Apple touted quite a few new iPhone features at
yesterday's OS 3.0 event, but now that the
beta build is trickling out, there's been a bevy of unearthed discoveries to further pique our interests. First up, the gang at
Boy Genius Report found an option to enable the "Find My iPhone" service in the
MobileMe settings. Unfortunately, that's all we've got, but we wouldn't put it past Cupertino to build some me.com-linked location tracker that'd be the envy of Orwell himself -- hey, that'd be pretty useful if you accidentally left the mobile in a taxi. Also in the MobileMe section, it now says Publish Video when you go to publish an image. It's an odd typo, to be sure, and while video recording has been near the top of our wishlist for some time, we're not about to get our hopes up. Finally,
Mac Rumors is reporting that a hacker has dug up and successfully activated the USB tethering capabilities. Apple's
Scott Forstall had mentioned the devs were building it in, but were still in talks with the carriers. As to whether any or all of these functions will actually end up in the final OS 3.0 build, your guess is a good as ours. For now, check out more pics of the MobileMe additions after the break.
[Thanks everyone who sent this in!]
Read - Find My iPhone
Read - USB Tethering
posted Mar 18th 2009 6:04PM
I bet they are reserving this for the new iPhone that would probably be released when they release the 3.0 software in the summer.
Bingo. Just as my N95 contract expires. Hopefully the new iPhone will be even better; I just hope they don't change to much. The formula they have right now works quite well.
My bet is that the iPhone 3rd-Gen will have a better image processor (less battery usage) and thus support video. That's the reason Apple doesn't do video now, it eats battery on jailbreak phones.
They seriously need more horsepower and a better screen. It's really the screen which is keeping me back. HTC and everyone else is already past even VGA, and the iPhone plays with 320x480?
Damn. They are giving me more and more reasons for not to jailbreak. Give me some better app organized, a 5 item dock and let me customize my Springboard (I think it's called?) the way I want and I probably won't have the need to jailbreak.
and stacks. then, Jailbreaking would become obsolete
I'd still jailbreak, just to have the option of loading alternative apps on.
4-0
ENGADGET - I want to know if they are going to be doing a hardware update
POISONSPIDER - yes
NO, they still have ~20-30 million devices to sell before they would do a new one, if they wanted to be reasonable -- the 2.5G iPhone was sold out months before the new one came out. What the hell would they put in a new phone anyways? All the existing qualms are with software, not hardware. There's not much to improve on hardware-wise to warrant an update. At MOST, maybe more memory, but that's it.
Wait, you think there's going to be an upgrade from the 3G? Apple would never do that to me.
iPhone Video. You heard it here first!
2005 called, they want their features back.
Die troll, DIE!
Actually Lundmark, you are dead wrong. My WinMo phone has been able to track its location and does tethering very easily. Oh, and it also does video (and no "software upgrades" were needed).
dcoaster, I've used a WinMo phone and they can have all the features they'd like, but I never use the features because they are such a pain in the ass to use. Features does not equal usability or a better phone. Get over it.
@Lundmark
You want trolls to die, and yet you do a bit of trolling yourself - see http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/13/windows-7-bug-fixes-to-include-multitouch-zoom-for-explorer/2#comments.
Will you follow your own advice? Of course not, you are an Apple fanboy, you don't need to follow the rules you set for others.
Lundmark = caught with his trousers down.
*everyone looks at Lundmark with his trousers down... no one is impressed, small asian girl in the corner giggles
Mystic.
TF3D + Rhodium Interface = a UI and usability that far exceeds that of the iPhones
What phone from 2005 has a theft recovery feature?
Beanie,
nearly every WinMo smartphone.
There have been tracker apps for them that have existed for a long time now.
Whereismyphone, smartphonetracker, GpsGate, Reperion, NavXS, Mologogo, etc.
mystic: yeah, but there are plenty of skins available to make WinMo pretty nice.
Oh no. Attacked by 1998's squad of WinMo fanbois!!!!1 /cries
I could do tethering with my Nokia 6610.
Yeah!
Yes, I'd add that iPhone may be adding features long found on other phones, but be sure that is more than making up for all the iPhone features the others are scrambling to add to their phones. I sure don't see where anyone on the net has stories about companies are rushing out to copy the features found on HTC or Nokia phones.
