Monday we asked you "What's the iPhone 3G Chip and When Will it Ship?". Tuesday it was "What is the iPhone 3G Going to Look Like?". Wednesday brought "What Surprises Will There Be in the iPhone 2.0 Software & Services?". Thursday questioned "What 3rd Party iPhone SDK Apps Will Be Available Launch Day?" Friday we ended with "What Will the iPhone 3G's Hardware Features Be?"

Now we're done with the HUGE roundups. The epic's over. And it's time to be honest here: roughly 0.01 seconds after Steve Jobs pulled the first iPhone from his pocket back at Macworld 2007, and it was us at TiPb who put aside our childlike sense of wonder long enough think: "Nice! What's the next gen going to be like?" And we've been thinking about it ever since!

Complementary, contradictory, obvious, confusing, all but confirmed or from left field via outer space, the rumors have flooded the internet and we've done our best to keep track of them all.

Just two days from today Steve Jobs takes Moscone Center stage for the sold-out WWDC keynote, and according to everyone and their newsfeed, announces the iPhone 3G. In eager anticipation, every day this week, TiPb asked you to tell us what you think the next generation iPhone will be, from 3G to GPS, release dates to price points, colors to casings, 2.0 software to .Mac .Me services.

Now it's TiPb's turn.

So come on, let's get in on!

WWDC -2 and Counting: A Look into the iPhone 3G Crystal Ball

Name

iPhone 3G. iPhone Black. Second Generation iPhone. iPhone (2008). What'll it be called?

iPhone.

Of course. Apple is all about the simplicity. The Zen. Tech support and refurbished sales will call it the iPhone mid-2008 (or something to that effect), but for Steve and the rest of us, it'll be called the iPhone.

3G Chip

Despite Intel's eagerness and its existing presence in the Mac, Atom just doesn't seem ready for primetime yet. Likewise, the curveball that was the PA Semi PowerPC purchase would take another generation or two of development at least before it has anything real-world to add to an iPhone class device. Infineon already provides the current generation iPhone's brain, and Foxxcon/Hon Hai already put it all together, and I personally don't see that changing any time soon.

Maybe iPhone 5G will be an Intel Quad-Atom with PA Semi co-cores, but iPhone 3G will be an Infineon S-Gold-3. HSPA, and not the weak-sauce certain-regions-only HSPA. This'll be the kind that works in all the markets the iPhone has been announced for.

Shipping Date

If there's anyone left on the planet who doesn't think Steve Jobs will announce the iPhone 3G during the WWDC Keynote, it could only be Jobs himself, acting on insider info. Everyone else considers it a done deal. But shipping date is trickier. While all those boxes popping up everywhere would make an immediate release possible, Apple has time and again proven themselves masters at manipulating the press cycles, and anything that didn't allow for a period of intense media buildup -- and the millions in free advertising that comes with it -- seems unlikely.

June 9 would have the Boom! factor, June 29 the anniversary appeal, but somewhere in between makes the most sense: the iPhone 3G will ship on June 19.

Casing and Form Factor

Bigger. Smaller. Thicker. Thinner. Fatter. Skinnier. If the rumors could run 10 dimensions they certainly would. 3G, GPS, and the ever-increasing demands for ever-increasing talk times make a bigger iPhone for a bigger battery likely. But Apple prides itself (to the point of Air-style feature folly at times) on its ability to ship razor thin product. Could it split the difference -- and the product line -- and release both an iPhone Nano and a beefier iPhone Pro?

Aluminum, glass, and glossy black define the current iPhone, but with antenna demands favoring plastic, and consumer phones being susceptible to more fashion trends than high end computers, could Apple do an iPod Classic-like black and white? Toss in a (Red) for U2? How about matte or glossy?

The risk-taker wants to go for the gusto and say iPhone + iPhone Nano in blond, brunette, and redhead. But Apple tends to do things in a certain sequence: 1) Revolution, 2) Tweak, 3) Evolution, 4) Tweak, 5) Revolution. We can go from long-neck iMac to White all-in-screen in one leap, but it takes a proc-bump, PowerPC to Intel transplant, and more-proc bumps in between before we get to Aluminum iMac. Likewise, the iPhone has already had its 16GB tweak, so by my timeline, we get evolution next: iPhone Black, with high manufacturing quality, super fit-and-finish black plastic, matt finish back, and glossy front with a slightly less trimmed and less rounded shape.

As to size, it will be both thicker and thinner. No, not Nano and Pro, but like the MacBook Air where clever design makes it seem thinner than it is. 22% thinner at the edges, maybe, but a lot more curve to the back, with a little reshuffling of width and height, will give the room for more juice under the hood.

2.0 Software

Is it even fair to call this a prediction, what with 6 beta firmware releases and more deep code inspections than you could shake an iPhone at? Sure, Apple could have been holding something back. Apple could surprise us. But will they?

You bet!

I don't see much with SMS or MMS. The iPhone will be part of an ongoing trend away from phone-specific protocols towards universal, and more computer-like, and more standards-based systems behind them. They'll eventually remove the device-lock and let us send anything to anyone anywhere, regardless of provider or platform. Sure, legacy users, people who grew up with interim technologies, will be upset, but Apple has historically not given this flying forethought.

Bye bye floppy, bye bye CD, bye bye MMS.

Hello Mobile iChat.

And this is where push gets shoved in as well. Messaging, calendaring, and tasks with instant accessibility. ActiveSync will cover this for corporate users, and the new (I can't believe I'm going to call it this!) MobileMe will cover consumers. It won't be competitive with Google or even the full range of Microsoft Live services yet, but Apple knows how big the cloud will be in the future, and MobileMe will be the foundation they want to build their own services on.

We'll also get over the air data sync for push users of any flavor, with Bonjour-style (zero-config for Windows users) WiFi sync for media. (Hey, I can dream for now but it'll be in 2.x sometime!)

YouTube, as an app, may remain, but will get subsumed by MobileSafari's plugin. Likewise Weather and Stock widgets, maybe not in 2.0 but in 2.x, will merge with WebClips and become more like the dashboard, where users can choose their own, still Stocks and Weather for some, Movie Listings and Wikipedia for others.

In addition to YouTube, MobileSafari will also get the bump that desktop Safari 3.1 enjoyed, CSS animations, HTML 5.0, and the SquirelFish (if its ready) turbo-boost to Javascript, which will be even more meaningful on a mobile, AJAX-centric device.

Notes will get some much needed love, integrating into the MobileMe offering the way they do on the OS X desktop Mail.app. Synced at last. And To Do's at last. Thanks to Jobs almighty, full PIM functionality at last!

MobileMail in general will get its mass move, mass delete fix on. Unified inbox, though I wants it, probably won't show up (Apple has a history of leaving out one or two things just to drive us crazy, after all), unless competition with RIM really drives them. And the ActiveSync/MobileMe updates will, of course, be included, as they will in Calendar, and the To Do applet.

No Flash. No Java. No Silverlight. But maybe, just maybe, iTunes iController integration for not only interfacing with Front Row or the Apple TV, but browsing and "get info"-ing streaming content as well. iPhone Wi-Fi remote FTW.

Settings for all the above, and especially all the business features already shown, will be present and accounted for, including the ability to toggle off (or more likely switch from automatic to off) battery-hungry functions like 3G.

Big news: Cut and Paste! But shown only briefly, as a minor toss-away during one of the demos. "Here I'll just cut and paste some text into this awesome new Mobile iChat..."

And, of course, we'll get the App Store...

Third Party Apps

This here is the tricky one. There are always less brilliant engineers around than you need, and Apple probably doesn't have enough to really do everything they want, when they want it. Depending on key software houses to get apps ready on time can be even worse (how long was it for Microsoft and Adobe to go Universal Binary again?).

Apple will certainly want some real killer apps -- the kind that sell platforms -- ready for its Keynote (probably whether they're actually ready to download come launch day or not). Some will probably be big names, and come as a total surprise, as will many smaller apps actually being ready but not given the spotlight...

Confession: this is the real wild-card category. Developing for a new platform ain't easy, even if you're a seasoned Mac veteran. Bugs pop up and deadlines slip. But we promised you predictions, so here they are:

John Carmack debuts a 3D game that, while still in beta, gives Sony's PSP division a collective heart attack. EA and Sega likewise show off Nintendo DS-inspired fare, but its an indie game house out of nowhere, finally clear of NDA, nails the platform with some touch accelerometer revolution that really blows the interwebs away.

