Apple's 3G iPhone: eBook Revisits And Graphics Code Development Resources
Continued from ‘Apple’s 3G iPhone: Teardown Technical Thoughts‘…
No surprise; the 1st-generation unit’s EDGE cellular data subsystem is upgraded to HSDPA-capable ICs. And no surprise II, using HSDPA burns through battery life faster than with EDGE. I’m still not clear on how the 3G iPhone manages the speed-vs-power consumption tradeoff; theoretically, for example, the unit could sense that the currently running application doesn’t require HSDPA bandwidth capabilities and automatically down-throttle. Many phones also offer user-configurable 2G-vs-3G cellular data settings, though in some cases this option is deeply hidden within the phone’s configuration menus.
iFixit’s analysis avoids mention of three other iPhone subsystems that I’m particularly curious about:
- The accelerometer (did STMicroelectronics get the nod again?)
- The GPS function (standalone, or embedded within the Samsung processor or another device?)
- The audio codec (Wolfson Microelectronics redux?)
Keep an eye out for future commentary at Brian’s Brain once these and other details garner clarity.
In a world of impermanence, there is (it seems) at least one thing you can count on. Whenever Steve Jobs dismisses a technology or product, it’s done (although of course he doesn’t admit to this at the time) to put the brakes on his competitors’ advances in the area; Apple inevitably announces something in the space a few weeks or months down the road 
Such is seemingly the case with eBooks.
Mid-January, in the midst of an interview with the New York Times, Jobs was asked what he thought about Amazon’s Kindle and the eBook category in general, and if Apple had any specific product plans in this area. Here’s the money quote:
It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore," he said. "Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.
Fast-forward six months, and lo and behold, what do we see? Apple’s selling eBooks on the iTunes App Store, targeted to the iPhone and iPod touch, for 99 cents each. Ironically, they’re all public domain documents, whose copyright has expired and which are therefore available for free at sites like Project Gutenberg. But I ’spect that this is just Apple’s initial toe-in-the-water before it fully dives into the electronic document distribution game, with similar end result to its prior music and video ‘experiments’.
The possibilities are seemingly endless and pretty mind-boggling when you think about them…not only books but also newspapers and other literature. For an outstanding example of a digital newspaper implementation, by the way, check out my hometown rag, the Sierra Sun. After you peruse it, you might wonder why you’d pay Apple for the privilege of accessing something you can already get for free. To which I have two suggestions:
- To read the digital edition of the Sierra Sun as I’ve presented it to you, you have to be online at the time (though, admittedly, PDF versions are also available), and
- Don’t underestimate the seductive power of simple one-stop shopping.
Speaking of ‘games’, my month-back writeup discussed the potential for the iPhone (in combination with its SDK) to conquer the gaming-on-cellphone beachhead that to date has largely been little more than a Sirens’ Song for hardware, software and services developers. As such, now’s as good a time as any for me to recommend to your attention an excellent two-part article series from Dr. Dobb’s Journal. Part 1 focused on the now-defunct (but perhaps resurrecting) Gizmondo (no, not that), while just-published Part 2 redirects its attention to more current hardware platforms:
- OpenGL & Mobile Devices: Real-Time 3D Graphics For Handheld Devices
- OpenGL & Mobile Devices, Round 2: OpenGL ES for the iPhone and iPod Touch (in the August print issue, not yet on the DDJ.com website)
And speaking of handhelds, while I’m at it I’ll also reference-sell another excellent recent writeup from Dr. Dobb’s, this one on Nokia’s svelte (albeit not cellular-inclusive) product family:
Happy weekend, all!
