Chinese rumor claims 2009 iPhone will be modest upgrade

[AppleInsider]

A forum thread on a Chinese Apple fan site is generating some interest by AppleInsider readers because one commenter claims to have used prototypes of Apple's next-gen iPhone because he purportedly has a friend working at the company's manufacturing partner Foxconn.

The commenter, who goes by the name patapon200, describes the next iPhone as a "repeat" in physical design with many of the changes relating to speed and other less overt upgrades.

Supposedly, the largest changes are increases in clock speed and memory: the roughly 400MHz Samsung ARM processor used in the present-day iPhone 3G will be upgraded to a 600MHz part, he says, while system RAM will be doubled to 256MB. After testing, the tipster maintains that the speed of using the phone has "really improved" versus current models.

The commenter, who posted to one of China's largest iPhone fan sites, also claims that the handset will ship in 16GB and 32GB configurations while echoing earlier rumors of a 3.2-megapixel camera. He adds, however, that the new camera will autofocus. Other claims include an electronic compass to get the phone's heading independent of GPS, per recent rumors.

In his series of posts, the commenter provides an alleged internal model number of the new iPhone, N88, while noting the M68 and N82 model numbers used for earlier iPhones. He also posted a screen capture supposedly taken on the device, showing the 32GB of storage (29.3GB after formatting), iPhone 3.0 firmware, and Apple model number, MB717LL, that doesn't yet exist on the public record. The latest iPhone 3G revisions range only up to MB705LL. No evidence is given of the external model number that drew attention in February.



The commenter expresses disappointment when claiming the screen will still be the familiar 3.5-inch, 480x320 model used in the past. He doesn't provide a timeframe for this alleged new iPhone but claims the hardware was thought to be in a Process Validation Test, or PVT, as of late April; it's unclear what this means, but it may refer to testing assembly shortly before production.

Some aspects of the rumor are dubious enough to call into question at least some of the story. It suggests that the next iPhone will have FM, for example -- a technology Apple has left out of all iPhones and iPods to date. The screen capture also makes reference to connecting to an AT&T network as the carrier, though it's not the same revision number seen by most US iPhones, which usually connect to ATT3.1 and not the ATT3.5 mentioned in the screenshot.

The poster makes brief mention of Apple's long-in-development tablet and even gives it an internal model number, K48, but provides few other details besides mentioning a 9.7-inch touchscreen that has surfaced in previous rumors.

AppleInsider isn't sure what to make of these two week-old claims but republishes them for interest's sake.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[macxpress]

Oh boy....here we go with all of supposed "claims" of seeing prototypes and having access to supposed new Apple hardware. Happens every time!!!

[Robert.Public]

I find it hard to believe that there won't be any changes to the form.

I know the Mac side moves more slowly, but the iPod side of Apple is always evolving the look..

There's lots of areas to improve like the scratchable chrome frame, only available in black and white, (I never understood the point of...) the square on the home button. They could move towards some utilization of the unibody theme like the speaker grille detail the macbook pros have, the MB Air edges...

[syklee26]

so If I go to China and post something on iPhone fanboy site, will Appleinsider post my take?

[hmurchison]

Sounds plausible to me.

I bet if you look at ARM's site there's a 600 Mhz core and the extra RAM is a given.
I really don't expect a huge change in this upcoming rev for the iPhone. I was hoping they'd
sneak in AMOLED screen but my guess is that we see some fireworks with iPhone 2010.

We can likely expect custom Apple chips, dual core processing and very fast graphics with HD output. AMOLED or some sort of OLED technology is a given and perhaps Bluetooth 3.0.

[neiltaylormade]

I have to admit, I don't always read every post here despite them coming up on my google reader, but this one caught my eye. I loved the writing style so just felt the need to comment!

[akf2000]

Originally Posted by neiltaylormade

I have to admit, I don't always read every post here despite them coming up on my google reader, but this one caught my eye. I loved the writing style so just felt the need to comment!

Yeah apart from a fixation with using commas it was very well written.

[ajay]

downloaded the original image & messed around with image levels in Pixelmator... this is what came up.
is this normal?
or does anyone think that this is just some (un)imaginative photoshop-job?

[8CoreWhore]

That's not a modest upgrade. That 50% more processing and 100% more RAM. The FM could be a modulator to play in your car.

