Hasta La Gadget!

We’re here! Apple’s about to unveil the iPhone 3.0 OS, and Brian Lam and I are going to be covering it live. LIVE. And don’t forget to play pizza bingo while you follow the keynote.

Archive Below:

7:06 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
One of the benefits of having these keynotes in Cupertino instead of SF (for me) is the fact that I don’t have to wake up at 5 AM. Wee.

8:38 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:

8:41 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
We’re here! The weather’s surprisingly mild, so we’re not like freezing cattle outside waiting to be let in.

8:42 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Did you know John Mayer is on Twitter? I wonder if he’s going to be following this today. His Twitter background is an OS X desktop, so chances are good. But, he uses a BlackBerry. HMM.

8:48 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Still about an hour to go. People are slowly strolling in, already weary from the Bay Area traffic.

8:52 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Everyone try Oregon Trail for the iPhone yet? That thing is addicting—I spent many hours this weekend avoiding bears and dysentery. Some children didn’t make it. What, you expect me to stop for EVERY kid eaten by snakes?

8:54 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:


Hi! Brian here. Good morning!

8:58 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Oh, and farmer and banker are both good. Carpenter, less so.

9:00 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
What does everyone expect to see today? Post your prediction in the comments of the first post on Gizmodo. Here’s what I think. Cut & Paste, MMS/video, and new edible Phil Schiller edition iPhone. 32 delicious gigabytes.

9:05 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Not a whole lot of bald guys today, surprisingly.

9:05 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:

9:10 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Someone just set off the loudest alarm I have ever heard. Not me, I swear.

9:11 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
And now everybody is streaming outside. Is this a fire? Did Steve show up and start screaming at people?

9:13 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
We’re back inside. Disaster averted.

9:18 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Liveblog bingo is up! Go to the main page and print it out. What, your office doesn’t charge you. Print that crap in full color, highest quality.

9:20 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
40 minutes left. There’s a guy that looks EXACTLY like Matt Damon here.

9:22 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Actually, imagine if Matt Damon had a cousin that went to Stanford, graduated with a computer science degree after changing majors from chemical engineering. Then he decided to purchase a belt that doesn’t quite fit so well. That’s this guy.

9:25 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:
Don’t forget, you still have time to play the iPhone OS 3.0 Liveblog Pizza Bingo. You can get a bingo card here.

Also, if you want to make comments about and during the event, you can post your comments here.

9:26 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Then next to him, there’s a guy whose eyes are 2 inches too close to each other. If you’re saying to yourself, “hey, there are only two inches total between my eyes”, yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying.

9:30 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Dr. Drew from loveline, Kumar from Harold and Kumar, and that one guy from Band of Brothers and now 24 are also here.

9:32 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Speaking of 24, Jack Bauer is one person who will NEVER use an iPhone. It may be functional, but it would never survive a fistfight inside a quarry.

9:35 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
When the screen breaks, he would say “dammit”.

9:36 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:
There’s an interesting Italian villa theme going on inside of the Town Hall. I think they need to add a functional fountain in here.

9:36 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
24 minutes left.

9:37 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
What do you want in the next gen iPhone that can only be added through a hardware release? Front video camera, slightly more memory, Nike+ support.

9:44 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
We’re inside. The unofficial band of Apple, Coldplay, is playing.

9:45 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

9:45 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
It smells like doobies in here:

9:46 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

9:47 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
I think it’s the newspaper guys.

9:48 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:
Harry “Spartacus” McCracken of Technologizer.com

9:48 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Twelve excruciating minutes left til start.

9:50 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

9:50 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Now Jack Johnson is playing. I would must RATHER have John Mayer, if that wasn’t obvious from our previous liveblog last September.

9:52 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:


Heeeeeere’s Brian!

9:53 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:


Apple’s Jos and Katie Cotton, getting ready for the show.

9:54 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
And that’s half of me on the right, which LUCKILY, includes my crotch.

9:55 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:


After a dozen or so liveblogs, I realize that I have a biological radar for news, and that when it is imminent, I develop the need to urinate.

9:56 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Apple ad music!

9:57 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

9:57 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Getting excited. Like in theaters, a disembodied voice just told us to turn our phones off. They DIDN’T say iPhones, surprisingly.

9:59 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
I think this may be the only time anybody besides Phil Schiller’s wife and kids are SO excited about having him show up anywhere.

10:00 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:
Jason Chen, showing intense blogging face. BTW, at least 5 times at every trade show, someone calls me Jason Chen now. All look same.

10:00 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Chances of a one more thing today are slim.

10:00 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:01 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Music stopped. Apple’s Jos is stepping on stage. (Not Phil Schiller yet)

10:01 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:01 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Greg and Scott Forstall will be the ones presenting today, not Phil! As of this week, the iPhone is in 80 countries around the world.

10:02 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Greg Jos is a pretty slick speaker, btw. Slicker than Phil Schiller.

10:02 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:03 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
iPhone sales are up to 17 million through December 2008. If you count iPod Touch together with iPhones, they’ve sold 30 million devices.

10:03 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Jos is going through the history of the SDK now. They’ve had 800,00 downloads of the free iPhond SDK, plus 50,000 individuals and development companies join their paid iPhone program.

10:04 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Over 60% of these developers have never developed anything for Apple before. One of the guys at Gameloft, a major cellphone/portable game development company, says that the iPhone OS is “the next great development platform for Gameloft.”

