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iPhone 3.0 Software Announced
Apple unveiled the iPhone 3.0 software just now in Cupertino. Here's MacWorld's live-action blow-by-blow coverage. The announcement included new features for developers and users. For developers, the big items were in-app purchasing (for example for game upgrades, map content, and subscriptions) for paid apps only; peer-to-peer connectivity via Bluetooth; giving apps access to hardware via the dock connector or Bluetooth; maps embeddable in apps; and push notifications. For users, there's finally cut-copy-paste available in all apps; search across everything in the iPhone; landscape keyboard; MMS messaging; and voice memos. Developer beta starts today and 3.0 will be available in the summer — free for all 3G phones, $10 for iPod Touch.
I'm wondering if this means we get that bluetooth keyboard with core apps or do we need to use 3rd party apps?
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Well that covers a list of features I really wanted as a would be dev and a iphone owner. All I can say is "fucking finally!"
...our new bluetooth headset overlords!
Oh, also our cut-copy-paste overlords!
If being forced to carry a Zune and a Windows Mobile phone wasn't enough of an insult, poor Mrs. Gates is going to be extra jealous now.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
10:08 PT - DM: Scott looking very hip in a black zip-up. I wonder who does his hair. 3.0 is a major update to the iPhone OS. Comes with "incredible features" for developers and customers. Here's what's on tap for developers.
He's so dreamy! I hope the new iPhone OS has lots of his pictures pre-loaded!
And the new iPhone works with any service provider, right?
WHy does apple do this kind of crap? Is the touch less expensive or subsidized or ANYTHING that would justify having to pay vs their Iphone counterparts?
Good-bye
I'll start the list:
* printing ...
* spam filtering on email
This is my favourite new feature. I use the Notes app to jot down notes and was annoyed at not being able to sync those notes, as I was with my iPod. This is long overdue, but I'll be happy to have it.
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You've now achieved what Palm devices could do ten years ago.
I'll use copy-paste once or twice a week, but I'd use Adobe Flash 99% of ever hour spent using Safari.
I wish I had a reference for you, but it has to do with SOX compliance. The 3.0 software is free to iPhone users because it's part of the AT&T contract. For iPod Touch, there's no such contract. Because of some legal accounting obligation under SOX, and because there is no contract for iPod Touch users, Apple has to charge for software upgrades for the iPod touch. This was mentioned by Jobs I believe at tone of Apple's media blitzes last year.
Sorry.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
I, for one, am not looking forward to being spammed in my apps to pay "Only $.99 for this new widget! Click Now!". I expect everything from EA to be even worse on this platform than it has been to date.
Did you see that FPS demo where the guy had to pay extra to get the rocket launcher? That does **not** make me want to play that game.
obviously no deficiencies vs. no obvious deficiencies
*EVERY* time Apple announce something new for the touch/iphone, it costs an extra $10 on the touch.
*EVERY* time someone moans about that.
*EVERY* time someone else points out that Apple account for iphone sales over a period of time, thus allowing them to maneuver around the ridiculous Sarbonnes-Oxley requirements. They bill the touch as a one-off, so can't add new functionality without there being a representative charge.
Whether you agree with them or not, that's their position (presumably that of their highly-paid lawyers, too). Get over it, *every* time you add onto the touch, you're going to pay extra.
Simon.
Physicists get Hadrons!
The new SDK will allow developers to control accessories attached to the dock adapter. I'm really hopeful someone will make a card reader...it would so nice to bring a 32GB iPod touch on trips instead of a MacBook Pro.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
You just need better playlists. I've got well over 150 GB of mp3s and a 16GB ipod touch (with almost 2 GB of that taken up by photos/apps/movies), and I've got it cycling my music just fine.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
However, it needs to sync with Exchange notes. No obvious reason it couldn't, they only mention sync via itunes. We use a lot of notes in our work that are updated frequently (who to call for x so you don't have to call the help desk, etc...)
I, for one, welcome Apple to 1983 by gaining the capabilities of the Macintosh 512k.
How many Libraries of Congress is that?
Why would you want spam filtering on ANY phone? That's a waste of power on a device which has a limited precious power supply. Hell I wouldn't do it on a laptop, either. Set up IMAP, and do your filtering either server side, or keep your work/home PC logged in and have the email client do it there.
As for printing, how in demand is it for someone to plug in an electronic device that allows you to view the document already to print it to paper? I can't believe the demand is that high. copy/paste, bluetooth, and MMS are higher in demand and two of the three aren't all that necessary. If you need to print because of your eyes, then perhaps an iPhone isn't for you. If you need it for delivery or point of sale, well I just don't see the iPhone as a Point of sale device or durable enough for every day delivery. Maybe some day, but again, I can't believe there is demand.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
How does that work exactly? i.e. will instant messaging apps (Beejive) be able to get new messages pushed to them and notify you of this while you're doing something else, or will this only lengthen battery life when actively using such apps?
Stuff.
It's actually a matter of generally accepted accounting principles, and I still have trouble seeing what Sarbanes has to do with it. It's revenue recognition, which is pure GAAP. The argument is basically that they'd have understated the expenses associated with generating the revenue last period, i.e. overstated net income and it's derivative numbers such as earnings per share, if they added new functionality to sales already recognized.
After today's announcement (huzzah cut and paste and Bluetooth connectivity!) I am increasingly convinced that Apple is heading toward pushing the Macintosh off to the side and allowing iPhone OS to become the driver of much of its development efforts.
A lot of the Star Trek-ish utility of the new APIs really becomes laptop-killing functionality when you run this OS on, say, a 10-inch iPad or whatever the thing will be called. The larger form factor **should** negate **some** of the small-battery-killing radio and system activity by providing more space for a larger battery. Then again, Jon Ive does like his devices thin!
And this leaves the Mac OS X ... ? Secure in its role as a desktop OS that runs apps like Photoshop and drives complex devices like scanners, printers, etc (for now). But surely Apple is heading back toward the original conception of the Macintosh way back in the 80's - a ubiquitous information appliance. In this case, it's an uber-device that interacts seamlessly with location-aware, contextual user inputs and communication of any sort.
Apple is carefully repositioning our expectations of what we do with our "computers" - and Microsoft doesn't even seem to care.
That 32GB iPod Touch just isn't cutting it at all and I loathe that classic iPod. Hurry up with the 64GB upgrade already.
Yeah, because you really need more than 10,000 songs on you. God forbid you have to listen to the same song twice in 2 months.
I have a metric crap ton of music too. But realistically. Even the 8GB model is more enough for music, especially if you can re-sync it once a week or so.
And while I wouldn't mind a capacity bump in the next release, its hardly the most important feature. I'd value battery life, better speaker, gps, and dozen other features more than more memory.
Let's see you stuff a Macintosh 512k into your shirt pocket.
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
This only came up in the Q&A afterwards, but tethering is a new feature supported by OS 3.0, but Apple are not making a big thing of it yet because it's going to need to be negotiated with the phone carriers before it can be rolled out.
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
I think the answer might be neither. In a Q&A at the end of the demo, someone asked a cryptic question with an equally cryptic answer:
From the Gizmodo live blog:
Q: Bluetooth human input device profile for external keyboards.
A: We have nothing to announce.
Considering how they went to great pains to announce individual features of bluetooth that they were using, and avoided talking about bluetooth filesharing, I think they are hinting that bluetooth keyboards are not in the cards at the moment.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
God forbid you have to listen to the same song twice in 2 months.
It's nice having most or all of your collection with you for long trips where you don't know what you will be in the mood for in advance. It's also nice for playing stuff for friends who may not have heard some specific song that you have.
