Rumors Flying About New iPhone Capabilities

Jumping on the completely unconfirmed rumor bandwagon, it seems that there have been photos leaked for the new iPhone, which include things like an auto-focus camera, video capture, and a compass. The photos were originally displayed (and then quickly removed) on a Chinese forum, and quickly spread to many other sites, including a complete human translation on the MacRumors forum. Looks like Apple security may have to break a few more pocket protectors to keep employees in line.

Comments

iNexpensive?

[davidwr]

iM waiting for the rumored iNexpensive iPhone with the new lower iPrice and no long-term iContract.

Re:iNexpensive?

[Chris Mattern]

I think that's iMaginary.

Re:iNexpensive?

[aaandre]

iWish you good iHealth and a long iLife.

Re:iNexpensive?

[Anonymous Coward]

I think that's iMaginary.

Mod Parent Up +sqrt(-1)

Re:iNexpensive?

[cheftw]

I think that's iMaginary.

Mod Parent Up +sqrt(-1)

I swear I'm developing a complex from all these lame maths puns.

Re:iNexpensive?

[Gilmoure]

You're iNsane.

Re:iNexpensive?

[qoncept]

Set mode parent -v

Re:iNexpensive?

[Jurily]

Mod Parent Up +sqrt(-1)

Score: i, Funny

Re:iNexpensive?

[Vu1turEMaN]

iWish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy iCal!!!!

Re:iNexpensive?

[alta]

I would be happy with a better ibattery.

I was just given an iphone that was sent to us as warranty exchange. Battery life on this thing is terrible, and from what I've read, this is standard. Now, I'm comparing to the curve I was using before... With the curve, I could count on the battery lasting 3-5 days of lite use. I REA

On this thing, I can BARELY go the weekend. I unplugged before I left the office Friday afternoon, Monday morning on the way in, I got the "Your battery is low" message.
And since it's not a standard USB plug, I couldn't just plug it in to the plethora of USB ports around. You'd think we'd be beyond the days of custom ports by now. I can count of finding USB power anywhere I can find a computer, in my car, friends houses, etc. So THANK YOU Motorola L2, and Blackberry Curve.

Screw you LG Shine and Apple iPhone.

(These are all phones I've had recent experience with.

Re:iNexpensive?

[moniker127]

The ipod touch?

Re:iNexpensive?

[jslater25]

Whoa, timeout. You can seriously go for the weekend without charging? I'm lucky if I go the day, so I'm fairly envious at the moment. Please explain how you manage to go a couple days without charging (other than in Airplane mode!).

I don't even use the Push feature (or whatever its called to get email from my Yahoo account without connecting first).

Re:iNexpensive?

[nomadic]

Weird, my iphone can easily go 3 or 4 days without charging if I put it on the Edge network (and I can still get 2-3 days on 3G if I don't use any special features beyond occasionally checking mail).

Re:iNexpensive?

[EastCoastSurfer]

And since it's not a standard USB plug, I couldn't just plug it in to the plethora of USB ports around.

Do many phones have USB on the phone side? From my experience, the iPhone cable plugs into any USB port and will charge from it. You're right on the phone side it is a special connector (ipod connector), but every phone I've owned has been like that.

BTW, the iphone cable is just a standard ipod cable. Even people who don't own ipods seem to have some of those around at this point lol.

Re:iNexpensive?

[LWATCDR]

The iPhone seems to be priced just about the same as most other smart phones and have the same contract requirements.
There are cheaper smart phones but none that offer as good of a browser. I am waiting for the Pre myself but the price will be about the same. Sprints contract is cheaper and I have had no problems with Sprint as a carrier. I don't like AT&T because of the cost, I am not fond of Verizon because of cost and they tend to cripple phones, and TMobile doesn't offer 3 g in my area yet.

Re:iNexpensive?

[twitchingbug]

Not true. It's the perfect accessory. My girlfriend will tell you so!

Re:iNexpensive?

[alta]

Well, it's a 2G... So no extra power drain on 3G.

I also have to turn off Wifi, and make an effort to NOT use the phone for ipod/browsing/etc. I carry it for calls (at most 10 on the weekend) but don't play with it for anything else.

Re:iNexpensive?

[no1nose]

I know the BlackBerry Curve and Motorola Razr both use standard shaped USB ports. Although the Razr has some DRM to keep you from using non-approved charging sources.

Re:iNexpensive?

[The Qube]

As a developer, I'm a lot more excited by the 3.0 software than the hardware itself. Yes, the new hardware will (hopefully) increase the market size, but the 3.0 software has some really exciting things from a business perspective. The key to these things is in-app purchase capability.
Apple has had enough feedback from serious developers that the bottom end of the market ($1-$2 apps) is too low to sustain any serious development/business effort. The ability to make additional money from the customers to whom you've already sold your $1 app (ie. practically given it away at that price), will satisfy the existing serious developers and hopefully attract other ones.
The current model is simply not sustainable. For me for example, I sell my app, Virtual Cricket, at $1. With the cost of the professional data sources which provide live scores and commentary to all cricket matches around the world, this would require a very high sustained level of new customers just to break even, let alone make money. In-game purchases will allow some conversion of the existing customer base for subscription to higher-end content etc.
This is where the market must go to go away from your iBeer and iFart type of efforts which do nothing to promote the platform as a serious marketplace.

Re:iNexpensive?

[AvitarX]

As do at least some BlackBerrys

They will charge from wall wart with standard USB, but from computer you need an "approved" cord.

Re:iNexpensive?

[Dan541]

iPhone lacks standard features so your chance of getting a standard port is rare.

Re:iNexpensive?

[Late Adopter]

Nokia's most recent phones use Micro USB, which is the sanest thing I can think of to standardize on.

Re:iNexpensive?

[Zero__Kelvin]

If indeed this is true, it has nothing to do with DRM by definition. DRM is for controlling digital content, not as an arbiter to analog sources having nothing to do with content.

Re:iNexpensive?

[StikyPad]

Even people who don't own ipods seem to have some of those around at this point lol.

I don't. And yes, most smart phones do have mini USB ports on them.

That said, I'm still hoping a new iPhone will be released this month at the World Wide What Would Jesus aka Steve Jobs Do Conference so I can replace my dying Windows Mobile phone.

Re:iNexpensive?

[moosesocks]

I'll join the crowd. My LG enV2 has a micro-USB port for charging and data. Most recent LG phones are similar.

The only nice part about the iPhone's proprietary connector is that it works with old iPod accessories, and supports a few other functions such as Video Out (which, frankly, is a rather neat thing to have)

Re:iNexpensive?

[Anonymous Coward]

Basically all modern phones (but it doesn't surprise me if Apple has to be different) have USB's standard micro-B connector.

You can buy a suitable cable from any decent electronics store, or borrow one from anyone else with a modern phone or other tiny device that needs a small USB connector. The micro-B socket is electrically identical to a USB B socket (like you'd find on a printer or scanner), but with shorter life (tiny conductor pads wear out faster) and obviously much smaller.

By comparison there's a good chance no-one around has an "iPod cable" unless you know a lot of turtleneck wearng bozos, which I don't so far.

Re:iNexpensive?

[r_jensen11]

I'm getting a Nokia 5800 from Dell for $230 after $50 mail-in rebate and no contract. Roughly same up-front price, yet I get to stay month-to-month and use T-Mobile (which is ~$10 cheaper than AT&T for unlimited data. Combined with a $30/mo voice plan, and I'm "saving" over $20/mo because I'm not with AT&T. Additionally, I have a 15% off discount which discounts my plan by another $5-6/mo. Also, I don't have to worry about voiding my warranty for the phone when I choose to switch carriers.

After one year, my touch-screen smartphone will cost me ~$200-250 less than having an iPhone. In otherwords, I'm better off buying the Nokia than getting an iPhone for free.

Re:iNexpensive?

[k_187]

Charging blackberries from a computer usually requires that their driver be installed. I have no clue what happened to the original USB cable that came with mine and I charge it off my laptop all the time. Also, all current blackberries have either a mini- or micro- USB connector. I believe that's what the industry at large is standardizing on as well, so unless there's more wall wart lockout, not having a charger won't be a problem pretty soon.

Re:iNexpensive?

[recharged95]

iThinking, therefore iDifferently. Classic Apple.

Re:iNexpensive?

[Anonymous Coward]

not exactly. i don't know of any other modern smartphone that limits me to ~8gb of total storage, after charging me $500 for a phone. And you can't give me a single good technical reason to not include a microsd slot.

Re:iNexpensive?

[infosinger]

It depends on the signal strength in your area. I can go from days to hours depending on where I am with the phone. At home which is on the fringe I have to charge about every 12 hours. In town with full strength I can usually go 3-4 days as long as I am not playing games or talking excessively.

Re:iNexpensive?

[donny77]

Depends on what you mean by better off. If you rarely use the web browser because it sucks and I use my iPhones web browser everyday, then you paid less, but did you get better value? What was your price per megabyte versus my price per megabyte on my iPhone? I'm not saying your wrong, just price isn't everything.

Re:iNexpensive?

[donny77]

I can't name another phone that gives you more than 640k WITHOUT buying a memory card after you already paid $500 for a phone, oh wait, I can the 16 GB iPhone. It's all relative. How often do you swap memory cards to get more space?

Re:iNexpensive?

[SlashWombat]

Next thing you know, you'll be able to use it to make a phone call!

Re:iNexpensive?

[Anonymous Coward]

Excel (Temples fingers) lent

Re:iNexpensive?

[mdwh2]

I'm not sure what you're really saying here, but just about all phones have built-in memory of a few MBs at least, with the memory card on top - but moreover, memory card phones typically come with a memory card included in the place. I mean, when Nokia advertise their 8GB or 16GB models, I presume that's included in the price.

How often do you swap memory cards to get more space?

Often enough that it matters. E.g., 5 years ago my phone had 256MB which was large at the time. About a year ago, I upgraded it to 2GB for about a fiver. Without that option, I'd still be stuck at 256MB, or have to buy a complete new phone (both hassle, and costly).

Is it seriously true that the Iphone's memory isn't upgradeable?

Re:iNexpensive?

[vuffi_raa]

no, just iMprobabale

Re:iNexpensive?

[donny77]

I meant 64 MB, got my small memory ammounts confused. When I bought my Cingular 8550, I couldn't find one with more than 64 MB or ram. I would have loved 128 MB, but really wanted 256 MB minimum. Why? Memory cards are great for photos and files, but not so great for Apps. Especially mission critical apps like e-mail syncing software and battery/program management software.

That was 2 and a half years ago. Phones still typically come with only 64 MB or built in ram. Why? Yes it's cheap to buy a memory card, but that is all the more reason they should build in a descent amount. It would cost them nothing. A 64 MB HTC Advance costs the same as a 16 GB iPhone. I went with the iPhone for more than just the stored memory, but it was one of a long list of features that tipped the scales for Apple.

Yes, the iPhone lacks a memory slot, but 16 GB is plenty, with a 32 GB model coming out in a month for thoes that 16 is not enough for. By the time I upgrade to a new iPhone I will probably be able to get a 64 or 128GB model! Yes the iPhone doesn't "multi-task", but I can only see one program on the screen at a time anyways. I have yet to say to myself, "I wish I could run two programs right now." What the iPhone does have is a consistent user experience. All the programs have been responsive and have adequate speed for a mobile platform. Battery life has been acceptable, although I'd love it to be longer. The iPhone allows me to carry one device, which is what I wanted. I don't want to carry one device and a wallet of memory cards. I don't want to carry one device and two spare batteries.

Re:iNexpensive?

[WillyDavidK]

hahaha I honestly laughed pretty hard at that one.

Re:iNexpensive?

[Deltaway]

iFunny is a registered Apple trademark and violations will not be tolerated. Please keep it real.

Thank you,
Apple Corporation Division for Digital Rights Management in the Complex Plane

Re:iNexpensive?

[metaforest]

Umm iPhone is a circa 1998 desktop-class computer, stuffed into a 11cm X 6cm X 0.5cm form factor with a qvga comparable display.

One of it's many embedded peripherals happens to be a 3G phone.

I think you misunderstand. It's not a Phone with an embedded computer module. It's a computer with an embedded Phone module.

Comparing an iPhone to a dedicated "dumb phone" is simply unfair. Even the Blackberries don't compare in terms of performance and capability....

Let's get real here.... the iPhone is really a PDA that has an embedded phone. Expecting it to perform like a dedicated phone, in terms of battery life is, IMO unreasonable.

Re:iNexpensive?

[thehumble1]

It is standardized: http://www.gsmworld.com/newsroom/press-releases/2009/2548.htm. Nokia just jumped ahead of others in standardizing it. Motorola has been working this way for years too, it's just as endemic now for other companies to use proprietary ports, so it's no surprise the Apple did, especially when the iPod cord is as ubiquitous as mini-usb cords is many houses.

Re:iNexpensive?

[thehumble1]

my iPhone was $100 "broken". I fixed it, unlocked and jailbroke it and am on a T-Mobile plan that I picked up on an internet swap site for 1000 min/month for $30. The point is that you are comparing Apples (he he) to oranges. A touch screen smart phone isn't an iPhone. Even Nokia couldn't get anything close to the integration and implementation of the iphone. After using an iPhone for a year, I'm pretty sure i'd be fine paying the extra $20/month to have it rather than a smart phone.

Re:iNexpensive?