Apple shows off Mobile iLife and hints at a future Mobile iWork for iPhone OS X, while a dozen or so other "office apps" flood YouTube with their demos. And just to prove how trendy they are, Apple has some big uber-Social Network apps on display while at the same time delaying Twitteriffic long enough to get a full page diatribe out on DaringFireball.

iFund will get their darlings a mention, of course however no 3rd party Flash, Java, or Silverlight either (but yes, Dieter, it will finally be a smartphone).

And from the outlandish, madcap, could never happen dept.: Gates-like on the big screen, and direct from Waterloo, RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis appears to announce BlackBerry Connect for the iPhone...

Hardware Features

Apple dropped the collective smartphone industry's jaw with the original iPhone specs demoed at Macworld 2007, and they'll be gunning to top that.

While I'm hoping for an HD screen at 480p (heck, 720p, but I'm a realist!), unless developers have all been doing resolution independence from the get go, or Apple has nailed them some scary-good upscaling, we may just be stuck with the same display. Still, I'm closing my eyes, lowering my head, and running full steam at the VGA 640x480 wall.

The camera will get a minor bump, somewhere between 3 and 4 megapixels, but Apple will have improved the software from terrible to only mildly disappointing (sorry Aperture team!). There will be a tiny front facing camera buried amid the other sensors, but only enabled for European and Asian markets that aren't stuck in as shameful a technological backwater. When AT&T announces video conferencing on par with 2005 Japanese initiatives, Apple will turn on Mobile iChat AV for everyone (but especially for Kevin Rose).

Flush headphone jack FTW!

Very little in the way of Bluetooth enhancements, and no good reason for it, again to give the interwebs something to complain bitterly about (and give Apple something to add as a future update that should have been there all along). But we will get Wireless N, because the rest of Apple's line has moved that way, and Apple's engineers will want the network clean, dangit!

Storage-wise, we'll get the bump to 32GB, allowing for a 64GB iPod Touch (which has twice the space for NAND chips as the radio-clogged iPhone).

Finally, GPS will be built in as a feature Maps, Camera, and other Apps can request, but that isn't always on. However, there's always a chance El Jobso will again want to torture the user-base by releasing it as a dock-dongle instead... (thanks a lot, MacBreak Weekly!)

One More Thing

Will it be the iPhone Nano? iFlip? Nope. The current iPhone will coast along as the low end for a bit. iTablet? Nope. That's be shown off at a special event later in the year and released at MacWorld. New laptops or OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard? Maybe, but only in passing. Apple won't want anything to steal the iPhone's thunder. Will it be the near constant and colossal number of Engadget page-refreshes taking down multiple AOL datacenters and as Steve Jobs gets ready to break the Internet again? Well, that's a given, but it's not the One More Thing.

Chad dropped it like a bomb during the Phone Different podcast, and Dieter's fleshed it out further since then. The one more thing will be this:

With so many countries and carriers announcing the iPhone, how will iTunes handle the activation? Simple: you buy your iPhone 3G for whatever the Apple Store charges and when you go to activate it, iTunes detects your country and offers you a rebate (down to free in the UK, rumor has it!) if you sign a long term contract. If you don't, you just get activated at full price, contract-free.

Sound crazy? Maybe. And sure, some carriers have talked about retaining exclusivity or sharing co-exclusivity. But they've also talked about non-exclusivity as well. Let's face it, millions of iPhone's are already unlocked and in the wild, and Apple has a history of DRM, Apple TV Take 1, and other "Awe, shucks, now we'll listen to our users" Jobs-a-culpas. Here's their chance for a doozy:

iPhone. Unlocked.

Boom.

Our Turn!

So there we go, now it’s our turn -- all of our turn -- to wait.

But while you're waiting, don’t forget to head over to our iPhone Blog’s super Wait-a-Thon spectacular where you could win an iPhone 3G of your very own, whatever it looks like, on the very day it’s released!

And join us back here on Monday for TiPB's Live Color Commentary Blog!

Go back and read Part 1: What's the iPhone's 3G Chip and When Will it Ship?
Go back and read Part 2: What’s the iPhone 3G Going to Look Like?
Go back and read Part 3: What Surprises Will Be in iPhone 2.0 Software & Services?
Go back and read Part 4: What 3rd Party iPhone SDK Apps Will Be Available Launch Day?
What Will the iPhone 3G's Hardware Features Be?

Monday we asked you "What's the iPhone 3G Chip and When Will it Ship?". Tuesday it was "What is the iPhone 3G Going to Look Like?". Wednesday brought "What Surprises Will There Be in the iPhone 2.0 Software & Services?". Thursday questioned "What 3rd Party iPhone SDK Apps Will Be Available Launch Day?" Today we want to know what else the iPhone 3G will feature, both now and into the future?

GPS is the biggie (right after 3G!). What about a front-facing camera? VGA screen? Stereo Bluetooth? Wireless N? Full-sized querty keyboard? ... (Ha!) What do YOU think?

To give you some help, here's a HUGE roundup of all the iPhone SDK 3rd party apps rumors. Epic-style. Because let's face it, roughly 0.01 seconds after Steve Jobs pulled the first iPhone from his pocket back at Macworld 2007, and someone, somewhere, put aside their childlike sense of wonder long enough think: "Nice! What's the next gen going to be like?"

Complementary, contradictory, obvious, confusing, all but confirmed or from left field via outer space, the rumors have flooded the internet ever since. It's become almost impossible to keep track of them all.

Three days from today Steve Jobs takes Moscone Center stage for the sold-out WWDC keynote, and according to everyone and their newsfeed, announces the iPhone 3G. In eager anticipation, every day this week, TiPb wil be asking you to tell us what you think the next generation iPhone will be, from 3G to GPS, release dates to price points, colors to casings, 2.0 software to .Mac .Me services, and this weekend we'll wrap it all up with a look into the WWDC/iPhone 3G Crystal Ball, and a roundup of the very best of YOUR predictions.

So come on, let's get in on!

WWDC -3 and Counting: Hardware Features

As we mentioned before for purely cosmetic reasons, the first generation iPhone boasts a 3.5″ 320×480 display at 163dpi, a rear-facing 2.0 megapixel camera, 3.5mm recessed headphone minijack, 30-pin dock connector, speakers at the top and base, microphone at the base, accelerometer, light sensor, proximity sensor, top-mounted SIM slot, on/off button, mute switch, volume button, and home button. It's also packing internals like quad-band GSM (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz), Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), EDGE data, and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR.

But that's all soooo 2007 now, isn't it? What will Apple bring to the table for 2008? How will they not only surpass their own previous efforts, but tackle the plethora of feature-spouting iPhone-like devices their competition has been releasing as of late?

Let’s start at the beginning and work our way forward:

March 4, 2008: RBC Capital analyst Mike Abramsky predicted an iPhone 3G with higher def (HD?) video, voice capture, streaming HD video, and real-time GPS.

March 25, 2008: Digg founder Kevin Rose used his popular Diggnation internet video show to claim that the iPhone 3G would sport 2 cameras: one on back like the current version, and another on the front expressly for iChat video conferencing. Rose, however, had been spectacularly wrong with his predictions about the first generation iPhone...

March 27, 2008: Kevin Rose was back, back again, this time on Twitter where he claimed a source close to Apple told him the iPhone 3G would be released in June with GPS. Although not at the time, this one looked more and more credible as WWDC approached...

March 31, 2008: While claiming they would'a had'a need'a time machine to have emulated the iPhone's design, RIM's latest release, the Blackberry 9000 Bold, did raise the bar on some specs. According to Crackberry.com, who scored the first pre-release hands-on, it included UMTS: 2100 / 1900 / 850MHz, GSM: 1900 / 1800 / 900 / 850 MHz, GPRS, EDGE and HDSPA networks, GPS, and Bluetooth Stereo Audio.

For a company that makes its dough on email, offering BT stereo before media giant Apple was clearly a backatcha-for-ActiveSync challenge. And while Steve Jobs is notorious for not offering technology that doesn't (yet?) meet his perfectionistic standards, will the iPhone be able to avoid A2DP any longer?

