Apple’s continuous remediation in developing a spectacle through networking is what popularizes the iPhone. With this network, the iPhone maintains endless widows within the interface creating a virtual window. Anne Friedberg states, “the screens of cinema, television, and computers open ‘virtual windows’ that ventilate the static materialities and temporalities of their viewers. A ‘windowed’ multiplicity of perspectives implies new laws of ‘presence’ – not only here and there, but also then and now – a multiple view – sometimes enhanced, sometimes diminished – out the window” (Friedberg). Even though Friedberg is not talking about the iPhone specifically, all of the ‘virtual windows’ that she discusses (cinema, television, and computer) are integrated in the iPhone. Furthermore, this window is heightened because it possesses mobility compared to the stationary screen of cinema, television, and the desktop computer. This window generates an ambiguous reality confusing the concept of an actual time and place within the screen. For example, the iPhone holds applications that reach different destinations. By navigating through the home screen to the FaceTime application, direct communication with a specified individual occurs. Using FaceTime, there is the potential for a presence in multiple times and places. While one user can be in one location at a particular time another user can be in a different time zone and continent. This makes the iPhone window an endless representation of nearly any time and place within the screen. Different than stationary windows, the iPhone enables mobility to farther create numerous locations within the interface through networking of devices.

With Friedburg’s virtual window, the indistinguishable definition of space and time through applications like FaceTime potentially makes the iPhone interface an aura. Walter Benjamin defines the aura as a unique position in time and space, but thinks that advancements in technology inhibit the aura (Benjamin, 747). Still, with FaceTime the user is in an exclusive time and place that cannot be recreated. Mirzoeff proposes, “although distance does still impact delivery of electronic information, it is now perfectly possible to have real-time exchanges by text, voice and video across the globe in ways that dramatically change the experience of space and time.” (Mirzoeff, 221) Therefore, with the potential to communicate with others in nearly any location at time of the day, the iPhone is capable of creating myriad of auras specific to an individual. Because the iPhone has a unique space and time, the iPhone has a cult value in relation to Benjamin’s aura. Being that cellular communication is a norm, calling, texting, and socializing is ritual in most people’s lives. Although Benjamin argues that the cult value requires distance from the masses, a multitude of people regularly produce unique relationships through daily communication with the iPhone. These exclusive relationships utilize the cult value of mobile communication (in call and text message) to create an aura within the windows of the iPhone. 

Elaborating on windows within the iPhone frame, the interface not only reaches destinations from the users location, but also within the various windows in the screen. Friedberg proposes that the virtual window becomes more and more complex as the screen blurs the lines between space and time. With an increase of window production, “screens are now everywhere – on our wrists, in our hands, on our dashboards and in our backseats, on the bicycle and treadmills at the gym, on the seats of airplanes and busses, on buildings and billboards. Our position is no longer fixed in relation to the virtual elsewhere and elsewhens seen on a screen” (Friedberg, 87). Because the iPhone is a means of mobile communication, location is not only confounded in relationship to the user, but within the window of the device. Considering applications within the interface, the user can nearly reach any destination by downloading Apps. Looking at the interface as a location, individuals view the interface of the iPhone as a simulation within the endless destinations of the screen.

Embedded within the virtual window of the iPhone, are multiple simulations chosen by the user. Because the user can see and directs what is happening on the screen, but cannot understand the origin of what is projected within the screen, users are experiencing simulations. Jean Baudrillard’s explains the simulation as the difference between “true” an “false” or between “real” and “imaginary”, thus the simulation is normally misinterpreted because of its incalculable number of windows (Baudrillard). This means that with the production of the iPhone interface and it embedded application windows, the iPhone and the user create simulations on a regular basis from solely interacting with the device.

In discussing the applications in the iPhone, there are countless ways that the user can experience simulations. With various games like Sims (a virtual reality game), Life (a board game), or Family Feud (a live game show) the user creates false realities within the interface of the iPhone. Using the virtual window, users are exposed to a reality with no actual origin. While these games create realism for the user, the user has no sense of origin of the game in the screen. More than just applications and games, the user hosts simulations by sending messages or creating contacts. By having 'conversations' or creating a 'contact', users make the iPhone a virtual realm that cannot be sensed outside of the interface. With this, users do not only experience simulations projected through the window of the iPhone, but they create the simulations by downloading these applications, sending messages, and holding conversations that are a false reality. 

1. Conclusion