[badkarmadayaccount]

Tell me, why the hell do you need a 3G phone just for calls? Nokia 1110 is a much better choice, by far.

Food please

[Anonymous Coward]

Food Please.

i'm Hungry

You mean the G1?

[CritterNYC]

"things like an auto-focus camera, video capture, and a compass"

You mean they're gonna release a G1?

Re:You mean the G1?

[Anonymous Coward]

Except the UI is going to NOT look like a 3 year old designed it.

Re:You mean the G1?

[CritterNYC]

I'll give up the shiny UI for the ability to install any app I want and a hardware keyboard.

Re:You mean the G1?

[Karganeth]

The G1 can not capture video.

Re:You mean the G1?

[Aladrin]

I own a G1, and since the 1.5 update, it -can- capture video.

Re:You mean the G1?

[Anonymous Coward]

um...yes it can, since the 1.5 update

Re:You mean the G1?

[za7ch]

Cupcake 1.5 fixed that.

Re:You mean the G1?

[RockClimbingFool]

The OS you are looking for is called Windows Mobile. Its been around a pretty long time and does not restrict anything you put on it.

As for hardware, I am using an HTC Touch Pro on Sprint. Sprint has the cheapest, fastest internet and pretty good coverage as well. The also don't seem to mind if you tether your phone to your laptop.

There is also several great communities of developers and users devoted to getting all you can out of windows mobile devices. Then have gotten to the point where you can download a "kitchen" with a bunch of precanned programs that you pick and choose from. You then create your own customized firmware with the apps you selected. Its great. Or create you own applications.

Check out http://www.ppcgeeks.com/

Re:You mean the G1?

[IamTheRealMike]

The 1.5 cupcake update added that exact ability. It's rolling out now.

Re:You mean the G1?

[icebike]

http://www.t3.com/news/android-cupcake-1-5-update-to-enable-video-capture-for-g1?=38641

The hardware is capable, but the software is not yet willing. That will be changed, - see above.

Note that this is the EXACT same situation as the iPhone. You have been able to shoot video on the iPhone once jailbroken.

Re:You mean the G1?

[Anonymous Coward]

you also give up your ass for any guy with a 10-inch cock.

Re:You mean the G1?

[EvanED]

Note that this is the EXACT same situation as the iPhone. You have been able to shoot video on the iPhone once jailbroken.

It's exactly the same, except that there's a fair chance that one of the two is (however unreasonably) illegal and in a community that is somewhat underground, while the other has freedom as at least somewhat of a distinguishing characteristic of the platform.

Re:You mean the G1?

[icebike]

But that freedom is not really intended for YOU, just for the carrier and handset manufacturer. Android TOS is getting tighter and tighter.

But in general I agree with your assessment of Apple's absurdly paranoid lock down of the phone and withholding features that the hardware is fully capable of simply because "Steve says NO".

I have come to believe that the Apple iPhone software development team is an extremely small group of people with the real talent concentrated in an even smaller subset. There is no other rational reason NOT to introduce features in software that the hardware is already capable of.

Re:You mean the G1?

[Hurricane78]

I didn't even know that there still are phones without video capture. Pretty much all phones here have one cam. Some have two (for video chat).

How much would you pay, If I'd send you one of these, from over here: http://translate.google.com/translate?prev=hp&hl=en&js=n&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.xonio.com%2Fbestenlisten%2FBestenliste-Handys--index%2Findex%2Fid%2F598%2F&sl=de&tl=en&history_state0= (autotranslated)

Re:You mean the G1?

[sremick]

The OS you are looking for is called Windows Mobile. Its been around a pretty long time and does not restrict anything you put on it.

As long as you don't mind running Windows on your cell phone. A lot of us have issues with it, and not just bias.

Sprint has the cheapest, fastest internet and pretty good coverage as well.

Cheapest. Fastest. Best. Choose 2. Oh wait, you have.

Sprint also has like no decent (usable) coverage to speak of in my state. Unless you happen to live in a city. And this is a state where our biggest "city" is only about 200,000 people.

Re:You mean the G1?

[Anonymous Coward]

Except the UI is going to NOT look like a 3 year old designed it.

Hear, hear! Spoken like a true MacHead! "Well, sure, that car IS faster, has more horsepower, is more fuel efficient, costs less, is more durable, and doesn't pollute as much as mine. But just LOOK at that hood ornament! I'm not letting THAT near my garage!"

Re:You mean the G1?

[pwfffff]

Grats, you're officially the first person I've ever heard take issue with Android's UI.

Now would you like to tell us WHY you think a three year old designed it?

Re:You mean the G1?

[Anonymous Coward]

There's the problem with the Slashdot zeitgeist - y'all think usability is ornamentation when in reality it's the most important part of any device.

But hey, keep preaching your bullshit and struggle to get anything Open Source that's intended for actual end users to crawl up to a full 1% market share. I'll be watching, pointing, and laughing the whole time.

Re:You mean the G1?

[Maury Markowitz]

> 'all think usability is ornamentation when in reality it's the most important part of any device

Yeah, I'm still waiting for The Great Linux Desktop Takeover. After all, the only people that could possibly prefer anything over Linux are sheeple, right? And who cares about them?

Maury

Re:You mean the G1?

[yodleboy]

"The OS you are looking for is called Windows Mobile. Its been around a pretty long time and does not restrict anything you put on it."

Not always, like many other mobile features, this can and often is also disabled by the carrier. I've had HTC and moto smartphones (winMo) that flat out refuse to install apps OR require the app to have a certificate. At least with the iphone, if it's on the store, it will install and work.

the kind of people willing to "create your own customized firmware" for a winMo phone are the kind equally comfortable jailbreaking an iphone. The average joe is NOT comfortable with either of these and for them the issue of "restriction" is largely a non issue. The kind of apps that require a hacked handset are probably not what they're looking for anyway.

my only real gripe with the apple app model is the cost of entry for devs. I don't have mac and I'm not going to buy one just to write an app. At least on a winMo device, I was able to load up visual studio and write an app. Yes, VS costs money, but you can get cheap copies of VS all over the place. Cheaper than a mac anyway.

Re:You mean the G1?

[undef]

I have an HTC Pro with ATT. The hardware itself is cool.

However, Windows Mobile is frustratingly slow, disorganized and unreliable.

Press a softkey and you can get GUI feedback that the button was pressed without the OS or app actually taking that action. That's bad enough, but when button presses can take 1 or 2 seconds to execute because of all the bloated WM overhead, then you don't know if you need to press the button again or wait.

If you do press it again and WM was just lagging, then you get two presses. Nice design feature.

WM is designed first as a Microsoft platform, then as a phone. The phone features integration on WM on the HTC Pro is terrible. The phone screens are miserably organized for quick / easy use. The contacts features have inconsistent use of buttons and softkeys. The dial and phone buttons change meaning. Even the volume functions are poorly designed for quick changes. The Touchflow GUI that was poorly integrated on top of WM is pretty - pretty useless. After one or two superfluous menu levels, you end up in the original balky WM GUI, which is what they were trying to cover up anyway.

I haven't loaded any extra apps on it that might destabilize it, but I have to reboot it at least once a week.

Yeah, the HTC Pro with WM is wonderful. <gag>

Re:You mean the G1?

[Anonymous Coward]

But hey, keep preaching your bullshit and struggle to get anything Open Source that's intended for actual end users to crawl up to a full 1% market share. I'll be watching, pointing, and laughing the whole time.

You're laughing at Firefox? You must be like some crazy homeless guy, laughing at passers-by for wearing shoes.

Re:You mean the G1?

[mdwh2]

Only on an Apple article would an ad hominem get +5 insightful.

Care to explain why the UI is better than all other phones, using evidence, reasoning, and objective examples, as opposed to ad hominems, vague subjective claims, or the "But You Just Have To Use It" claims that we typically get? Or will my honest question just be hidden by the mods so the reasonable questions don't even have to be answered?

Re:You mean the G1?

[mdwh2]

You have been able to shoot video on the iPhone once jailbroken.

Apple - it Just Works!

But seriously, this is even worse - it's capable, but Apple decided to disallow it?

Now to submit my Slashdot article about my five year old Motorola V980, I heard a rumour that it does video Out Of The Box. Obviously this is earth shattering news that everyone must hear about.

Re:You mean the G1?

[mdwh2]

Personally I think that usability is of utmost important. But despite all their claims, it's rare for someone making this claim of the Iphone, or any Apple product, to explain why. Usability isn't some mystical property - or indeed, an ornamenation. It's something that can be measured objectively - and hell, we had better be able to do this, if it is really so important. Add to that the fact that it lacks fundamental UI features such as copy/paste, or that the phone needs to be hacked to get basic features such as tethering working (so much for Just Works), it makes me rather suspicious of all the unsupported claims people make of its UI.

But hey, keep preaching your bullshit and struggle to get anything Open Source that's intended for actual end users to crawl up to a full 1% market share.

So we're mocking platforms that don't have great market share? Well I guess OS X is crappy too, as far more people use Windows. And Apple aren't doing great against Nokia either, when it comes to phones.

Re:You mean the G1?

[farmer11]

You can get Android running on a bunch of the HTC phones . Not sure if it works well enough to use full time...

Re:You mean the G1?

[dunkelfalke]

Signing is only required for apps writing special registry keys or installing some drivers. You can easily change the security policy just by changing a registry key (nowhere near like jailbreak) and without losing warranty.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Security\Policies\Policies]
DWORD 00001005

if the value of that DWORD is 0 then unsigned CABs won't install. Set the value to 16, it is a safe value which gives the unsigned CABs the normal level access. If you really trust your software, set the value to 8 (Admin rights).

Additionally, you can set the DWORD 0000101a to 1 so you won't be bothered with the warning that the software you want to install is unsigned.

After the registry change, switch the screen of and on and reboot the device.

Re:You mean the G1?

[escay]

nice bait. i'll bite.

i can tell you sugar is sweet. if you ask me what sweet is, will you be equally adamant in accepting my answer, "but i cannot objectively explain that - you just have to taste it!" ? Is that too vaguely subjective for you? sometimes just experiencing it is the only way (or at least, the best way) to understand something. particularly an experience, such as usage of a UI.

I can try to be objective here, but let me point you to something that will do a much better job - look at the iPhone ads (particularly the old ones, not the new ones with the apps). They are small 30 sec nibbles of what the iPhone UI is like - and how easily useful it is. Like the one where you want to find a sushi place - it will give you directions, reviews and a phone number to call and make a reservation - all within an extremely simple UI where you don't have to hunt for the info one by one. The speed and simplicity with which you can accomplish this is - and I'm avoiding hyperbole here lest you think I am just another giddy fanboi - quite a welcome relief. this is really what the iPhone is about - utility in simplicity - not flashy games or pointless apps or mere cool factor. i sincerely wish you could shed your unreasonable antipathy towards actually trying to use the iPhone UI, so you can be a better judge of it yourself.

Re:You mean the G1?

[Zero__Kelvin]

"The OS you want to avoid like the plague is called Windows Mobile. "

Forget the fact that the AC was a troll and the G1 GUI blows the competition away for a moment. Nobody in their right mind wants a phone that runs anything from Microsoft. I once mistakenly bought one and received a data bill that was outrageous, especially since I never used the data features like browser, etc. Knowing that M$ garbage was at the core of things I told them that there was a bug in Windows. I troubleshot this based solely on the fact that I know what garbage M$ produces. Aftersome back and forth with T-Mobile customer service (and they are very reasonable) they finally dug into the issue and discovered - !surprise - that a flaw in Windows Mobile was to blame. They fixed the billing error and I ditched the phone.

"There is also several great communities of developers and users devoted to getting all you can out of windows mobile devices."

If only there was some kind of clearly superior FOSS alternative that was based on a stable secure OS like Linux. We could call the platform Android, and release it to the world for all to build upon. If we couldn't have it that good, at least we could use some kind of FreeBSD derivative. We could call it an iPhone.

Re:You mean the G1?

[Zero__Kelvin]

"Yeah, I'm still waiting for The Great Linux Desktop Takeover."

You missed it. The event horizon has been crossed (years ago). Just because many more people own Ford Taurus' than other cars does not mean that we are still waiting for the Lamborghini to catch up with the Taurus.

Re:You mean the G1?

[Zero__Kelvin]

The AC was a troll. You'd have to be a deaf, dumb, blind moron not to realize that The Astonishing Tribe beats the competition. In fact I worked directly with QT developers who confessed to me that they were asking at Trolltech (Now Nokia): "Why can't we do this?"

Re:You mean the G1?

[ScrewMaster]

Sprint has the cheapest, fastest internet and pretty good coverage as well.

I had Sprint (aka the Comcast of the cell phone world) for a few years. Couldn't wait for the damn contract to run out. Every month it was something else I had to call them on: overbilling, fraudulent charges, supposed video downloads on a phone that doesn't support video, SMS spam that they would charge me 25c each for when I had unlimited text messaging, unintelligible customer support ... no thanks. You can have them.

