07/25/2008, 9:40am, EDT
Friday, July 25th
iPhone 2.1 firmware to have copy/paste, better GPS?
Apple may already be laying the groundwork for several important updates in the next major iteration of iPhone firmware, according to multiple sources. One notes that in exploring the Localizable.strings entry under English.lproj in the current iPhone WebKit framework, there are entries for several commands the firmware does not currently support, including cutting, copying and pasting. Apple has expressed interest in adding the feature, but has not set a timeframe.
The firmware also contains a reference to a "mobile radio" function, which could indicate that Apple hopes to support native Internet radio, instead of through third-party apps.
Another source claims to have obtained a beta of v2.1 firmware, said to be in distribution for developers only. Among the features in this are alleged to be expanded Core Location items, including means for gauging the direction a person is headed, and their velocity. In theory, this could allow turn-by-turn GPS navigation. The update also appears to have an early implementation of Apple's background push notification, a means of imitating background processes without the corresponding battery drain or decline in CPU performance. Apple has said that full support for push notification will only arrive in September however, which could suggest when v2.1 will be delivered via iTunes.
In the meantime Apple is believed to be preparing a v2.0.1 update, addressing bugs only.
Filed under: iPhone, Apple
Other story tags: GPS, iPhone 2.0
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What About The Essentials
Oh Boy. Cut & Paste! N-S-E-W pointer! A Radio! Background Push!
Now what about a simple reminder beeper so I'll know when I've missed a call????
C'mon Apple. Fill in the missing pieces before you go adding more fluff. (Although cut/paste isn't fluff, it's another essential.)
Suggestion
If anyone at Apple reads these posts, I have a suggestion, if you can do it, make contact lookups multi-threaded and the refreshing of contacts real time, if it isn't already.
In my experience so far with 2.0, on both an original & 3G looking up contacts causes a big pause in the "Contacts" app, contacts tab or adding a contact in an e-mail. Any of those apps or actions do become responsive, but they usually jump up or down if I've tried to scroll to a contact while the pause is in effect.
I imagine this pause is because the iPhone is contacting the MobileMe and/or Exchange. Seeing as I have both MM and Exchange, this is pretty annoying.
If we can get 3D games on the iPhone, surely a multi-threaded contact framework, ActiveSync, or whatever, is possible...
Re: What about the
You must be under the impression that this is first and foremost a phone! :)
BTW, personally, reminder beeps are the first thing I turn off on other phones...
Reminder
There's a little alert that pops up to let you know you missed a call and also a flag on the phone icon on the main screen.
Push is very important. The iPhone's email push is impressive. I get a notification on my iPhone sometimes before the message is even available to my desktop client. Allowing all applications to get this same immediacy will open up new types of functionality.
BTW, I finally did find the scientific calculator, you turn the phone on its side of course.
FIX THE BUGS
Just fix the bugs..
Screw new features.
But make the iPhone not be a buggy, slow POS, please.
Yes, bug fixes, PLEASE!!!
We're eagerly awaiting the bug fixes. v.2.0 was needing some more dilithium crystals!
Read it
If you read the last line, 2.0.1 will be released first as a bug fix. I just got my first push e-mail today. It's nice to be caught up to most of the other iPhone users!
Text messasing
How about adding a counter to the SMS client so that we actually know how many characters we have typed - maybe then the iPhone would be better than my 9 year old Nokia which has this feature.
But seriously this really makes the iPhone suck for those of us paying per text message.
Txt messing counter
It's not needed in the US, at least. You pay per message, not per character and the messages are unlimited in length (as far as I can tell) as it is using extended messaging.
hey rytc
the charge is per message, not per character... So why would you need to count characters?