iPhone 3.0 to have copy and paste, Pre-like features -- but no background apps
By Nilay Patel 
posted Mar 15th 2009 6:23PM
posted Mar 15th 2009 6:23PM
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what about A2DP, MMS, and video recording?
shHHHHHHH!!
4.0 aint coming for a while
But what about qwerty keyboard? removable battery? sd slot? high res screen? GOOD batter life?
screw the iphone get the next nokia internet tablet, it will blow the iphone away.
Wat about free tethering?
"But what about qwerty keyboard? removable battery? sd slot? high res screen? GOOD batter life?
screw the iphone get the next nokia internet tablet, it will blow the iphone away."
I'd love those things too. But the internet tablets aren't phones. The N97 works for me though. (WHERE IS IT? I WANT IT SO BAD!)
@ Seightan
Because obvious troll is obvious
@Seightan
I think none of those things you mention should really matter.
Most of those who are use to the iPhone's on screen keyboard would say they type pretty fast with the auto correction. I feel like i type faster with the touch screen keyboard compared to an actual qwerty keypad. The iPhone 3G does have fairly good screen resolution with decent battery life. Removable battery would be nice, but not needed, same goes for the SD Card. I feel the SD card is just a hassle for transferring files. I would prefer the iPhone be able to connect to the network and have access to the files on it. Data cable is more convenient than removing the microsd. I figured we are moving towards cloud computing, syncing our data to an online storage space. So that is even better.
Hm, on the subject of auto-correction, am I missing something? I have a first-generation iPod touch, I use it decently often (though it's not my main phone as its not a phone) and have had it for over a year, and I think I can count the times the autocorrection has been helpful on one hand- certainly it gets it wrong more than it gets it right. Am I doing something wrong here, because people praise this feature all the time, but I'm not getting it...
Mind you, I probably make the same amount of mistakes on my Palm Centro, which does have a physical keyboard, so I don't know if a physical keyboard would make me more accurate- I'm just curious about other's views of the autocorrection.
@ Seightan: Blowing the iPhone away doesn't take much. I have old cell phones sitting drawers that I retired long before the iPhone was a twinkle in Jobs's eye that blow it away. Strip away the whiz-bang factor and the Apple logo and you have youself a sub-par cell phone. Of all the people I know that ever got an iPhone, only one still has his...and it's hitting the road packing soon in favor of a BlackBerry (the most common upgrade for iPhone users, it seems).
Yet, people still gobble it up, and then Apple adds new features that should have been there all along, and it's news-worthy. Hell, even rumors of such features are apparently news-worthy. Simply astounding.
Evryone just needs to chill out! My friend is an early beta tester, and showed me the newest firmware, and other than the copy/paste, there is NOTHING new. Not even vide recording. Just copy/ paste. Chill people.
@EricC
"" Strip away the whiz-bang factor and the Apple logo and you have youself a sub-par cell phone.""
but that didnt keep you from buying one.. toss your iphone in the trash and see how long it takes before you are digging through your roommates used condoms trying to find it :)
I predict that iPhone OS 3.0 will bring us .NET and Silverlight support!
Lets all have a moment of silence for Steve Jobs because I know he's turning in his grave right now.
@EricC. I am wondering what makes you bother type such uninformed rubbish. i have an iphone, i run a business and for me it’s the best tool by far to me keep in contact with my office. check email, check information on the internet and find where i am going if i have a meeting. its also a generation ahead in terms of interface design than almost anything ahead, and believe me i have been through a lot of phone. i think maybe you should raise your opinion a little of your fellow humans at being able to know when they are being duped, your personal prejudices seem to bear no relationship with reality of the situation.
Actually, it did keep me from buying one. I've never owned an iPhone, and likely never will. Aside from my distaste for touchscreen keyboards, Apple seems perfectly content with being behind the curve on available features...and why not? They get to not only save money in R&D, but people still swipe up every last available device at exorbitant prices. It's win/win for them. Good on them for finding the secret formula to running a successful business, but aside from the occasional iPod purchase, I hope they're not holding their breath on me becoming an Apple-loving Luddite =)
So, Apple is "copying" Palm Pre features now?
Lol! The irony.
@Saad Rabia
Given the fact that a large part of the palm pre team are ex-Apple employees, no.
And do you really think companies can copy someone else's work in two months?
If it was true, Microsoft would be in a much better position, and so would Rim.
@Flashpoint: In order for somebody to turn over in their grave, they need to be dead first.
But I agree with the OP.