I am NOT a fan of Apple Computer, but I wanted a reasonably smart phone. I was looking for something I could maybe develop some apps for without having to get into the Mac world, a place I don't want to be. I hack Windows code for a living nowadays, and frankly I didn't want to be there either. Consequently, I went out a couple months ago and picked up a G1 from T-Mobile. Yeah, they don't like tethering and that irks me (I suspect that at some point they're going to have to give in on that, because it's something a lot of customers seem to want) but I've had ZERO problems with either the phone, the service or T-Mobile's support. Since the recent Cupcake update I've been especially pleased. The thing has never crashed, I've never had to reboot it (unlike every Windows Mobile user I know.) Sure, many of the apps aren't as polished as the iPhone's (yet) but that's not a primary consideration for me. The GUI also has some nice features. In any event, there are some specific things I wanted my phone to do, and the G1 performs them admirably.

Sprint. Gagh.

Re:You mean the G1?

[ScrewMaster]

Yes, VS costs money, but you can get cheap copies of VS all over the place. Cheaper than a mac anyway.

Of course, the entire Android SDK is free, supports a number of different IDEs (I've been playing around with Eclipse: kind of a steep learning curve but hey, it's free) and a developer sign-up only takes a couple minutes only and costs a whopping 25 bucks. At least on my G1, you are not required to download apps from the Android Market either: there's a checkbox in settings that allows installation of non-Market apps.

So, for the time being Google is being relatively benign. Yeah, they did pull tethering apps from the U.S. market (which pissed me off) but they don't insist that you go through their store to get hold of Android software.

Re:You mean the G1?

[mdwh2]

i can tell you sugar is sweet. if you ask me what sweet is, will you be equally adamant in accepting my answer, "but i cannot objectively explain that - you just have to taste it!" ? Is that too vaguely subjective for you? sometimes just experiencing it is the only way (or at least, the best way) to understand something. particularly an experience, such as usage of a UI.

So I see you adopted for the "vague subjective claims" option. I'm not sure what your argument is - things such as sweetness can be objectively defined and measured. But even if it couldn't, it would be a fallacy to claim that because we can't define sweetness, we therefore can't define a good UI. Moreover, even if we accept that a good UI is purely subjective, then you've lost, because whether the Iphone is good or not is purely a personal opinion, and no longer a fact, and people who claim other phones have the best UI are just as correct as you are.

Honestly, this sounds like a theist's "But atheists believe in love!" claim in order to justify their claim of "God exists" - except it's "Sugar is sweet" in order to justify "The Iphone has the best UI".

look at the iPhone ads

I would prefer to be told here, rather than subject myself to even more Apple marketing (what with the emails they spam me with, and the daily Slashdot stories)...

Like the one where you want to find a sushi place - it will give you directions, reviews and a phone number to call and make a reservation - all within an extremely simple UI where you don't have to hunt for the info one by one.

At last, an example, thank you. Sounds like Google maps. Although to be honest, I think this is more of an "application features", rather than user interface - unless you can explain something about that interface that makes it better than the same applications in other phones. And "feature lists" are often hand-waved away by Iphone fans as not being important. But still, this is the sort of thing I do like to hear more about - useful applications on a range of phones - so thank you for the example.

i sincerely wish you could shed your unreasonable antipathy towards actually trying to use the iPhone UI, so you can be a better judge of it yourself.

"But You Just Have To Use It". Sorry, I haven't used the Iphone. There are loads of phones I haven't used - I bet the same is true for you too. You suggest that not spending thousands of pounds on every phone is "unreasonable antipathy"? If you're going to claim the Iphone is the best, without having used all other phones yourself, then you'd better be able to justify that, rather than expecting us to use your phone.

Re:You mean the G1?

[centuren]

I own a G1, and since the 1.5 update, it -can- capture video.

This is one of the annoying things about a G1: I haven't had an easy time finding solid sources of information about it's current usability. Google searches are flooded with G1 reviews from expert sites, but they seem to all be from it's initial release in 2008. Then there are the community forums, which are full of G1 owners who have no need to offer a comprehensive look at how their G1 functions today, since the other forums members all have one.

It seems like Google and T-Mobile might do better with the G1 if they refocused on getting it in the public eye again.

Re:You mean the G1?

[macshome]

To be fair he's talking about UrbanSpoon, not the iPhone OS. As someone who travels a LOT for work it is an irreplaceable app for me.

Re:You mean the G1?

[anethema]

Maybe you weren't reading the GP's post.

He doesn't care about the UI. He wants the ability to install his own apps at any cost without having to go through the frustratingly difficult process of jailbreaking (You know, 30 seconds on a windows/mac computer)

Even though he can easily have both, he would seemingly rather give up the UI to have the manufacturer provide his freedom for him.

Re:You mean the G1?

[Anonymous Coward]

When will some developers learn that it is not always easy to provide objective examples in a field that has to deal with a lot of subjectivity? This, of course, subscribes to the idea that good software should be user-friendly, despite what you may think about the habits of the users.

Re:You mean the G1?

[recharged95]

Just trying cupcake and honestly, once you use a keyboard, you'll never go back to a virtual keyboard. Never.

Re:You mean the G1?

[moosesocks]

I don't care how "shiny" the UI is. I care about how *functional* it is.

Right now, the iPhone wins both categories hands-down. The G1's UI frankly looks amateur. Blackberry's UI is ok for email, but is cumbersome for anything else.

Palm's webOS looks extremely promising, and that it might be a worthy competitor. Unfortunately, early reports indicate that the Pre's hardware isn't terribly great.

Re:You mean the G1?

[ceoyoyo]

I've used one of those little tiny phone keyboards. I wasn't impressed. I like the iPhone virtual keyboard WAY better.

Re:You mean the G1?

[Snocone]

Care to explain why the UI is better than all other phones, using evidence,

Sure thing. A good UI is one that chicks dig. (If you didn't understand that already, my condolences on your lack of social life.) The female percentage of the non-iPhone personal smartphone market bounces around between 6%-8%. The iPhone, on the other hand, has a female buyer percentage encroaching upon 30%.

QED.

Re:You mean the G1?

[moosesocks]

UI design is largely a subjective field. However, there is a significant body of research that states that aesthetics do play a key role in usability. Other aspects such as typeface selection play a big role as well.

That said, we can do objective analyses such as counting the number of clicks or keypresses required to complete a certain task, or using a stopwatch to track the amount of time that it takes a novice user to figure out how to use the UI to perform a given task. Apple are notorious for performing formal UI testing and QA on all of their products. Most phone manufacturers are....not.

It's fairly easy to see how moving every aspect of the UI onto the touchscreen would approve Apple's rankings in these objective analyses. Virtually any function of the phone can be accessed with 2-3 "clicks." Apple have also gone through considerable lengths to avoid the use of any sort of "menus" for common tasks in their applications. There are no hidden options or features. Multitouch is also another big plus, and is extremely intuitive.

For starters, the included suite of applications is fairly comprehensive. You could be quite happy without ever visiting the app store. (I know this is subjective, although I do think it's important to mention that Apple *have* covered all the bases here -- things such as the built-in weather and stock quote apps are nice touches, considering that many users will check them frequently. It would reflect poorly upon the UI if users had to resort to the web-browser for the most common tasks)

The maps application is, in all honesty, probably the high point for the iPhone (and yes, it's almost *exactly* like Google Maps, which is widely regarded as a quality application with a good interface). The multitouch interface works particularly well for viewing maps by panning, zooming, etc. There are also a few 3rd-party applications for viewing subway/mass-transit maps in a similar fashion (I'm not sure if Google Transit has been integrated yet). This alone makes the iPhone an invaluable tool to many. I can say from experience that a simple map search (say for the nearest Pizza place) takes me under 30 seconds on an iPhone, as opposed to a little over a minute with a Blackberry.

Visual Voicemail is another feature that showcases the UI. Voicemail is indexed, retrieved, and managed via the UI, rather than by calling in. It boggles my mind why Apple were the first ones to think of this, given how obvious it is.

Most applications work in portrait and landscape mode. The iPhone automatically senses which way you're holding it, and adjusts itself automatically.

The web browser faithfully renders pages according to standards (most phones don't). Once again, the multitouch interface makes it easy to scroll, pan, and zoom, while the orientation sensor allows you to hold the phone in either orientation.

Recognizing the trend that SMS is frequently used for continuous chats, conversations are grouped and threaded (a la GMail)

The music player preserves the essence of the iPod UI. This is familiar to many users, and has been studied and discussed ad nauseum elsewhere. Most people seem to like it.

Music purchased "over the air" is DRM-free, and may be synced back to your computer. I don't know of any other provider that allows this.

On the more mundane side of things, Apple clearly put a lot of effort into their predictive keyboard. Although this is once again subjective, many people (including those with big hands) find that it works much better than the average touchscreen keyboard.

Is that subjective enough for you?

Re:You mean the G1?

[Anonymous Coward]

Or my N95-8GB, does focusing and all, records video at 5 MP.

Re:You mean the G1?

[Hanzie]

parent +1 clearly and concisely replying with well thought out examples and intelligent discussion

Re:You mean the G1?

[Zero__Kelvin]

I love it when idiots mod factual posts as flamebait because they are jealous that they can't suck the shit off Bill Gates' dick after he fucks them up the ass ...

Re:You mean the G1?

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude! You rock!

Re:You mean the G1?

[Anonymous Coward]

Obviously you haven't used the G1 keyboard.

When you slide out its physical keyboard, your device becomes twice as large. And your fingers can remember the position of the keys.

With the iPhone virtual keyboard the virtual keys cover most of your screen, so that you don't see the context inwhich you are typing.

 

Re:You mean the G1?

[Aladrin]

It hasn't really changed a lot since launch. The 1.5 update brought a few visual changes, it's a little snappier (less lag on the menus, etc), it has an on-screen keyboard, and can capture video.

The previous update brought some cool features like being able to see where your friends are on the maps program.

All-in-all, the new features are never mind-blowing, but then... It isn't a whole version upgrade.

http://source.android.com/release-features should be what you're looking for.

Re:You mean the G1?

[teh kurisu]

I've used a BlackBerry 7290, BlackBerry Bold, Nokia E61 and a Nokia E71 (all QWERTY), and I've always gone back to my iPhone. The E71 is the only keyboard that even comes close, but you can't type with a feather touch like you can on an iPhone, and you can't type fast without worrying about missing keys like you can on an iPhone.

I tried the G1 in a T-Mobile shop once, and I wasn't impressed. On the face of it the keyboard was easier to type on than the BBs and Nokias, but it was awkward to hold as the lip was in the way, and it was impossible to use one-handed. With the iPhone you at least have the option.

I was quite interested in the Palm Pre until I realised that it used a slide-out keyboard, and after reading an early review of the handset in which they slated the keyboard, I'm not even considering buying one.

Re:You mean the G1?

[teh kurisu]

I'd say it's more like comparing a Lotus Exige with a big American muscle car that's had its controls replaced with those out of a Model T. Sure, the Exige has a comparatively tiny engine, only takes one passenger and doesn't have much boot space, but it's controllable and will go round a corner when you ask it to.

Re:You mean the G1?

[FictionPimp]

I REALLY wanted a G1, but I had a choice ATT w/ 3g service, or Tmobile with no 3g service.

So I went ATT and because the G1's 3g doesn't support ATT I had to buy an iPhone. I have been happy with it, but I think I would of been happier with the G1.

Re:You mean the G1?

[mdwh2]

On the contrary, it's bad developers who think that UI is some mystical subjective thing, and that's why we end up with a UI that they think looks cool but is actually flawed, or we give up fundamental UI features such as copy/paste.

A good UI developer is aware of what objective things make up what a user subjectively perceives as a "good UI" (e.g., Fitts's law).

Re:You mean the G1?

[mdwh2]

A good UI is one that chicks dig. (If you didn't understand that already, my condolences on your lack of social life.)

Ah, another ad hominem.

The female percentage of the non-iPhone personal smartphone market bounces around between 6%-8%. The iPhone, on the other hand, has a female buyer percentage encroaching upon 30%.

I suspect that the percentage of mobile phones is close to 50%. Of course, you've done the trick of redefining the market to the ill-defined "smart phone". The problem with this is that most phones these days do what "smart" phones did in the past (e.g., Internet access, running programs). It's not clear why the Iphone gets counted as a "smart" phone, when other decent phones don't, when it misses out on basic features. Also, that market is biased, because it's going to include all the "smart" phones from years ago, when they were more of a "geek" thing.

Put it another way - what are the stats from a high end phone today from Nokia or Motorola? I suspect that they too will be higher, and it's only older "smart" phones that pull the percentage figure down.

And to be honest, as long as other companies are selling more phones (which Nokia are), I'm not sure why proportion of women matters, anymore than say proportion of people with different coloured hair - unless you're seriously suggesting buying an Iphone to think women will like you, in which case, my condolences on your lack of social life.

If it was really true that gender usage is an indicator of a good UI (which is one of the more ludicrous claims I've heard), then 30% sounds shockingly low - the much cheaper bog standard phones with a high share have, by your own argument, a far better UI than the Iphone, so you've disproved the claim yourself.

Re:You mean the G1?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll give up the shiny UI for the ability to install any app I want and a hardware keyboard.

And I'll give up sleep for sex. Has about as much to do with the iPhone as your post. There will NEVER be a hardware keyboard for the iPhone. They will probably NEVER let you install anything that isn't from the App Store without jailbreaking. We've known this from the beginning and if you don't like it, don't buy the phone or just shut up already. No, it isn't the perfect phone, but no one here gives a shit why you, some random greasy nerd in a basement somewhere, doesn't have one. No one cares. Not even your mommy. Go ahead and tell her I said that when she comes downstairs to bring you your hotpockets.

