends on the cellular network, location, signal strength, feature configuration, usage, and many other factors. Battery tests are conducted using specific iPhone units; actual results may vary.


On September 5th, 2007 Apple discontinued the 4GB iPhone model and reduced the price of the 8GB model from $599 to $399. Due to this major price reduction so close to the release date (and the thousands of angry emails Apple received) a $100 rebate was offered to all not within a return window, to show their appreciation for early adopters.

iPhone disassembly guides

Anandtech did a very nice disassembly of their iPhone with many high resolution pictures.
EE Times Online has an article with some very high resolution images of the internal parts of the iPhone that labels some of the chips and describes them.
ifixit has a disassembly guide for the iPhone.
Think Secret has a disassembly guide as well.