Rumored iPhone "2,1" hardware in the wild
The first hints came in October of last year, according to Pinch Media -- devices reporting themselves as "iPhone 2,1" began showing up in the company's logs, as they ran applications which include the free Pinch Analytics usage tracking libraries. Appearances were very spotty at first, but became more frequent in December, and almost all the hits were in the San Francisco Bay area ... not coincidentally, the home base for Apple's engineering teams.While it's not surprising that Apple would be working on a new iPhone version -- even letting it out on the road to test AT&T signal reception -- it is a little bit of a surprise that the device ID wouldn't be spoofed to feign the appearance of an older device. MacRumors notes that the 2,1 designation is already visible in the iPhone firmware, and AppleInsider suggests that the first-digit rollup may mean bigger architectural changes than a simple speed bump and restyling.
We can think of a lot of features that would be great to see an iPhone hardware revision -- video recording capabilities would be high on the list, along with better battery life -- but no way yet to know what's coming in 2,1 or when it might show up in a production model. The beat goes on.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Maldaen said 12:19AM on 1-30-2009
I hope they get rid of the tapered edges thing, it's actually what's kept me from upgrading to the 3G.
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waiownsyou said 12:23AM on 1-30-2009
Well I hope they get rid of the chrome bezel, even though it reportedly works as an antenna. Damn thing gets scratched like instantly and makes the phone look less new. Props to them moving it back a little on the 3G version. Now get rid of it or put a thin piece of plastic over it.
Jash Sayani said 7:19AM on 1-30-2009
Maybe something like this.... http://theifoneblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/dream-iphone.html
paperless said 8:18AM on 1-30-2009
Maybe nightmare iPhone definitely no dream iphone :P
JoeB said 12:38AM on 1-30-2009
I hope they rid of the cheap plastic look and bring back the metal. Sprinkle some awesome new features like a better camera, video recording and perhaps evwn video iChat and I'm sold. I didn't bother buying iPhone 3G. Not a big deal for me.
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A-style said 12:48AM on 1-30-2009
+1 on iChat and I will pay the pay them for an upgrade to my 6 month old 3g iphone.
antiorario said 2:53AM on 1-30-2009
The plastic back is what makes it have better reception than the original iPhone.
Jez said 1:23AM on 1-30-2009
MMS and open bluetooth be nice!
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Kyle said 3:10AM on 1-30-2009
Personally, hardware wise, all I can think of that I want is a tactile keyboard... Just have it slide out (landscape, not portrait like the Pre) and I'll be super happy with my iPhone. Typing is my biggest gripe with the phone.
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Philster said 4:50AM on 1-30-2009
Word.
Cory Schulz said 3:44AM on 1-30-2009
I hope they stop making the iPhone because I'm full of naive ideas and don't know what I'm talking about.
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Stuart Carnie said 4:01AM on 1-30-2009
Here's what I'd like to see, assuming we'll get iPhone 3.0 software update.
Hardware:
* The entire screen should be touch enabled, so the border could be used for interactivity.
* ARM Cortex A9 (multi-core version would be a dream),
* PowerVR SGX and
* minimum of 256MB RAM (up from 128MB)
Software, given the above specs:
* Background applications
* I'm wondering if this is coming rather than Apple's original 'push' solution, since we haven't seen it yet...
* Support for cross-application communication / shared data
* At the very minimum, this should be permitted for apps released by the same developer
* Major innovations to Springboard, since it is becoming unwieldy on iPhones with many apps installed
* Some ideas...
* 'spotlight' style launching would be good
* It could be arranged in a grid pattern so you could flip left, right, up or down or diagonally. A faint arrow could show you where centre is. Pressing home would take you back to the centre screen.
* For up to 9 screens you would be no more than 2 flips from any other screen.
* A gesture (like pinch) could be used to zoom out the spring board, like spaces to see 4 page or further out for 6 and then 9 pages. Tap on a page to zoom back.
* You should be able to name spaces, so you could see text on each space. e.g. 'Games', 'Financial', etc...
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ianlive said 10:53AM on 1-30-2009
Those are some pretty cool ideas for Springboard, Stuart. Seriously.
Stuart Carnie said 11:08AM on 1-30-2009
Cheers, ianlive.
Dan said 12:40PM on 1-30-2009
The majority of your wish list is available if you jailbreak. Spotlight functionality, categories/folders on the spring board, background apps, video, etc... It would be nice for them to bring those in natively. A hardware upgrade is definitely in order, though they better get the battery life right as well. Cross-app integration would also be nice. Oh and maybe cut and paste, stereo bluetooth, mms, .
nickanack said 4:57AM on 1-30-2009
" it is a little bit of a surprise that the device ID wouldn't be spoofed to feign the appearance of an older device."
If you are the least familiar with Apple's marketing of new products, you shouldn't be surprised at all. This just shows how well Apple uses the rumor mill to get free publicity.
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emil said 9:29AM on 1-30-2009
Precisely what I was going to say. Apple knows blogs like this one hang on every little thing they do and get the cult leaders talking to their friends. :)
SpinThis! said 12:03PM on 1-30-2009
Yeh, or it just could be some jackass getting the rumor mill in a frenzy spoofing regular safari or firefox or any other browser that lets you change the UserAgent string...
gikku said 7:24AM on 1-30-2009
yay! and free upgrades for all existing customers...
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apple1loop said 6:31AM on 1-30-2009
Or maybe it's just Apple throwing that identifier on a few 3Gs to make people speculate like they do...
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