Lol, I remember my Moto RAZR having all of that 3 years ago... *sigh*
Steve Jobs died 3 days ago.
They just haven't said anything cause they don't want Apple stock to fall.
@Jacob - Yeah that's IT! THAT'S why the iPhone has been such a dismal sales failure! If only they listened to the out of touch nerds on Endgadget reader comments they might have been able to make ONE device on ONE carrier that outsold companies with multiple models on multiple carriers that have been in the game for years! GENIUS!
If Apple did one thing with the iPhone, it proved beyond a doubt that people DON'T GIVE A FLYING FUCK about a phone having every single obscure feature technologically possible. Like everyone here is absolutely giddy to point, we all have phones burried in our drawers made 3 years ago that technologically speaking, totally spank the iPhone. How can all of you not connect the dots with that? If a phone could be released that basically just had a superior user interface going for it, and that alone was enough to catapult over phones FAR MORE technologically advanced, how the fuck do you not realize THAT'S what people really want?
And SHUT THE FUCK UP with the, people-only-buy-it-because-it-has-an-Apple-logo-on-it argument! Good god, that's THE MOST illogical thing I've ever heard! Why isn't the Mac Pro the best selling desktop computer then? Why isn't the iMac the best selling home computer? Why isn't the Mac Mini the best selling small form factor computer? Why isn't the entire Mac line put together able to even touch Dell's numbers? Yes people will buy something because of the brand alone but come on already! If the iPhone was genuinely as horrible as some of you make it out to be would it still be selling as well as it is? Do you HONESTLY believe that people would all keep going along with the trend for this long? For YEARS? Are you THAT stupid?
If the iPhone is SO horrible and SO "under-featured", then stop obsessing over it already! If you're SO certain that (insert model here) is going to be THE iPhone killer than I'm sure it doesn't need you hear convincing people. How about we let the sales speak for themselves AND SHUT THE FUCK UP! And if you hate Apple so much THEN STOP READING AND COMMENTING ON EVERY SINGLE GOD DAMN ARTICLE ABOUT THEIR PRODUCTS!!!
so you telling me the iphone can't stream music to bluetooth?
"If Apple did one thing with the iPhone, it proved beyond a doubt that people DON'T GIVE A FLYING FUCK about a phone having every single obscure feature technologically possible."
Exactly, most people are sheep. Bah bah bah.
"Like everyone here is absolutely giddy to point, we all have phones burried in our drawers made 3 years ago that technologically speaking, totally spank the iPhone. How can all of you not connect the dots with that? If a phone could be released that basically just had a superior user interface going for it, and that alone was enough to catapult over phones FAR MORE technologically advanced, how the fuck do you not realize THAT'S what people really want?"
So you think we shouldn't demand something from our devices if we think it's worth it? I personally will not ever bother with a phone without A2DP. I need wireless bluetooth headphones. So why don't you shut the fuck up.
"And SHUT THE FUCK UP with the, people-only-buy-it-because-it-has-an-Apple-logo-on-it argument! Good god, that's THE MOST illogical thing I've ever heard!"
Well gee, offer some proof then.
"Why isn't the Mac Pro the best selling desktop computer then?"
You mean to tell me a vastly overpriced desktop with over 2500 dollars starting price is not a huge seller? shocking
"Why isn't the iMac the best selling home computer?"
Cuz it's a piece of crap that uses shit laptop components.
"Why isn't the Mac Mini the best selling small form factor computer?"
Actually it might be.
"Why isn't the entire Mac line put together able to even touch Dell's numbers?"
Well first, I think it does have close numbers. More importantly, Apple has a handful of different models vs Dell's extremely vast sales lineup covering every possible segment.
"Yes people will buy something because of the brand alone but come on already! If the iPhone was genuinely as horrible as some of you make it out to be would it still be selling as well as it is?"
It sells well because it's easy to use. Us uber nerds need every conceivable feature possible. iPhone is like the Model T of smartphones, it's the democratized version of something that only elites used to use.
"Do you HONESTLY believe that people would all keep going along with the trend for this long? For YEARS? Are you THAT stupid?"
Funny how all that came out because I only wrote a singe sentence inquiring about a few other features. And last I checked, some trends can last years. See musical styles.
Those features are in the same bag of hurt
While this still seems like it's going to lack, it's new and improved counterpart, the Pre, is going to flop because no one is going to switch to Spring for it.
They might not switch to Spring, but they'll sure spring to Sprint!
What about the fact that I can't even watch this damn video on my iPhone right now?? Where is flash?