My classic iPod 80GB works fine for this, but even that is running out of space. This is with large chunks of repetitive bootlegs disabled from syncing.
What I really want is an iTunes feature that allows the main library to use lossless encoding (for streaming to my Apple TV) and automatically maintain AAC shadow copies for syncing to a mobile device like the iPod or iPhone. Right now I have to maintain two complete iTune libraries to accomplish this.
Interesting observation...
What would be really neat, say 5 years down the road, would be a mobile device you could connect to a docking station with an LCD monitor (ex 24 inches).
Then all your mobile apps could switch away from "battery saving mode" and "3G network saving mode" and run with less restrictions, as well as well as run full-size, or something close to it with some combination of new features and resolution independence.
Full computers would be reserved for professions who really need the extra computing power.
The only issues would be storage and better access to the filesystem. Given 5 years, they could probably solve these issues.
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So, it seems some of the features will be on the first-gen iPhone, but not ones that required a hardware change. (I guess they don't want you using MMS over an Edge network).
If you can't convince them, convict them.
If there's is something you don't like about the iPhone, you have choices like the Android but if you are patient, Apple might address your issue sometime in the future. It's not a matter of life and death that Apple didn't release the feature you wanted:
2001:
.
Apple: Introducting the iPod: 1000 songs in your pocket.
Naysayers:"No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame." Seriously who's going to buy this? It is Mac only, uses Firewire, and costs $400!!
2002:
Apple: iPod 2.0: Touch sensitive scroll wheel. Now compatible with Windows. Up to 20GB
Naysayers: Okay, more space than a Nomad, but no wireless. Firewire only. Still expensive. Easily scratched
2003:
Apple: iPod 3.0: UI Redesign. Now USB compatible. Up to 40GB
Naysayers:Still waiting for wireless. Still expensive. No video or photo capability. Really I need something smaller, maybe flash based. Easily scratched. Still expensive
2004:
Apple: iPod mini: Smaller version of iPod. 4 or 6 GB disk based. iPod 4.0. UI Redesign. Clickwheel. Up to 40GB. iPod 4.1: now with color and photo capability. Up to 60GB
Naysayers:Still no wireless. Still expensive. No video. Maybe a phone/iPod combination would work. Easily scratched. Still expensive
2005:
Apple:iPod Shuffle: Ultra-portable iPod. Up to 1GB. iPod mini v2: New colors. iPod nano: Flash based. Color. Replacing mini. Up to 4GB. iPod 5.0: Now with video. Up to 80GB
Naysayers:No screen on the shuffle. Small video screen on the iPod. And it's not a touch screen. Replace the profitable mini, are they insane? The nano scraches too easily! Still no wireless. When is Apple going to make an iPhone? Still expensive
2006:
Apple:iPod Shuffle: Even smaller. Metallic shell. Up to 2GB. iPod nano: New scratch-resistant metallic shell. More battery life. Up to 8GB.
Naysayers:I can't use the new shuffle as a USB stick! Still no wireless or widescreen or touchscreen. No iPhone. Easily scratched. Still expensive
January 2007:
Apple:iPhone: multi-touch, widescreen iPod + mobile phone + internet browser + wireless
Naysayers:I wanted the phone part to be separate. It's only on AT&T. It's not 3G. I can't buy music wirelessly. It's frickin' expensive.
September 2007:
Apple:iPod Touch: iPhone without the phone. iTunes Music Store built in. iPod nano: New form factor. Video. Up to 8GB. iPod Classic: Metallic shell. Up to 160GB
Naysayers:iPhone is still only AT&T and not 3G. iPod touch is only 8GB and 16GB. And it's frickin' expensive.
February 2008:
Apple:iPod nano: new colors: iPod shuffle: new colors. iPouch Touch: 32GB available
Naysayers:iPhone is still only AT&T and not 3G. iPod Touch and iPhone are still expensive
June 2008:
Apple:iPhone 2.0: 3G. Slimmer, faster, more apps, cheaper. 8GB $199. 16GB $299
Naysayers:iPhone is still only AT&T. No cut and paste. The camera is 1.3MP and not video. Not cheaper: AT&T 3G plan costs me more than 2.5G plan. I blame Apple for this.
March 2009:
Apple:iPhone 3.0 software: Cut and paste. Bluetooth peer-to-peer connectivity. Complete iPhone search. landscape keyboard. MMS messaging. and voice memos.
Naysayers:Where's my total Exchange interoperability? No printing. No email filtering. No video recording.
Fast forward to the future . .
2020:
Apple:iPod femto: Size of a business card, but thinner. Direct neural interface. No charging, uranium battery last 5,000 years. Up to 500TB. iPhone X: Instantaneous, realtime language translation. Up to 20PB
Naysayers:Still no ogg. Should be 1PB. Neural interface is only in HD and not Extreme-HD. Should have used plutonium batteries that last 10,000 years. iPho
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
What I really want in my phone is full integration of communication methods I normally use. Can I connect to a 802.11 wireless network and launch Skype and Yahoo Instant Messenger (with voice, of course)? No, I don't mean over cellular network.
End anonymous moderation and posting on
The one and only thing I truly miss from my crappy old flip phone. If only The Steve wasn't violently opposed to it.
oops... stupid me, didn't post the link correctly.
http://live.gizmodo.com/
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
is a good phone firewall app that allows you to block calls from phone numbers by using simple globs (e.g. 909 ***-**** would drop all calls from area code 909).
I don't know if any phone has this (I know there is a $20 app for jail broken iPhone 3G), but it should be provided as part of the iPhone OS in the first place.
The user should be in control of their phone and who is allowed to get through to them. As it is now tele marketers can ruin you life :D.
As the island of our knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.
Sony doesn't charge me for firmware upgrades for my PS3. Nintendo doesn't charge me for firmware upgrades for my Wii. BlackBerry and T-Mobile don't charge me for upgrades for my BlackBerry.
And most tellingly, Apple doesn't charge me for firmware upgrades for my Time Capsule, even when they add functionality.
So I don't buy the excuse.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
I for one am looking forward to the updates although I get along fine without them. Even MMS is kind of pointless with an email enabled device.
Why would you need spam filtering on the device? The account holder can do hat now (Google, AOL, Yahoo, etc).
They're working on it
- zOMG copy/paste! It's about time!
- zOMG Bluetooth stereo support! It's about time!
- zOMG MMS! It's about time!
- zOMG Tethering! It's about time!
- What? No announcement about Flash? APPLE YOU SUXX0RS!!!!!! I'm going to go blog about how you suck on facebook and myspace using my safari browser on my iPhone, then twitter, IM, and email my friends not to buy your phone because it sux without Flash! Then maybe I'll play Trism while listening to my ripped Led Zeppelin MP3s cool off, but you still sux!
- Oh look... icanhascheezburger.com has new pictures... shiny!
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
(I guess they don't want you using MMS over an Edge network)
Except every phone sold on AT&T other than the iPhone supports it, and most of the country doesn't have 3G. And why wouldn't they want you using it on EDGE? They're already charging you, what, $0.25 for a glorified 600kb e-mail.
YES!!! You hit it on the head. I have lossless to stream to my airport expresses (some hooked up to an external DAC) and then low compression MP3's for the iPod/iPhone. I have to keep two libraries as well. It's annoying and unnecessary, but what I'm doing isn't the "apple way" either, where I demand a level of performance from my audio that is outside the approved (and sold on iTunes) 128Kbit standard awful sounding MP3's.
I run into this all the time, the Apple way works perfectly if you work "apple's way", if you want to work another way, then you start fighting things.
Sheldon
Thank you! Thank you all for coming! It is I, Steve Jobs, the Chief Imagination Officer of Apple, also known to many as Your Leader and Overlord of All Things Shiny, Desirable, and Expensive.
