Crystal Ball: What’s Coming in the Next iPhone?
Yes, the iPhone 3GS is still hot out of the oven (too hot, perhaps?), but if you’re a true gadget addict, then you probably can’t help but think ahead to what Apple could possibly cram into the next iteration to ensure consumer mouths continue to drool. Of course, if you’re like me and you were ensnared by only the promise of better internals and a video camera this time around, it shouldn’t take much to accomplish that.
According to Unwired View, future versions of Apple’s smartphone could boast a lot more in the bells and whistles department. They’ve assembled a variety of Apple patents that, together, represent an exciting vision of what an iPhone 4G (3GSX?) could look like.
See and Speak
There’s already some interesting work being done by third-party developers around image identification on the iPhone, but Apple looks to be aiming to bake real-world object ID right into the platform. The phone would be using a combination of technologies to identify things that you point it at, including the camera, RFID or barcode scanning, and context filters (i.e., museum, grocery store, small island fishing community, etc.). You can almost smell the ecommerce potential in something like this.
Never Forget a Face
iPhoto ‘09 brought us Faces, a feature which recognizes faces you tag once in photos and automatically groups them together. It’s black techno-magic, is what it is, and I won’t have any part in it. But if you’re less superstitious and old-fashioned, it can be pretty handy. Now it looks like it might be coming to the iPhone.
Face recognition can have any number of applications, including the ability to custom tailor access privileges depending on who’s handling the device. No music with explicit lyrics for Junior, for instance, but Daddy doesn’t have to remove Ol’ Dirty Bastard from his iPhone entirely.
Built-In CRM
If you’re an iPhone business user, this next feature might seem especially promising, particularly if you’re in sales. Customer relationship management (CRM) is a huge part of successful sales, and it generally involves making sure you stay up to date on the personal and professional lives of your clients.
This patent foretells a feature that notifies you if you have unread communications from a contact before you call them. That way, you’ll avoid awkward situations like calling someone to check on the progress of a contract when he’s just sent you a detailed email explaining everything that’s wrong with it.
Another business-related feature will inform you if a message you’ve sent out to multiple recipients has failed for specific individuals within that group, and then give you a chance to resend only to those members who didn’t get the memo. Both of these last two features obviously have applications beyond the enterprise, too, but they seem most relevant to the business world.
I Do Impressions
Want your phone to talk to you and sound like Sir Paul McCartney while doing so? Or, if you’re particularly self-obsessed, in your very own voice? The last patent of the batch outfits your iPhone with the ability to do just that.
Weirdly, the scenario Apple uses to describe the usefulness of this speculated app is kind of an iPhone-as-surrogate-mother situation. It imagines a bleak future in which you have to have your iPhone read to your child in your voice because you’re too busy. Even if this patent does become reality, I hope we never reach the point where that becomes something many of us require our phone to do.
I don’t know about you, but I’d say most of the fun of new iPhone hardware is the anticipation and speculation leading up to the actual release. Not that I’m against getting my hands on the physical hardware once it does come out, of course.
Photo courtesy of Flickr user onebutan-iphone.
Tweet This (21)
Kim on July 9th, 2009 at 11:37 am
All I want is an indicator light that quietly lets me know i have a msg waiting, without having to open my iphone every 10 mins.
david Ducharme on July 11th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
I hear that! That’s a great idea – like the blackberry
bob on October 29th, 2009 at 1:24 pm
get a blackberry
Steph on November 12th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
AGREED.
blah on November 13th, 2009 at 12:17 am
it does that. turn vibration off in settings, and a message will come up on the screen. all you have to do is click the home button to see if there’s a msg or not. its not like you have to dig through the thing
Zack on July 9th, 2009 at 11:52 am
I would like a notification light as stated above, a dedicated button for the camera, and a little mirror thing for self portraits. And I think it would be cool for the apple logo and the “iPhone” name to be illuminated. :)
nathan on September 22nd, 2009 at 6:55 pm
yeah that would be so fly
ian on October 19th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
i thought the reflective apple on the back of the computer did that… so maybe a larger apple sticker?
thephotoshopper on July 9th, 2009 at 11:55 am
Haptic touch should be one of the new features. Samsung and LG are well on their ways to develop haptic devices for the masses, with some phones already having the awesome feature.
check out some info on wiki [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haptic_technology]
Eric on July 9th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
All I’m
Asking for is FLASH PLAYER!!!!!!