April 2, 2008: With an eventual -- and unbelievable -- $100,000,000 in advertising behind it, Sprint aimed (both in terms of design and market!) Samsung's Instinct squarely at the iPhone, with some challenging specs like EVDO Rev A speed, GPS, Stereo Bluetooth, and mobile TV.

April 8, 2008: In one of the most obvious iPhone derived competitive offerings to date, Nokia promised the world the "Tube". While feature specs were not discussed, Nokia already shipped smartphones like the N95 with whopping big 5.0 megapixel Carl Zeiss-lensed cameras, the ability to shoot near DVD-quality video, and vblogger-pleasing compatibility with mobile streaming video capture services.

Can Apple, which owns everything from Final Cut and Aperture to iMovie and iPhoto, afford to fall behind in the mobile production space? And if not, how far will they be willing to bump their own 2.0mp, non-video capturing camera?

April 10, 2008: iPhoneBuzz reported that they found strings in the iPhone 2.0 beta that revealed support for A2DP stereo Bluetooth, Bluetooth remote control, GPS (though not whether it was internal or via Bluetooth to dongle), and something to do with printers. If true, it was a gold mine of discoveries.

April 25, 2008: Engadget claimed a source with hands-on info that the iPhone 3G would include GPS, and a flush headset jack.

May 7, 2008: The iPhone turned out to be the most popular camera phone on Flickr, despite its relatively poor 2.0 megapixel implementation. Imagine what it could do with a lens bump and a better software set?

May 9, 2008: In what might have been one of the most feature-packed competitors to square off against the iPhone, HTC announced their Touch Diamond, which according to WMExperts came spec'd out with an ultra-sharp 2.8", 640x480 VGA screen, tri-band (aka non-US friendly) HSPA 3G data, A-GPS, a 3.2 megapixel camera, and FM radio.

The iPod Nano already had a 202dpi screen, but would Apple go that high-end with the iPhone 3G?

May 14, 2008: Swisscome announced they would be selling the iPhone in Switzerland, and rumor had it it would feature video iChat, mobile TV, and GPS.

May 22, 2008: Gizmodo revealed that Apple had job postings up for both a camera engineer:

[W]ith responsibilities for evaluation, qualification, implementation and tuning of camera subsystems in iPhone products.

And an RF engineer:

Familiar with RF fundamentals and RF test equipments (spectrum analyzer, network analyzer, signal generator), hands on for wireless system validation automation. Familiar with PC and network architecture. [...] Design and qualification expertise with IEEE 802.11 [...] Knowledge about Bluetooth, 3G, UWB, WiMAX, GPS, Mobile TV and similar wireless technologies and/or experience with wireless module integration into PC system or consumer products is a strong plus. The system integration issues include: radio coexistence, platform noise, module and system power consumption.

Et tu, WiMAX?

At the same time, Apple Insider broke word on a "private" firmware update for "select developers" that included Geo-Tagging software, which often depends on GPS to add location data to photographs.

May 28, 2008: While still in beta, Google demonstrated their much-anticipated Android OS on an HTC Dream. iPhone inspired, Google advances the multi-touch UI and sensor interactions in many ways Apple will have to not only match, but surpass. And as everyone knows (and Microsoft has often used to their advantage), its almost impossible to market a shipping product against a vaporous competitor.

May 30, 2008: Apple Insider revealed a patent filing that could allow an iPhone with GPS and an accelerometer to predict when signal loss would occur and alert both the user, and anyone the user was communicating with at the time, with distance and speed specific cues.

In a separate filing, Apple detailed how improved Bluetooth functionality could allow the iPhone to help find other BT enabled devices, or even everyday BT tagged items such as your keys. (Not that it's unwanted, but how about some BT stereo and peripheral -- keyboard -- support?)

June 1, 2008: Battle of the biggie blogs as Om Malik of GigaOm said GPS was a go:

[T]here is one thing that’s for sure: The new iPhone has Global Positioning System (GPS) built into it, thanks to legal requirements put in place by the FCC.

And Brian Lam of Gizmodo responded with a thanks but...:

No thanks. Don’t need it. I’m fine with the current location technology. It works for walking and that’s all I need it for.

June 3, 2008: Samsung's SGH-i900 is detailed by WMExperts. Modeled after the iPhone but sporting an FM Radio. While very last century, it is a feature last centurions still request...

Your Turn!

So there you go, now it's your turn. Tell us what features you think the iPhone 3G will pack. FM Radio? HD Video? Better Bluetooth support? Espresso brewer?!

And after you're done telling us, don't forget to head over to our iPhone Blog's super Wait-a-Thon spectacular where you could win an iPhone 3G of your very own, whatever it looks like, on the very day it's released!

Go back and read Part 1: What's the iPhone's 3G Chip and When Will it Ship?
Go back and read Part 2: What’s the iPhone 3G Going to Look Like?
Go back and read Part 3: What Surprises Will Be in iPhone 2.0 Software & Services?
Go back and read Part 4: What 3rd Party iPhone SDK Apps Will Be Available Launch Day?

Monday we asked you "What's the iPhone 3G Chip and When Will it Ship?". Tuesday it was "What is the iPhone 3G Going to Look Like?". Wednesday brought "What Surprises Will There Be in the iPhone 2.0 Software & Services?" Today we want to know what 3rd party iPhone SDK Apps might be ready to download come launch day?

EA, Salesforce, AOL, Sega, and a noble few were right there at the beginning, and since then dozens if not hundreds of others have been rumored if not confirmed, including titans like Microsoft, Sun, and Adobe. But who will be ready come game (and business!) day? Bioshock? Documents2Go? SlingBox? Flash?! What do YOU think?

To give you some help, here's a HUGE roundup of all the iPhone SDK 3rd party apps rumors. Epic-style. Because let's face it, roughly 0.01 seconds after Steve Jobs pulled the first iPhone from his pocket back at Macworld 2007, and someone, somewhere, put aside their childlike sense of wonder long enough think: "Nice! What's the next gen going to be like?"

Complementary, contradictory, obvious, confusing, all but confirmed or from left field via outer space, the rumors have flooded the internet ever since. It's become almost impossible to keep track of them all.

Four days from today Steve Jobs takes Moscone Center stage for the sold-out WWDC keynote, and according to everyone and their newsfeed, announces the iPhone 3G. In eager anticipation, every day this week, TiPb wil be asking you to tell us what you think the next generation iPhone will be, from 3G to GPS, release dates to price points, colors to casings, 2.0 software to .Mac .Me services, and this weekend we'll wrap it all up with a look into the WWDC/iPhone 3G Crystal Ball, and a roundup of the very best of YOUR predictions.

So come on, let's get in on!

WWDC -4 and Counting: 3rd Party SDK Apps

The Mac is an open computing platform. The iPod is a closed environment. The iPhone? At launch it was as closed as they come. Sure, a few courageous souls were willing to "jailbreak" (hack) their devices and load on unofficial and unsupported 3rd party apps, but that was it. At WWDC 2007, however, Steve Jobs introduced 3rd party apps -- Web Apps, showcasing Web 2.0-style AJAX (Asynchronous Javascript and XML), and enraging developers. The iPhone was built on OS X, the same core that ran the Mac. It was a computer, and a new class of mobile device. Where were the real, native apps?

Let’s start there, at the beginning and work our way forward:

October 17, 2007: After months of all-to-typical Apple silence, Steve Jobs penned one of his famous open letters, announcing that an SDK would be in developers hands by February. But how open would it be, what kind of apps would it allow, and most importantly, would it make the iPhone a truly first-class smartphone at long last?

March 6, 2008: Apple held their iPhone SDK Roadmap Event.

Scott Forstall, VP of the iPhone Platform, introduced the SDK, including the Cocoa Touch development environment, which would enhance not only the business focus, but put Apple boldly into the mobile gaming space. Demos included Apple's own Touch Fighter, as well as Salesforce, Epocrates, AOL Instant Messenger, Spore, and Super Monkey Ball.

With a Mac-honed development environment behind it, Xcode, debugging tools, and a learning curve that saw demos produced in a startling 2 weeks, it suggested that even if Apple failed to deliver everything it needed to in 2.0, there was a chance 3rd parties could step in to fill the gap.

The only new icon to make its way onto the home screen, Steve Jobs showed off the App Store, hoping to do for application marketing and sales what the iTunes Store had done for media: put it in front of millions of impulse buyers.

