Why doesn't Apple enable some 3GS features on the 3G?

[Revelation78]

The Original and iPhone 3G have their processor running at 412 MHZ, but can run at 600 MHZ! The 3GS has a processor running at 600 MHZ and it can go up to 833 MHZ. So the iPhone and iPhone 3G could handle voice control and run as fast as the 3GS, but then Apple wouldn't be selling to many 3GSes.

I didn't upgrade from the 2G to the 3gS because of processor numbers. Yeah you could run the 2G and 3G at 600MHz, reduce your battery life by almost 2/3rds and it still won't keep up with the 3GS.

The 3GS is like going from a Pentium2 to a Pentium4. There's no arguing that Apple could have implemented **some** features, like voice control, for the earlier models. It reminds me of all the 3G users who told the 2G users that wanted MMS to simply "upgrade." Voice control on a 2G and 3G would work, albeit not as good as the 3GS due to the digital processing.

Are you saying it's not possible to implement their Voice Recognition into the 3G? Plenty of 3rd party voice recognition apps already work on the 3G; I cannot see how Apple can't make it function on last gen's hardware.

Yes, Apple could have. Apple chose not to, they deemed the 2G and 3G not worthy for whatever reason you wish to insert. (digital processing maybe)

Maybe you should reverse engineer iPhone OS 3.0 and enable it on your iPhone to prove it can be done?

 

[-aggie-]

Baloney on the responses to battery % and voice. There's no reason for us not to have that other than pushing us to buy the 3gs

 

[ouimetnick]

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The Original and iPhone 3G have their processor running at 412 MHZ, but can run at 600 MHZ! The 3GS has a processor running at 600 MHZ and it can go up to 833 MHZ. So the iPhone and iPhone 3G could handle voice control and run as fast as the 3GS, but then Apple wouldn't be selling to many 3GSes.

I didn't upgrade from the 2G to the 3gS because of processor numbers. Yeah you could run the 2G and 3G at 600MHz, reduce your battery life by almost 2/3rds and it still won't keep up with the 3GS.

The 3GS is like going from a Pentium2 to a Pentium4. There's no arguing that Apple could have implemented **some** features, like voice control, for the earlier models. It reminds me of all the 3G users who told the 2G users that wanted MMS to simply "upgrade." Voice control on a 2G and 3G would work, albeit not as good as the 3GS due to the digital processing.

Are you saying it's not possible to implement their Voice Recognition into the 3G? Plenty of 3rd party voice recognition apps already work on the 3G; I cannot see how Apple can't make it function on last gen's hardware.

Yes, Apple could have. Apple chose not to, they deemed the 2G and 3G not worthy for whatever reason you wish to insert. (digital processing maybe)

Maybe you should reverse engineer iPhone OS 3.0 and enable it on your iPhone to prove it can be done?

But if someone payed $599.99 for a Phone, Apple should allow the user to use all the capibillitys the hardware can support.

 

[polysaturate]

Hmmm...can't believe this hasn't been mentioned either.

Another part of the video issue is the flash memory in the 3G. As you know the more flash memory is used(written and overwritten) is part of it's lifespan. Flash memory has an amount of "cycles" before it is unusable. Video on the flash memory that is used in the 3g would dramatically decrease the life of your 3G.

 

[BaldiMac]

Baloney on the responses to battery % and voice. There's no reason for us not to have that other than pushing us to buy the 3gs

I have no inside knowledge, so you may be right about voice. Though I doubt it. But I think it's a bit loony to think that Apple is holding out a battery indicator as a selling feature.

 

[GfPQqmcRKUvP]

You're right - Apple didn't put these in 3.0 just so that people would have to buy the 3GS to get those features...

I don't know why you're being sarcastic, but this is, very simply, the reason the 3GS has some extra software features over the original 3G. They want people to upgrade. It's called business.

 

[ouimetnick]

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Hmmm...can't believe this hasn't been mentioned either.

Another part of the video issue is the flash memory in the 3G. As you know the more flash memory is used(written and overwritten) is part of it's lifespan. Flash memory has an amount of "cycles" before it is unusable. Video on the flash memory that is used in the 3g would dramatically decrease the life of your 3G.

Oh.
Well I can see Apple leaving video out for that reason.

 

[polysaturate]

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Oh.
Well I can see Apple leaving video out for that reason.

Ya, that's the quick science about it. Haha

..and specifically it's the video recording this effects.

I agree about the percentage bar, no reason why it can't be added, since it obviously knows when the battery is 20% and 10%.

As far as Voice recog., it may need more resources...bout all I could reason with to not see it on 3G 3.0. I wouldn't use it though...

 

[M-5]

I didn't upgrade from the 2G to the 3gS because of processor numbers. Yeah you could run the 2G and 3G at 600MHz, reduce your battery life by almost 2/3rds and it still won't keep up with the 3GS.

