Apple's white iPhone 4 may not be released yet, but new online videos use it to suggest some iOS features that never made it out of the lab. It might not be a glimpse into Apple's iOS future, but it's certainly an interesting artifact from the past.
On
April 19, the Vietnamese Website
Tinhte
posted a video clip of a white iPhone 4 in action-complete with what seemed
like a new multitasking menu, with thumbnail images of open apps arranged on a
grid. This differs from the current multitasking model used by iOS, which
presents open apps on a tray along the bottom of the screen. This look was
significant enough for the blog
Engadget
to repost it.
The
Apple-centric blog
9to5Mac
soon posted another video from Tinhte showing off the particulars of the white
iPhone, including the camera aperture and (via the Settings menu) 64GB
drive.
A
little later, Engadget updated its original post, suggesting that the
Expose-style multitasking and other features were indicative of "an early,
unreleased version of iOS 4" and "probably not something to get your hopes up
about."
In
a few isolated but notable incidents, Vietnamese Websites have offered up
interesting tidbits on upcoming Apple products. In May 2010, the online forum
Taoviet
posted images and video of a prototype iPhone 4, roughly similar to the one
dissected the previous month by Gizmodo.
The
white iPhone 4 is slated to arrive sometime this spring, according to multiple
sources, including
Apple
executive Philip Schiller.
In
the meantime, speculation is rampant about Apple's next iPhone and major iOS
overhaul. Current rumors suggest that the iPhone 5 could include Apple's A5
proprietary processor, an 8-megapixel camera, hardware upgraded to enable 3G
FaceTime video conferencing, and NFC (near-field communication) technology,
which would allow the smartphone to act as an electronic wallet.
Rumors
also abound that Apple plans to delay the iPhone 5 beyond the usual summer schedule
for its smartphone releases to sometime later in 2011. Other sources have
suggested to blogs like TechCrunch that iOS 5, the next iteration of Apple's
mobile software, will also see a later release, although its features will
almost certainly be previewed at the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference
(WWDC), in June.
"The
new iOS will be heavily built around the cloud, and we could see several new
services launch from Apple that take advantage of this," read TechCrunch's
March
26 report. "But much of the cloud stuff will be talked about first at
WWDC."
Although
Apple's mobile devices command a healthy market-share-particularly the iPad,
which dominates the tablet segment-the company faces aggressive competition
from the growing family of Google Android devices. In a lawsuit filed April 15
in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, Apple accused Samsung, one of the more
prominent Android-based manufacturers, of patent infringement-goading Samsung
to claim it would fire a counter-lawsuit right back.
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