Minority Report: New iPhone this summer?
And more Apple product promises
Everyone wants to know what new products Apple has in store for us. Seb Janacek scours the iPhone 3.0 code for some clues.
Apple has promised that the iPhone 3.0 upgrade will deliver more than 100 new features into the hands of grateful users when it arrives later this year.
The software update will arrive this summer, most likely in June. The smart money is a release to coincide with Apple's developer conference and who'd bet against the next version of OS X (Snow Leopard) also being unleashed at the same time?
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While copy-and-paste functionality was to many the most exciting highlight of the iPhone 3.0 upgrade (what a strange world we live in), there are clues hidden in the code Apple released last week that suggest there are far juicier treats in store.
Some clues point to video-recording functionality, yet another of the features long demanded by users.
However, the most intriguing discoveries are references to as-yet-unannounced models of the iPod touch and iPhone.
The current two models have the device IDs iPhone 1,1 and iPhone 1,2. Similarly, the two versions of the iPod touch have been called iPod 1,1 and iPod 2,1.
Now, the new code reveals not only iPhone 2,1 iPhone 3,1 and iPod 3,1, it also reveals two mystery products simply referred to as "iProd" and "iFPGA" respectively.
Have acronyms, numbers and commas ever been so exciting?
The iPhone IDs may refer to an updated hardware version of the current device or indeed a whole new phone. It seems reasonable to expect the iPhone to get a hardware upgrade this year in line with its new software.
The original iPhone was released in June 2007 and updated to 3G in July 2008 - so come summer it'll be 12 months since the last iteration. Adding even more weight to this supposition, Apple and O2 seem to have started creating incentives to shift inventory.
Online retailer Play.com has recently started advertising SIM-free iPhones on its website. And just like in 2008 prior to the release of the iPhone 3G, UK carrier O2 is rumoured to be cutting the prices of the current model.
As for the other item IDs revealed in the 3.0 code, more likely than not they're prototype devices Apple is testing or possibly they were just dropped in to keep the rumour mill churning and competitors guessing (though that many not be the wisest strategy these days).
There's a big gap between testing prototypes and releasing new products. Just as there's a huge void between the patents Apple applies for and the products it releases to market or even develops in its labs.
But who are we kidding? The reference to iProd and iFPGA will get some Mac fans jumping up and down and shouting "Mac tablet" quicker than you can say "iPhone nano".