Today we're going to make some history together! So...welcome to Macworld. It was just a decade ago that I was up here, announcing that we were going to revolutionize the world--a huge endeavor, I admit. I said we were going to do it over the coming twelve years--we did it in seven years. We couldn't have done this alone; we did it with the help of a lot of folks: Our new colleagues in scientific agencies around the world, our devoted imagineers of more than just hardware and software, but of minds and vision. Thank you very much. Now as you know, our retail stores have for a while been selling half of our Apple iProducts to people who have never owned an Apple iProduct before. For this, I would like to thank our custom--err--loyal members of the Apple Family for spreading the gospel. Without you, we would still be just another average tech company based out of California. Instead, we are now one step closer to world domination through over-priced, beautifully designed, consumer electronics. Now everyone, please gaze upon me and yearn, yearn for the secrets that only I know! The rumor channels are full of speculation and I--your balding, black-turtleneck-endowed Leader--know the iTruth. Bow before me and grovel at my iFeet! (Mwahaha!)
Now please, before I continue, I would like to make sure that everyone present at this glorious ceremony is a true iBeliever. As a reminder, if you are not a true iBeliever you are not a member of our Apple Family, and as a result you will be cast out and sent into the Reality Distortion Field for re-education regarding our iProducts...
This is a day I've been looking forward to ever since I realized that I would never be able to become as rich or as famous as Bill Gates currently is. Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. And one is very fortunate if they get to witness even a single one of these products in their lifetime. Apple has been very fortunate--I've been able to say myself that I've introduced a few of these into the world. In 1984, the Macintosh revolutionized the computer industry with its graphical interface stolen from Xerox Corporation. In 1998, the iMac built upon the success of our other computers that were still playing catch-up with Microsoft Windows. In 2001, the iPod changed the entire music industry (thus ensuring high sales for one of our planned iProducts, the iHearingAid). In 2007, the iPhone transfigured the mobile phone industry, forcing innovation upon all other lesser mobile phone manufacturers. And today, we are going to introduce an infinite number of products of this elite class.
Because infinity is such a large number, I am going to introduce just three of these iProducts today. The first one is a newly developed iPod. But not just any iPod as you will soon see. The second is a breakthrough communications device featuring not just audio and video, but even more as you will witness in just a minute. And the third device is an amazingly advanced supercomputer. An iPod. A communicator. A supercomputer. ... Are you getting it? These are not infinitely many different devices--this is one all encompassing device--and we are calling it iEverything! Today Apple is going to reinvent the world! ... And here it is. Can you see it? Do you know what it looks like? No! It's inside me...
Now let me talk about a category of things... The most "personal" computers are the ones we carry around with us all the time: our cell phone, our portable music player, our PDA, and for some people a two-way communicator. For many people, these are all separate devices, with distinct interfaces, discrete components, and different screens, keyboards, and batteries all to deal with. The iEverything aims to leapfrog this problem.
We're going to start with a revolutionary user interfa
kernel: lp0 on fire
Oh, I agree with you completely: It's stupid. But since I can't imagine MMS requiring specific hardware above and beyond SMS, that was the only reason I could come up with. Remember, this is the same company that won't let you use iTunes over 3G--you have to go over WiFi.
Or, maybe the guy misspoke, and MMS will be on both models. One can only hope.
If you can't convince them, convict them.
You know, no phone I've ever owned has had cut-and-paste.
Are you equally upset about all those?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Comment removed based on user account deletion
So, what you mean is, you've never owned a smartphone. My corded landline doesn't have cut and paste either, but every smartphone I've had has had cut and paste.
Our management have been chomping at the bit to get iphones.
Unfortunately they've also mandated we s/mime encrypt all intra-company email, which doesn't work on the thing as you can't install a certificate.
Does anyone with access to the new SDK know if certs have been added to the thing?
With dock accessibility available now...an AB + 4 way control joystick can be built now!
Gaming potential is unbelievable!
--
I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that I don't know the answer.
modded down?
Yeah, but we don't have a price for the Pre yet.
I don't think this is off-topic, mods. For someone who hasn't got a smart-phone (like me) and who is planning to get on the next 6 months (like me) this is pretty damn relevant.
Reality is the ultimate Rorschach.
They mentioned streaming video a couple times. Anyone know if they're talking about streaming static files, or if we can finally stream LIVE video from standard servers like, oh, I don't know, maybe QuickTime/Darwin Streaming Server?
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Small IR box connected to the 30-pin connector then code to replicate a Wii Remote. Not sure if you can spoof the Bluetooth Ids so the Wii will connect. Obviously not that useful for gaming but maybe for reverse engineering, macros, keyboard?
First post! (just in case I am...)
A2DP
Oops. Not so missing. My bad. :)
Hey, /., how about easing up on the 2nd-post-wait timer for subscribers, huh?
You can't convert metric tonnes to LoCs easily or precisely (the cesium. Rather, it is more easily coverted to Bibliotheques nationales.
Welcome to 2009! Both of those are included in 3.0 (although tethering is pending carrier agreement).
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
Well shit. Brilliant joke? Check. Fuck up in the middle of the post ruining the whole thing? DOUBLE CHECK.
The really interesting thing in the announcement I thought was a hint that there might possibly be some low level of bacground apps. They were not clear on what they meant but this is a big deal.
People have complained there is no flash. At first I assumed, like most folks, this was because apple was stiffing adobe. Then after I started programming for iphone I got a glimpse of why I think there is no flash.
Basically there can only be one app runnning and resident at a time. When you switch between apps and then come back to say safari, it comes back to where you left it so from your point of view it looks like safari was resident and running while your attention was elsewhere. But this is not the case.
It's a clever illusion. Apps have to manage their own persistence. So to make it seem like that safari or any app has to save and restore it's complete state. And the apple iphone rules require this all has to happen in under 5 seconds or you get a kill -9 applied to your slow ass.
Now imagine safari is also running flash under the hood. It does not have the flash internal sate that it can save and restore so how can safari persist a flash system across sessions? It could try a desperation move and try sweeping out the memory as an image. But that won't work since it won't have permission from the OS to do that. Even if it did have permission, then what if flash is storing things on disk, how is safari supposed to keep all the file handles open across sessions?
You could probably come up with some workaround kludges but it would not be pretty.
And then there's that 5 second problem. If safari has to load and resotre it's state almost instantly, you don't want it having to speculatively reload flash every session start just because at some point in your browsing history you opened a flash web site. You'd have a really annoying end result of delaying the application swap for everyone by a second or two every time.
So you can see it's not as simple as it sounds due to the one-app resident at a time rule.
since the iphone has no Virtual memory, you can't just let it be resident and not running either.
thus you can see allowing background apps is not something to do lightly or get yourself locked into (like for example, windows CE) and have to have a task and memory management the user must control.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
High end Nokia phones have cut-and-paste, bluetooth, and more. Just because you have not owned one, does not mean other people are not used to them and don't expect these features to be standard on all phones.
If they did cut and paste right for 1.0/2.0 then something else would have been dropped. You can't simply add more people to software development and expect a linear (or even positive) gain.
Video on an iPod? Nobody wants to watch video on an iPod.
Steve Jobs
wake me up when I can zune squirt and be welcome to the social.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
None of the phones I've used have 'em. Any SMARTphone or PDA has, even as far back as some pretty ancient Palm and iPaq/PocketPC devices.
For the GGP to compare a phone and a smartphone is fairly nonsensical, as a smartphone is basically "PDA with phone" and in terms of features more along the PDA end of things in many cases.
