AppleInsider

Note: This article has been removed from the main page due to concerns about the validity of the claims made by the HowardForum member at: http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...7&page=1&pp=15

While the more cautious phone buyers have stayed away from the iPhone for numerous practical reasons, one report claims that Apple's handset is due to solve most of these problems with upgrades in coming months -- many of which will arrive with or before the company's Mac OS X upgrade.

A Palo Alto mobile user interface designer that regularly associates with Apple employees has reportedly been told that many of the features lacking from the iPhone are already scheduled as part of future updates, most of which should arrive on or before the October release of the revamped Mac OS.

Some of these updates may arrive within weeks. A true instant messaging client described as a mobile version of iChat, will arrive "very, very soon" and certainly before Leopard, the designer says. Customized ringtones were also set to appear within the same timeframe.

But fall 2007 is when the iPhone's features are set to expand in earnest, he adds. The iPhone will not only gain a disk mode for transferring computer files but should also receive a full-fledged file browser that lets users store and open documents. Its omission from the iPhone software made available in June was supposedly made primarily because the company wants a fully developed browser very similar to that found in Mac OS X Leopard, including the option of Cover Flow browsing.

Leopard itself will also allegedly include hooks for the iPhone, opening an enhanced file window in Finder for dragging files to and from the device. Like the iPod shuffle, users will be able to set aside a certain amount of the iPhone's flash storage for iTunes content and the rest for general data.

Microsoft's expected fall launch of Office 2008 for Mac will also provide justification for the critical addition of full Exchange sync support, according to one of the UI developer's Apple-employed friends. In what may be an expansion of Apple chief executive Steve Jobs's allusion to official announcements on the matter, the friend claims that iPhones will be able to synchronize with Exchange Server 'without the insecure IMAP setting required today.'

Less specifically-timed upgrades are also slated for the future, if the report proves accurate. iWork should be available in mobile form and will at the very least allow the display of Keynote slideshows beyond today's basic Excel and Word viewing in the iPhone's e-mail client. A simple auto-discovering file sharing system, "Spotlight-like" search, and widescreen typing should all upgrade the phone's core features at varying points throughout the current phone's life cycle.

The Apple employees are also purportedly aware of intents to bring in support for third-party applications, including Adobe's Flash. In at least the case of the animation plugin, however, performance optimizations and security measures are needed before it can be used on the slower and potentially more vulnerable mobile device.

Note: This article has been removed from the main page due to concerns about the validity of the claims made by the HowardForum member sourced for the report: http://www.howardforums.com/showthre...7&page=1&pp=15

crees!

Welcomed news. By the time my current contract ends it looks like the iPhone will have an even better expanded feature-set. I've never updated software on any phones I've owned in the past, but with iPhone having an OS, updates themselves come as being more natural/accepting.

k2director

How about sticking to the basics, Apple, and helping AT&T work out its phone activation process. It could definitely use a whole lot of bug-testing.

40 hours and counting!

OS2Guy

Dude, if you're still waiting after 40 hours then get off the stick and call the AT&T activation line. They can activate it manually. The number is 877-800-3701

If you're just here whining then don't bother.

Ireland

All this is pretty much a given anyway.

Dazabrit

Great news. I was starting to tear my hair out having read all the crap posted on Digg about how the iPhone is doomed to failure. What most of these people do not realize as always is..... Apple are in this market for the long haul. They didn't just release their final solution all in one go, that's madness!!!!

Loop Rumors (who I have a little bit of faith in) have been talking about Media centric (device) tie ins in Leopard for a 'long' time and it makes perfect sense.

Apple have released the basic features that we need and they made sure they were pretty much top notch and now they have a solid base to work on top of, a product they can build on.

bavlondon2

Will video recording be part of the updates?

Hattig

Well we all knew this would happen - Apple said as much when they spread the revenue from sales of the iPhone over two years so that they could add new features.

Apple have done the right thing in my opinion. Get the applications that work out there now for the initial release, but make sure that they're great, not just a check-item on a feature list. Add the other features once they're great applications, not 'okay' applications, and certainly not buggy applications.

I bet that some of these applications were desired for the initial release though, and removing them might have been a decision made when they dragged the Leopard developers in to sort out the project.

zorinlynx

TETHERING TETHERING TETHERING!

Apple, if you are listening, know that I WILL very likely buy an iPhone if you add tethering support and iChat. I am not kidding here; most of my disdain for the iPhone has been due do EDGE (which only felt slow because of bandwidth caps on the towers, supposedly), lack of tethering, and lack of SMS ability.

Come on, Apple, you can do it. Fill in the missing features and you will have even more iPhone users!

Matthew Yohe

"Widescreen typing" is currently present. I can only use it in Safari, but it works.

noriyori

I just hope one of these will be customizing the home screen.
I mean, how many people use the stocks widget?!

and file browsing would be awesome.

solsun

I do, I check my stocks all day long with the Dashboard widget, now I can do it on my iPhone.

MacGregor

All of these might be foreseeable by most anyway, but man would they pave the way for this, the next great platform!!!

The key is the power of OSX - pure and simple. This also means that the iPhone, far more than the iPod is the pc publics real introduction into the Mac UI (spotlight, coverflow finder, drag/drop from Macs only?) and THAT may be bigger than anything else.

This means rich features and power management, but it also means longer development time for additional features. I would also hope that it would mean enough security in the future to allow more specific third party apps.

