The Getz Post

[dagetz-blog]

This is most definitely a KIRF. Besides the Mr. Blurrycam and the bad build quality there is no reason for Apple to have a capacitive home button. The home button is a reassuring button for apple users, it allows them to return to the familiar home screen no matter where they are, part of the reassuring part is it makes a definite click when you press it. There have been no hardware problems of note with the button and the iPod touch is already as skinny as comfortably possible so its not adding any depth to the device. Total KIRF

[dagetz-blog]

Is print media dead or dying?

A recent claim by the Onion News Network (who are awesome by the way) got me thinking. They claim their new app for the iPad is killing print media, I realise this is all tongue and cheek but it got me thinking. Is the print industry really dead? Will it ever die? Is news as we know it changing?

This is a timely question considering the recent positive media storm that the app Zite is getting. For those of you that don't know Zite is a news consumption app. It aggregates news that it thinks you will like by screening it to the keywords that you provide at the start and then you can further refine as you read by pressing a thumbs up or thumbs down button on the particular articles. By using this method it hopes to eliminate the time that you spend reading irrelevant data. There seems to be a big push on getting the information out there. People want information, they don't always want opinion on that information. I see some newspapers adobting a "digest section", the idea behind this is that you can spend less then 5 minutes reading these bullet points of information and it will bring you up to date quickly on the days news. If you want further analysis you can turn to the specified page number. These seems like an excellent idea to me and I wonder why it has not been mirrored in the online industry.

In my own personal experience I use twitter to consume news mainly because the news agencies are forced to keep it to one sentence. This allows me to glance at my stream and figure out whats happening now and not miss a beat while still having time to deal with the other aspects of my busy life. It seems to me that an app for a smartphone would be the perfect place for this. A little ticker on your home screen displaying the relevant news in as short a manner as possible and then when you click this link it will bring you to the story. For example: Rebels take Brega. Direct and to the point. 

[dagetz-blog]

I agree with most of this. My view is below:

Better Camera: Apple have gotten a lot of bad press over the quality of their camera quality. In a world where Nokia is getting more publicity and may pose a threat again partnering with Microsoft on WP7 they need to step up their game a bit, especially when Nokia clearly have the best mobile phone cameras on the market.

Without the home button: Obviously not, those gestures that were in the developer build were being tested for the iPad, the iPhone screen is too small. Having said that I don't think they will get rid of the home button on the iPad either. I think they were testing gestures to get some feedback but those gestures can be used for any command, I don't think they will be used for the commands demonstrated in the famous developer build.

Bigger Screen: I think this is almost certain, we have seen the leaked images, they look very legit to me. This is also a win win situation for everyone. The iPhone screen is small compared to the competition but people like the iPhone because of the smaller body size. If you could keep the same body size but expand the screen it is a bit of a no brainer.

Better resolution: Not sure, I'm sure Steve Jobs would love to walk up on stage and give his famous not we are two steps ahead of the competition speech but can they do it or will they save it for a different model, that's the question.

New Design: I wish this would happen but it won't. This would mean they would have to admit that the iPhone 4 design was flawed. They won't change it.

White Models: Pretty obvious, of course there will be white models

Physical Keyboard: Again pretty obvious, of course not.

64GB Models: I would give this a pretty definite yes.

1080p Recording: No, the new apple TV doesn't support 1080p so the iPhone 5 won't either

Low Cost Models: Very unlikely. If they were going to lower the cost they would reduce the whole line by 100 dollars, again very unlikely. They will brag about cramming in more tech and keeping the cost the same.

No Internal Storage: Maybe in the future but not this year. They don't have the network from the mobile phone providers to support this yet and they don't have the server capacity. Google will launch this before Apple and the Apple will watch to see how it turns out and then claim they pioneered it.

3D Display: No, the technology is far from perfect. Apple would not introduce a flawed or untested technology into their products.

CDMA Model: Another no brainer, of course.

NFC: This is a hard one to call. There has been a lot of movement in this space recently particularly by google. Apple also recently were bragging that they had the largest collection of accounts with credit card data. That would be perfect for introducing this. They will be demanding steep terms though and the banks may not share their enthusiasm, especially when google will be offering it much cheaper if not free.

A5 Chip: It may be modified to lower the power consumption but they will call it A5

More RAM: Apple have been steering away from this but now might be the time to try and keep up modern games and their requirements. I would like to know how much battery it would drain before I am going to call this one. The A4 and A5 chips are impressive maybe they could do something as impressive with the RAM.

HDMI Support: Through a connector yes.

4G/LTE: I don't know, it is a new and untested technology and not available in a lot of places. Apple wouldn't like to introduce something like that into their phones but then again they may be forced to as people make spec to spec comparisons to Android phones.

Enhanced Voice Control: Android has gotten a lot of positive press for their voice features. Google have been working on this technology for a long long time though. I don't know if apple would be capable of something comparable, I am 100% confident that they want to bring something like this to market but if they can or not is another question.

iTunes Cloud: Very interesting, they bought a big server farm recently enough and have been hinting at free mobile me. It is about enough time for them to totally renovate mobile me and add more features. This will be a major part of iOS 5 later this year I think.

iOS Launch Presence: I think the iOS launch this year will be a huge deal. I think they are radically going to change iOS, I expect to see widgets on iPad in a Dashboard like style like in the Macs have currently. I think this event will mostly be about iPad though so I wouldn't be shocked if we don't see the iPhone 5 until September

If you agree, disagree or have anything to add, comment away!

Thanks to mashable for running the story and to nowhere else for the beautiful infographic at the above link.