
The Next iPhone - tortilla
http://daringfireball.net/2009/05/the_next_iphone
======
shalmanese
The iPod touch already has a 600Mhz processor in it and the user experience is
pretty much the same. I wouldn't expect anything mindblowing from a 50% speed
boost.

------
jodrellblank
600Mhz xScale CPUs have been in PDAs for years. CPU "speed" no longer links
directly with clock speed. It could very well be 600Mhz and feel worse.

If they can get rid of the UI lag, that's worth bonus points over obscure new
features.

------
tophat02
The NEXT next iPhone needs to really be your "personal computer". I imagine a
time when the only computer you have will be your mobile device. How this
device acts will depend on what you dock it with. Maybe when you're on the
couch you'll slide it into a tablet-like device and you instantly run in
tablet mode, with more apps and functionality becoming available to you in
that mode.

Maybe when you're in your home office you'll dock it with a keyboard, mouse,
and two monitors, and use it as your workstation.

The point is, I look forward to the day when physical device size no longer
really correlates to usable power or storage space, and THAT means that,
barring supercomputers and servers, most people will have just their "phone".
What that device acts like will be based on which I/O peripherals you plug it
in to.

A guy can dream...

~~~
dejb
> The NEXT next iPhone needs to really be your "personal computer".

Would you allow your main personal computer to have such a closed system that
you aren't even allow to install unapproved software on it? I agree that this
device will essentially be your interface to the digital and remote world. Can
you really allow a company to censor what you can do with that? The current
App store model just doesn't 'scale' to this scenario. To me the only choice
is to look to other platforms until Apple changes their policy.

~~~
nazgulnarsil
typical mac users wouldnt know the difference between an open and closed
system because they dont do anything on their device except what it comes with
or is sold through official channels.

~~~
cubicle67
and your opinion is based on what?

I know a number of Mac users and not a single one of them fit your stereotype.
I also know a much larger number of Windows users, and strangely a large
percentage of them _do_ fit your stereotype.

~~~
nazgulnarsil
my experience is anecdotal. the opinions about "average" computer use on this
site are heavily slanted towards people who understand what a UI is.

------
dejb
The Next iphone will still be one generation behind the next crop of
smartphones from HTC or other manufacturers. At about the same time they
introduce video someone else will be introducing a screen close to the 1024
pixels wide. After the others catch up to their UI methods the only
distinguishing feature they will have will be the app store.

~~~
potatolicious
Haven't we learned our lesson? The first iPhone came out with EDGE data only,
while the market was just starting to see 3G handsets. Yet the iPhone
absolutely trounced the sales of said handsets, and accounted for far more
data usage from its users (read: people were actually _using_ the data
features).

This continued worship of pointless technical specifications is why the
competition has failed to catch up to Apple. Your average consumer doesn't
care how much RAM it has, or how fast the CPU is, or how many pixels across
the screen has (beyond "ooh that's crisp"), they just want a phone that works.

And overwhelmingly in the smartphone market, the iPhone is still the _only_
phone I would say "works". The BB comes close, and Nokia needs to hang its
head in shame.

~~~
dejb
I'm surprised you don't mention Windows Mobile. I'm not is the US. Can you
guys actually use WinMo phones in the US? Do you have access to something like
the 'HTC Touch HD' over there? This isn't a rhetorical question I just don't
know. I'm not saying it is better. The iPhone UI is better and will be for
some time. But I'm surprised you don't even mention it because in terms of
another platforms with numerous apps available, WinMo is the main one in my
'rest of the world' view.

Edit : ...and android

Before the iPhone pretty much all mobile devices were intended as 'business'
devices. By being the first ones to really design a smartphone from the ground
up as a 'person oriented' device Apple were able to get ahead. But in my view
that advantage is unlikely to persist for very long. When the UI gap is closed
features such as 'being able to load programs faster' or 'being able to play a
more realistic game' or 'being able to view a web pages the same as on a
desktop' will start to be the differentiating factor.

~~~
potatolicious
I didn't mention WinMo because I personally do not have much experience with
them - the last time I played with a WinMo phone was very briefly, so I don't
think it's wise to judge the user experience on it.

Ditto for Android, though my short few-minutes experience with it was somewhat
negative, but that's mostly due to the obtuse hardware design of the G1
(recessed touchscreen?).

I do agree, though, that the UI gap is being closed at least somewhat - which
is great news. It's about time that usability started being a buzzword in the
tech industry and started being a real focus. Bear in mind, however, that
"being able to load programs faster" and "being able to play more realistic
games" are qualitative measures, which was one of the points I tried making
with my original post: consumers care about qualitative things, not
quantitative. The screen looks sharp? Great. Nobody cares about resolution.
Likewise, the phone feels snappy? Awesome - still nobody cares about CPU
speed.

