3G iPhone imminent?? I guess no.
Well, the internet sure is going all nutty with the fact that iPhones are sold out all over the place, including the Apple Store with no words on when they’ll be back in stock. Apparently this means to many folk that the 3G version could be coming sooner than expected, some saying this week! Por ejemplo, or here, or here, or here. I think that’s all the biggies and odd how 3/4’s of those all have “imminent” in the title.
But my guess is no, this will be released at WWDC this June along with the iPhone 2 software and the full launch of the SDK. It simply does not make sense that they would either a) release hardware with the 1.1.4 firmware currently released only to update it next month or b) release hardware with iPhone 2 but no SDK support. I mean, the release is just around the corner they can make the biggest splash by saying here’s the new phone that will give you all these new awesome things we mentioned in our Jobs note. I suspect what is happening is that there was so much ridiculous acrimony and personal offense taken when Apple reduced prices on the iPhone that they’re gun shy. They’d rather lose a month of sales if that’s what it takes than deal with angry hordes of self-entitled purchasers screaming that Steve Jobs personally set out to screw them into buying hardware that was subsequently replaced with newer hardware.
Ah well, I’m super excited to see the iPhone turn into a handheld gaming platform. I think the accelerometer promises great Wii-like good times. Also, having a soft input method may provide interesting ways to provide context sensitive game controls. And being part of wi-fi and 3G networks opens the door to good online gaming (although perhaps 3G has too much latency to be overly effective?).
Aside from games (*cough*Spore*cough*) here’s my top 10 list of things I’d like to get with a new iPhone:
· SSH client. Please. Although in all the time I’ve had my iPhone I’ve never really needed it so far, it still would be quite a comfort knowing it was there.
· Google Reader client. Now that I know that there currently exist RSS readers that sync up with Google Reader, I want it all. I want it to auto-sync on a schedule, I want to be able star and share with notes. Bring. It. On.
· Social networking clients in general. Curious to see how long it takes FriendFeed and Twitter to get some nice native clients. Of course these and the RSS clients are hampered by the SDK not allowing background apps, but hopefully there’s some kind of workaround for these things.
· Todo list. Would it kill Apple to release a nice todo list that syncs, when appropriate, with iCal? You know, a good todo list, not half assed like it is now. And then that should sync up with a new app on the iPhone.
· Notes syncing. Words fail me everytime I remember that there’s no way to sync notes from phone to desktop.
· Mail improvements. I’m not an email power user on the iPhone, but having said that… they should make the auto-updating of Mail actually work instead of having it forget to update all the time. Or even better they should support IMAP IDLE. This is an area where my old Treo had it all over the iPhone. Years ago. Seriously, it is embarrassing.
· Photo syncing. I don’t know why, but I’d love for the iPhone to sync photo’s two way with a provided Aperture/iPhoto album (with the option of never deleting auto-deleting from the desktop album so I can delete from my iPhone while keeping it all on my desktop). And this shouldn’t require me to fire up the app and press a button, just like how I can one way sync selected albums from desktop to iPhone now. Sigh.
· Camera improvements. Well a better camera would kick ass, but mostly, minor control over exposure would be nice. Automatically geotagging the images with the built in GPS would be top notch. Video would be nice, but not something I’d use much.
· GPS recording. An app that records GPS locations periodically so you can track where you’ve been and the paths you’ve taken. That’d be awesome. And if that tied into a desktop app that could then automatically geotag your photos taken with another camera by comparing timestamps - well, I suspect my life would be complete.
Well, that’s me. Are you waiting for the new iPhone? Were you one o’ those brave souls strong enough to hold out and not buy the first generation? Or you nonplused by all this and sticking with your Blackberry or your Startac or something?