And here I was getting excited that we were talking about the next gen. iPhone. Software does me no good, I haven't taken the plunge yet.
@Jacob
I think the problem with your comment is that you have confused the iPhone OS with the iPhone hardware. The presentation this week only (as far as we know) discusses the iPhone OS and developing for it so hardware discussions will have to wait until a later date.
With respect to the remainder of this polite discussion, I have to agree with utahnkid. The iPhone has clearly demonstrated that the opinion of the tech-obsessed crowd means very little to the wider population. There is no doubt that the iPhone would be a better device if it had additional features provided by other phones but people seem to be happy with what it does do rather than what it does not.
Personally, I fail to understand why it is so many people seem to have a catatonic fit whenever someone chooses to buy a product from Apple. Just mind your own business...
What about mini skirts and tight tops?
Rose is a tool.
I thought the guy next to him, doing all the casual f-ing swearing and repeating the populist opinions of total chumps, makes Rose look pretty cool.
Rose IS a tool
Dude- yes- Rose is a freakin' tool. I remember when Kevin Rose started making his stupid iphone predictions about two batteries and a bunch of other crap. He's a fraud and a tool. And to be honest, Digg sucks.
And the douche bag next to him- well, what a douche bag. Who is that jack ass?
Kevin Rose also said that the iphone would have a pull out keyboard and 2 batteries, one for the ipod and one for the music.
That douchebag on the left is Alex Albrecht, he's there to present the "I'm a PC" point of view. He's a whiny bitch, and totally not stoked about his Dell (apparently).
He, like any sane human being, has an iPhone, but will keep bashing Apple any chance he can, to get the anti-Apple crowd coming back to Digg.com and watching their little 'show.'
If he really hated Apple he would disavow himself of any Apple products, but even the biggest hater alive Paul Thurrott, can't do that (he's a big AppleTV fan, and recently declared he was dropping his iPhone, only to confess he'd be using it on a daily basis for its iPod touch features, and getting a WinMo phone to try out 6.5)
What about keep dreaming?
he's probably right. The iPhone is too slow as it is without background apps. They'll have to wait for the next iPhone hardware update in a few months.
My guess is that if they can't make multi tasking/ back ground apps work with this generation hardware, they wont change that if and when a new phone arrives this summer. It seems logical they wouldn't force you to buy new hardware for something simple as multi tasking. If they want it, I'm sure they could make it work with all models.
background apps is mostly a battery life issue, nothing else.
I agree, though I'll be curious to see the Pre's real world battery life. I have a feeling part of the appeal of the wireless charger may come from frequent usage.
Regarding the iPhone, my main personal interest in background applications is for music streaming apps.
On apps like Last FM or Pandora, where there's some lag when the app looks up artist information, is that lag due to limited bandwidth or limited CPU resources? Does anyone know? Just curious.
if only Tesla had had his wish! free wireless electricity for the world!
AJC: This is Apple we're talking about. Obsolete-ism is their middle name. Apple would with a good concious not gift current iPhones with multi-tasking capabilities so that consumers are encouraged to upgrade to the new iPhone. Profits would drop if people stuck to their first gen iPhone and upgraded their software every year.
Expect the new iPhone coming in june to have features or hardware that the existing models don't.
without a serious hardware upgrade, there's no way the iPhone would operate as smoothly.
what was its RAM? 64?
@nikster
Not necessarily. Done right an application still running in the background should consume no processor time at all unless it is actually doing something. However, the background application will continue to consume memory and this may be important to the performance of the foreground application.
I tend to feel that the iPhone is right not to permit background applications. The Push Notifications proposal sounded like a good solution to the problem of making the likes of Instant Messenger applications useful. Given that only a single application can make use of the screen at any given time I fail to see why applications should need to run in the background if they can be restored to the state that they were exited from. I have "fond" memories of Windows Mobile on a PDA years ago and the joys of the Task Manager, and I have no wish to see that sort of thing on a phone. In other words, the desktop computing paradigm does not work on a PDA or Smartphone.
What about push notifications?
Don't believe anything that comes out of this guy mouth. He had predicted stuff from Apple before that always turn out to be wrong.
Example, before the 1st gen iPhone came out, he said the phone was gonna have 2 batteries : 1 for ipod side and 1 for phone usage.
1. He was guessing
2. He seemed to be dead right about the new iPod nano
Okay, Engadget . . . if this is a post about Rose's "guesses," then why doesn't your headline reflect that?
