Is RAM the Thing That Will Dictate iPhone Multitasking?

On the last iPhone Live!, Dieter, Phil and I discussed iPhone 4.0 and whether, as rumors suggest, we’d finally see multitasking brought to the platform. That’s when the discussion turned to RAM. The iPhone 2G and iPhone 3G have an anemic 128MB of RAM. The iPhone 3GS has 256MB. That’s the same amount as the original Palm Pre and Motorola Droid, which do multitask but do bog down and sometimes error out while doing it. Just-released phones like the Palm Pre Plus and Google Android Nexus One up the ante to a beefy 512MB of RAM.

What does this have to do with the iPhone and multitasking? We’ve seen time and time again that Apple would rather not offer a feature at all then offer one with a poor user experience. It’s why we waited for copy and paste until iPhone 3.0, and why the iPhone 3GS does 30fps video recording and even though the iPhone 3G could do half that, maybe, Apple won’t enable it.

When Push Notification was announced, head of iPhone software Scott Forstall made fun of Windows Mobile-style task management on a mobile device, and sighted battery drain as the primary reason Apple wasn’t doing it. Let’s assume Apple gets better battery life in the 4th generation iPhone as well, unless they get more RAM, it’s still tough to see them enabling multitasking unless and until they beef up the RAM so that at least a few apps can run in the background with as much smoothness and reliability as Apple demands.

Will iPhone 2G get another free update to iPhone 4.0 when it’s released? Will it get the full update, unlike 3.0 when it didn’t get MMS or A2DP. Will iPhone 3G, when it didn’t get video recording? Will iPhone 3GS?

If RAM is the thing that will dictate iPhone multitasking, 512MB (or more?) might just be the magic number, and potentially the magic cut off (or scale back) as well.

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Is RAM the Thing That Will Dictate iPhone Multitasking?

Nexus One sells only 20,000 phones its first week

Filed under: Retail, Odds and ends, iPhone

Another "iPhone killer" has failed to deliver on its hype. According to mobile analytics firm Flurry, Google's Nexus One phone sold a mere 20,000 units in its first week in the market.

The Flurry report goes on to compare the Nexus One launch with other smartphones, including the Motorola Droid, which sold 250,000 units in its first week. In its comparison to the iPhone 3GS launch, however, the report is a bit disingenuous. The iPhone 3GS was an update to an existing & wildly popular product, not a completely new product launch. In that light, the 1.6 million iPhones sold in the first week of the 3GS launch, while indeed 80 times the number of Nexus One sales, aren't a true apples-to-Apple comparison.

Instead, a better comparison may be to sales of the original iPhone. According to Apple's Q3 2007 results, released on 25 July 2007, the iPhone sold 270,000 units during the quarter. The original iPhone was released nearly a month earlier, on June 29. That works out to around 10,000 original iPhones sold per day following its 2007 release, which dovetails nicely with an early 2008 analysis of iPhone sales from Ars Technica. Far from the flabbergasting sales lead of the 3GS, the original iPhone sold about 3.5 times as many units in its 2007 launch as Nexus One did in 2010; also, the original iPhone sold for a hefty $599, even with an AT&T contract, while the Nexus One is $179 with a new T-Mobile contract ($529 without).

If anything, these numbers highlight the popularity of the Droid compared to the Nexus One. Droid sold nearly as many phones in its first week as the original iPhone sold in its first month, which is nothing to sneer at. By comparison to the Droid, however, the Nexus One launched with a whimper, not a bang.

Flurry notes, correctly, that the Nexus One launch has suffered low numbers in part because of Google's "soft launch" of the phone. Both Droid and the iPhone had aggressive marketing campaigns leading up to their respective launches, while the Nexus One has had to rely largely on industry hype and Google's own advertising. Nexus One also launched directly after the holiday season, which seems like a boneheaded move; a launch even three weeks earlier could have gained them much more robust sales. Google is also sort of "going its own" compared to Apple and AT&T's partnership with the iPhone and Verizon's vigorous hyping of Droid.

