...If Apple upgrades the iPhone hardware (RAM and CPU)...

[TheSpaz]

If Apple upgrades the RAM and CPU in the next iPhone... does that mean they'll optimize the OS to run well on that and just leave everyone else in the dust with really laggy iPhones and laggy applications as developers build their apps to run well on the *new* next generation iPhone? I am really hoping they keep the same general specs (3G, same CPU speed, same amount of RAM) so that they can continue selling applications that are compatible. Also, they just announced PUSH notifications coming in 3.0, so that makes me think more that they still don't want apps running in the background using up the precious 128MB of RAM.

Things I think will change in the next version are:

- Video Camera built in (possible 720p recording)
- 3.5 megapixel camera or larger.
- Longer lasting battery (with new MacBook Pro 17" battery technology)
- LED lights above the display for notifications
- Improved plastic back (I'm really hoping for a matte finish on it and no cracks)
- Smudge resistant coating on the glass screen

These above hardware changes won't affect the software so much, so it won't leave the millions of iPhone owners out in the cold, but it will still intrigue upgraders and first time buyers.

What do you think?

 

[ZiggyPastorius]

Snip

Technology has to move forward. For the next generation, maybe they'll leave the stuff the same, though I'd hope they'd atleast up it a little. Unless they make a HUGE change in the OS, going from 128 to 256MB (for example) of RAM isn't going to cause problems for older devices in day-to-day usage. Only really in newer applications from developers utilising better hardware. If they don't do it in this next iPhone, they'd be more than foolish not to in the one following that. By then, both iPhone and iPhone 3G customers will be ready to upgrade, and I'm pretty sure people don't want to buy a phone that is just as slow/low-RAM as the one they bought in 2007.

 

[Tokiopop]

- Video Camera built in (possible 720p recording)
- 3.5 megapixel camera or larger.
- Longer lasting battery (with new MacBook Pro 17" battery technology)
- LED lights above the display for notifications
- Improved plastic back (I'm really hoping for a matte finish on it and no cracks)
- Smudge resistant coating on the glass screen

We can dream

 

[TheSpaz]

Another thing... What about all the 3G owners already... they're not eligible for an upgrade for another year since their iPhones were subsidized right?

 

[phobic99]

Another thing... What about all the 3G owners already... they're not eligible for an upgrade for another year since their iPhones were subsidized right?

Not all of them.

I got my refurb 3G from AT&T last Friday and I also have no contract. I had a Blackberry Bold I know longer wanted to I just did a SIM swap.

 

[ZiggyPastorius]

Another thing... What about all the 3G owners already... they're not eligible for an upgrade for another year since their iPhones were subsidized right?

Yes, that's what I was referring to in my post. For example, I can't get a subsidised upgrade 'til March of 2011. However, I'm not really worried that if Apple upgrades the CPU and RAM this next iteration, the OS will become so far advanced that my device will lag and such.

 

[barkomatic]

If Apple upgrades the RAM and CPU in the next iPhone... does that mean they'll optimize the OS to run well on that and just leave everyone else in the dust with really laggy iPhones and laggy applications as developers build their apps to run well on the *new* next generation iPhone?

Unfortunately, I think that will be the case. Though I think you'll be good with whatever the previous generation is when the latest hardware comes out every year.

 

[s8film40]

Another thing... What about all the 3G owners already... they're not eligible for an upgrade for another year since their iPhones were subsidized right?

This is the reason I didn't upgrade to the 3G.

 

[TheSpaz]

Yes, that's what I was referring to in my post. For example, I can't get a subsidised upgrade 'til March of 2011. However, I'm not really worried that if Apple upgrades the CPU and RAM this next iteration, the OS will become so far advanced that my device will lag and such.

True... I guess Apple would probably stop supporting the device rather than letting their OS run laggy as hell on it. They'd probably just mark the OS upgrade (OS 5.0?) incompatible with iPhone 3G. The reason I said 5.0 is because the original iPhone can still run 3.0 so saying that the iPhone 3G can run 5.0 is probably going to be true. Who knows. I just hope they upgrade the design... the shiny plastic sucks. I much prefer the first gen metal case.

This is the reason I didn't upgrade to the 3G.

But, I thought first gen owners could upgrade to the 3G at the subsidized price ($199)... unless you're talking about not wanting to be locked into another 2 year plan.

 

[EnderTW]

But, I thought first gen owners could upgrade to the 3G at the subsidized price ($199)... unless you're talking about not wanting to be locked into another 2 year plan.

This is exactly right.

iPhone 3g owners will get a special subsidized rate if they wish to upgrade, just like the original iPhone owners did when 3g came out.

