“We have already seen some evidence that Apple might bump the iPhone’s camera up to five megapixels, but there is also evidence to suggest the company may add an LED ‘flash’ to improve its low-light picture-taking abilities,” Foresman reports. “Imagination Technologies, the company that develops the PowerVR graphics processors used in the iPhone, has also announced an improved SGX545 graphics processor core… Imagination says that the tech is already ‘licensed by a lead partner,’ and Apple’s investment in the company certainly qualifies it as one of those partners.”
Foresman reports, “Finally, The iPhone Blog reports that buzz around the CES show floor is that Apple plans to add some form of limited multitasking to the next version of the iPhone. The details are naturally non-specific, though Apple has cited battery life and user complexity for not allowing multiple third-party apps to run simultaneously. Apple may include a PA Semi-designed, low-power ARM Cortex A9 processor in the next iPhone, which would negate the extra battery drain and keep performance at acceptable levels.”
More info and links in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple iPhones have, since inception, had multitasking capabilities implemented for select Apple apps. For one example, just turn on your iPhone’s iPod and go on a surfing Safari. Boom, you’re multitasking!
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Judge Bork” for the heads up.]
The iPhone is being updated for T-Mobile’s network, right Mr. Jobs? Please!
@R2
You know, R2, Steve Jobs doesn’t strike me as a “good enough” guy. I can’t imagine him watching a presentation from his engineers and saying “That’s good enough for me!”. I’ve heard stories about him being a slave driver who wouldn’t settle for mediocrity.
Now, guys like you believe that all your harassment and screaming at minimum wage sales clerks are what drive innovation. I think it’s more likely the development and research of scientists and engineers are what bring us the faster processors or more powerful software. But if it makes you feel better to think if you just yell at someone enough then you’re doing the world a favor, well go F yourself.
Shorter R2: “The next iPhone was my idea and I’m an asshat.”
@R2 aka Guerrillero Heroico (Che Guevara)
…”there are more than a few on this board who would say Apple would never allow a diminished user experience”
I would say it, as I believe Apple does do it, but it’s a question of the extent of the degree of diminished experience and the reason for its implementation.
There is the Apple degree of diminished experience and then there is their competitors degree of diminished experience, and between them is about 179∘
Hmmm… I’ve written something up that’s oddly similar to these rumors.
http://www.obviouslogic.com:8080/opinions/apple-2010-preview.php
I just hope it can “moof.”
Everyone is missing the point. The ‘tablet’ is the new iPhone.
The time’s right to offer a choice of iPhone, just like they did when the iPod Mini came out. You’ll have the regular iPhone similar to today’s form factor and the iPhone XL, Pro, Ultra, Uber, slate or whatever they call it as the iPhone ‘who’s the daddy’ offering.
@R2 and others
I doubt that Apple will make future iPhoneOS versions so bloated they become unusable on older machines.
Our experience with Macs has been otherwise. What Apple does, is disable certain features on less capable machines (cf. rotating cube when switching logins, video chat on inferior networks,…). Leaving those options settable by the user invites situations where the machine/phone just starts thrashing, and the last thing Apple wants is bad advertising about performance.
Even without disabling features, MacOSX has been known to have improved performance with most new major releases.
So expect similar evolution in the iPhoneOS.
@vanfruniken
Doubtless, these pillow-biting nay-sayers (R2 and it’s ilk) are ex-Windows users who are used to diminished user experience and getting reamed by their captors.
Apple doesn’t add features scattershot and hope they work. Apple adds features when they work right.
Apple could have jammed every feature imaginable into the iPhone 1G, but they didn’t, because they wanted it all to work right. (ie: copy and paste had to be reinvented for the iPhone/touch OS). So they added them step by step as they were ready.
Personally, I appreciate the obvious care Apple puts into such things. I’d rather have a device with USABLE features, rather than ones I can barely find and are painful to use. What’s the point?
Besides, I’d rather not pay to be a beta tester.
“Apple doesn’t add features scattershot and hope they work. Apple adds features when they work right.”
If it takes TWO YEARS to develop a copy & paste solution, TWO YEARS to make a landscape keyboard for e-mails
& text messages, TWO YEARS before we can send MMS messages, TWO YEARS for a decent video camera and THREE YEARS to create a solution for background processes then these guys need to work a little harder or something. That’s absolutely pathetic.
