More studios reported linked to iTunes rentals; iPhone 1.1.3 leaked?
20th Century Fox will not be alone among studios when Apple reveals an iTunes movie rental service, according to one claim. Also, new photos purport to show simulated GPS and other features in upcoming iPhone firmware.
Report: Fox to be joined by others for iTunes rentals
News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox is not the only Hollywood movie studio confirmed to be offering rentals of its movie catalog through iTunes, the New York Times reports.
Echoing the Financial Times claim made earlier in the week, the New York paper alleges that multiple sources are aware that "more than one" movie production house is committed to the project, which will reportedly be unveiled during the Macworld San Francisco keynote in mid-January.
Since the initial rumor surfaced, many have suggested the self-evident possibility that Walt Disney and its subdivisions are the most likely candidates: Apple chief Steve Jobs currently sits on Disney's board of directors and is credited with bringing the studio's movies to iTunes for the current purchase-only strategy.
Whichever studios are involved, Apple has not had much success concealing its plans. The company's iTunes feedback system inadvertently revealed rented movies as an option, while other reports have shown rental code within iTunes itself.
iPhone 1.1.3 features leaked through photos?
Apple's version 1.1.3 firmware upgrade for the iPhone will be more than just a maintenance update, Gear Live maintains in a new report.
Offering what appear to be legitimate photos (mirrored on Flickr), the site suggests that the impending patch will bring about a host of new features, some of which have been heavily requested since the Apple handset's launch in June. Users will be able to rearrange the location of icons on the home screen, including taking icons out of the tray at the bottom. Safari will also allegedly have an option to set a specific website as an icon at the home screen, creating a shortcut for web apps or for a preferred home page.
Frequent text messaging users will also be pleased to know they can at last send SMS messages to more than one recipient at a time, according to the supposed leak.
Google Maps will also flesh out considerably from its current form. A new positioning feature dubbed Locate Me will simulate GPS navigation by triangulating the iPhone owner's position from nearby cellular towers; based on the images, this will provide the user with a circle that shows the approximate location rather than pinpointing it exactly, which would require true GPS.
The map utility should also have a newly expanded options list separated into direction-finding and search categories, including a hybrid map view borrowed from the web version of Google Maps that combines both street outlines and the satellite imagery.
While potentially convincing, the report does not indicate when the update will be introduced.
Report: Fox to be joined by others for iTunes rentals
News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox is not the only Hollywood movie studio confirmed to be offering rentals of its movie catalog through iTunes, the New York Times reports.
Echoing the Financial Times claim made earlier in the week, the New York paper alleges that multiple sources are aware that "more than one" movie production house is committed to the project, which will reportedly be unveiled during the Macworld San Francisco keynote in mid-January.
Since the initial rumor surfaced, many have suggested the self-evident possibility that Walt Disney and its subdivisions are the most likely candidates: Apple chief Steve Jobs currently sits on Disney's board of directors and is credited with bringing the studio's movies to iTunes for the current purchase-only strategy.
Whichever studios are involved, Apple has not had much success concealing its plans. The company's iTunes feedback system inadvertently revealed rented movies as an option, while other reports have shown rental code within iTunes itself.
iPhone 1.1.3 features leaked through photos?
Apple's version 1.1.3 firmware upgrade for the iPhone will be more than just a maintenance update, Gear Live maintains in a new report.
Offering what appear to be legitimate photos (mirrored on Flickr), the site suggests that the impending patch will bring about a host of new features, some of which have been heavily requested since the Apple handset's launch in June. Users will be able to rearrange the location of icons on the home screen, including taking icons out of the tray at the bottom. Safari will also allegedly have an option to set a specific website as an icon at the home screen, creating a shortcut for web apps or for a preferred home page.
Frequent text messaging users will also be pleased to know they can at last send SMS messages to more than one recipient at a time, according to the supposed leak.
Google Maps will also flesh out considerably from its current form. A new positioning feature dubbed Locate Me will simulate GPS navigation by triangulating the iPhone owner's position from nearby cellular towers; based on the images, this will provide the user with a circle that shows the approximate location rather than pinpointing it exactly, which would require true GPS.
The map utility should also have a newly expanded options list separated into direction-finding and search categories, including a hybrid map view borrowed from the web version of Google Maps that combines both street outlines and the satellite imagery.
While potentially convincing, the report does not indicate when the update will be introduced.
Comments
as much as I WANT those iPhone shots to be real, I don't think they are. I do think we will see something similar, however.
