Next Generation iPhone: 7.2Mbit, Video Camera, More?

[chrmjenkins]

"Yeah you know me!"
Sorry, the Naughty By Nature in me couldn't pass on that one.

I have a lazy right eye too. Should we start a club?

There is a difference between not covering sparsely populated areas and not offering high-speed in densely populated one. The former is fully understandable, the latter just means they are slow. If you look at the population density in the areas AT&T has 3G coverage and compare it with the population density in the areas where you have 3G coverage in a lot of European countries (+ certain Asian ones), the US population density is not lower anymore.

Arguably, they have less incentive. Since a lot of people who use data use unlimited plans, which are all the same price, why provide so much better service in urban areas when you only get the same amount of money that someone using EDGE does?

 

[Scottsdale]

How about:

iPhone 3V
iPhone V3

Could show video or version capabilities in name. While that is what I was thinking, I would have preferred the iPhone just stay iPhone when they called the new one 3G. It makes sense to keep the version number quiet and not ruin it with 3G one capability of an amazing phone. Could call it T for tethering... CCP for Cut Copy Paste... or just video V...

iPhone T
iPhone CCP
iPhone V

What I like best... iPhone

 

[iansilv]

Is the Marvell chip a multi core chip?

 

[fleshman03]

Mini-tablet?

iPhone2,2: Updated existing iPhone
iPhone3,1: New iPhone (7.2 Mb, video recording)
iProd0,1: Mini-tablet (PXA168, larger display)

?

That's my thoughts.

 

[ipoppy]

I'm putting money on it being named:

• iPhone 3.0

Nope...
the iPhone AV
...I bet this iPhone will come out with iChat AV

 

[w00master]

How about just iPhone?

 

[JensenJJ]

They should have put the Intel Atom into the iphone. Big mistake by apple on not putting the atom into the iphone.

Atom is nice becouse it's x86 and has a lot of power compert to how mutch power it's uses.
And then it's small some great for a Media center/DVR/PVR/Stuff like that.

When you can then don't use the x86 CPU.
It's cheap and have gotten a lot of updates.
But for phone use some CPU that is made for phones, and then get an OS that can run on them.

If you look in hardware then many switch today are starting to use cheap x86 chips in them.
But if you go up in high end Pro high speed switchs then you will see they are usen PowerPC chip becouse they are better then x86.

So long story short, Atom is a great x86 CPU, but x86 sucks if you want to get the bedst preformens whit as little power as posibel

 

[iMacmatician]

Completely agreed. Also, Moorestown (SoC) will help Atom further.

 

[B2k1977]

Some people have 32Gb+ of songs/podcasts/video. Some people like to carry all their music in their pocket and have ditched their ipod for their phone.
I have 40Gb+ of music, and use smart playlists to manage what's on my phone, but I wish there was more capacity. 16gb is days of music, but when that one track you want isn't on there at the time it's really irritating.

I bought the 8GB thinking, it'll be enough for apps, and I don't plan on using it as an "ipod" as much as a "phone/internet device". Well that was when I first got it, now I hate my ipod and all I want is the phone, I carry headphones, it works w/ my car stereo, the capacity is just not there. 32gb would probably make me buy a new one, but 64GB is what is needed, and I am willing to pay for it.

 

[Hattig]

Is the Marvell chip a multi core chip?

Nope. I think it is destined for the next generation Apple TV, along with a price drop.

 

[iDDiction]

Name

iPhone 3G2 (2 being a superscript for the third generation iPhone that is 3G; 3G squared)

 

[rhett7660]

I'm going to cry about not being able to put a picture on the home screen or change the icons to some crappy scheme of my own choosing

I won't cry... but I hear yeah. This is one of the only things I would like to see...

 

[marine610610]

Defend, why don't you buy what you need now instead of hoping what a company will add later. If you wanted video and it didn't have it in the first place, you shouldn't have bought it period.

The iPhone is rarely every a NEED for anyone.. There are a few people for whom its financially advantageous, im willing to bet that is a tiny portion of iPhone owners.

iPhones are purchased to satisfy wants...

 

[ddTaylor]

Last week some more details about the next iPhone revision continued leaking out.

First, there were spottings of new Apple device IDs found embedded within the iPhone 3.0 firmware. Silicon Alley Insider then claimed that the next iPhone would come with "much faster internet". Finally, AppleInsider said that the new iPhone would indeed have a video camera, supporting evidence of video publishing screenshots also found in iPhone 3.0.

