(Credit:
iPod Touch Fans)
Fans of the iPod Touch who felt left out due to last week's launch of the iPhone 3G S, take heart: You've got a new device on the way. In the BlueTool initialization script in the iPhone 3.0 firmware there are mentions of a new iPod Touch called "iPod3,1." Given that the current generation is referred to as "iPod2,1," this indicates Apple has a new version in the works.
It's too soon to say what the new iPod Touch will look like or feature, but rumors point to a camera that takes video as being a likely addition. Other rumors indicate a larger screen, new wireless features, a digital compass, and GPS.
While fans would love to see more iPhone-like functionality in the new device, Apple has to make sure it doesn't give too much away: make the iPod too much like the iPhone and it takes away much of the reason to buy an iPhone.
Apple's last upgrade to the Touch line came last September, thus it would seem reasonable to assume that the next one would be this coming September. Being that it's an Apple product you can be sure more info will slowly come out in the months to come.
It's one thing to talk about the iPhone's improvements with the 3.0 software upgrade, and another to see how these puppies actually respond in real-life third-party applications.
The pressure is on, and not all of the applications that came across our paths made the cut. We bring you the best examples from the early crop in a slideshow that shows you how new features like in-app purchases, push notification, and spinning iTunes from within an app plays out.
What's coming? We only can guess.
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CNET)Forgive us for repeating rumors, but when you're writing about future Apple products like the next version of the iPhone, rumors are all you have until the thoroughly tight-lipped company officially spills the beans.
Today's rumor--well, actually it's yesterday's rumor--comes courtesy of AppleiPhoneApps.com. Through its very own Deep Throat--aka a source who is "closely connected to Apple's hardware development team"--the Web site posted some details on just what the third-generation iPhone will offer. What's more, it names Friday, July 17, as the release date.
We can't verify anything right now, but some of the predictions make more sense than others. A July 17 release date is very plausible. Both the iPhone Classic and the iPhone 3G went on sale on Fridays (June 29, 2007, and July 11, 2008, respectively). Apple likes to respect tradition.
Here's a list of what the new iPhone could offer, along with my comments. AppleiPhoneApps is also predicting that the $199 and $299 price tags will remain.
... Read moreLast month, after the new iPod Shuffle came out, I wrote a column about how Apple might be considering a shift to a voice interface for iPods and iPhones.
Well, now Ars Technica is reporting that there's "evidence of new voice control features coming to iPhone OS 3.0," which will be released sometime this summer.
(Credit:
Apple)
Ars Technica's sources are of the anonymous variety, but they claim that these new voice features are code-named "Jibbler" and will not only provide voice synthesis but voice recognition.
Ars says Jibbler appears be an enhancement to the iPhone's Finder-like SpringBoard program, which you see whenever the iPhone's Home button is pressed. It serves as an application launcher and will support the newly announced 3.0 Spotlight search.
The article states:
Jibbler may be controlled via the iPhone headset--button squeezes could be used to record short voice segments from the user, which Jibbler will then interpret. Voice synthesis can then be used to give the user a response, similar to the latest-generation iPod shuffle, which can 'read' playlists and track names--the difference being that the iPhone hardware itself could handle real-time voice synthesis.
None of this seems all that surprising to me, as Apple just doesn't do things in a vacuum--it tends to carry over and enhance features from one product to another. So taking the next step beyond the new Shuffle's voice feedback feature--and moving to real voice control--seems logical. Of course, most iPhone owners would be happy if Apple just finally introduced a voice dial option.
Anybody looking forward to these types of potential new voice features? Would a voice-controlled interface be a game changer--or would it be annoying to hear people giving commands to their iPhones?
(Source: Ars Technica via Apple Insider)
Cut, copy and paste is an easy task.
For the past week, I've been able to play with the beta version on the new iPhone OS 3.0. As you probably know, the 3.0 update brings a long list of features to the iPhone including multimedia messaging, cut and paste and a landscape keyboard. As I said last week, iPhone 3.0 has more many more hits than misses, particularly since it finally adds some very basic features that almost every other cell phone has.
Since this is a beta version, I'm not going to get hung up on the obvious bugs. Yes, my iPhone is much slower, and it has a tendency to crash more often, but such problems are to be expected on an OS that's not quite ready for the real world. Instead, I will tell you about my general experience form a usability standpoint.