Re:You mean the G1?

[Anonymous Coward]

Pretty generic. The same could be said about the G1.

Re:You mean the G1?

[angel'o'sphere]

You want an reasonable explanaition for a subjective experience?

Why don't you go into the store and try an iPhone yourself instead, would make much more sense ^^

angel'o'sphere

Re:You mean the G1?

[angel'o'sphere]

Ah, another ad hominem.

You seem either not to know what an ad hominem actually is or have a very broad interpretation of it.

No one is attacking you, or is a half joke comment about your social life an attack? If so your parent is probably right ^^

angel'o'sphere

Chances are..

[Finallyjoined!!!]

Apple themselves leaked the pictures, after all they are the masters of "media" manipulation.

After all's said & done; it's just made the front page of /. :-)

Re:Chances are..

[alvinrod]

Why the hell would Apple leak it when it can just as easily make the front page of Slashdot next week when they show off the new features at WWDC. More than likely this is mostly crap designed to drive up page hits for some goon's blog or third rate website. Apple has no real reason to release this information before they actually want to do so.

Hell, I could easily go grab some crap digital camera and take a picture with it that looks slightly better than a current generation iPhone and then watch as the traffic comes flying in my direction. Add a few other blurry shots of what looks like an iPhone and I've all but ensured the legion of fans and fanatics will turn my web server into pile of ash from all the traffic.

Slashdot probably only decided to link to the story for the same reason everyone else is doing it: It's going to get a large number of people to click on the link and drive up the stats for advertisement purposes.

Re:Chances are..

[0100010001010011]

Given that it's in Chinese, how do we know this isn't one of the Dozen iPhone clones running around? Most look pretty dang close (The Chinese Cloners really need to hire a UI guy to get all their MP5 players sorted out).

Re:Chances are..

[Anonymous Coward]

Why the hell would Apple leak it when it can just as easily make the front page of Slashdot next week when they show off the new features at WWDC.

You answered your own question pretty damn quickly there....

Re:Chances are..

[Aladrin]

"Why the hell would Apple leak it when it can just as easily make the front page of Slashdot next week"

Because now they've made the front page twice. Or more, knowing Slashdot.

Re:Chances are..

[icebike]

Apple would never leak such utterly crappy shots.

Re:Chances are..

[Anonymous Coward]

Why the hell would Apple leak it when it can just as easily make the front page of Slashdot next week when they show off the new features at WWDC.

Two words: Palm Pre. I doubt apple is highly worried about it, but man it makes people think twice about getting one if iPhone 3.0 is THIS close.

Re:Chances are..

[Anonymous Coward]

In the future, we don't call 'em MP3s. We call 'em MP48s.

Re:Chances are..

[CambodiaSam]

I hate to say this, but the front page of /. has not been a good indicator of business success. If it was, then Linux would be King of the Desktop OS, and the EU would be preparing antitrust litigation against RedHat.

However, I do agree with your main point. I wouldn't be surprised if this was their way of marketing the new product. How much is it costing them? About $0?

Re:Chances are..

[Gilmoure]

I prefer the German MP5 player.

Re:Chances are..

[Finallyjoined!!!]

:-) That was my intended point, $0. Some of the best value "Marketing" known to man; get the chattering classes talking about something, ostensibly from a third party and denied strenuously by the principal. Nice.

Now go back up the thread and read some of the utter tripe posted about page hits blah, blah, Apple wouldn't, blah, blah, Apple this, Apple that, integrity. Tosh.

If there's one thing I've learned in my half century on this planet: Corporations do nothing that's remotely altruistic.

My next lecture is at the Wigmore Hall :-)

Re:Chances are..

[Anonymous Coward]

Nowadays there are no releases, there's just leaks. Real original.

Apple are scum suckers, don't buy their shit.

Re:Chances are..

[The End Of Days]

I dunno that Slashdot users are that much of a concern for Apple. People around here like their computers cheap with interfaces from the 70s. That's not exactly Apple's target market.

Re:Chances are..

[mdwh2]

Why the hell would Apple leak it when it can just as easily make the front page of Slashdot next week when they show off the new features at WWDC.

Because it's twice as much publicity.

Only Apple get three times the publicity hype that everyone else gets - one story for the product, one for the announcement, and one for the rumour about the announcement. Hell, some products don't even get the story for the product, even when it's from a phone company with much larger market share, that's implemented the features years ago. Sigh - I remember when Slashdot and geek was about being intersted in new cutting edge technology, but hey, I guess rumour of a niche phone doing something a few years later is now sTuff tHat mAtters for nerds.

Re:Chances are..

[centuren]

Leaking product update news isn't Apple's MO. Their history (as I recall it) has always been to stay tight-lipped until official announcement dates, leading to great frustration in many customers who purchased an Apple product only to have a better / cheaper version come out the following week.

What would Steve Jobs say?

[Anonymous Coward]

I am Steve Jobs and I am here to ask you a question:
Is a man not entitled to an iPhone?

No, says the man in Washington; it belongs to the poor.
No, says the man in the Vatican; it belongs to God.
No, says the man in Moscow; it belongs to everyone.

I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different.
I chose the impossible.
I chose ... Apple.

Re:What would Steve Jobs say?

[Anonymous Coward]

Would you kindly, sign this contract.

Would you kindly, pay these fees.

Re:What would Steve Jobs say?

[James Skarzinskas]

Are we not men? We are Apple.

Re:What would Steve Jobs say?

[filthpickle]

God made man....but he used the monkey to do it!

great song.

Where did the phone come from?

[Anonymous Coward]

Where did those chinese people get the phone from? When manufactured, the phone's firmware is just a dummy bootloader to prevent those ridiculous chinese people from stealing the firmware. So how could these guys get their hands on a new iPhone?

Re:Where did the phone come from?

[Anonymous Coward]

firmware 3.0 is already freely available for developers

Re:Where did the phone come from?

[CarpetShark]

racist much?

Re:Where did the phone come from?

[Anonymous Coward]

Chinese is not a race, it's a nationality.

Re:Where did the phone come from?

[Anonymous Coward]

from your mom

Re:Where did the phone come from?

[cayenne8]

"Chinese is not a race, it's a nationality."

Race, nationality, ethnicity...what's the difference? Chinese == Chinese.

Re:Where did the phone come from?

[Anonymous Coward]

A+ unpopular truth.

Next you'll be shouted down for referring to people in the U.S. as Americans but not people from Columbia...

I'm confused

[Monkeedude1212]

I thought the iPhone already had an autofocus camera in it, and that it had a GPS (thus making a compas possible). Either I'm thinking of something else, (maybe a smart phone? I can't keep up with phones nowadays), or none of this is anything more then cool app-work.

Re:I'm confused

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

...it had a GPS (thus making a compas possible).

A GPS and a compass are two different things, with slightly different and complimentary features. A GPS tells you where you are. A compass tells you which direction is north. Together they can tell you to turn around and go the other way even if you're not moving. Together they can tell you the building in front of you is the library and the one to your left is the brothel.

Re:I'm confused

[EkriirkE]

A GPS "compass" is just a heading indicator; the direction of travel between 2 samplings. This new compass supposedly is magnet (earth's core) sensing - presumably if you hold a magnet nearby you could see which pole is facing the device and on what edge.

Re:I'm confused

[emocomputerjock]

Now if only the library and brothel were complimentary, that I would consider progress.

Re:I'm confused

[Monkeedude1212]

Right, but I figured most of today's GPS technology just based your direction on your last known movement, which is why when I back out of my driveway - the GPS assumes I was facing south but really was just moving south heading north. But now thinking about it, I suppose for a phone which doesn't move half as much as a vehicle, a compass of that design wouldn't work. Thus using the whole magnetic north pole thing would be more useful.

Re:I'm confused

[internerdj]

Together they can tell you the building in front of you is the library and the one to your left is the brothel.
Don't know about where you live, but my city makes it pretty easy to distinguish between the two when I'm standing in front of them... Of course, there is probably an app for that...

Re:I'm confused

[Anonymous Coward]

How did you know where I'm standing?!

Re:I'm confused

[afabbro]

...it had a GPS (thus making a compas possible).

A GPS and a compass are two different things, with slightly different and complimentary features. A GPS tells you where you are. A compass tells you which direction is north.

No shit, Sherlock.

The parent was pointing out that he thought the iPhone already had a GPS. If you have a GPS, then you also have a compass, because any GPS can compute North. Hence, because he thought the iPhone had a GPS, he didn't understand why they were "adding" a compass.

We all know what the difference is between a GPS and a compass.

Re:I'm confused

[scorp1us]

The compass is mostly useless, for those of us that can orient a map (but not everyone was a Boy Scout). Apple doesn't ever have a single-feature addition, as if a compass screen was all you got. No, think Google StreetView integration and maps that automatically rotate.

Re:I'm confused

[schon]

If you have a GPS, then you also have a compass, because any GPS can compute North

Umm, what?!?!?! That statement makes absolutely no sense.

It knows *where* north is, but unless you're moving, it has no way of relaying that information to you, because it can't know the direction it's facing (which is what a compass does.)

We all know what the difference is between a GPS and a compass

Evidently you don't.

Re:I'm confused

[BitZtream]

Any GPS will also give you a heading based on your movement, which can be used to create a compass like display.

The fact is most consumer GPS units do exactly this.

The doesn't mean Apple added an electronic compas to the device, it just means they are displaying something on a compass dial.

If you're willing to pay for it, I'll whip you out a quick compass app that will work great as long as you are moving at a reasonable speed so GPS inaccuracy/jitter doesn't throw it off too much. It'll work on your 3G phone just fine.

Re:I'm confused

[mea37]

A GPS and a magnetic compass are two different things.

A number of non-magnetic direction-finding devices can also be called a compass, and one of those happens to be a GPS (with a bit of software). Of course, different types of compass have different limitations.

For example, a magnetic compass can be thrown off by local magnetic fields, etc.; but it can find direction even when you stand still (and, I suppose, you don't have to know if your frame of reference is moving to read it correctly).

You can avoid both sets of problems using a gyroscope-based compass, but that's not always practical.

Re:I'm confused

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

If you have a GPS, then you also have a compass, because any GPS can compute North.

This is untrue. A GPS can tell you what your coordinates are but not which way your device is facing relative to north. If you're moving it assumes the GPS is facing the direction of travel, which is not always the case. When you aren't moving it gets quickly confused.

Hence, because he thought the iPhone had a GPS, he didn't understand why they were "adding" a compass.

The iPhone does have GPS. They're rumored to be adding an internal compass so the iPhone will also know what direction it is facing and can use that to accurately point out objects and give better directions. Most commercial GPS units include a compass as well these days.

We all know what the difference is between a GPS and a compass.

Apparently some of us are confused about the relative capabilities though.

Re:I'm confused

[Gilmoure]

If we can put a man on the moon (or could, at one time), I say that now is the time to have brothel libraries (and librarians, of course). We do not do this because it is hard... um, ok, actually, we do do this because it is hard.

Re:I'm confused

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

The compass is mostly useless, for those of us that can orient a map (but not everyone was a Boy Scout). Apple doesn't ever have a single-feature addition, as if a compass screen was all you got.

The rumor is about a hardware compass being added, not a compass application. I assume the functionality would be integrated into the maps and available for other applications.

Re:I'm confused

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

A number of non-magnetic direction-finding devices can also be called a compass...

True.

...and one of those happens to be a GPS (with a bit of software).

Well, a GPS device moving at a sufficient speed, with the right software, which is aligned by the user in the direction of travel, could qualify as a compass. The problem is the iPhone often does not meet these criteria. The iPhone is often not moving or not moving quickly enough to make up for the inaccuracy of the GPS system. Further, it is not always aligned with the direction of travel.

It has been rumored for some time, this deficiency will be solved by adding a magnetometer chip, specifically Asahi Kasei's azimuth sensor No. AK8973.

Re:I'm confused

[EvanED]

More proof /. needs a (-1, wrong) mod.

Re:I'm confused

[Kagura]

We do not do this because it is hard... um, ok, actually, we do do this because it is hard.

That's what she said.

Re:I'm confused

[nsayer]

I thought the iPhone already had an autofocus camera in it,

No, it has a fixed focus camera.

and that it had a GPS (thus making a compas possible).

GPS can only act as a compass while you're moving. a magnetic compass can do that job while you're standing still.

The two together can potentially be teh aw3som3, since knowing your GPS location can allow you to compute the magnetic correction automatically for your location, giving you a true compass heading, not just a magnetic one.

Re:I'm confused

[Puls4r]

I suspect that this "compass" is a GPS based compass that uses the dopplar of the GPS signal to determine direction and speed. As such, under a certain speed, it's going to crap out on you because the noise will become too great and the doppler shift not enough.

Re:I'm confused

[Amouth]

if the GPS was to use 2 anttenas and compare the positions between them with it's known manufacturing it would be able to tell where north is in relation to it's self which it could then relate to the device..

but this is a cell phone.. and even by apple's standard that is over kill and too expensive.

and yes they do make GPS's that do this.

Re:I'm confused

[Anonymous Coward]

How is that possible? I was under the impression that GPS resolution was no finer than some distance on the scale of meters and not always precise.

Re:I'm confused

[sootman]

Wouldn't it be sweet if the new compass UI (since it's software-based, and could get location from the GPS) could show the difference between magnetic north and true north?