And to prove how serious they were, they pledged to provide free apps for free, and arranged to have $100,000,000 in VC funding thrown at developers to help drive interest in the platform.

March 8, 2008: John Carmack, long outspoken on Apple, gaming, and the iPhone, posted on Slashdot about pulling the id Software Quake/Doom trigger on the iPhone SDK, and his interest in the App Store.

There'd be unofficial Quake ports for jailbroken iPhones, but getting the real deal...?

Craig Hockenberry of Iconfactory and Twitterific fame, had developed for the jailbroken iPhone, and was quickly transitioning to the SDK. His early feelings? How would demos, betas, and paid upgrades work? And please charge developers more to keep them ultra-serious, and consumers less to set off a high-volume perfect app storm.

March 10, 2008: Sun Microsystems was one of the megacorps to try and horn its flagship -- in this case Java -- onto the iPhone via the SDK. Java VP, Eric Klein announced:

We’re going to make sure that the JVM offers the Java applications as much access to the native functionality of the iPhone as possible

A rival development environment famed for "craplets" littering feature phones, almost no one was excited by the idea.

DataViz, makers of the formidable mobile office suite, Documents To Go, weren't committing to anything yet:

We are currently investigating the opportunity to develop Documents To Go, RoadSync, Passwords Plus and any of our other software titles for the iPhone and would appreciate your feedback.

At the same time, Ars Technica brought word that the SDK contained a beta of LLVM (Lower Level Virtual Machine) technology as part of the Xcode 3.1 beta. While on the extreme geek side of news, this held implications well into the future of the platform.

March 12, 2008: Makers of Vox, TypePad, and Movable Type, Six Apart revealed that they would be working on an SDK-compliant native TypePad app.

iambic software, veteran Palm and Windows Mobile developers of Agendus, SplashID, and other best-sellers, also weighed in:

[T]o clear up any doubt — yes, we started working on making titles available on the iPhone.

Rogue Amoeba, developers of Audio Hijack and Airfoil, however, expressed concerns about the SDK's security requirement for "code signing" and the ambiguity around which apps, exactly, would be "disallowed". Third party developers, they argued had before and would again fix things no first party could ever cover all on their own.

Of course, this didn't stop Apple from announcing a web-server shattering 100,000,000 iPhone SDK Event views via streaming video, and an even more impressive 100,000 SDK downloads. They also listed more developers on board: Intuit (makers of Quicken), Namco (makers of Pac Man and other games), NetSuite (makers of SuitePhone), Rocket Mobile, Six Apart, PopCap (makers of Bejewled and other games), and THQ (maker of countless games).

Lastly, iFund venture capitalists joked that while they had bet on the amount of business plans they'd receive during the first 30-days following the SDK release, the number they'd bet on was blown past within 36 hours (!).

March 15, 2008: After a brief period of digestion, would-be iPhone developers realized the SDK license did not allow for multi-tasking, rendering apps like Instant Messenger functionally impossible. The outcry was long and loud.

March 19, 2008: Following the fiasco of false Flash rumors, Adobe's denials, concerns of security and privacy, and Steve Jobs' no-Flash-fits, Adobe's CEO, Shantanu Narayen said we may still see Flash after all:

We believe Flash is synonymous with the Internet experience, and we are committed to bringing Flash to the iPhone. We have evaluated (the software developer tools) and we think we can develop an iPhone Flash player ourselves.

March 20, 2008: As has become increasingly common in the tech industry, (see: Gates, re: Windows 7) a company had to clarify their CEO's "visionary" statements. Adobe wasted no time re-spinning Flash for the iPhone from a "yes" to a "huh? who? us?":

[T]o bring the full capabilities of Flash to the iPhone web-browsing experience we do need to work with Apple beyond and above what is available through the SDK and the current license around it. We think Flash availability on the iPhone benefits Apple and Adobe’s millions of joint customers, so we want to work with Apple to bring these capabilities to the device.

News also surfaced that Apple's iPhone SDK would not allow any access to the iPod application. No music. No media. This joined multi-tasking and the dock as things left unsurfaced in SDK API's. (Though Apple maintained a separate Dock licensing program).

March 22, 2008: The debate over multi-tasking continued with Hockenberry, iChat developer Jens Alfke, and DaringFireball's John Gruber all giving opinions on radio power requirements, notification overloads and collisions, and RAM limitations.

March 25, 2008: ActiveSync licensor and tech monopoly Microsoft jumped on the SDK bandwagon, Mac BU (developers of Office 2008 for Mac)-style when Tom Gibbons, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Specialized Devices and Applications Group told Fortune Magazine:

It’s really important for us to understand what we can bring to the iPhone. To the extent that Mac Office customers have functionality that they need in that environment, we’re actually in the process of trying to understand that now.

And the Adobe Flash soap-opera continued with interweb blaster Robert Scoble claiming that it was Adobe's demands that Apple use their PDF renderer that was causing Apple to retaliate by withholding Flash support, with the media (and consumers) being manipulated by both sides against each other.

March 26, 2008: Fortune Magazine let it be known that Microsoft was also interested in bringing their TellMe voice recognition software to the iPhone SDK. General Manager Mike McCue said:

We’re absolutely going to get a version out there as soon as we can, get TellMe out there on the iPhone.

March 27, 2008: iPhone SDK Beta 2 is released by Apple, changing the release numbers from 1.2.0 to an official 2.0.

April 9, 2008: After besetting developers with mock-worthy "pink screens of death" when Beta 2 timed out, Apple rev'd the iPhone SDK to Beta 3.

April 16, 2008: Super Monkey Ball developer Ethan Einhorn gave to GameCyte a look at the app Sega famously showed off at the SDK Event. Confidence in the iPhone as a gaming platform? Soaring.

April 21, 2008: Netnewswire developer Brent Simmons brought attention to the stability problems that Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight caused by way of his error/crash logs:

I’ve said it before — one of my favorite things about the iPhone is no Flash. I will now add and no SilverlightPlugin.

April 24, 2008: iPhone 2.0 SDK Beta 4 hit, with Xcode IDE, iPhone simulator with Open GL ES support, Interface Builder, Instruments, frameworks and samples, compilers, and Shark analysis tool.

April 25, 2008: Digital Arts reported that Sun Microsystems was still trying to bring their Java Virtual Machine (JVM) to the iPhone SDK. And to hedge their bets, they were also working with alcheMo developer Innaworks, whose software could potentially let Java programs compile as native iPhone apps (!).

April 26, 2008: Simon Brocklehurst complained that the iPhone SDK seemed rushed, that Apple chose their own Objective C/Cocoa environment for iPhone development, and that programmers wouldn't want to go near it. 3 strikes and he was out...

April 30, 2008: Apple Insider revealed a very interesting RIM job posting, seemingly targeting the iPhone SDK:

As part of a newly-created team, you’ll influence the development and design of BlackBerry software. This is a very confidential brand new team and a senior position within RIM so I can’t provide too many details. I guess you can figure out what it might be about though.

Blackberry Connect for the iPhone? They've done it for other platforms.

May 1, 2008: Apple Insider took a look at the hardware and SDK software support behind the iPhone, and determined it could give hardcore mobile gaming a run for its money.

May 2, 2008: Giving Adobe a run for its drama money, Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz sat down with Engadget Mobile to talk about his iPhone, his desire to get Java on it, and the problems faced:

Well I think the only difficulty will be what Apple presents through its EULA. But I think that I think EULA is a bit of an oxymoron to me. They’re end users, they have the freedom to choose what they’d like to do, so I think we are going to leave it up to users to decide how they want to use the technology

May 7, 2008: iPhone 2.0 Beta 5 landed with not much new, it seemed, but dev tools and tweaks.

May 9, 2008: Polarbit showed off an early version of their Raging Thunder car racing game running on the iPhone. General interweb reaction? Wow!

May 17, 2008: iPhone Dev Camp 2 was announced for August 1-3. The second event, this time focusing on SDK-enabled native apps, is once again set to be hosted by... Adobe!

May 28, 2008: Less than three months in, and Apple released iPhone 2.0 Beta 6, which now required both OS X 10.5.3, and a check for Application IDs. This could well be the final beta going in to WWDC. Any last minute surprises?

May 29, 2008: The $100,000,000 VC iFund announced its first "winners": Pelago's Wrll, a core-location come social networking app for finding places and getting recommendations from friends, and iControl's Home Security, a home automation and security app.

