Rumor rubberizes iPhone 3.0

The next iPhone will have an OLED display, double the processing power, a 50 per cent improvment in battery life, and a rubber-backed body with a light-up Apple logo on the back. That is, if a Tuesday article by Apple iPhone Apps is to be believed. According to "a source who is closely connected to Apple's hardware …

[Jean-Luc]

Still a non-water-resistant water-magnet?

My iPhone 2.0 died from evil snowflakes falling on it while snowboarding.

When I tried to get it serviced I found that:

- water damage is not covered, nor serviceable, even at cost, by Apple

- Apple anticipates water damage so embeds litmus paper that turns red if evil H2O makes contact (at the dock plug and the phone jack)

Of course, they could have tried to make it a bit more water resistant, instead of engineering the litmus paper, but that would have been less fun. Oh, and you can't turn it off, take out the battery and wait for it to dry, like you would with other cellphones, cuz it's all unserviceable by the stupid users.

Mine's Paris' hacked Danger now :-(

Well, at least the powder runs that day were awesome.

[James Hughes]

3.2M?

Just when everyone and his dog are bringing out/about to bring out 5MP phones?

Wow. State of the art....

[Robert E A Harvey]

yawn

Sorry, I just don't care.

as long as it is tied to a network it is a non-phone

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds very nice

OLED and the other bits and pieces are nice. Adding the compass and other bits brings it up to the standard that Android devices have been setting for 6 months.

The article talks about "Revolutionary combination of the camera, GPS, compass, orientation sensor, and Google maps". If you read the description, it sounds very similar to the Enkin app that's been on Android for a while. http://www.enkin.net/

But all in all, a very nice piece of kit if the rumours are to be believed.

[Anonymous Coward]

Also

it'll cure cancer and allow the blind to see. There will also be a water - wine app and an AR mode that displays a far larger penis over the one the camera sees (for use in urinals). And on a 4" screen that says a lot...

iPhone 4.0 will be an incredibly stylish spinal implant that will replace the host's nervous system to let the nerve-damaged walk and suppress pain/blood loss- allowing an iPhone user to keep their cool and look good even in the event of the (let's face it, inevitable) bar-stool to the face.

[Rob Welsh]

All speculation...

....personally I hope Apple keep moving forward with this product, as it's second incarnation is clearly no where near perfect. That said it's still one of, if not 'the' most innovative hand held devices around today - onwards!

[Anonymous Coward]

SCOOP

A mate of mine told me iPhone3 will also double as a stun grenade for the forces - developed because so many troops from the UK and US use them in Afghanistan.

Please put this on the front page of El Reg.

Unfortunately, my mate does not want to be named as he could lose his job.

[al]

Rubber ?

I heard iphones were hot.. but didn't know that you'ld need a protective sheath.

Paris, coz she takes the rubber out when she brings any oral communication device close to her mouth.

[Rob McDougall]

yeeesh

Apple logo as Flash? puh-leeeeez.... that would look so crass!

[Youngdog]

Never be the first..

..and never be the last to dive into new technology.

I hope those suckers in the UK on O2 with an I-Phone v1/v2 won't be able to upgrade to the new handset without a surchage.

That will teach them to put stylistic coolness ahead of practical considerations.

[David Webb]

OLED?

An OLED as large as the iPhone screen for under $200? I'm not sure that'll happen, OLED is very expensive and used for small screens like cameras, not for a large screen like a mobile phone right?

[Eddie Edwards]

@ Jean-Luc

That'd be cobalt chloride paper then.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Youngdog

And I hope you die a slow and painful death - preferably beginning within the next 3 hours - but you don't see me being a twat on the comments page do you?

Oh, wait...

[Anonymous Coward]

Excellent!

***"light-up Apple logo on the back"***

That will make it much easier to spot fashion victims in order to take the piss.

[Law]

lol @ flash

Apple logo doubling as flash would be the marketing team's dream - then any photo, whether you needed flash or not, could have a little apple logo reflecting off everyones eyes and surfaces! :)

I hope the rubber back is optional, it's bound to break down a bit and look tatty, plus I like the smoothness of current phone as it slides into my pocket much easier than when I tried a silicon cover early on... still, will see what the actual one looks like before making decisions based on rumours.

[Jon Winter]

Re: Never be the first..