Re:I'm confused

[mdwh2]

If it's wrong, explain why it's wrong. Modding it down leaves us no idea whether the anonymous silent modder is the one in the right, or not.

I have to browse Apple stories on -1 anyway, as it's the one subject area where negative mods are used for "I disagree". A "wrong" option would just make that even worse.

Re:I'm confused

[gnick]

Here too. The brothel is a small non-descript building that makes no indication that it's anything but a residential dwelling.

The library has a huge neon sign screaming B-O-O-K-S BOOKS BOOKS. Also there's a nice skate-park out front to attract youngsters. (The brothel relies mostly on word of mouth and good lip-service).

I assume that your brothel/library look about the same? I can't wait for my new brothel-identifying iPhone! As long as we put 'not to be used by law-enforcement' in the EULA.

Re:I'm confused

[EvanED]

If it's wrong, explain why it's wrong. Modding it down leaves us no idea whether the anonymous silent modder is the one in the right, or not.

The problem is that there are often posts already that explain why it's wrong (just like there were two posts before mine in reply to the one that's wrong here)... at that point adding another post doesn't really contribute anything.

While it's not really a problem here, it's not terribly infrequently that I see a just plain-old, blatently-wrong post that is moderated up to (+4, Insightful) or (+5, Informative), or something like that. And there's not really anything terribly fitting moderators can do... it clearly doesn't deserve to stay moderated up, but none of the negative mods really fit. (-1, overrated) is the best, but (1) IIRC it can't be metamoderated, and (2) doesn't do anything about the insightful/informative/interesting tag, so when another moderator comes along who's not paying attention to the story or to the replies, they'll often just go "oh, it has only had enough + mods to get to +4; I'll bump it up to +5."

Maybe the best solution is to either add a (0, wrong) mod that adds a descriptive tag without changing the score, or add a (-1, wrong) mod that can't help lower a post past +1 or 0 or something like that.

Re:I'm confused

[mdwh2]

That's what Overrated is for, surely? I.e., you disagree with the reasons it was modded up.

Right or wrong is not decided by a vote, and if people could apply that mod, it would easily get misused, I fear.

Re:I'm confused

[LWATCDR]

Cool you could make a range finder with it. Point the camera at an object get your location and direction. Walk a while repeat and get a range.

Re:I'm confused

[LWATCDR]

It can.
All that anybody needs to do is write an application.

Re:I'm confused

[Dan541]

But the rest of us just read the sign on the building..

Re:I'm confused

[jrumney]

In addition to GPS, the iPhone has accelerometers, which can be correlated with GPS data to determine which direction the device is travelling in. So you don't need to assume the device is facing the direction of travel, but you do need it to have moved recently to know its orientation with any degree of accuracy.

Re:I'm confused

[ceoyoyo]

That approach isn't really particularly useful unless you can get the antennas far enough apart. It works okay on something the size of a car. Not at all on a cell phone. Plus you need two complete GPS receivers.

Lots of GPS devices include electronic compasses, yes.

Re:I'm confused

[moosesocks]

A compass tells you which direction is magnetic north.

Fixed that for you. Apologies for being pedantic, but this is a huge distinction for some of us.

A compass may point up to 40 degrees away from "true north" in parts of Canada. Although this is an extreme example, ignoring a more common 10 degree declination will place you over 0.17 miles away from your intended target for every mile you travel.

Re:I'm confused

[idji]

Can't GPS + accelerometer = compass ?

Re:I'm confused

[N Monkey]

A compass tells you which direction is magnetic north.

Fixed that for you. Apologies for being pedantic, but this is a huge distinction for some of us.

A compass may point up to 40 degrees away from "true north" in parts of Canada. Although this is an extreme example, ignoring a more common 10 degree declination will place you over 0.17 miles away from your intended target for every mile you travel.

But, since there is also a GPS reciever in the device, surely a localised correction can be made to the magnetic north reading so it displays true north?

Re:I'm confused

[Amouth]

my experience with single GPS unit's and multi anttenas is with boats and planes..

i know it isn't useful on a cell phone - but i was kinda getting sick of people claiming it is imposable to calculate north while stopped using a GPS.. that is only true if you don't have a GPS designed to do that

Re :I'm confused

[Titus Andronicus]

The parent is correct.

Just to elaborate:

The iPhone's GPS feature tells you the iPhone's direction of travel, also known as "course," or "track," or "track angle."

The iPhone's compass tells you the iPhone's orientation with respect to true north, as known as its "heading." (Probably by using magnetic north and a database of magnetic declinations.)

These two concepts (heading and track angle) are totally not identical!

However, in certain special cases, these two things can be identical. For example:

You mount your iPhone in your car and ALL of the following are true:

1. Your iPhone's mounting is (nearly) perfectly aligned with your car.
2. You never put your car in reverse.
3. You never drive your car less than approx. 1 mph.
4. You never put your car on a flatbed truck or ferry (and park it slightly sideways).
5. You never have significant side slippage (like driving & turning superfast on the Bonneville Salt Flats).
6. You never drive your car off a cliff and have it roll and tumble in a ball of fiery death. (This is because you would then have significant lateral motion and so your heading and track angle would diverge.)
7. etc.

Re:I'm confused

[ceoyoyo]

They're quite correct. It's impossible to identify north with a GPS while stopped. You need TWO GPSes. They're frequently in the same box, but nevertheless, you need two receivers.

The non-pedantic, on-topic point is that you also need a reasonable separation between them.

Re: I'm confused

[Titus Andronicus]

I thought I should maybe try to further elaborate on compass headings vs. GPS track angles. I tried to make up a scenario where even if you are moving more than approx. 1 mph and have access to the open sky and therefore your iPhone knows its GPS track angle, a compass heading would still be useful.

Imagine the following scenario:

You are in the passenger seat of a open air convertible moving at constant velocity and holding the iPhone in your hands. You are looking sideways at the various shops along the side of the street. You and your iPhone are rotated approx. 90 degrees from car's the direction of travel.

You are using a digital map app on your iPhone.

If your iPhone is a 2008 model, it knows its GPS direction of travel (its track angle) but there is no way it can know that its orientation is rotated roughly 90 degrees from the direction of travel.

The accelerometers could be used to try to keep a constantly running update of the iPhone's orientation, but it would probably be inaccurate and computationally & battery expensive.

If your iPhone is a 2009 model, it will know its orientation (or heading) relative to true north (probably by using magnetic north, the GPS location, and possibly a periodically-updated database of magnetic declinations). In this example, that would enable the 2009 iPhone to know that it's oriented toward the side of the road and not straight ahead along the road.

The 2009 model would be able to constantly rotate the digital map on its display to correctly align with the real world no matter how much slow and subtle rotating of the iPhone is performed by the user.

---

Of course, in any scenario where you're not moving or moving less than approx. 1 mph, or your GPS data has been compromised by tall buildings, or being inside a cave or building, etc., having a compass is a no-brainer.

Re:I'm confused

[metaforest]

wrong.... they are both providing point data.... a compass provides orientation data..

Accelerometers can make up for a lost GPS signal for a few moments, but cannot provide orientation data except in VERY specific circumstances. IF you are being accelerated or decelerated in any axis an accelerometer cannot give you reliable orientation.

Compasses and gyros fill the bill.

In REAL NAVIGATION SYSTEMS(tm) you have GPS plus 3 axis of acceleration and 3 axis of Gyro AND a compass.

If you do not have all these elements your results will be damn near useless for anything but orienteering on a known map.

Re:I'm confused

[maeka]

Nobody uses the doppler effect on GPS signals (do you realize how fast the birds are moving?) to determine direction and speed. You simply solve your position twice and calc the delta.

Can't See Comment Titles

[Anonymous Coward]

Can't See Comment Titles

First, fix your shitty code. Then you can talk about whatever iPhony faggottry you have on your mind.

Repurchase apps?

[hansamurai]

The new software also supposedly makes you re-buy apps that you've already purchased, just so they can allow multiple accounts on one phone (have people really asked for this?).

http://www.pcworld.com/article/165834/apple_thwarts_app_piracy_ahead_of_iphone_30_release.html

Re:Repurchase apps?

[Bartab]

Read the article you quote. Which says that Apple will require people to rebuy in order to REDOWNLOAD, and only if you're downloading from a phone. It does not require a re-purchase just for the new phone.

This requirement, btw, is because otherwise people will be able to purchase on one account, pass that account around and every person would be able to download to their phone.

Re:Repurchase apps?

[Anonymous Coward]

You have to repurchase if you want to download them over 3g. If you sync with itunes, you can re-download them all you want.

Re:Repurchase apps?

[aristotle-dude]

The new software also supposedly makes you re-buy apps that you've already purchased, just so they can allow multiple accounts on one phone (have people really asked for this?).

Average people did not ask for this. It was the nerds on the internet on tech sites that made the most noise. You can thank the nerd for making everyone's life more complicated from now on. Way to go guys. Thanks for ruining it for everyone.

Re:Repurchase apps?

[Anonymous Coward]

Average people did not ask for this. It was the nerds on the internet on tech sites that made the most noise. You can thank the nerd for making everyone's life more complicated from now on. Way to go guys. Thanks for ruining it for everyone.

Your Welcome.

Humans?

[tx413]

"... including a complete human translation on the MacRumors forum" What are you saying about the Chinese?

Re:Humans?

[Anonymous Coward]

They are not human, they are clones.

Re:Humans?

[aristotle-dude]

"... including a complete human translation on the MacRumors forum" What are you saying about the Chinese?

Didn't you see the last few episodes from BSG? They are obviously descended from the Sharon units. /SARC

Seriously, though I think the submitter just a thoughtless idiot rather than being intentionally racist.

Re:Humans?

[harryandthehenderson]

Seriously, though I think the submitter just a thoughtless idiot rather than being intentionally racist.

He was being neither. "Human translation" is just saying that the translation that was posted to the MacRumors forum wasn't a machine translation from a site like Babelfish. Sheesh.

Re:Humans?

[mdarksbane]

I think the submitter meant that they had an actual human do the translation, as opposed to babelfish. Wasn't what I jumped to first, either.

Re:Humans?

[morgan_greywolf]

Obviously he means "human translation from Chinese to English" as opposed to "BabelFish translation" or "Google translation," the implication being that human translations into English (from any language), are far more accurate, since they take into account subtle nuances of human language that machines cannot, and therefore make far better reading.

Whatever comes out...

[Kensai7]

... it will be less than capable of the respective Nokia N-device but as always the Apple marketing and fanboyz will put so much light that everyone will be blinded by yet again another incomplete smartphone that locks you to the dark side. Is Apple becoming the Microsoft of the mobile world?!

I don't know... but I'm telling you something guys: this is 2009 and we have Symbian & Android which together reach some 60% of the mobile smartphone market and are OPEN SOURCE. Imagine if Linux had a 60% market share on the desktop OS what boost would we have for open source applications.

So let's not pull are eyes out with our own hands and choose iPhone NOT.

Re:Whatever comes out...

[tomservo291]

Symbian and Android have 60% of the smartphone market? What? Where?

Re:Whatever comes out...

[Improv]

People bring their Sybians with them in public? Can they only recieve phone calls when sitting down?

Re:Whatever comes out...

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

... it will be less than capable of the respective Nokia N-device but as always the Apple marketing and fanboyz

There have always been products competing with both the iPod and iPhone that have a longer and more impressive bullet list of features. The problem being, the average person doesn't enjoy using them and half those features are so poorly implemented they are just painful to use. Many geeks are happy to work around poorly designed interfaces for the sake of overall functionality.

Is Apple becoming the Microsoft of the mobile world?!

The problem with Microsoft is that they use a very large market share in one market to destroy competition and innovation in other markets, thus slowing progress. Apple doesn't have dominance in any markets, so their locked down products drive innovation by providing real competition. When Apple has a monopoly o near monopoly and ties to other markets, then "ll lump them in with Microsoft.

I don't know... but I'm telling you something guys: this is 2009 and we have Symbian & Android which together reach some 60% of the mobile smartphone market...

Yup, that's very cool and I have high hopes for Android, which have not really panned out yet. I still wonder if Android would exist or if it would have the level of functionality it does if Apple were not providing such strong competition.

So let's not pull are eyes out with our own hands and choose iPhone NOT.

For many people the iPhone is still the best offering. Since we're not dealing with a significantly broken market for smartphones, people should pick what works best for them, be it iPhone or an Android or some other phone. This drives developers to work hard and try to make better products. I don't see the point of picking a product that is not as well suited to my tasks based upon the underlying OS. All that does is provide incentive for developers of that OS to not work harder to meet my needs and not compete as strongly. (Note: I don't own any kind of smartphone, iPhone or other.)

Re:Whatever comes out...

[H.G.Blob]

Symbian has about 49% market share and linux another 8%(source).

Re:Whatever comes out...

[david_thornley]

You are, as is usual here, missing the point about Apple products.

They frequently don't have the raw capabilities of their competition, but they are reasonably stylish and very easy to use. You and I may be able to efficiently handle complicated interfaces, but most people have a great deal of difficulty with them. They will learn what they have to, and no more. The average smart phone is used only for a very few things.