Good heavens, 18 million phones sold...it's gotta suck for those others if Apple can sell that many WITHOUT those 2005 features yet!
"Sorry, due to hardware issues only the third generation iPhone will be able to record video. Now available for $799 on contract for the 8GB version!"
There were security issues.
Thus far, they have charged less for more features. Good guess, though.
EDIT* The third generation iphone can ONLY record video no pictures
Dale: not true. The first iPhone was sold without a carrier discount. The phones started at $500 and $600, with a $200 price drop to follow in just a few months. The 3G iPhone has a carrier discount, which means the phones are only cheaper because the carrier said so. They are going to start offering contractless iPhone 3G's through AT&T for $600 and $700, which is outrageous, considering you can get a refurb for $100 with a contract. You could buy the refurb for $100 and immediately cancel your contract TWICE and still pay less than that.
Yea... and not keep the phone...
dumbass
I'm sorry, but who says you don't keep the phone if you cancel the contract? That's part of the idea behind the ETF...
well we all know that most of the time when apple does something they like to do it big and do something that has not been done... so lets just hope that for the reason of no video recorder is cause when they do enable it ( i get a jailbreaken phone and love qik on it, so i know it can be done) that it will change the way we all use a video recorder on a cell phone.....
until then i am sticking with my jailbroken phone
You mean like copy+paste? Let's be real, they did it the exact same way everyone else did - with a context menu.
They stretched the battery life of the iPhone to the absolute limit, to the point where running the processor and memory at the level necessary to record video was simply not an option.
Look at your unlocked iPhone. Record 10 minutes of video and see how much battery you have left.
iPhone AV with video recording, front facing camera for video conferencing, better camera (flash maybe) and Photo Booth.
hey, i love that sculpture in your avatar, btw. i miss seattle a lot sometimes.
to those asking about a hardware update- yes, apple will be releasing a new 3rd gen iPhone this summer to coincide with the 3.0 OS release. i'm not claiming to have insider info, this is common knowledge and it's a dead certain thing.
i'll be upgrading to the 3rd gen iPhone from my 1st gen this summer for sure. and i can almost guarantee all these people hyped on the Pre are going to be disappointed when it's released, just like all the other wanna-be iphones that have come and gone before it.
It is by no means definite. it's probable, but you can't say a company will definitely do something. Things like the lack of MMS for the 2G iPhone suggest they're resting on their laurels.
And how do you know the Pre will disappoint? you lose your remaining credibility by calling it a wannabe iPhone (Have you SEEN the innovation in it?), and without using both 3.0 and the Pre, you can't say which will disappoint.
I too didn't bother upgrading my 2G phone to the 3G one when it came out as I felt that the features weren't justified. I do feel however that this summer's new iPhone will have signifcant hardware upgrades and perhaps be styled differently. Yeah sure it will disappoint and it will lack stuff we expected - but thats usual, I just feel that it will be a version to jump to.
What really upsets me about Apple however is that they have SHAFTED us 1st gen users over MMS. We've been the most vocal about it since day one and they took till v3.0 to add it - but now they give us some absolutely pathetic and bullshit excuse that 1st Gen iPhones won't have MMS because of some radio chip? Pulease.. all those MMS apps available right now must be transmitting via magic then huh Apple? I think they just want to force 1st adopters to upgrade. I know someone will hack the firmware to allow us 1st gen users to get MMS via normal means and that will be a sweet day indeed.
I'm sorry but with the impending influx of 3rd party accessories with the new access to BT and the dock connector, and how insanely fast app development is maturing to the point of developing truly useful apps and genuinely fun to play games, the iPhone is set to be on a whole new level than the Pre.
I convinced my dad (an E.R. doc, and not easily excited about gadgets) to get an iPhone after showing him Epocrates and a few other medical related apps and he's already got half the hospital totally hooked on them. It's getting to the point where they're genuinely dependent on the added functionality these apps give them and when I showed him the two medical related examples of what access to bluetooth and the dock connector can bring to manufacturers from the 3.0 video, he was seriously giddy just thinking about the potential of having access to those kinds of tools. And this is just ONE field!
