According to Goldman Sachs analyst Robert Chen, the next generation iPhone will be ready by June, featuring a 5MP camera and touch-sensitive casing, similar to that of the Magic Mouse.
“Apple’s going to put a lot of innovation, not just on the hardware, but also on the software of the new iPhone,” says Chen, who is also a member of Asia’s highest-ranked technology hardware research team.
Apple declined comment.
The camera upgrade has been long expected, and should put the iPhone in the same realm as other smartphones, such as the Nexus One, for starters.
More notably however is the speculation of multi-touch casing and an upgrade of the iPhone firmware, to version 3.5 or even 4. The App Store will be re-hauled as well. The Magic Mouse has a touch shell that replaces the need for clicking buttons. The iPhone may have the new casing included, offering touch-sensitive features on the back on the handset.
Result for: next generation
LG Electronics has announced that its first AMOLED flat screen TV will be soon available in Korea and rest of the world following next year. LG first revealed the 15 inch AMOLED display in January 2009 during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and was supposed to arrive in stores this summer.
Unfortunately LG has yet to release the full details about the device but according to the press photos it should feature at least one HDMI and one USB port. The display measures only 3,2 mm in depth and the vertical viewing angle is adjustable. No word yet on whether the display has an integrated digital tuner.
The display rivals Sony’s current AMOLED display known as XEL-1 and is estimated to match the price of it as well. The 11 inch XEL-1 currently retails for around $2,500.
The display will be showcased at IFA 2009 show which launches this Friday in Berlin. According to some rumors Sony will step up in Berlin and show the next generation of its AMOLED displays with a bigger (rumors have it at 21 or 27 inch) XEL-2. LG is going to show off an even bigger 40 inch AMOLED TV in the future as well. Philips, Samsung, Pioneer, anyone, got a 52 incher?
Result for: next generation
In a recent interview, John Carmack of id Software, touched briefly on the next generation of gaming systems that will replace the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 (PS3) consoles. The interview, with Polish site CD-Action, is primarily about id Software’s upcoming shooter Rage, but it is the few words he dedicated to the next-generation of gaming that had caught the interview in tech site’s radar.
“The whole jockeying for who’s gonna release next gen console first is very interesting and really divorced from the technical side of things. Whether Sony wants to try and jump the gun to, you know, to prevent the same kind of 360 lag from happening to them again seems likely. As developers, we would really like to see this generation stretch as long as possible, you know, we’d like to see it be quite a few more years before a next-gen console comes out, but I suspect someone will wind up shipping something earlier rather than later,” Carmack says.
So from his own observation, it’s clear that it is only based on what he thinks might happen and that there is nothing to suggest that PS4 is in-bound in the near-future (relative to console’s life-time), but it does hit on something. The Xbox 360 had a year on the market over the PS3, and its not hard to see that this extra time came as something of an advantage in terms of unit sales - arguably not in terms of hardware failures.
In the previous generation, Microsoft was late to the game with the original Xbox console too, but there were many other reasons why it didn’t gain more ground on the PS2 than it did to take additionally into account. The question remains however just how much each company’s intention to beat the other to the market next time will affect the duration of the current generation.