The iPhone is easy to use. It's easy to figure out how to do things. There are darn few glitches or gotchas. There's a fairly thick manual, which nobody has to read. This is important, since nobody but us actually reads the manuals. It's easy to extend the functionality, now that the App Store is there. It has never been easier to make a telephone generate its own fart sounds, or do a variety of other things, some of which are actually useful. I find this attractive, since I've long since tired of learning complicated things that aren't actually important to what I want to do. (For example, why would I want to learn Microsoft Word's more arcane features when vim and LaTeX already do what I want?)

If this makes no sense to you, or if you think Apple's popularity is due to nothing but marketing and fanbois, please do not do any interface design for end users.

Re:Whatever comes out...

[e4g4]

Brings new meaning to the term "bone conducting microphone"...

Re:Whatever comes out...

[Kensai7]

It has never been easier to make a telephone generate its own fart sounds...

Well, here you go! These are the "killer appz" that make the Apple fanboyz go mad. This is 90-95% of all available progies for iPhone.

...or do a variety of other things, some of which are actually useful.

Fair enough. I admit there is this 5% of some really cool applications for iPhone. But my initial post (which I find ridiculous that had been moded as "flamebait", this was NOT my intention) wanted to stress a point.

Both Symbian and Android can do what iPhone does and even more. And developers can leverage the WHOLE underlying technology. So the iPhone Store story is only a stupid buzz. The developers need to wake up and port their useful apps to Symbian and Android as soon as possible. Because it CAN be done and actually their apps will probably even look and run even better!

As long as we have a 50-60% market share for open source mobile OSes we are ok. I'm afraid of what will happen if Apple somehow prevails and becomes the Microsoft of the mobile OS market.

Re:Whatever comes out...

[jdgeorge]

Is Apple becoming the Microsoft of the mobile world?!

The problem with Microsoft is that they use a very large market share in one market to destroy competition and innovation in other markets, thus slowing progress. Apple doesn't have dominance in any markets, so their locked down products drive innovation by providing real competition. When Apple has a monopoly o near monopoly and ties to other markets, then "ll lump them in with Microsoft.

Short answer to the question is, yes, Apple is becoming the Microsoft of the mobile world. Name me a portable music player other than an iPod that anyone you know owns.

Lump them in.

Re:Whatever comes out...

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

Short answer to the question is, yes, Apple is becoming the Microsoft of the mobile world.

MS's market share for desktop OS's is about 98%. Apple's share of the portable, digital music player market is about 70% if you don't include phones that play music, in which case their market share is fairly negligible. Not counting phones I know people who own Toshiba, Sansa, and Creative brand players.

The EU recently looked into the iPod with an eye towards antitrust abuse. They seem t have concluded that within the EU at least, consumers consider media playing cell phones as alternatives to the iPod when making purchasing decisions. As such, Apple does not have dominance in the market and is not undermining free trade. In the US the situation is different, in that cell phone contracts make competition less elastic, but with Apple's move into the cell phone market, it is clear the two are largely converging. Basically, Apple might, barely have too much control in the portable player market to be legal, but every day that goes away as cell phones become the norm for playing music on the go.

Re:Whatever comes out...

[Maury Markowitz]

> The problem being, the average person doesn't enjoy using them and half those features are so poorly implemented they are just painful to use.

My Motorola phone had a browser. I tried to use it once.

Once.

Maury

Re:Whatever comes out...

[Maury Markowitz]

> Both Symbian and Android can do what iPhone does and even more.

And vice versa. The intersection is not the universal set.

> And developers can leverage the WHOLE underlying technology.

You don't know the same developers I do then.

> So the iPhone Store story is only a stupid buzz.

And 37 million installed base. It's the platform, stupid.

> I'm afraid of what will happen if Apple somehow prevails and becomes the Microsoft of the mobile OS market.

Why? Their stranglehold on the music player market seems like it's improved the entire market. Do you remember the suckage that people used to sell before the iPod got rolling?!

Maury

Re:Whatever comes out...

[Kensai7]

Maury,

And vice versa on the vice versa. The difference of Symbian/Android is that it's open source and developers can actually shape the future of their platform or fork it to their needs. Try that with the iPhone.

The platform is bull by itself. It's the developers and the customers when they are not blinded simply by "fashion". If the developers decide to target another lucrative market (as the one we will see when the Nokia N97 will be finally launched... btw, watch for the upcoming Slashdot story!) you will see similar platforms take off. Android Store and Ovi Store have much more potential because of the tools and underlying tech they can provide to the developers.

I only hope they can provide some fine credit mechanism to sweeten the deal with the developers. That's what got the developing frenzy for iPhone afterall!

As for the iTunes market. You know there ARE alternative shops that help the entire market as well. Perhaps you simply don't know them. Be my guest!

Re:Whatever comes out...

[david_thornley]

And, once more, you completely miss what Apple has going for it.

Nobody (and by that I mean fewer than 5% of the market) cares what the theoretical capabilities of a platform are. The easy-to-use capabilities are far more important. iPhone apps are easy to get, inexpensive, easy to use, and often fun. The iPhone lends itself to impulse purchases: I spend a dollar, wait three minutes for a download, and I've got a shiny new toy that I can just use.

If you think that's "a stupid buzz", you have completely failed to understand why Apple is a success, and you will almost certainly fail to come up with a strategy to compete. Exhorting people to buy and support products you think better, for your own reasons, is not going to work.

Developers are going to write their apps on whatever platform they choose, for all sorts of various reasons. The App Store is a relatively hassle-free way to market and sell apps (yeah, it isn't perfect, but it's better than trying to sell apps independently), and there isn't any obvious counterpart I've seen in Symbian and Android. Moreover, the iPhone is a defined target platform, so there's no need to worry about odd phones that may or may not have certain capabilities.

I'm not particularly worried about a monopolist in the smart phone market (there will be a lot less network effect there than in the computer business), but the best way to avoid Apple dominance is to understand what Apple is doing well, not to blame it on marketing and fanbois and bears.

Re:Whatever comes out...

[mdwh2]

There have always been products competing with both the iPod and iPhone that have a longer and more impressive bullet list of features.

Ah yes, it's the "Grumpy Featurism" hand-wave. Let's brush all the objective, reasoned, based-on-evidence arguments aside, and claim they are trumped by my personal claim of "It's better".

Well you're both wrong, I might as well claim that the Motorola V980 is the Best Phone Ever.

The problem being, the average person doesn't enjoy using them and half those features are so poorly implemented they are just painful to use. Many geeks are happy to work around poorly designed interfaces for the sake of overall functionality.

What a load of weasel words. Citations, please?

Based on hard sales figures, the "average person" most certainly prefers Nokia phones in general to Apple phones.

Apple doesn't have dominance in any markets

I am in full agreement.

I still wonder if Android would exist or if it would have the level of functionality it does if Apple were not providing such strong competition.

The rapid and continual march of technology in the billion dollar mobile phone market has been going on for a decade or so, but Google would've only took interest in response to a Johnny come lately that, as you agree yourself, is not the dominant player in the market? Please...

For many people the iPhone is still the best offering. Since we're not dealing with a significantly broken market for smartphones, people should pick what works best for them, be it iPhone or an Android or some other phone.

Right. Which, again, based on hard sales figures, the overwhelming majority of people do. But it's just a shame we never hear about this technology on Slashdot. Reading Slashdot, you'd think that the mobile phone market considered of Apple as a dominant player, and only Android coming along afterwards to provide competition (and based on some of the "But hey, you can read a website on the Iphone!" comments, I'd say that many readers here do think that that's the case - in fact, I recently responded to a poster who actually thought that Apple were the market leader in mobile phones). It would be like Slashdot only covering OS X, giving a brief mention to Ubuntu, and never mentioning a major player like Windows at all. That would be fine if it was Apple-dot, I suppose.

Re:Whatever comes out...

[LWATCDR]

Just what can an IPhone do that the G! and or a top of the line Symbian phone can not?
I think the iPhone looks like a great platform. Android does as well. I have no looked at the Symbian SDK but I don't see thing that the iPhone can do that those other platfroms can not.
Buy apps and media at the iTunes store is one but I put that down to branding. Sync with iTunes? Also a branding thing IMHO.
The G1 right now can record video and has a compass. So those are two things that it can do over the current iPhone. A lot of Symbian devices come with FM radios which is something that the iPhone lacks. Is it worth having? I am not sure.
But you said that the iPhone can do things the other platforms can not. Outside of iTunes what can it do that they can not?

Re:Whatever comes out...

[jdgeorge]

Mmmm... Apple's dominance includes not only portable music devices (iPods) but the actual distribution of music (iTunes).

In any case, it's not illegal to have a dominant market position; it's only illegal to use that dominance to stifle competition. Fortunately, Apple hasn't demonstrated any significant tendency to eliminate competition in the markets they do dominate.

Re:Whatever comes out...

[mgblst]

Depends what you mean by "the Microsoft". You might mean that they have a large share, you might mean they act like a bunch of wankers. Maybe if you actually wrote in english terms, we would understand what the fuck you are trying to say.

Re:Whatever comes out...

[Anonymous Coward]

You forgot to mention those of us that can manage complex interfaces but have better things to do.

Re:Whatever comes out...

[Kensai7]

The problem is... developers sometimes are not informed well, mesmerized by the media attention Apple gets and fanboyz deliver. It's paradigmatic that in this very thread, a guy (in a parent comment) was asking where in the world Symbian/Android have 60% market coverage. Go figure!

Rest assured that both Symbian and Android give multiple tools and easy ways to design and deploy a mobile application. The only real winner (not anymore) has been the iPhone Store, which is a 100% marketing and convenience tool. Nothing more.

Concluding, my hopes go to those curious developers who really want to push their creativity to the limits while delivering the best available app to the customer. This can only happen if they get informed.

No informed person will ever decide to build an app to the worst platform possible.

Re:Whatever comes out...

[david_thornley]

Developers are not always well informed, but, frankly, I don't think you are either. The developers I know aren't all that impressed by media attention and fanbois, and a lot of us have iPhones.

If you don't understand why that is, then you are not informed, and therefore you are not in a good position to try to inform others.

Your characterization of the App Store shows this: you seem to think that convenience isn't all that important. However, there are a whole lot of busy people in the world, who don't want to have to deal with complexity in something that isn't their primary focus. Moreover, inconvenient things generally aren't fun (code something in the 1966 version of COBOL to experience it yourself), and many people find the App Store fun. If the App Store wasn't quick and easy, "There's an app for that!" would not have a chance of becoming a meme.

If something is long-term successful, and the iPod and iPhone are certainly that, there's reasons behind the success. Marketing has distinct limits, and normally isn't the main reason for success. Again, you need to understand Apple's success in order to strategize around it, and you appear to completely miss the point. You seem to think that convenience and clean interfaces are frills and therefore minor, which in the real world is completely wrong.

Re:Whatever comes out...

[angel'o'sphere]

MS's market share for desktop OS's is about 98%. Apple's share of the portable, digital music player market is about 70% if you ...

How can that be when Linux market share is roughly 5% and Apples is roughly 13%?

angel'o'sphere

Re:Whatever comes out...

[Kensai7]

I prefer to find convenience ON my device, not on the market that sells it. Convenience is important. So are looks. And both Symbian (Ovi Store) and Google (Android Market) are getting there.

But my initial point, which you have missed completely since you repeat to me ad nauseam that "I don't get Apple's strategy" is that it will be too late if one day Apple becomes Microsoft for the phone OSes. We live in magnificent times in the mobile world. The two biggest platform producers deliver open source operating systems. We (both customers and developers) need to monetize on this momentum!

That was my initial suggestion (aka "flaimbait" by the Cupertino fanboyz that modded down an innocuous observation). I'm not trying to convince you, david, you already admitted you have an iPhone. I don't have an Android. :)

Re:Whatever comes out...

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

MS's market share for desktop OS's is about 98%. Apple's share of the portable, digital music player market is about 70% if you ...

How can that be when Linux market share is roughly 5% and Apples is roughly 13%?

You're confusing market share and install base. Market share is relevant for both antitrust law and for the economics of undermining free trade. The average desktop OS buyer is a company like Dell who buys it as a component to pre-install on their desktop computer systems. The number of companies using Linux in this role (as opposed to individuals who install it later after a copy of some other OS was already purchased) is quite small. Most estimates place it in the 1-2% range. The overall Linux share is higher, but mostly on servers and appliances, which is not considered the same market. Apple does not sell OS X into the desktop OS market, instead bundling it with their Mac computers and bypassing the desktop OS market entirely (except hackintoshes) so it does not even figure into the relevant market.

Re:Whatever comes out...

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

Mmmm... Apple's dominance includes not only portable music devices (iPods)

I don't think this will stand up legally due to the numbers you cite not including music playing cell phones, which make up a significant portion of the market. This, of course, depends upon how the market is distinguished.

...but the actual distribution of music (iTunes)

First, the ITunes store and the iTunes application are in different markets and it is important to distinguish that you're referring to the former not the latter. Second, while Apple may well have dominance in said market, it is a problematic market, since it is already compromised by the illegal actions of a cartel, convicted multiple times of undermining free trade. Personally, I think Apple has had a net positive impact on innovation in the market, but it is so broken already the issue is quite muddled.

In any case, it's not illegal to have a dominant market position; it's only illegal to use that dominance to stifle competition. Fortunately, Apple hasn't demonstrated any significant tendency to eliminate competition in the markets they do dominate.

