9to5Mac has hit the motherlode of code references when it comes to iPhone 4.0 iChat video secret strings and references, including what looks like moderators, chat room, encryption, and more.

Presumably moderation would let Apple prevent their hosting of ChatRoulette-style not-safe-for-families fun, especially if iChat hooks into the Game Center social network.

This is how it was with video recording and iPhone 3.0 on iPhone 3GS, so we're getting more and more confident this is what will be come this summer with iPhone 4.0 and iPhone G4 (not iPhone 4G!), hopefully with a front-facing chat cam. iPod touch G4 and iPad G2 would also need camera upgrades (in their cases to actually, finally, getting cameras of any kind), likely in September 2010 and March 2011 respectively.

TUAW was slipped a screenshot today showing something called iChatAgent running on iPhone 4.0. iChat is Apple's instant message client for Mac OS X that includes voice and video chat, among other features. Rumors of a Mobile iChat for iPhone that would include webcam-style video chat date back to 2008, and were most recently seen in (and then taken away from) iPhone 3.2 for iPad.

Will we finally see an honest-to-Jobs Mobile iChat video this summer at WWDC along with a next-generation iPhone (don't call it the iPhone 4G!) featuring a front-facing camera?

We're not getting out hopes up anymore. Really. We swear...

Tomorrow at 10am PT, 1pm ET, Steve Jobs puts sneaker to stage and, along with SVP of iPhone software, Scott Forstall, gives us a sneak preview of the highly anticipated iPhone 4.0. No one outside Apple knows exactly what new features and paradigms iPhone 4.0 will offer. However, tradition demands we make our best guesses and ask you to do the same.

This isn't what we want, mind you. We told Apple what we want back on December 25, 2009: multitasking, better notifications, widgets for the home screen, instant access to important settings, themes, gestures like pervasive pull-down-to-refresh, system-wide "back" implementation, orientation lock, and resolution independence, along with a ton of great reader suggestions in the comments. We've also asked for a Finder app, like the Photo but to store document files.

This is what we think we'll actually get, given the rumors and the direction Apple looks to be going. This is us, TiPb staff and TiPb readers reading the tea leaves...

iPhone 3.2 (aka iPad) features

This is the most obvious, really (and we've written about it before). All the little tweaks and enhancements Apple has made to the underlying OS, like adding "replace" to cut, copy, and paste, adding spell check to auto-correct, adding dictionary lookup to text select, etc. Wallpaper for the Home Screen, week view in Calendar and the other, sometimes small but still important, chance to the built-in apps, should be there as well. So should Bluetooth keyboard support. Oh, and iBooks.

Better Mail handling

Steve Jobs himself reportedly responded to an email saying a "universal inbox" was coming. That means, like Mac Mail but unlike current iPhone Mail, users with multiple accounts would have the option of seeing all their new messages in one place and not have to tap into and out of multiple folders every time they wanted to check every new message in every account. (Yes that sentence was crafted to feel as laborious as the current process!). Whether we'll see more than that -- IMAP IDLE, multiple exchange accounts, "synergy"-like messaging integration, etc. is unknown.

Multitasking (of a sort)

We've been hearing this for a while now -- that Apple will offer some level of multitasking in iPhone 4.0. We've even seen it in the shadows. The three use-cases that it could cover are background tasks (listening to streaming internet radio while you browse Safari, keeping navigation running while you check Mail), fast task switching (going from Notes to Contacts and back), and multi-window workflow (dragging data from one application space into another).

While the "Pandora" model could easily be handled by allowing streaming accounts to be entered inside iPod (which already has background access going back to iPhone 1.0), the navigation model won't be solved unless there's a more universal background implementation. However, Apple has always put stability and mainstream user friendliness ahead of power-user functionality. A compromise seems most like -- full background access for a highly limited number of applications.

Fast task switching was accomplished in large part by the speed of iPhone 3GS. What remains missing is the consistent saving of state by apps on exit (if you leave a twitter client or a race game and then go back it should be at exactly the place you left it), and a more elegant way to quickly move between apps -- swiping between two apps 11 screens apart isn't very Apple. The rumor here is for a Mac OS X-style Exposé implementation where a double-click of the Home Button would cause the current screen to fly out and a grid of active (background) apps to fly in. That sounds much more Apple.