 

[renewed]

Obviously they are going to upgrade the iPhone's hardware including RAM and it is a GOOD thing. The better technology gets the more features you will have and they will be faster to access. I dare to say no one wants things to remain the same forever. Look at an old Apple II . Do you really want that? You sure wouldn't be able to sync your precious iPhone/iPod to it.

Technology needs to improve and I am all for it. I would hope that the 3rd generation iPhone blows the 1st so far out of the water it makes the 1st one obsolete...the 4th one makes the 2nd obsolete etc...

 

[TheSpaz]

Obviously they are going to upgrade the iPhone's hardware including RAM and it is a GOOD thing. The better technology gets the more features you will have and they will be faster to access. I dare to say no one wants things to remain the same forever. Look at an old Apple II . Do you really want that? You sure wouldn't be able to sync your precious iPhone/iPod to it.

Technology needs to improve and I am all for it. I would hope that the 3rd generation iPhone blows the 1st so far out of the water it makes the 1st one obsolete...the 4th one makes the 2nd obsolete etc...

I agree... technology must move ahead but, think about the App store for a second. What happens when developers start developing apps that will only work on the new faster, better iPhone? Apple will lose sales from the first and second generation iPhones... and developers will lose sales from them as well. Even the iPod touch owners will be left behind in that case. Why would they develop push if they were going to upgrade the RAM?... or they just going to upgrade the RAM so they can slack on optimizing the OS better to use RAM more efficiently. Instead of upgrading the RAM and CPU, they should work on slimming down the OS some more... fix more memory leaks... and optimize the hell out of it so that it runs smoothly and efficiently on the older models as well as the newer models.

I guess I feel a little upset that we all thought push was coming 6 months ago... so now we're 6 months into our contracts and still can't have push until summer... I mean come on... this was ONE of the things that people thought they'd get when they bought the iPhone 3G. I'm tired of the waiting games to get things that we should have had for months or maybe even years now.

 

[renewed]

I agree... technology must move ahead but, think about the App store for a second. What happens when developers start developing apps that will only work on the new faster, better iPhone? Apple will lose sales from the first and second generation iPhones... and developers will lose sales from them as well. Even the iPod touch owners will be left behind in that case. Why would they develop push if they were going to upgrade the RAM?... or they just going to upgrade the RAM so they can slack on optimizing the OS better to use RAM more efficiently. Instead of upgrading the RAM and CPU, they should work on slimming down the OS some more... fix more memory leaks... and optimize the hell out of it so that it runs smoothly and efficiently on the older models as well as the newer models.

I guess I feel a little upset that we all thought push was coming 6 months ago... so now we're 6 months into our contracts and still can't have push until summer... I mean come on... this was ONE of the things that people thought they'd get when they bought the iPhone 3G. I'm tired of the waiting games to get things that we should have had for months or maybe even years now.

Push is coming now so although it was delayed, Apple didn't lie to anyone. It's coming. Actually come to think of it, it is here. I use push everyday with MobileMe.

Now the issue comes to why was Push delayed for other apps? My guess is software development. Ever sense I installed 3.0 my battery life is extremely more generous. I can text and talk all day on one charge. So it seems they tightened up some loose ends so that battery wouldn't be affected so much. Apple wants the whole product to work well not just throw a bunch of features together and sacrifice efficiency.

The other issue is this: Obviously a lot of apps are not going to work on older iPhones. It is just like how some programs now only work on Intel based Macs. I will refer back to that Apple II, it is an Apple computer but iTunes 8.1 is not going to work on it. Although the original iPhone is an Apple product doesn't mean that future apps will work on it.

Apple didn't lose money by upgrading that Apple II into an iMac and Apple isn't going to lose money by upgrading that original iPhone, or even the 3G, into something more spectacular. People will follow suit and upgrade just like they have in the past and Apple will go on and on like it has so far.

 

[Eso]

If Apple upgrades the RAM and CPU in the next iPhone... does that mean they'll optimize the OS to run well on that and just leave everyone else in the dust with really laggy iPhones...

What do you think?

I think you are starting to piss even me off. You realize if they were to "optimize" the OS that would mean to make it run with less memory and processing power, meaning it would actually work better on the current hardware? So saying they will "optimize" and have it run with more lag on current hardware is just nonsensical.

This is exactly right.

iPhone 3g owners will get a special subsidized rate if they wish to upgrade, just like the original iPhone owners did when 3g came out.

More like exactly WRONG. The original was not subsidized, hence you could "upgrade" to any device with a subsidy from day 1.

