Apple is preparing to introduce a slew of new capabilities and features to iPhone via software updates, a post on PDA Live.com claims. The post is based upon inside info from an Apple employee
Rumored additions to iPhone include a file browser similar to Leopard Finder, Disk Mode, Spotlight search, special version of iWork, widescreen keyboard for all apps, Clipboard with select, copy, paste, iChat, “real” third-party app support, ringtones, and more.
Full post here.
MacDailyNews Note: This is an unconfirmed rumor. It also sounds like most every iPhone users’ wish list. We’ll leave it up to you to decide if that helps support or discount this rumor. The best we can offer (and it isn’t much): it’s fairly probable that at least one of the items on this laundry list will come true as Apple has already stated that iPhone (and Apple TV) would gain features and capabilities via free software updates over time.
Global wide-screen and a clipboard would be great.
The headphone jack thing is ludicrous. Like I’m really going to whittle down my Etymotic ER4S ‘phones to make them fit. That Belkin adaptor is awful. Does it really need to be 3″ long?
Apple always does this kind of thing. They go 95% of the way to perfection, then slap in some idiocy like an incompatible headphone jack!
MDN Magic Word: It’s the LITTLE things that count.
I dunno….after reading the whole post/article I could see Apple doing all of these things. They might not all come at once but the whole “integrating it tightly with Leopard” makes total sense.
The people on here that think Apple is too stupid to ever put features such as cut, copy, paste on the iPhone are insanely huge morons. Apple knows what it’s doing.
Of course they’re going to update. The reason things like cut and paste are not on right now IMHO is that they will involve ore complex multi touch movements like one finger in the corner while the other hand highlights. This is coming out later so people can get used to the simple movements first.
I want “open in new tab” in iPhone safari.
Boloney.
The “file browser” would completely undermine the unique iPhone UI and make the UI more like a typical craptastic Windows Mobile phone.
This list has some good wish list items (iChat, etc.) but no way are major UI changes coming so soon after release, let alone lame ones.
@ TowerTone
Partners always appreciate such considerations.
Hold on. What part of “innovate” don’t y’all understand? When you innovate, you don’t do the same thing you’ve always done! The iPhone wasn’t supposed to repeat all the mistakes of the WINCE devices. Saying that something is new and improved while giving you the same old, same old is MICROSOFTIAN people. Have you become so used to lies that you now freak out when someone does what they say they will do?
Hey Apple, iPhone Safari needs to stop crashing, now please.
If we get half of what’s on that so called update list I would be happy.
To be honest, Apple should sack the person who said yes to adding a non-standard headphone jack on the iPhone.
The headphone jack used on everything is a no brainer decision. The only reason why I think Apple put a non standard size headphone jack in was because they wanna sell the adapter to make even more money.
Either that of there must have been a technical or engineering reason (which I highly doubt!)
It’s the sort of crap decision that Apple would have made before Steve Jobs came back in the 1990s and cleared all the crap out of the company.
Just an attempt to bring stock down…create unrealistic expectations and be disappointed at the end. Jsut my thoughts.
MacB
new tab new page whats the difference. You can do essentially that by hitting the softkey in the lower right hand corner that looks like a book icon with a number in it. If you hit that Safari zooms out and shows all the pages you have open and gives you the opportunity via a softkey in the lower left hand side to open another window . The tabbed browsed function would be redundant to this feature and would be complicated with finger gesture as to how to do this. The way Apple chose to do it is probably cleaner than the alternative with trying to avoid zooming in and out without changing windows and what not. I’d like to see them put an active photo zoom in the camera.
@ Petey
Utter crap. I have a box of adapters that fit it already and they range in price from 2 to 4 dollars at Radio Shack. The recessed jack was an most likely and aesthetic decision, it’s really not a very big deal.
Is there ANY WAY to get a picture out of an email and put it in your library? If there is I haven’t figured it out, and it sure would be nice.