"I hope those suckers in the UK on O2 with an I-Phone v1/v2 won't be able to upgrade to the new handset without a surchage."

Dunno about you but my v1 iPhone comes out of its 18 month contract just about now... looking forward to getting my v3 very much :-)

[David Edwards]

Already Rubberized

My iPhone lives in a very secure rubber Otterbox case that bungs up all the holes and has fabric over the mic etc. It survived a 6ft drop of a shelf onto my workshop floor without a scratch and frequent slobber attacks from my daughter.

Highly recommended.

[jason]

@James Hughes

Why bother with anything more than 1MP in a phone when you are still using cheap, nasty pinhole lenses? Its junk.

2MP is over specced in most cases.

[Youngdog]

@AC - Hee hee

One of the benefits of having an El Reg account over AC is that you are putting yourself out there and willing to be judged for your views - no matter how twat-like and disagreeable they are!

Can I assume from your post that you do actually own/rent one? So will I. One day. When it is cheaper. And the hardware improves.

And for your information my twattish activities are certainly not confined to posting here!

[Kanye West]

Rocks

THIS ROCKS AND I WILL BE ORDERING ONE FOR EACH EAR!

[Anonymous Coward]

Light up logo?

Well that's a great way to look like a prize prick with that your hands with a saintly Apple logo glowing from it.

[Andy Christ]

Blinded by the light

Love the idea of the logo as flash too. That way when someone snaps your mug, you'll be seeing Apple after-images. Great subliminal marketing!

[Law]

lol @ flash

Apple logo doubling as flash would be the marketing team's dream - then any photo, whether you needed flash or not, could have a little apple logo reflecting off everyones eyes and surfaces! :)

I hope the rubber back is optional, it's bound to break down a bit and look tatty, plus I like the smoothness of current phone as it slides into my pocket much easier than when I tried a silicon cover early on... still, will see what the actual one looks like before making decisions based on rumours.

[Ascylto]

@ Also

You Bastard!

How did you get the specs for iPhone 4?

[Michael C]

Water damage now warrantied (to an extent)

http://www.theiphoneblog.com/2009/05/06/apple-policy-waterdamaged-iphones/

Apple changed it's pland Jean-Luc! You CAN get a refurbished phone as a replacement for a water damaged phone. It's still a $199 cost to you, but it's a LOT better than popping for a whole new device.

[Ascylto]

@ Excellent!

Well a backlit Apple logo wont help me!

I have noticed I have a habit of having my index finger over the logo on my iPhone.

I try not to do this as it is very shiny!

I have never had anyone take the piss.

Occasionally I get people kneeling at my feet for a blessing from THE phone but that's about it.

[Anonymous Coward]

nice

Makes me want to fire my custard cannon all over it's rubbery posterior.

[Law]

not sure why people assume apple=fashionstatement

I wear M&S old man jumpers/jeans, and tshirts from George @ Asda... and I haven't used hair gel since university... and I happily sport a beer belly (yet rarely drink beer!) .... hardly part of the plastic fantastic clan... it's just a nice phone, half decent tarrif, and my second ever apple product... not quite the fanboy people claim iPhone users to be... infact, all the people I know who have one now either got it because they've used somebody elses and liked it, or decided to ditch their old mp3 player and merge it with their phone... not because they wanted it because it's shiney and Apple... just a thought people... :)

[Anonymous Coward]

More catch-up for the iBling..

..just when the other phone makers are moving on and up to something new.

But hey, you have fart "apps" for the iPhone, so your world must be complete.

[jon]

lots of fantasy, but......

what about blue-tooth file transfer??? goto gsmarena and get the full specs!!!

and does no-one STILL want to use a memory card so they can swap out their 16 gig media collection????

nokia's 5800 and n97 knocking spots off it..... :)

[O]

Light up logo?

Ooohhhhhh, fanboys rejoice! No doubt it will be touted as a major feature of the phone.

And what is the point of a '50% increase in power' if there's still no proper multitasking? The iPhone O/S is beginning to look like a dinosaur, in the face of Palm's WebOs.

[Juan Inamillion]

What about...

.. a mobile device that works pretty much in any geographical location (excluding 'Faraday cage' type offices) as a phone... oh wait.

Never mind the bloody bling, a 'phone' that worked as advertised would be novelty enough..

[jason]

Will the rubber be silver and shiny?