The only reason they get away with it is because they’re Apple and have a fanatic customer base who enables them to slowly draw out the simplest features over many years and use them as sweeteners to buy their new products. Nobody else could get away with selling a product like the iPhone 3G with a friggin 2mp still camera from 2008-2009, then telling you to get the iPhone 3GS if you want video like the iPhone 3G should’ve had in the first place.
@R2:
You’re being idiotic. If you don’t like Apple products so much, then don’t buy them. The rest of us were perfectly happy not having copy and paste for two years because we knew that when Apple added it, it would be implemented correctly, and that’s what they did. Now Android users and Storm users and others are complaining about how half-assed their copy/paste system are because of all the limitations on selecting and awkward interfaces. Apple could have had copy/paste in gen1 if they wanted: they _chose_ to wait and devote their engineering resources to more important features. That’s smart.
I still have the gen1 iPhone and I’m perfectly happy with the camera quality. No, it’s not perfect, and I sometimes have to know what I’m doing to take good pictures, but I do take excellent pictures with it. A camera phone will never be as good as my DSLR but it’s comparable to cheap pocket cameras and I always have it with me. I can even do video with the iVideoCamera app! (No, it’s not as good as a 3GS, but it works.)
I think what Apple will do is allow the user to run a single third party app in the background at a time. That way apps like Pandora can be used, but the user wouldn’t be killing the CPU and battery by running several or forgetting they launched an app that’s still running in the background.
I can’t think of any situation — other than Internet radio — when I *really* need to run more than a couple third-party apps at a time. One would be plenty and would satisfy 99.5% of the market’s needs.
@R2
They’ll make iPhone 4.0 bloated to the point where it runs like garbage on the 1stGen iPhone/iPhone 3G, acting as a sort of planned obsolescence that beckons those users to upgrade…
Wow are you being overly dramatic.
Steve Jobs warned us all about that fact.
“The good news is that if you buy products from companies that support them well, like Apple tries to do, you will receive years of useful and satisfying service from them even as newer models are introduced.” — Steve Jobs
Your rant about Apple’s timeliness is weak to say the least, and desperation at its worst.
There isn’t a product made that is not displaced by an improved version and you know it. So for you to lay this on Apple and then say were complicit because we’re fanatics, is over the top even for you.
Planned obsolescence IS a factor in business and some just handle it better than others, I guess.
Microsoft is a fine example.
@R2,
1. If you seriously believe you are a revoluntionary, all I can say to that is: having delusions of grandeur can be treated.
2. Sure it took them a while to add copy / paste to the iPhone OS, but it is arguably the best implementation of it seen on any mobile OS, further proof of Apple’s philosophy of not being the first, but being the best.
I’ll concede that accusing Apple of bloating future iPhone software updates for nefarious reasons was a bit over the line.
Yes, they do have the best implementation of copy & paste of any mobile device. You could argue it’s the best of any touchscreen device, period. But still, two years? If they wanted to, they could’ve come up with that much sooner. It just wasn’t important to them. Phil Schiller and/or Tim Cook admitted as much. In fact, for all we know, it could’ve only taken them a few months to design it after they finally made it a priority. We don’t know how much time was spent working on it versus how much time they spent jacking off and outright ignoring our demand for copy & paste.
And yes, I am a revolutionary. I’m one of the crazy ones.
@R2
“We don’t know how much time was spent working on it versus how much time they spent jacking off and outright ignoring our demand for copy & paste.”
Thinking about Apple employees jacking off?
Think different you do and that makes you one of the crazy ones alright.
Multitask my @$$.
I frequently use Pandora and I can’t use safari or other apps at the same time.
I think apple should allow a Background processes option in the user preferences. Apple says it will bring down performance but thats a users choice.
@R2 ” If they wanted to, they could’ve come up with that much sooner.”
Yes, original and inspirational ideas come along just as soon as somebody decides to think about them.
I have a note in my diary to remind me to have a flash of inspiration at 4pm this afternoon. It needs to be done before 4:30 as I have a meeting to get to.
…So, in other words, it will do everything that Android does today.
So much for being “two years ahead of the pack.”