The iPhone is still hands-down one of the best 5 tech purchases I’ve made over the past decade — actually, it’s probably the best. I use it every day to do a variety of things that I still find incredible that I’m able to do in something so portable. That said, over the past few months, I’ve been getting frustrated at the speed of the device. Some of the applications built for it, notably the games, are simply resource hogs. And that’s made applications like FreeMemory (which, yes, frees your phone’s memory), a necessity. But a much greater pain reliever is on the way if Daring Fireball’s John Gruber is correct (and he usually is on such things). A new, much faster iPhone.
The new iPhone will feature a processor that will be more than 1.5 times faster than the current iPhone, according Gruber citing information from informed sources. While at first glance, that may not seem like a huge jump up, Gruber compares the speed bump to what it was like to upgrade an old 486 PC to a Pentium variety. In today’s world of computer upgrades, you’re usually upgrading from a processor that is already fast enough for most tasks, to one that is slightly faster — it’s the RAM, video cards and Bus speeds that seem to matter just as much. But back in the day those jumps processor specs alone were huge. And as someone who vividly remembers upgrading a 486 SX 33 to a Pentium, this potential iPhone jump greatly excites me.
And that’s not all the new iPhone will feature. You can also expect a doubling of the iPhone’s capacity to 16 GB and 32 GB. And the RAM should be doubled as well to 256 MB, though Gruber is less sure about that. While the device will largely look the same, it will gain a better camera that features auto-focus and yes, video capturing. These video capabilities will be highlighted on the new device, as it will include software to manipulate video as well, which goes along with earlier rumors. All of this has been rumored in the past.
It always seemed a little lame to me that the iPhone 3G featured the same 400 MHz processor that the original iPhone did. In fact, the second generation iPod touch actually received a processor spec bump, while the iPhone did not. This new iPhone should feature a 600 MHz processor.
Unfortunately, with this new horsepower, Gruber doesn’t expect the battery life of the device to get any better — let’s just hope it doesn’t get worse. And we should still see this new version in two colors: White and black — while the same price points are maintained: $199 for the 16 GB, $299 for 32 GB. This is no word on the rumored to be improved 3G speeds, using a new HSDPA chip.
This new iPhone is expected to be unveiled at the WWDC event on June 8 (we’ll be there, covering it live). But the device would launch in July — same routine as last year. There’s still no word on what this new iPhone will be called. It’s the 3rd iteration, but “iPhone 3″ wouldn’t make a lot of sense given that the 2nd iteration was the “iPhone 3G.” “iPhone Video” or some such is certainly possible, but I’m still betting on Apple keeping it simple and going with the plain, old “iPhone.”
I can’t wait to put my hands on one of those!
siegler you’re an idiot and you know it… 1.5 times faster.. wow.. how about 50% faster..
Second the iphone sucks if you’ve ever had a chance to look at an android phone. Since you normally have so much google bias.. you should give it a try and you’ll ditch you iphone..regardless what processor it has…
Oh did I mention that the g1 has already a 50% faster cpu then your crappy iphone… so come on where’s the innovation.. if you really want fast you should go for the palm pre.. that one has the fastest cpu.
However I suggest to do at least a little bit of research before you write your crappy little articles.. please… I know bloggers don’t have to do that but since you guys put the guys that do research out of business… please do us a favor and put at least 2min. of googling into it…
You’re just tripping over yourself with my “biases” aren’t you today? I love Google. No wait, I hate Google.
For the record, I had a G1. It was mostly junk compared to the iPhone. Android has a lot of potential but the G1 is not a good phone.
Looking forward to hearing about who I “favor” tomorrow before I’m “biased” against the same company 2 hours later.
i always wanted vid rec for sake of it.
generally new gen processors consume less power.
Agree with MG. The G1 blows hard. Apple punched Google in the face with the iPhone and I’m beginning to think they TKO’d the Goog in the mobile space. Android has a LOONG way to go before they can catch up.
