iPhone

Snow bunnies, be wary of taking smartphones to the slopes — extreme temps can damage your device, and may void the warranty.

The iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S III may have the most advanced mobile tech on the inside, but on the outside, the devices are certainly fair-weather friends.

In freezing conditions, smartphones will shut off automatically, and on piping-hot days, high temperatures can cause permanent damage to the battery. Read on to discover the hot and cold thresholds for the two most popular phones on the market — the iPhone (4/4S/5) and the Samsung Galaxy S III — and how to prevent temperature damage.

Each iPhone 4S and 5 camera is equipped with a really cool HDR setting that can dramatically improve your photos. HDR stands for high dynamic range, and it essentially takes a series of images, each shot with a different exposure from darkest to lightest. HDR combines the best parts of the three overexposed, underexposed, and balanced shots to create a dramatic image with beautiful shadowing and highlights.

Do: use HDR for close-ups and outdoor portraits.

Compare the normal photo of ice cream on the left with the HDR image on the right. Oftentimes, HDR images look crisper, and colors appear much richer than the normal photo. Try HDR for close-ups and outdoor portraits, especially if the subject and the background have a harsh lightening difference. Click here to read more about HDR.

No one anticipated the iPhone's meteoric rise when it was first introduced in 2007. Critics complained that, unlike the BlackBerry (remember those?), the touchscreen phone was too hard to type on. It was too expensive. It had to be on the AT&T network. Little did those critics know that, five years later, the rectangle with rounded corners would own the smartphone market.

The device's wild popularity has, unfortunately, grown so much that iPhone and iPad thefts rose 40 percent in New York City. Thieves love the Apple smartphone so much that they'll even snatch them from babies. This stat got us thinking about Steve Jobs's masterpiece and what makes it so special. So, as you clutch your device to keep it out of harm's way, read these five totally crazy — but true — facts about the iPhone.

1. The most expensive piece in the iPhone 4 costs a whopping . . . $28.50. According to research firm iSuppli, the phone's Retina display screen is the priciest piece of the iPhone puzzle. Together, the parts total about $200, although that doesn't take assembly, design, or branding into account.

Continue on for more facts and figures on the iPhone.