Hrm
The existing iPhone already uses an underclocked CPU. 620@412, I think. So I don't know how to take these specs. Memory increase is certainly welcome, though. Also, a build-in compass would help with navigation on foot.
As Apple addicts gear-up for the its Worldwide Developers Conference next month, specifications have appeared online suggesting that Apple may have upped the iPhone’s storage capacity to 32GB. iPhone_32GB Will the next iPhone come with 32GB of storage? The info comes from a Chinese website’s publication of an iPhone ‘About …
Apple have to make these changes - 32GB SDHC Micro cards are just around the corner, so very soon just about any modern phone will have access to 32GB anyway, so the iphone has to up its internal storage in order to keep up.
The processor speed going up to 600MHz is also necessary - Snapdragon will be out shortly and that's 1000MHz, again leaving the iphone to play catchup.
The camera going up to 3.2MHz is required as well - most modern phones such as the Touch Diamond 2 have 5MP cameras so again the iphone is playing catch-up.
Memory was always underspecced at 128MB. The rise to 256MB is much needed as other new phones have 288MB or so already.
So all in all, nothing to get excited about - this is just Apple trying to keep its phone up to the spec of other smartphones already on the market. Considering most top-tier phones now also sport very usable touch-screen GUIs, there's not much to make the iphone attractive any more, so it needs some kind of gimmick.....hmmm, maybe a compass?
Cant wait to see fanbois lining up overnite at iStores to lap up Jesus offerings. It will be priced at £999 ONLY and fanbois will have oodles of orgasmic joy at the very mention of this offering. Manna from heaven!
Where's the recession?
Even Paris would be fed up with so much attention.
It all sounds very good, and the iPhone upgrade appears to be going to be well worth it.
Still, i don't believe the FM bit for a second. Never has Apple offered FM radio in its iPods, although it would've been inexpensive and widely appreciated, and I don't think they will start now. A free source of media content that is not under Apple's control? FM radio must give Jobs the creeps.
Color me shocked if the iPhone comes with FM and, if it can *RECORD* from it, please, urgently send to me the paramedics.
Yes, Apple is catching up with the spec, while the other smartphone's company are struggling catching up with the easy of use and the slickness of the iPhone's UI. Considering that consumers look more at the coolness factor instead of at the tech specs, Apple has got a far easier job in term of catching up.
The original iPhone, from a GUI angle, and then with the superb app store, was (and still is in some ways) a revelation. However, the world has moved on. There are phones out today with true multitasking, mechanical keyboards, FM radios, Bluetooth sharing and excellent cameras. (A resolution of at least 5MP plus a good lens is essential to create a print that looks good A4/letter sized or when viewed on a wide screen home display/Apple TV etc.) If all this next iPhone is is a slightly improved 3G iPhone, a lot of us (this poster included) will choose to a more flexible platform where the quantity of manufacturers will guarantee a phone for everyone. For example, the forthcoming 5MP camera & OMLED display equipped Samsung i7500 (and rumored 'Bigfoot' with slide out keyboard) - both run the rebelious open Bad (green) Robot OS. And that is not something Apple can afford to ignore. Open up Stevie, you cannot get away with being (overly) greedy and controlling forever...
(Good Stevie icon because he's learned before and as the wide range of iPods prove, Apple can appeal to a wide sector of the market when they put their creative minds to it.)
Memory will make a big difference - it should fix apps crashing when they run out of memory. Currently the iPhone OS takes about 90-100MB of the 128MB, leaving little for apps.
I think it's possible we'll see Apple allowing background apps only on this new version and with strict limitations.
When will people learn that what makes better quality photos is the quality of the lens and the sensor, not the number of pixels. A well implemented 3.2mp phone camera will blow a crappy (and most are) 5mp one out of the water. Just look at the SE K800i. The almost 10yr old Canon EOS-D30 SLR which has 'only' 3mp still puts many modern cameras with 10mp or more to shame.
Apple are more interested in making a good quality product that works well and is easy to use than checking spec checklists that only nerds on tech forums care about anyway.
Apple isn't trying to play catchup you simpleton, its quite the other way around. Who would buy another kind of smartphone at this point, right now? Judging by the sales, Blackberry excluded, hardly anybody. Samsung can spend what they want on marketing the 'Omnia', but all it is at the end of the day is a poor-man's iPhone without a robust OS and without on of the main selling points, the App-store. There's a reason why the iPhone has reigned supreme and had a collosal effect on the mobile industry and its not the speed of its CPU or RAM availability or even the camera. Nor, might I add is it the storage available. Only those that haven't used one would say that. For other phones I owned before the iPhones came out, this was the case and specs would be the main decider, but the iPhone OS and general usefulness trumps all others and cannot be realistically compared to other supposedly 'top-tier phones' and their 'amateurish touch OS-over-creaky-Windows with a stylus' or Nokia's weird Symbian touch system which looks about 10 years out of date. The reality is that prior to the iPhone, the mobile OS really didn't need to evolve at all and was still fairly static and creaky with the most advanced option being Windows Mobile. This was completely changed for the better by the iPhone's arrival and now Nokia et al are struggling to catch up and win back their influence. Apple's entrance into the mobile arena reminds me somewhat of Sony going into consoles. Let's hope they don't become (even more) cocky and arrogant like Sony.