Umm anyone on here ever hear of updates… The G1 has an over the air update (cupcake) that brings video recording and also optimizes the os to increase the battery life, just to name a few of the update features. Just thought i would add a little fact into this G1 bashing =p
“the iphone sucks” LOL
The iPhone is the best mobile device available at the moment. And that is the opinion of countless technology pros (who can spell, and use correct grammar).
It’s all about the combined package. Software makes the iPhone what it is, and nothing I’ve seen from Google, Palm or Microsoft comes close to matching the iPhone user experience.
As much as I hate to admit it, Lewis is right — the iPhone is definitely the best mobile device on the market today, and a large part of that is due to the quality and quantity of apps available.
Unfortunately, being made by Apple, one must put up with all the random nonsense Apple does for no reason and/or pure greed. No MMS (for the 2G version) or proper Bluetooth support? No one needs those! No video support without releasing new hardware, despite the fact that the hardware is clearly capable? Sure!
I just wish there were a company capable of designing good products without the attitude problems inherent to Apple.
(This is coming from an iPhone 2G owner, btw)
It’s funny how Apple fanbois, of which the auther is the biggest one, only ever bring up shortcomings of an Apple device when there is something better on the horizon. This is the first time I’ve heard on Techcrunch that the iPhone is slow.
I said the exact same thing about the iPhone being slow here:
http://www.tech...ckground-tasks/
So, wrong.
Ok, so you said it a week ago, but the point of my comment is still valid. We knew a week ago that a new iPhone will be announced in June.
Siegler… you had a g1 for 5min… and probably didn’t even get it. You don’t even do your research.. don’t even reply to that.. that you have no f&cking clue what you are writing about.. pullint it all out of your ass… as long as google is great and apple too.. life is good.
why T$ hires idiots like you when there are 1000s of journalists out there who at least invest 5in to do some research on google is beyond me. Instead they hire people like you that don’t know jack, do no research, are totally biased.. seriously I don’t get it. Do you?
u should try to get laid… might eliminate some of your pent up frustrations… even if its with a guy…
actually, i sorta feel like “fanbois” (of which I’m admittedly one) are amongst the nitpick-iest folks when regarding apple products…
we just tend to think they still cream the rest
that said, i hope the pre totally comes out kicking ass and taking names; it’s the best potential iphone competitor to be publicly shown from any manufacturers to date.
How about getting your hands on a female and keep your mine out of steve jobs pants.
Thanks for that awesome contribution.
I’m not looking to grow my collection of abandoned iphones any larger, Apple. This thing better have an OLED screen, or I’m passing this time.
I want.
I love using my Apple products and my 1st Gen iPhone is like my personal version of Batman’s utility belt.
I haven’t been compelled to purchase any significant Apple products for some time, but I am waiting on baited breathe for the new iPhone.
I was extremely disappointed when the 3g did not have video. Due to all the time thats passed, I will be really let down if it happens again.
I am glad I skipped the 3g, but just give me a spec bump, better photos and video all wrapped up with a new 3.0 OS and I will spend the money the week it comes out. Fingers crossed.
By far the most useful device I never leave home without.
486 to 586 ehh…. sounds promising. now what are they going to do about the batt life?
OLED and the OS might help with that. No promises though.
He said 486 “SX”. That was a crippled processor. Even going up to a proper 486 DX from there would have provided roughly the same feeling of relief.
DX was available even before SX was, and it was well known at the time that SX was crap. Wonder if his tech choices today are still governed by the same urges.
Agreed, SX was crap compared to DX, but was obviously cheaper. I make better choices now.
It didn’t have an floating point unit (which performed the heavy mathematics – gaming benefited from this, office application not much).
That’s why was cheaper and crappy…
486 DX had one…
How was the 486 SX crippled? Because it didn’t have an FPU? It was pretty common at the time not to have a “math coprocessor”.
With the advent of games and heavy 3D graphics 486 SX became “crippled”…
I didn’t realize there were Activity Monitor-type apps in the App Store. Perhaps I should add MemoryInfo to my shopping list. . .
It has saved me a restart quite a few times. Definitely recommend it.
