iPhone future roadmapped?

By Davey Winder
Monday, 10 November 2008 17:23

Market

Do you want an iPhone that wakes you up with coffee, flings newsfeeds onto the TV for easy reading and even starts your car for you?  Be careful what you wish for...

Last week, the never shy in coming forward Ralph de la Vega, head honcho over at exclusive US iPhone supplier AT&T, was taking part in a Q and A session at the San Francisco Web 2.0 Summit. One of the questions he was asked just happened to be what will the iPhone of tomorrow look like?

AT&T has already, at long last, delivered on the free iPhone WiFi promise. Now, it seems, it is working on upgrading the standard network with a new 850 MHz spectrum service to improve coverage in areas of dense population such as New York City for example.

You can book into a Miami hotel and be given an iPhone instead of a door key today although there is no sign of an iPhone with X-Ray Knicker Vision just yet.

But de la Vega went a little further in his answer to that 'iPhone of tomorrow' question than anyone really expected. There was the AT&T research lab stuff involving testing iPhone integration with a suite of Internet Television applications for a start.

This would, de la Vega insisted, allow voice mails to be heard on the TV, and TV shows to be downloaded to the iPhone. The iPhone could be used as a TV remote (nothing new there) but one that would also enable TV listings to be searched from the iPhone keyboard itself.

Still, not exactly the stuff of science fiction. Hold on to your hats, the real ride starts here. The man from AT&T described a scenario which starts with the iPhone alarm clock waking you up, and presenting you with pre-collected news it has already downloaded. You just need to see where it goes from there.

So if the idea of an iPhone alarm clock does not float your boat, what did de la Vega come up with that was truly jaw-dropping? And what about fixing the problems that the iPhone already has first? More on page 2...

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