The Pre will always be just a phone, and most likely a good one, but the iPhone is already so much more. I honestly don't see how ANY, especially cash strapped Palm, manufacturer could catch up to the level of 3rd party apps/accessories and level of integration the iPhone has already achieved, and this is just the beginning. It's widely accepted that the future of computers is mobile and thanks to the iPhone, no company is better positioned to deliver on that front than Apple.
@pheonix - would you care to put money on it? it's a promise from me to you, new iphone this summer. that doesn't mean it'll be revolutionary compared to the 3g, but there will be new hardware and at the very least a slight cosmetic change along with storage capacity bump. also, i am predicting the pre will disappoint most of the people claiming to love it now. i'm not saying it will.
@Sax25.....uh. The 2G iPhone IS the iPhone 3G. It is referring to the 2nd GENERATION iPhone which is the iPhone 3G.
Utahkid,
The features that you were touting to your father have been available forever and a day on WinMo smartphones, and plenty more that haven't and likely never will see the light of day on the iPhone, be it for technical limitations or otherwise.
As for Epocrates, heh, WinMo had that 4 years ago.
In other words, you and your father have been missing out for nearly half a decade now, and with the rate at which Apple themselves updates things or adds features, it will likely be another half decade before your precious iPhones receive features that have for some time now been standard on many a smartphone.
Welcome to 2005, see you again in 2010.
I don't think we are going to see the next gen iPhone anytime soon. Just look at how long it take for them to refresh their macbook lines and iMac's.
The fastest refresh was, the original iPhone to the iPhone 3G. But it was due to user's demand to have 3G connectivity and also a way for apple to reduce it's production cost (with those cheap looking plastic) for mass production.
So why should they introduce a new gen anytime soon. From Apple's point of view, the only thing that was lacking was their software support, which they try to fix with the latest OS.
New gen iPhone? meeh, it's not gonna happen this year
@utahnkid
I have to agree with you. I also have a father in the medical field and he simply loves his iPod Touch for the many things that it can do thanks to apps. He also has Epocrates loaded and some other apps as well. I've tried convincing him to get an iPhone, but I don't think he's ready for something like that yet. The thing is, using an iPod Touch is simply funner for him and everything looks better. He's used Windows Mobile before, but there's nothing worth remembering as far as I can tell. He uses a Palm Zire I believe and, sure, it gets the job done, but it's run its course.
@George.....uh iphone 2g is actually the 1st generation iphone like he said. the 2g stands for the network(edge) and the iphone 3g(which is the 2nd generation iphone) is 3g because thats the network service... the 2g does not stand for the generation.
@George
iPhone 2G = Original iPhone
iPhone 3G = iPhone 3G
iPhone 2G = 1st gen
iPhone 3G = 2nd gen
The only person confused seems to be you! I was not confused at all when I wrote that comment above. I referred to the iPhones based on their technology - 2G/3G. therefore iPhone 2G = original iPhone. When I am referring to them in terms of generation - I use the word "gen". 2G and 3G are not terms that people use to refer to the phones in terms of generation, but rather the inbuilt technology. The original iPhone is referred to as 2G or 1st gen. Neither Darren nor myself used it in the wrong way you assumed.
Since you have clearly been out the loop - here is a link to help you:
http://www.theiphoneblog.com/2008/06/13/original-iphone-2g-pulled-from-att-stores/
I find it amusing that some of you believe that Apple will NOT have a new iPhone this summer. Lets do some analyzing to put this into more perspective.
When the first phone launched - we had firmware 1.0. When the 2nd iPhone launched, it launched with firmware 2.0. Now with firmware 3.0 - do you seriously believe this will not launch simultaneously with a new iPhone? DOUBTFUL! Also every iPhone has been released each summer and firmware 3.0 is due summer 2009 - which also coincides nicely with the time of the year that they happen to release iPhones! They also showed us the new features of firmware 3.0 - but rest assured - they probably didn't mention a lot of stuff simply because it is tied into the new phone - which they obviously dont want details leaking about. I'll assume that a lot of new features won't be mentioned until the launch of the new iPhone.
Phones like the Pre and Nokia N97 will be stepping up the game. While the iPhone 3G is good, it certainly cannot go on for another whole year in its current form given the competition. All firmware updates after summer will be point releases so therefore not offer anything significant.