I thought it just worked. Why the restarts then?
my nokia s60 needs weekly power cycling. luckily, i use it only rarely, when abroad.
Faster processor means less battery life no matter how you slice it. Based on the current specs I am seeing, I won’t be running out to upgrade right away like I did with the 3G.
WRONG. If the new iPhone CPU is 50% faster but with the same power consumption, it can complete tasks and go into standby mode 50% faster, improving battery life.
There’s a lot more to power consumption than cycles per second. By your logic, today’s laptops should be getting 5 minutes of battery life.
No improvement in battery life? Really? Gutted.
I have my 1st gen iphone and it’s the best phone I’ve ever owned. I am, however, more excited for the palm pre than I am the new iphone. I’m just not big on how restrictive apple is on everything, and the pre looks to have more things I care about. Replacable battery, multiple calendar and contact syncing, the amazon mp3 store, physical keyboard, flash and background apps.
i’m watching the pre excitedly, too. too bad it’s sprint, though — won’t be touching that with a 10m pole.
It’s funny how everyone hates every carrier that’s out there. I’ve used just about all of them over the years. My biggest complaint isn’t the service, it’s how carriers screw up the hardware. Now I refuse to purchase phones through carriers and will only buy unlocked devices.
cool thanks for bringing this app to my attention i had no idea it even existed – just downloaded Popper! and even tho it runs good I bet it would be even faster with this…
this sulu is korean! not a original japanese sulu.
“Gruber compares the speed bump to what it was like to upgrade an old 486 PC to a Pentium variety”
Thats a horrible analogy. The Pentium was the first superscaler CPU and contained an much much faster FPU (some 486s didn’t even have an FPU!) and a 64bit data bus (up from 32). In many applications going from a 486 to a Pentium resulted in several fold speed increases. They were completely different architectures. There has been no indication that Apple is adopting a new architecture… they are just getting a speed boost from a more modern ARM processor and chipset. A better anology would be like upgrading from a Pentium 75 to a Pentium 133, or from a Pentium 90 to a Pentium 166. Going from Socket 5 (Pentium 75/90/120) to Socket 7 (Pentium 133+) brought an improved chipset and obviously faster CPUs, but the architecture was still very similar. That is a much better analogue. If you want a modern example then it would be like going from an Athlon X2 to a Phenom II X4.
Gruber talked about the perceived end-user effects of the upgraded system with respect to the speed of compiler progress bars. He doesn’t make the statement in the context of a technical analogy.
I also gotta say: even fewer people can relate to your examples than can relate to Gruber’s.
And so his analogue, while perhaps less accurate from an engineering perspective, yields a far more meaningful — and therefore effective — illustration.
Additionally, how is it that you purport to know anything at all about the hardware configuration that Apple will ship in the next iPhone? The people that do know aren’t talking about it. Which is to say that you’re basing an entire rant of very specific and hardline technical nitpicking on a collection of comparison details which you have no way of even knowing.
Calm down.
Hi MG,
I must admit it’s nice to hear the other side of the story (as I wrote a much more “meh!” post on the subject)
http://tr.im/lPab (What’s so great about the iPhone?)
I’m glad this announcement is enough to excite you, but I think that the direction Android’s heading is MUCH more exciting and innovative, sorry Apple!
Android’s doing a great job at solving the “problems” that they’ve decided to take on. This includes, specifically, hardware variety and multi-vendor appeal.
With that, they also take on a number of additional burdens which result in other compromises.
I wrote quite a bit about them here:
http://uncarved...t-with-one.html
The iPhone processor is underclocked right now to save battery life. Apple could theoretically therefore improve performance via the new 3.0 upgrade?
http://en.wikip...ng#Apple_iPhone
AT&T Mobility has been tweaking their network over the past month to support more sessions on their various internet gateway. All of this points to the new iPhone supporting some kind of improved data speeds by opening multiple connections/sessions.