All these factors aside, both the low sales numbers and criticism of both the handset itself and Google's abysmal customer support boil down to one thing: while it may be a good phone on its own merits (or not), the Nexus One is no iPhone killer.

[Via The Business Insider]

Nexus One sells only 20,000 phones its first week originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Nexus One sells only 20,000 phones its first week originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nexus One Problems - Can Google Pose Significant Threat In The Long Run?

Apple gets one-upped on homescreen contact patent

Filed under: Software, Apple, Developer, iPhone

Quite a few people have been asking me what app it was that I used in that post the other day about the rumored new iPhone. Unfortunately, it wasn't an app (although the jailbreak apps LockInfo and Intelliscreen offer similar features) -- it was one concept among many that have been suggested for a potential new homescreen on the iPhone's next OS revision. There have been a lot of great ideas bouncing around for the kinds of information Apple could put on a completely revamped iPhone homescreen: an easier-to-read clock, a list of received push notifications, easy access to contacts and/or email, and more.

It seems as though Apple is experimenting with some of those things as well: the company recently filed a patent for including a contact, with picture, on the iPhone's home screen as an icon. Rather than navigate through the system to find your aunt that you call all the time, you could save auntie's picture on the home screen, and then hit one icon to call her up.

Unfortunately for Apple, as Engadget points out, the Android OS actually lets you do this already, so the chances of their getting this patent approved are low. But it does tell us that Apple is at least thinking about how they could make the homescreen a little more useful. They may still be tied to the icon scheme, but at least they're looking at adding a little more functionality.

Apple gets one-upped on homescreen contact patent originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Apple gets one-upped on homescreen contact patent originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple Becoming More Serious About Corporate Acquisitions?

BusinessWeek reports on Apple's recent acquisitions of Lala Media and Quattro Wireless, noting that the moves may be part of a broader strategy by the company to utilize its vast cash hoard to increase its historically low frequency of such acquisiti...

Bloomberg: New iPhone with touch-sensitive casing coming

Filed under: Hardware, Rumors, Software, Odds and ends, iPhone

Bloomberg is the latest outlet to come up with some rumors about the possible new iPhone model coming this year (the iPhone, not the tablet, although doesn't it seem like the flood of tablet rumors has encouraged all kinds of Apple speculation lately?). They say that the new handset will include a 5 megapixel camera to match Google's Nexus One, and will also include a touch-sensitive casing, working similarly to the Magic Mouse. That one just seems strange -- what would you gesture on the back of the iPhone while you're using it?

They also say, quoting Goldman Sachs analyst Robert Chen, that there'll be plenty of new innovations in the software as well. We certainly hope so. According to this round of rumors, the new phone would go into production in April, and be released to stores in June or July, a timeline that actually matches up with what we've heard before.

Rumors are a dime a dozen, and even if a new phone does come out in July, that's too long to wait if you need to buy a phone right now. But we'll keep our ears open -- there certainly is a lot of increased speculation about Apple hardware lately, and there ought to be something in the pipeline driving it all.

Bloomberg: New iPhone with touch-sensitive casing coming originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Bloomberg: New iPhone with touch-sensitive casing coming originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Geodelic Location-based Discovery for iPhone

Geodelic [Free - iTunes link] is a location-based discovery app for the iPhone that knows where you are and uses that information to recommend points-of-interest such as restaurants, stores, and shows.

I had the pleasure of watching their show-stealing presentation at CES 2010’s Mobile Apps Showdown last week, and based on the amount of energy and creativity they put into that alone, I’m really eager to try this out and see how it develops.

If you are as well, grab the free download and let us know how it works for you!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Geodelic Location-based Discovery for iPhone

Rumor: Tablet delays iPhone updates

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Hardware, Rumors, iPhone

With Apple's rumored media event only two weeks away, people are hopeful that it'll bring an announcement of the tablet. Could it be that the next iPhone OS update is also waiting for that event?

iPodNN quotes a source who suggests that the next version of the iPhone OS is laden with references to its forthcoming sibling, and therefore must wait until the tablet is made public. Last month, The Boy Genius Report pointed out alleged evidence of iPhone firmware 3.1.3 and 4.0 in private testing, which is likely, but these builds have not yet been made available to developers or the public.

