More iPhone Features Apple Might Tell You In June

As time passes by, rumors pop up more frequently, and some of them get confirmed. Right now, we even have an official interface for video recording as well as a digital compass.

Still, Apple naturally won't comment about these features and will only reveal them to an unsurprised audience (esp. if the audience is in the know with these rumors) in the June conference called WWDC (WorldWide Developers Conference).

1) Video Recording Confirmed
By fooling the iPhone 3.0 firmware into thinking that the present iPhone it is installed in possesses a video camera, this little screen shows up.
As you can see, there is now a "switch" to the lower-right side of the camera screen.

2) Camera Autofocus
By fooling around with the firmware file, hackers have also found out about several other features. One of them is "auto-focus", which would actually be a great improvement to the relatively bad 2 megapixel camera found in the iPhone, though I suspect it won't be supported in the iPhone nor the iPhone 3G.

3) More Megapixels

There's something a bit puzzling about this one, because Apple has reportedly ordered quite a few cameras, and there are two kinds: 3.2 and 5 megapixel variants, to be exact.

The 3.2 megapixel camera could either be iPhone only (while the 5MP one would be attached in an unidentified product), or the 3.2MP camera could be attached to a lower-end model of the iPhone while the 5MP one could be attached to a higher-end model so as to mark a difference besides hard drive space.

All I know is that the camera will at least get bumped up.

4) Digital Compass/Magnetometer

So what's a magnetometer? Well, it's pretty much an accelerometer on steroids. Magnetometers determine the phone's absolute position so it can open up a lot of possibilities: like being able to put 3D objects on a plane in real-time. It's like CGI on green screen minus the green screen.

A bit more helpful is being able to get an even more precise location through GPS and turn-by-turn directions.

An example:

The Nokia 6210 also has a magnetometer.

5) Bigger Storage/Stock

The world's flash memory might be in peril because Apple ordered 100 million 8Gb chips from Samsung. Basically, this might either mean a lot more stock for the 8GB and 16GB models around the world or an introduction of a 32GB model and the axing of the 8GB model.

6) Video Editing?

There might be a video editing feature in the works, although I can't imagine how it would work. Still, Sony Ericsson has a VideoDJ feature in its various phones, and it provides extremely basic video editing features. If a Sony Ericsson phone could do that, why not the iPhone?

7) Faster Wi-Fi

To complement Apple's Time Machine and Airport Express refreshes, Apple has put in support for a new chip that does 802.11n Wi-Fi, which has really fast speeds.

8) Video Answering Machine?

With a video camera on the way, Apple's patented "video answering machine" technology might just exist as a pretty innovative way to lazily answer calls.

Theoretically, for the desktop Macintosh, the iChat application would be able to let you record video messages depending the status message. For example, if your status message is "Be Right Back" and a person wants to video chat with you (and you don't answer the call by just leaving the notice alone), the message you recorded for the status message will appear.

I'm not sure how this will work in the iPhone, but it would actually be pretty cool if:

1) You hang up a call and a pre-recorded video message would come out (although the caller would kill you because it would waste their load/call minutes) or;

2) iChat would be available in the iPhone with Yahoo! Messenger, AIM, G-Talk, MSN Live, and Jabber support!

This feature was actually found in an old beta release of Mac OS X Leopard and prototypes of the original iPhone.

Sources: MacRumors, C|Net

iPhone Features Apple's Not Telling You

Although Apple already announced loads of features for the new iPhone firmware, there are some features (that are actually more hardware-dependent) that Apple may not be telling people. I'm not going to assure that these features will make it to the next iPhone, no doubt to be announced in Apple's Worldwide Developers' Conference in June, but I'm convinced that they will be.

So, the next iPhone will most likely have (that Apple hasn't officially told us)...

1) Video recording

Even the most basic of phones have MMS and message forwarding, as well as basic blurry video recording. If iPhone 3.0 ticks the checkbox off the former two, then the latter's checkbox might be ticked off as well, as evidenced by this "Publish Video" screenshot.

This was found when someone tried to publish/upload a photo to Apple's MobileMe service. Typo? I think not.

2) Internet Tethering

If you don't already have a netbook that you can put a SIM card in, you can always use your cellphone as an internet modem. Essentially, if there's 3G or EDGE coverage, you can just connect the USB cord or connect the iPhone through Bluetooth to use it as a modem. Scott Forstall of Apple actually confirmed this feature in a Q&A but he said that Apple's still negotiating with cellular networks so it's not natively activated even in the iPhone 3.0 beta.

