If this is true - holy crap!
Macrumors: “Unique to this source, however, is the report that the iPhone would
come with GPS, Video Conferencing and Mobile TV functionality.”
“Damn, took ‘em long enough! RIM finally announced the BlackBerry Bold /
9000 — we’ve got specs, but no price or hard launch date. Here we go:
“Looks like our parent company NBC has brushed aside iTunes for its
online iPhone viewing, and gone directly to the people. If you navigate
to NBC.com on your iPhone’s Safari browser, you can now watch full episodes of 30 Rock and The Office using the iPhone’s QuickTime player. How does it look? We tested it over Wi-Fi and the dog-slow EDGE network on our iPhone.”
Free wifi at Starbucks, which are everywhere…
“We’re not exactly sure what was going on with that whole on-again / off-again love affair with iPhones having gratis access to AT&T WiFi hotspots,
but we’re content with letting bygones be bygones. On the slightly
tweaked iPhone “Plans” page, the carrier now lists “Access to AT&T
WiFi hotspots” as an included feature along with call forwarding, 3-way
calling and Caller ID. Sure, it’s not a bona fide press release, but
same difference, right?”
[Via MacRumors]
iLounge: “AT&T plans to subsidize
as much as $200 of the price of the 3G iPhone, according to a Fortune
report. Citing a person “familiar with the strategy,” the report states
that the subsidy would bring the price of the base-model 3G iPhone to
$199 for customers who sign two-year contracts, a price that would help
AT&T lure more customers away from rival carriers Verizon,
T-Mobile, and Sprint. Subsidized iPhones will reportedly be available
only through AT&T and not at Apple Stores, and may feature more
robust locking techniques in hopes of preventing customers from using
the cheaper phones with other services or carriers. The report goes on
to say that Apple will cease shipments of the current-generation iPhone
roughly two weeks before the 3G iPhone’s likely June 27 debut, and that
the new model will be 2.5mm thinner than the original, and will sport
true GPS capabilities, as well.”
So
we’ve got it on authority that the second-gen iPhone is already well
into testing, and numerous units are floating around in super secret
pockets. A trusted source got a chance to check one out, here’s what
we’ve heard.
It
could ship (or be introduced) as early as July — but it’s worth noting
that none of this is necessarily finalized, and any of it could change
between now and its introduction. You really never know with Apple!”
[Image via iPod Observer]
iLounge: “A recently-published Apple patent application suggests that the company has done extensive research into becoming a mobile virtual network operator, allowing iPhone users to deal exclusively with Apple for mobile services and billing. The patent, called ”Dynamic Carrier selection”
and filed on Oct. 10 2006, covers a system that would allow the iPhone
to use whichever carrier’s service was available in the current
location, automatically switching to networks offering cheaper bulk
rates to Apple.
Michael Arrington of TechCrunch has posted an article detailing an iPhone-based social networking application
being developed by a currently-unnamed startup. The native application
would allow for proximity-based profile browsing and networking,
letting iPhone users see other iPhone owners nearby, as well as their
profiles, possibly facilitating face-to-face interaction. The
developers also claim to have found a work-around for the fact that
third-party iPhone applications can’t run in the background. Arrington
says to look for a launch “when the iPhone app store opens this
summer.” [via MDN]
“Apple’s next big event is still over two months away, but the iPhone
rumor mill is suddenly in full swing, and we’d say the buzz is back
after that short-lived Mossberg “60 days” euphoria wore off.
Tgdaily is the one making waves today, claiming that we’ll see next-gen
8GB and 16GB iPhones debut at WWDC this June for $399 and $499, and
that the iPod touch will always offer twice the storage at any given
price point. The new units are said to feature revised casings that
eliminate the current model’s “plasticky” feel, which is interesting,
because that supposedly-leaked image
from the other day seems pretty ultra-plasticky to us, but we’re not
exactly expecting any of these rumors to be true, let alone add up.
Other than the re-design, tgdaily says there aren’t any OS or interface
changes in store, and that Apple is really serious about building the
Cocoa Touch platform in addition to OS X– hence the two bridges on those WWDC invites
that went out. That’s about it — nothing too shocking, really, but
we’d still take all this stuff with a huge grain of salt until Steve
sets things straight.”
A
wireless newspaper with a flexible color touchscreen the size of a
tabloid may be on the way within the next two years. Media giant Hearst
Corp. has been pumping cash into a stealth startup called FirstPaper,
whose flagship reader will reportedly use a color version of the
energy-sipping E-Ink used in the Sony Reader. It seems like science
fiction, but screens such as this 14.1-inch-wide Philips color e-paper display from a year ago (pictured above), continue to be developed, so this may not be too far-fetched.
The Linux-based FirstPaper reader, if it can be brought to market at a price that’s close to e-readers such as the $280 Sony Reader, the $399 Amazon Kindle or the $350 Ectaco Jetbook,
might be a serious contender. If its flexible screen really does turn
pages just by touching the screen, and if it’s truly flexible as a
newspaper and its wireless capabilities work well, its competitors
might need to go back to the old drawing board. That’s a lot of “ifs.”
Take a look at a clip from Minority Report showing how
such a flexible color display might be used in the future. Of course,
this fictional display in the movie has motion video, but the
FirstPaper’s e-ink could be the next step toward that.”
“Future generations will most likely divide the timeline of history at
this point: when Quake 3 achieved motion-sensing, wireless network play
on two iPod touches. Just think, less than a year ago we were
salivating (or at least mildly enthused) at the prospect of rocking Doom on this thing, and now Quake 3 Arena is yours for the taking — or at least will be once we get any sort of hard info on this app.”
[Via PMP Today]
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