Let’s do.  As usual, I put what I wish/think will be released.  There are new rumors coming out every day flip-flopping back and forth on what is going to be released.

The iPhone 4S/5, and what I wish and/or think it will have:

• Larger screen - I am fine with the 3.5 inch screen of the current phones, but there are many who would like for Apple to bump the size up to 4 inches.  If they do this, I think they might keep the same 960 x 640 screen dimensions.  Those dimensions have yet to be topped by any phone in the US.  Only just now are some Korean phones, in Korea, being released with 1280 x 720 screens.  I’m not sure how they would be able to keep the “Retina” name, but they could surprise us with a different screen size.  Many supposed iPhone 4S/5 cases have been shown to be larger than the iPhone 4.
• Different form factor – There have been 3 different form factors for the 4 different iPhone’s.  I think this phone will be more in line with Apple’s two other mobile offerings, and have curves like the iPod Touch and iPad 2.  Like the larger screen shown on supposed iPhone 4S/5 cases, curves are another thing they are showing.
• HSDPA+ – I don’t think it gets the full LTE treatment this time around.  LTE technology is still too young and it is not in enough places for them to warrant putting it in the newest iPhone.  Remember back to when the iPhone first came out.  It was only on Edge, not on 3G even though other companies were jumping onto the 3G wagon.  This will still be the 21 Mbit/s variety, so it will be faster than the current 7.2 Mbit/s, but still not full 4G on LTE.
• Camera upgrades – Sony’s CEO talked about their 8MP optics being used for a future iPhone months ago.  The 5MP camera in the iPhone 4 was a drastic upgrade from the 3G and 3GS.  This along with the increased speed (see below) will allow it to record 1080p video.
• Increased speed – This was an easy one.  The iPad 2 is a speedy device with it’s dual-core A5 chip.  This chip will feel even speedier on such a little device.
• Increased RAM – The iPad 2 has 512MB of RAM and does not ever feel like it’s lacking.  They could continue with just 512MB or RAM, or they could increase it to 768MB or 1GB just because RAM prices are so low.
• Longer battery life – Rarely does an Apple device come out and it not have better battery life.  The battery on the iPhone 4 is leaps and bounds better than the 3G and 3GS.  If the screen is larger and it is running a dual-core processor, a bump in battery size might be needed to keep things the same or improve.
• iPod Nano communication – This is more a wish, but how cool would it be if there was low-level Bluetooth connection with that iPod Nano you are wearing as a watch.  You get a call on your new iPhone 4S/5 and you look down at your watch to see who’s calling.  Just press ignore on your watch, and you don’t even need to get it out of your pocket.  Get a text during a meeting?  Take a glance at your watch to see if it is worth pulling your phone out of your pocket to answer.  The iPod Nano would sky rocket in popularity as a watch, and we would be one step closer to the world Dick Tracy imagined!
• Welcome Sprint – This has been rumored for years.  I think this is the time that they finally get it.  I was with Sprint for 7 years and left because of the iPhone.  I wish them nothing but the best, and hope they keep the unlimited data plans.  I think many people would move just because of that.

One more thing…

I believe Apple will release or announce two phones today.  The iPhone 4S/5, and an iPhone 4 that is modified and/or neutered.  The iPhone 4 will be the phone that will compete with all the Android phones that are on the medium to lower end.  This will allow Apple to compete in the high end market and in the mid-to-low end market.  Because of economies of scale, the modified iPhone 4 will be able to be very cheap or free with a 2-year agreement.  Apple is interested in getting people hooked on the iOS platform and start pulling in money from the App Store, iBook Store, and Music from iTunes.

All or none of the things above could come to fruition.  They would still sell tens of millions of iPhones.  The competition is increasing.  Google’s Android and Windows Phone would love to be your platform of choice.  I’ve said this before, but I love competition.  Now it’s time to sit back and enjoy the ride.

What do you hope to see in the next iPhone?

So March 2nd is the day we will all find out about the iPad 2.  Since the iPad was such a commercial success, there has been much hype and anticipation for the 2nd generation iPad.  There have been many rumors flying around and many people voicing their opinion about what features it should and shouldn’t have.