10:05 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Steve Demeter, the guy who made Trism for iPhone, is on screen now in a short video of him biking and talking. Handsome guy! He just said said hello outside while we were waiting. Hey Steve!

10:05 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:06 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
His Trism game was made in his spare time OUTSIDE of his work, most likely allowing him to quit his job entirely. He lives in San Francisco and has a nice looking apartment. App Store money!

10:06 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:06 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Jos is back on the stage.

10:07 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:07 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Joswiak says there are 25,000 apps in the App Store. For their most current month of data, 96% of total apps have been approved. And of those, 98% of those have been approved in 7 days or less. There have been more than 800 million downloads of all apps total (8 months time).

10:07 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:08 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Jos is introducing Scott Forstall, SVP of iPhone Software to give us a preview of iPhone 3.0.

10:08 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:08 AM on MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Scott says the 3.0 software is a major update to all iPhones and iPod Touches.

10:09 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:09 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
To start, he’s going to talk about what Apple’s doing for developers in 3.0.

10:09 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
The SDK gives developers the same APIs and tools that they use (almost, there are some parts of the phone hidden for security and performance reasons). 3.0 brings 1,000 new APIs.

10:10 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:10 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
First, Scott is talking about enhancements to the App Store.

10:12 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Some developers have said they like to have other business models other than the current sell-once model that’s in the App Store. What are some? Subscriptions for magazine developers, additional levels for game devs, and eBook devs, who want to sell one app and sell eBooks inside the app. They’re supporting ALL of these things now with In App Purchase.

10:12 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:13 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Inside the app you will get prompts like continuing to purchase issues of magazines (6 issues for $5, for example), or buying more levels (add ten more levels for a game for $2).
10:13 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:13 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Another example is for city guides. Instead of selling a huge city guide app, you can sell one city guide app, then sell each individual city separately (and for more money) inside the app. The entire scheme is tied into the iTunes store.

10:13 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
It uses the same iTunes password and username, using the same APIs and same purchase scheme.

10:14 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:14 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
The business model for in-app purchase is the same as the store. The developer sets the price for each in-app item, 70% of the revenue goes to the developer, and there are no credit card fees. They continue to be paid monthly. This is ONLY for paid apps, not for a free app that developers want to charge for once you’ve already downloaded it.

10:15 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
So in essence, free apps are still totally free. You won’t be tricked into paying for anything.

10:15 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:15 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Next is support for Peer to peer connectivity.

10:15 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:15 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:

10:16 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
The new multiplayer connectivity allows you to bring up a dialog that lets you find local devices. The services provided are Automatic Discovery over Bluetooth (no Wi-Fi), no pairing, Bonjour, and isn’t just for games.

10:17 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
But this isn’t just for games, it works for ANY P2P application. For example, apps that can send business cards to another phone, in a handshake-like manner.

10:17 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:17 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Next, accessories. There are “thousands and thousands” of developers building accessories.

10:18 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:18 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
With the iPhone 3.0 SDK, they’re going to enable accessory developers to make custom applications that can communicate directly with the accessory. For example, an equalizer application on the phone that can control the equalizer on the speaker when it’s docked.

10:18 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:18 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Another example is an FM transmitter. With 3.0, the dev can build an app on the iPhone itself that can control the FM tuner, finding the best frequency to use at the current moment.

10:19 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:19 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
An even more esoteric application is for medical devices, like a blood pressure monitor that can dock into the iPhone that allows you to send your blood pressure directly to your doctor after you’ve measured it.

10:19 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
These accessories can talk to the phone over the dock connector AND over Bluetooth.

10:20 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:20 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
You can use standard protocols or build your own custom protocols.

10:20 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Next up is Maps.

10:20 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:21 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Many developers have asked Apple to use Google maps inside of their application. And it’s here. The Maps app can now be used as a public API and be embedded directly into any app.

10:21 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Everything is in there-pinch and zoom, custom annotations, satellite views, location tracking and location tracking.

10:22 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:22 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
There is also ONE MORE THING to do with Apps. Developers can now use CoreLocations to make Turn by Turn applications.

10:22 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:
Turn by Turn!

10:22 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:23 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
So now you can build a turn by turn application app, but you cannot use Apple’s Google Maps because of licensing issues. But you can bring your OWN maps (as a developer), and make turn by turn directions for the iPhone.

10:23 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:23 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:

10:23 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Now, Push Notification. “You know, we’re late on this one.” “There’s a few reasons for this, most importantly, within two months of launching the App Store, we had over a thousand applications on the app store.”

10:24 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Apple had to completely rearchitect the structure for the push notification in order to make it scalable for all the millions and millions of downloads. But now, they’re “good to go.”

10:24 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Developers asked them to do background processing, because it’s “easier to do background processing.” But Apple says it’s “not good for the customer.”

10:25 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Apple’s been testing background processing on other phones (Windows Mobile, Android) by opening up IM app, and just having it run in the background lowers battery by 80%.

10:26 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
By using Apple’s push notifications, battery life only dropped by 23% when an IM app is “open” in the background, listening for messages.

