According to AppleInsider, Near Field Communications reports that Apple has built iPhone prototypes equipped with RFID (Radio-Frequency IDentification).
For those unfamiliar, RFID is either super-convenient, terrifyingly insecure, or both. In a nutshell, it broadcasts a signal that can be read from a short distance to process financial transactions (an easy-pay card), determine identity (some nations’ passports), and more futuristic concepts where devices can auto-discover and connect with each other based on their tags.
The convenient part is you could swipe your iPhone to pay for goods or services rather than carrying around cards. Your iPhone could also keep track of tagged item like keys so you can find them between your sofa cushions.
The terrifying part is when hackers and other bad guys read your financial information from a distance, or “see” what country you’re from when trying to determine targets in less friendly parts of the world. Or, just use them to track you instead of your keys.
The future is not for the timid, however, so let us know — do you want?
On Friday, Apple shipped Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, their latest computer operating system (which is jailbreaker safe!), and for the first time focus wasn’t on fabulous new consumer-facing features, but on internal re-architecting, the (far too often quoted) refinements and enhancements.
Many of these advancements, as we’ve discussed before, were leveraged from work done for the iPhone version of OS X. QuickTime X, with its yellow trim bars and built-in sharing are an obvious example.
We’ve already seen Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard technology like Data Detectors cross-over to the iPhone, but with this newest, arguably greatest version of Mac OS X now on the market, what can we look forward too for the next generation(s) of iPhone OS X?
That’s what some are taking away from the analyst briefings we linked to last week. Apple would have only one hardware platform, but different versions of the software for different SKUs of the iPhone.
Sigh. It’s hard enough to convince people that software isn’t just math, and math isn’t free, without dodgy OS stripping schemes artificially creating crippled, low-end versions. Apple thus far has known this — Mac OS X comes in only two versions, client and server. Likewise, they tend to have their free/cheap regular software like iPhoto, and pro apps like Aperture.
Could we see a “pro” version of the iPhone OS? Perhaps, but while the guts of the device would likely stay the same for compatibility and component cost reasons, it’s hard to see no hardware differentiation like more storage, better camera, tweaked casing. After all, that’s what Apple’s historically done with MacBooks and MacBook Pros.
If Apple did go with pure software differentiation, might also make for yet another interesting chapter in the Jailbreak cat-and-mouse game…
Apple believing their software differentiates the iPhone from OTHER smartphones is something they’ve made a point of making a point about since launch (and likely what they meant again this time). But differentiating within the iPhone platform? Well, we just hope they’re leaning towards iPhone Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate. Because, you know, people just loved that about Windows Vista.
If it’s May, it must be pre-WWDC insanity season, and TiPb is expecting lots of leaks, fake leaks, and fake fake leaks. Also, lots of fun fanboi renderings like the videos embedded above and after the break, courtesy of Business Insider.
Not real, no way, but are these anything like the iPhonechromatic or Unibody models you’d like to see Apple release at some point?
MacNN has unearthed an Apple patent that shows the concept of aluminum unibody design, first displayed in the current MacBook line, applied to iPods and even — potentially — the iPhone.
Gizmodo has presented some concepts along theselines before, though we’re still not sure how Apple would get around interfering with the 3G HSPA, and future 3.5G HSPA+ and 4G LTE and other radios inside a connected device (which is why they switched to plastic in the current gen iPhone to begin with).
Still, from a sheer design, build quality, and fit and finish perspective… drool.