[Virgil-TB2]

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

... Some aspects of the rumor are dubious enough to call into question at least some of the story. It suggests that the next iPhone will have FM, for example -- a technology Apple has left out of all iPhones and iPods to date. ...

There was a recent rumour that the new iPhone had parts that were technically *capable* of receiving FM signals.

[mariofreak85]

Devices with 3.0 say "AT&T 3.5" , not "AT&T3.5"

[donlphi]

Forget about the FM receiver... are you joking? That's funny. I wrote it down on a piece of paper and laughed harder. There will be no FM receiver on an iPhone. We're more likely to see an 8-track player on the front of an iMac.

I also heard that Apple is adding a turn-table to AppleTV and a mini-disc to it's iPod Classic.

Good times...

[infobhan]

These rumors sound completely believable. What else were people expecting? Similar form factor, upgraded speed and RAM, better camera, better performance. All makes perfect sense. I agree that the FM, if it exists, is probably a transmitter to let you use it in your car.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by Virgil-TB2

There was a recent rumour that the new iPhone had parts that were technically *capable* of receiving FM signals.

The upgrades mentioned from the original article seem plausible because they aren't going crazy like most of these rumors. Everything mentioned was either something that we expect within a margin or error or was something we know now exists, like the integrated FM capable radio chip. But I can't see Apple enabling that aspect even if they do use that chip and I find no case changes a big hard to swallow. Using the same processor and no display resolution changes could happen, but it seems that a better CPU again under-clocked would offer more power savings, and the display resolution would be fine in and of itself if every new smartphone wasn't trouncing Apple's display resolution so I can't imagine a 3rd year at 480x320. Anyone know if the iPhone SDK is designed to scale dpi without issue, using the same screen size as a constant.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by infobhan

These rumors sound completely believable. What else were people expecting? Similar form factor, upgraded speed and RAM, better camera, better performance. All makes perfect sense. I agree that the FM, if it exists, is probably a transmitter to let you use it in your car.

I know this will sound lame, but it all sounds too believable.

[LE Studios]

Originally Posted by ajay

downloaded the original image & messed around with image levels in Pixelmator... this is what came up.
is this normal?
or does anyone think that this is just some (un)imaginative photoshop-job?

This may be true!
Why? Last time someone posted up pics of the new 2009 Mac mini, then everybody said its a fake. Then came the video. After that it was released exactly as the pics and video confirmed. C'mon people lets think Apple 3.0 OS Upgrade is good but I already imagined that it will run faster on a iPhone with more processing power and memory this fits. I bought the 3.0 SDK from Apple two months ago. It's great! All Apple need is a phone to run it. I mean 32GB 3G iPhone is all I really wanted anyways. If it can do more than that's great for everybody!

[ph0en1x]

People do get access to the phones. I was able to play around with an iphone 3G last year two months before it came out, i was chatting to a guy that worked for one of the telco's that was doing testing in Australia. They are out there and some will remember the prototypes that have been seen of the first iphone (they were black)
I do hope that a new one does not come out this year as you will start getting people a little angry bringing out new phones every 12 months, I would suggest work on the software over the hardware, build that up and spend the extra time coming out with a phone with 4g technology, far better cameras, tiered product releases and pure integration to both mac and windows.... just my 2 cents

[ajay]

Originally Posted by LE Studios

This may be true!
Why? Last time someone posted up pics of the new 2009 Mac mini, then everybody said its a fake. Then came the video. After that it was released exactly as the pics and video confirmed. C'mon people lets think Apple 3.0 OS Upgrade is good but I already imagined that it will run faster on a iPhone with more processing power and memory this fits. I bought the 3.0 SDK from Apple two months ago. It's great! All Apple need is a phone to run it. I mean 32GB 3G iPhone is all I really wanted anyways. If it can do more than that's great for everybody!

well, the rumors may be true... but the image certainly has the marks of digital manipulation!
just my $0.02

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by ph0en1x

I do hope that a new one does not come out this year as you will start getting people a little angry bringing out new phones every 12 months, I would suggest work on the software over the hardware, build that up and spend the extra time coming out with a phone with 4g technology, far better cameras, tiered product releases and pure integration to both mac and windows.... just my 2 cents

What! one device every two years? The current iPhone 3G is already composed mostly of the same internals as the original iPhone from 2 years ago. Besides the fact that I like to get a new phone every year it's overdue for a major system overhaul.