I know you already knew that, Spaz. You really need to cut it out with the spam.

/voteban the Spaz

 

[TheSpaz]

I think you are starting to piss even me off. You realize if they were to "optimize" the OS that would mean to make it run with less memory and processing power, meaning it would actually work better on the current hardware? So saying they will "optimize" and have it run with more lag on current hardware is just nonsensical.



More like exactly WRONG. The original was not subsidized, hence you could "upgrade" to any device with a subsidy from day 1.

I know you already knew that, Spaz. You really need to cut it out with the spam.

/voteban the Spaz

So you know for sure that there won't be an upgrade option for the next iPhone for 3G users? Apple may strike a deal with AT&T to allow early upgrades. Also, you can't voteban. My discussion is legit.

 

[Eso]

Apple may strike a deal with AT&T to allow early upgrades. Also, you can't voteban. My discussion is legit.

Oh really, something like this then:

Apple: Hey here's an idea... Why don't you guys pay us *more* money so you can make *less* money from your customers?

AT&T: Or... perhaps you guys can go innovate a place that you can shove our Upgrade Policy up.

Also, you can't voteban.

If we could, I think you'd have reason to fret.

My discussion is legit.

It really isn't, actually. Everything you posted has been discussed to death 10 times over. There's nothing in your first post that isn't in another thread already:

• CPU and RAM upgrade - Ugh let's see, how many iPhone page stories have we covered about new CPU architecture?
• Push coming in 3.0 - Wow, watched the keynote eh?
• Video camera built in - Yeah, been beating this horse since the 3G
• 3.5 Mexapixel camera - This again?
• Longer lasting battery - Multi-Cell already has a thread on this and it's already been explained the MBP battery "technology" doesn't apply.
• Improved plastic back - photos of a base casing were leaked a long time ago.
• Upgrade eligibility for 3G owners - this has been covered so much I am shocked it isn't a sticky by now.

 

[mavis]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G (white): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20)

Another thing... What about all the 3G owners already... they're not eligible for an upgrade for another year since their iPhones were subsidized right?

If they upgrade the RAM and CPU, I'll gladly break my contract and buy a new phone. I'm sick of the general sluggishness of the 3G.

 

[Airforcekid]

It will most likely be the 2nd gen iPod Touch faster more stable but a similiar os. Will 3 do everything better yes will the 3g and 1st gen probley will with less graphics and at a slower rate. 1st gen might even not be upgraded at all just iphone 2.2.2 with an update to the App store.

 

[=MuLti-CeLL=]

Obviously they are going to upgrade the iPhone's hardware including RAM and it is a GOOD thing. The better technology gets the more features you will have and they will be faster to access. I dare to say no one wants things to remain the same forever. Look at an old Apple II . Do you really want that? You sure wouldn't be able to sync your precious iPhone/iPod to it.

Technology needs to improve and I am all for it. I would hope that the 3rd generation iPhone blows the 1st so far out of the water it makes the 1st one obsolete...the 4th one makes the 2nd obsolete etc...

+1

I agree... technology must move ahead but, think about the App store for a second. What happens when developers start developing apps that will only work on the new faster, better iPhone? Apple will lose sales from the first and second generation iPhones.

You see, I don't really see it that way.

What about when the 2nd generation Touch came out and how ever many months later it was (I can't remember the exact date) there was news that it was revealed to be faster than the 1st gen Touch, iPhone and iPhone 3G.

I'm pretty sure there's not too MANY apps that can't run on the 1st gen Touch that can run on the 2nd gen Touch.

Now, I HAVE heard that some games run noticeably smoother on the 2nd gen Touch than the first and even smoother than the 3g in some cases.

With that said, I think they could get away with upgrading cpu/ram without it being such a HUGE jump in speed that most of the same games wouldn't run on the current 3g as well. Now the 1st gen iPhone, hmmm, well, those folks that aren't upgrading from 1st gen to new this time around either know jack squat about cell phone's and cell phone history and are oblivious to maybe even the 3g OR they can't afford to upgrade and really shouldn't be buying high quality games anyways D).

[*]Longer lasting battery - Multi-Cell already has a thread on this and it's already been explained the MBP battery "technology" doesn't apply.

I don't believe that was MY thread but thanks for the credit anyhow. If I'm wrong, shoot me the link, I might have forgot.



And now for MY actual post...


I will be buying my first iPhone this summer and the two main things that I hope they do upgrade are the CPU and RAM (256). And of course better battery technology to go along with this new hog.

