IPhone 4 is official
networkworld.com
networkworld.com
What I would really like to see would be the option for a larger battery.
(1) Makes it thicker (2) Gives it longer battery life.
Problem solved ;)
I understand some hardware may be missing (bluetooth on 1st-gen iPods and 3G on 1st-gen iPhones) but the computer that runs the show is pretty much the same as the 2nd-gen ones.
Apple's all about the user experience, and I think they have rightly judged that enough of the new features won't perform adequately to be a satisfying user experience.
You can quibble about the call, but how many other phone OS vendors would support 2-year-old phones for a free upgrade? How many other phone OSes even do upgrades on old phones?
(Android does, a little, but I think most of the Android vendors aren't supporting, e.g., Froyo, on their older 1.5 handsets.)
If this was true, you'd see a lot fewer articles about them on HN, TC, etc.
What feature a 1st-gen iPod lacks that makes it satisfactory on a second-generation unit? IIRC, the only change is the addition of Bluetooth, processor and memory being the same.
In the long run this means that users who don't make the investment to stay current hardware-wise often lose out on being able to take advantage of the latest features.
This certainly creates a good cash flow situation for Apple, but my guess is that the cost-avoidance side is equally lucrative. Not having to run QA tests for hardware that is 3 revisions back, and possibly still running original or near-original code has got to look good on the bottom line as well. Also, knowing that you can leave any mistakes or oversights in the past, and keep drivers for massively old legacy items out of the code base probably just makes for a better overall experience for everyone.
I once worked with one of the guys who was a kernel developer for Windows95. According to him, a lot of the Windows bloat and slowness at startup was directly attributed to massive hardware base they had to maintain support for. IMO, I personally like the fact that Apple doesn't waste a lot of time and effort on worrying that every new feature is fully back-portable to everything they've shipped in the last 5 years.
The reason I asked is because, as far as I know, the processor and the amount of memory is the same for 1st generation and 2nd generation hardware. I wonder if Apple is artificially limiting the availability of their software just to force fashion victims to buy new hardware.
And calling the hardware base iOS has to support "massive" is quite an overstatement. That's the enormity of 7 models.
Well, "good" is a little subjective. I am purely speculating here, but I doubt that Apple compiled something into the code to make it simply not run on first gen hardware. IE: there must be something about that hardware platform that makes it different enough from current-gen hardware that supporting it adds some amount of back-end effort. Perhaps the reason has to do with one of the other factors I mentioned, a "mistake" or shortcoming in the first-gen hardware that requires more internal hacks and work-arounds in the code than they are willing to support.
It's not like this sort of thing is unique to Apple. Some of the first-gen Droid phones are not going to see the 2.2 update. Yes, there may be more hardware variants and changes among the Droid phones, but it is still a relatively new platform abandoning not-that-old hardware.
It would not be the first time - the first iMacs are capable of running up to MacOS X 10.4, provided they have enough memory. I have successfully ran 10.4 on a beige G3. The installer, however, checks the hardware against a list of "forbidden" (if I remember the term used in the .plist file) machine types.
Here is a similar story, regarding 10.5:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=200710260837463...
It's a foolish purchase if you do, or if this is your first iPhone. 2Gb is nothing, particularly when they're pushing ads at you, and don't forget the game network is coming.
I'm installing an in dash GPS receive this week that will let me stream Pandora in my car, that's next to useless without unlimited.
Hell a poorly written app could blow through wads of data while you're at the doctor's office and you wouldn't know until too late.
The iPhone (and realistically all phones of this nature) need unlimited plans. AT&T is really screwing the customer here, and Apple as well.
At the very least they should have offered a $50 a month unlimited (or practically unlimited) plan.
They really need to open up the market and get some competition going.
ATT has been pretty clear that you don't (i.e. you can upgrade and retain the unlimited data plan).
So ~4100 by 2700. Pretty nice.
For 321 PPI (which is 5 pixels less than iPhone 4's), it is 4200x2625.
As a bootstrapped developer I ran OS 4.0 through the first 3 betas, but as noted by apple do so at your own risk. I had some issues with beta 3 so Ive been waiting for an official version, before upgrading to 4.0 again. I just checked developer page and it still says the latest beta 4 well is in still in beta. I guess they release the official version around same time phone comes out?
But I'm guessing they wont allow us to have iOS 4 in wide circulation before iPhone 4 itself is out, so 24th or after is my guess.
Six Axis? OK, I picked up my mouse, and demonstrated to myself, rotating it about each of the three(X,Y,Z) Cartesian axis -- no problem. So then I tried to figure out the other three: All I can guess is that they are movement along those prior mentioned axes. Is this correct?
Agh, I redact my previous comment. Angles is right.
Many people have been doing that with laptops, but the increased mobility will make a huge difference.
(edit: also, I was mystefied why the iPad doesn't have one. Surely the first update will?!)
I also like the gyroscope.
VGA is 640x480, correct?