They are also reportedly considering 10 additional startups out of 1700 applicants.

May 30, 2008: Pocket Gamer bumped into CEO Sean Malatesta who revealed that IG Fun wanted to port XBox 360 favorite BioShock to the iPhone.

June 2, 2008: Palm emulation software maker StyleTap announced they would be providing a way for the thousands of existing Palm OS apps to run via the iPhone SDK.

Your Turn!

So there you go, now it's your turn. Tell us what 3rd party iPhone SDK apps YOU think will be ready to go at launch. Microsoft Office? Unreal Tournament? AOL IM? Java emulation?!

And after you're done telling us, don't forget to head over to our iPhone Blog's super Wait-a-Thon spectacular where you could win an iPhone 3G of your very own, whatever it looks like, on the very day it's released!

Go back and read Part 1: What's the iPhone's 3G Chip and When Will it Ship?
Go back and read Part 2: What’s the iPhone 3G Going to Look Like?
Go back and read Part 3: What Surprises Will Be in iPhone 2.0 Software & Services?
Continue reading Part 5: What Will the iPhone 3G’s Hardware Features Be?

Monday we asked you "What's the iPhone 3G Chip and When Will it Ship?". Tuesday it was "What is the iPhone 3G Going to Look Like?". Today we want to know what YOU think the iPhone 2.0 software and services are going to give us, and what surprises might they have in store?

Exchange ActiveSync and the AppStore are gimmes. Enterprise features are checked. Beta leaks are everywhere. And .Mac to Mobile Me -- Don't get us started! But what else will we get? MMS? Blogging? Mobile iChat? Universal home remote control? And what about the Holy Grail... cut and paste?! What do YOU think?

To give you some help, here's a HUGE roundup of all the iPhone 2.0 software and services rumors. Epic-style. Because let's face it, roughly 0.01 seconds after Steve Jobs pulled the first iPhone from his pocket back at Macworld 2007, and someone, somewhere, put aside their childlike sense of wonder long enough think: "Nice! What's the next gen going to be like?"

Complementary, contradictory, obvious, confusing, all but confirmed or from left field via outer space, the rumors have flooded the internet ever since. It's become almost impossible to keep track of them all.

Five days from today Steve Jobs takes Moscone Center stage for the sold-out WWDC keynote, and according to everyone and their newsfeed, announces the iPhone 3G. In eager anticipation, every day this week, TiPb wil be asking you to tell us what you think the next generation iPhone will be, from 3G to GPS, release dates to price points, colors to casings, 2.0 software to .Mac .Me services, and this weekend we'll wrap it all up with a look into the WWDC/iPhone 3G Crystal Ball, and a roundup of the very best of YOUR predictions.

So come on, let's get in on!

WWDC -5 and Counting: iPhone 2.0 Software & Services

The iPhone's interface quite literally took the smartphone world's breath away. Some of us watched the Macworld 2007 demo over and over again -- watched as Jobs slid, flicked, pinched, spread, and otherwise touched his way around a set of mobile applications so good looking they were positively "lickable". We got SMS, Calendar, Photos, Camera, YouTube(!), Stocks, Maps, Weather, Clock, Calculator, Notes, Phone, Mail, Web/Safari, and iPod/Media Player, and Settings for all of them. The wait for release day was torturously long.

Apple also showed an unprecedented ability to upgrade and add functionality via firmware updates handled by iTunes. Minor things included double-clicking the home button to bring up Phone Favorites or the Currently Playing controls on iTunes, and double spacing to add periods. On the major side, the iTunes WiFi Music Store made its debut in the fall alongside the introduction of the iPod Touch, CoreLocation made Google Maps so much more useful, and WebClips and "jigglies" allowed for custom SpringBoards (home screens). All in all, we got updated 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.1.3, and 1.1.4. And then came the Apple SDK Roadmap Event and the debut of 2.0 (Beta).

Let's start there, at the beginning and work our way forward. Please note, 2.0 has been in beta since early March, and that beta has been updated 6 times already, so developers have had ample opportunity to dive into the code for hidden strings and other goodies, making many of these rumors as close to fact as possible:

March 6, 2008: Apple held their iPhone SDK Roadmap Event.

While this event was primarily focused on the SDK and 3rd party apps (which we'll get to tomorrow!), it also unveiled firmware 1.2.0 (which soon after became 2.0). What did that mean for 1st party iPhone software and services? Phil Schiller, VP of Marketing announced Cisco IPsec VPN, authentication and certs, enterprise/University compatible WiFi (802.1x), security policies, enterprise configuration tools, and "remote wipe". But none of that was the big news. The big news was that Apple had licensed Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync technology. Not any locked-in application, but the technology itself. And they were going to be integrating it into MobileMail, Mobile iCal, and the other built-in iPhone apps for "push" based enterprise support. What's more, ActiveSync was given first-class status, even over Apple's own .Mac and existing partners Yahoo! and Google.

In addition to the event proper, Apple snuck a few more goodies into the press release:

[T]he beta iPhone 2.0 software provides several new Mail features such as the ability to view PowerPoint attachments, in addition to Word and Excel, as well as the ability to mass delete and move email messages.

Eagle-eyed viewers, like our own Chad Garrett, also spotted icons that provided the first hints of Event Invitations and Contact Search.

March 17, 2008: Hax0rs extraordinaire, the unofficial iPhoneDevTeam found the Parental Controls settings when they managed to get their hands on a pre-release of the 2.0 software.

March 18, 2008: Apple released Safari 3.1 with built-in support for advanced CSS, including animation, and HTML 5.0, including video and audio tags, as well as key technologies for offline interactivity, including SQLite databases. Based on the same WebKit framework, and big brother to the MobileSafari browser, could the same feature set be making its way to the iPhone?

March 25, 2008: Though his predictions about the first generation iPhone proved completely wrong, on his monstrously popular Diggnation podcast Kevin Rose claimed that iPhone 2.0 would include iChat video conferencing.

Likewise one of the longest and most confusing debacles of the first generation came to a head with rumors that politics and positioning would make 1st party Flash support in the iPhone unlikely even for 2.0.

March 27, 2008: iPhone SDK Beta 2 is released by Apple, changing the release numbers from 1.2.0 to 2.0, superficially with a YouTube plugin for Safari, and VPN, mail, and ActiveSync tweaks and re-org’s.

Over at Apple Insider, a very interesting Apple DVR patent was uncovered. More than just a TiVo-style device, it suggested the iPhone could work as a remote manager, scheduling recordings while you're out, and syncing them so you could take them with you on the go. Was Apple poised to free your TV, with the iPhone as its key?

March 28, 2008: iPhone Alley dug into the Beta 2 frameworks and found the first references to expanded .Mac services and syncing in 2.0:

Syncing with this Dot Mac account will turn off syncing for other Dot Mac accounts and delete any existing synced data.

March 30, 2008: Not tiring of the seemingly endless soap opera, Gizmodo brought word (again), that Flash would be coming to the iPhone with firmware 2.0. Unfortunately, they mistook embedded YouTube support in MobileSafari for Flash. More likely, it's a mere extension of existing MP4 H.264 video support already found in the YouTube App proper.

April 8, 2008: Engadget leafed through their WWDC course program and found hints at a MobileSafari update bringing CSS transformations and animations. Could it be getting the same ultra-modern love desktop Safari 3.1 got?

April 9, 2008: iPhone SDK Beta 3 was dropped, with the before-rumored Contact Search and Event Invitations activated.

April 14, 2008: More from Beta 3, as Gizmodo's anonymous tipster discovered the ability to save images directly from MobileSafari to the iPhone Photo Album.

Meanwhile, Roughly Drafted speculated that ActiveSync itself could be a trojan horse for more open, standards-based "push" protocols like IMAP IDLE and CalDAV. Could Apple get a gorgeous iPhone interface in front of users, while they worked behind the scenes on technologies already supported in Leopard Server as part of the .Mac revitalization for consumers?

April 17, 2008: Apple Insider shone the light on an Apple patent for an iTunes-like iCarrier store for selecting carriers based on up-to-second rate information. This would remove lock-ins to the extent where the big telcos would "bid" for users by offering the best price/performance deal in real time. Unlikely any time soon, given the existing carrier agreements already in place, but one day?