Look at Apples market share - 2 years ago, Apple had 0% of the mobile phone market. Currently they have 8%. That is a huge thing for a company that only 2 years ago did not have a single mobile phone with their name on it.
Look at the demand iPhones create too. Yeah sure its an Apple product and people will always rush out to buy it, but there is always a demand for the phones, because even with the shortcomings - they are actually decent phones and what they do, they do well. Also remember the kind of revenue Apple get - not only from hardware sales but also from revenue streams via each telecoms carrier. This is all serious money nobody can ignore.
The disasterous eceonomic situation worldwide for the last 8 months has companies seriously struggling and they need to do everything they can to generate revenue again. The iPhone is a big golden egg for Apple.
Now putting all this together and some of you seriously think that no new iPhone is coming out this summer? You're in denial then for sure!
Hamidxa, saying something like that basically guarantees that you've never even used an iPhone for more than a few minutes. Tiny fonts (a HUGE issue for him), having to manually manage battery and performance draining background applications, the exact opposite of an intuitive user interface, and miniscule keyboards/buttons is quite possibly the worst nightmare(s) embodied in a phone for my 55 year old father. This is a guy that came from a several year old Sanyo flip phone he never even figured out texting on (after several attempts to teach him). I literally haven't had to help him ONCE with his iPhone and he's texting, Googling, taking/sending pictures through e-mail, downloading apps, and just started integrating his calendar into it.
Good luck finding me a WinMo phone that integrates with blood pressure and blood sugar monitors, and has as much potential and excitement from developers to create dozens of other devices within a few months. The iPhone offers a potential for profit for developers that no other mobile platform can touch and this reason alone basically guarantees that all the best devices will be created for it, and it alone.
He couldn't give a shit less what brand or device he's using. He has more loyalty to the brand of yogurt he eats than any manufacturer and if the iPhone didn't deliver as well as it did, he wouldn't be using it. He's not trying to impress anybody and has an incredibly low level of tolerance for bad design and functionality. The fact that he's taken so well to it says a lot in my opinion, but hey that's just because I know the guy.
Engadget has so many iphone news. Just put in a section... wasting my bandwidth.
Does posting a reply to a story you don't care about also count as wasting your bandwidth? Sure seems like it would to me.
Way to go, buddy!
does replying to a reply to a story that he didn't care about waste your bandwidth? sure seems like it would...
sarcastic words of encouragement
@patriotsn1 - Well maybe if he was also complaining about wasting his own bandwidth then yeah, you'd have a point. But he wasn't and you don't.
Maybe sarcasm just isn't your thing.
utahnkid.. simply trying to display that it is as equally annoying for people to express their annoyance with an annoyed poster about an article as it is for the original replier expressing his annoyance with an article. Now here you come and complicate things by expressing your annoyance of my annoyance of the annoyance of the originally annoyed about given article. Why do you have to confuse things?! maybe simplicity just isn't your thing.
Indeed. Apple have added almost as many features as Engadget have articles about the firmware upgrade.
WOW... this is all stuff that should have been included in the first place
Most of it is stuff I assumed it already had.
All of these extra features reaffirm my belief that they're going to introduce a new phone to go along with 3.0. I mean they obviously have to have another little show-and-tell to gloat about this stuff and if the video portion is true, I'm pretty sure they're going to ned some faster hardware to pull it off (I say this because I've seen what recorded video looks like on a jailbroken iPhone and it's not pretty). BTW does the recorded video look so bad because the dev team doesn't have full access to the processing power or something along those lines? I dunno just a thought. What do you guys think?
They would most probably have to enable video recording due to the new mms functionality, the iphone will be able to receive videos from other phones and store them locally, therefore it would not be hard at all to record videos in the same format and store them locally to be sent as mms. people will just have to be happy with the 3gp format, maybe apple will also include the mp4 format for higher res videos.
haha; Cancel or Allow.
what do you expect? allow or 'disallow'?
The very first thing I noticed too. It is just ironic that apple makes so much fuss over one question/answer then put in their newest gadget firmware.
@vian_brown
I expect apple to be creative!
I noticed that. The exact words they slammed Microsoft for using. Just kinda funny.
seems very similar to Nokia Webserver for the s60..
http://mymobilesite.net/
What about Flash?
flash is a bag of hurt :)
apparently adobe and apple are working on it
Flash will soon be replaced with the plug-in free far more efficient html5 and CSS3 which mobile safari already supports in addition to CSS 3d animations and transitions. In short, FUCK FLASH
that first picture is so Vista in reverse, Cancel or Allow... too funny.