What is the point of having more processing power and ram if you can’t even multitask on the iphone? And don’t give me the 3.0 will allow you, everything seems to be speculation right now. I love my gPhone, I can customize the hell out of it and install any program I want without my mommy deciding for me.
The iPhone needs to step it up in allowing people to do whatever they want with their phone. My old HP Ipaq with Win 2003 is more of smartphone then an iPhone.
I am so excited. I love my iphone! Too bad I still have some more time on my contract.
http://www.trad...spx?symbol=aapl
I will be in line at the Stanford Apple store for the new iPhone on launch day just like last year. The only thing I am looking for this year is video. I want MMS but can get that with 3.0 on the 3G. I am pretty sure Apple will have some other feature that is only available on the new iPhone as well.
I am stoked for MMS. I was shocked when I got the 3G and it didn’t have MMS. Silly of me to assume, but even my old big blocky cellphones had MMS!
hi, iPhone 3.0 can use mms.
Could someone please explain the phenomenon of waiting in line for hours for something that will be redily available the next day. Don’t you people work?
Its not guaranteed that you will get your hands on one the day after. Its only one workday out of the year, stop acting like people are taking off weeks at a time to score an iPhone. Its the thrill of being the first to have one and waiting with other highly dedicated people as well.
the thoughts of this new iphone get my penis hard
The iphone sucks. What makes you think the next generation is going to be any better?
Worldwide sales and web traffic numbers seem to tell a different story… but why look at stuff like facts?
http://www.tech...-million-round/
http://www.tech...n-battery-life/
http://www.tech...-blows-it-away/
http://www.tech...ng-very-strong/
http://www.tech...ffic-in-the-us/
And let’s contrast that with a bit of news from the non-iPhone sector:
http://www.tech...-iphone-owners/
LOL i thought this was a spammer at first before i looked at the URLs.
MemoryInfo or Memory Info is the new version of FreeMemory. It will free up a lot more memory. It’s by the same developer – name was changed due to appstore approval snags. I agree this is an essential app.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz……shoooooooooo…..zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…….shoooooooooo
From my experience, developing open GL software on Android pales in comparison to what is possible on the iPhone.
I love iPhone. They are the best in music phone.
While i love the iPhone the battery life sucks. Try traveling and trying to find an outlet to charge you phone. The only way I can save battery life is to turn off all of the features. What’s the point.
I have an old original, which needs to be replaced.I’m waiting till June/July. But if battery life is not there, move on to another device till they fix it
Don’t forget Apple’s recent patent relating to video chats: http://watching...is-your-camera/
Anyone ever seen a Nokia NSeries device. They have had video calling for years. Patent, I don’t think so. The reason for the iPhones huge popularity is mainly the app store. The hardware features of the current iPhone are pretty weak when compared to phones from Europe and Asia where I dare say Apple gets most of it’s “innovative” ideas. Google Elan Microelectronics. Just another company that Apple will surly throw money at to aquire technology they will claim they developed first.
Totally Radomn comment: John Cho used to be my English teacher back in the day.
iPhone is by far my favorite gadget. At times worrying how much I actually use it.
Not too impressed by 1.5 times the speed. It could use a better camera and keyboard.
LOL. How come all these iPhone haters always complain to everybody but apple about apple.
I encounter this mostly on the web, but also in real life. People randomly walk up to me after spotting my iPhone and start crying about iTunes or the ‘forced upon them’ safari, or the appStore’s rejections (they don’t even have a mac so they can’t be developers for the store).
If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. Stop bothering other people with your issues.
It’s soo sad.
I don’t understand why everyone complains about the processor. At least you have an iPhone. I still have to use an online one like http://interactiveiphone.com
If the new iPhone comes out at 32GB at the same price as the 16 it will blow away the competitions new phones. Like the Pre.
“one of the best 5 tech purchases I’ve made over the past decade”
We feel pity for you as there are so much better devices and innovative solutions on the market.
Can’t wait for this!
Can anyone explain why the iphone 3g has a “620 MHz ARM 1176, underclocked to 412 MHz “??
http://www.diff..._3G_vs_Palm_Pre