Every one of the 4 different Palm OS smartphones I've owned had cut/paste. And not just between Palm apps either, I could cut/paste between the phone dialer interface as well.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
my G1 had that from day 1
Yeah, because you really need more than 10,000 songs on you. God forbid you have to listen to the same song twice in 2 months.
Currently, I need 256 GB ;) I've got my CD collection ripped as Apple Lossless, as I also listen to it on my sound system. Of course, one way of reducing the need for space would be if Itunes could transcode to a lower bit rate when syncing - but it only does that for Ipod shuffle.
With a bluethooth keyboard, I could use my iphone to take notes in class, and minutes at meetings. This feature is long overdue.
I bought an iphone after I learnt that compatible bluetooth keyboards were available for pre-order. Yes it's true, I'm admitting that I've been done.
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
Well, then tethering is still missing "pending carrier agreement." :)
If they add Flash support to Safari on the iPhone, I'll just disable it. The number of sites where I use Flash is tiny, and there are better options for streaming media, which is the most-common reason for Flash on most websites.
The number of sites serving really annoying Flash-based ads is by far higher, and I don't want pages taking even longer to load than they already do.
I can see where a Flash runtime library to make it easier to port Flash games to the iPhone would be useful, though.
Every mobile chipset on Earth was already capable of sending MMS when the iPhone came out. and isn't most Bluetooth features just a matter of software profile support? I don't believe its due to hardware differences. Apple is just trying to make people buy a iPhone 3G. Why not just say it upfront?
Dude are you serious? Nokias have been able to cut and paste for years. My Ericsson W910i can cut and paste any piece of text I want, anywhere. It even does it with a decent UI, I merely open up my options menu, tell it I want to mark some text, click the start and the end of my desired text, and it copies it. then I can paste it wherever. Its a $100 phone with no keyboard! Its not 'smart' but I tell you what, it has HDMI, a web browser, a better camera than the iPhone that can take video, and its a decent mp3 player, and it can cut and paste with extreme ease, it even has a very similar predictive text system to the iPhone.
But its not an iPhone, its just a cheap ass middle of the road free on a basic plan thing that everybody has. So why, why does it have equal to or better features than the iPhone, a damn expensive premium product?
Thank you. Lately the mods have been nailing me for no reason, I don't get it... oh well, serves me right even for being a tiny bit negative towards an apple product on slashdot :)
What counts as high end? I bought my Nokia 'music phone' for EUR 150, and I have copy-paste (and bluetooth, but no wlan...).
In fact, my wife's phone cost EUR 70 in December 2006 and it has copy-paste... She even uses it occasionally. Sometimes to work around the memory limits caused by ~2000 SMS, but nevertheless
It is what it is.
So like, when can I use my iPhone as a mass storage device apple? You know, to put like some files on it and make it infinitely more useful? Sigh.
So, what you mean is, you've never owned a smartphone. My corded landline doesn't have cut and paste either, but every smartphone I've had has had cut and paste.
Lucky you. I have a fairly recent Nokia "business phone" with Symbian S60 as the operating system (Nokia E61i). It does support cut and paste, BUT you can only cut and paste (or copy for that matter) in edit mode. What this means is that you can't copy from a webpage, and to copy from an email you have to select "forward" or "reply". I guess you could call that smart if you stretch things?
Actually, what you'll most likely see is Mac OS X and iPhone OS getting more and more closely related, until there's really no difference between them. Currently, the iPhone OS is basically a subset of the Mac OS, with an additional user interface library (called UIKit). There's no reason UIKit can't be run on top of Mac OS X, and in fact, it already does, as part of the iPhone simulator.
Future versions of OS X will likely further reduce the differences between the two flavors, and make it even easier to design a single application that runs, without changes, in either a touch-based or mouse-based environment. With proper design, it's already really easy to separate out your UI and core functionality such that you can create an iPhone and a Mac application from the same sources. This is only going to get easier over time.
Any likelihood of being able to take a video clip with the camera ?
The Pantech Duo (Windows Mobile 6 Standard) doesn't do copy/paste... That is a Smartphone as well.
My Treo did. It's a feature I miss on my iPhone.
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
The iPhone has been dominating Apple's software development strategy for quite a while now. After all, Apple did delay the release of Leopard for several months because they had shifted resources to the iPhone, and both Leopard and Snow Leopard are bringing APIs to the desktop from the iPhone OS. When you consider that Snow Leopard is going further than any other Mac OS X release to kill Carbon (esp. the Finder), it becomes clear that Apple really wants a homogeneous developer environment across all their devices.
My Blackberry has cut and paste.
Apple can solve the storage issue by updating the Time Capsule software to make it a more generic NAS. Filesystem access is a non-issue, as the iPhone OS is already a full unix system. The only reasons access is currently restricted are security (sandboxing apps and all their data) and because it would overly complicate the user interface for such a small device.
If CPU vendors make good on their promises of low-power x86 chips, and if mobile graphics chips continue with their current trend, we could see a handheld device round out the low-end portions of the price range that the Mac Mini can't currently reach.
God forbid you have to listen to the same song twice in 2 months.
Why is this so hard to understand? The reason for wanting enough space for your entire music collection is so that you can play anything you want on demand. Who cares if 80% of it never gets listened to? That one day when I'm in the mood to listen to a particular album, I don't want to be cursing the fact that it's not on my iPod at the moment. Why need to re-sync once a week? Why try to predict which subset of your music you'll feel like listening to? God forbid someone would ask for a feature that would make their usage more convenient. And yeah, I'm sure the inevitable doubling of memory will set back gps and other feature development for years... Who mods this shit insightful?
Its 3.7 swimming pools, or 1 Stadium.
I did have the opportunity to use my iPhone around Charleston, South Carolina last year and found MANY locations where I couldn't get reception of any kind. Rather scary ...
Won't happen. That's not an API that's a media protocol. Copying of data is not a supported option in the iPhone platform, only streaming.
Then why are there apps like Readdle Docs that let you copy data to and from the iPhone/iPod touch?
Copying data from a bluetooth media reader would simply be along the same lines.
Until we know more about the bluetooth interface and what can be done (haven't had a chance to look at the OS update), I wouldn't be so quick to judge.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Even MMS is kind of pointless with an email enabled device.
I still think MMS is a relic that needs to die.
However, the iPhone being able to receive MMS serves a useful purpose - when someone sends you one you can instantly reply back with a message saying "Get a real phone loser".
(P.S. for the Haters out there, did I say they had to get an iPhone? I did not).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
it has HDMI,
I have to ask, why? (and really, are you sure?)
"Educate the mind but never at the expense of the soul."~Blessed Basil Moreau
Is Apple fanboys constantly told us the iPhone didn't need 3G.
Then the iPhone got 3G.
I said that, and it's still true. 3G is nicer but not necessary - that's why I kept the older phone. Edge is OK for light browsing and totally fine for map use.
Just because something makes things a little easier doesn't mean it is "necessary".
Then the Apple fanboys told us the iPhone didn't need MMS.
Now the iPhone's getting MMS.
In this case, it was really not needed - I figure they added it to placate people like you until you realize email makes 1000x more sense as a mechanism to send pictures.
The story is the same for GPS ...
And cut & paste and so on. They add conveniences, but just because they made something easier does not mean the phone was not useful without them as you seem to think (and BTW cell/wifi triangulation is more than good enough for 99% of Google map use).
Just like a car was pretty damn useful before they started including A/C or heated seats.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Why is this so hard to understand? The reason for wanting enough space for your entire music collection is so that you can play anything you want on demand. Who cares if 80% of it never gets listened to?
If 80% of it never gets listened to, who cares if its not there?
That one day when I'm in the mood to listen to a particular album, I don't want to be cursing the fact that it's not on my iPod at the moment.