I'm just waiting for the JoshTops editorial bashing of this pathethic software update. I can sort of understand why he wrote it, but it's a bit un-called for to make it the only story in the special box concerning Windows, while 50% of all the articles there are pure Apple worship.
Let's take a look at what Joshie hates about WinMo 6.5 and match it up to what we know about Iphone OS 3.0:
1: It's exactly the same as Windows Mobile 6... er, 5.
It's exactly the same as Iphone OS 2... er, 1.0
2: The interface improvements are still way behind the curve.
Most people here (including JT) agree that what we've seen from Palm Pre pretty much is the cutting edge of mobile interface. And that said, may I remind you that most of this OS is the exact same as it was in version 1.0.
3: The UI tweaks are mostly just skin deep, and third-parties have already gone way deeper.
Were there any UI tweaks in OS 3.0? Jailbroken phones certainly looks to satisfy more people, yet it is technically illegal. WinMo not only allows, it to a great part encourage third-party skins/modifications, ROM cooking, RegEdit, what have you. Iphone OS is a perfect example of "skin deep".
4: It doesn't support capacitive touchscreens.
Well, this is kind of an unfair point, since the Iphone OS is limited to one company and one screen only. They don't need to worry about the 1 billion chinese that prefer resistive screens. I admit the "ban" on capactive from WinMo is silly, but there are actually multiple operations that work better on a resistive with a stylus, such as copy/paste, drawing, quick notes etc.
5: It's not due out until "later this year."
Neither is this one, and may I mention that JT based much of this point on "word on the street".
6: You probably can't upgrade your phone.
Well, this is mainly because of the adding of the hardware start button, which is probably a preparation for WinMo 7.0. That said, Apple only have two mobile pone models, and one half of that cannot be upgraded. And if you have a Touch thing, the make you pay.
As a side note, I might add that JT first bashes the 6.5 for not adding anything new, then makes a point out of that you cannot upgrade to it.
7: No Zune integration. Not even a new Windows Media Player.
Now he's nit-picking. I think I could have come up with some equal silly complaints about the 3.0 if I had to write ten of them.
8: Where's the keyboard?
Josh is disappointed that WinMo doesn't improve it's landscape keyboard; the buttons are too small, and somehow it's Microsoft's fault that manufacturers make phones without a physical keyboard. The Iphone was without a keyboard from the start, yet landscape didn't show up until 3.0, and then only as a stretced, awkward version of the portrait, blocking out 2/3 of the screen.
Did I forget to mention that manufacturers are free to make whatever type of keyboard they want for WinMo? Exactly how many possibilities does Iphone have?
9: The browser is still weak.
It's a good point, but there are other possibilities for WinMo devices. Apple jumped a whole version number without any improvements to their browser. In my book, that's weaker than upping with 0.4 and making some improvements to the browser, wile at the same time allowing the user to install whatever browser he/she wants.
10: It doesn't innovate in any way.
Do I really have to comment on this one? Joshie's pièce de rèsistance. Most techie bloggers evidently doesn't look much to mobile innovation when the applaud copy/paste, MMS and voice recording as new features in 2009.
Sorry for the long post, but I had to get it off my chest. I know I can only hope and pray for a response from Joshua or any of the others, but I hope they take a glance into the mirror and stop for a second to think about what the precise hell they're up to.
Dear ihaters,
You people never stop blaming iphone, first you said there was no mms, sms forward, a2dp, copy/paste, tethering, a lot but now we got it and you are unable to digest this fact you are loosing for lame excuses.
I am very happy to see ihaters commenting it makes me so happy how popular iphone is and how much some people hate an iphone and waste their time by commenting here. So far I did not find any ilover commenting in winmo news like this because every1 knows winmo can not be a favorite and it can not be revolutionary…. You keep on blaming apple and apple keep on kicking ur @$$.
Now iphone got most of the common features along with unique and imagine what they can deliver in 2 to 3 years in os what we can do with iphone… now I can smell some smoke over there, omg some one’s @55 is burning… let it burn.