Just this week, Boy Genius suggested that the tablet is a sort of "iPhone on steroids," that is to say, a larger and more tricked-out version of the little guy. At the same time, John Gruber relayed one of those "friend-of-a-friend" tales suggesting that the iPhone is actually a by-product of the device they originally intended to build. Only now has the technology caught up to allow for the tablet's existence.

Oh what a tangled web we weave...

Rumor: Tablet delays iPhone updates originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Rumor: Tablet delays iPhone updates originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Review: Yoritsuki for iPhone

This app doesn't offer much more than ambient noises and pretty views -- though both are very well done. Still, Yoritsuki could stand to add a few small additions to its settings.

Dear Aunt TUAW: What’s the low down on battery packs?

Filed under: iPod Family, TUAW Tips, iPhone

Dear Aunt TUAW,

Boxcar is killing my battery life (at least, that's what I'm guessing -- I love Boxcar, but since I began getting 20+ notifications a day, I'm seeing the battery drain quite a bit faster). What kind of battery pack can you recommend to help my poor iPhone stay online and available? I need to stay connected.

Thanks in advance from your favorite nephew,

Mikey

Read on for Auntie's reply

Continue reading Dear Aunt TUAW: What's the low down on battery packs?

Dear Aunt TUAW: What's the low down on battery packs? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dear Aunt TUAW: What's the low down on battery packs? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple tries for ‘adding a contact to a home screen’ patent, but Android beat them to the punch

Despite the incredible realism of the drawing above to the left, we're probably not looking at iPhone OS 4.0 right here. Instead we've got Apple doing what Apple does: applying for a patent for some pretty vague functionality that may or may not end up in a device someday. No harm in that game, but it looks like Google's already done the "put a contact on the home screen with their picture" thing before Apple got a chance, as demonstrated on the right. There are other little tidbits to Apple's approach, however. Apple is naturally showing that little numeric badge we know so well, to show what sort of new activity the contact has (hopefully that pulls calls, SMS and email into one pretty little package, like we've seen on other modern operating systems), but Apple also mentions that "an icon associated with an entity can be temporarily displayed on the mobile device based on the proximity of the mobile device to the entity." So, Stalking 2.0. We like it, and hope to see it in some future iPhone software, but between the crazy broad claims in the rest of the patent and Android's prior art, we'd say Apple's chances of getting this 2008 submission approved are pretty slim.

Apple tries for 'adding a contact to a home screen' patent, but Android beat them to the punch originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Facebook 3.1.2 Brings More Bug Fixes

Batten down your contacts and defend your profile pics, because Facebook 3.1.2 is here and it purports to fix those bugs that have been ailing ya:

• Fixes some crashes
• Fix a bug causing incorrect matches in address book sync
• Fix a bug causing incorrect matches for contacts with the same name

Here’s hoping that what has been, prior to 3.1, one of the best social networking apps on any platform, is back on track and ready rock.

Download it, try it out, let us know if it works!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Facebook 3.1.2 Brings More Bug Fixes

Apple launches free MobileMe Gallery iPhone app

A new application from Apple allows MobileMe subscribers to view their own galleries as well as those of their contacts.

Facebook 3.1 Contact Syncing — Got Bikini Pics?

As if Facebook 3.1 for iPhone and iPod touch didn’t have enough problems, dmackdaddy let us know this potentially embarrassing problem he’s experiencing with the new contact picture syncing functionality:

Beware of your profile pics, or your boss might get one of you doing something you don’t want them to see! What happens is, [Facebook 3.1] takes [all] the emails and phone numbers on your iPhone and sends them to Facebook. It then cross-checks and syncs them back to your iPhone. That’s a major security flaw right there! It should only sync the ones you’re friends with.