10:26 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:27 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Here’s how Push notification works again. The Push notification service has a persistent connection to the phone, so you can get notifications all the time. The three things you can send are badge alerts, text alerts and audio alerts. Text alerts appear like SMS alerts, badges show up on the app icon, and audio alerts (like AIM) plays in the background.
10:27 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:27 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
To be perfectly clear, this means no background processing yet. Just push notifications.

10:27 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:27 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:

10:28 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
In game voice chat is also one of the various APIs now open, as is iPod library access, proximity sensor, audio recorder, battery API, streaming audio and video, data detectors, text selection (oh??? is this for copy and paste??) UI alert view, sake API (for rumble) and GPS lingo.

10:29 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Scott says they asked a few developers to come in and make some apps in just two weeks with the 3.0 API. They’re going to show some demos now.

10:29 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
First is meebo, the IM app.

10:30 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
From meebo, it’s Seth Sternberg, the CEO of meebo.

10:30 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:31 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
What are some of the new features in meebo? First, there’s IM networks like AOL/MSN, networks like Facebook, plus proprietary social networks like MyYearBook.

10:32 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Why did meebo wait until now to build an app? Because they felt like push notification was NECESSARY to make a complete IM user. They wanted to allow an easy way to quit out of the app and get back in “when it made sense.”

10:33 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Their extra “spice” in their App allows you to connect to social networking sites and get alerts from your friends when they’ve done things you may be interested in.

10:33 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:35 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
They’re showing a demo of Sims 3, which looks actually pretty great for a phone.

10:35 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
EA is going to have in-app commerce, having you buy items for the Sims in the App Store directly from the game for $0.99 each.

10:36 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
For example, playing music from the stereo in the game lets you play music back from YOUR music library (from the 3.0 SDK API).

10:36 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:36 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
“Next up is Oracle.” Which elicited audible groans from the audience, despite their CEO being Steve Jobs’ good friend.

10:38 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
This is your chance to go grab a sandwich. Unless you’re your company’s IT guy that’s trying to get business apps onto your enterprise’s iPhones. Then you’ll be RIVETED.

10:38 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:
Bore-acle, I mean, Oracle:

10:38 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
The Oracle guys are talking about their app that tracks supply line and blah blah chain blah blah company stuff.

10:39 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
The Oracle app goes and pulls out data from their backend CRM server, which you can use to find the account rep and contact him over email, phone or SMS.

10:39 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Oracle’s done.

10:40 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
JD Power ranked the iPhone #1 for customer satisfaction for business smartphone users.

10:40 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Next is ESPN, moving their webapp to a native app with iPhone 3.0.

10:41 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Their ESPN Alerts app brings text alerts directly to your phone using the push notification service, plus play the ESPN tone whenever that happens.

10:41 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:42 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:42 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
They’re sharing off a video directly inside the app, using the new media player that pulls down the appropriate quality video depending on your connection.

10:43 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:

10:43 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:43 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
With this app, ESPN doesn’t have to deliver for the “lowest common denominator”, and can scale video quality automatically using the API so you get the best quality for your connection type.

10:44 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Next is LifeScan, a Johnson&Johnson company in glucose monitoring.

10:44 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:45 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
LifeScan’s app is for people with diabetes in order to “simply diabetes management.”

10:46 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:46 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
In their example, they’re putting themselves into the shoes of Maddie, a 15-year-old girl with diabetes. She tests herself six times a day and injects insulin multiple times a day. First she needs to prick her finger and get her glucose reading. Now the insulin meter can transmit her reading to her iPhone over Bluetooth or over the 30-pin dock connector.

10:47 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
She can then track her readings and mark them appropriately as before a meal or after a meal. Then she can track what kind of food she’s eating and how much of it, plugging it into the iPhone, which will tell her exactly how much insulin she needs after her meal.

10:48 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Maddie can then re-calculate on the phone if she then needs less insulin because she’s going to exercise later.

10:48 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
With the iPhone app, she can then let her parents know that she’s OK by sending them a message directly through the app that has her glucose level and how she feels.

10:49 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:50 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:50 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
The app shows her glucose levels in chart form and can list out all her previous readings.

10:51 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Next up is ngmoco:), the people who made Rolando (I’m pretty sure).

10:5 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:

10:52 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:53 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:53 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Today, they’re showing two upcoming games. First is Touch Pets, a social pet simulator. Second is LiveFire, a multiplayer first person shooter over 3G or Wi-Fi.

10:53 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
One of the uses of Touch Pet is a push notification of a “play date with someone else’s dog.”

10:54 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:54 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
The dogs are playing together. You can buy clothes and random crap for your dog. Toys. Food. I wonder what happens if your dog starves, or whether you can beat up other dogs who are on a play date with your dog.
10: AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:55 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Next LiveFire, a FPS game.

10:56 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
You control the FPS by touching anywhere on the left side of the screen, then shoot with your right thumb.

10:57 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
You can then send push notifications to your friends on your friend list in order to invite them into your game. You can BUY new weapons for real money (rocket launcher), and play together with your buddies.

10: AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:58 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Pretty fun, with Quake 1ish graphics and relatively smooth (for a phone) framerate.

10:58 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

10:58 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Next up is smule, the people who made the Ocarina app.

10:59 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
They’re inviting Dr. Wang on stage to talk. Wang is an assistant professor at Stanford.

10:59 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:00 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Their new app is Leaf Trombone (World Stage).

11:01 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:01 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
It’s a similar idea to Ocarina and lets you slide the trombone on the right, change the range on the left and play by blowing into the microphone.