"iPhone 3.0 to have copy and paste . . ." makes it sound like fact, not the conjecture that it really is. A simple ". . . says Kevin Rose" or something at the end would've sufficed.
man that title's deceiving. i got excited that the real information had leaked there for a second!
what the hell ever happened to applications having push notification?! It was suppose to be in 2.0 and now we're onto 3.0 and no mention of this feature. It was advertised so hard when it was announced and now nobody even mentions it!
Ssssshhhhhhhhhhhh..... you were supposed to forget like everyone else.
That's what gets me more than anything. Apple poked fun at Windows Mobile when talking about their plans for a push notification service and yet here we are 6 months later with nothing. I wouldn't have an iPhone if I wasn't overall happy with it, but this is exactly the kind of the pretentiousness that kept me away from Apple for so many years. Don't poke fun at what you can't beat Apple.
So what he's saying is that the iPhone will get some of the features it should have had at launch in its third major firmware update about nine months after its launch.
OK.
How long is a month in your world?
OK 8 then. Whatever.
You mean almost 2 years? June 29th 2007
I think he means the iPhone 3G, which is about right; nine months.
Yup, I mean the 3G on account of it being the second iteration of the iPhone which is where they probably should have included this stuff.
I honestly don't see why iPhone owners are excited about it - you should be bloody furious that your phones didn't come with standard features that every other smartphone has and the patronising drip feed method that Apple has chosen to adopt to roll these features out.
Now, I'm not trying to say it isn't overdue, but seriously, I've never once felt like I needed copy paste for any of the built-in functions of the iPhone. I have needed it for some third party apps, but never for the built-in stuff.
Yes, it is overdue though.
If it shoulda had these features all along, that means day 1, not day 366.
Hey, companies make mistakes which is why it's only fair to give them until the second iteration to sort it out.
Which they didn't.
Ok, then maybe it's fair to give them 4 chances.
No wait. For my money, I want it right when I pay. Not a promise to get it right later.
That's how it works. First get it right, then I give you my money in exchange for getting it right.
So you're less forgiving than me. Good for you.
Since he owns apple stock, and they sponsor him, he cant say anything negative about them, copy and paste is wayyy over do, will the iphone now shoot video? and have MMS? and un restricted bluetooth? even if it could shoot video the camera sucks so bad its useless
Newsflash: If you think that iPhone without background apps can even come close to reaching parity with Pre, Blackberry, G1, or even fricken Sidekick, you are a clueless Apple fanboy.
Perhaps, but that doesn't mean I'm wrong.
of those, only the Pre is any good. But don't think for a second that Apple didn't give the phone industry the big kick in the ass that it deserved for its lack of innovation. If you think Apple doesn't deserve any credit for innovation, then you're just as clueless an anti Apple fanboy. (spoken from a true Windows/ Palm Pre/ Nokia N97 fanboy)
Only the Pre is any good?
No one has used it!
Yes, it looks good, but I doubt you or nearly anyone else has the ability to actually say whether the Pre is any good right now.
For all you know, it crashes and eats your data daily and prank phone calls everyone in your address book.
JACOB
they "innovate" with looks
i bet my shit looks better after im done than yours!
see i innovated my shit
@Jacob, I don't think anyone would disagree with you. While everyone was toying around making the same phones with tiny improvemetns it took apple to move everything up a knotch to get them actively creating new devices.
(I'm already developing an app for the Palm Pre so I'm a little biased)
lol, okay, so maybe some will disagree.
I assume you've never actually used a G1? Android is an amazing OS, writing it off as not being any good at all is just ridiculously out of touch.
@KAIKAI
That's really disturbing.
i dont give a crap what kevin rose says. give me the facts not just stupid rumors
true. saying that the 3.0 software will have c/p is not big deal - everybody talks about this
Thank you,
It pisses me off that people take a rumor some guy has guessed as fact..... unless this guy actually wrote the code they are releasing he dosent know squat.
Kevin Rose doesn't know squat about anything.
Ah! Finally!!!
As long as all the Pre news is on Engadget and not CNN, the Pre has zero chance of being as successful as the iPhone.
ROSE ISNT THE MESSIAH, ALTHOUGH HE THINKS HE IS. HE DOESNT KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN, GAH THIS MAKES ME MAD HOW HE THINKS HE KNOWS EVERYTHING. I CANT WAIT TO SEE HIM FAIL.
Caps Lock may be cruise control for cool, but you still have to steer.
Best comment reply ever.
CAPS LOCK POLICE: You're driving on the WRONG SIDE of the road. Your caps lock license has been suspended for 24 hours.