I still believe they have a demanding lead as far as brand recognition, ease of use, a low entry barrier, and so forth.  The iPad was the device that created a new computing/gadget segment.  I think this is why Apple will be taking a more evolutionary approach to iPad 2.  There are certain things I would like to see in an iPad.  I am not expecting these will make it to production on this generation of iPad, but I do hope to see this from Apple’s iPad 2:

• Retina Display – Apple made such a big deal about this with the iPhone 4 and spoiled all of us.  We expect this to be in all of it’s flagship products.  There have been multiple articles online saying this will not happen in this iPad, but it will in the next iPad.
• Front and back camera – This is pretty much a given.  Even the lowly iPod Touch has these features.  Again, Apple made a big deal about FaceTime with the iPhone 4, iPod Touch, and the iMac’s and Macbook’s just received the non-beta version of Facetime, that not having front and back camera’s would be a deal breaker for some.
• Increased speed –  Another given.  Rumor has it the A5 chip is ready to go in the iPad and that it is much faster than the A4 that is in the current iPad and iPhone.  The A5 will be shared with the iPhone 5 and the next version of AppleTV.
• Increased RAM – This is also a given this will happen.  The iPhone 4 has 512MB of RAM which makes the much larger iPad seem anemic with only 256MB.
• iOS/OSX OS Hybrid – This would be for people who want more control of the files that are on their iPad.  This would be something for the power users.  I don’t think this will be released in this iPad, but possibly the next as Android’s Honeycomb and HP’s WebOS offer more and more of this.
• Lighter – Many people complained about the weight while using the iPad for extended amounts of time.  Amazon’s Kindle spoiled everyone with it’s lightweight reading.  Since Apple is still trying to push the iPad as a replacement for print media, they will be working to put the iPad on a quick weight loss plan.
• Longer battery life – Rarely does an Apple product come out without it having a longer battery life.  Mark this as a given.

Apple could choose one or two of the items above and sell tens of millions of iPad 2′s.  However, the tablet competition is quickly approaching a point where it will be on par with the iPad’s quality, and perhaps offer more flexibility.  Only time will tell if any company can knock off the tablet leader, but one thing is for sure, as a consumer I love competition!  Let the games begin.

All WWDC events draw attention, but this seems like one of the more anticipated ones recently.  Of course everyone is excited to hear about the latest iPhone, but what else will be released and what else will surprise us.

iPhone

We all know a new one is coming.  I’ve seen every angle of this phone inside and out, thanks to Gizmodo and a Vietnamese person. Since we know it is coming out, here is what I would like it to have.  Anything less than this, and it would be a disappointment in my eyes.

• Two words: A4.
• OLED Screen with higher resolution.  AMOLED would be a plus.
• 8MP camera with a flash.  This is not to be confused with Adobe’s Flash.
• 720P video recording.  1080i or 1080p would be a plus.
• Upgraded GPS sensor.

Bonus want:

• 4G

The iPhone used to be a marvel each time it came out.  There was nothing that was close to it.  Those times have changed.  The stats above are for the most part the stats of the HTC EVO 4G.  This is a phone that was just released, but is currently and arguably the fastest and most advanced phone on the market today.  Will Steve allow the EVO 4G to stay the current beast, or will Apple surprise us and build a phone that will even trump those stats?

Multitouch Trackpad

This has been a late breaking story from Engadget.  It will be interesting to see what all this can be used for.  This could have been the one last thing that has been missing for a few years.  It probably won’t be, but I want to see what all this is capable of.

iTunes/ iTunes Subscription

This seems likely given the recent lala.com purchase and shutdown, but this would be a great bonus for everyone.  I am also hoping that iTunes will be rewritten in Cocoa to make it faster.  It seems like iTunes has transformed into a beast of a software and could use a 64-bit code refresh.

AppleTV

If the rumors are true, this would be a wonderful gift to myself at the LL Cool C casa (that is Spanish for “house”).  If it is only $99, does 1080p, and you can store things elsewhere, this sounds like it would be an immediate winner.  There is another small box called the Roku that does tons of video things like that, so it doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility.

There are so many things that can be speculated about today’s WWDC and I’m sure there will be many write ups about what was good and bad about it, but one thing is for sure, I will be glued to my computer come 12pm CST.

Having the chance now to step back and re-evaluate all of what the iPad is and isn’t, I see that the iPad was not meant for me. It wasn’t even meant for you. It’s meant for the person you know who is scared of computers. It’s made for my grandparents who have a Quad-Core computer with 6GB of RAM to send emails, and most of them are spam forwards. It’s made for the person who has a computer just so they can get on Facebook, send email, and browse the internet.

They don’t need shell access. They don’t need to edit videos. Heck, they don’t even need to manipulate the photos they get because Flickr does this for them.