If you went the last 5 years without listening to the song, and then not being able to play it today, right now, this very second sends you off cursing your ipod. You need a sense of perspective more than a bigger ipod.
Why try to predict which subset of your music you'll feel like listening to?
Its not really case of prediction.
For example in addition to a number of playlists I have my ipod set to sync every single track I've listened to more than once in the last 5 years. Plus every single track I've listened to at least once in the last year. Plus every single track I've added in the last 6 months. Plus every single track I've bothered to mark with any number of stars.
And it all fits with plenty of room to spare.
And while it happens that sometimes I'll be in an eclectic mood and want something I don't have it doesn't happen anywhere near often enough for me to curse the device, or wish I could have spent hundreds more for more capacity.
God forbid someone would ask for a feature that would make their usage more convenient.
There is a limit to how much is really worth moaning about. And when they ship with 1TB the OP will moan that he can't have his entire dvd collection with him.
I'm not saying 32GB is 'enough' and that no one has a use for more, but its hardly something to rant about.
Who mods this shit insightful?
Evidently people who agree the 32GB limit is not a particularly woeful shortcoming of the ipod touch.
Disagree. Mostly because although I might not object to hearing a song twice in two months, I want to be able to listen to any song when I want to hear it.
Same applies to photos and a number of movies/videos. With a music collection of around 60Gb, 17Gb of podcasts (less essential), and many more of photos and videos, larger capacity becomes a requirement.
I know you're going to say that that's not the point of the iPod, but it was originally, and that was the iPod that I like. Why is maximum capacity going down instead of up in these things? And why can't we have a slightly bigger iPod touch that can carry around your media collection?
Many people really are willing to repeat as truth everything that Jobs says.
"SOX Compliance"? So I guess that all those PDAs and MP3 players that issue firmware upgrades and *don't* charge for them are law breakers?
Please!
Apple charges users to upgrade the Touch for the same reason that it charges for OS service packs, and for online storage:
Because It Can
Da Blog
So does my IBM XT.
LOL, ok I meant HSDPA... shit. Its damn early down here ok, I posted that at 6:30am...
Can you actually download and save a file from your browser now? like say an mp3 or aac file.
It's also nice for playing stuff for friends who may not have heard some specific song that you have.
Then hand in your geek card. It's trivial to set up a password protected web frontend for your music collection. Put it on a high port, and the best part is - no HTML. Directory listing is your friend. With a decent broadband connections on both ends, I can stream any of my mp3s in better than real time anywhere in the world, and have done. Makes fretting about what to put on the ipod a lot easier.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
Not really trolling, the problem (unless I'm less informed than I think I am) is that iTunes plus content is still a subset of the total content. So depending on what you want to buy, you may or may not have the option for the high bitrate version. Also the iTunes plus content was an upcharge until recently.
Due to the DRM, I have only been purchasing from Amazon, but now that is changing I may try iTunes. I used to browse for new music on iTunes (because it kicks amazon's butt for browsing for new music) and then if I found something I liked I'd go over to amazon to buy it. Sleazy but it works well.
The larger point in my post is that doing what the GP and I do with iTunes is not the "apple way" and thus we have earned some pain and suffering.
Sheldon
Of course Microsoft doesn't care. The Appstore simply isn't a threat to Windows binary inertia (and there are legions of people who will go to extreme lengths to not reward a company for marketing a device with a sole gatekeeper).
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1147437&cid=27056793 I read there that you keep multiple registered accounts on this forums. Why do you do this and then admit it as you have there? There is no point I can see for keeping multiple registered accounts here on this website except that which you have been accused of here all week in using multiple registered accounts to mod yourself up with and to create illusory supporters for yourself.
So does my IBM XT.
You're still using an XT?
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1147437&cid=27056793 I read in the url there that you keep multiple registered accounts on this forums. Why do you do this and then admit it as you have there? There is no point I can see for keeping multiple registered accounts here on this website except that which you have been accused of here all week in using multiple registered accounts to mod yourself up with and to create illusory supporters for yourself. This doesn't look good for you on this website you know.
Get an iPhone 3g. Install "simplifymedia"
I stream my entire music collection from home to my car with that. Works great!
So, if I'm reading the transcript correctly (which I may not be) they are, finally, confirming the existance of bluetooth hardware in the 2nd generation iPod Touch and will be supporting it in this update. We've known it was there for a long time as the chip that they're using for the Nike tie-in can also do bluetooth (and FM radio btw) but they have refused to support it in software or even acknowledge it until now. It's good to hear they're finally getting to it, but the important thing for me is whether it will be possible to set up a DUN (dial-up connection) through the bluetooth. It's a little known fact that many cellphones can be used as dial-up modems through either a data cable or the bluetooth connection. My cellphone company, Verizon, has a special number (#777) which lets users connect to the internet, for free, at 14.4kbs (or faster if you are willing to pay for it). This may not sound all that fast, but it should do for simple things like checking news, weather, forums, stocks, directions, etc. when you find yourself without a free Wi-Fi connection.
Rules of Conduct:
#1 - The DM is always right.
#2 - If the DM is wrong, see rule #1
Frankly, what do you people have to compensate here?
I own an iPhone and I'm very happy with it. But if it's not for you then, hey, fine with me. We don't need any "one product only" markets, no matter what Bill thinks. It's called choice and the most stupid thing you can do with it is argue.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I can't be the only one thinking of the Bachelor Chow ads on Futurama, right?
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
I mean, who else can get ALL the tech journals to publish news on the fact that they are updating one program (OS) that functions on one of their devices.
It's an update people. Not news.
I wantz it for my iPhone, but it's still not news.
>Don't bitch, you can't even upgrade Windows Mobile at any price, nor Blackberry's OS
I recently upgraded by T-Mobile Blackberry's OS. Free, as in free software. The downloads are available here. Did I mention they are free?
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
I want to be able to listen to any song when I want to hear it.
Look, very few people really have collections of songs that they *actually want to hear* that are big enough to fill a modern ipod. My library is pushing 100GB. The number of songs I've listened to more than once EVER is small faction of that. I ripped my entire 800 disc CD collection a few years ago, before dumping it in boxes in storage -- and I have probably still got a 100 titles that I haven't played a single track from since ripping them. So, yeah, despite my large libary, I can have every song I've ever listened to more than once in the last 5 years on my ipod with lots room to spare.
Be honest with yourself, if you haven't listened to a track more than once in the last half decade, its probably not a big deal if its not on your device the second you want it, because if you haven't had the urge to hear it more than once in 5 years, you probably aren't going to have that urge tomorrow either. How much more are you really prepared to spend to get the part of your collection that you very rarely/never listen to ... 'just in case'?
And why can't we have a slightly bigger iPod touch that can carry around your media collection?
Because its probably not worth making an expensive product only the extreme outliers will buy. And as soon as the 260GB ipod touch launches, someone will moan about their DVD collection not fitting, and how it would be so much more convenient if they could watch the movie they want to watch from their 400 DVD library. Without having to decide when they sync what they will be limited to.
Same applies to photos and a number of movies/videos. With a music collection of around 60Gb, 17Gb of podcasts (less essential), and many more of photos and videos, larger capacity becomes a requirement.
Oh I agree. And the capacity will continue to increase I'm sure, but if you really and truly 'need' more than 32GB on a touch =today= you are a statistical outlier, and even then there are other devices... maybe you should get an ipod classic... or a netbook with a 1TB external hard drive.
Why is maximum capacity going down instead of up in these things?
It went from hard drive to more expensive flash when flash got cheap enough. The only time it actually got smaller was when they discontinued the 160GB and launched the slimmer 120GB.
