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Rumours, again, abound (did you miss the air of intrigue?) - this time about the possibility of a semi-imminent software upgrade from Apple that will leave a few critics happier with their cellular purchases. David Ciccone over at Mobility Today has had a sliver of anonymous juice in his inbox with a list of what improvements are about to drop; you can check out the full list after the cut, but highlights include iChat, customisable ringtones and a file explorer which will match that of Leopard, complete with CoverFlow.
Meanwhile, Phone Different take up the baton and run with it in a very exciting, 3G direction. They're looking at Ars Technica's iPhone chip analysis and pointing at at mysterious chip on the daughterboard which might just contain soon-to-be-unlocked WCDMA capabilities:
"This particular part is a jack-of-all trades that can decode/encode audio formats, decode H.264 video, perform EDGE modem capabilities, and interface with Bluetooth, FM radio, and other systems, as well as drive the camera and the high-resolution display. Interestingly enough, the data sheet for this device claims that it is 3G upgradable and contains a WCDMA coprocessor"Ars Technica
So will a simple firmware upgrade release a 3G genie in time for the European iPhone launch? It's a reasonable - and actually cost effective - idea, and one shared by the master of meandering analysis Robert X. Cringely; as Phone Different say, if the US is to get an HSDPA radio then Apple will need to re-submit the handset for FCC approval. You can guarantee there'll be a whole lot of geeks and analysts watching the certification results like hawks.
The tip email David received:
- There will be a build in file browser like the new finder in leopard for sorting through files
- There will be a disk mode
- The reason that there currently isn't a file browser + way to save files from web is because there isn't a file browser on the phone, and they wanted to release the same one that's gonna be in the upcoming leopard OS, complete with coverflow.
- There will even be a special version of "iWork" so you can show your keynote presentations
- So anyway a FULL file browser is coming so you can browse just like windows mobile explorer only in the cool way leopard's file browser is
- Full spotlight like search is coming too
- Widescreen keyboard support will be coming in every app, not just safari
- Copy & Paste, Select Text is coming too (clipboard)
- Also mail will see an upgrade so you can add accounts without doing so through itunes.
- Most of the delays in this is because iTunes is the App Windows & Mac users are familar with for iTunes, so Apple didn't want to do a bad interface that had a file browser hacked into iTunes.
- When Leopard FINAL release comes out, plugging in the iPhone will pop open a special window in the finder that has areas for dragging all your files like a file explorer only more advanced and designed specifically for the iPhone, it will make sure that it works so iTunes knows how much space is for data, and how much is for "iTunes" stuff.
- Apple will be putting iChat on the phone, very, very soon, before Leopard.
- Real Applications are coming to the phone shortly.
- These are all updates that will be software based for the iPhone you already have, so give it a little bit of time. In the meantime enjoy the features it already has.
- Oh and also there will be Photo Sharing, just like in iPhoto how you can check an option to let other people on the network view your photos.
- He said .Mac account would eventually sync your accounts to the .Mac server as well from the phone, and so forth.
- Simplified File sharing when on WIFI networks through bonjour (auto ip discovery) is coming, so once the file system software is up, your buddy in the same room will be able to navigate to his file browser > Network, and grab a file off your phone that you are sharing.
- Ringtones will be coming very, very soon.
- The Camera Software will get upgraded soon to have stabilization (software based)
- Flash is coming eventually, it's just a matter of handling it in a way so when i page has dozens of flash apps running at the same time the page doesn't slow to a crawl, so they have to take the Adobe flash and make some customizations, including for security.
- Anyway, enjoy the great mobile phone for now, and look forward to all the great stuff coming really, really soon. I can't WAIT for the new file browser so I can store stuff on this device!!Just remember Windows Mobile has been out or a long time, even everytime a new WM phone comes out all the apps that are supposed to work, have to be tweaked or don't fit on the screen or some bullcrap, so realize this is just Apple's very first OS release for mobile Phone. Apple has lots of treats instore for all of youDont worry about posting this also..
Taken from Mobility Today
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I read somewhere that it didn’t come with the hardware to handle 3G. When they took it apart it said edge or something like that nothing about having the hardware for 3G. Plus they probalby stuck a 3G SIM card for the next phone coming out, which will probably have 3G
Ars almost certainly misread the datasheet. It looks like the WCDMA coprocessor would be a separate IC.
Maybe you should look here?
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1191647
This is a direct copy and paste from that forum posting from 9 days ago…
Damn it does look like it. I just checked Dave’s post, he mentioned “We received an anonymous email from a tipster who tells us there could be some significant improvements on the horizon for the Apple iPhone”
Howard Forums is a huge community - it would take many life time to go through :).
Thanks for sharing the original source!
Thanks Vincent for your response. You are correct I would have never known it was posted over there.. I got this from an anonymous email address with letters and numbers..
Thanks for your support
An interesting read but nothing earth shattering. One of the main reasons the iPhone is attractive as a cell/multimedia device is that it’s OS is the Mac OS. It only makes sense that there will be improvements & update to the OS, just like the main OSX. If Apple rolled everything into the iPhone at its start we’d probably still be waiting for it and still enduring the “iPhone” rumors. In time the iPhone will more than outweigh the hype and silence the critics (to some degree).
It looks like Ars has changed the mysterious chip analysis by removing all mention of 3G capabilities but leaving the remainder of the description.
Hmmmm…..Pressure from Apple???
Hi! Anyone you gives this more than a second of thought is an idiot. If it were true, Apple, not having certified this phone for 3G frequencies, would be required by the FCC to recall all thier phones and pay a huge fine. Think about it.
[quote comment="5460"]Hi! Anyone you gives this more than a second of thought is an idiot. If it were true, Apple, not having certified this phone for 3G frequencies, would be required by the FCC to recall all thier phones and pay a huge fine. Think about it.[/quote]
It’s highly possible Apple requested confidentiality.
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