The shear audacity of LG's latest ad campaign for its latest iPhone botherer is breathtaking, you would have to do a double take to realise that its not actually an iPhone. especially as the user swipes the answer call button instead of umm...just pressing it! Shameless, but it might con a few people into buying one, thinking its an iPhone until that is, they realise how much its lacking compared to Apple's baby.
As many, many people have commented before, the number of mega-pixels in a phone camera is almost irrelevant once you get above ~3MP. At that point, the size of the sensor becomes the limiting factor, not to mention the quality of the lens. The sensor size is physically limited by the size of the phone. I'd be very surprised if anyone could see the difference between two otherwise identical camera phones, one with a 3MP camera and one with a 5MP camera.
See http://6mpixel.org/en/?page_id=32, which deals with references compact cameras (not camera phones, which have even smaller sensors).
...the iPhone is difficult to be creative with. It is, after all, a very slick money making machine for Apple. You buy one, and rather that listen to the latest tunes on the (FM) radio for free (as I do on my none iPhone phones, are forced to purchase music from iTunes, or apps from the appstore. You cannot use a stylus to get creative, nor beam pics, ringtones and tunes to your friends. And despite the excellent photo browser, if you want to carry nice photos on your iPhone, you have to go out buy a real camera, snap away, plug you iPhone into your computer, upload the pics to iPhoto and then sync with the iPhone. (And it's a pain, I have an iPod Touch V2 - lovely device, but the whole issue of sharing and other every day instinctive tasks is impossible. It is all very constraining.) Apple need to improve the camera, allow for finger or stylus input, make sharing content easier, extend the battery life and improve the call quality. Remember, for all it's brilliance, the iPhone is not a very good phone! (I often lose connection to my iPhone buddies as their batteries die or the signal drops.) On the other hand, a Nokia N95 8G does everything well, just not as slickly. The video recording is amazing, the camera is tops and it multi-tasks well. The Nokia Maps software and GPS are great - and work out the box for 3 months for free. And you can beam any content to other Bluetooth devices with ease. I currently have a Sony Ericsson K800i and Bluetooth my pics to my Macbook. Try doing that on an iPhone.
Again, the iPhone GUI is amazing and you are spot on about LG trying to copy it embarassingly, but they have built in a mass of features that make their phones useful. All said, as per my prior posting, Android is going to force Apple to open up. I have played with an HTC Magic, and despite initial sceptism, I was impressed with the GUI. It is fast intuitive and clever - even the on screen keyboard is more reliable than the one on the iPhone thanks to Google's nice finger proximity detection. And with browsers becoming more versatile and capable, 'apps' will become obsolete anyway. You'll simply hit a site and it will BE the app. It's all about the funky AJAX, dude. Watch this space!...
...how the Apple fanbois harp on about their GUI when everyone else talks about features. It's a bit like purchasing a crap novel because it has a shiny cover.
And at the end of the day, how shiny is that cover, when all those iphone fanbois who put their own ripped CDs on it are faced with a Coverflow consisting entirely of grey squares with little note symbols on instead of album art? Heck, even my pooey Winmo phone displays cover art for CD rips.
to Jim Coleman
Any legal ripped cd can get the artwork for it and i do this for my cd collection. all you do is highlight all the tracks you need the artwork for right click and select get album artwork. worked on all my cd's so far.
To all,
I'm not a big fan of apple for this simple reason.
You can buy as many apps as you like and delete them from your system and you can redownload them for free as you have already paid for them
But try that with any paid for music and Apple charge you again.
Also I do not like the fact you cannot sync with more than one computer. As I do use my ibook more than my imac. and would be nice to use any of them for backups etc
I do like the iphone 3g its lots more stable than any of the wm or nokias i have had and i have had loads. still has problems but nothing to bad.
> By Vision Aforethought
> Remember, for all it's brilliance, the iPhone is not a very good phone!
Good point! This is exactly what I have heard. The actual PHONE performance of the iPhone is mediocre at best. Is this not the reason one buys a phone for? Or is it the shiny good looks you get from playing with it? Like having a hot girlfriend with a bad lisp. Great to look at and touch but hurts your ears when she tries to talk.
Don't worry guys, the little green robot is on it's way. We'll have the openness and performance that we are all looking for without having a nagging parent on our backs imposing curfews and telling us what we can or can't do on our phones. Change is coming!
"again leaving the iphone to play catchup."
Don't make me larf!
Every manufacturer on the face of the earth has been trying to play catchup with the iPhone ever since its introduction. A 5mp camera might be important for you ... most people use a camera.
I have no problem with folk choosing whichever phone they like but please give us some proper reasons ... IT"S THE WAY IT WORKS that makes it so good, not the 'features'.
Even when iPhone 3.0 is introduced there'll be people who say "Ah yes, but it doesn't kiss my girlfriend/boyfriend like my Noky-Erikola."
"Also I do not like the fact you cannot sync with more than one computer. As I do use my ibook more than my imac. and would be nice to use any of them for backups etc"
In PC+Windows XP world you can. I have a company laptop that I can sync my iphone to just as easily as my home desktop.
What's more annoying than anything else about the iphone is that I can't use Itunes with Ubuntu without doing some wine based jiggery pokery that doesn't work very well. I really want to dump my XP install, but I have to keep a Ubuntu/XP dual boot so I can use iTunes.
Does that scare the fanboys on here? I'm a Linux and an iTunes user? Surely that can't happen.