Elimination of competition is not the only issue, simply undermining free competition in a way that artificially increases their share is sufficient to damage free trade. Some of Apple's actions in said markets certainly qualify as tying in the eyes of the law, if they are ruled to have dominance in either of those markets. The issue being, they probably don't in the first market and the second market is so broken any tying is fairly immaterial or even positive. There is a lot of room for debate on it though.

Re:Whatever comes out...

[david_thornley]

Okay, so that's your main point. I'm not as worried about it as you are; for one thing, I don't foresee the nasty network effects that keep Microsoft so firmly on top, and I don't think Apple is as able to pull the same dirty tricks (please note I'm not talking about willingness). However, I do agree that I don't want an effective monopoly on phone OS.

This brings up the question: what are we going to do about it? You seem to be more concerned about it, so I assume you're more interested in stopping Apple from becoming dominant.

That means that you really do need to understand Apple's strategy, and the reasons why it works. It's a matter of tactics for you: if you don't understand why Apple is succeeding, you will unable to do anything effective to stop it. If, as you continually repeat, you think it's marketing and fanboyz, you'll be completely ineffectual.

To summarize, know thy enemy.

Re:Whatever comes out...

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

There have always been products competing with both the iPod and iPhone that have a longer and more impressive bullet list of features.

Ah yes, it's the "Grumpy Featurism" hand-wave. Let's brush all the objective, reasoned, based-on-evidence arguments aside, and claim they are trumped by my personal claim of "It's better".

I'm not sure I even understand what you're trying to say here. You can certainly look up bullet point lists of features of various music players and smartphones. A significant number will be longer than Apple's offerings, they certainly were last time I looked. They certainly were when the iPod debuted as per the famous "no wi-fi less space than a Nomad" dismissal. I'm sure not going to bother doing a bunch of research to prove it though.

The problem being, the average person doesn't enjoy using them and half those features are so poorly implemented they are just painful to use. Many geeks are happy to work around poorly designed interfaces for the sake of overall functionality.

What a load of weasel words. Citations, please?

Do your own research. There have been plenty of usability studies over the years that agree with my position and personal experience.

Based on hard sales figures, the "average person" most certainly prefers Nokia phones in general to Apple phones.

First, Apple doesn't compete in the general cell phone market, but the smartphone market, which has been fairly distinct, although the lines are now blurring. Apple does not have the largest share of that market either, but they are certainly an up and coming contender based upon the rapidly increasing popularity. Second, market share is not a measure of individual preference because in the US phones are tied to providers and because phones and service are not free, so individuals have to choose a phone they can afford rather than one they want.

I still wonder if Android would exist or if it would have the level of functionality it does if Apple were not providing such strong competition.

The rapid and continual march of technology in the billion dollar mobile phone market has been going on for a decade or so, but Google would've only took interest in response to a Johnny come lately that, as you agree yourself, is not the dominant player in the market? Please...

We're talking about the smartphone market not the regular phone market. Based upon the huge number of phones that are designed to look like iPhones and the number of smartphone features designed to clone iPhone functionality, I think you have to be pretty oblivious not to see Apple as having a huge impact and pushing other developers to start adding functionality to compete. Multitouch and the Android Market, are good examples.

But it's just a shame we never hear about this technology on Slashdot.

What are you talking about? There have been dozens of articles about Android on Slashdot. The last one was three days ago!

Reading Slashdot, you'd think that the mobile phone market considered of Apple as a dominant player, and only Android coming along afterwards to provide competition

Umm, Android was released after the iPhone, but articles on Slashdot appear to discuss cool new technology and things nerds like to discuss. It is not reflective of market share. We often discuss technologies that have little or no market share because they are cool and innovative, even if they never become widely deployed.

It would be like Slashdot only covering OS X, giving a brief mention to Ubuntu, and never mentioning a major player like Windows at all.

But Slashdot certainly discusses both OS X and Ubuntu in much greater frequency than their market share would indicate, compared to Windows articles. That's because that is

Re:Whatever comes out...

[angel'o'sphere]

The problem is... developers sometimes are not informed well,
That is what you think ... my experience is that Developers are extraordinary well informed.

mesmerized by the media attention Apple gets and fanboyz deliver. It's paradigmatic that in this very thread, a guy (in a parent comment) was asking where in the world Symbian/Android have 60% market coverage. Go figure! Don't get what you want to say with that.

Rest assured that both Symbian and Android give multiple tools and easy ways to design and deploy a mobile application.
Do you like to mention one? I assume you talk about vi and emacs here?

The only real winner (not anymore) has been the iPhone Store, which is a 100% marketing and convenience tool. Nothing more. Would you care to point out what the (not anymore) is supposed to mean? I as a developer like to have a store like App Store, son I don't really get your "noting more" point either.

Concluding, my hopes go to those curious developers who really want to push their creativity to the limits while delivering the best available app to the customer. This can only happen if they get informed.

No informed person will ever decide to build an app to the worst platform possible.

True that! And that is why serious mobile developers chose OS X on an iPhone.

All other deployment platforms: MS Windows Mobile, Android, Symbian, WebOS, Palm OS are 20 years at least behind (having a GPS driver does not cut it) OS X on the iPhone.

I don't want procedural APIs on the level of a std C library to code against. I want true frameworks to develop my apps from. If you feel different, fine! However it seems it is you who is badly misinformed.

angel'o'sphere

Re:Whatever comes out...

[metaforest]

Name me a portable music player other than an iPod that anyone you know owns.

iRiver IFP-390T

It does a lot that my iPodTouch 1G does not do.... and of course the IPod can do things the the iRiver does not do.... they are very complementary devices for my purposes.

Creating unsubstatiated rumors

[dkleinsc]

I also heard somewhere that the new iPhone will come with a free puppy. It will also water my lawn, clean my house, and walk the puppy for me.

Can I join a PR agency now?

Re:Creating unsubstatiated rumors

[Lumpy]

No because you did not mention how the WM based phones kill puppies and will pee on your lawn creating brown spots.

Re:Creating unsubstatiated rumors

[jandrese]

Posting this to undo a mistaken moderation. Sometimes I miss the having to hit the "moderate" button.

Re:Creating unsubstatiated rumors

[fuzzlost]

But will it make toast?

What I heard

[Anonymous Coward]

The new iPhone will actually be able to fly and steam milk for lattes.

Re:What I heard

[Anonymous Coward]

steam milk for lattes.

Is that for after you and Steve Jobs have a night of sweaty anal sex?

Re:What I heard

[Anonymous Coward]

You wouldn't have mentioned it if you weren't thinking about it.

My goal is obvious!

[brian0918]

Now my goal is obvious - to be more excited about the new iPhone than the Chinese! Thank you Apple for the fake leak to help me gauge my interest!

Wow!

[Anonymous Coward]

iT flies!?!

Nope

[CritterNYC]

The iPhone camera is fixed focus and can't shoot video (at least not out of the box). And there is no compass. A compass is handy for turn-by-turn navigation and other neat-o things like street view on the G1 making use of the built-in compass: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PRfVKzuUJ4

Meh.

[Naatach]

Give me the ability to run non-apple background services and customizable alerts. Until then, it's just "Pretty but Dumb".

iPhone OS 3.0 != iPhone 3G 2009

[Full Meat]

Mr Gadget points out that Gizmodo's report on these new screenshots are actually screenshots from months ago of iPhone 3.0 OS running on an ordinary iPhone 3G. http://www.mrgadget.com.au/gadget/2009/gizmodo-gets-it-wrong-just-iphone-30-os-screen-grabs/

I hear rumours...

[91degrees]

That this will do everything Apple claims it will.

Seems unlikely though.

Sure it can

[CritterNYC]

Sure it can. I mean it's not gonna be the quality of a camcorder, but it's decent: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0A2tMTEI7M

And you can upload it directly to YouTube from your G1, which is handy.

iLaugh

[davidwr]

That's a funny iPost you've got there.

Compass?

[gubers33]

I'm pretty sure there is already an app that serves as a compass. What did Apple do steal it and make standard on the phone?

Uh-oh

[inertia187]

Looks like Apple security may have to break a few more pocket protectors to keep employees in line.

Will the new iPhone give me a blow job?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there an app for that?

New casing? New UI?

[sootman]

Will it look like an ancient Palm, with a black-and-white screen, a writing area, and only a dozen apps on the homescreen?

SLASHDOT, FFS, GET SOME NEW ICONS!

And WTF is up with the MacBook icon on this iPhone story? I guess I need to change my request to "new and accurate icons."

Re:New casing? New UI?

[Quiet_Desperation]

SLASHDOT, FFS, GET SOME NEW ICONS!

(QD slaps sootman)

Get a grip, man! It's tradition. Without tradition we are nothing! Do you undertsand!? NOTHING!! ARGH!!!!!

(QD slaps self)

Re:New casing? New UI?

[Blakey Rat]

Will it look like an ancient Palm, with a black-and-white screen, a writing area, and only a dozen apps on the homescreen?

SLASHDOT, FFS, GET SOME NEW ICONS!

And WTF is up with the MacBook icon on this iPhone story? I guess I need to change my request to "new and accurate icons."

You seem to be under the misapprehension that the editors of this site give a fuck.

The only reason to visit Slashdot is the quality of the comments, which is good since you have to rely on the first 4-5 comments to correct all the bullshit in the story summaries.

Re:New casing? New UI?

[SoupIsGoodFood_42]

As someone who has an interest in graphic design, I have the icons turned off. It is Slashdot, after all.

Re:New casing? New UI?

[ltrm]

SLASHDOT, FFS, GET SOME NEW ICONS!

(QD slaps sootman)

Get a grip, man! It's tradition. Without tradition we are nothing! Do you undertsand!? NOTHING!! ARGH!!!!!

(QD slaps self)

QD you're wanted on the phone.....

For gods sake sootman you're hysterical. Get a hold of yourself. [SLAP]

You've got to calm down.[SLAP].....

Airplane Clip

Really, Slashdot?

[Bradicus]

Please, there has to be somewhere in the world that doesn't start fondling itself whenever Apple leaks garbage to the press to remind everybody how much people go crazy over any news related to their products. An entire post over the RUMOR of a POSSIBILITY that the new iPhone will have an autofocusing camera, video capability, and a compass? Is that really exciting? Actually, doesn't the G1 do all those things already?

Re:Really, Slashdot?

[mdwh2]

Indeed - I bet it won't be long before we have Apple stories about rumours that there's going to be a rumour about some possible new product (that yes, will have been done by everyone else years ago).

Verizon?

[the-matt-mobile]

Being available for Verizon is the only iPhone feature I'm looking for. No chance I'm going with AT&T - period. Maybe I'm the only one that feels this way, or maybe the lure of the iPhone is enough for other people to make the switch. Meh.

Re:Verizon?

[magnusrex1280]

I've seen some people say this, but I've never read anyone explain why. I switched when my Verizon contract ran out, and the only problem I've had (if you could call it that) is that AT&T's site takes 1-2 seconds longer to log into when paying my bill than Verizon's site did.

Re:Verizon?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why Verizon? So you can pay $60-70 more per month? Seriously, I was paying one data phone one standard phone for $185 and can get an iPhone service for two phones for $120/month. But more power to you if that is how you like it...

Re:Verizon?

[the-matt-mobile]

I pay $60 for two phones with 500 shared minutes. Total. So you're saying that AT&T is $0.00??? Okay, perhaps I'd consider switching then...

Re:Verizon?

[the-matt-mobile]

I used to be with Cingular prior to their acquisition by AT&T, and needless to say that AT&T inherited my loathing. Plus - I've never had a single problem with dropped calls, billing, or troubleshooting with Verizon. And, since I'm on a family plan, I also have other family members to consider when changing providers, not just myself.

My wife once had a phone that I accidentally (on purpose) utterly destroyed when I threw the bag that had her phone in it. Totally my fault and I told them that, but Verizon replaced it without making us pay a dime. We've just had good experience with them, and while my troubles with Cingular may have been alleviated with the AT&T acquisition, I'm one of those people who's willing to pay a little more to a company that I have a positive history with - (but ironically, I don't pay more with Verizon - it's cheaper for us than any other plan I've priced for what I need).

Re:Verizon?

[EastCoastSurfer]

It completely depends on when people sign up and what deals they can get at that time. Also you need to add in special offers like ATT FAN or Verizons equivalent special customers program. Heck, if you bug Sprint enough they will give you massive discounts to stay once your contract is up.

At this point, pretty much everyone has a unique cell phone plan.

Re:Verizon?

[Achromatic1978]

I was paying one data phone one standard phone for $185 and can get an iPhone service for two phones for $120/month.

Data plan for iPhone: $30, x 2.

Smallest Family Plan: $50 for 550 shared minutes.

Messaging Family pack: $30.

AT&T Fees: $1.25 + 11.3% of bill = no change from $150. Kinda hard to imagine someone forking out for two iPhones, with the minimum possible minutes (4 hours each per month, outside of weekends/evenings), and no messaging... But even then you're still over $120...

You're not up to date on your rumours...

[TheMightyFuzzball]

Those pictures are just from an iPhone running OS 3.0, they were taken by a Chinese blogger demonstrating 3.0's capabilities. According to this site: http://www.mrgadget.com.au/gadget/2009/gizmodo-gets-it-wrong-just-iphone-30-os-screen-grabs/ the blogger says (in Chinese) that the pictures were taken of an iPhone 3G with iPhone OS 3.0. This is why you shouldn't spread rumour...

Wow! Autofocus!? What will Apple invent next?