As for 4G technology, Apple is probably going to build their own radios as they have no expertise in this arena. They'll leave that to the experts, the experts that haven't completely finalized the air interface standard, have yet to produce any working tower hardware outside of the lab and, most telling, we have yet to see LTE in EC/34 and USB cards for notebooks or built in with miniPCI cards, which will predate any cellphone by quite a but as the tech will be large and power hungry, then we'll see it in the larger cellphones and finally in Apple's slim media phone after the tech is tried and true. 3G has a long life ahead of it before LTE will be needs. Enhanced HSPA (HSPA+) is 3G with 42Mbps down and 21Mbps up.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by ajay

well, the rumors may be true... but the image certainly has the marks of digital manipulation!
just my $0.02

We know they manipulated the photo to cross out serial number. Saving it from the native PNG to JPG could have added the artifacts.

[bloggerblog]

256MB RAM is very much appreciated

[ajay]

Originally Posted by solipsism

We know they manipulated the photo to cross out serial number. Saving it from the native PNG to JPG could have added the artifacts.

i'm not an image pro, so it's probably easy for me to buy your explanation. nevertheless, i'm still surprised by the selective concentration of artifacts around the text.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by Robert.Public

I find it hard to believe that there won't be any changes to the form.

I know the Mac side moves more slowly, but the iPod side of Apple is always evolving the look..

You mean the way Apple has improved the Mini look over time?

Or the Intel iMac Look?

Or the PowerMac G5... oops! I mean the Mac Pro Look?

Oh, that's right, there hasn't been much of a change, if any, in those.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by ajay

downloaded the original image & messed around with image levels in Pixelmator... this is what came up.
is this normal?
or does anyone think that this is just some (un)imaginative photoshop-job?

It's a jpg. That's EXACTLY what you would expect from a jpg.

Those are compression artifacts.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by ajay

well, the rumors may be true... but the image certainly has the marks of digital manipulation!
just my $0.02

Not really.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by ajay

i'm not an image pro, so it's probably easy for me to buy your explanation. nevertheless, i'm still surprised by the selective concentration of artifacts around the text.

That is precisely where artifacts are concentrated. It's the detailed areas in an image that have artifacts clustered around them. Blank areas will show none.

[Thomaspin]

Excellent 'reporting', thank you.

This is the sort of thing that is simply accelerating the death of newsprint, WSJ, NYT and all. Sure, there's a lot of rumor here, but that only speeds the viral discovery process of the truth - a powerful mechanism not available to traditional news media.

And I do so hope all those rumors are true! My 7/1/2007 iPhone is getting tired and I'm dying for the iPharma .... or is that the iTablet?

BTW, I started reading AI when Apple sued you - now that's what I call a recommendation.

[Quadra 610]

Whatever.

I'm fine with finding out in June. These rumours are really wearing thin. But they certainly make for a fun story . . . over and over and over again.

[ajay]

Originally Posted by melgross

That is precisely where artifacts are concentrated. It's the detailed areas in an image that have artifacts clustered around them. Blank areas will show none.

thanks for clarifying!

[PG4G]

You guys do realize that I can make an image like that in 10 minutes with the iPhone SDK...

[melgross]

Originally Posted by PG4G

You guys do realize that I can make an image like that in 10 minutes with the iPhone SDK...

And...?

[nimrod323]

Originally Posted by ph0en1x

People do get access to the phones. I was able to play around with an iphone 3G last year two months before it came out, i was chatting to a guy that worked for one of the telco's that was doing testing in Australia. They are out there and some will remember the prototypes that have been seen of the first iphone (they were black)
I do hope that a new one does not come out this year as you will start getting people a little angry bringing out new phones every 12 months, I would suggest work on the software over the hardware, build that up and spend the extra time coming out with a phone with 4g technology, far better cameras, tiered product releases and pure integration to both mac and windows.... just my 2 cents

Having a new phone every 12 months is a long period IMHO. Look at others like Nokia or SE,they come up with new phones every month or quarter, if anyone should be angry those who use those phones should be pretty mad. The only way apple can compete with rival phone companies is to make the iphone better not only in terms of software but also performance wise as in, new hardwares.

