Apple always has tons of tricks up its sleeve, but its latest products give better clues than ever towards Cupertino’s plans for the future. Want the inside track? Read on to see what Jobs and Co could very well have planned.
Voice technology
A surprise inclusion in the iPhone 3GS, voice control works startlingly well, even with complex words and phrases. Apple has also added several ways of issuing commands, making sure the new iPhone works whether you tell it to “call,” “ring” or “dial” one of your contacts. It’s really rather smart, and since the newest iPod nano and iPod touch devices now support microphone input we don’t expect it to stay on the iPhone alone for much longer.
Gesture shortcuts
Apple quietly added gesture shortcuts to its iPhone and iPod touch remote for Apple TV last month. It’s a sure sign they’re being refined inside the Apple HQ, and this is a first venture into public. OS X Snow Leopard also includes gesture support. There’s even the ability to write Chinese characters by drawing them onto the trackpad. Expect more gestures from Apple, and more innovative uses of them, very soon.
Speech
Not quite the same as Apple’s voice recognition technology, but speech output finally made the jump from clunky accessibility add-on for Macs and PCs (and hilarious talking alarm clocks) to proper gadgets this year, when Apple included it in the new iPod shuffle. The iPhone 3GS also announces its intentions with accessibility options switched on, and Snow Leopard is reported to have speech technology tweaks. Could 2009 be the year we speak to computers and get an intelligent response? Seems Apple is working on exactly that.
Multi-multi-touch
Apple’s iPhone 3GS includes some of the most adventurous multitouch technology from Apple yet. Forget boring two-finger gestures. For the first time, Apple included three-finger shortcuts in the iPhone 3GS. The newest Apple laptops also support finger gestures to occupy more than your thumb and index finger, and it’s clear Apple’s set out to standardise pinching, dragging and rotating through fingertips by default.
Location awareness
We all know the iPhone 3G and 3GS have GPS built in, but Apple has been taking location services more seriously in recent months. First there was the iPhone 3G with built-in geotagging abilities. Then came iPhoto, crammed with sensible location-recognition technology that’s exclusive to Apple. Now the iPhone 3GS offers owners the ability to find their iPhone when it’s lost, send it messages or even wipe it. We know OS X Snow Leopard supports location awareness too, so what’s Apple planning?
Design
It might seem obvious, but Apple’s latest products have been no different to their predecessors, externally speaking. The iPhone 3GS is no different to the iPhone 3G, and the new 13 inch MacBook Pro offers just a few tweaks when compared to the existing aluminium MacBook. Those unchanged designs will be a boon to accessory makers, who’ll be able to sell last year’s kit as this year’s new add-on but what does it really mean? We’ve a sneaking suspicion something big is coming from Apple. It’s the proud owner of the world’s best industrial design team, yet it hasn’t cranked out anything entirely new since the unibody MacBook Pro in October last year. That begs the question: what have Jonny Ive and his team been up to for the last nine months?
Better proprietary iPhone apps
With the inclusion of video in the iPhone 3GS Apple stepped in a new direction, allowing rudimentary editing on the phone itself. Until now, Jobs and Co have always left the creative stuff to 3rd party app makers. There’s no way to tweak photos using the iPhone’s native software, for example, so why the difference for video? It seems Apple’s waking up to the power of it’s own brainchild and embracing it within its own apps. Will we soon see a mobile version of iMovie, iPhoto or even GarageBand? It’s looking more likely by the day.
Speed
Lately, Apple has become obsessed with speed. First it announced that OS X Snow Leopard will be up to 45% faster than its predecessor for some tasks, and then came the iPhone 3GS, with the S standing for “speed”. We can’t help thinking that, given the iPhone runs OS X itself, the two developments are linked. Has Apple snuck some Snow Leopard technology inside its handset to help chivvy it along? If not, then there’s even more reason to expect speed increases from Cupertino in the future.
Improved video chat
One of OS X Snow Leopard’s most overlooked features is the tweaks Apple has made to its iChat software. It now runs at better quality, but crucially with slower upload speeds. That might seem a boon to anyone with crumbly broadband, but we reckon there’s a hidden agenda here: making iChat work on mobile networks, which typically have sluggish upload abilities. Tie that suspicion to the fact the iPhone hasn’t had an external redesign for well over a year and we’re willing to bet there’s an iChat-capable iPhone in the works. When will we see it? That’s another question entirely.
Facial recognition
Apple debuted impressive facial recognition software in iPhoto’s latest update. Since then, however, it’s lain dormant. We’d expected to see it feature in the iPhone 3GS’s camera, offering automatic focusing on faces, but it was strangely absent. If it doesn’t make an appearance in a future update we’ll be very surprised, but there could be even more to hope for: imagine an iPhone with front-facing video camera. Yep, it’d work with iChat, but facial recognition would mean you’re always in focus at the other end. It could also help the iPhone recognise its owner, automatically unlocking itself when in the right hands. Obviously, it’s still speculation at present, but that doesn’t mean Apple hasn’t thought of it. Watch this space.