You forgot the: Windows Mobile 6.5 WILL NOT WORK ON CURRENT HARDWARE. Also you are wrong the the only 1/2 of the phones will be update able. But its pointless telling you any facts since your winmo rage is in full burn.
Hamidxa: As a former WinMobile user, accustomed to cooking custom ROMs (to maximize 'functionality'), I have to tell you that WinMo makes it SO hard to do it 'smoothly' that it's practically useless. After you use the iPhone OS, you feel that WinMo features and usability are like opposite poles of a magnet ... they just don't seem to come together (except for perhaps Windows Live Maps..)
I'm no apple fanboy (ok, I hate OS X's unusable interface) but the iPhone is head and shoulders above any single product out there. The Palm Pre is a good competitor (which is good) but Palm is cash strapped and Apple has both a head start as well as doing financially better. MS may put something good with WinMo 7, but as of now, Apple is a HUGE leader. In fact WinMo 7 has been delayed primarily to be more competitive with the iPhone OS (in terms of standardization of libraries and basic APIs as well as minimum h/w requirements).
Sure there may be a few things Apple was late in the market (no MMS till '09??) but *overall* it's leagues ahead of other phones. Just as WinMo 5 and 2003 were ahead of the curve back in 2004. 2012 may be different, but right now, Apple is the king.
are you hamidxa or are you responding to something he said?
Every time I've put down money on a WinMo phone, I've come to seriously regret it (the latest one was a HTC Touch Diamond)
The UI is clunky, it's meant to be used with a stylus (ever tried using a stylus on a phone while driving?) and it crashes all the time. In addition, any window takes a few seconds to come up. It's extremely annoying. The solution is to find third party ROMS and spend a whole weekend flashing to get performance remotely acceptable.
I've since moved on to Symbian phones which are at least stable and responsive, but the tethering on the IPhone is what I have been waiting for since day one. Now I can actually use it for work!
before getting an iPhone I had a Nokia N70 and I was quite thrilled with it. Very amazing thing, well designed, organized very well and above all quite functional --except when it came to loading/playing music/vids (that was a bag of hurt). But over all, I've always liked Nokia phones and I'm certain they will be able to compete very well in this new rat race. WinMo on the other hand, that thing is not going to be able to compete at all. At this point in time this is how I'd rank the leading phones:
> iPhone - most likely to succeed
> Pre - new kid on the block, may have potential, has to prove itself in the market
> Blackberries - very solid for messaging, business (but Storm needs to re-do from scratch)
> G1/Android - not gaining much traction at the moment, still needs to prove its potential
> Symbian - once reworked it could kick some serious @$$ all around
> WinMo - most likely to be NoMo
The interesting thing is these 6 are divided into 2 categories:
- Hardware and OS owned/developed by the same company (Apple, Palm, Blackberry, Nokia*.)
- OS developed to run in somebody else's hardware (MS, Android)
*Nokia belongs in the 1st category but when Symbian goes open source it will belong in the 2nd category.
The reason I group them this way is because that is who I think these phones are most likely to compete against. The one thing for sure is this competition is going to be heated and more entertaining to watch than the old Mac VS PC war of the last 2 decades. This is where MS will be exposed as the least capable to compete.
Hey I sent in a Find my iPhone screen from my iPhone, so I guess i'm an "everyone who sent this in"
@Shan - There have been two iPhones released. Sure, it makes sense that they would release a 3rd but you CAN NOT derive a 'pattern' of hardware releases from just 2.
Example:
What's the next number in this sequence?
17 3.14159265 _________
Can't do it! So stop telling people they are foolish for thinking there might not be a release. Your confidence is foolish.
A side note: fanboys justifying the no video as a battery issue (my favorite was that it was a security issue)...it still means it was poorly designed. The corvair was a beautiful car, in my opinion, but poorly designed. They traded the cool sucker factor for usefulness. And the next person that says, 'I'm glad it doesn't have flash' or 'flash is stupid and a waste' is going to get a boot to the head. In case you don't know, crawlers are starting to index flash sites as well, which means more and more websites will be flash only and you will be able to visit fewer and fewer websites. The iphone is a good device, it looks good and does 'some' cool things (now) but it is far from perfect or even the best and you guys need to get over your religious level of zealotry and admit it's just a damn phone. Seriously, some of you should be embarrassed.