(& maybe that illuminated logo)
allan on October 18th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
agreed
Goochey on October 29th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
with u on tht 1
Gazoobee on July 9th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
@ Kim: I agree. Apple published a patent for doing this in a really cool way that I hope they incorporate into the next model.
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2008/11/apple-files-for-dual-backlight-iphone-notification-patent.ars
It might be nice to have the home screen display more than wallpaper also.
Stan Cushing on July 9th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Haptic feedback is available if you jailbreak. I had it on LG Incite, Samsung Epic and HTC Fuze and disabled in each because I thought it was more annoying that helpful. But having the option is good. Some people will like it.
+1 for Notification Light.
How about a Back Button? What is the big aversion to having more than one button? A Back Button would help mitigate the lack of multi-tasking.
Profiles. Even a $10 GoPhone has profile switching, 4COL! MyProfiles is available through RockYourPhone for every iPhone and OS except 3GS ATM – worked great on my 3G.
cushcalc on July 9th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
Home screen can display weather or calendar or to-dos, if you jailbreak.
Victor on July 9th, 2009 at 2:28 pm
i love that rendering. if only the screen would pop upwards so you could set it on a desk. then maybe everyone would shut the hell up about apple making a notebook.
Awd3495 on July 9th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
The logo would be sweet, maybe sweeping through the pages of apps via a touch bar, the area next to the home button. Front facing camera would be sweet, zoom, photo booth intigratiom maybe? The option for buying iphoto’s editing software, or built in. IChat would be awesome, and I’m still waiting for it. I would also like the option to text via 9 button keypad. As unnecessary as it is, it could be added with no problem at all. I also want texts bubbles to be recoloured. Maybe the wallpaper changes every x minutes, etc. There are things that would be cool. Stacks would be cool too. The things I really want are the light up logo, iChat, stacks, and a front facing camera. I think the touch area near the home button would not only be cool, but useful. It could open a “coverflow” of app pages, or even the apps themselves.
TrueBlood on July 10th, 2009 at 7:06 am
Flash, flash, flash, flash, flash, flash!!! 2 years later and
still no Flash!
Nancy on July 10th, 2009 at 10:18 am
I would like to see a person “live time” when they call me. I would like to see this also in the application of skype a “view skype live person”, like our computers. I don’t believe AT&T should block this because skype is not always reliable or clear viewing so for that reason I think AT&T is out of line to not allow skype on 3G. Why are they set of upsetting their customers, they need a new PR person to do damage control over the Company.
I agree a back button would be great and notification of text message when phone is in sleep mode.
This 3GS is great!!! and I purchased the “Tekkeon” battery sleeve it is awesome, I have never ran out of battery since I purchased it from the apple.com store found under iphone assessories>power. I have had all 3 generations of iphones and had major battery usage be awful, but not anymore :)
Forrester McLeod on July 10th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
That’s all well and good and highly impressive, but if you really have a crystal ball will you please tell me when my plane ticket to Fiji will be here and where in the world did my cabana boy get off to?
Have a Great One!
cruXsader on July 11th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
Flash player is the most important application (to me) that I want RIGHT NOW !! (sorry ’bout that).
Angus Dei on July 12th, 2009 at 6:59 am
Larger screen. Oh wait, this isn’t a tablet thread. Sorry.
Mike on July 12th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
FRONT FACING CAMERA!!!!
How awesome would video conferencing on an iPhone be!?!
Ben on July 12th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
I agree, +1 for light up logo :p
jj on July 23rd, 2009 at 3:23 am
i just wish all mobile communication plans for iphone could be cut by 50%.
Matt on August 30th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
I’d like a built in solar panel, mms, and flash already.