It's not surprising that the number of leaks is increasing as Apple does have to keep their carrier partners at least somewhat informed heading into a new release. We've also continue to hear unconfirmed whispers and have specifically heard that the new iPhone with support a 7.2Mbit chipset.

Another interesting possibility is that Apple may have settled on the Marvell PXA168 ARM chip as the heart of a future device. Some unconfirmed claims point to Apple buying up supplies of this chip which is reportedly also due in the July timeframe. The Marvell PXA168 CPU was announced in January of this year and aims to provide "entry-level laptop" capabilities to consumer electronic devices.

Article Link: Next Generation iPhone: 7.2Mbit, Video Camera, More?

I have not read this post yet - and I am sure this point has been touched upon - but wouldn't this make complete sense for the NetBook? I would guess that would be a PERFECT chip for the NetBook/Tablet/Large iPod Touch or whatever they are going to call it (as long as it is not Vaporware!).

D

 

[lftrghtparadigm]

I won't cry... but I hear yeah. This is one of the only things I would like to see...

I don't see this making it's way into the official iPhone OS. At the most changing the background of the Home Screen could happen, but no way does Apple enable changing icons or "themes" of any kind. Not a chance.

 

[iMacoo7]

I agree with most that the new iPhone will be named iPhone Pro or even iPhoneAV
It makes sense, since the new iphone will/should have a better camera (Maybe a better CMOS lens )
Only time will tell the true outcome of it all.

 

[kdarling]

Doesn't seem likely that they'd call it the...

iPhone HD

... since there's already the...

Omnia HD (with HD video recording)

As far as memory goes, too bad Apple won't put in a memory slot or two. It's getting pretty easy to pop in 16GB cards these days, and 32GB is coming down fast.

 

[iMacmatician]

I have not read this post yet - and I am sure this point has been touched upon - but wouldn't this make complete sense for the NetBook? I would guess that would be a PERFECT chip for the NetBook/Tablet/Large iPod Touch or whatever they are going to call it (as long as it is not Vaporware!).

That's also what I've been thinking.

 

[wizard]

How about iPhone Sixshooter or iPhone Revolver

Seriously apple should advertise this new "phone" as a device that meets all of your social computing needs. For example:

Chamber #1 = E-Mail
Chamber #2 = high speed web access
Chamber #3 = cell communications
Chamber #4 = full GPS.
Chamber #5 = full support for app I/O
Chamber #6 = games

Of course while our European friends continually orgasm over the speed of their networks they will fail to see the American bent in the above.


Notice that I mentioned zip with respect to cameras. While technology wise there are some very good upgrades available that recently have become available they do not represent the improvement I'm looking for. So yeah we could easily see 720P in the new phone but I don't expect huge strides in sesitivity or image quality.

Frankly I'm if the opinion that the biggest problem Apple will have is properly sizing the battery. Right now Apple can improve the power profile with respect to just about every chip in the iPhone. That a good, the bad is that a lot more functionality will be embedded in the devices. Functionality that people will be very likely to use. The simple act of fullfilling the want of video capture will be a battery killer. This is where I hope they pull their heads out of their collective asses and provide us with at least one phone with a swapable battery. Frankly for miluch the same reason that I carry a spare battery for my SLR.


Dave

 

[wizard]

Completely true.

The iPhone is rarely every a NEED for anyone.. There are a few people for whom its financially advantageous, im willing to bet that is a tiny portion of iPhone owners.

iPhones are purchased to satisfy wants...

A third component here is that a small number are trying to find a solution where the iPhone or more specifically apps make money for them.

There is also one more component in that iPhone can in some cases be a persons only communications device. I know that I've gotten rid of my land line and other ISPs to use only the iPhone. So it certainly a want but it is also a solution to common comunications needs. There are no absolutes here.


Dave

 

[Stewie86]

Be great if as well as the regular iPhone they offered an iPhone Special Edition:

Metal back
8mp camera that shoots 720p video (think Flip Mino) + Flash, focus etc.
32gb
Faster CPU and 256mb RAM
30 hours audio playback, 20 hours 2g talktime, 10 hours 3g talktime, 12 hours video/web browsing

£299/$499 + Contract.

Right on the dot. That sir, is all I'm asking for. On my wish list included all yours has plus Landscape texting, cut copy & paste and MMS. Since all of those are already on their way, and video is a shoo-in, all I want is a larger MP camera, More GB storage and a farfetched Video chat/calling.

 

[PCMacUser]

Well, if the iPhone does feature HD video recording, it'll probably be terrible quality because of the tiny sensor they'd have to fit in it. It would put a lot of pressure on its storage capabilities too. Perhaps they should step out on a limb and make the memory expandable.