This is also for the person that are scared of a full blown iMac. They don’t know OSX and heard that it is very different from the Windows PC they know. This helps bridge the gap. Although this was looked at as the middle pillar for Apple between the iPhone and the iMac, this could be the entry “computer” that people need in order to make the next step. Apple says, “Oh, you like how easy the iPad makes things? Do you know it is running the same operating system as the iPhone?” Or they might say, “You say you like what the iPad does, but you need to edit videos? The iMac is just as easy to get up and running.”

This is just the first generation iPad. When has any Apple product done everything you wanted it to on the first iteration? Yeah, I can’t think of one either. It’s easier to accept the iPad as what it is if you remember that the iPad is not for you. It’s for the person you know that uses a computer for email and web surfing.

Looks

For all of the mock-ups, purposed new iPhone frames, and finish rumors, the exterior looks in the most part unchanged.  Is this good or bad? The iPhone 3G seemed to have a good look and feel in a persons hand and about 5 minutes after one is purchased a case was slapped on it, so for the most part this is a good thing.  Others might disagree because they favor the first generation iPhone with the brushed aluminum back and hate the fingerprint friendly plastic case of the 3G.  The biggest update to the exterior might be the new “oil-resistant coating that keeps the iPhone screen clean.”

S is for speed and that’s good enough for me

The S does not stand for super as some might think.  The S stands for speed and that is what Apple is trying to get across.  Apple is showing off that certain things you do on the iPhone is up to 2x faster than the iPhone 3G.  There are several things that go into making this happen.  The first is a new processor and 3D graphics chipset.  Apple has always been tight lipped about the exact specifications of the hardware, but this combined with the support of the 7.2 Mbps 3G standard should allow you to see a boost in performance.

Battery

The battery has been improved, or software written to improve the life of it.  This will be good for business folks and others that currently have issues with the battery life.  The one thing that stood out for me is the 3 hour jump in usage for surfing on wi-fi and watching a video.

Updated camera

One thing that the iPhone has been lacking and nearly every other phone had was video recording capabilities. Though this is not a deal breaker for most, it would be nice

and handy to take video of family and friends at any time. Our friends in the jail breaking community have been recording videos on their iPhones for over a year now.

Apple took things a step further and rewarded everyones patience. Not only does the updated 3 megapixel camera record videos, it also allows for some rough videoediting by allowing you to choose the start and stop points for your video. When you are done editing it, you can post it to MobileMe, YouTube, Email it, or send it via MMS (Late summer for AT&T users).

The auto-focus based on you tapping on the object to focus on is a great idea and looks to be well executed. The white balance and macro ability round out the top improvements in the camera.

Whats missing or not right

There are many other “little” improvements that the iPhone 3G S has that we are skipping over because the bulk of what everyone wants to know about was covered above. There are a few things that are missing and/or delayed and it is odd that this would happen because it would seem like the 1 year product cycles that the iPhone has would put it behind the competition again.

- OLED screen – This would have been icing on the cake. OLED screens are becoming more popular on iPhone competitiors and by not putting it in this round of updates it will be one more year before me might see it.
- MMS – Really AT&T? You need the rest of the summer for MMS capabilities to be released here in the US? Really? Is MMS something new? Isn’t it something we have been doing since 2004? Is this something that you just found out about at the same time we did? Did Steve Jobs do a “Oh, one more thing At&T, we’re going to have MMS” trick on you?
- Internet tethering – This should not have even been released as a new feature. AT&T has not even put support behind this. If anyone knows about the NetShare app issue from around a year ago you know that either this is not a feature that is going to be released, or it is something that you will be paying more for if it comes out.
- Upgrading options – AT&T, why must we be gouged by such high pricing to upgrade and then the $18 upgrade fee is just a slap in the face.

Should you get it?

The iPhone 3G S, offers many upgrades to the iPhone line that look to be very convincing if you have the first generation iPhone and are looking to upgrade. You’ll get the better price and you will have all of the latest features to enjoy. If you have an iPhone 3G you might be a little more hesitant to upgrade for the speed and the camera because of the hefty price you will have to pay. If you love Apple. was there ever a thought in your mind that you wouldn’t get this iPhone 3GS? I didn’t think so.

This morning I hopped on the 360 to see if the new dashboard, sometimes called the New Xbox Experience, or NXE, was available for me to download.  When I booted up it asked if I wanted to do a system update, just like I wanted it to.  I clicked yes and around 5 minutes later I was all set.  I also because a statistic because I signed up for Netflix today, after the update.  I’m sure this will be a closely watched metric for them.

There are many new enhancements with the NXE, but the feature I was most interested in is the new Netflix Instant Queue.   The instant queue allows you to watch movies, TV shows, and documentaries instantly on your TV through your Xbox 360.

