I am going to officially start the rumors for the 3.0 release: Copy-Paste, Push Gmail, Background IM apps, and wireless iTunes sync.
This is really just my personal wishlist, but if the rumors spread, enough people will be expecting these features that Apple will have to build them in (since they're already so receptive to external input). It's a self fulfilling prophecy!
I'm holding out for any hints at what will go into iPhone 2009. If the 3G and 2.0 were any indication, there might be some new, hardware-bound features exclusive to the next iPhone refresh.
They've done 3G and they've done GPS. What could be next? Processor/video/memory upgrade to support better backgrounding? Camera on the front for video chat? Personally, I'm wishing that Apple will make the phone slightly bigger, with a new, higher opt-in resolution format for developers, but there are enough problems with that to make it a risky move.
Somehow I doubt a significant hardware revision is on the cards.
They have a good penetration with the 1st and 2nd generations. Bringing out a new model now would schism the app community (you need X to work with the 3rd gen iPhone).... This would be a pain, and I'm not sure there is a compelling reason/feature right at this moment.
If anything, they might bump up the storage (to 32Gb+?) - although this might eat into their iPod market... And/or They could also introduce a cut-down cheaper version to get into other markets.
Push Gmail would be doable on 2.2 if Google enables the feature in their ActiveSync implementation. They already have contacts and calendar sync working.
3.0 could add shortcuts like Yahoo's though, to make setup simpler.
What would be even more interesting is having some kind of Maps widget available in the toolkit.
Right now you can use a webview that points to a maps.google.com url (you do see this in some apps), but the experience isn't nearly as smooth as the native maps app.
The other option you have is generating a URL that opens the maps app. This works, but you can only specify one or two points of interest, and your app quits after you do this.
Having the maps thing as a widget would allow a lot of apps currently in the store to present a beter interface, and could also allow google to implement their Lattitude stuff without it being intrusive if you just want to do a quick maps search.
I agree. The location and map features on the iPhone is one of the most compelling developments in the mobile arena. Okay yeah, visual voicemail is cool, so are IM apps, but this is the one thing that other phones have simply been unable to do up until now without it being a giant PITA.
The iPhone App Store would be a better place if devs had access to the same map widget that Apple themselves use. I can think of a million ways this can be used.
Know what's not a part of the Android SDK? An incredibly clean interface with supersnappy response, auto-sync to my Mac and to MobileMe, and the ability to use the SDK on a personal music player (let's call it a "touch") rather than a phone.
They're both good. Let's both be quiet and let people discuss the iPhone, not Android.
Apple controls their hardware, their software, their packaging, the computer-related software (and hardware, in some cases) and, in short, the entire user experience.
Android is a phone operating system. It's a competitor like Windows Mobile is a competitor, which is to say it competes with one of the myriad things the iPhone is doing.
A comparison might make for a good separate article, but when somebody says "I like these features" the response isn't "Well this OS" has it, because the first guy obviously isn't saying "These are the features I absolutely need." They're just things that would make the iPhone even better.
This is why, every time I see an argument over Linux GUIs, I don't insert how much better OSX + iLife is as far as Unix systems go. There's a time and place for comparison, but simply saying "Hay guys Android does this" isn't adding to the conversation.
How can you evaluate an SDK? Compare it to a different SDK that provides a similar solution.
HackerNews is filled with such debates, like Java Vs. Python, Tables Vs. CSS...
The features above were part of the Andoird SDK beta, Background processes have been around for few years in other mobile platforms, I can get excited if Apple will come out with a killer features that are unique to their platofrom (e.g. Bonjure is a unique feature)
I know they're in the SDK beta. But Android doesn't stack up to the iPhone in other ways, so considering this isn't an article about iPhone versus Android, I dislike that it was brought into the conversation.
HackerNews is filled with such debates, like Java Vs. Python, Tables Vs. CSS...
I also get mad when people ask for CSS help and other people respond with "use tables", and when people post to a thread talking about, say, Ruby, and somebody posts saying "Python ftw".
I love debate - I write copious prose blocks when Mac vs Linux comes up, though even that is beginning to wear on me - but debate has its place, and it's not here. No need to interrupt a speculative discussion with smug, as I said above.
nobody asked for help -- this is an announcement of an announcement. pure hype in fact.
get real. android and iPhone aren't competition? the comment wasn't "ftw" it contained real information: that apple's wishlist is android's 1.0. sure android has its flaws too, and you accurately point them out, but to claim that it's somehow out of bounds to compare the two SDKs is really desperate.
I imagine that iPhone OS v3.0 has been in the works for awhile, far before the WebOS was unveiled. I bet there are similarities (especially if they revamped the Springboard app) but other things were just being developed while Palm was doing their thing.
I can't see folks at Apple seeing the Pre demo and scrambling to rip-off a bunch of stuff in the remaining months of development.
The big thing with the Pre is the card-like metaphor for navigation. I doubt Apple will steal that for the iPhone, though it might be possible that we see a command-line launch system similar to the Pre's.
Pretty excited about this considering how big the change was from 1.x to 2.x.
Does anyone else remember if the iPhone 3G was announced when the 2.0 software was announced? I'm still using a first gen iPhone and I'd like to upgrade, but I figure I'd skip the 3G and just pick up whatever is coming next. I've seen some news saying that Apple has been buying up Flash memory from manufacturers and that goes in line with what happened previously. Wondering if I should hope for a new iPhone model on the 17th in addition to the software.
This is just a preview, not the release. I expect the software release to be simultaneous with the hardware release, which Tim Cook has been hinting will be in June.
As with the iPhone 3G and iPhone OS 2.0, they're likely to release exclusively on the new device first before making the update available to older generations. There will probably also be some hardware-based features exclusive to iPhone 2009 to incentivize paying for a refresh.
Ok... 3.0 is probably not going to bring anything awesome to the table but it will satisfy those long lost things that were omitted from the iPhone.
->MMS(why not, its all in the software)
->Background Apps(why not, its all in the software- however you may need an update to the phone to run it really really smoothly. There will probably be a limit to the number of background apps you can run)
->Copy/Paste(why not, its all in the software, its not like they have to build a special button for it.)
->Video(I'm not sure if this requires a hardware upgrade)
These would be the most obvious additions to the iPhone.
and they will advertise it like:
And now. You can copy. And paste.
or
Capture your life, with video.
I'd love to see a better camera. I lately always forgo bringing an actual camera on vacations since I have a camera on my phone, but I'm inevitability disappointed when I get home and review my pics on the computer.
Well it is not a point release so expect something as big or close to the changes from 1.x to 2.x. In that case it was the ability to run third party apps. This one should fix some of the deficiencies in the OS like push notifications, copy and paste, etc....
I would like to see a refresh of the notification system, and status messages on the lock screen, which I believe was hinted at a while back in a patent filing.
Would be nice just to hit the home button while the device is in standby and see a list of recent emails, SMSs, etc.
Ironically, that's the point of this event. They don't have anything ready, they just want to tell people what's coming. If they tell you now, their precious event will be pointless.
This is really just my personal wishlist, but if the rumors spread, enough people will be expecting these features that Apple will have to build them in (since they're already so receptive to external input). It's a self fulfilling prophecy!