I'm thinking 2009 is the year 256MB of RAM in a smartphone is going to become the new standard for atleast a year or two. The Pre is supposedly, whenever they decide to release it, going to have 256RAM. I think the G1 even uses 192mb or something like that and if you do a bit of searching around for HTC's new lineup and Blackberries and so forth you'll see that most are atleast gonna be lugging that 256RAM around this year.

If there's one thing that makes me cringe when I read it, is that "Oh gawd, my phone is SO laggy", "it takes a whole 2 SECONDS to open SMS!", etc etc etc. I want smooth sailing. I know, I know, it's never gonna be perfect. But a boost sure would be nice.

Spaz, I think you're all right man, but don't shatter my dreams with threads like this ok buddy? Just accept that you are going to have an 'ol @ss piece'o crap 3g while everyone else is rockin the new iPhone, I hope (j/k....kinda)

 

[Mikey B]

Another thing... What about all the 3G owners already... they're not eligible for an upgrade for another year since their iPhones were subsidized right?

This is the reason I didn't upgrade to the 3G.

So you know for sure that there won't be an upgrade option for the next iPhone for 3G users? Apple may strike a deal with AT&T to allow early upgrades. Also, you can't voteban. My discussion is legit.

Well, according to the status on the AT&T website for my account, the 3G I bought last July is eligible for an upgrade in July 09. Also, an AT&T rep told me, for whatever it's worth, that iPhone contracts are eligible for subsidies on a yearly basis.

 

[Krafty]

Not all of them.

I got my refurb 3G from AT&T last Friday and I also have no contract. I had a Blackberry Bold I know longer wanted to I just did a SIM swap.

How? I'm eligible and they told me they don't sell refurbs, nor would they let me order one without being forced into another contract.

 

[=MuLti-CeLL=]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G (white): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5H11 Safari/525.20)



If they upgrade the RAM and CPU, I'll gladly break my contract and buy a new phone. I'm sick of the general sluggishness of the 3G.

You see! This is exactly what I'm talking about! And I've read several post very similar to this here and all around other iPhone forums.

Who all thinks the iPhone is sluggish now?

Now...who all thinks that 3.0 will probably not help with that sluggishness with all the new features they're cramming in there?

I'm not talking about 'un-usable' current 3g's or anything but I forsee a lot more griping and groaning about slow-down, especially if there is no upgraded internal hardware.

Which leads me to believe they won't drag on until next summer for an upgrade while other phone manufacturers continue to gain ground on them. They really need to do something this time around. Or I'm just hoping they do, lol.

 

[marksandvig]

If Apple upgrades the RAM and CPU in the next iPhone... does that mean they'll optimize the OS to run well on that and just leave everyone else in the dust with really laggy iPhones and laggy applications as developers build their apps to run well on the *new* next generation iPhone? I am really hoping they keep the same general specs (3G, same CPU speed, same amount of RAM) so that they can continue selling applications that are compatible. Also, they just announced PUSH notifications coming in 3.0, so that makes me think more that they still don't want apps running in the background using up the precious 128MB of RAM.

Things I think will change in the next version are:

- Video Camera built in (possible 720p recording)
- 3.5 megapixel camera or larger.
- Longer lasting battery (with new MacBook Pro 17" battery technology)
- LED lights above the display for notifications
- Improved plastic back (I'm really hoping for a matte finish on it and no cracks)
- Smudge resistant coating on the glass screen

These above hardware changes won't affect the software so much, so it won't leave the millions of iPhone owners out in the cold, but it will still intrigue upgraders and first time buyers.

What do you think?

Optimizing the OS wouldnt be likely.. Eventually they will have to move on.. I own a PS2 still, but I wasnt expecting Sony to keep releasing games on PS3 and porting them over forever. Eventually the Iphone 1 will be left in the dust.. then the 3g.. etc..

 

[TheSpaz]

I just wanna bring up something really quick. The 2nd gen iPod touch has the same processor, it's just not underclocked as much as the 3G, original iPhone and first generation iPod touch. They probably put a higher capacity battery in the 2nd gen iPod touch to be able to boost the clock speed and not worry about harming the battery life like the iPhone.

Anyone wanna back this up? If I'm not mistaken... the iPhone clock speed can be changed in a firmware update (and has been changed in the past).

 

[TheSpaz]

Optimizing the OS wouldnt be likely.. Eventually they will have to move on.. I own a PS2 still, but I wasnt expecting Sony to keep releasing games on PS3 and porting them over forever. Eventually the Iphone 1 will be left in the dust.. then the 3g.. etc..

Do you remember how long the PS2 was out without any upgrades? The PS2 is still going rather strong and they still release brand new games for it. It's such a good system.