11:01 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Wang’s talking in a loud, breathy whisper, and is kinda creeping me out.

11:01 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:02 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Wang and his friend are demoing playing Phantom, of the Opera on Leaf Trombone. It sounds like Phantom of the Opera, for sure, and it’s definitely cool.

11:03 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Wang’s gone, and Scott’s back on stage.

11:03 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:03 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:

11:04 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Now, finally, onto the customer side. It has more than 100 new features. INCLUDING, Cut, Copy and Paste.

11:04 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:04 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Scott’s now demo-ing the copy and paste feature on a phone running iPhone 3.0.

11:05 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Here’s how you select text. double tap onto a bit of text and it automatically places a “CUT, COPY, PASTE” bubble above your current selection. Double tap to bring up a paste bubble later to paste.

11:0 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:06 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
To select an entire block of text, put your thumb on the right drag point and drag it to where you want your block of text to end. You can drag the left drag point as well.

11:07 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
You can drag between apps as well (obviously), through the same process. Double tap, then drag in order to select what text you like, then double tap and paste to paste it.

11:0 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:08 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
You can also copy and paste web content. The phone uses the same analytics engine in Safari that they do for zooming in order to know which selection to select for copying. Yes, HTML paste for copying. If you didn’t mean to paste something, shake your phone in order to Undo (or Redo) your paste.

11:08 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:
undo by shaking:

11:09 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
There’s a photo icon inside the SMS app, and Scott called it the “Messages” application, which means there SHOULD be MMS coming soon too.

11:10 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
One more thing he wants to show you is Photos. You can now send more than one photo at a time with 3.0 by tapping the action button, selecting a bunch of photos, copying, and then pasting it into the Mail app.

11:11 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Cut and paste can work across multiple apps, has undo support, can work with developer APIs, and can use Cocoa Touch support for regular text.

11:11 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:12 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Next, Landscape. Apple’s had support for landscape mode for Safari since launch, and can enter text in wide-keyboard mode. Now you can use landscape in “all key applications” including Mail.

11:12 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
They’re also adding support with the big keyboard for composing messages in Mail as well. It also works in Notes and the “Messages” application.

11:13 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:13 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Next up is “Messages”, which they will enhance in 3.0. You can forward and delete messages-individual messages or multiple messages.

11:13 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:14 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
The BIG news is that they’re adding support for MMS (as we spotted earlier). You can send and receive Photos right over the network. Contacts (VCard). Audio files. Or your location. No word about video yet though.
11:14 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:

11:1 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Next, Voice Memos. (No sending video in Messages it seems). You can record voice memos to yourself, lectures, interviews using the built in microphone or an external microphone. You can trim it using the phone itself, then send it on using email or MMS.

11:15 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:15 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:16 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Then there’s Calendar. They had personal calendars first, then Exchange (last year) and MobileMe. They’re now adding CalDAV, a calendar standard that’s supported by a lot of people like Google and Yahoo. It’s useful for shared calendars. Second is subscriptions, using the .ics format.

11:16 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:16 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Now is Stocks. They’re adding support for news stories (headlines) in the bottom of the app, plus details like highs and lows and PEs. There’s also landscape view.

11:17 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:17 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Search! Not only can you search inside the Contacts application, which was there in iPhone 2.0, you can now search in all of the key applications, including Mail.

11:17 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:
Search in Mail! Works on the server using iMAP:

11:17 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
If your search isn’t found on your iPhone, the search continues on the server.

11:18 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
There’s also search in Calendar, iPod (search by artist, album, etc) and Notes.

11:18 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:19 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
There’s now a new home screen where you can search across all those applications, and they call it Spotlight. The search is to the left of your regular home screen, and you access it by flicking left from your standard home.

11:19 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:20 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:20 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
You can also search Apps and use Spotlight as a quick launcher instead of going all the way to the 8th screen and searching for your app.

11:20 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:22 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Basically, search searches most of the major Apple-developed apps.

11:22 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:22 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:

11:22 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Other good features: Notes Sync, audio/video tags, live streaming, shake to shuffle, Wi-Fi auto login, Stereo Bluetooth, LDAP, iTunes account creation, YouTube ratings, Anti-Philshing, Call Log, Parental Controls, Media Scrubber, OTA profiles, VPN on demand, Languages, YouTube subscriptions, YouTube accounts and Encrypted profiles. Also, auto-fills. The biggest addition here is probably Stereo Bluetooth A2DP support.

11:22 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:
TONS OF NEW FEATURES:

11:23 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:24 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
To recap the big features in 3.0: In-App purchase to enable more app functionality, peer to peer connectivity, accessory connectivity, Google map controls, push notifications, cut and paste, landscape mode, Messages (MMS), voice memos, new Calendar support, enhancements to the Stock App and search (Spotlight). Plus, Bluetooth, if you’re really looking forward to that one.

11:24 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Scott’s leaving the stage and Jos is coming back on.

11:24 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:25 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
How are they going to make it available? First as a Developer Beta available TODAY. It’s going to be available to everyone in the iPhone developer program. You can join now and get access to the beta. They’ll have more info on their website as well.

11:26 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
They’ll be hosting developer forums where you can share 3.0 development information with other devs.

11:26 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
The App Store is now available in 77 countries, out of a total 80 countries that the iPhone is available in.

