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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1476669
8 Basic Things the First iPhone Couldn’t Do By Tyler Lacoma You may be surprised about just what the first iPhone couldn’t do, including basic features. It’s easy to forget just how far we iPhone fans have come: It hasn’t even been 20 years since the first iPhone was launched in 2007, but despite how similar the design has remained, a whole lot has changed, too. While the iPhone was revolutionary with its embrace of a full touchscreen and slim, simple design, there have been a lot of changes since then. In fact, you may be surprised about just what the first iPhone couldn’t do, including basic features that we take for granted on all phones today. Read on to take a trip back in time and imagine the 1st-gen iPhone without these capabilities. 8. Copy and Paste Content It sounds a little silly now that touchscreens are everywhere and their controls have become intuitive, but the first iPhone didn’t have any options to copy and paste content from one thing to another. It took two years for iOS to get an update that finally allowed that. Although, this admittedly wasn’t as much of an issue for the very first iPhone-havers, because of another little missing feature… 7. Use Third-Party Apps Apple has always had a fairly closed ecosystem, but it’s easy to miss just how closed it used to be. The first iOS was Apple apps only. You couldn’t download Facebook, use your preferred email client, or anything else. In fact, it was Apple evolving on this point and inviting in third-party developers that allowed the company to zoom past BlackBerry so quickly, as BlackBerry didn’t take many steps to make popular third-party apps compatible with its operating system. 6. Record Video From FaceTiming to finding the right Camera app filter, videos are ubiquitous in today’s iPhones – it’s inconceivable that you could have a smartphone that couldn’t take video. But it was a different world back in 2007…and the first iPhone didn’t have any video capabilities. The hardware only supports snapping photos – which was still a very important selling point for its time (keep in mind, Instagram wouldn’t come along until 2010). 5. Switch Carriers or Upgrade to 3G The first iPhone ran on 2G wireless, and if you weren’t there in the Beforetimes – well, it was incredibly slow, and far less reliable before 3G finally came along and gave us reasonable cellular service. You also couldn’t pick your carrier at first, either: The 1st-gen iPhone was supported by AT&T, with no other choices. In fact, Apple exclusively partnered with AT&T for the first years of its iPhone line before finally expanding to other options. 4. Talk to Siri Believe it or not, Siri wasn’t