It's so hard to know which thread to post into now!!
It's probably nothing at all, but just noticed the price has disappeared from underneath the iphone on the uk apple site (only on the front page though):
http://store.apple.com/uk
Like I said, it's probably nothing at all, I'm just keeping my eyes peeled for any small changes regarding the iPhone on as many websites as I can.
p.s It is still underneath the iPhone on the US site.
This thread covers all news relating to iPhone. And more. So if it's iPhone related, it's probably pretty safe to post here, hence the title change a while back. It's painful to have so many multiple threads popping up about each new story, so this thread is to try and have a discussion on the various parts.
Any post on the iPhone forum that duplicates a story that goes to the front page, (or iphone blog or second page) basically gets locked. It's easier to chat specifically about that thing on the macrumors front page thread. But to link it into other stories, this thread's pretty good
WWDC
Included in the WWDC sessions & labs will be ones focusing on things that haven't been leaked yet - You'd think Apple would try not to leak secret features by having them on a lab session title. If it's got GPS for example, you'd imagine labs on this. “Geographical location technology” as part of a session segment may be as close as we prior to the 3G iPhone announcement.
Apple, PDAs & Newton
What does the iPhone really actually lack when compared to the Newton? Are they
thinking of surpassing it?
Having read the whole of the "Return of the Newton" https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/360751/]thread[/url]
There seemed to be 2-3 main themes.
1) Handwriting recognition. You can write in symbols, with separated letters, or in cursive (joined up hand writing).
Cursive is still being worked on, but the other 2 are now pretty much sorted. E.g. the OS 2.0 already covers Japanese and Chinese, and have the capability to do non-cursive handwriting technology (the MessagePads could do it a decade ago, so why not be able to do it better, in the 21st century?). The problem is now cursive writing, and software (and associated minimum specs needed to run it).
Apple's hiring anyhow.
2) Screen Size. PDA is a silly term, as is Newton to bandy about now, now we have MID (Mobile Internet Devices) and UMPC (UltraMobile Personal Computers), Sub-notebooks, and Notebooks, laptops.
In size, smallest to largest (screen) it's roughly:
iPod nano (for reference)
iPhone
PDA
MID
UMPC
sub-notebook
notebook
laptop
The UMPC shows the minimum screen size relating to the 3rd problem:
3) Related to Screen size, is the only other thing not giving the iPhone "PDA" status - document viewing/editing
- The minimum size of screen to have full fledged document viewer/editor apps working on a multitouch screen
You need space, and a keyboard/mouse you'd imagine for document opening and editing, due to the need for menus in Word/Excel, Keynote etc. Displaying a a keynote on an iPhone - yes. Editing one? Much harder.
Can anyone think of a small iPhone sized device that you can easily view and edit document info in? Anyone else agree there is a physical minimum screen size for document viewing/editing/creating? 10-12 inches with a touchpad seems to be it at the moment.
Things to take from previous tech (From the
Newton wiki page):
The Newton showed:
- for editing text , "an intuitive system for handwritten editing, such as scratching out words to be deleted, circling text to be selected, or using written carets to mark inserts" (See Perspective Pixels Spiral and slash delete/menu callup, Vista's scribble erase)
- Modeless error correction: "correction done in situ without using a separate window or widget, using a minimum of gestures. If a word is recognized improperly, the user could double-tap the word and a list of alternatives would pop up in a menu under the stylus. Most of the time, the correct word will be in the list. If not, a button at the bottom of the list allows the user to edit individual characters in that word. Other pen gestures could do such things as transpose letters (also in situ)."
- Free-hand sketches of geometric shapes could be turned into vector versions to tidy them up.
- Sketches and shapes could be scaled and deformed.
- Any handwritten text could be at any time directed to be turned into recognised text.
Inkwell tech will be coming back I imagine. Newton's Rosetta seemed pretty good for the time, and even now. Surely Apple wants to get into this area? The finger is the best pointing device, and together they're pretty good at drawing and writing too... There are plenty of
videos (exp see tha last 20 seconds of this one)on Youtube about the current state of MS vs Apple
in this regard with the related videos section too.
2004: Jobs stated that he is proud not only of the products Apple has shipped, but also the products Apple has decided not to ship. When asked to elaborate, Jobs replied, "an Apple PDA." He's right - the iPhone is pretty much a PDA and the 3 problems of not making one listed above still remain. They're easier to overcome, but they're still there.
Tablet PDA UMPC
The differentiators are the sizes. Smaller = less powerful chips. As you get bigger, more space for battery, more likelihood it's going to be near a power source.
Phone >> Smartphone >> PDA capabilities
PC >> Multtitouch >>Handheld >> Tablet
It'll come. Later than we want (what we want doesn't necessarily = what will sell, or what can be made) (the hirings in the areas indicate the tech has some time to go, as we can imagine and hypothesise faster than a company can R&D and manufacture). But the use of multi-touch begs the question where Apple's long term plans will take them.
E.g. Touch, multi-touch, multi-gesture, multi-gesture using a glove/at a distance, speech recognition, text to speech. Dictation is such a big thing still in professions - It's lucrative to cut some of the work out (the work of transcribing a digital audio file is to an extent being offshored currently, but could just as easily be done via a computer, freeing up secretarial time).
Uses for a Apple Tablet
- They could also branch out into the medical side if they did this - The djvu files. pdbs, pdfs etc that many a MD collects...Who wants to lug a 10 inch textbook, when they could use an Apple device.
- Censuses
- Drawing, hand-writing, data gathering,
- Document display and editing.
Jobs' point to the medical industry was we haven't got the processor power, the battery life, the bandwidth, or decent enough resolution screens. We're nearing all 3 being good enough (e.g. OLED, Atom chips, wUWB, 802.21, WiMax etc).
The iPhone SDK is a great launching pad for a Tablet or similar if they wanted to launch one. It'd run on a similar OS for a start.
Geo location could easily sort out auto-turnoff of 3G within a hospital for doctors, so they could use them offline, and not create any interference.
Would the general public buy? Maybe not. Maybe it's more a business that would buy these devices.
Nokia seems to think it's worthwhile coming out with a WiMax Tablet this year.
iTunes
- Tablet = Kindle killer, eBook reader.
- Books via iTunes?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm8iAE9xRR0
NFC - Any chance of coming to the U.S./ I'm happy to see Finland has a similar system for over 5 years
What was the quote from Apple about using Atom chips in an Apple product by the end of 2008?
DVB-H
TV on your mobile. Techtawts cursing the sky saying it's going to fall...
Does the old PMB8878 support it? Our survey says... Yes, if Apple wants it. The answer is on page 7 - The SGOLD3H supports a DVB-H module. Of note, the N96 will have
DVB-H built in.
Might be better to
do it via wifi
http://dtvbrief.wordpress.com/2007/11/29/mobile-tv-gets-go-in-the-eu-how-will-us-follow/
Ug.
Swisscom rumours are
unverifiable sometimes. Swisscom - where HD = "The quality is identical to what your TV at home offers." (and the rumor hits front page?).
Dopé by a more powerful chip, the toy fashionable offer more features such as video conferencing, mobile TV and GPS.
Random q - If the 3G iPhone has GPS - Would an alumin(i)um back decrease signal? The current iPhone has it's antenna positioned where it isn't affected by metal casing, right?
