Rumor

An accidental slip from an AT&T executive has signaled that the next generation iPhone will come this June starting a trend of a summer release cycle for the handset.

According to Boy Genius, mid-June will mark the release of the second generation iPhone. Expected in the next release is a faster network connection enabling 3G speeds of 7.2Mbps and 802.11N Wi-Fi networking and a pattern of summer releases for the iPhone. Releasing a new revision once a year could give Apple an edge in the smartphone market but may fall out as manufacturers update their products more frequently.

Via: AppleInsider

One of the biggest selling points of the iPhone 3G was the increased data speeds over its slower EDGE counterpart. Sure the reduced price added to the fray of buyers enduring long lines to buy an iPhone 3G but the faster data connection soon became a hit. Rumors floating around the Blog-o-sphere point to the next generation iPhone supporting a much faster data connection.

AT&T has plans to drastically expand its 3G network in the near future to speeds of 20Mbps.  In order to take advantage of the faster speeds that come with the newer HSPA+ protocols, the iPhone must use a new chipset which could be included in the next version of the iPhone. Supposedly, the next generation iPhone would include 802.11 N and 3.5G HSDPA support.

Via: iPhones Talk

Being an early adopter is rather expensive so if you are not an early adopter and thinking about getting yourself an iPhone, there is a great deal in the New York/New Jersey area.

Boy Genius Report got word earlier today that AT&T stores in the New York/New Jersey region are getting a fresh new stock refurbished 16GB iPhone 3Gs. They will be priced at an amazing $149.

There are just a few problems though - that is if you care. First, the iPhones are refurbished. Not to say that refurbished phones are all horrible, but I (and I am sure some people) have had bad experiences. Secondly, the offer is only good to those starting a new line with AT&T.

O2 is rumored to drop the price of the current iPhone in the UK as Orange competes to carry the popular Apple branded handset on its network outside of France.

If this rumor is to be believed, May would mark the beginning of O2’s iPhone price cute that would make it free on plans that cost £35 and up a month. O2’s price cut is in preparation of a possible revamp to the iPhone come June. Meanwhile, Orange is looking to expand its sales of the iPhone from France in to the UK.

Via: iPhone Alley

MacRumors are publishing pics claimed to be the rear of the next gen iPhone.

Of interest, the camera is still rear facing has no flash.

Also, the back is said to be made of a textured metal so it’s not as slippery as wet soap like the current iPhone, which will be really appreciated.

Read more at MacRumors

Appleinsider has posted a story about a new feature that might show up in iTunes 8. The new feature?  iTunes replay. The idea being that any movie or TV show you purchase would be available to stream from Apple’s servers instead of being stored on your hard drive (presumably you could still store the video).

The upside of this for most Mac owners is suspect. Most folks have plenty of hard drive space left and if their hard drive is filling up a FireWire USB drive is very cheap. Still, offsite backup and all. For iPhone owners it would be really nice. iPhone folks max out (for now) at 16 GB. 16 GB can get eaten up pretty fast when movies and TV shows are involved so being able to access your purchases anywhere over 3G or Wi Fi ould appeal to a lot of people. (There are already a lot of ways to access all the media on your hard drive from your iPhone, one method is covered in more...

Let’s do a “best of” iPhone rumor list:

1) Flash on iPhone
2) iPhone in China
3) $99 iPhone

The great thing about predicting anyone of the top three iPhone rumors is that sooner or later you’ll be right. It is a little like predicting tomorrow will be cooler than today. IT might take a sometime but sooner or later the temperature will drop and you’ll be correct. Once that happens you can amaze your friends by your psychic powers.

Today’s predictor of the predictable is Mike Abramsky. He predicts Apple will release a cheaper iPhone with scaled back features to appeal to a broader base. That is undoubtably what most companies would do but Apple doesn’t always go down the most predictable path. Where’s the mid priced expandable tower every other computer manufacturer sells in Apple’s Mac lineup? And you surely remember that TIm Cook said that Apple wasn’t interested in competing in the low cost phone game.

Mike Abramsky seems certain that the low priced iPhone is Apple’s next move. So certain that he’s got the specs for both the as yet unrevealed cheap iPhone and a new flagship iPhone. Specs that are more...

Will Park at Intomobile is speculating that the next revision of the iPhone will see multicore processors. Multicore technology is featured in all current Macs so the move might seem logical. With multicore setups you can double the performance while keeping the clock speed constant if the computing process is parallel. Multicore also offers a way for chip producers to keep upping the performance of systems when they’d be bumping up against physical limitations with single chips. Lastly, when you’re marketing a multicore device you can scream multicore! loudly to incentivize buyers.

Do any of those reasons really work for the iPhone? Multicore chips excel in ripping movies, converting formats and other processor intensive tasks. Since copy and paste isn’t on the iPhone you can scratch that copy and paste task off the list.  Since the iPhone isn’t required to perform a lot of processor intensive stuff the mulicore theory seems a bit weak. But consider multicore chips are also very good running multiple programs and background tasks have been rumored to be coming to the next iPhone.

So will there be… more...

You’re either completely indifferent to the idea of video chats on your iPhone or you’re wondering why the feature isn’t already there. On the Mac I’ve used video chats a handful of times because usually text or voice is more than enough. On the other hand it is nice to have video chat capability on the off chance that talking just isn’t good enough (sometimes you want people to see your angry eyebrows). So video chat is something most people would probably never use but a feature some people would love to have. It is easy to imagine why it hasn’t shown up yet but, thanks to some patent sleuthing by Jesus Diaz at Gizmodo, there are indications that the next version of the iPhone just might have it.

Jesus has all the appropriate patentese in the post a Gizmodo so we’ll just note that it sure does sound like iChat video conferencing on your iPhone. The only remaining question is why the functionality isn’t already in the iPhone. Jesus opines that the omission is because of cost. That could surely be the reason but it is just as likely that implementing a feature that… more...

Yes, the iPhone is already a way hot gaming platform, but Wired are rumoring it will get even hotter with the next iPhone.

“the gaming market is an increasingly juicy segment of the mobile multimedia space — and it’s one that Apple’s phenomenally successful iPhone is well-positioned to dominate.”

Of course, that’s not going to truly come to fruition unless the App Store gets some full-on serious games from big game developers. And guess what? That might be happening too, as another rumor gaining weight is Apple is looking at a Premium Games section its App Store for games costing $19.99.

PocketGamer says “the initiative will only be open to a restricted number of large publishers”.

Each of these rumors needs the other for the iPhone/touch to take the step up to a legitimate gaming console. As Wired says “the iPhone App Store has already got the DS and PSP beat in terms of game titles available: When the App Store was just three months old, it had 1,500 games; the PSP and DS had about 600 and 300 titles, respectively.” Howerver, if you took out all the crap (from all… more...