[This name in use]

Stating "Autofocus Camera" is pretty redundant at this point.
Do you know of any cameras that don't have autofocus?
If this has already been stated, then I am as redundant as the parent.

dashboard looks like it is in a western car

[SocietyoftheFist]

Do cars shipped to China have trip, km and other english words on the dash instead of the equivalent Chinese? The reasons for the fuzzy photos don't wash as the photographer brandished the phone in public in a car. Seems to me better photos could have been taken easily.

Re:dashboard looks like it is in a western car

[kklein]

Do cars shipped to China have trip, km and other english words on the dash instead of the equivalent Chinese?

Yes.

You've never been to another country, have you?

Re:dashboard looks like it is in a western car

[Anonymous Coward]

Do cars shipped to China have trip, km and other english words on the dash instead of the equivalent Chinese? The reasons for the fuzzy photos don't wash as the photographer brandished the phone in public in a car. Seems to me better photos could have been taken easily.

Couldnt agree more, especially as the handbrake was applied and at least one occupant was not wearing a seatbelt.

Re:dashboard looks like it is in a western car

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't know about Chinese, but Japanese cars do. There's no actual character for km in Japanese, and spelling out kilometer in katakana (one of their phonetic alphabets, commonly used for foreign-origin words) would take up too much space. Likewise the auto selector was labelled R N D L 2 in latin characters. Don't know about trip, it wasn't labelled at all on my car.

Re:Wow! Autofocus!? What will Apple invent next?

[This name in use]

Ok, ok. I read the article. You can choose where to autofocus. That is something additional to standard autofocus.

Jalbreak?

[Stenchwarrior]

No matter what features they will or won't include, it is not going to be as feature-rich as it be will when I jailbreak it. It's sad that I have to void the warranty to make this device (that is running a kernel invented and intended for the Open-Source world, BTW) what it should be.

Let me be the first to ask:

[Hurricane78]

Will it finally have buttons? ^^

(On the back, side, top or bottom does not count. Non-tactile does not count too.)

It is Mr Gadget who got it wrong

[shuying]

Mr Gadget attempted to be smart. Unfortunately the screenshots show an iPhone with compass and autofocus features which are not possible on an iPhone 3G.

Re:It is Mr Gadget who got it wrong

[Culture20]

A compass is possible on an original iphone:
display the compass app, then require the user to orient a needle to the sun/moon/orion's belt. With time of day and cell-tower location info, suddenly, you'll know which way is north.

Re:It is Mr Gadget who got it wrong

[mgblst]

Or, it could even be based on how you are moving, using GPS to calculate that.

Re:It is Mr Gadget who got it wrong

[Tokerat]

Or, it could even be based on how you are moving, using GPS to calculate that.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't you be able to determine your orientation from the GPS signal alone?

Re:It is Mr Gadget who got it wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

GPS cant tell your orientation without moving.

So the next iPhone will be...

[GooberToo]

which include things like an auto-focus camera, video capture, and a compass

an android phone? Sounds like the G1 spec sheet.

Qualifications

[SuperKendall]

(On the back, side, top or bottom does not count. Non-tactile does not count too.

What are you, a lawyer? It's like the subtext at the bottom of a contest that disqualifies anyone who could actually enter... you are basically asking "Does it have buttons* * = all possible buttons excluded from answer".

The real answer of course, is it has infinite buttons since on-screen buttons are perfectly usable. The answer you might possible accept is one, since there's a button on the front, which means you are still wrong...

I like real buttons as much as the next guy but only when the buttons are appropriate to the purpose at hand. I find all mobile keyboards with real buttons dreadful for typing, and most mobile keypads kind of poor for dialing. I'd way rather use the huge number buttons on an iPhone to dial than the tiny number buttons included on a full keyboard, or even the hideous keypad of the RAZR (which I owned for a few years) which made it as hard as possible to tell where you really needed to press to get a number.

Re:Qualifications

[Civil_Disobedient]

The real answer of course, is it has infinite buttons since on-screen buttons are perfectly usable.

You must have missed the part of the grandparent's post where they specifically asked for tactile buttons. As in, buttons you can bloody feel .

Say, how about that! A whole new sense you can use to interface with the device besides your eyes.

We miss you, Moltz!

[Quiet_Desperation]

The rumor I heard flying is that the new iPhone can, in fact, fly. It's a full levitation device and can allow a 250 pound man to hover. The TV ads will feature Criss Angel.

I read it on Crazy Apple Rumors so I know it must be true. It transforms into a bisexual ninja sexbot that serves pudding and other snacks on demand. It will telepathically extract that hot new tune stuck in your head to use as a ring tone.

If you order one now, the man, the legend, the *god*, Phil Schiller himself will deliver it to your home personally and give you a foot massage.

Note: the above claims are true only for certain values of true.

New Shiny !

[daveime]

The iPhone version 3 is finally getting all the stuff that other cellphones have had for 10 years ? And people will still blindly pay through the nose for these "exclusive features" ?

Not sure about the compass though, I'd have preferred a pair of nail clippers, a corkscrew / bottle opener, and a pair of scissors ... wait, we're talking about a Swiss Army Knife right ?

We can only hope that the iPhone version 4 will at least upgrade the camera to 1.3 megapix.

*ducks*

glass houses

[Gary W. Longsine]

Uhm... you're a nerd posting on an internet tech site. Blame you, shall we?

Would be sad if warranty was voided

[SuperKendall]

It's sad that I have to void the warranty to make this device (that is running a kernel invented and intended for the Open-Source world, BTW) what it should be.

Jailbreaking doesn't void the warranty since it is completely reversible. If you need to send it in for work just un-jailbreak. If the hardware is so broken you can't unjailbreak it, they can't tell it was jailbroken...

I don't think it's sad at all, I think it's exciting to live in a time where so many devices that would otherwise be half usable can be made to do what the users really want - just look at the PSP or DS homebrew scene for other examples. I don't care how much a device is locked down so long as there is a good community around extending it, because no lock will hold against someone determined.

Re:Would be sad if warranty was voided

[Stenchwarrior]

I completely agree with you. Allow me to clarify: I think the part that is sad is the fact that is has to be MADE to do what it was never created to do in the first place. All the features that we get when we jailbreak the phone should just come with the device out of the box. Perhaps when UNICEF gets into the smart-device manufacturing business then we will get a fully capable iPhone without having to hack it...until then, it's $299 for a "half usable" device.

Awesome new features

[metamatic]

You know what would be awesome new features?

The ability to run whatever software I want, and the ability to operate on whatever phone network I want.

Re:Awesome new features

[Anonymous Coward]

Then develop your own phone and get every network to support it without any exclusivity contracts. The truth is, you want something the networks don't offer, and they don't care. They go out of their way to do the exact opposite of what you're asking. Until you get all the regular idiots out there to care, nothing will change.

Re:Awesome new features

[metamatic]

There are plenty of phones that can be purchased unlocked.

There are plenty of phones on the networks that can run whatever software you want.

Re:Awesome new features

[someonehasmyname]

What software can an iPhone not run? I'd think with the app store full of apps, and thousands of additional apps available to jailbroken iPhones (which takes 5 mins and won't even erase any of your contacts, music, etc) that the iPhone would have more available software for it than pretty much any other phone.

Re:Awesome new features

[metamatic]

The iPhone won't run software that I write myself, for starters.

Or any of the software Apple has refused to allow in the app store.

Re:Wow! Autofocus!? What will Apple invent next?

[nsayer]

Do you know of any cameras that don't have autofocus?

The iPhone 1G and 3G phones don't. They have a fixed focus camera, which is not the same thing.

Re:Wow! Autofocus!? What will Apple invent next?

[dunkelfalke]

Do you know of any cameras that don't have autofocus?

Actually, yes, I do.
Neither Leica M8 nor Leica M8.2 have got AF.

GPS attitude

[Cadre]

If you have a GPS, then you also have a compass, because any GPS can compute North.

This is untrue. A GPS can tell you what your coordinates are but not which way your device is facing relative to north. If you're moving it assumes the GPS is facing the direction of travel, which is not always the case. When you aren't moving it gets quickly confused.

No, actually it is true. You just need multiple antennas in a known orientation.

Sources:

• GPS-based attitude and guidance displays for general aviation
• GPS-Based Attitude For Aircraft

We all know what the difference is between a GPS and a compass.

Apparently some of us are confused about the relative capabilities though.

In context of the iPhone, no, calculating attitude from the GPS data isn't possible due to its size. But calculating attitude using GPS is quite possible and has already been done.

Re:GPS attitude

[centuren]

No, actually it is true. You just need multiple antennas in a known orientation.

The claim was that any GPS can compute north, which we know is untrue.

Apple Rumor

[fm6]

Excuse me while I hack out a filter to skip over all Slashdot stories that have "apple" and "rumor" as keywords. Because the editors don't seem to realize that most Apple rumors are bullshit. That company attracts more lame rumor-mongers that a convention of conspiracy buffs.

New Features (remeber the iPod?)

[DorkRawk]

You're right, Apple should have probably learned their lesson about taking their time and getting features correct rather than trying to have the most features on the block after the whole iPod thing blew up in their faces. "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame." (2001)

Flying iPhone Capabilities?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not dyslexic, I just don't always sentences read properly.

Would you kindly...

[denzacar]

...troll someplace else?

Or do I need to go and get a golf club?

Hey, new iPhone...

[jomcty]

Hey, new iPhone, meet my BlackBerry Curve 8900.

Re:Hey, new iPhone...

[Blimey85]

Yea, umm, really? I just dumped my Curve for an iPhone and I gotta say, I couldn't be happier. Of course mine is jail broken so I can run all the extra crap that really makes the iPhone shine but still, comparing what I have to what I had, it's no comparison.

My main issue with Blackberry phones is the lack of software. How long did Pandora have an iPhone version before finally releasing a Blackberry version? How many websites have iPhone versions vs how many have Blackberry versions? Have you tried Mobile Safari? What does Blackberry have that compares?

I thought my Curve was tits until I really sat down and gave an iPhone an honest try and then I was sold. Sure it's not perfect, but I think Apple has done a much better job than any other player in the game, and considering that they've only been at this for a couple years, what excuse does Rim have for being passed up so easily?

Re:Wow! Autofocus!? What will Apple invent next?

[CompMD]

The HTC Apache (Sprint PPC6700\Verizon XV6700) has a manually adjustable focus on it's camera.

Um, video?

[phorm]

If you don't have an apple restriciphone, then you can install CyCorder, which takes quite nice video on my 3G without requiring any new hardware.

Which is probably a major reason why Apple WON'T ever open the phone in that manner, because then they can't sell new "hardware' with software enabled to emulate new functionality...

Peripheral Vision Amusing As Always

[Anonymous Coward]

Did anyone else read the head line as
"Rumors About New iPhone Flying Capabilities"?

My first thought was that they were attempting to
take over some of Microsoft's flying chair market.

So it has a compass

[KneelBeforeZod]

But does it have a tweezers, toothpick, corkscrew, can opener, bottle opener, .flat-head screwdriver, phillips-head screwdriver, nail file, scissors, saw, file, hook, magnifying glass, ballpoint pen, fish scaler, hex wrench w/bits, pliers, and key chain? Also... it is HD ready?

Hard to believe where is the killer feature?

[basiel]

I find this rumour hard to accept. Because there is nothing mentioning any new great feature that would want people to buy the latest generation iPhone. Who is gonna buy a new phone to have a better camera and a compass??? Anyone?

You must have missed where that doesn't matter

[SuperKendall]

You must have missed the part of the grandparent's post where they specifically asked for tactile buttons.

Yes, I read it and dismissed it.

Because as I said so called "real" buttons with tactile sense can still be worse to use than on-screen buttons. So the qualification to add tactile sense is simply a way for him to discount all buttons, no matter if in fact they are more useful.

And of course, also as noted there is in fact one "real" button (by his definition) on the front... so he wasn't even right in that regard.

Re:You must have missed where that doesn't matter

[Civil_Disobedient]

Because as I said so called "real" buttons with tactile sense can still be worse to use than on-screen buttons.

Uh, how does that work exactly? You can still use your eyes, but... oh wait! you can also use this whole other sensory input in case... say... you couldn't use your eyes.

How is that worse?

Wrong

[SuperKendall]

Uh, how does that work exactly? You can still use your eyes, but... oh wait! you can also use this whole other sensory input in case... say... you couldn't use your eyes.

Wrong.

I use muscle memory all the time to type on the iPhone. That's how you type fast. You can't use your eyes much anyway as your finger obscures the keys...

And that's the issue with physical keyboards on mobile devices too. Your finger covers up a good many keys, you rely on muscle memory to get a keypress right.

At least with the iPhone the keys in vertical are larger than most mobile keypads, and you can turn it landscape for much larger keys.

You make the common mistake many other people make in thinking because you can feel the keys that tactile sense is important in typing. But you're wrong, it's secondary to learned position. Small keys feel a lot alike and you cannot rely on that to press the key you need.

Thank you for allowing me to provide you with this teaching moment, you'll never look at a keyboard the same way again.

Re:Wrong

[Civil_Disobedient]

You make the common mistake many other people make in thinking because you can feel the keys that tactile sense is important in typing.

Funny, I don't recall using the word "typing." Probably because you don't have to do much with an MP3 player, or a phone.

Speaking of which, I would like to see how well your muscle memory does with the object in your pocket.