Otherwise they wont buy!

[David Edwards]

Mug Me

Not sure I like the idea of providing muggers a signal that you are using the latest bling

Mines the one with the black sticky tape over the logo. (no, really it is)

[Scott Mckenzie]

@Law

Carefully considered, valid points that go against the flow of people who are clearly far tougher than the rest of us are forbidden on here.... didn't you know?

[Big Bear]

@David Edwards

Not only will it advertise to potential muggers, but they can happily assault you with careless abandon, knowing that the lit up logo is the only place not to kick you, and that even if they do catch the phone with a blow, the rubberised back will cushion the blow a little and hence mean that they are less likely to break that which they would steal. Everyone's a winner!

[Anonymous Coward]

@david webb

Check out the sony walkman set to rival the ipod touch, that has a touch screen to similar to the size of the ipod touch/iphone and that is OLED and its available for around the £200 mark. So it is a realistic possibility.

[Andrew Garrard]

Rubber Newton

Really? My MP120 had little rubber feet, but the rest was industrial green plastic. I'm not sure I want something that empties out my pocket when I remove it.

Stuff the camera. The only reason I'm looking at HTC at the moment rather than an iPhone, Android phone or a Pre is that I'm a resolution junkie. Put a WVGA screen on any of these and I'll probably prefer them to an M$-based solution. Of course, they won't do it any time soon because (I strongly suspect) all the software will break, but I can dream...

[Bob Gateaux]

iPhone people are all very daft ones with too much pounds in the pocket

iPhone smells bad and looks out of date with the white on everything. It is the style which dates so quickly and they make you buy new ones to remain in the trends.

I laugh at all who have one of them and will laugh easier at them when they are lit up using the new battery more wastefully.

It is what Apples have always done though - they only sell them to trendy people who think Microsoft is not good because it make a success of it's job.

I am much rather having the machine which does the jobs properly - both for my computer and for my portable music. I save money without the iPhone and keep it in my pocket anyway so what is the difference? Except when I get it out to wave at the iPhone fool who has his white poor-quality earphones in my face on the trains.

[Jonathan White]

@David Edwards

"very secure rubber Otterbox case that bungs up all the holes"

A line like that and no Paris icon? fail.

[slider5634]

Ummm... Still nope.

Hardware improvments are always nice, but the aforementioned hardware upgrades probably aren't going to be enough to sway me toward the upgrade. I will say that the OS improvements will be more than welcome and I look forward to upgrading to the new OS as soon as it's released.

On a side note, I think I must be falling behind on the times. I'll have to go take a gander at the Android and WebOS phones and see what all the hype is about first hand.

[Chronos]

One wonders...

...how much extra battery life they'd get without a "light-up logo on the back"?

Form over function as usual, pandering to those to whom a light-up logo is not a total waste of potential difference.

From the sublime to the ridiculous, it seems Mr. Farrell of The Inquirer has just discovered a static charge can be generated on certain plastic moldings, but only on Apple products.

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1137413/apple-earplugs-shock-users

Fascinating. Love 'em or hate 'em, Apple continues to get into the news.

[masterpikey]

re:youngdog

when iphone 2.0 came out a year after v1 release o2 did allow free upgrade for it eventhough peeps had 6 months left on their contract, so imagine that it will be the same this time round.

[Andrew Garrard]

@Bob: Yet another flame war

FWIW, I'm not an Apple fanboi, but I don't morally object to the idea of the iPhone. There's plenty it can't do, but there's no doubt that at least some of what it does, it does quite slickly. Equally, there's some stuff that the Windows Mobile phones can do that the others can't, but some functionality is relatively clunky. And I'm not just biased because my Windows Mobile phone crashed repeatedly over the weekend while trying to take pictures of bluebells - maybe the colour makes it think of a BSOD.

I don't suppose there's any chance that we can agree that some people might buy an iPhone for a justifiable reason, or that others might have a reason for an alternative, is there?

I'm obviously a Jobs-worshipping fashion victim. You can tell by the grubby jeans, T-shirt and trainers, and the way my current phone is wedged in a foam-lined canvas case so that it doesn't die when I drop it. (Why does every "stylish" case have exposed corners?) TBH I'd rather buy a Linux phone with decent facility for skinning it to a usable GUI, if one existed with moderately current spec, but for as long as people want their branding on phones it's not going to happen.