I think they are. The pic of the instructions of how to rearrange the icons doesn't seem like a dirty hack technique.In fact, it points to the explosion of new iPhoes coming when the SDK is released.
ummm SDK please.
Can you wait until January 15th?
All I want for New Year's is copy & paste and flash...
C&V may happen but Flash surely won't.
Being able to take photos with a built in camera, and then being unable to share them always seemed like a glaring hole to me...
It would be nice if you could share the photos you had taken with your friends via SMS (like every other handset in the world).
Being able to take photos with a built in camera, and then being unable to share them always seemed like a glaring hole to me...
You can share via email and with better quality than MMS. THough I dont' understand why you can't choose whether you want the software to reduce the image size or not.
ummm SDK please.
Can you wait until January 15th?
I guess so
How would flash help? The camera is on the back, not the front.
Flash = Adobe Flash
BTW does anyone know if the message client is able to organise SMS texts as conversations, instead of the simple send/received boxes?
You can share via email and with better quality than MMS. THough I dont' understand why you can't choose whether you want the software to reduce the image size or not.
Great... but what if your buddies phone doesn't have his email on it. MMS has some advantages over email. l don't use it but l can understand why others might.
As far as photo sharing goes, I think an upload client that would support services such as Picassa and Flickr would be cool. From there just send the link to friends. Of course being being able to have this along with other options such as sending by SMS would be even better.
BTW does anyone know if the message client is able to organise SMS texts as conversations, instead of the simple send/received boxes?
I use the flickr's email upload feature - http://www.flickr.com/account/uploadbyemail/
Great... but what if your buddies phone doesn't have his email on it. MMS has some advantages over email. l don't use it but l can understand why others might.
Lack of proper MMS support certainly sucks, but hopefully they will eventually address it. In the meantime there is a third-party hack:
http://modmyifone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17359
I haven't an iPhone to try this on, so I have no idea if it works as advertised.
BTW does anyone know if the message client is able to organise SMS texts as conversations, instead of the simple send/received boxes?
Not possible. You'd have to have a subject feild in order to organize by conversation. WHile theoretically possible, it seems like a complex solution for the very limited SMS while email is readily available. Now, a Spotlight search feature and a way to organize by conversation in Mobile OS X's Mail would be great.
PS: Regarding flickr/Picasa support, I would have thought .Mac support would have been entrenched in the iPhone from day one. .Mac has a great deal of potential that, sadly, Apple doesn't seem interested in steadily evolving or in making it work seamlessly.
Great... but what if your buddies phone doesn't have his email on it. MMS has some advantages over email. l don't use it but l can understand why others might.
I, too, don't have a need for it but understand why others might. I really can't understand why Apple has foregone this seemingly simple feature except to help promote the more robust email function which can send a great deal more data and send to a personal computers despite excluding phones with MMS capabilities. I'd rather see more phones get a real email client and web browser than perpetuate the limitations of SMS/MMS, but that is me and I know I don't speak for everyone.
How would flash help? The camera is on the back, not the front.
Two things.
One, maybe he means Flash.
Two, a flash for the camera is very useful. What does it have to do with the camera being on the back? A flash is used to take pictures, it has to be on the side the camera is on.
Another thing is the dialing of numbers after a Pause (comma). I use a calling card for long-distance calls, so in my address book I enter the card's local number, then I insert a Pause (comma) followed by the actual long-distance number. However, the dialing of the actual long-distance number is so weird that most numbers don't work, and the iPhone will not allow you to dial two separate address-book numbers on the same connection. It's tough to explain, but really annoying
Two things.
One, maybe he means Flash.
Two, a flash for the camera is very useful. What does it have to do with the camera being on the back? A flash is used to take pictures, it has to be on the side the camera is on.
The screen could have been used as a flash like photobooth does if the camera was on the same side, I think that was the point that was being made.
For Adobe Flash, why do people want this. I like that Safari doesn't have annoying adds all over the place. Adding Flash will also only drain the battery like no tomorrow. Think about watching a video and simultaneously playing a movie on the iPod?! NOT a clever idea.
The screen could have been used as a flash like photobooth does if the camera was on the same side, I think that was the point that was being made.
Most phone cameras use an LED for that, much better. The peak luminosity is much greater.
He should have said that he wanted the phone on the front.
For Adobe Flash, why do people want this. I like that Safari doesn't have annoying adds all over the place. Adding Flash will also only drain the battery like no tomorrow. Think about watching a video and simultaneously playing a movie on the iPod?! NOT a clever idea.
There are arguments on both sides of the issue. Neither is more correct than the other.