BLOGSThe Channel WireMay 26, 2009Hot Apple Rumors: 32-GB iPhone Almost Certainly A GoWait, it's a 32-GB iPhone! No, it isn't! No, wait again, yes, yes, it might be! With Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference mere weeks away, the rumor mill for its next-generation iPhone and iPod Touch software is chugging at breakneck speed.
Earlier this month, rumors began to surface that the next iteration of iPhone would sport a faster processor and 32 GB of storage. While the initial 32-GB rumors from Chinese Web forum Weiphone were initially dismissed as idle speculation, additional iPhone rumors emerging Tuesday suggest a 32-GB iPhone is indeed what's in the works.
T-Mobile Austria listed a placeholder on its Web site—later picked up by half the blogosophere—indicating an iPhone 32 GB, and another smartphone blog, Area Mobile, served up an actual screen shot of that placeholder.
An Australian blog, MacTalk, also claims to have seen an internal e-mail to retail employees from Vodafone, which carries the iPhone in Australia. The e-mail to employees tells retail staff, according to MacTalk, that the 16-GB iPhone is an end-of-life product.
While to date most of the speculation has been on the features and form factor of the iPhone itself, there are also emerging rumors on new iTunes and download functions. The latest, from Open Salon blogger Kwame Jones, gets at the 3.0 version of Apple's iPhone software—specifically, that iPhone and iPod Touch users will be able to download TV shows and movies directly to their handhelds.
If that's true, direct movie and TV downloads would remove the cumbersome step of having to plug an iPhone or iPod Touch into a computer and accessing the content through iTunes. Currently, only video and audio podcasts can be downloaded directly to the devices.
In a Friday blog post, Jones cited a blogger with the handle "Geeky Friend" claiming to have viewed services called "iTunes Movies," "itunes TV" and "iTunes Movie Rentals" using TwitterFon, one of the iPhone's Twitter applications. Jones also posts screenshots sourced to "Geeky Friend" that show movies, TV episodes and movie categories in separate menus.
As ChannelWeb commenters are never loath to tell us, we could just as easily wait to hear the actual Apple announcements from the Worldwide Developer Conference, kicking off June 8. But that wouldn't be nearly as much fun for us, would it now? Leave a comment below and let us know what you're thinking about the latest iPhone speculation. |