Multi-window drag-and-drop may not be obvious given the small size of the iPhone, but given how Palm's webOS Cards view presents apps -- and how the iPhone Safari Pages view does likewise -- is remains a tease. Still, we don't expect it. Not yet.

New home screen (SpringBoard)

SpringBoard is the internal name of Apple's Home Screen UI, which right now consists of an 11 page-wide application launcher grid with SpotLight search bolted on to the right. Rumors have persisted since before iPhone 3.0 that Apple has a new SpringBoard experience waiting in the wings. Again, there are several elements that could be at play: better organization, glance-able information, themes.

We're not wishing here, so no grandiose "Apple will re-invent the metaphor for home screens with some ingenious new approach". We're looking at what Apple has already done for clues as to where they're going. Stacks, then, where groups of similar apps are combined together until a tap expands them into a grid-launcher would be reasonable. Likewise, Dashboard where useful, glance-able information is always just a tap (or swipe) away. Dashboard could even integrate SpotLight, allowing it to replace a singletasker with a multitasker (how fitting). It could function similarly on the Lock Screen, for ultimate glance-ability.

We don't see themes, however. Though they'd be a boon to users and designers/developers alike, they don't seem very Apple (beyond the home screen wallpaper already mentioned).

Improved notification handling

We've beaten this one to death -- if you get a constant stream of SMS, IM, game challenges, or any heavy amount of notifications each new one obliterates the one before meaning all but the most recent functionally never existed and hence never notified you of anything. Both Android and Palm webOS do this more functionally, though developers have complained to us that it may be too complex for the mainstream market Apple is targeting (too much management for mom). Could Apple create a more robust yet still drop-dead-simple notification system for the iPhone? Sure, and given how fast and far push notification has been adopted, we think it's likely they will.

The simplest solution would be a Notification app (please, no smiley face logo) that listed all new notifications. When you've received multiple notifications, the dialog would show the most recent but also inform you of how many others you've missed, and an option to "see all" would be presented.

But that would likely make no one happy. This more than multitasking might be the most difficult nut to crack, and may end up being part of that new Home Screen mentioned above. That's closer to guess work than we're comfortable with for this post, however, so we'll just leave it there for now.

iAd platform

"iAd" was rumored to be shown off on April 7, and April 8 is just a day later. Apple's mobile advertising platform could certainly be part of the iPhone 4.0 SDK feature set unveiled for developers. Gossip says Steve Jobs wants to do for mobile advertising what iTunes did for digital music -- make it not suck. We certainly hope so. Punch-the-monkey with push notifications is certainly not the new Home Screen experience we want.

iTunes.com

It's fairly certain iTunes is moving to the cloud and becoming something akin to iTunes.com. We'd love to see streaming video from Apple, MobileMe "whispersync" to keep our place between iPhone and iPad, and other great, media-centric features. But Apple typically saves those for September to coincide with the new iPod touch and lately, new iTunes releases.

###Mobile iChat

We put this here just for Chad. We still think Mobile iChat (text and audio/video) is coming but not until the 4th generation iPhone is revealed at WWDC 2010. Apple usually holds a few new OS features back to show off the new hardware (like Compass, VoiceControl, etc. last year). Patience, Chad!

MobileMe 2.0

Beyond "whispersync" MobileMe has fallen so far behind Google services, DropBox and others that Apple really has to up its game here. Photo sync, cloud backup, and other features have gone from nice-to-have to must-have. Again, however, that feels more like a WWDC 2010 Phil Schiller announcement to us.

One more thing...?

That's what we think is most likely to come with iPhone 4.0 tomorrow, but Apple has shown they can always surprise us (who expected the long, long list of previously missing features rattled off at the iPhone 3.0 event?). What are you expecting to see?

UPDATED: Yeah, looks like Apple set up a simple redirect from apple.com/ichat[anything]to the main iChat page. Sigh. We still want it.