[solipsism]

Originally Posted by nimrod323

Having a new phone every 12 months is a long period IMHO. Look at others like Nokia or SE,they come up with new phones every month or quarter, if anyone should be angry those who use those phones should.

It is unique that other companies can come with products more rapidly than Apple but as soon as a new Apple product emerges in their typical 6-12 month cycle people get pissed and feel slighted. Is it because other companies have such confusing product lines, because Apple is so secretive (despite the clues to releases being present), make the customer feel like they are losing their elitist feel, and/or something else?

[Quadra 610]

Originally Posted by nimrod323

Having a new phone every 12 months is a long period IMHO. Look at others like Nokia or SE,they come up with new phones every month or quarter, if anyone should be angry those who use those phones should be pretty mad. The only way apple can compete with rival phone companies is to make the iphone better not only in terms of software but also performance wise as in, new hardwares.

Nokia?? LOL, those other also-rans churn out derviatives and knock-offs so easily because they are nowhere near the iPhone experience. Not even in the same league, with their horrible interfaces, etc.

And Apple IS competing with rival phone makers, and quite impressively, too. Where have you been for the last year??

[mason2046]

为什么在中国用ATT的网络？

Why is that ATT if he is in China?

[zpesk]

the iPhone OS comes in well under a gigabyte. If this a 32GB device, why would the max capacity be about 29GB? iPhone OS is not 3GB!!

[Virgil-TB2]

Originally Posted by solipsism

The upgrades mentioned from the original article seem plausible because they aren't going crazy like most of these rumors. Everything mentioned was either something that we expect within a margin or error or was something we know now exists, like the integrated FM capable radio chip. But I can't see Apple enabling that aspect even if they do use that chip and I find no case changes a big hard to swallow. Using the same processor and no display resolution changes could happen, but it seems that a better CPU again under-clocked would offer more power savings, and the display resolution would be fine in and of itself if every new smartphone wasn't trouncing Apple's display resolution so I can't imagine a 3rd year at 480x320. Anyone know if the iPhone SDK is designed to scale dpi without issue, using the same screen size as a constant.

The thing with rumours also is that we often assume they are either the plain truth or a nefarious attempt to deceive, when in fact a lot of them are a bit of both, somewhere in the middle, or an incompetently re-transmitted rumour.

In saying the screen is "the same" it might mean it's the same part or it might just mean it looked the same to the person reporting it. In saying that it has an FM radio, he/she might just be reporting on that FM capable radio chip rumour that someone told them, or they may have actually seen an FM Radio app (hope not though).

I don't see anything in this rumour that is so unreasonable as to explicitly mark it as false but I'm hoping some of it was garbled or misunderstood.

[zeromeus]

Originally Posted by zpesk

the iPhone OS comes in well under a gigabyte. If this a 32GB device, why would the max capacity be about 29GB? iPhone OS is not 3GB!!

32 GB is 32,000,000,000 bytes. Computers read the data in binary codes, which means 1 thousand is not 1000 but rather 1024. So take 32,000,000,000 and divide that number by 1024, then 1024 again, and then 1024 again and you'll get that number. 29.8 GB formatted capacity (computer recognized number). Minus the OS and you'll get roughly 29 GB of available space.

For example:
Your 8GB iPhone has only 7.45 GB of total space (computer recognized). After the OS, you get 7.08GB of free space, I think.
Your 16GB iPhone has only 14.9 GB of total space (computer recognized). After the OS, you'd have about 14.53 GB of available space.

OS 3.0 might be a lot more space hungry, so it uses up .6 GB instead of .37GB like OS 2.x? I don't know for sure. But that number sounds right to me. At least if it's fake, the person who did it already did his/her homework.

[addabox]

Originally Posted by melgross

And...?

Well, I guess the "And" would be that this rumor is reasonably plausible in that it hits pretty much all of the points of conservative conventional wisdom, but as the "screenshot" is trivially easy to make there is zero evidence that this is anything more than just another dude yanking our chain.

[PG4G]

My point exactly Addabox.

Apple even provides in 3.0 a shortcut to make those types of rows... It would literally take me two minutes to write an app to simulate that...