I guess I deserve a boot, then, because I HATE Flash sites. Crawlers or not, they are generally unusable. Flash was cutting edge 8 years ago, when I was developing flash sites, but now, you can do a lot using web standards. Flash is great for "eye candy", banners, headers, and of course, streaming video, but to build a site around it is, in my opinion, short-sighted. >>UNLESS it is a very specific site for a very specific purpose. A gaming site for instance, that uses animated menus and the like to replicate the feel of the game.
To build an entire site of Flash makes it unusable in the modern computing world. What do you do with a flash menu system on a handheld? An iPhone or G1? A Nokia N95? Even a netbook? These screens are too small to do flash right. It either scales the animation down (making it illegible) or leaves it full size and forces you to scroll in every direction for basic navigation. Flash worked when everyone had a 15" CRT on their desk. Now, things need to be more flexible.
And don't get me started on accessibility....
Alright jimmy. Just give me an address and I'll fedex the boot to you. If you would be kind enough to hit yourself in the head with it, I would appreciate it. Thanks.
Just as many sites are built with a mobile version in html, so can they be done in flash. Most websites, sans mobile sites, are built with either 600 or 800px width in mind. Mobile sites less. A site built for mobile usage using flash can just as easily take advantage on the decreased screen size. It can also be pretty. I don't know many pure text sites that are pretty.
I know for a fact that most people, especially IPhone users, want pretty. The praise that the iphone aesthetics gets is monumental. So clearly 'eye candy' matters. I believe that Flash has the highest install base than any other plug in AND it's platform independent.
A flash site written for the mobile user is 1000 times more usable and appealing than a straight html/text site. This is simply a fact.
What web standards do you mean? Ajax? Javascript? HTML 5? You can get into some serious cross-browser issues with these as opposed to flash as a standard.
You said 'when I WAS developing flash sites'. I assume you don't anymore? Flash has continued to evolve. It's still pretty cool stuff.
Seriously, send me your boot size and I'll get that out right away.
Best,
KevinC
I'm thinking that maybe Apple wanted to release a revolutionary phone that did everything differently from other phones. And it did, but it also failed to include basic features that users expected, instead focusing on stuff that would set the iPhone ahead of the competition.
I agree 3.0 would have been included from the beginning, but actually it didn't have to for the iPhone to be revolutionary. Also, we still wouldn't have seen the first-gen iPhone if 3.0 was to ship with the device.
And now, in 2009, we can finally have both the revolutionary UI part and 2002's MMS tech and SMS forwarding as expected by users.
the presumption that 3.0 should've been there from the start is false. Only because, out of the 1000 new APIs and 100 new user features, it delivered support for 3 things that were considered basic it doesn't invalidate the rest of new, useful innovations.
The 3 things considered basic, now delivered:
MMS
Cut/Copy/Paste
Stereo Bluetooh
I'm very glad these things took the backseat (because I hardly have a need for them) over far more useful things like having the best mobile browser (which I use every single day).
Any word on whether Chinese input (pinyin) is improved at all? Not only is the prediction terrible compared to any desktop equivalent, but it is also just a little clumsy all around. I work in China and some Chinese friends have an Iphone which they don't use as a phone at all because texting is relatively worthless for someone who wants to input characters quickly (fortunately not me).
Still no video :P
When they say that bluetooth is unlocked, do they just mean you have access to it or are they actually providing proper profiles? For example can you beam a contact to someone else using any bluetooth phone or is this just still iphone to iphone?
There just talking about applications can finally use it.
@Ram
I own and iPhone... and I don't think its the greatest device in the world.I'm not a hater either. I'm happy its addressed most of the concerns (or will try in 3.0), but the reality is, its should have had most of them in the begining. Its still missing some very basic features my dumb phones (moto razr, lg chocolate, moto e398) and smartphones (moto Q, BB curve) had:
Multiple profiles, Video Recording,Camera with flash and zoom,Massive Storage Support, Blacklist and whitelist,etc...
Long Story short, i think or at least hope the pre addresses some of these issues.. maybe I'll come back to the iPhone when its version 5 or 6. You know once its grown up. I'm tired of waiting for things that should have been built in from the very begining.
AM I the only one thinking vista in that first picture?