The iPhone is about to get a brain transplant.
Apple is adding the iPad 2’s dual-core A5 processor and a new, 8-megapixel camera to the iPhone, and plans to introduce the new model in September, Bloomberg News reported late Tuesday. Apple is also experimenting with a new iPad with a high-resolution screen, according to the news service .
Of course, you don’t have to rely on “two people familiar with the matter,” as Bloomberg does, to know some of the device’s new features. Apple introduced new software for its mobile devices earlier this month at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference. That software, dubbed iOS 5, is due this Fall. If Bloomberg is right, it will arrive just in time to play the starring role in Apple’s new handset.
The new handset, however, probably won’t include support for the latest high-speed wireless networks (see “For The Last Time: There Won’t Be A 4G iPhone This Year”) . In response to a question from Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty on Apple’s quarterly earnings call in April Apple’s Chief Operating Officer Cook said today’s 4G chips don’t meet Apple’s needs.
Analysts say Apple is almost certainly waiting a new generation of chips that combine support for 4G and 3G on a single chip, allowing handset makers to offer slim handsets that don’t gobble up battery life.
Chipmakers such as Qualcomm, ST Ericcson, and Intel won’t begin offering customers samples of such chips until late this year. And those chips won’t begin appearing in handsets until next year. By that time, the iPhone’s brain-transplant should be complete.
Let’s just hope the upgrade to the A5 goes as planned…
There's really been only one rival to James Bond: Derek Flint. That's because of James Coburn's special brand of American cool. He's so cool, in fact, that he doesn't care to save the world. That is, until he's personally threatened. He's a true libertarian, with more gadgets and girls than Bond, but with none of his stress or responsibility. Here he's totally unflappable as he thwarts mad scientists who control the weather--and an island of pleasure drones. Lee J. Cobb costars as Flint's flustered superior, and Edward Mulhare plays a British nemesis with snob appeal. For fans of Austin Powers, incidentally, the funny-sounding phone comes from the Flint films. However, Our Man Flint's best gadget remains the watch that enables Flint to feign death. There's a great Jerry Goldsmith score, too. --Bill Desowitz