Updates for iPhone, iPod touch

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 16 January 2008 03:27

IT Industry - Market

Apple has released software updates for its iPhone and iPod touch - but only one of them is free.

Changes to the iPhone software include a reworked Maps application that automatically estimates the user's location - a feature announced by Google last November. At that time, iTWire noted My Location "does not work on the iPhone, but given the collaboration between Apple and Google that is surely just a matter of time." A month and a half, as it turns out.

Unlike the generic version of My Location, the iPhone implementation can triangulate the position from nearby Wi-Fi base stations as well as mobile phone towers.

Along with support for iTunes Movie Rentals, iPhone software update 1.1.3 delivers the ability to send the same SMS to multiple recipients and to customise the home screen.

While the latter is presumably a prelude to the arrival of officially-sanctioned third-party applications, it also helps with the remaining new feature, Web Clips.

A Web Clip provides one-touch access to a particular part of a nominated web page, and so is especially useful for frequently referenced information such as exchange rates, sports scores and news tickers.

The software update will be delivered automatically via iTunes when the iPhone is next synced.

The iPod touch update also provides Web Clips and the customisable home screen, but also delivers five applications that are new to the touch.

Mail, Maps, Stocks, Weather and Notes are all self-explanatory. The mail application is as flexible as you might expect, being configurable to work with Gmail, .Mac Mail, Yahoo! Mail, or most IMAP or POP servers.

So why does it cost $US19.99/$A24.99? The last time Apple charged for a software update was when it introduced 802.11n software for Macs that were not sold as being 802.11n compatible. At the time, the company argued that accounting standards required that revenue be associated with the delivery of additional functionality, but that was widely discounted.

If that was the case, why isn't Apple charging for the iPhone update as that provides equally new functionality in the form of support for iTunes Movie Rentals?

The iPod touch update can be purchased from iTunes.