That said, you know what I'd rather have than a 250GB ipod touch? a 16GB itunes to ipod/iphone remote link feature; so I can have the music I want on my device, and in the unlikely event I want to listen to something that isn't there I can just browse my PC to the song and wifi sync it right there and start listening to it a few seconds later.
Then instead of shelling out $1000+ for a 250GB flash sdd ipod I can access my entire 'metric crap ton of music' by remote. Or I can pull up a photo album that I didn't sync. Or a podcast I want to listen to... even if it just came out 5 minutes ago.
Granted I need wifi or an iphone+dataplan for this, but that would be far more useful to me than merely a larger drive. And in all honesty, it would probably be more useful to most of the outliers.
It took them this long to come out with a landscape keyboard? Has Microsoft secretly taken over Apple or what?
You know, no phone I've ever owned has had cut-and-paste.
Have you ever worked with email and an internet browser and weren't able to copy and paste say, the URL between the two applications?
It's got nothing to do with cut and paste on a "phone".
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
Maybe they should fix their current problems first! http://digg.com/apple/App_Store_Busted
How exactly is Javascript missing from mobile Safari?
Tweet, tweet.
How does it manage to not support it? Its a basic OS feature.
On my old XDA it you'd select text and tap-hold to get the context menu, pick copy.
3laws: No freebies, no backsies, GTFO.
That's why nobody in the US bought a telephone until the 1970s.... We showed that dastardly AT&T didn't we?
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
My bad, I've got javascript on the brain today with a side project at work.
please replace javascript with "I want an iChat client"
Sheldon
...and while you present an interesting technical argument for lack of flash on the iPhone, it's much much simpler.
Flash games and applications bypass the app store.
If you bypass the app store, AT&T and Apple don't get to extract [more] money out of you or out of the end user. Apple and AT&T are more interested in money than in truly unifying the mobile and fixed web browsing experiences. End of story.
Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
They trust to millions of "fans" and even Developers who will take all measures to defend their illogical decisions. How hard was to add MMS exactly? Even we, cell phone users know that it is a simple mix of SMS and HTTP technologies and nothing else.
Just wondering how many millions of messages around bitching about "No MMS" and how many unpaid PR guys (aka fans(!)) defending it. I bet they think Nokia just LOVES MMS or there is a secret cell phone gang who keeps pushing it. No, it is there just like 160 character limit SMS which was _never designed_ to do that is there. Because everyone, down to basic colour phones have it. The only place where everyone has e-mail and getting push notifications is Starbucksland. When you sell a product to 80 countries even including Africa, you gotta get out of that Starbucksland.
For people like me who sends MMS every once in year, iPhone not having MMS meant one thing: Control. It was basic as that and when I heard Apple distributing FUD about poor J2ME, I completely gave up thinking to buy one. I saw Apple going back to 1984 to be exact, making same mistakes which prevented them to be dominant on Desktop. If we dig enough, I bet we can find some BBS etc. archives where Apple fans defending their decisions back in 1980s.
That's because Apple's patented elephant repellant technology has been included standard in iPhone software since 1.0. Jeez, folks, pay attention!
I wouldn't equate the situations. I didn't explicitly mention competition, but it is in the context.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
I forced a friend to buy iPod touch 2.x upgrade and guy loved it. Of course, it was hard to convince him as he owns a Nokia N95 which got amazing new stuff just by getting updated for free (same day).
As justification, I said "Well, it seems you will pay one time only". That was a big mistake, I forgot the "3".
Now I feel responsible for it and will likely send $10 from Paypal when it ships. Damn Apple.
This guy gets it right why is he modded a troll? Some anti-anti boy has mod access!
FWIW the Newton OS had cut and paste in at least 1993 so nyahhhnyahhhhnyahhhnyahhhh
Apple FTW!!!!!
I can't believe I'm wasting my time replying to people wasting their time complaining that Cut/Paste isn't a huge feature to have announced.
It's a basic feature you are correct but imagine writing an operating system, making it hop around chip architectures, settling in on the Intel platform. Now, imagine taking that same OS and shrinking it to run on a pocket computer which only has a touch screen for input and the only input device is a human finger.
So you start developing gestures to do things you would normally do with a mouse and keyboard, and maybe another pointer called a stylus. Most of your gestures involve getting around, typing, and actions. Cut and paste is not a function necessary for functioning and in fact, the normal double tap action is taken to zoom into text on a tiny screen.
What do you do? What do you do?!?!?!?
Imagine you are in control in this reality, not your fantasy world, then come on back.
Anyway, this lame-o lack of cut/paste didn't stop Apple from selling these things like ice cream in hell.
That makes me feel better. I was about to give up all hope for the world if a cell phone had an HDMI connection.
"Educate the mind but never at the expense of the soul."~Blessed Basil Moreau
What about movies and TV shows? What about storing in Lossless quality? Shot that argument down... Cue references to "640K ought to be enough for anybody." Bill Gates misquote.
"I like systems, their application excepted", George Sand (French)
you can't even upgrade Windows Mobile at any price
My last update for Windows Mobile (HTC 9800) bumped the version number from 6.0 to 6.1, introduced docx compatibility, and most crucially, enabled the built-in GPS (which had been dormant for a year beforehand) and upgraded the 3G radio. Now it can do spoken word turn-by-turn directions and is a little faster when used as an access point.
This was a free upgrade.
Da Blog
Isn't it completely fair and reasonable to charge for that?
If Apple didn't lock down the Touch and its Ipods since V5.5, then it would have been possible to load Rockbox or ipodlinux on them as an alternative boot OS and get a whole boatload of free, extra functionality.
Da Blog
Apple invented standardized copy and paste in the OS with the Macintosh. It invented mobile copy and paste conventions with Newton.
So ask yourself, is Apple just too stupid to please an arrogant but anonymous coward, or are you perhaps uninformed on what might be involved in developing secure copy and paste on a new platform with a unique security model?
Do you understand that other phones with copy/paste features do not sandbox their apps? That their kernels will pretty much run any code from any source? That rogue apps can do anything?
The more you learn, the less you'll view the world in simple black and white as a bunch of things to be outraged about.
Your G1 has also no application security model. Good luck with that.
a task and memory management the user must control.
Here's how task management works on my WM 6.1 phone:
Most apps have an "X" button. Touch it once, briefly (like with a tap or quick push) and the app is minimized but remains memory resident. Press the "X" button for a couple of seconds, continuously, and the app quits and its memory gets freed.
In-memory apps display in a drop down hanging off the "X" button on the Home screen, and can be maximised or killed by clicking on them within the dropdown.
That's really all there is to it. There is, of course, a variety of task managers and memory managers that you can use if you are anal, but these are rarely needed. I can't remember the last time I went beyond the short/long "X" button control.
Da Blog
What about movies and TV shows? What about storing in Lossless quality?
What about them? One day we'll all want Exabyte iPods. But for right now that's not really the issue. You don't really benefit from lossless on an ipod anyway. And movies and TV shows on an ipod touch? Please. The battery won't even make it through one long movie... never mind plural movies.
Shot that argument down...Cue references to
Except I NEVER said X should be enough for anybody. I simply argued that there are a lot of other priorities (like battery life), or perhaps internet/wifi sync to your home itunes library (you don't need all 10 Terabytes of music with you if you can just download that one song you suddenly want to listen to on the fly), etc, etc that sort of stuff would benefit more people than just more space would.
And no matter how much space you get there will be outliers who need more; at 32GB its pretty much already just the outliers who actually really honestly need more today. And I'm sure we'll see capacity steadily increase and easily keep pace with what the mainstream needs.
If 80% of it never gets listened to, who cares if its not there?