~~~
dejb
I do get the point about qualitative vs quantitative. In the case of screen
resolution and web browsing I think they come closer than in other cases. Most
web pages are design to work on screens of 1024 so presumably this width on a
phone would allow you to see the page exactly as intended. Admittedly it would
be pretty small but I think of would still be a big advantage.

I'd still like for someone to let me know if you can get WinMo phones in the
US? Everything in this whole crazy iPhone saga would start to fall into place
for me if that was the case. I can still remember watching that first Jobs
speech and wondering what all the fuss was about when the trusty imate sitting
in my pocket could already run arbitrary software.

~~~
nuclear_eclipse
Yes, we've had WinMo phones for longer than anyone else; we had them at least
as far back as 2003, but smartphones in general never really caught on
anywhere except with business people, until the iPhone came around and Jobs
made it sound like he had invented the smartphone...

~~~
dejb
Ok thanks. I do remember windows CE/Pocket PC phones being around from about
2003 as well.

So my notion doesn't really explain it. I just don't get why everyone thinks
Jobs invented the smartphone then?

------
martythemaniak
A pretty safe set of assumptions. Considering that Apple shops around for
chips like all other smartphone manufacturers, and that phones like the BB
Bold have had 600+Mhz CPUs for quite a while, it'd be pretty silly to bet
against that.

And lord knows the iPhone needs a speed bump. That slick UI and effects comes
at a price and its almost embarrassing when you want to write down someone's
phone number, but you have to tell them to wait 3 seconds while the contacts
app loads.

~~~
axod
Personally, I think the speed is "good enough". If they can up that without
compromizing battery life, then great. But if it's a choice between battery
and cpu, I'd take battery every time.

The most irritating thing is that with 3g enabled+GPS, the battery drains
ridiculously quickly, and you have to enable/disable 3g yourself manually. Why
can't it just do that itself? :/

~~~
joeyo
Android with the Locale app does this (lets you toggle features as a function
of battery state), but I've heard that Google is actually removing the API
calls for toggling GPS in Cupcake (Android v1.5). I'm not entirely sure why
this is supposed to be a good thing

~~~
thwarted
Supposedly, there was confusion about what exactly "turning off GPS" meant,
because on the G1, you "enable" GPS, but it doesn't actually do anything
unless an app queries for geolocation data -- it doesn't drain the battery
just because GPS is enabled. So you'd disable it and wouldn't have to worry
that there was some app running that would drain your battery because it is
using GPS. But there is a UI problem, somewhat exposed with the Maps app, with
when you have it disabled, the app detects that and tells you that you'll need
to enable it. Except the wording isn't straightforward, and the app doesn't
handle turning it on itself (which may be a good or bad thing, if you've got
it disabled in the preferences). G1's GPS setting does need some work, but
it's good that it's getting some attention now that location based apps are
increasing in popularity.

~~~
joeyo
Thanks for the clarification.

I suspect that my G1 has a bad GPS module because I find that when I have it
disabled, I can get a somewhat accurate measurement of my current location via
cell towers or whatever, however if I have it enabled, it can't figure out
where I am at all (at least not within the amount of time that I am willing to
wait for it-- 1 minute or so). So I leave it disabled pretty much all the time
in an attempt to keep the battery life long.

If it were up to me (and I must admit I have not looked at how the location
API works), I would have location services return an imprecise value quickly
(via cell towers or wifi or whatever) and refine it as the GPS came online.
Sensor fusion is still an active research topic, but there are at least some
simple heuristics that could be used if it was inefficient to make a full
Bayesian inference.

~~~
thwarted
I seemed to have a similar problem a few months ago. I think there is also
confusion as to the "location" settings -- there doesn't seem to be one
setting that turns off all location querying ability, so you can have "use
wireless networks" on, and "enable GPS satellites" off, and it still works,
but the application calls it GPS (and the icon looks like a satellite).

I think it cleared up for me when I turned on both location settings (use
wireless networks and enable GPS satellites). I have not noticed a significant
drain on the battery due to having both on, but I rarely use location based
apps anyway.