So far my experience with the Netflix instant queue has been great.  While I was in the other room adding movies and TV shows through the Netflix website, my 4 year old was in the living room watching all of them pop up on screen and was excited each time one popped up for him.  Adding them to your instant queue is super easy and quickly done.  The selection is quite a bit smaller then the full Netflix library, but there are many quality movies and TV Shows available to watch instantly.

Tonight I fired up the ol’ Xbox 360 and was all set to watch Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.  If you have not closed down the article after reading that last sentence thank you.  After a short 10 to 15 second quality check on my connection I was greeted with a status bar that looked like it was loading up.  After waiting the 10 seconds for it to buffer, it was Pee Wee time.  And there I was, watching Pee Wee Herman in near DVD quality streaming from Netflix to my 360 and onto my TV.  I thought to myself, this is just the beginning of a beautiful relationship

For my first search, I said “I used to be cooler.”  What it heard was “It is to be cooler.”  Not exactly what I wanted, but still there are probably some cool results for that.  The next time I spoke very clearly and pronounced every word as if someone was trying to read my lips.  This time after the little robot voice bee bops while searching, it found exactly what it was supposed to.  It heard me correctly this time.

For the next voice test I said Maegan Cook, which sounds a lot like Megan Cook, so when it heard me it recognized what I said as Megan Cook.  The Maegan Cook I was searching for is known for all of her zany YouTube video’s so I thought that might help the results show Maegan instead of Megan.  Instead I got Megan Cook who as of right now is not a YouTube star.  Megan is the way most people spell that name, so I was not surprized.  I searched Maegan Cook one more time emphasizing the May sound but it still found Megan Cook.

Just for funzys I searched “Ahhhh Yeahhhhh.”  In the rap scene this phrase is usually followed by “boyyyyyy.”  I decided not to say the last part and keep it the elongated two words.  Try as it may, it errored out, told me “Didn’t get that.”, and was not able to find this urban dictionary words in the search.  I was not disappointed, though Google just lost a little street cred with me.

Over all I am pleased with the voice search feature and think this will come in handy for on-the-go searching when my hands are tied up with other things or driving.  It is worth the free download.

Just those features would make it a great program to use, but it doesn’t stop there.  They turned the awesome up to 11 by offering mobile access as well as a free iPhone app.  You can download files from your computers to you iPhone through the nice little app.  Another great feature is being able to open the files on your iPhone.  

Let’s take a step back here and go over all that again in one sentence.  You can backup and sync files between all of your computers and be able to access them on you iPhone.  This sounds like one of the most convinenent things around and it is.  I have not currently been at a place where I say, “You know.  I sure wish I had that recipe off of my computer.”  The bad part is that I don’t have any recipes on my computer so that would be useless, but the good thing is that if did I would be saved.

I’m still in the early stages of using it, but I really like the SugarSync manager and the iPhone app is great.  The newest feature where you can stream your music from your SugarSync back up to any other computer or iPhone.  I want to dive deeper into this feature.  I will have more feedback and update this post when I have spent more time with it.

Midomi has added features such as saying an artist’s name or saying the name of a song, but the feature they really want to set it apart is the ability to sing or hum a song and let it find it for you.  They suggest singing or humming ten seconds or more for the best results.  I decided to do a little testing of this.  I sang Lodi Dodi by Slick Rick, and later covered by Snoop Dogg, for a good 24 seconds .  As you can see in the image below not one of my results have anything to do with Lodi Dodi.

The next feature I tested was Midomi’s search based on a saying a song title.  I had a little more success with this.  I simply said Lodi Dodi and it searched around for it.  You can see it found a live version of Lodi Dodi by Slick Rick, but it is misspelled, the second and third results are not correct, and there is no Snoop Dogg version in sight.  I could however listen to the song right here from the results.  I am impressed by that feature.

I decided to give Midomi a shot to go directly head to head with Shazam when listening to music playing from iTunes.  I played the first 20 seconds of the Lodi Dodi by Snoop Dogg.  I was surprised that it brought back no results.

I decided to test this same clip of the song using Shazam.  It has one simple feature and it does it well.  It listens to the music and then tells you what it is, simple as that.  I played the first 10 seconds of Lodi Dodi and Shazam, pun intended, it found it.

Midomi has a future, possibly a very bright future.  The best part about it is that if it does find the song you are looking for you can play it right there from the application.  With a little more time and updates I think Midomi will become a better app and could surpass Shazam in popularity simply because it offers more.  For now Shazam is still the program to get to guess your music from the radio or TV.