11:26 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:


Who’s the keynote master? Forstall has excellent presentation duration, going for over an hour with little help, but Jos is so natural. It’s like this is his livingroom.

11:27 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
How about regular people, not developers? They’re going to ship it “this summer.” It will be a free update to iPhone 3G customers. It works on the original iPhone as well, so that not ALL the features will be available (like MMS and Stereo Bluetooth) on the 2G iPhone.

11:27 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
It’s also going to be available for both generations of iPod Touch users as a $9.95 update.

11:27 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:
Free this summer! But the old iPhone won’t get the MMS or Stereo Bluetooth.

11:28 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
The developer beta again, is available today, and will ship to regular users this summer.

11:28 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Phil Schiller and Scott Forstall are coming up on stage for a short Q&A. It’s not over yet!

11:29 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:

11:30 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:
People are clearing out, but the media is staying for a reprogramming session. MUST OBEY.

11:32 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q&A’s starting now.

11:33 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: Josh Quittner, Time: Why did it take so long so get Cut and Paste into the iPhone?
A: There’s a user interface you need to design, security issues, and “there’s a lot of pieces you need to worry about instead of getting osmething that doesn’t work right.”

11:34 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: Video is still a blackhole if you visit a website with flash.
A: We have no announcements on Flash today.

11:34 AM ON MAR 17 2009
B. Lam:

11:36 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: Could you qualify a bit more about the peer to peer. It looks like it’s available across the two iPhones, but it seems like you can do peer to peer with other Bluetooth devices.
A: It’s really a device to device Bluetooth connection. It’s 1 to 1, using Bluetooth and Bonjour to discover other devices and make an IP connection.

11:36 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: So you can control devices…?
A: Yes, now you can, with third-party applications, control and talk to accessories over Bluetooth.

11:38 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: Are people able to trade files, say music files, through iPods with this?
A: We have the ability to stream music to music apps, and certainly a game, if a game has music in the game it would be possible to download game tracks, but if would be confusing for other music apps with downloadable music that isn’t through the app store.

11:39 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: Where do you stand on tethering?
A: There’s two pieces needed to support that: client side and working with carriers. We’re absolutely supporting tethering in the client side in iPhone 3.0, but we’re working with carriers around the world to see when they can add tethering support on their networks. But we are building that support into iPhone 3.0.

11:39 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: Can you say anything about hardware?
A: No.
Q: Netbooks?
A: Nothing to announce today.

11:40 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: Bluetooth human input device profile for external keyboards.
A: We have nothing to announce.

11:40 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: Will you make any promises about push notification in terms of uptime?
A: No. We want it to be as reliable as possible.

11:41 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: On the voice memo, you mentioned external microphones. Could you use an off-the-shelf microphone?
A: Yes absolutely, if you have an adapter.

11:42 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: Are you addressing some of the performance issues in the current OS? It’s slightly laggy, are you going to address that in 3.0.
A: We absolutely take performance very seriously. These units, because they’re tethered, are more laggy than you would see on standalone units. But we are addressing lagginess in our own ways.

11:43 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Jason Chen:
Q: Is there a physical hardware problem on the first-gen iPhone that prevents it from doing MMS.
A: It’s a different radio, so it is a physical issue.

11:44 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: With Peer to Peer, can you have access to other iTunes library?
A: You can see them but I don’t know if you can play them.

11:46 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
Q: Do you have any comments on your app acceptance scheme?
A: We want to help developers to be very successful. We also want a store where customers feel great about the quality of what they get, so the numbers speak for themselves. [Kind of a non-answer here]

11:48 AM ON MAR 17 2009
Jason Chen:
And that’s it. Thanks for reading, and hit up the main Gizmodo site for more posts and analysis soon. See you guys next time!

11:49 AM ON MAR 17 2009
ccmascari:

Sure, we’re still anticipating — but not necessarily merrily — the release of Windows Mobile 6.5, but for those who wish to look even farther into the future, Microsoft head honcho Steve Ballmer said in a conference call this week that WinMo 7 will be out sometime next year. That jibes pretty well with what we’ve heard from Motorola and ZDNet before, although there’s probably a dozen or so known unknowns that could push it well into 2011 or beyond. For now, however, we’re willing to take Steve at his word. Hey, at least they’re not gearing up for a Windows Mobile 6.75 in the interim… right?

Filed under: Cellphones

Steve Ballmer pounds chest, decrees Windows Mobile 7 coming next year originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 Feb 2009 18:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you read Gizmodo, the odds are good you’re carrying one of these two pieces-they’re among our favorite 3G smartphones right now. Today let’s learn how to tether ’em up to your laptop.

Note: while data tethering is possible on each phone without any additional tethering plan, you’ll want to be careful that you’re not accidentally seeding a bunch of torrents or something when you’re connected via your cellphone. While we’re pretty sure you’ll be OK doing standard surfing, we can’t guarantee you won’t get slapped with some charge, somehow.

So let’s get started.

What You’ll Need
• For G1: USB cable, Tetherbot App, Android SDK, Firefox
• For iPhone: iPhoneModem app, Jailbroken phone

G1 Tether
This guide is based on the instructions and Android app written by Graham Stewart. Many huzzahs to Graham for figuring out this easy tether setup. This one, however, is a SOCKS proxy instead of a true modem tether, so it’s limited to Firefox browsing-you won’t be able to use any other apps unless you can configure them to connect via a proxy yourself. We’ve tested with Firefox though, and it works great.