Don't listen to this kid. He's too far up apple ass. I wish he would get off my fucking internet. He has one good idea (digg) and now he think he is mr internet celebrity. biggest tool on the net. go away
(join the chant) COPY PASTE! COPY PASTE! WE'VE GOT NO MORE TIME TO WASTE!
No.
Lol! Apple's really pushing the envelope lately!
I don't really think I should be mad at Apple at this point, for what they have out now, it blows away most if probably not all of the competition available.
Plus, the iPhone OS, on the iPod touch, It IS the most advanced MP3 player out there, please no competition, because it won't win.
I'm glad Apple is making updates, new features and all. I don't get why all these people are mad. Their reactions are what you should be seeing if Apple made every update cost $9.99.
Don't be mad at Apple, everybody who is smart knows that they move at their own pace.
And even if you are mad, the countless swarms of Applebots don't care, they just want the shiny new thing from Apple. So stop trying, it is a wasteful effort.
Things will come when they do.
I would have to disagree. It falls short being a great MP3 player for the fact it requires a iTunes. I would agree with you if they would get rid of that "required" connection between its players.
You are wrong about the iPod touch. It is NOT the most advanced mp3 player. With its shitty sound quality and weak codec support it is far from the most advanced mp3 player out there.The new sony x-100, samsung p3, or even the cowon s9 (although admittedly it lack wifi) for instance are much more advanced than the iPod Touch.
I would agree with you, about the iPod, if it had an Audio output quality that made it a good MP3 player
Right now it's quality is somewhere right in the middle of 'Poor' and 'off'
I think the best MP3 player would be one with the best sound quality, longest battery, physical controls, graphic equalizer, fm radio, and bluetooth. I readily agree that the iPod Touch is an awesome gadget, but 90% of its biggest features have absolutely nothing to do with listening to music. I don't think tossing in a web browser and a bunch of fart apps really does much to add to its value as a music player.
The iPod Touch isn't the most advanced PMP out there however it is the best one by a mile..
well said, mark.
Couple of comments - first, why do people complain about $9.99 upgrades? Somebody (or lots of somebodies) at any company (in this case, Apple) work for months on software to make the last generation better. Then they put it on a new device (in this case, I'll assume a new iPhone model this summer.) If you still have the old device and want the new software, PAY FOR IT. The company had to pay somebody to make it, so you should pay to use it. If you don't think a more (insert feature here) function on your phone is worth it, don't pay for it. Easy...
Second, as far as the best mp3 player goes, people need to get their heads out of the sand. I think the iPhone/Touch software is fantastic, and use my iPhone daily. But, and lets be clear here, it's not the "best" MP3 player. FIrst off, it plays AAC and MP4 files more often than MP3s, I'd bet, since that's what iTunes uses for purchases, and is the default for importing CDs. So, calling any media player an "MP3 player" is limiting its capabilities from the start.
As a runner, I think the Shuffle is the best damn digital media player out there. Yes, even the new one with no buttons. It's small enough to go anywhere, and with no screen, I don't have to worry about scratching it up so much.
People have different needs. If you watch movies a lot, and those movies are not from iTunes, you'd be better off with a large-screen device like Archos or Cowan puts out. For people who like tiny things with screens, Sansa and Creative have compelling products. If you want super-large capacity, go for a hard drive player. But for people who like to plug in a USB cable and get music from the computer to a player without fuss, muss, dragging-and dropping, worring about folder hierarchy, DRM incompatibility, and the like...the iTunes>any iPod route is the way to go.
It's about choice, people! Just cause you don't like it doesn't mean it "sucks" If you think there's a problem with something, use your big-boy words and say why. Don't just blurt out "FAIL" like a has-been ubergeek with Tourette's.
Mark:
I never actually got the point of the iPod Touch, it just didn't fit as an MP3/PMP.
But if you take a step back, and think about it more as a phoneless PDA like an iPaq or Dell Axiom, it makes sense, and the poor audio quality is almost justified; it isn't DESIGNED to be a standalone MP3/Video player, it's a pocket computer that happens to HAVE said MP3/Video player.
@CJ
The thing that makes the iPod Touch brilliant is it's seamless integration with iTunes, good video playback quality and the app store. Plus its UI is awesome and the thinness factor makes it just about usable in one hand which the iPhone on the other hand isn't. No other comparable PMP has all the features in one package.
Sure, the sound quality is merely OK since most people are going to be listening to 128-192Kb streams it's good enough.
wow, 3 years to add copy and paste...
I wish all companies were so adept at implementing new technology...
That's innovation, it took them 3 years to find somebody to copy it from