ORIGINAL: No sooner did iSlate.com surface than 9to5mac has noted that http://apple.com/ichatmobile doesn't return a "page not found" error, but rather redirects to Apple's iChat for Mac OS X.

Could be nothing, of course. (But if I didn't post this next part, Chad would never forgive me). Or, in the best-case scenario, Apple is finally (finally) putting the pieces in place to launch an actual, mobile iChat application for the iPhone (and perhaps just-as-mytical at this point, iTablet).

Now whether it will be text-only IM, or use video, or indicates the 4th generation iPhone and rumored iSlate will have a front-facing camera is a box of crazy even we're not opening this holiday season!

As part of the responses to the FCC's inquiry into the rejection of Google Voice from the iPhone App Store, AT&T stated the following:

As noted above, AT&T regularly reviews its policies regarding features and capabilities available through the devices we offer in order to provide an attractive range of options for our customers. Consistent with this approach, we plan to take a fresh look at possibly authorizing VoIP capabilities on the iPhone for use on AT&T's 3G network.

This was couched in some legal arguments stating economists and jurists allow deals where one party's core business is protected against adverse actions taken by another party -- in this case AT&T is saying VoIP would hurt their revenue from voice plans, so it's okay for Apple to protect AT&T from that hurt.

However, AT&T also says that while Apple agreed not to produce a VoIP app for the iPhone without AT&T's consent, they had no obligation to "take action against" a third party app.

So, presumably Apple is not allowed to make a VoIP app unless AT&T says okay, but Apple's just being kind to AT&T by not allowing Skype (for example) to use the 3G network?

And if AT&T is changing their mind and thinking of allowing a VoIP app, and the only VoIP app they say they're allowed to allow is one by Apple...

Conspiracy theorists, where does that leave us?

The WWDC Keynote is tomorrow. Phil Schiller and Apple Execs take the stage as Moscone to update us on iPhone 3.0 and -- hopefully! -- announce iPhone 2,1 hardware (iPhone video in the latest rumors).

Makes sense that them rumors then would be hitting the high point of crazy today? By way of iSpazio (via Gizmodo), we get the above shot of a supposed iPhone with Mobile iChat video (is that why the ear piece has been raised up, to make room for the camera?), a two-tone iPhone, and the mother load of all whacky leaks:

A supposed Canadian source with inventory listings for -- we kid you not -- multicolor 64GB iPhones with flowers and bunnies on them. Yeah, somebody is having a little fun there in data entry... But here's the thing:

Make. It. Stop.

Seriously Phil.

Announce it tomorrow. The insanity must end...

(At least until speculation for 2010 starts!)

Apple Insider has unearthed another very cool, who-knows-if-they'll-ever-deploy-it, Apple patent pertaining to the iPhone. This one, credited to engineer Jeffrey Terlizzi pertains to media file sharing while already on a phone call:

"For example, the user may initiate a telephone call with his friend in order to ask the friend if she is familiar with a particular song," Apple said. "Once the phone call has been established between the user and his friend, the user may select the song of interest from his communications device, and he may send the song to his friend over the same communication path used by the communications device to establish the communications operation, so that the two may continue their phone conversation while the song plays simultaneously."

In addition to music, video, photos, voicemail, and podcasts are also mentioned, as are requests in the form of video conferencing (oh, hi, Mobile iChat!), and control over media playback during a call.

Forget 3.0, let the rumors for 3.1 and 4.0 begin! (Joking! A little...)

Italian site iSpazio has posted up a couple images they received from tipster who claimed they're shots from Apple's development web server showing off pages that feature the next-generation iPhone (presumably what will go up post-WWDC keynote).

Of note, they highlight the Voice Memos app from iPhone 3.0 and -- wait for it -- a front facing camera, presumably for the oft-rumored Mobile iChat. As always, there's no way to tell if these are real or fake.

The second image (after the jump), which features tethering, however, perplexingly shows off the iPhone 2.x, NOT 3.0 home screen layout. Roh-roh Raggy. That one has us immediately calling shenanigans...

All in favor?

[Via CultOfMac, thanks to Jeffdc5!]