1. Go here on your G1’s browser and install the Tetherbot app. If unknown sources are not enabled on your phone (under Settings -> Applications -> Unknown Sources) do that first.

2. Turn on USB Debugging under Settings -> Applications -> Development and connect your phone via USB.

3. Get your Android SDK set up. If you’re on Windows, you’ll need to download and install a driver.

4. On your phone, fire up the Tetherbot app and tap the “Start Socks” button.

5. Now, the SDK incantation. In a terminal window on Mac or a run window on Windows, navigate to the “tools” folder within your SDK directory and then type the following:

Mac:

./adb forward tcp:1080 tcp:1080

Windows:

adb forward tcp:1080 tcp:1080

6. Now, in Firefox, go to Options -> Advanced -> Network, and click to configure how Firefox connects to the Internet. In the window that pops up, choose “Manual proxy configuration” and clear out everything that might be there. Under SOCKS host, type “localhost” and change the port to 1080. Hit OK, and you should be in business. Easy right?

iPhone Tether
For this, you’ll need to jailbreak your phone. All you need to know to do that can be found in this post on the iPhone Dev Blog. If you’re running OS X, I STRONGLY recomment using Pwnage Tool instead of QuickPwn to manually create a jailbroken software image and install it via iTunes-I have yet to get QuickPwn to work with my phone, and I have no idea why.

One caveat: there are two iPhoneModem apps-one, found at iPhoneModem.de is free, and comes with a utility that makes tethering on a Mac easy. That’s the tutorial we’re following here. They claim it’s possible to use on Windows, but there is no companion app and, unfortunately, no Windows instructions.

The other iPhoneModem is nagware ($10 to get rid of the nags), and does include a Windows config app, which we have not tested. If you’re running windows, try that one, and let us know how it goes in the comments. There is also another method using an app called 3proxy that requires lots of manual configuration, but that one may also be worth a try. Update: Commenters are also recommending PDANet for Windows tethering, which is in Cydia as well.

1. Once you’re jailbroken, open up Cydia and install the package called “iPhone Modem zsrelay” – you can find it by searching “modem.” Also install OpenSSH – find it by searching “SSH.” BossPrefs is also recommended, so you can make sure SSH is running.

2. Download the iPhoneModem.de helper app and run it, and go to “Settings…” under the little iPhone icon that just appeared in the status bar.

3. Fill in the following fields:

IP-Address of Mac: Leave the default value (192.168.100.1)
Password of Mac: Your admin password
WLAN Name: The name of the ad-hoc network that will be created – your choice
WLAN Password: It must be 13 characters-your choice as long as it’s 13
SOCKS Port: Leave default (9999)
iPhone root Password: alpine (as long as you’re running 2.x firmware)
iPhone Mac Address: Found under Settings – General – About – make sure you use the wi-fi MAC address.

4. Once your config is saved, go to “start connection” and follow the prompts. Your Mac will create an ad-hoc network, which you will then join with your iPhone (make sure you get an IP address on your iPhone before continuing). Everything should go smoothly, and voila, you’re tethered!

Hope you enjoyed our how-to. For more on iPhone jailbreak apps, see yesterday’s essentials list, and more how-to guides here. Enjoy the weekend!

Android’s new 1.1 update doesn’t include multitouch because Google is scared of Apple. We are not, however, and nor should you be-follow our guide to get iPhone-like multitouch browsing on your G1 right now.

As teased yesterday, this update will also give you all the new Android 1.1 firmware features, so if you haven’t received your over-the-air update from T-Mobile yet, wait no more and follow our guide. And on top of the added multitouch features, the hacked ROM you’re going to install will also include handy root access to your G1 for further hacking.

Many thanks in particular to the folks at the xda-developers forum, the #1 hangout for HTC phone tweakers on the web.

What You’ll Need:
• Your G1
• USB cord
• JFv1.41_RC33.zip-an Android RC33 ROM With Multitouch assembled by a nice chap that goes by the name of JesusFreke.
• An old RC29 ROM (with root access bug)
• An Android recovery image
• A micro-SD card reader (maybe, if you mess things up)
• The Android SDK (for installing more multitouch demos)

Let’s get started:

Downgrade Your Android Software to Gain Root Access
Even though Android is open source, access to the root user is disabled by default, so you still have to work to get root access. To do that you have to exploit a well publicized bug in an earlier Android build that easily allows you to slip into root access easily.

Note: In doing this, you will lose everything you have saved to your phone. Your synced Google Account info will of course stay put, but you’ll lose your installed apps, text messages, and anything you have on your SD card. Searching “backup” in the Android Market will lead you to apps that can backup your SMS messages and other files.

1. Your phone is likely running either the RC30 (1.0) or the new RC33 (1.1) version of the Android software (you can check under Settings -> About phone -> Build number). RC29 is the one with the bug, so you’ll need to download that file here (grab this one if you’re in the UK, and perhaps seek out a UK-specific guide, as we’re talking North American language here and I don’t want you to hurt your phone).

2. Reformat your phone’s SD card to the FAT32 format.

3. Rename the downloaded file to exactly this: DREAIMG.NBH in all caps for the extension and the filename. It matters. It will still show up with a lowercase extension in the bootloader, but that’s OK, as long as the file you dropped on your SD card was named properly, you won’t get a FAIL.