Instead of that, you should ask yourself: If 80% of it never gets listened to, is it really there? Now go and contemplate that, little grasshopper...
Yes, though on the other hand, I think my point was that rational economic actors almost never act out of spite :)
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
The iPhone's App Store works over 3G and has for some time. It has nothing to do with Apple not letting you. Apple had to negotiate this with the labels and AT&T (both of whom probably wanted more money, just as other providers ask for extra fees on mobile download songs).
MMS was developed by the 3GPP. If it were supportable on the first gen iPhone hardware, why do you think Apple would block it?
Much of what you think of as stupid is actually your own ignorance.
They can estimate expenses for continued support and development.
They choose not to, however, because they want to...
I don't think you've worked for a large company.
For you see, large companies do many things that are "obviously" stupid on the face of it to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley. That even with an understanding of the Sarbanes-Oxley rules, you would think there's a better way to reach compliance.
But you see, that does not matter - because the Sarbanes-Oxley stuff is so vague, and the consequences for someone with boatlods of cash on hand so dire to take even one misstep, the corporate lawyers care not for your thinking on compliance optimization. They want 100% guaranteed lack of liability, even if it means weird things like update charges on the Touch.
So no, in fact they really can't do this any other way. Not while they ask the lawyers what will be sure to not get them sued by someone, and any large company (including Apple) WILL be asking the lawyers.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
my sony ericsson p800 smartphone had it in 2002.
fifteen jugglers, five believers
Have you ever worked with email and an internet browser and weren't able to copy and paste say, the URL between the two applications?
No, I had an iPhone.
Where URL's in email were links you clicked on.
Or phone numbers in email and web pages were links you clicked on.
Or addresses in your contacts lead right to the map, or when you searched in the map your contacts were part of the result.
The whole reason why the lack of cut and paste was not generally felt by iPhone users was because all the common cases you might use it for was usually handled by direct data transfers. I honestly did not miss cut and paste, although I'm sure I'll end up using it eventually once it is present. But it's not the glaring omission that non-iPhone owners claim it is.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Not even high-end. I wouldn't consider Nokia 6300 high-end by any stretch, but it has cut-and-paste, just as any other Nokia phone with S40 (which don't even count as smartphones normally, because they can only be extended with J2ME apps).
So it's free for 3G iPhones and costs $10 for iPod touches.
What is the model for a 1st gen phone? I'll be damned if I'm going to pay $10 for an update to a phone that I can't move from because my contract is still running!
I've got to give kudos to them for patching older phones and not just forcing a new purchase though - that's very un-Apple and I'm almost impressed enough to completely ignore the continuing gouge against the iPod Touch owners, so this is great for the existing fools that bought a crippled phone but I for one won't be rushing out to get one.
iTunes works over 3G, EDGE and GPRS now. It was announced at MacWorld earlier this year. I don't think they mentioned why it wasn't possible before.
MMS is basic. Like *really* basic: SMS and WAP. See http://www.indianchild.com/mms_sms_gateway.htm for an explanation. No hardware requirements other than having a screen and audio to display low-quality media messages. This is why it's been in all GSM handsets made in the last 10 years or so.
Because new iPhone models are expected around the same time as the new software, and Apple would like to sell some.
I can't think of a reason why MMS wouldn't be supported on 1st-gen iPhone hardware. My ignorance might be showing, but I thought that MMS worked on top of existing SMS and GPRS standards. Even if I'm wrong, what was Apple doing sourcing chips that were antiquated before the iPhone was released?
O.k., but there aren't any of those. Or not very many anyway.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
So ask yourself, is Apple just too stupid to please an arrogant but anonymous coward, or are you perhaps uninformed on what might be involved in developing secure copy and paste on a new platform with a unique security model?
This is true, and the idea of being able to securely exchange snippets of text between different processes on the same machine, possibly owned by different users, is generally held to be impossible.
In reality, text-only copy-and-paste (which is the only kind I hear people clamoring for) is widely accepted as pretty damn easy.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
There are a few select programs that basically are guaranteed to be running in the background. If you jailbreak your phone you can see the processes running through a program called SysInfoPlus.
Programs that are always running(not including daemons):
MobilePhone(~6MB RAM)
MobileMail(~14MB RAM) and I think this is always running
Apple apps that may be running but will be quit when the something needs RAM:
MobileMusicPlayer(~13MB RAM)
MobileSafari(~18-20+MB RAM)
The issue with the iPhone is that it only has 128MB of RAM. There is basically enough RAM available after all of the OS and other required programs, daemons etc. for a single foreground application. Again using SysInfoPlus I have 0MB free RAM on my iPhone currently.
Not sure why you got modded down[*], but I entirely agree - the same goes for other things. Why exactly is it front page news that a random make of phone finally supports MMS? Congratulations Apple, welcome to 2002!
I don't recall seeing articles for mere software updates of other phones at all - let alone for ones that just add in functionality that has been around for years, even in basic non-high-end phones. The fact that adding these basic features are trumpted as being revolutionary for the Iphone makes me suspicious that there's not anything good about it - I'd be more interested in a phone from the market leaders, and seeing what features they are adding in. Can we have a story on that?
Perhaps it's part of Apple's free-advertising strategy? Ship a product that misses out on fundamental basic functionality, so you get lots of hype when finally you get round to adding it in?
Another point - defenders of the Iphone claimed that the Iphone was better off without these features as they Iphone did it better other ways (even though this could never be explained). So surely, by this reasoning, the Iphone is now worse, right?
[*] Well I do - because whilst Slashdot's moderation works for every other topic, it's broken on Apple stories, because any criticism of Apple gets modded down, rather than debated. It's the only topic I have to browse at -1.
And how many of those phones are getting front page news? If they got front page news for adding copy-n-paste support, along with other features long available even on non-smart phones, then yes I'm sure people would rightly be tagging it Slashvertisement, and questioning why it's news.
But for some reason, with the IpHoNe, it's different.
It was a manufacturer approved, carrier-issued ROM. Although I think what the homebrew firmware hackers do is great, I'd be reluctant to load a 3rd party firmware onto my primary communications device. At least, not until I'd exhausted other routes and seen a lot of satisfactory testing of the 3rd party firmware.
Da Blog
Indeed, and just to add to that, even my cheap 4 year old non-smart phone does copy and paste.
The thing is that a landline phone doesn't have any capacity for text input. But I would seriously hope that anything that allows text input would, as standard, allow copy and paste.
Copy and paste isn't even a feature - I'd argue that lacking it is a fundamental UI bug. Considering that the Iphone is allegedly good for it's UI, it makes me suspicious of the validity of such claims, when it misses out on such basic UI functionality.
Similarly with the "Just Works" Mantra. Well when I edit text, I don't expect to have to wait until a future software update, I expect to just copy and paste, and have it Just Work.
Ah, so it can. Cool. Probably some thing with AT&T not wanting them to do it.
If you can't convince them, convict them.
@DECS:
1. I said iTunes, as in iTMS, not the App Store. It was not until recently that you could use iTMS over anything but WiFi (see one of the posts below).
2. I've used MMS on non-3G phones in the past. MMS is, AFAIK, simply a standard, a means of encoding the multimedia into a MIME format, sending that to a server, then slapping a URL onto an SMS message, which tells the phone to open a browser to view/play the multimedia.
If you can't convince them, convict them.
I do have to share a laugh with Apple, that by removing an essential feature, and then re-implementing it later, they get credos without actually having to innovate. Maybe Microsoft should remove USB support from Windows 7 and then reintroduce it at service pack 3 or something.
Dude, I think I can see my house from here.
Well, I pay $0 each month for owning an using my iphone. How does that fit into your theory?
