iPhone 2.2 screenshots reveal direct podcast download interface

[AppleInsider]

A series of screenshots from Apple's latest iPhone 2.2 beta have leaked on the web, revealing a new interface for downloading podcasts over wireless networks and a more polished version of the handset's App Store application.

Direct Podcast Downloads

The screenshots, published by the German-langue blog Flo's Weblog, appear to confirm reports that the next software update for the iPhone will allow users to grab podcasts from the mobile iTunes Store over the handset's 3G connection.

A report published late last month had suggested this would be the case, but the feature was said to be non-functional at the time. The series of screenshots, republished below, reveals the interface flow for direct podcast downloads.

According to the report, Apple will initially limit direct downloads to podcasts 10MB in size or less. It's unclear, however, whether the feature will be restricted to iPhones on a 3G connection or if downloads can also be performed over an EDGE network.



App Store Categories

In addition, the same report tosses in a screen captures that reveals upcoming interface change to the App Store application that's expected to ship as part of iPhone Software 2.2.

The change, first detailed by AppleInsider back in September, is rather uneventful, consisting of a new categories home page that will feature large category icons and more generous spacing between each listing, rather than just narrow textual category representations.

Unlike builds of the software available in September, the latest betas reveal the new icons Apple may have chosen to use for its category listing (though they appear to be icons for third-party Apps at present). Previously, blank placeholders would display.

iPhone Software v2.1 (left) compared to iPhone Software v2.2 (right).

Expected iPhone 2.2 features

Readers looking to keep up on changes due as part of iPhone Software 2.2 can do so by reviewing AppleInsider's iPhone Software 2.2 topics page (RSS also available), which groups together all previous reports on the subject. A general list of feature additions are as follows:
Safari interface tweaks with relocated Google search
New App Store app with new categories interface, and "report a problem" feature
Auto-correction toggle and Japanese Emoji icons
Google Street View, transit and walking directions
Direct podcast downloads

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[roehlstation]

Looking forward to Direct PodCast Download......

I only get a chance to sync my iPhone once a week or so.

[kt0157]

Safari crashes a dozen times a day. It's very very very annoying. Come on Apple, I'm sick of the Windows experience with this: fix it.

[slapppy]

I guess Apple doesn't give a crap about Safari crashing constantly. It's the worst app on the iPhone right now. Soon as you use the zoom feature on Safari, crash, crash, crash.

No Push either... no real useful updates like copy and past, sync Notes/ToDo....

[RichL]

It's a pretty useless feature if it's limited to 10MB OTA. None of the podcasts I listen to are under 30MB an episode.

[Virgil-TB2]

Originally Posted by slapppy

I guess Apple doesn't give a crap about Safari crashing constantly. ...

Never crashes for me.

I don't like those icons for the categories though.

Why emphasise the lightweight character of some mobile games by writing "Lite" on the icon? Same goes for the "Mini" word on the music icon.

Isn't it a violation of good UI guidelines on any OS to put words on icons anyway? Even more so when the verbal description for the icon is right beside it.

[hillstones]

Originally Posted by slapppy

I guess Apple doesn't give a crap about Safari crashing constantly. It's the worst app on the iPhone right now. Soon as you use the zoom feature on Safari, crash, crash, crash.

No Push either... no real useful updates like copy and past, sync Notes/ToDo....

My Safari rarely crashes, even when I zoom in and out.

[hillstones]

So why did the screen shots blur out the network being used? What's the big deal about hiding the network?

[awolfe91]

Hey I just noticed something!

If you can access podcast downloads from within the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store and download on a 3G network, doesn't that mean that 3G music downloads are possible in this update too? I mean, you can't even launch iTunes Wi-Fi unless your on a Wi-Fi network now.

[jcwacky]

Those category icons have NOT been chosen or designed by Apple.

If you look in the app store you will see that those icons are from actual applications.

Either the icons will randomly change between different apps in the category or Apple has still yet to finish creating it's own ones.

[bpatton]

Was really looking forward to the direct podcast download. But as someone stated earlier, not ONE of my podcasts is under 10MB (most are at the 60-80MB level, as they are daily radio shows). Guess I have to sit this one out.