4. Drop the downloaded and renamed RC29 file onto your SD card via USB, power your phone off, and then power it back on while holding down the camera button. This will bring you into the bootloader. Press the power button to start the update, which will wipe your phone and install the old software.

5. When it’s done you should get a declaration of success. After that, hit the trackball button (known as the “action button” in the darker recesses of the G1’s bootloader) and then press Call, Menu and End simultaneously to reboot into your downgraded G1. You’ll see that you’re starting from scratch.

6. Sign in to your Google account and then grab the “Telnet” app from the market. You’ll need this to exploit your newly gained root access.

Update Your G1 With a Multitouch-Enabled ROM
Now that you have not only the permission but the impetus to do naughty things with root access, it’s time to install the updated Android files.

These are assembled by a nice chap that goes by the name of JesusFreke on various phone-hacking forums. He’s the one, primarily, who made all this multi-touching on the G1 possible.

1. Grab Le Freke’s RC33 v1.41 ROM (the one with multitouch goodness baked in) and rename it from “JFv1.41_RC33.zip” to “update.zip”-all lowercase-and copy it to your SD card.

2. Also grab this tweaked “recovery.img” file and also copy it to your SD card. Eject your SD card from your desktop and unplug the USB cable when you’re done.

3. Now that you’re in the exploit-y RC29 version, your phone will start responding to various Linux commands you type on the keyboard no matter what you happen to be doing in Android at the time. Fun! What you need to type to get root access is:

UPDATE:Due to some HTML weirdness, this command didn’t show up properly before. What you have to do here is press the enter key twice, then type “telnetd” (no quotes) and then hit enter once more. Sorry for the confusion:

[enter] [enter] telnetd [enter]

You may find yourself in some odd place in the OS, but it doesn’t matter-if done correctly, a telnet server should be running in the background on your phone.

4. Open up the Telnet app you downloaded from the Market, type in “localhost” in the box if it’s not there already, and tap “Connect to server.” You’ll see some weird ASCII characters, but all should be well. To test, type this in at the prompt (make sure you’ve ejected your SD card from your computer and detached the USB cable):

ls /sdcard

You should see the names of the files you copied (if you don’t, try step 3 and 4 again).

5. Now it’s time for some more command line magic. You’ll need to type four more commands to mount the file system in a writeable state, change to the system directory, copy the recovery.img file from your SD card to your phone’s /system directory, and flash the recovery image, in that order:

mount -o remount,rw /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system

cd /system

cat /sdcard/recovery.img > recovery.img

flash_image recovery recovery.img

You won’t get any response from any of these commands other than a slight pause before the next prompt appears-that means you’ve done everything correctly. If you get any error messages, check for typos and try again.

6. Power down your phone, then power it back on again. One power cycle is required to complete the magic.

7. Power down your phone AGAIN. And now, while off, start it up by holding the Home button along with Power; your phone will enter into recovery mode, which normally shows a caution icon with a phone, but will in this case stream a bunch of Linux code on the screen. Wait for that to calm down, and you will reach the ROM flashing screen of Mr. Freke’s design. If all looks good, press Alt+S to flash your ROM, then press Home+Back when prompted to restart into your multitouch-enabled G1.

8. Open up the browser, and try the ol’ pinch-to-zoom gesture. Hey, what’s that? Zooming! It’s not lighting fast at the moment, but I’d say it still beats pressing plus and minus buttons to zoom.

While Mr. JesusFreke is responsible for packaging this up for consumption, we can thank Mr. Luke Hutchison for the actual multitouch coding. His blog sheds more insight on the state of the multitouch implementation you’re now playing with, and illustrates how it will soon improve. But let’s play some more.

Download More Multitouch-Enabled Apps
In the flashed ROM you just installed, only the WebKit browser has been tweaked to accept multitouch input. But your fun shan’t stop there. Hutchison has provided a few more demo apps-including a simple Google Maps app, photo browser and fun Multitouch visualizer. You can download them all in .apk package format from his site.

To install an APK package via the Android SDK, make sure you’ve enabled “Unknown sources” under Settings -> Applications, then follow these instructions for Windows or, for Mac:

1. Open the Terminal and navigate to the directory where you unzipped the Android SDK (you can auto-fill the Unix path to any file or directory in Finder by dragging it to the cursor point in Terminal):

cd

2. Then, with your phone plugged in via USB, type:

./tools/adb install

3. After the “Success” message, voila, the app is now on your phone.

And that’s about it! Enjoy multitouch browsing, and for more Android hacking on the G1, check out these sites:

References
• AndroidWiki
• XDA Developers Wiki
• XDA Developers Forum

HTC’s successor to the G1 is on the way, but with few details to go on, we’ve compiled a wish list of what could make the sequel to a good phone significantly better.

We’ve included lots of hardware-only feature we want to see, but also on our list are improvements to Android that could be made independently of any phone. But with Android, phone makers can customize and modify the distribution that shows up inside their phones, as long as its done responsibly and in a way that allows future stock updates to still apply. We’d love to see HTC put some innovation into Android for the G2.

As we’ve said several times before, Android will only be as good as the developers making software for it. And so far, due to a lack of market saturation and a number of small to significant obstacles (many of which we’re proposing fixes for here), we haven’t seen that developer community take off. Here’s a list of features we could see on the G2 that could go a long way toward changing that.