The 3GS is like going from a Pentium2 to a Pentium4. There's no arguing that Apple could have implemented **some** features, like voice control, for the earlier models. It reminds me of all the 3G users who told the 2G users that wanted MMS to simply "upgrade." Voice control on a 2G and 3G would work, albeit not as good as the 3GS due to the digital processing.




Yes, Apple could have. Apple chose not to, they deemed the 2G and 3G not worthy for whatever reason you wish to insert. (digital processing maybe)

Maybe you should reverse engineer iPhone OS 3.0 and enable it on your iPhone to prove it can be done?

Well I understand why Apple might have wanted to keep these features solely for the iPhone 3GS, but I just don't buy the claim that they left voice recognition out in virtue of the inferior hardware.

 

[jkimbro0316]

There's really a simple reason that they didn't add these features: Marketing.

Of course Apple didn't add these features because they obviously would need something to advertise and market the 3G S for. A faster processor and higher quality video capture would not be enough for most 3G customers and even some original customers to upgrade to the new model. Apple, is a company after all.

Now, I completely agree that some of these features such as voice control or battery percentage might be able to be added (I'm no expert, so correct me if I'm wrong), but Apple definitely wanted to use these features in order to get current iPhone users to upgrade.

 

[DanielNTX]

Battery % has been added via jailbreak for the 2g and 3g and all iPod touches. MMS has been added to the 2g and that was not a hardware limitation. Video and Voice are being worked on in some russian forums. Video is close, you can load an existing video, edit it and publish it to youtube. But you can't take video or pictures. There are 3 instruction sets that the 2g/3g CPU doesn't have so the compiled binaries for the 3gs don't work on the 2g/3g. There's talks about implementing these instruction sets into the OS kind of like what MobileSubstrate does.

Why didn't Apple release these features for the older phones? Blame it on their marketing department. You wouldn't be compelled to upgrade to the 3gs if you had the same feature set in the older phones. Sure the newer model processes faster, but that alone wouldn't compel me to upgrade. They wouldn't be able to generate the profit they have already with their current marketing of the 3gs. It's not about the users, it's about the earnings per share for stockholders and this is the best way to do it.

 

[PackFan]

Honestly, in spite of my sarcasm above, it is probably a combination of both.

1. Many of those features would not work to Apple's satisfaction on the 'older' units.

2. It helps market their new product.

I would guess that - if it is possible - some of the features MIGHT make it over to the other models with later OS revisions.

 

[beamer8912]

The whole voice recognition needs better hardware is bogus. I had voice recognition 5 years ago on my brick of a verizon phone.

The 3GS battery doesn't seem to be reporting "accurately" either; yet apple still put it on there.

 

[ScottFitz]

Batt %

I have the app, Free Memory on my 3G and it has a battery percentage indicator built in. So, this is not a hardware issue. Just trying to help build a case for upgrading from 3G to 3GS.

 

[Ishimaru]

Hmmm...can't believe this hasn't been mentioned either.

Another part of the video issue is the flash memory in the 3G. As you know the more flash memory is used(written and overwritten) is part of it's lifespan. Flash memory has an amount of "cycles" before it is unusable. Video on the flash memory that is used in the 3g would dramatically decrease the life of your 3G.

This is just not true, and have been proven to be wrong. Please read here:

http://www.storagesearch.com/ssdmyths-endurance.html

And before you cry "The iPhone doesn't use SSD!", SSD is flash memory, plain and simple.

 

[Ishimaru]

People, the reason why they didn't include these "features" on your precious 3G's, was to get people with 3G's to BUY the 3GS. As another poster said, it's BUSINESS! Can voice control work on your 3G? Sure. Can you get the battery meter on your 3G? Sure. Could you use Qik or Cycorder to record crappy video? Sure. Apple wants to make money, and they want you to buy the 3GS. Plain and simple. Don't like it? Buy a 3GS and stop complaining.

 

[M-5]

People, the reason why they didn't include these "features" on your precious 3G's, was to get people with 3G's to BUY the 3GS. As another poster said, it's BUSINESS! Can voice control work on your 3G? Sure. Can you get the battery meter on your 3G? Sure. Could you use Qik or Cycorder to record crappy video? Sure. Apple wants to make money, and they want you to buy the 3GS. Plain and simple. Don't like it? Buy a 3GS and stop complaining.

I think the consensus has always been that Apple's reasons for leaving these features out were to better market the 3GS.

The conclusion we are trying to come up with is that Apple did in fact leave these features out of the 2G/3G to have people want to upgrade to the 3GS. The argument is that many of these features are simply not possible with the standard hardware, but that doesn't seem true. Now the compass and faster processing, that's something we won't see in the 3G.

