The iPhone OS 3.0 is still in beta, but that hasn't stopped rumors about the next-gen iPhone from rolling in by the truckload.
The iPhone OS 3.0 is still in beta, but that hasn’t stopped rumors about the next-gen iPhone from rolling in by the truckload. Early last week, developers found data strings in the new iPhone OS firmware which suggested that a new and significant iPhone upgrade was in the works, and it turns out that that might be an understatement. Hot on the heels of the aforementioned discovery, AppleInsider reported that a solid and reliable source had told them that the next iteration of the iPhone will support video recording. A video enabled iPhone, of course, raises a number of interesting possibilities, such as video-chat capabilities. Shortly after that came reports that the next-gen iPhone will support Internet browsing speeds of up to 7.2Mbps. As it stands now, the current iPhone chipset is only capable of supporting Internet speeds of up to 3.6Mbps, though real world usage comes in at a much lower data rate than that. Apple has already been on the receiving end of numerous lawsuits relating to sub-par Internet browsing speeds on the iPhone 3G. A bump in Internet speed would be more than welcome, but for Apple’s sake, let’s hope they don’t promise more than they can deliver. Next up was a report that the next-gen iPhone will introduce new and innovative battery technology, which not only makes sense given the above-mentioned hardware upgrades, but is also becoming a necessity given the fact that users are increasingly using CPU intensive software on their iPhones. The more advanced the iPhone becomes as a software platform, the more important good battery life becomes. The iPhone has already been out for over a year and a half, and handset manufacturers still haven’t been able to come up with a compelling and worthy competitor for the iPhone. If all of the above rumors turn out to be accurate, competitors might notice an even larger gap between their offerings and Apple’s iPhone, which is further compounded by the fact that the beta iPhone OS finally introduced some long sought-after features such as copy and paste, and MMS. Notably, the Palm Pre, based on initial reviews and impressions, seems to be in the best position to battle the iPhone on a feature for feature basis. It’s WebOS mimics some of the more intuitive user interface features of the iPhone, in addition to implementing some interesting and innovative features of its own. Also, it has a pull out QWERTY keyboard, seemingly giving it the best of both worlds. The only problem is that the Pre is currently a non-shipping product, and it’s very likely that it won’t even arrive in stores until late June, right around the time when the next-gen iPhone is rumored to launch. By then, however, it just might be too little too late. Like this post? Check out these others from iOnApple
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