No, nothing new here. Same story we've heard off and on for almost a year now, typically from Kevin Rose. But the internets are all a twitter about it, so for completeness' sake, here's the story again from CrunchGear, augmented with the recent iPhone patent grants:

Apparently video recording is mentioned frequently throughout the entire document but a few images and sections explain a video conferencing capable phone.

Yet they, like us, remain cautiously optimistic at best. After all, Apple files tons of patents, is granted quite a few, but only ever ships a very small subset.

Still... I wants it for my iPhone HD. How about you?

In case you haven't read it already, our editor-in-chief, Dieter Bohn, has an outstanding article up at sibling-site WMExperts highlighting his top 5 reasons Twitter is better than SMS (and vice versa).

There's a lot of intertube fuss about SMS lately, as a recent New York Times article once again shone the spotlight on the disgustingly dirty price gouging (and potential fixing) that goes on when it comes to SMS rates in North America. Basically, SMS (at 160 bytes/characters) is ridiculously cheap for the carriers to transmit, no matter what the scale, and yet the prices have doubled from $0.10 to $0.20 on many networks over the last few years. Voice, by contrast, involves much more data and is much more "expensive" in terms of infrastructure costs. North Americans will pay ludicrous sums of money for "cheap" SMS but not for "expensive" voice, so the carriers take advantage.

Dieter points out that the cost, community, compatibility, control, and context of Twitter give it a clear advantage of SMS, even as the discoverability, dilution of quality, dropping 20 characters, downtime, and potential delays in notification (outside the US) make it still far from perfect.

Flaws and all, Dieter is moving towards Twitter (@backlon) and away from SMS. Am I going to do the same? I already have (@reneritchie) and without really considering it. But here's the thing -- I have considered that not only should I not have to consider it, I don't think any iPhone user should. (Or any @theiphoneblog follower either!)

I mentioned in my return to the iPhone 3G Round Robin final review that one of the things I'd like to see for the iPhone is a Mobile iChat app, but really taken to the next level. BlackBerry PIN messenger is what puts the "crack" in CrackBerry.com and an always on, multi-tasking Mobile iChat client would go a long way to putting some in the iPhone as well. Beyond that, however, Apple is famous for being the one company that really understands something truly significant for consumer end users:

The interface is the application.

There's already an SMS client on the iPhone, and guess what? It already kind of looks like iChat. If Apple stuck a Mobile iChat client on as well, it could look functionally identical. So why, then, would Apple need to add that client? Some Twitter clients looks functionally very similar to iChat already as well. Why, then, would we need separate Twitter clients?

From a user-perspective, abstracting an application away from the pipes that feed it is a huge win. Take Mobile Mail for example, you can setup a Gmail, Exchange, MobileMe, or other email account, yet the app itself looks and functions the same regardless. Add one account, take another away, and the user experience doesn't change. This means that, behind the scenes, you can pretty much muck around with the pipes, improve them, swap an old one out for a new one, drop a troublesome one for a reliable one, all with very low impact on the front end -- maybe even no impact at all. It's transparent to the end user.

Now imagine there was a presence client on the iPhone -- I'll stick with calling it Mobile iChat to keep it simple. You set up your SMS account, your Twitter, your AIM, MobileMe, Jabber, Google Chat... whatever and then you have one consistent UI that elegantly handles and presents your conversations to you. If one pipe disappears, like Pownce, you just delete that account or foward to another. If a new pipe shows up, like BlackBerry announces PIN-like messenger for the iPhone (breathe Kevin, breathe!) you just add it in.

There are, of course, a bunch of reasons why this isn't likely to happen, and lots of people who prefer to keep their cookies all in separate jars anyway. My personal belief remains, however, that this is the future, and the iPhone is the device that's going to bring us the closest and the fastest to that future.

Of course, there will always be a place for "better" dedicated client apps that provide unique, rich features focused on a single protocol, but who knows, with push email, maybe all inter-personal text communications could eventually fold into a single unified, consistent, experience. It would, at the very least, be nice to have as a hyper-productivity meets connectivity option. wouldn't it?