• Better Battery Life: For God’s sake. Please. One of the G1’s most crippling shortcomings is its horrific battery life, and the fix will have to go beyond simply squeezing in a more dense Li-ion cell (although that would be nice too). No, the root of the problem needs to be addressed—namely, Android’s power-hogging connection management, and the G1’s inefficient 3G and wi-fi chips. Whether it’s primarily one or the other or a combination of both, HTC and Google need to sit down and get this right, because a mandatory lunchtime charge just to make it through the day under standard use is totally unacceptable.

• A Smooth, Consistent UI That’s Skinnable: One of our major gripes with the G1 (and Android in general) was a lack of consistency across its UI. Sometimes a long-press pulls up a contextual menu, sometimes it selects something, sometimes it does nothing at all. Graphically, the OS itself could use a bit of polish in several places, although the fundamental design vocabulary we’re OK with. Thankfully, Android is flexible and open source, and HTC is totally capable of bringing its own UI improvements to the stack as a whole, or offer them only on HTC phones.

HTC already has experience in re-skinning mobile operating systems, and even though TouchFlo isn’t that great sitting on top of Windows Mobile, it does look pretty, and placed on top of Android’s decidedly more solid and competent foundation, a slightly tweaked graphical UI—that still stays true to Android’s fundamentals—would be cool to see.

• Sexy Hardware: The shots we’ve seen look great and all, but we want an Android phone that’s really going to wow us. We know HTC has it in them—they’ve given us blue balls a-plenty with the Euro-only Touch HD. Let’s see some high-end hardware—be it an ultra-high res screen, a slick form factor, anything—to get the blood pumping a little.

• Better Media Handling (and a F@#&ING 3.5mm Headphone Jack!): Android’s media apps feel half-assed. People now expect to have a fully functioning PMP built into their phone—that is one area where the iPhone truly pushed things forward. And while the G1 will never work natively with iTunes (prove me wrong!), it can do a lot better with their media apps. By adding video playback, for one. And maybe better playlist management, and an overall sexier look. And of course, almost above all else: a 3.5mm headphone jack. DEATH TO DONGLES!

• Ditch the Qwerty Keyboard: My opinion is not mainstream, as many companies and studies have cited general public favorability for physical keyboards over touch—but touch keyboards, done right, are the future. I have yet to play with the soft keypad found in Android’s forthcoming “Cupcake” OS, but if it’s good enough to fluidly handle texting and light emailing, that’s all i need. This will allow for a much slimmer profile for the hardware and a more intuitive (and less schizophrenic) control setup. Word from the source of the leaked G2 images is that the QWERTY has in fact been ditched, but with no side shot, we can’t tell yet for certain. Hope so.

• Front Camera/Video Chatting: Google Talk already can handle video chats easily via its web interface and standalone app; why not bring it to the phone for the first truly mainstream mobile video chatting package, which could be a killer app? For that we’ll need a front camera (something we don’t see clear evidence of in the spy shots).

•Built-in Flash Memory: We are oh so happy that the G1 has an integrated microSD card slot for added storage flexibility, but built-in memory ensures that we don’t lose access to images or music if we need to switch SD cards.

• Add Multiple Google Accounts: Another huge crutch for the Google Accounts integration is the ability to only use one account at a time, and the fact that you have to perform a full phone reset to switch. That’s ridiculous. Not only do we want to use the superior Gmail app interface with our work email (which also uses a Google Account for Domains), but we don’t want to have to wipe everything on our phone to change accounts. A smart interface for living with multiple Google accounts on your phone would solve all of this.

•Give Users the Option of Desktop Sync: Only being able to use Google Contacts was a huge, huge pain when I first set up my G1. I had never used that system, so I had to figure out the best way to get my OS X Address Book contacts into Google and then into my G1. But I’m still wading through dupes and contacts I don’t want on my phone, which I’m too lazy to fix because it’s not intuitive. And if it’s not intuitive for me, God help the average Joe.

• Wireless File/Media Sync: As a corollary to desktop sync, let’s go crazy and make it wireless. This will be another leg-up on you-know-who, and even if it’s just for media and file syncing, the ability to easily pair my phone to my PC via Bluetooth or, better yet, auto-detecting wi-fi to transfer files back and forth would be great, and one less cable on my desk.

• System-Wide Multitouch: We know for a fact it’s possible. And we also know Google is scared of potential litigation from Apple. But until Android adds multitouch as a core service for every app developer to utilize in creative new ways, it won’t be a cutting edge platform.

• Android Market Tune-Ups: There are two major problems with the Android Market right now—there is no easy way to manage updates, and there is no way to browse through the available apps via the web, or any place other than on your phone. As for upgrades, apps can phone home to an upgrade server, but all that usually brings is a notification to go download the updated app manually from the store. And as far as the lack of a Market web interface, this is a problem for a lot of people—the developers who don’t get any exposure, the potential G1 buyers who want to browse what’s available, and, frankly, the press who publicize the apps and don’t want to waste precious time wading through a lousy interface to find apps. These are both Android-specific problems, but let’s hope some improvements here come hand in hand with the G2’s launch.

More:
• Android G2 Photos: Thinner and No Keyboard
• T-Mobile G1 Google Android Phone Review