3) Faster Wi-Fi and 3.5G

There are rumors of Apple placing a Wireless-N (and a new 3G) chip inside the iPhone so that it can reach Wi-Fi and 3G speeds of up to 7.2 mbps. Technically, the number's not gonna be possible in our shores, but in America it sure will.

Information is quite scarce as of now, but as time goes, there will indeed be more features waiting to be unearthed. Who knows? Maybe there'll also be a whole other product to be announced in WWDC that will steal the iPhone's thunder- like a netbook? I might be crossing my fingers for a netbook if not for my insane aversion to them, really. The famous reality distortion field might change all of it, perhaps (since Steve Jobs is back in shape by then)?

SOURCES: Macrumors, Engadget

iPhone 3.0: Yes, there's Copy and Paste and then some

No new iPhone revealed today, but existing iPhone (or iPod touch) users can expect a lot from the new firmware to be released by Apple in the Summer months (of course, American summer months) and well, let's cover them chronologically according to the media event that was held.

Developers were the ones in mind when Apple decided to conduct this media event, but that doesn't mean that there are no goodies for end-users as well. Just keep in mind though that the firmware is in beta, and new features might be added. Knowing Apple though, they might even strip one or two in the last minute or otherwise add a buggy feature for that matter.

Anyway, here we go.

Statistics, and more boring stuff
First we have the director of iPod and iPhone Development Team giving out the statistics, iPhone SDK downloads, iPhone sales, motivation for the iPhone developers in the audience, OK, the rudimentary stuff. Additionally, Apple is defending its right for having extremely tight control over App Store submissions by saying that their approval process has become a bit more lax because 96% of App Store submissions have been approved and 98% of submissions have been approved within 7 days, and the man goes on for 5 more minutes afterwards.

Here it really is...
After that, Scott Forstall is called to the stage and we go to the real deal: the iPhone OS 3.0 Software.

Transactions in-App

Developers are pretty much happier because they're able to put purchases in-app, which can actually reduce the number of apps in the App Store, but they're also able to get more revenue and give the consumer more convenience. Catch is that free apps can't do that.

Renew magazine subscriptions inside the app itself.

Local connection to fellow iPhones and iPod touches
Then there's the "Peer to Peer" functionality which enables several iPhones or iPod touches to get inside a local match in a game quickly and through Bluetooth so users need not be in a WiFi zone, nor do any inconvenient pairing. Additionally, other apps can utilize it for other purposes... perhaps file transfer with other brands of phones?

Accessories talk to iPhone (and vice versa)
Plus, accessory makers can now make an app to control an accessory from the iPod touch or iPhone. For example, if your blood pressure thingy is compatible with an iPhone, you can connect it to one and you'll be able to see your blood pressure displayed and you can send that data over to your doctor. Or, maybe you can connect it through Bluetooth if you don't like wires.

Where do I really go to get to Point B?
Next, Google Maps can now be embedded into apps so the full app can be used within a third-party app. Additionally, a framework called CoreLocation can now support turn-by-turn directions for GPS or triangulation, but developers have to make their own maps due to licensing issues. This will make driving to several destinations easier, but unluckily for us, we don't have any Philippine maps that are up-to-date.

Developers can put Google Maps in their apps.

Specific turn-by-turn directions help you cut through traffic.

Broken Promises Made Up For
Now here's one thing people have been a waiting for over a year for: Push notifications. Apple hasn't delivered that with 2.0 last year, so now, well, Forstall acknowledges the error and promises Push notifications for the new firmware. Why not background processes, developers ask? Well, battery life wasn't good that way so push notifications became Apple's workaround for better battery life. Plus, performance will not be affected as much. Let's hope Apple's claims are true though, and that the Apple Push server won't get overloaded. This will be great for IM apps.

Miscellaneous Developer Features
Oh, and I have a good feeling about iPod library access. Rhythm games...... plus voice chat during games! Consumers obviously will say 'Meh', but this is a big deal for developers.

Now Forstall invites several developers from EA, Meebo, Johnsons and Johnsons, ngmoco:) etc. to demo the iPhone 3.0 features.

"Taking care of puppies in the morning, fragging n00bs at night" (Impressions of select demoed apps)
1) The Sims 3 iPhone looks great and it was just programmed in 2 weeks, but oh crap, you're gonna have to pay real money to buy new objects! Rip-off!