Gonzalo on September 12th, 2009 at 10:07 am
2 votes for Flash, one of them in the form of “Flash player” for Safari. It is ridiculous to have such a great surfing experience potential and throw it over the board because of the lack of Flash support. The 2nd vote is for the “camera flash”, most of the other smartphones (and even some cheap phones) have white leds that act as a flash to take a lot better pictures than the iPhone. Apple has been the multimedia leader for a long time, so I find it unacceptable for their phone to not allow us to take relatively good pictures in low light environments. One more vote for the message indicator light and still another for the back button (even if it is a “software button”).
Adam on September 16th, 2009 at 6:25 am
How about an IR outlet and some kind of recognition software within the camera.
take a photo of each remote control in your house and have the recognition software build a computerised iphone display simulation of the remote you want to copy. Then assign a function, IR or bluetooth to each button and you have one device that replaces all the remotes in your house.
Goochey on October 29th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
omg tht wud b amazing!
Chris on September 17th, 2009 at 6:27 am
Having researched the HTC Hero, seems the ideas behind this are far superior to the iphone but it doesn’t have the hardware to cope (yet). So would love to see the iphone being more customizable (instead of dull front screen) and have a flash player!
Mike M on September 19th, 2009 at 1:43 am
To kill two birds with one stone, perhaps the Apple logo should light up to alert you when you have new emails or voice messages — like the Blackberry…but done in an Apple sort of way ;-)
niradh on September 19th, 2009 at 7:20 am
Wanted in Next IPhone 2010:
Flash Player for ability to see web video streaming
Camera Flash
New Message Indicator
Iphone and Apple Logo lit in dark
CAmera and Video Zoom
Front Facing camera for Video talk
niradh on September 19th, 2009 at 7:21 am
And 64GB version ( thats looks the most possible!)
skye on September 19th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
flash player
i have a 3gs and for being such a fantastic phone why the hell is there no flash player
apps for almost anything but no flash player ????
how can this be
Richie Contartesi on September 21st, 2009 at 9:45 am
I think that their needs to be a camera on the front this way you can skype!!!!!!!!
1BAY on September 23rd, 2009 at 11:56 pm
. . AND NAME IT THE IPHONE 4HIJKLMNOP • THE END
Chris on September 28th, 2009 at 7:07 am
They could make the (hopefully) illuminated logo to double as a flash for the camera, therefore keeping its slick looks! which I think is the only reason for not having a flash so far.
t1g100no on September 28th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Would dearly love to see a facility to speak SMS and email into phone.
biz on October 4th, 2009 at 4:03 am
i’m hanging back for the next iPhone as got an original iphone and contract up (and to check the coming lower tariff rates via UK price war with orange). Anyone got any idea when the next iPhones are likely to come out?
biz on October 4th, 2009 at 4:07 am
oh yeah and my wants: video camera with added night light too to go with the camera flash still badly needed. And 3 X zoom would go down a treat too. Plus maybe the ability to scan text with the iphone camera to save typing time. And of course a battery that lasts longer than 24 hours – still!
Sniper 007 on October 5th, 2009 at 11:06 am
1) Flash player is a must… I can’t believe how stubborn Apple are being about this.. ok I can but I want it anyway.
2) Flash or light for the camera.
3) Improved camera.. not a big deal for me, but would be nice.
4) Infra red – so the phone can replace our universal remotes as well as our laptops.
5) Improved Bluetooth and general file transfer support! I can understand the lack of music transfer facilities for obvious piracy reasons, but photos and office files would be useful!! Admittedly this does introduce a small risk of viruses so once again I do understand where Apple are coming from with this.
6) I love the idea of a message indicator
7) oh and did i mention flash support?
tyler on October 5th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
I think that the iphone 4G WILL HAVE MOBLIE TV
Jamison on October 6th, 2009 at 12:36 am
Front facing camera
multiple apps running at once
notification light
flash player
wider screen, thinner design
IR
better organization of apps (preferably folders)
more sound customization (custom message tones etc)
Matt on October 11th, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Why is everyone so bent out of shape about flash on a phone? I had a phone with a flash for 2 years and I used it once….as a flashlight. Do we also complain that out cameras dont play music and make phone calls?
MM on November 6th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Er, Matt…
They are talking about Adobe’s Flask player software.