You either paid more up front, or have taken a subsidized phone "off the grid" - technically taking away the revenue Apple expected, but those cases are outliers.
In short, your one-off actions change nothing.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Go read the actual act.
Come back.
Used to work in areas of SOX compliance for large corps, thanks though for the laugh.
Explain why Apple CAN'T give updates for free.
Explain why other companies CAN.
Already have explained this. It's all in interpretation - some companies have chosen to interpret this differently, but conservative companies with very large cash hoards do not.
SOX is so vague you literally cannot say it says to do ANYTHING. It's all in the reading and Apple's reading is simply on the conservative side. What you are saying is like saying chocolate is not tasty, because you do not find it so.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
So ask yourself, is Apple just too stupid to please an arrogant but anonymous coward, or are you perhaps uninformed on what might be involved in developing secure copy and paste on a new platform with a unique security model?/quote
Wow. So Apple uses unsecure cut, copy and paste on OS X? It is the same operating system, no? No. Methinks AC is correct, and this is simpler arrogance, not unlike the "no keyboard shortcuts" edict and the "one mouse button" edict. Jobs wanted the world to bow to the iPhone's way of doing things and the world said, "Ttthhhhppt!".
by Mike Buddha -- Someday the mountain might get him, but the law never will.
Mac OS X doesn't (yet) use secured apps. There's only limited signing of applications, and the kernel implicitly trusts the applications installed by authenticated, administrative users. The iPhone kernel does not trust applications, it sandboxes them.
The old desktop OS conventions doesn't work well when dealing with the constraints of a mobile device. Witness WinMo and Palm OS. No security, install a few apps and everything goes south quick.
The iPhone is based on Mac OS X, but has unique constraints. You either know this, and are a troll, or are too ignorant to be talking.
As for "no keyboard shortcuts," Apple invented the ctrl/command ZXCV conventions later aped by Microsoft, and similarly standardized P for Print, S for Save, and so on. Where you got the idea that Apple was against keyboard shortcuts must be dark and smell like your poo.
The "one button mouse" rant is similarly tired, as Job's NeXT was among the first computers to codify consistent use of the right button, years before Windows was even being pre-installed on PCs. And Macs have supported multiple mouse buttons long before the release of Mac OS X.
But yes, Apple does want the iPhone to work correctly, and that means ignoring the incessant, insufferable twits who think they know better than engineers because they have good hunches about how to deliver tech products based on no experience.
I am going to chime in and say: I don't need a large capacity iPod. I get by fine with my 8 gig iPhone. However if someone wants a high capacity iPod because it is more convenient for THEM and the way THEY do things, then that is the iPod they want. It is as valid a preference as someone who changes out their playlists each week, or someone else who maintains a remote server with all their music. Why criticize? Why even argue that ones (highly personal and subjective) way of doing something is the only reasonable way?
Windows Mobile 6 Standard does not do copy/paste... essentially because WM6 Standard edition is for non-touchscreens. WM6 Pro has copy/paste and is for touchscreens.
You may have dug up some rent-an-Apple-fanboys from somewhere that told you the iPhone didn't need 3G, but I am an avid Apple fan, I thought it was ridiculous not to include it, and didn't buy one until it did.
The iPhone doesn't need MMS. Just send me a bloody email. What century are you living in?! They only added it to shut people like you up.
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something" - Plato
Ah cheers :)
Maybe install a util that gives a mouse cursor and buttons?
3laws: No freebies, no backsies, GTFO.
I definitely debated long and hard about installing the 3.0 beta OS, as I can't go back to 2.2.x now that it is installed, but I wanted to see the new features first-hand, and also get a feel for what is new and possible for app development and how the new OS would impact one of our existing applications, TaxiFlasher (App Store Link: http://su.sg/cf07 or search for it by name).
.vcf) it or sending it via SMS. This is very cool.
In short: I'm glad I tested it, I wish I could go back to 2.2.1 now -- the 3.0 beta is just too buggy for everyday use (and I miss the apps that 3.0beta broke.) BUT, I can still use my phone, and I'm sure new versions of the beta will fix some of the problems. However, I doubt the apps will be fully fixed until after 3.0 is launched.
First, the Pros:
* Cut, Copy, and Paste works great, and works anywhere you can input text, as well as places where large blocks of text are displayed (like in Safari, the web browser). I really like this feature.
(Note: Sadly, it does NOT seem like you can copy and paste calendar events.)
I can't seem to copy images from web pages, but I can save them, and then use the photos app to mail them or attach to contact, etc.
* You can "Edit" a SMS conversation now, to delete specific texts (instead of clear all) and forward specific texts (HUGE!)
* You can now "Share" a contact by emailing (as
* You can now email a note in the Notes app, as well has have them auto-sync inside of Apple's Mail.app MacOS program, which is nice.
* Landscape view and text entry in IM, SMS (now MMS), and Mail -- this is HUGE for me, having fat fingers I had real issues with the portrait-mode keyboard both in incorrectly pressing keys and in slowdowns from finger/thumb awkwardness. Landscape mode is significantly easier for me, and I can type faster and more accurately as a result.
It also appears that Apple has updated both landscape and portrait keyboards slightly, both in looks and in function, which feels less visually polished (less pretty) but more usable and accurate.
* New features in Apple apps (e.g. Mail, maps, etc...): there are several small, mostly subtle changes that are all generally positive. They are almost all "oh, that's better" instead of a "WOW, that changes everything!".
* Ability to search in Mail, even across IMAP accounts, is HUGE and a major upgrade from the previous mail app. This is critical if you're using an IMAP account and need to reference a long-ago previous email.
* The phone-wide search feature (iPhone spotlight) is GREAT, although I haven't used it since I tested it out. (I think this is because I don't even think to use it, which should change over time). This will help me find apps that I rarely use, contacts quickly, and stuff in notes.
* So far nothing has crashed without an ability to recover, either by re-launching or by freeing up memory or rebooting.
* I really like that I can now encrypt my iPhone backup data from an iTunes sync, BUT, being beta X.0 functionality I don't trust it yet. Might wait for 3.0.1 first.
Now, the cons, of which there are many:
* SIGNIFICANTLY slower across the board. Everything, including other apps, goes MUCH slower, and you can feel it. Sometimes you worry that apps have frozen as they take so much longer. Gets slower the longer you go without a reboot.
* Serious memory leaks. Sometimes you can just use the "FreeMemory" app to clear up space, but often that clears out the memory but it just quickly fills back up, and you still have to do a full hardware reboot. I generally have to do this between each app usage, and have to reboot several times a day. (With 2.2.x I was rebooting 2-4x/day on average, with 3.0beta I'm rebooting 4-16x/day). One time I used FreeMemory, made 22+ MB avail, and within 15 seconds it was back down to less than 10MB and within 30 seconds it was
Any one know if this bug is resolved in 3.0? http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9193300&tstart=0
The sandbox excuse doesn't hold water IMHO.
User-level apps in OS X don't have access to another app's memory, either. It's the OS which has access and copies data to the pasteboard, and not at the behest of another user app. Sandboxing doesn't change this one iota. I can copy/paste between Mac OS and various emulators or VMs which are sandboxed.
It is always the application which informs the OS that data is being copied. The worst that could happen is surreptitious reading or overwriting of pasteboard data. If Apple wanted to prevent this, they could have a pasteboard for every app and have the user choose which to paste from, or they could use drag+drop which removes the pasteboard altogether.
>80 column hard wrapped e-mail is not a sign of intelligent
>life
Neither suggestion makes any sense on the iPhone. How would you drag and drop text from Safari to Mail on it?
The point is that copy and paste isn't as simple when you have security issues to deal with. Palm OS, WiMo, Android etc simply don't bother.