The former involves a Sim dancing around to the iPhone's music library, the latter shows off the in-game store.

2) ESPN's app looks great for sports fans who want to see results and the highlights of a game. They demo the iPhone's new video streaming standard.

The quality of the game's highlights are automatically adjusted depending on the bandwidth.

3) And how about that LifeScan glucose meter? It's an app made for diabetics who want to check their glucose and food intake through just the iPhone and an iPhone compatible LifeScan accessory. Pretty nice.

4) Oh, and ngmoco:)'s LiveFire FPS... how will the controls be implemented?

The iPhone OS 3.0 also helps game developers make the iPhone a more credible gaming platform.

5) Leaf Trombone... well, not a big fan of developer smule's Ocarina app but lolz, Phantom of the Opera is the song being demonstrated by the two men from smule, and they look... funny. Two people blowing into an iPhone and just shifting the pitch, it's just... lol.

To your left you'll see the Phantom, and to your right you'll see Christine.

USER FEATURES

1) Cut Copy and Paste - Finally. How to do it? Well, you can double tap some text (or if you want a block of text, just expand the end point/s) and a bubble will appear. Just double tap the part where you want to paste the text and click Paste. Done. More elegant than Clippy, I'm sure. And yes, SMS and Photos can also be copied and pasted. Third-party apps will have support for it as well.

Jailbroken iPhone? Hell no.

2) Undo/Redo - You can shake the device to summon a dialog box that lets you Undo or Redo some erratic typing. This is prolly gonna be a nice feature for those photo editing apps.

3) Landscape typing - Typing E-mails, Notes and SMS (or pretty much anywhere) is a bit less of a pain because people can now type in that format if they so choose.

4) Messages - SMS has been renamed into a more user-friendly "Messages", and they can now be individually deleted and forwarded, thank God. Plus, MMS support has FINALLY been added. Now photos, vCards (contacts), audio, videos and locations can be sent through MMS instead of E-mail. While I don't use MMS much, I'm still happy that Apple whiners and haters can take a break from making fun of the lack of these oh-so basic features.

Can't you help but point and laugh at the two photos above?

5) Voice Memos - An all new app that should've been built-in since the first iPhone, voice memos can now help people create memos using the microphone (or external mic's). The app looks gorgeous, too.

6) Calendar Syncing - Various Calendaring standards are now supported by the Calendar app and iTunes.

7) System-wide Search - Apple finally gives the users a search feature which is pretty much a mobile version of Mac OS X's Spotlight which searches all major apps for specific information by just flicking to the left of the home screen. This will be very much convenient, especially for people who download loads of apps.

8) Shake to shuffle - I knew it. The gimmicky feature first appeared in the iPod nano, and like that device, it'll probably take a vigorous shake before it gets activated- perfect for runners.

9) Stereo Bluetooth - Yup. A2DP right here. Score 1 for Apple's geek rep.

10) Anti-phishing - More mobile security for mobile Safari

11) YouTube accounts - Yes, I can now log-in to my account straight from the dedicated YouTube app!

12) Auto-fill - You can now worry less about dealing with the virtual keyboard as this Safari feature will enable users to fill out forms with the generic information in one click (or in the iPhone's case, touch).

More than a hundred new features, and a thousand new API's can now be downloaded if you're an iPhone developer. Yep, the iPhone 3.0 beta is available on the Apple site today for developers. The final version of iPhone 3.0 will be released in "summer" for free with all the iPhone's (although Stereo Bluetooth and MMS won't be supported due to hardware limitations) and iPhone 3G owners and 10 dollars for iPod touch owners- yes, both generations.

Apple to show off new iPhone March 17

Maybe I could mislead you with the title, but the thing is that the iPhone's operating system is the one that's gonna be shown in a media event to be held on March 17. I'm just gonna put the general term iPhone in here just in case Apple does pull off a "one more thing" even without their cult leader Steve Jobs.

Last year, Apple also held a March event for iPhone developers showing off the capabilities of the then-unreleased iPhone 2.0 software development kit.

What would you like to see in this new work-in-progress? Personally, I'd like the iPhone to gain some actual credibility as a real phone: SMS Forwarding, for one. And how about some copy and paste as well? Make sure you don't charge iPod touch owners again, Apple (or at least the iPod touch owners who have upgraded to version 2.0)!

There'd probably be an even longer laundry list, especially for current owners of the much ballyhooed device.