[Ty]

What a bunch of idiots

Those of you with iPhone envy just get a life. Whether you like it or not iPhone will come to dominate the mobile space for the next 10 years. Keep whining while I sit back and enjoy your fury! lol

[Mick F]

@Ty

"Those of you with iPhone envy" - sorry, what planet are you from?

[Anonymous Coward]

@Ty

Funny - the iPhone has sold around 3.9 million, Blackberry has sold 7.2 million in the same space, dominating it is not. Smart phone sales still only represent 12.7% of the sales and going nowhere fast in the recession.

More and more models are being released at better prices, less lock-in and way better specs.

Few years of misplaced glory at most - 10 years, dream on.

[Treacle]

Can't remove the Battery..?

<b>Still</b> can't swap the battery for a fresh one? Absolutely lame.

What of security? What easy avoidance of lasting water damage? What of reducing the people costs when the battery goes dead? <b>Just think of the Environment, kids!!</b>

This should be feature No. 1.

[OrsonX]

Apple-1:Opposition-0

...if the description is true then the opposition might as well pack their bags and go home as it's Game Over.

Nokia can pile in the mega-pixels 'till the cows come home but it will be to no avail, there is only one phone people want now. I have 2 devout Nokia totting friends who are not waiting for the N97 as they should be right now, oh no, they only have one phone in their thoughts...

My only dilema is whether to wait 'till the end of my contract and go straight from V2 to V4???

[Allan Rutland]

Ack...

Hate to say, I was almost considering one of the things (never know, still might if Apple don't do like these rumours and utterly screw the specs again).

Rubberising it is an interesting one. Seen loads of the things get dropped and shattered due to the excess shine on the things. But then again, the shine is what appeals to many in the magpie effect. Doesn't matter that you are sooner or later going to introduce it to the pavement, its shiny! Maybe they might do some kind of compremise with the edges rubberised or something, all guesses like everyone else but would be more fitting to keep a grip and keep Apple innovative shine.

The light up logo is nothing but typical Apple. No bloody use what so ever but showing off. Stupid. If they want to add a light stick it on the top edge and give it a lens and maybe we can use it as a torch!

As for the screen, its not going to be OLED, but a AMOLED...ok just a few differances but they are beautiful enough, glitzy enough, and big enough and cheap enough to be stuck in a phone. Samsungs been doing it for some time so no doubt Apple will claim to be innovative again and use one also.

The camera on the first two was bad enough...and way behind the times. If they move to 3.2MP its a complete joke. My three year old phone was 5MP with a crap lens on a par with Apples usual efforts. Current phones are going 8 or 12MP with a good lens, fast response and a good flash. I never really liked having a camera on a phone, these days just love it and its a feature I won't live without for those few great instant snaps.

[Al]

@AC

"Funny - the iPhone has sold around 3.9 million, Blackberry has sold 7.2 million in the same space, dominating it is not. Smart phone sales still only represent 12.7% of the sales and going nowhere fast in the recession."

Where did you pull those numbers from? The IPhone has sold 21.4m units.

As of 18th Dec 2008 BlackBerry has 21m subscribers (http://www.rim.com/investors/pdf/Q3F09_MDA_FS_PR.pdf).

Not too shabby for IPhone considering the 9 year lead for BB.

[Bob Gateaux]

@Ty

"Those of you with iPhone envy just get a life. Whether you like it or not iPhone will come to dominate the mobile space for the next 10 years. Keep whining while I sit back and enjoy your fury! lol"

This is funny one. I think you live in the funny world with the drugs and everything but we can all laugh when you join us on the forums.

[Giles Jones]

@OLED

OLED is cropping up on games consoles like the GP2X Wiz, so there's no reason why it's not phone capable.

It has better contrast and there's no battery eating battery life.

[Jean-Luc]

@ Michael C - big thanks

Yup, exchanged my water damaged puppy @ Apple store in Canada. No questions asked, no requests for my carrier invoice or contract, nada. I did have to make an Genius appointment.

They kept the old phone, my wallet got $229 CAD lighter (after tax) and I left with a working iPhone 3G 8gb.

Kudos to them for having finally gotten a clue. Good thing I had kept my phone for my kids to play with, rather than junking or recycling it.

Txs again, Michael, for the heads up on that water damage policy change.