The recent release of the iPhone has brought about a significant shift in public perception of the cell phone, possibly changing the way we view these now commonplace devices forever. Even in a time when we have become accustomed to cell phones that are capable of a wide array of tasks. The iPhone still manages to amaze us with a host of capabilities that were previously the domain of more expensive and “techy” devices such as PDAs and laptop computers.

The sheer flexibility and wide range of uses of the iPhone is a bit less surprising–although no less impressive–when you consider that it was in fact Apple’s alternative to producing yet another PDA or tablet PC. Apple CEO Steve Jobs rightly felt that the future of communications lay in the development of an updated traditional cell phone format.

As you would have expected, the iPhone is capable of many of the more common cell phone capabilities such as caller ID, call conference, call merging, and call holding, in addition to integration with other cellular networks.

Text messaging and camera capabilities are admittedly nothing new, and while they are included features, the iPhone takes things several steps further as in the case of text messages, it displays all messages together with the replies in a mailbox format, under the name of each recipient. The camera is capable of a 2.0-megapixel resolution and a software utility is provided which allows uploading, viewing and emailing photos.

As befitting a device with a multimedia tag, the iPhone allows users to store and playback a host of file types ranging from music to videos, podcasts, audiobooks and more.

What really takes the iPhone to the next level of connectivity however is the built in Wi-Fi capability, which allows users to connect to the Internet through the included Safari web browser. The browser has been specially modified for use with the iPhone. As of this writing, the iPhone connects to the Internet through the AT&T EDGE network with 3G connectivity scheduled for inclusion in upcoming releases.

While the web browsing capabilities of the iPhone are sure to attract the more technologically savvy users, what will likely turn heads among everyday users however the unique touch screen interface. It allows multi touch sensing without the need for a stylus. Amazingly intuitive and elegant to use, the iPhone’s user interface portends the shape of things to come, not only in communications but in other areas of technology as well.