April 22, 2008: Ever watchful Apple Insider revealed a patent filing that held tantalizing potential for a Mobile iChat, and also much-improved MMS and SMS applications. Multi-tasking 3rd party app restrictions may one day have a 1st party solution?

April 24, 2008: iPhone 2.0 SDK Beta 4 hits, with mucho developer tool fixes, updates, and enhanced functionality.

April 27, 2008: Deep code diving on Beta 4 had TUAW bring word on iController, an Apple project that would allow the iPhone to connect to shared iTunes libraries to browse and play media, similar to how the Apple TV functions.

April 28, 2008: TUAW's tipster returns to reveal that the Beta 4 holds evidence of Jabber/XMPP protocols for instant messaging. Mobile iChat again moves from future potential to present possibility.

May 5, 2008: MacRumors reported that Apple had quietly added Chinese "handwriting" support to 2.0. Not only the key to a massive Asian market, the idea of handwriting recognition itself was huge. Could non-ideographic language support follow?

May 7, 2008: iPhone 2.0 Beta 5 landed with not much new, it seemed, but dev tools and tweaks.

A TUAW tipster soon brought word of .Mac "push" Settings. The buzz of a .Mac ramp up continued, even if on the email-only side. Still, could this be an effort to deliver something akin to ActiveSync functionality to non-business users?

May 8, 2008: Following up on their .Mac "push" email story, TUAW reported that the entire .Mac service would be revamped along with the iPhone 2.0 release at WWDC. Full wireless (wifi + cell) calendar, contacts, and email sync for both Mac and Windows (?!) users.

May 12, 2008: Apple Insider brought word of developers discovering strings that indicated 3G data support. While some controversy surrounding fake/mocked-up screenshots distracted from the news, this was the first software confirmation of the much-anticipated iPhone 3G.

May 22, 2008: Apple Insider again delivers the goodies, this time from "private" updates to "select developers" that showed support for Geo-Tagging. Although not necessarily bound to GPS (Google cell tower and SkyHook Wi-Fi triangulation are already on the iPhone), Geo-Tagging is typically used to add location-based data to photographs.

May 28, 2008: Less than three months in, and Apple released iPhone 2.0 Beta 6! This could well be the final beta going in to WWDC. Any last minute surprises?

May 30, 2008: Coding Robots went through OS X 10.5.3 and found that .Mac was .missing. Seems the name had been replaced with a string variable that would allow Apple to change it. Could the rumored revamp include brand new branding as well?

At the same time, Apple Insider's patent watchers found a filing for a system to warn users of impending system loss, and another to help locate missing Blue Tooth enabled or tagged items. While iPhone users had been hankering for better BT support, stereo headset and keyboard-style peripherals were no doubt higher on the list... Could they, at least, be headed for 2.0?

May 30, 2008:The missing .Mac mystery deepened as DaringFireball suggested an old Apple trademark may be the new online services marquee: Mobile Me. Howls of grief and confusion echoed through the interweb pipes for days.

June 1, 2008:Dot Mac-Gate continued when DaringFireball brought word that Apple might skip the Mobile and go straight to Me.com (later reports suggested even .Me with a newly established Top Level Domain scheduled). DNS listings, hosts, and domain name ownerships were transferring left and right. And we still weren't happy with the branding...

June 3, 2008: Those of us who use it found the .Mac email service down. Was Apple shuffling things behind the scenes in preparation for WWDC?

June 4, 2008: TUAW continued their .Mac scoopage with word that the new "MobileMe" service would include all new, all snazzy web interfaces that better resembled the desktop iCal, Address Book, etc. (Even for Windows users?)

Also from TUAW came word that, due to carrier "first look" agreements, the 2.0 firmware gold master from this week would require 1-2 weeks of testing before it could be released to the public, pushing it back as far as end of June/early July.

UPDATED:

June 4, 2008: A Gizmodo reader found icons for the iPhone (and iPod Touch) in a place typically reserved for Bonjour-capable devices. Apple's implementation of the zero config networking system, iPhone integration could allow for wireless syncing.

June 5, 2008: WWDC banners unfurl, highlight a branding change to iPhone OS X, the World's Most Advanced Mobile Platform.

Your Turn!

So there you go. We already know what Casey's top ten most wanted features are, now it's your turn. Tell us what surprises YOU think the iPhone 2.0 software and services bundle will have for us. Tasks? Consumer-oriented "push" mail/contacts/calendars? Even more Google or Yahoo integration? Custom Widgets? MMS? iChat 3D? Photo Speed Dialing? ... Cut and @#$% paste?!

And after you're done telling us, don't forget to head over to our iPhone Blog's super Wait-a-Thon spectacular where you could win an iPhone 3G of your very own, whatever it looks like, on the very day it's released!

Go back and read Part 1: What's the iPhone's 3G Chip and When Will it Ship?
Go back and read Part 2: What’s the iPhone 3G Going to Look Like?
Continue reading Part 4: What 3rd Party iPhone SDK Apps Will Be Available Launch Day?
Continue reading Part 5: What Will the iPhone 3G’s Hardware Features Be?

[Note: This a a Wait-A-Thon post! Tell us what you think the iPhone 3G will look like -- or comment on any post tagged "Wait-a-Thon" -- for your chance to win a $100 iTunes Gift Card! Note that you must post with a valid and real email address so we can send you your prize -- no switching!]

Yesterday we asked you "What's the iPhone 3G Chip and When Will it Ship?" Today we want to know what YOU think the iPhone 3G is going to look like?

Darth Vader black and Paris Hilton thin? Candy red fatty with Kevin Rose cam up front? High-def white with chrome button trim? What do YOU think?

To give you some help, here's a HUGE roundup of all the iPhone 3G form factor rumors. Epic-style. Because let's face it, roughly 0.01 seconds after Steve Jobs pulled the first iPhone from his pocket back at Macworld 2007, and someone, somewhere, put aside their childlike sense of wonder long enough think: "Nice! What's the next gen going to be like?"

Complementary, contradictory, obvious, confusing, all but confirmed or from left field via outer space, the rumors have flooded the internet ever since. It's become almost impossible to keep track of them all.

Six days from today Steve Jobs takes Moscone Center stage for the sold-out WWDC keynote, and according to everyone and their newsfeed, announces the iPhone 3G. In eager anticipation, every day this week, TiPb wil be asking you to tell us what you think the next generation iPhone will be, from 3G to GPS, release dates to price points, colors to casings, 2.0 software to .Mac .Me services, and this weekend we'll wrap it all up with a look into the WWDC/iPhone 3G Crystal Ball, and a roundup of the very best of YOUR predictions.

So come on, let's get in on!

WWDC -6 and Counting: Form Factor

Right after "OMG 3G!" and "when can I get it?!", the next most burning question in the heart of the blogsphere is "what will it look like?!"

The current/original iPhone is 4.5" x 2.4" x 0.46" (115mm x 61mm x 11.6mm) and weighs in at 4.8oz (135g) with a glossy black, optical glass facade, silvered trim, aluminum backing, and a black plastic band over the bottom rear to allow the antennae better reception. It boasts a 3.5" 320x480 display at 163dpi, a rear-facing 2.0 megapixel camera, 3.5mm recessed headphone minijack, 30-pin dock connector, speakers at the top and base, microphone at the base, accelerometer, light sensor, proximity sensor, top-mounted SIM slot, on/off button, mute switch, volume button, and home button. All of this wrapped up in Apple's trademarked rounded rectangular slab form factor.

It's an admittedly drool-inducing beauty, having won numerous design awards including the prestigious Black Pencil. What then could they possibly change only a year later?

Let's start at the beginning and work our way forward. Please note, since it's ridiculously easy to stuff a current-gen iPhone into a new case and snap a pic, not to mention photoshop an iPhone (or even another phone/device altogether) and claim it's the iPhone 3G, these should all be taken with the largest grain of salt that can comfortably fit in a C-130 sized transport:

March 7, 2008: Beginning the SDK-related leaks, the iPhone Lounge stumbled over a small image of a "fatty" iPhone on the Education First Educational Tours "private page" on iTunes. Sure, it could have been a next-gen iPod Touch or even iTablet, or just Apple playing with us, but it was enough to get the rumors racing!

March 18, 2008: Apple Insider, ever vigilant over Cupertino-based patent filings, came across something that included references to:

capacitive array element [that] may be a dual-sided panel that is capable of sensing touch from either side and sending signals indicative of the touches to a host device (e.g., a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a digital music player or a mobile telephone unit).