Dave on October 12th, 2009 at 10:54 am
HIGHER RESOLUTION. I’ve used both iPhone and N97 and the Nokia with it’s higher resolution is much brighter and sharper. A much better phone is required. Better call quality, better loud speaker. Make it slightly thicker to accomodate half decent speakers. Yes make it loud and clear like Nokia. Not a crap phone attached to an iPod.
Dave on October 12th, 2009 at 11:11 am
Following on!! Where the iPhone really triumphs over the N97 is the web browser. Safari is a joy to work with but the iPhone needs video support. FLASH PLAYER is a must.
Sam on October 14th, 2009 at 12:24 am
How about a taser option? flash would be good; so would a removable memory card. Camera flash; Indicator light; battery life all are good. I know this is probably beyond the current means, and the iphone is very individual, but it would be cool to someday have a mini projector built in for presentations and such. Just set your iphone down and watch a tv show on your wall with wife, etc.
Jared Wick on October 14th, 2009 at 5:06 pm
oi
first, loose at&t. They are dead weight keeping most people from getting an iPone in the first place and they do not have full coverage in smaller cities. Their 3G network has only grown to the pathetic size it is now because of demand for the iPhone.
second, the only difference between the iphone and ipod touch is the “phone” aspect, so please apple, give me a new reason to care about how your phone operates. I love the visual voicemail but every other mobile company now offers similar features in their phones. What is next?
video chat / video conference / skype
(which would require a front-facing camera)
better sound quality
better speakers (speakerphone is useless unless in a quiet room)
third, there are a number of basic essentials that every mobile has had over the past five years that the iPhone has allowed us to forget about…until now. As well as features that seem second nature to other smart phones but cause epic dilemmas for apple developers…and for what? To make sure they will have content for their next dramatic advert?
a notification light
flash plug-in
higher resolution screen
multipul app screens
a more useful home screen (weather, other widgets, etc)
there seems to be a long list of improvements the iPhone needs to make. I am sure one or two of them will be conquered with the next generation but realistically I don’t think apple will appease all of our “demands” so quickly. After all they have to sell phones for the next 15 years or so until they no longer exist…
and then they can start selling us our cranial implants. hooyaa. :)
Dave on October 15th, 2009 at 2:26 am
Battery Battery Battery !!!!
iphanatic on October 16th, 2009 at 9:51 am
flash*********
a/b/g/n wireless module c’mn move on already……
2 way touch screen….. know what i mean…?screen on both sides but only displays on the side that we are using…..
free live map application like SYGIC…..
dashboard like mac
Kenny on October 20th, 2009 at 10:30 am
OLED screen would be nice, it would save some batterypower since it doesn’t use a backlight. And it’s very thin, so perhaps more stuff can be fitted behind it, like a slightly bigger battery.
twosense on October 27th, 2009 at 1:16 am
what about induction charging? I heard palm pre has this capability. My electric razor is charged inductively. I set it on the plastic charger and whala, via electromagnetic induction, it charges fully in 5-15 minutes. No connector, no fittings, clasp nothing. Plastic on plastic, it gets charged fast. It’s very cool.
Dan on October 30th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Man…I’ve been waiting for the next iPhone, with my 2g until I dropped it today and the screen shattered. Quite heart wrenching. Perhaps a shatter proof screen would be nice…lol. The screen isn’t as scratch proof and shatter proof as those YouTube videos make it
Brian on November 9th, 2009 at 11:38 am
A better camera with a flash, more megapixels. Include HD Video, The current camera is outdated.
Higher res screen. Others have caught up and surpassed.
Multi colored indicator light, colors representing text, vm, email.
Faster processor.
Expandable memory
User replaceable battery.
AND, GET AWAY FROM AT&T!!!!!!!!!! Please!
dmoney on November 12th, 2009 at 7:32 pm
better web browsing, faster camera, better look, typing faster on the iphone, no multi-touch, better response to touching the screen, better texting set up and over all better phone the iphone.
Kevin on November 13th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
It’s a “phone”!! If you want to take better pictures buy a camera.
All I need is Flash!
jason on November 19th, 2009 at 3:34 pm
WHY would anyone care if the apple logo is illuminated???