Today’s the big day, Apple fans. Steve Jobs will announce a new iPhone and a lot of other goodies, the lead story to this morning’s App Industry Roundup. First on the agenda: what’s in a name? Plus, other goodies we’d like to see.
Get ready for the iPhone HD
Very soon, Steve Jobs will unveil a new iPhone. What would it look like? What will it be called? Will it have two cameras? Will Steve Jobs wear a black turtle neck and blue jeans?
Remember the fiasco surrounding the name with the iPad? Many people didn’t believe it would be called the iPad because women found that name embarrassing and insulting. Didn’t matter. Perfectly good names like the iSlate and iTablet were discarded.
Now there’s a debate about what the new iPhone will be named. The iPhone 3G was obviously named to address the criticism that the original iPhone was too slow. The 3Gs name was uninspired, frankly. Now? Well, Apple can’t call it the iPhone 4G unless AT&T is going to announce a new, faster network. That is not ready yet. The 4G name could stand for fourth generation, but that’s confusing because people would associate that name with a faster network, and Sprint is already heavily marketing the 4G network it actually operates.
So, what could it be called? How about the iPhone HD (click the link to see evidence from backstage at Apple’s Worldwide Developer conference). So that probably means the screen will be sharper with better resolution. Is that such a big deal? Maybe. But not if it doesn’t solve this next issue with the iPhone…
A better battery needed for iPhone
Of all the hoopla over potential new iPhone features, Jason Hiner of TechRepublic really only wants one thing: a better battery. If there’s been a common complaint among iPhone owners, battery life is surely it. Indeed, the battery drains so quickly during the day — if you don’t need to plug in after lunch, why do you have an iPhone? — that an entire industry of battery charging options has sprung to life.
Hiner believes there is hope on this front. Pointing to the iPad and its 10-hours of battery life, he believes Apple has improved battery performance and will announce an iPhone on Monday that gets significantly better results. Of course, the iPad has two batteries so this is not a fair comparison. On the other hand, with Apple putting its own chips into the iPad — the iPad’s faster and apparently more efficient A4 processor is expected to be on the iPhone — we may very well hear about improvements to the iPhone’s battery.
Still, lets not get too excited here. We won’t see a battery improvement that will allow you to leave your house in the morning and not worry about a charge if you are constantly using your phone to surf the Web and, um, make calls during a full day. I don’t think the battery charging industry is nervous.
Free MobileMe? Sign me up!
If there’s one rumor I’d like to see come true, it’s this Boy Genius Report, which argues that some aspects of Apple’s MobileMe service will soon be free. The story notes it may not happen, but it points to an interesting development in the mundane issue of “account types” when you register for Apple’s MobileMe service. Basically, changes were made to how MobileMe accounts are classified.
If it were free, I’d try out MobileMe. Heck, I just want the synced calendar feature and that’s not something I will spend $100 for each year. C’mon, Steve, make my day.