And we said "hello" to iPhone Flip rumors!

April 4, 2008: The iPod Observer ran a picture of a supposed iPhone 3G spy shot, and it was painted black. It later turned out to be just a current gen iPhone in a black case, but the iPhone Black rumors were here to stay.

April 25, 2008: Engadget's trusted source claimed to have the know on the iPhone 3G. They stated numerous test units were already out and about in "super secret pockets". And the specs? Same size and shape as the first gen, with glossy black finish like that in the fake "spy shot", chromed(?!) volume buttons, no removable battery, flush(!) headphone jack, and the same screen size and resolution.

May 1, 2008: iLounge provided a picture of an iPhone 3G spec sheet for accessory makers. Highlights included blond, brunette, and redheaded models. Also featured were a tapered back, and a slight repositioning of the sensors. The conservative changes (color aside) made this one of the first leaks to seem at least part-way reasonable.

May 12, 2008: The Boy Genius Reports captured AT&T's website suddenly offering the choice for an "iPhone Black", which added further fuel to the black plastic iPhone fire. A UK accessory store also showed strings for "iPhone Black" accessories (or were they iPhone "Black Accessories"?).

May 13, 2008: But as AT&T leaketh, they also taketh back, and an AT&T spokesperson claimed the iPhone Black listing was a system glitch caused by some placeholder text for the different 8GB and 16GB models. The explanation made no sense to anyone familiar with website wiring, but other reports surfaced saying "Tilt Black", for example, had also shown up, suggesting the excuse did cover a glitch, only a sillier one than claimed.

May 15, 2008: Fed up with AT&T hogging all the leaky glory, Intel Germany Geschäftsführer Hannes Schwaderer let slip that:

There is an iPhone with Intel’s new Atom chip. The device is slightly larger than the current version. That is not, however, because of the Intel chip, but because of the larger display used in the new iPhone.

Intel tried to claim it never happened, but others in attendance's take on the comment was:

The Intel CEO mentioned furthermore, that the display on iPhone 2 would be bigger than on iPhone 1 (although it is already quite big). iPhone 2 is also thinner than iPhone 1.

May 19, 2008: Perhaps riffing on the aforementioned (rumored) specs, accessory maker EXO posted a mock up of what one of their cases would look like on such an iPhone 3G, potentially confirming both the specs, and the Nano-like fatness.

May 27, 2008: iPhoneClub.nl posted some images of an iPhone White that looked eerily like the fake spy shots of the current gen iPhone-in-a-case we saw previously. If by some means legit, they confirmed both the increase in width, and plastic and more rounded back.

May 28, 2008: The spy shots got kinda hectic when IdealsChina showed off a supposed mold for well known accessory maker, Griffin's iPhone 3G case, as well as a mock up that matched previous rumors rather closely. (meaning they were real, or the rumor people had resorted to copying each other).

The same day, MacRumors Forums lit up with what was claimed to be a new iPhone icon file inside the just-released iPhone 2.0 SDK Beta 6. The icon, if legit, hinted at a less-rounded rectangular shape, thinner silver bezel, wider body, and slight rearrangement of the buttons (or that someone was good at photoshopping iPod Touch icons...)

June 1, 2008: Reports had previously surfaced that Apple was filming an iPhone 3G commercial at the Flagship Apple Store in NYC, so it came as little surprise when a "spy shot" surfaced that claimed to be connected to the TV shoot. What was a surprise was that rather than the glossy black that consumed most previous rumors, this one went with a more understated matte blackish-charcoal finish. (Or at least the casing did...)

June 2, 2008: “Inside Steve’s Brain” author Leander Kahney of Wired magazine claimed a programmer source inside a major software house revealed that the next generation iPhone 3G would be a whopping 22% thinner, even with better battery life, and twice the storage (for an uber-cheap $200 to boot!).

UPDATED!

June 5, 2008: iDealsChina (via Apple Insider), who previously leaked the Griffin “iPhone 3G” molds, now claimed that Apple had made some last minute case changes resulting in a next generation device 2mm (0.08 inches) shorter and 0.5mm (0.02 inches) thinner than the previous leaks showed.

At the same time, iLounge doubled up on the rumors and claimed that Apple may be releasing not one but TWO new iPhones with 3.2" and 2.8" screens respectively. Dubious, and they could just as easily be for a next gen iClone as iPhone, but iPhone Nano rumors are hard little things to squash...

Your Turn!

So there you go, now it's your turn. Tell us what YOU think the iPhone 3G is going to look like. Blond, brunette, or redhead? Thinny or fatty? Shiny or matty? More buttons or less? Toned down or pimped to the max?

And after you're done telling us, don't forget to head over to our iPhone Blog's super Wait-a-Thon spectacular where you could win an iPhone 3G of your very own, whatever it looks like, on the very day it's released!

Go back and read Part 1: What's the iPhone's 3G Chip and When Will it Ship?
Continue reading Part 3: What Surprises Will Be in iPhone 2.0 Software & Services?
Continue reading Part 4: What 3rd Party iPhone SDK Apps Will Be Available Launch Day?
Continue reading Part 5: What Will the iPhone 3G’s Hardware Features Be?

What's going to power the next generation iPhone 3G? Infineon again? Insider Intel? A curveball from PA Semi? And more importantly -- when are we getting our hands on one?! What do YOU think?

To give you some help, here's a HUGE roundup of all the iPhone 3G chipset and ship date rumors. Epic-style. Because let's face it, roughly 0.01 seconds after Steve Jobs pulled the first iPhone from his pocket back at Macworld 2007, and someone, somewhere, put aside their childlike sense of wonder long enough think: "Nice! What's the next gen going to be like?"

Complementary, contradictory, obvious, confusing, all but confirmed or from left field via outer space, the rumors have flooded the internet ever since. It's become almost impossible to keep track of them all. But we're going to try!

One week from today Steve Jobs takes Moscone Center stage for the sold-out WWDC keynote, and according to everyone and their newsfeed, announces the iPhone 3G. In eager anticipation, every day this week, TiPb wil be rounding up a different set of next generation rumors, from 3G to GPS, release dates to price points, colors to casings, 2.0 software to .Mac .Me services, and this weekend we'll wrap it all up with a look into the WWDC/iPhone 3G Crystal Balland a roundup of the very best of YOUR predictions.

So come on, let’s get in on!

[Digg it!]

WWDC -7 and Counting: Of Baseband Chips and Release Date Trips

Categorically unrelated much? Here's the thing: the rumors swirling around the iPhone's 3G chipset and the iPhone 3G's release date, much like how the terms iPhone and 3G have become inextricably linked as the de facto name for the next generation Apple handset, always seem to show up together. So that's how we're going to tackle them.

Now, we don't really know anything for certain. Not that Jobs is going to be announcing the iPhone 3G. Not that it's going to be officially called the iPhone 3G. Or even that it's even going to be 3G (though at this point it really has to be!). All we have is rumors. Tons of them. More of them than perhaps for any event in Apple's history, and in the tech industry, that's saying a lot. Enough rumors to stun a blogsphere.

The current iPhone operates on the GSM networks 2.5/2.75 G (Generation) technology known as EDGE, which provides for data speeds roughly analogous to the dial-up internet connections of yore. (We joke only slightly). 3G GSM cell networking uses the more broadband-like HSPA, and while I mentioned before that you can never say certain, it's pretty much certain the next generation iPhone will support 3G. But which 3G chipset will it use exactly, and when will this iPhone 3G be released?

Let's start at the beginning and work our way forward:

September 18, 2007: At the "Mum's No Longer the Word" iPhone launch in the UK, Steve Jobs gave Apple's first public comment on 3G and the iPhone:

I think we’ll see that hopefully late next year.

Boom. The 3G rumor mill was on!

September 20, 2007: Intel demonstrated a next generation MID (Mobile Internet Device) proof-of-concept that resembled what can only be termed an iPhone "Stretch" based on their then 45nm Silverthorne/Moorestown, now called Atom architecture, which could integrate functionality like 3G. The interwebs lit up, and Intel Inside looked like a possibility for iPhone 3G.

Nov 29, 2007: Once again proving they could make a leaky bucket seem airtight, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson confirmed Jobs "guesstimate" of an iPhone 3G in 2008, though without the "late" part:

You'll have it next year.