 

[LoganT]

It's really not fair to compare voice control with previous voice controls. For one, yes I'm sure you've had voice control on your phone from 5 years ago. But, this feature isn't just about voice dialing ("Call John Doe") you can actually get really technical with it and say "Play Artist>Album Name>Track Name" or ask what song is playing or play more like this (genius playlist). And before anyone says "The ipod shuffle has that" keep in mind the shuffle is using an audio file preloaded onto the device to tell you what is being played.

 

[cyrax83]

anyone who thinks its because of the hardware on 3g is one word, GULLIBLE.

It's simply to make people upgrade/sell the 3GS. Plain and simple. Apple want to make money.

 

[Brien]

That's the only reason I can think of to why the iPhone 3GS has Nike+ yet the other 2 don't.

 

[firewood]

anyone who thinks its because of the hardware on 3g is one word, GULLIBLE.

Anyone who thinks it isn't the hardware hasn't written fixed performance real-time software that requires a minimum CPU performance and amount of available memory to run properly. Anyone who thinks it isn't the hardware has never had to figure out the maximum power a chip can dissipate without violating the maximum operating temperature as specified by the chip's manufacturer on its data sheet. Anyone who wants 2 digits of accuracy out of every voltage gauge didn't take enough math to know the meaning of significant digits.

Yes, Apple could have written lower performance software (ugly jerky frame rates, even worse voice recognition, etc.) that would run on all devices, but thankfully they didn't.

But have fun with your conspiracy theory. It's supposed to be entertaining for uneducated minds.

 

[ttech10]

Video
Needs the new hardware. Yes Cycorder can do it but is below Apple standards.

Battery Percentage
Can see this coming in a new update. Can certainly be done on the 3G (and I think first iPhone).

Voice Control
Apple says it's because of more RAM and faster processor. CAN be done on 3G with 3rd party apps. They might not have added it to the 2G/3G/iPod because they couldn't get it to work as well as they wanted the way that they are implementing it. Just because other apps work doesn't mean it works to Apple's standards... just like Cycorder.

 

[MasterTick]

1. Voice Command probably requires extra hardware
2. Battery Meter: They probably think that the battery on the 3G will not display accurate results with the %
3. Video: Video Editing does not make sense without a video camera. The video camera requires a new camera/new hardware.

1. Wrong
2. Wrong
3. Wrong again.

 

[GfPQqmcRKUvP]

Anyone who thinks it isn't the hardware hasn't written fixed performance real-time software that requires a minimum CPU performance and amount of available memory to run properly. Anyone who thinks it isn't the hardware has never had to figure out the maximum power a chip can dissipate without violating the maximum operating temperature as specified by the chip's manufacturer on its data sheet. Anyone who wants 2 digits of accuracy out of every voltage gauge didn't take enough math to know the meaning of significant digits.

Yes, Apple could have written lower performance software (ugly jerky frame rates, even worse voice recognition, etc.) that would run on all devices, but thankfully they didn't.

But have fun with your conspiracy theory. It's supposed to be entertaining for uneducated minds.

Not buying it. My 4 year old phone had voice control that was as accurate as the iPhone's. You don't need an ARM Cortex A8 and 256 MB of RAM for limited voice recognition capability. You just don't. Please stop trying to write in terms that add nothing to your credibility despite your intentions, it's silly and disingenuous.

 

[kage207]

Hmmm...can't believe this hasn't been mentioned either.

Another part of the video issue is the flash memory in the 3G. As you know the more flash memory is used(written and overwritten) is part of it's lifespan. Flash memory has an amount of "cycles" before it is unusable. Video on the flash memory that is used in the 3g would dramatically decrease the life of your 3G.

I've never heard of this in my life. Flash memory to have a lifespan. Maybe, but I've really never heard about it, nor really would worry about it because they do release HDD that are Flash based now.

The main thing about the flash memory on the iPhone (1st) and iPhone 3G is that it can only get to copy 15 frames per second because the flash of the device cannot keep up. It's not really a camera issue.

And for those who think voice recognition can't be done? It can be, yes, we see third party apps. I can see what people say about it chewing up a lot of processing power and pushing the processor to it's limit. But draining battery life is just silly. I mean, how long do we have voice command open for? 3-5 seconds? Plus I mean, Shazaam worked great on my first iPhone. (Now it just crashes all the time now on my 3G and not my iPhone 3.0 (first)).

Anyways, for those that think battery percentage needs hardware, I think that's wrong. I think it can be done with a thing called algorithms which is what the battery indicator is basically doing. To implement a percentage wouldn't be a hard algorithm at all, at least in my opinion, it wouldn't be.

EDIT: Btw, why couldn't Apple do battery indicator on the older iPhones? Um, don't they do it when you get to 20% and 10%?!