No real hate against Safari, but wish we could throw something like Firefox on there for the extensions. Would love to be able to sync my bookmarks wirelessly without .mac subscription. I sync my Touch about once a week, but my bookmarks change at least once a day. Grrr.

[awolfe91]

Originally Posted by hillstones

So why did the screen shots blur out the network being used? What's the big deal about hiding the network?

For real! There's a bunch of screenshots in the app store that are using networks like T-Mobile. Why blur it out here? Are they scared or something?

[philrobin]

What is the little progres icon at the top right of this window?
p.

[ByronVanArsdale]

Originally Posted by kt0157

Safari crashes a dozen times a day. It's very very very annoying. Come on Apple, I'm sick of the Windows experience with this: fix it.

Agreed!

[JeffDM]

10MB is just over 20 minutes of audio at 64kbps. A lot of podcasts are doable if they are short or divide long shows into independent story clips. Video is about two minutes at 700kbps, the clips I have are encoded at 320x240 res, and the motion is fairly slow and easy to predict with motion compensation, if the codec in question supports that decently. Compress too much farther, and anything more than minimal motion might just become a mess.

[macinthe408]

Why does Apple give us things THEY WANT, rather than things WE NEED?

[F1Turbo]

Originally Posted by kt0157

Safari crashes a dozen times a day. It's very very very annoying. Come on Apple, I'm sick of the Windows experience with this: fix it.

Try doing a reset. My phone frequently gets to the point where Safari crashes EVERY TIME I use it. I got an error message on another app (can't remember which one) which said something like memory running low, press and hold power button to reset. Seemed to help the Safari situation too.

Is there some sort of memory leak or something on iPhone?

[mjpcdhoops]

Steve,

Please, cut and paste. No really, cut and paste..PLEASE!

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by kt0157

Safari crashes a dozen times a day. It's very very very annoying. Come on Apple, I'm sick of the Windows experience with this: fix it.

Does Safari crash on the iPod Touch as well. Is this a 3G thing only?

[BlackSummerNight]

Why are they even working on this. Some Devs already had this program working. Please add cut and paste, MMS, and fix Safari.

[rpmx]

I've been testing this beta, and instead of downloading you can stream directly the video or audio podcast just by selecting them from the iTunes app instead of downloading them first. It works great.

[dreyfus2]

Originally Posted by slapppy

I guess Apple doesn't give a crap about Safari crashing constantly. It's the worst app on the iPhone right now.

While it does rarely crash here (and push is working just fine) - there is an easy fix for that. Just install the New York Times application and Safari will no longer be the worst.

[cozagada]

Originally Posted by teckstud

Does Safari crash on the iPod Touch as well. Is this a 3G thing only?

it DOES crash on my touch as well, unfortunately. especially with several pages open and heavy javascript

[teckstud]

Originally Posted by cozagada

it DOES crash on my touch as well, unfortunately. especially with several pages open and heavy javascript

Heavy javascript, no flash- really WTF?
Is there a Firefox app available or won't Apple let it?

[djames42]

Originally Posted by RichL

It's a pretty useless feature if it's limited to 10MB OTA. None of the podcasts I listen to are under 30MB an episode.

Plenty of WiFi hotspots around. I'm not surprised they're trying to limit the amount of traffic on the 3G network. Just being able to sync over wifi without my laptop is going to be a huge benefit, and the lack of that ability was my first gripe when I bought the iPhone.

Originally Posted by hillstones

So why did the screen shots blur out the network being used? What's the big deal about hiding the network?

Could have something to do with hiding where the screenshots came from, as they'd be a voilation of the NDA. Seeing the network might help narrow down the source...

Originally Posted by F1Turbo

Try doing a reset. My phone frequently gets to the point where Safari crashes EVERY TIME I use it. I got an error message on another app (can't remember which one) which said something like memory running low, press and hold power button to reset. Seemed to help the Safari situation too.

Lots of intensive applications make that recommendation. You can also do a reset by going to Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings.

[djames42]

Originally Posted by genericposts

Wow. Direct podcast downloads. Hmmmmm...... This has been avail on other phones for quite some time. Leave it to Apple to make something old, appear as something new and the faithful to jump on the bandwagon. Also, only 10 megs via GSM/3G? What if I have unlimited data and do not care if the podcast is 300 megs like many video podcasts are. So again Apple is thinking for me and determining what is best.