So for an example I have my coworker’s email and cell but I am not her Facebook friend. All of a sudden when I got a call from my coworker I saw a picture of her in a bikini because that was her [Facebook] profile pic!

I’m using Outlook 2010 and it has a new feature called Suggested Contacts where it keeps all your emails you been using. Those sync to my iPhone via exchange 2007. So now I have Facebook profile pics in Outlook 2010 for a bunch of folks that I don’t even really know just because I have emailed them.

Given the more casual (read: sometimes drunken and debauched) profile pictures that appear on Facebook, and the potential from cross-contamination between trusted friends and respected colleagues, if this is widespread the potential for embarrassment is high. Even if this is an isolated or semi-isolated incident, as more and more social network contact pools are integrated together, its worth remembering that anything — and everything — you put on the internet will eventually be seen by those people you least want to see it.

Remember, if though Facebook thinks privacy is dead, it may still be important to you and yours. So think twice and practice safe pics!

[Image above is a mockup based on the story -- no real coworkers were embarrassed in the making of this post]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Facebook 3.1 Contact Syncing — Got Bikini Pics?

Apple Lawyers Strike Back at Valleywag Over Tablet Bounty

Yesterday, Valleywag received considerable attention for its questionably legal offer of up to $100,000 for legitimate information on Apple's much-anticipated tablet device. It didn't take long for Apple's lawyers to respond to the offer, with Micha...

Apple Releases MobileMe Gallery App for iPhone, iPod touch

Apple has just released their 5th iPhone and iPod touch app, MobileMe Gallery [Free - iTunes link] The functionality is as simple and elegant as the name suggests, pulling your MobileMe Gallery photos and movies from the cloud and showing them on your device. Sure, you could do this via Safari before, but there’s an app for everything now, right?

UPDATE: Apple has posted the following on their MobileMe News page:

The MobileMe Gallery app provides a great new way to view published photos and movies directly on your iPhone or iPod touch. You can flick left or right to move through photos, pinch to zoom, or rotate your iPhone or iPod touch for a landscape view. The MobileMe Gallery app automatically stores photos you’ve viewed so you can quickly access them again, even without a network connection. And you can easily view friends’ public galleries by selecting them from your iPhone contacts or entering their member name. See how it works in this video.

If you try it out, let us know how it works for you!

[Thanks to @markjboyce for the tip!]

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Apple Releases MobileMe Gallery App for iPhone, iPod touch

Apple Considering Adding Contacts to iPhone Home Screen?

Being Manan notes (via Redmond Pie) a newly-published patent application from Apple describing the ability to add users' contacts directly to the iPhone's home screen, offering one-touch access to various functions related to that contact.<p ...

Unauthorized iPhone news readers raise eyebrows

Here's an interesting little new media legal dilemma for you: apparently there are several paid apps in the iPhone App Store that bill themselves as "readers" for publications like the New York Times, CNET, and the BBC, but aren't actually licensed or official in anyway -- they're just pulling RSS feeds. That means people paying for an app like The New York Times Mobile Reader aren't actually getting an app from the Times -- and, perhaps more importantly, the Times isn't getting anything from anyone. Seems like Apple should probably just shut these apps down, but that's the interesting part: all these apps are pretty much just custom-built feed readers, and you can generally access all of the same content using Safari. Now, there's obviously a trademark issue involved here, especially if these apps are confusing people into thinking they're official, but we're curious to see how these pubs and Apple handle the situation in the next few weeks, since it's relatively uncharted territory.

P.S.- Let's not even get into the fact that Apple's rated the NYT Mobile Reader app "12+" for "Infrequent / Mild Mature / Suggestive Themes." Oh, the App Store.

Unauthorized iPhone news readers raise eyebrows originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Review: impaXor for iPhone

impaXor is an Asteroids-esque game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The goal is to protect the Earth, located at the bottom of the screen, from being assaulted by incoming asteroids, space junk and bellicose flying saucers.

iPhone 4G Could Come With Touch Sensitive Back Panel Casing