Cut, cop and paste This is just as Apple execs described at the OS 3.0 announcement. Just double tap a selection to get the cut/copy/paste commands to appear. You then can change the highlighted area by dragging the blue "grab points" around the page. Once you get to your pasting area, just tap the screen again and select the "paste" button. I like the "shake to undo" option, as well. There's just one caveat: at present it seems to be working for notes only.
Landscape keyboard This is one of those "careful what you wish for" situations. After haranguing Apple over the past twenty months to give us a landscape keyboard for texting, notes and e-mail, I have to admit that it does take some acclimation now that I have it. Though the landscape keyboard is much wider with larger buttons, it's also a lot shorter. It did take me a couple of days to get the hang of it. Don't think that I'm not complaining, though, as it's quite the opposite. I love ... Read more
Apple could have more than the iPhone and iPod Touch in mind with the release of the iPhone OS 3.0 beta.
(Credit: Apple)It's probably safe to assume that if they really do exist, Apple's marketing group doesn't plan on letting the iProd and iFPGA ever hit the market under those names.
As developers have gotten their hands on the iPhone OS 3.0 beta released earlier this week, they've started to turn up interesting tidbits while splashing around in the code. Ars Technica reports that an iPhone developer has uncovered references buried deep in the OS code to two possible Apple products: the iProd and the iFPGA.
For the uninitiated, it's possible to find references to Apple products inside code strings in the iPhone OS, such as the iPod 2,1 reference that correctly predicted the arrival of a new iPod Touch, and a more recent reference to an iPhone 2,1 model that seemed to indicate another revision to that product would be arriving soon. The iPhone 3G is listed as iPhone 1,2 in those code strings.
Now Steven Troughton-Smith claims to have found references to four new Apple products: iPhone3,1, iPod3,1, iFPGA, and iProd0,1. The iPhone and iPod references are self-explanatory (although it's not clear what happened to iPhone 2,1), but iFPGA and iProd are not.
The early speculation is that the iProd is the tablet-like device that has been rumored for quite some time as a possible second-half 2009 product from Apple. It makes sense that Apple would introduce a new naming and labeling convention for such a product, even if iProd isn't the name that passes final muster with the branding people. The 0,1 label could mean that it's not ready for prime time just yet, at which point it would get the 1,0 label as used on the original iPhones and iPod Touches.
FPGA is a chip-industry term for a "field-programmable gate array" chip, or one that can be configured to work in different ways after the manufacturing process is complete, unlike ASICs, or application-specific integrated circuits. Could this be what P.A. Semi is working on, a custom chip for a new type of phone or tablet that could be programmed with software to tackle different tasks? No one really seems to have any idea.
In any event, the code strings seem to indicate that Apple plans to run iPhone OS 3.0 on hardware other than an iPhone or iPod Touch. We'll just have to see what that turns out to be.
Forget green beer, Apple chose St. Patrick's Day to roll out big changes to the iPhone. The new iPhone OS 3.0 promises a host of sorely-needed features, including multimedia messaging and cut and paste. In this episode of Dialed In, we tell you all about the new additions, and give our take on what they mean for Apple's phone. Nicole is grooving to the music in Austin, Texas, so News.com's Tom Krazit joins us to discuss the iPhone brouhaha. Also, Bonnie also fills you in on a very unexciting Palm Pre Webcast and I tell you why the LG Rumo2 is new, but no so improved.
Listen now: Download today's podcast
News
Hands-on screenshots of iPhone 3.0
List of the new iPhone 3.0 features
Live blog of the iPhone 3.0 announcement
Palm Pre Webcast
New Verizon Wireless application assists visually-impaired
MetroPCS gets smarter
Virgin Mobile promises touch-screen phones
AT&T offers budget-friendly Moto EM330 music phone
HTC to ship at least three Android devices in 2009
Kyocera Jax appears on Virgin Mobile site
Reviews
LG Rumor2
Upcoming reviews
HTC S743
Kyocera Mako S4000
Nokia 6500 Classic
Motorola i9
We managed to get a sneak peek at the iPhone OS 3.0.