Man, if Apple can get two s/w upgrades in by Christmas, they are set to do alot more than 1 million in one year.

aegisdesign

Oh FFS!

Now even AppleInsider is at it. IMAP is not 'insecure' although how a protocol can be 'insecure' is beyond me.

Even if you meant 'not secure' it's no less secure than Exchange. Don't believe the Microsoft FUD spreaders.

solsun

Isn't it supposed to be 10 million in one year?

Cleverboy

If file-browsing/downloading/disk-mode came in as discribed, I'd be beside myself. I've been totally impressed so far with the amount of NEW interface forethought that has been put into this product. It's just been utterly fantastic. More on top of this would quickly become unparalleled. Right now, having to E-mail a PDF to myself just to view it is quite frankly ridiculous, but we're in honeymoon phase right now.

It'll be a few months before I suddenly become irate and inconsolable about empty promises and a dimming future for the device. Right now, I just finished watching a tv show, listening to a podcast, talking to a friend over the cell, and browsing the web during lunch at the mall... all effortlessly with one hand. To me, that was more than worth the price of admission for now.

If only for legacy support, I think we need MMS in there.

In my opinion, I couldn't care less about video recording. I only hope Apple puts all their focus on these other things and doesn't waste one IOTA of time on video-recording. In my opinion, its an inappropriate distraction for a device like this. Photos are more than fine, although I hope the next one has a better camera... considering this one doesn't seem able to capture motion well, I suspect video capture would be a struggle towards us all being more miserable without enough storage to even record it well.

Voice dialing, dictation, web file-uploads, and web file downloads are going to be important too. Tethering is neither here nor there for me. Given what this one device can easily do, I'd prefer all effort be focused on its ability to network with other computers as well, via Windows file-sharing, or even Bon Jour. Effortless and amply capable are the two biggest things I want more of.

~ CB

bavlondon2

"A device like this"? Cleverboy?

By this do you refer to the iphone as a multimdia device? If so then surley you know that whilsyt the iphone makes no effort to incude this other devices have specialised capabilities. I dont know why video recording isnt big in the US but its quite big over in Europe and if is to do well here then it must have it.

We wont be as easily satisfied with just being able to watch a tv show and listening to an mp3. We have been doing that for years.

No whilst you may be easilty satisfied by simple things like this in Europe we want things like 30fps video recording, proper blutooth profiles (the omission of this is really a joke, i mean what if you want to share a picture with someone you just took)

And whilst you may not find any use for video recording answer me this. Do you not think it would have made more of a sell for the iphone to have youtube if it also had the ability to shoot and upload video? The omission of video capture is almost a joke when you see the trouble they have gone to with youtube to get their content changed to h264.

"Yeah you can watch videos on youtube, but you cant take any yourself to upload and watch"

The iphone has got a long way to go before it impreses us over here.

TenoBell

AT&T does not allow tethering. Its written in the contract agreement.

Bluetooth has been a notorious entry point for breaking into phones. It possible Apple could add this function once they feel the it can be secured properly.

bavlondon2

Why wouldnt it be secure or safe?

solsun

I'd be willing to bet you'd change you tune once you've held one in your hand. Despite it's shortcomings or future upgrades, no doubt, the features will come, but even right now, "as is" iPhone is nothing short of amazing.

k2director

DUDE, you think I haven't done that yet? Try 8 times! I've logged *hours* with the chimps over in AT&T's "iPhone Activation Center". Some say the phone is already activated. Some say there's a problem with my particular account. Some say the system is just slow. They all say something different, but the common denominator is that they're all useless in solving the problem.

Calling customer service is just the BEGINNING of one's problems when trying to activate the phone. Check out the forums on MacRumors or Apple.com.....this is a disaster for thousands of people.

bavlondon2

I have no doubts that the user interface is nothing short of amazing to use but that is of no use to me if I amnot able to do the things I am able to do now with any currentr phone.

Surley you can understand that logic.

kcmac

Exaggeration is not helpful to anyone. While we feel empathy for you, this is certainly not a disaster by any means (that would be like your house burning down, losing your family and watching your iPhone melt) and the MacRumors board is not filled with thousands of people with disastrous activation problems.

As an example there has been one particular poster, pjamac, that perservered for about as long as you. That poster found out that their account had basically been sitting stagnant for about half a day. They called the number given to you above, said they had to wait for about 30 minutes, and the person from AT&T on that number is able to activate you directly. Now the poster is up and running.

Keep at it. If this is the worst thing that will ever happen to you in your life, consider yourself extremely fortunate. Without exaggerating, thousands of us are wishing we had an iPhone that you have in your possession.

Here is a good link from a well known Apple dev that used the phone number with success. Good luck.
http://www.rogueamoeba.com/utm/posts...-01-13-00.html

kcmac

Getting back on topic and the reason I came to this thread...

Upgrades will be the huge difference maker for the iPhone as it compares to its competitors. One can seriously purchase the iPhone and have confidence that it won't be old generation within the 2 year contract. Apple has set this up in its financial reporting for iPhone profits and the news (rumors) that iChat and other features are shortly on tap is enormous.

The media hate will just seem like, well, hate after awhile...

nevenmrgan

Dear zorinlynx,

We want you to know that we are listening and we care. As soon as we can take a breather from selling close to a million units in the first week of iPhone availability we'll direct all our resources toward making sure you're satisfied enough to grace us with your purchase. Your "disdain", as you say, has touched us all here at Apple, Inc deeply. We sincerely apologize.

- Fake Apple

Alexis