Might be that Apple is taking into consideration the limited amount of 3G bandwidth available on the carriers' networks. As I'm sure many others here will suggest, if you're not happy with the lack of features available on the iPhone, go buy another phone that does what you want. I accept that other phones have many features the iPhone doesn't have, but none of them have so far given me the experience the iPhone has, not have any been as stable. Safari may crash sometimes, but at least I don't have a stupid Windows Smartphone anymore; I literally had to reboot the thing twice a day just to make phone calls. It did have copy and paste though... It worked great--during those brief moments the OS wasn't crashing.

[rei_vilo]

Ok, nice new features, but what about... sync-ed notes and to-do lists

[Adjei]

Hehehe...The whiners are here again, who the heck buys a phone without features they want and then complains about it daily. I doubt some of you even have the phone. Apple should add copy and paste, people will line up to buy the phone if they do, every other feature they add is useless because there is no copy and paste.

[Adjei]

Meanwhile the iPhone has just been named the phone with the highest satisfaction ratings for business despite having no features.

[gprovida]

Any clue whether Apple will provide encryption of data on the iPhone as well as encrypted emails with Exchange? This is really important to get iPhones into enterprises.

[Adjei]

Originally Posted by genericposts

There is no accounting for low expectations or a lack of knowledge, but considering that this was a study of only State side individuals, the results fit the survey.

Come on dude you can come up with something better than that lame ass rebutal.

[Adjei]

AT&T states iphone tethering is coming soon.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by Adjei

AT&T states iphone tethering is coming soon.

I figure it'll be at a $30. month increased rate to match their 3G USB and EC card monthly rates.

I wonder if it'll be as fast as those cards and if it'll use WiFi to relay the data or allow you to do it more efficiency by plugging in your iPhone via the 30-pin connector.

[Adjei]

Originally Posted by genericposts

The truth needs no rebuttal. If the only source used were North American users then the results fit the survey. Take a larger sampling and get a wider prospective then you might be on to something. Fact remains, low expectations are part and parcel with many iPhone users.

So now its because they had low expectations of the device, what about the blackberry users they surveyed, come up with something better, you getting real desperate, but I guess your anti iPhone stance is clouding your judgement.

[ncee]

Originally Posted by teckstud

Does Safari crash on the iPod Touch as well. Is this a 3G thing only?

It doesn't on mine … for what that's worth.

Skip

[TenoBell]

Originally Posted by genericposts

Wow. Direct podcast downloads. Hmmmmm...... This has been avail on other phones for quite some time. Leave it to Apple to make something old, appear as something new and the faithful to jump on the bandwagon.

It is new on the iPhone. I don't understand this mentality that if something has been done on another phone its old for everyone.

Apple had to write new code to get it all working, so this new for them.

If these old features were all that great on the other phones the iPhone would not be selling so well.

[TenoBell]

Originally Posted by Adjei

So now its because they had low expectations of the device, what about the blackberry users they surveyed, come up with something better, you getting real desperate, but I guess your anti iPhone stance is clouding your judgement.

Since the iPhone is competing against the Blackberry in the US. Your statement is essentially saying the Blackberry is not very good and the iPhone is able to easily beat it.

What phones around the world are considered better for business than the BB?

[Adjei]

Originally Posted by genericposts

How about posting this magical survey so I can pick it and you apart. As for my anti-iPhone stance. Just because I do not live in Steve Jobs pants does not mean that I am anti-iPhone. I am anti-selling BS and passing it off as manna from heaven. Apparently you have no problem drinking the Kool-Aid.

So I guess you know more than the people at JD Power or are they also Apple fanboys?

[Adjei]

Originally Posted by TenoBell

Since the iPhone is competing against the Blackberry in the US. Your statement is essentially saying the Blackberry is not very good and the iPhone is able to easily beat it.

What phones around the world are considered better for business than the BB?

I am not saying the BB is no good, he stated the people surveyed for the survey who are using the iphone are clueless, so I asked him about the BB users surveyed?

[Adjei]

Originally Posted by genericposts

Hmmm..... No link......

I guess your argument is just like the proposed tethering functionality. Until it appears, it does not exist.

Here is the link:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/27575986

and for tethering coming: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10083957-37.html