MW: ‘directly’
I’d settle for backlight control (none now and the screen stays on way too long) and a shortcut to toggle bluetooth on and off.
This would be BEYOND cool, so you guys are all probably right. Bogus.
Still, one could hope that Apple would want to actually make the iPhone useful as a smart phone, instead of a fantastic iPod with a phone thrown in for good measure.
“real” third-party app support
theyve already stated that the solution to buiding apps on the iphone is through web 2.0. so this is just bull.
Consider this possibility – since everyone now thinks of Apple as the Evil Empire!!! Hmmmmm…
The reason for a different telephone jack is so that you do not use you “regular” iPod headphones OR Sennheiser HA 280 pro’s which do not have a MICROPHONE built in to the cable or a pause switch. Doh!!!
Technical reason or engineering reason – Naaaaaaa… just money grubbing mother phuquers who all they care about is Money Money Money! Apple has never cared about the needs of its customers. That is why all of the products are so phuqued – no design sense or ergonomics or Heaven forbid – what the customer needs or wants.
Here in Australia there is a phrase, “Quit your whinging” – translation – “Quit you bitching!”
Wake up and realize that Apple will never be as blasé about its customers as Micro$oft is about theirs. NEVER!
How about a friggin’ “To-Do List” like every other PDA on the planet has. It’s built into iCal, why can’t I have it on my “PDA-replacement” iPhone?
@crazylegs…have you check you setting widget on the main screen and drill down. default setting on the backlight is AUTO so it maintains the same relative brightness whether you’re in bright sunlight or in a car at night.
i has a similat problem with safari crashing – just backup your iphone and restore from itunes – it works like a charm after that
To all who are fuming about the so-called ‘non-standard’ headphone jack: calm down, please.
The jack is standard. It is 1/8″. If your headphone plug has a shroud that is small enough, you can plug it in. Recessed like that, the socket is more resilient to sideways stress (as in, you put it in your pocket, then jerk the cable or push against your thigh).
A number of manufacturers have already announced they will modify their product lines to reduce the girth of their headphone plugs, so that they can fit.
That people would complain about an under-$10 problem tells me that they feel somehow cheated by Apple (i.e. it’s the principle, not the actual cost). I can’t help but think the problem is worth less than $10 (either one of several cable adapters out there, starting with Belkin, or new headphones with a modified shroud) and should really be regarded as a non-issue.
As for the laundry-list, which looks much more like a wish-list, I wouldn’t be shocked if SDK is released in the wild soon. Jobs has a history of saying things and later changing his mind (no flash memory iPods was his mantra for years, then he unleashes Shuffle). But file browser? Not very likely, unless they engineer the file system and the OS to give user some sandbox for their files.
At some point Apple had to go nap with the software version that was ‘loaded’ onto the iPhone – then produce & distr the phone.
Releasing a software update at the same time as activating the 1 million iPhones sold in the first weekend would be a recipe for disaster – and no doubt lead to claims that it wasn’t ‘ready for market’ etc.
Initial activation is over and updates from continuing work ( which you recall has delayed Leopard) could probably now get issued without creating a panic.
@ChrissyOne: I was plagued with iPhone Safari and YouTube crashes; I shut down the phone and re-started it 3 days ago and no crashes since.
“i has a similat problem with safari crashing – just backup your iphone and restore from itunes – it works like a charm after that”
I’ve also had luck with a simple Reset (Hold Home+Sleep) but after a while it gets bad again. Seems like it’s the worst in this perfect storm:
Using iPod (for music or video)
-and-
have open AJAX apps
-and-
Surfing on EDGE.
I’ve lost Safari, iTunes, or both in these situations. Reset and restore works for a while but the next time you tax the system it can come back. Kind of a pain when you have a few web apps open.
This “wish list” is one of the reasons why I choose to stick to a seperate laptop and regular mobile phone.
Once everything software related can be updated to be functional, next will come hardware change requests.
I think a 12″ laptop/cell phone combination would be a better iPhone.