February 28, 2008: Analysts and suppliers brought word from Asia that first generation iPhone 2.5 G baseband supplier Infineon was ramping down production of their S-Gold-2 chips in anticipation of a switch to 3G by mid-year.

That made it a two chipset rumor race, though this one seemed more credible than Intel's from the get go.

March 6, 2008: This was SDK day. The big one. Steve Jobs and Co. officially announced iPhone 2.0, with immediate beta, and general release in "late June", which in Apple parlance would roughly translate to June 30, 11:59 pm. But does 2.0 mean new hardware? Does it mean 3G?

March 13, 2008: Skipping right over the 2nd generation iPhone to the 3rd, the Inquirer went back to the Intel MID, predicting Apple would jump from ARM as they had PowerPC, and lent some more weight to the chip-now-known-as-Atom getting into the iPhone (at some point).

March 14, 2008: Pouring fuel on the fire of mid-year release rumors, Apple officially lit the June match by announcing their annual World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) would run from June 9 to 13, and prominently featuring the iPhone as the second bridge/track, next to the traditional Mac focus.

WWDC began to get more and more interesting...

March 25, 2008: Digg founder Kevin Rose used his massively popular Diggnation Podcast to say the 3G HSPA iPhone would arrive in a few months. Rose, of course, had been wrong in his predictions for the first iPhone...

March 26, 2008: More analysts, more Asia, led to reports that Apple may have already placed orders for up to 10 million iPhone 3G handsets from manufacturers. That meant things were moving quickly, and an introduction could be sooner rather than later.

March 29, 2008: And yet more! This time the rumors said 10 million iPhone 3G's from longtime Apple supplier Hon Hai, some perhaps as early as May (probably test units for carriers), and release in June. Word also came that the New York Apple Store was sold out of current gen iPhones.

April 1, 2008: "Foolish" timing not withstanding, Apple Stores suffered the first in what became a series of current generation iPhone shortages, leading to increased order times and then reports of complete sell-outs.

April 3, 2008: Gizmodo "did lunch" with AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega, and when pressed about the release of the iPhone 3G, de la Vega leaked:

Let me repeat what I said: I think that you’re going to see our integrated devices be 3G devices in the not-too-distant future, and I mean months. That should be clear enough.

April 6, 2008: Apple's go-to review guy, none other than Uncle Walt Mossberg, off-handedly quipped that the iPhone 3G would be released in less than 60 days (by June 6). Mossberg later retracted the quip, but the timeline, so close to WWDC's keynote on June 9, seemed a little too convenient...

April 9, 2008: Jailbreaking wizards ZiPhone deep dove the iPhone 2.0 Beta 3 firmware and came up with strings referencing SGOLD3, which was immediately linked to Infineon's S-Gold-3 chips, one of which supported 3G. Not conclusive, but inching closer...

April 10, 2008: TG Daily reported that the iPhone 3G would indeed debut at WWDC, and went so far as to offer price points at $399 for 8GB, $499 for 16GB, and potentially $599 for a huge 32GB model.

April 16, 2008: Deeply discounted iPhones began to appear in the UK via O2, mirroring discounts available from from T-Mobile in Germany, and followed by Orange in France as well. Euro-liquidation in preparation for the 3G onslaught?

April 18, 2008: Word came from Asia that Infineon would provide the 65nm 3G chipset for the next generation, to be manufactured by UMC. Seemed like a done deal, but then...

April 23, 2008: The interwebs woke to the shocking news that Apple had purchased Palo Alto Semiconductor (PA Semi) for $287 million. PA Semi, from the guys who spun us the DEC Alpha and StrongARM, focused on super efficient mobile chips, suddenly creating a potential 3G love triangle for the iPhone, and making Infineon less of a done deal than it had appeared. Or did it? 3G may never have been, or may never ever be, part of the PA Semi package, and other ideas rapidly surfaced for their potential in the iPhone, primarily as proprietary, special-purpose chips.

April 28, 2008: More for the heap, as Engadget reported that Foxxcon (aka Hon Hai), manufacturer of the first generation iPhone, was ramping up the 3G assembly line for the end of May, with production of 3 million units expected for June, and 25 million during product lifetime.

April 29, 2008: Rogers' announced the iPhone will be coming to Canada "sometime later" in the year. This began a tsunami of similarly short and vague iPhone announcements across Europe and for the first time in Asia, Latin America, Australia, and Africa. Most significantly, many of these were countries where 3G not only made sense but verged on being a deal-breaker.

May 5, 2008: derStandard.at reported that Austria(!) would shortly be serving as the testing ground for the iPhone 3G.

May 6, 2008: Amid rumors galore, a leaked memo from AT&T revealed that once again employees were instructed not to take vacation between June 15 and July 12 due to an expected big bump in traffic from a new promotion... Hmmm...

May 12, 2008: AT&T's website suddenly showed an "iPhone Black". They later claimed it was an error, but the reasons given were nonsensical.

May 13, 2008: Surprising absolutely no one, Apple announced that Steve Jobs, joined by a team of execs, would be keynoting WWDC on June 9. More and more, all rumors led back to that date.

May 15, 2008: Fed up with AT&T hogging all the leaky glory, Intel Germany Geschäftsführer Hannes Schwaderer let slip that:

There is an iPhone with Intel’s new Atom chip. The device is slightly larger than the current version. That is not, however, because of the Intel chip, but because of the larger display used in the new iPhone.

Intel tried to claim it never happened, but others in attendance's take on the comment was:

The Intel CEO mentioned furthermore, that the display on iPhone 2 would be bigger than on iPhone 1 (although it is already quite big). iPhone 2 is also thinner than iPhone 1.

Was Intel still in the running?

The same day, banking on a Jobsnote announcement of the iPhone 3G to make history, WWDC sold out for the first time in history.

May 20, 2008: Gizmodo reported that "people in the know" said the iPhone 3G would be announced on June 9, day and date of Steve Jobs' WWDC keynote.

May 21, 2008: InfoSync claimed confirmation that the iPhone 3G would be announced June 9, and further added that AT&T would have it available for sale roughly 10 days later -- June 19 or 20.

May 23, 2008: Import Genius analyzed data from thousands of U.S. customs declarations for Apple, Inc. and found 188 "electric computer" containers of a product never before imported by the company. What could that be...?

May 26, 2008: In a move eerily reminiscent of last years original iPhone launch, AT&T is reported to be hiring temps to bolster their ranks from June 16 - August 16, under code-name "Summer Project Pro".

May 28, 2008: Though everyone expected an iPhone 3G announcement by WWDC, based in part from leaks by Ma Bell herself, AT&T CFO Rick Lindner decided to play coy about pricing details, telling the media:

There’s not been a product announcement. There hasn’t been any pricing decisions made. That’s yet to come.

June 1, 2008: In a move amazingly reminiscent of last year's pre-original iPhone "Fine Edge" project, which boosted 2.5 G speeds, AT&T began an upgrade to boost the speed of their 3G HSPA network. Coincidence? Not.

UPDATED:

June 5, 2008: Fortune’s Brian Caulfield (via Apple Insider) had word of yet more mysterious boxes, this time at supposed current iPhone manufacturer Quanta. While some were labeled “iMac”, 20 others were in plain brown wrappers, with employees either unavailable or unwilling to elaborate.

June 6, 2008: Apple Insider kept up with the box news, and showed packages arriving in Australia with ominous "under NDA" and "do not open until June 10" warnings.

Your Turn!

So there you go, now it's your turn. Tell us what YOU think will power the iPhone 3G. Current supplier Infineon? Powerhouse Intel? Recent acquisition PA Semi? And when will we be getting an iPhone with that chip? WWDC like everyone expects? Late June? July? Sometime before the holidays?!

And after you're done telling us, don't forget to head over to our iPhone Blog's super Wait-a-Thon spectacular where you could win an iPhone 3G of your very own, with whatever chip's in it, on the very day it's released!

Continue reading Part 2: What’s the iPhone 3G Going to Look Like?
Continue reading Part 3: What Surprises Will Be in iPhone 2.0 Software & Services?
Continue reading Part 4: What 3rd Party iPhone SDK Apps Will Be Available Launch Day?
Continue reading Part 5: What Will the iPhone 3G’s Hardware Features Be?