With a higher resolution still camera, perhaps they could incorporate OCR software in the phone.

 

[winterspan]

I apologize if this has been covered, but I don't have the time to read through 10 pages of posts at the moment.

Now, let me preface my comment by acknowledging I am NOT a hardware engineer or even in the IC industry, but I do try to stay current with basic knowledge of CPU hardware and related stuff.. So don't quote on my anything as gospel.

That said, there are a few problems with this idea that a future iPhone would uses the Marvell chip, not least because Marvell itself doesn't list "smartphones" or "cellphones" even in their optimistic product literature as a recommended application.

More importantly, Marvell's "PXA168" (like all their app processors) is based on an ARM-compatible CPU core that is derived from the original Intel XScale architecture. Currently, it is only compatible with ARMv5 architecture which equates to the (older) ARM9 cores. Now that is not to say the performance is like an ARM9, just that it uses the old instruction set. The current iPhone uses a processor that has a standard ARM11 core and so uses the ARMv6 instruction set. I'm not positive, but I am assuming Apple's mobile OSX is compiled for ARMv6 (and possibly also uses a special SIMD/FP accelerator on the chipset) to utilize all the latest ARM features.

However advanced it may be, using a CPU that uses ARMv5 seems like a big step backward considering the latest version of ARM is the ARMv7 instruction set that is utilized by the "Cortex-A8" processing core -- the new hot rod of the ARM world. This is the core used in the new generation of smartphone processors from T.I., Qualcomm, and other key players.

I would be VERY surprised if the next iPhone did not use a ARM SoC that has the Cortex-A8 core since it seems like the logical next step. The only alternative I could see realistically is a newer, die-shrunk dual-core ARM11. Similarly, There is pretty much no way the next iPhone will use the next-gen dual-core Cortex-A9 as although the design is complete, it will not even be in a shipping commercial chip for another year.

More info on the Marvell PXA168:
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS3542687598.html

Outline of ARM generations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture#ARM_cores

P.S. anyone with advanced knowledge of the iPhone's low-level compiler architecture want to comment..

 

[wizard]

No PXA in iPhone!

The Marvel chip is very interesting but I don't see it going into iPhone. For one it isn't a Cortex platform and two it is to power hungery from what I can see. Even in Apple TV I'd question the chip. The primary reason being the thought that iPhone app compatibility would be huge here. Games being the app that would most likely be played there.


Dave

 

[chrmjenkins]

I apologize if this has been covered, but I don't have the time to read through 10 pages of posts at the moment.

Now, let me preface my comment by acknowledging I am NOT a hardware engineer or even in the IC industry, but I do try to stay current with basic knowledge of CPU hardware and related stuff.. So don't quote on my anything as gospel.

That said, there are a few problems with this idea that a future iPhone would uses the Marvell chip, not least because Marvell itself doesn't list "smartphones" or "cellphones" even in their optimistic product literature as a recommended application.

More importantly, Marvell's "PXA168" (like all their app processors) is based on an ARM-compatible CPU core that is derived from the original Intel XScale architecture. Currently, it is only compatible with ARMv5 architecture which equates to the (older) ARM9 cores. Now that is not to say the performance is like an ARM9, just that it uses the old instruction set. The current iPhone uses a processor that has a standard ARM11 core and so uses the ARMv6 instruction set. I'm not positive, but I am assuming Apple's mobile OSX is compiled for ARMv6 (and possibly also uses a special SIMD/FP accelerator on the chipset) to utilize all the latest ARM features.

However advanced it may be, using a CPU that uses ARMv5 seems like a big step backward considering the latest version of ARM is the ARMv7 instruction set that is utilized by the "Cortex-A8" processing core -- the new hot rod of the ARM world. This is the core used in the new generation of smartphone processors from T.I., Qualcomm, and other key players.

I would be VERY surprised if the next iPhone did not use a ARM SoC that has the Cortex-A8 core since it seems like the logical next step. The only alternative I could see realistically is a newer, die-shrunk dual-core ARM11. Similarly, There is pretty much no way the next iPhone will use the next-gen dual-core Cortex-A9 as although the design is complete, it will not even be in a shipping commercial chip for another year.

More info on the Marvell PXA168:
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS3542687598.html

Outline of ARM generations:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_architecture#ARM_cores

P.S. anyone with advanced knowledge of the iPhone's low-level compiler architecture want to comment..

Your analysis is spot-on. I, for lack of information, took their chip to be a general purpose processor. Based on further info I've seen, it seems to be a task processor.