It's a beta version, so things could change between now and the official release this summer, but we captured a few screenshots to give you an idea of its look and feel.
Of course, we checked out the biggest additions, such as cut and paste, multimedia messaging, and the landscape keyboard. Yet we also cruised through the "shake to shuffle" feature, the Spotlight search feature, the voice memo recorder, and a few others. We even found something we that we weren't expecting.
So to get the full experience, check out the iPhone OS 3.0 screenshots in all their glory.
A gaggle of tech journalists, analysts, and developers crowded into an auditorium at Apple's headquarters on Tuesday to hear the details of iPhone 3.0. As Scott Forstall, Apple's head of iPhone software development, promised, the update is a major one with a host of sorely needed features for application developers and consumers. Check out our slideshow of the iPhone OS 3.0 screenshots.
(Credit:
James Martin/CNET)
In all, Apple promises 100 new features with iPhone 3.0, including multimedia messaging and a landscape keyboard. Although Apple did not reveal all 100 additions on Tuesday--which leads me to wonder just what they'll count as a new feature (perhaps cut, copy, and paste will count as three)--the highlights were worth the trip to Cupertino, Calif.
Yes, a few hoped-for features are still missing, but iPhone 3.0 is more about what we got than what we didn't. Apple will release the update this summer. It will be free for iPhone 3G and iPhone Classic users, but iPod Touch users will pay $9.95.
What we got
Multimedia messaging
At long last, we have it. We figured that it was coming so it was at the top of our iPhone 3.0 Wish List. Yet I feel a little weird getting so excited about such a basic feature that almost every other cell phone has.
Also, it's very disappointing that iPhone Classic owners will not get MMS, even if they upgrade. Apparently, the original iPhone lacks the necessary radio to make MMS work. That, of course, leads me to the very pertinent question: why? ... Read more
(Credit:
Apple Inc.)
Apple on Tuesday unveiled the next version of the operating system that powers the iPhone, dubbed version 3.0, at an invite-only event at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. It will be available for developers beginning today, and to everyone else "this summer." It's a free upgrade for iPhone users; those who own the iPod Touch will again have to pay for the upgrade (Apple is charging $9.95). Here's a quick recap of what was announced:
New features
Systemwide search
Apple has integrated its Spotlight search technology across the entire device. This will let users search for specific e-mail messages, applications, contacts, and any other data from within those applications in one place. Users get to it from a new menu that's to the left of their first home screen. Swiping to the left brings up an open search box that brings in results as you type, similar to Spotlight search on Mac OS X.
Copy and paste for text, photos, and SMS
One of the most-wanted features, the ability to copy and paste text will be making its way to OS 3.0. Users will be able to select sections of text and take them to other applications. This is one of the new APIs that Apple is releasing to developers.
Users will now be able to copy and paste text from one app to another.
(Credit: James Martin/CNET)To copy text, simply double-tap the screen, and it pulls up an option to cut, copy, and paste. Then simply drag a start point, and an end point, over the text you want, and then double-tap again. The phone will save the text in a clipboard, from which it can be taken elsewhere. You can also grab entire sections of text using a large rectangle that can be moved around to include paragraphs at a time.
Additionally, copy and paste will work with photos and SMS messages. For instance, if you feel like selecting multiple photos to send in an e-mail you can now select the ones you want, then send them together in one message. Previously you had to select them one at a time--through the Photos application, over to mail. The same goes for SMS messages too, so if you feel like relaying a text message to another contact you can simply forward it.
MMS
You can now send and receive multimedia messages (MMS). This means text messages can be sent with photos and voice recordings, all without using the built-in mail application to do it. Missing, however, is any kind of video support, which is an MMS feature found on many other phones with built-in cameras.
Push notifications
The feature that was supposed to appear in September of last year will finally be making its way to phones in version 3.0. Scott Forstall, the head of iPhone software development, noted that Apple had been late on this, and blamed the delay on scaling, saying that the original system was too taxing on both the handset's battery and its processing power.
The new system works just like old one, but has been optimized for over-the-air data transfer. It still relies on Apple's servers as a go-between to send audio alerts, text messages, and badge notifications. Users still have to fire up the application to get at the data though.
... Read more
