AT&T Chief Envisions iPhone Future

[AppleChic]

AT&T chief executive, Ralph De la Vega, unveiled a long list of intended future capabilities at the Web 2.0 Summit Thursday during his interview with TechCrunch's Michael Arrington (this was the same conversation that told of an application that AT&T is working on that will soon give way to an official iPhone 3G tethering solution.)

De la Vega said, “Before a future version of Apple's iPhone wakes you up in the morning, it will have downloaded the morning's news feeds and sent a message to your coffee maker to begin brewing a fresh pot…If you'd rather read the morning news on your TV while you sip your fresh brewed cup of Joe, you'll be able to simply wave the handset towards the TV to throw the day's feeds up on the big screen.”

But it does not even stop there, de la Vega told Arlington that with future versions of the iPhone you could lock the doors to your house, start your car and not worry about messing with your car radio because your music on your iPhone would automatically sync with your car’s stereo system.

De la Vega also described how the iPhone would function in the work place, listing features such as easily orchestrating conference calls and how the iPhone will handle automatic translations in real time.

If this all sounds a bit far fetched to you, you are not alone. PC World's Mark Sullivan writes, "Some of this sounds pretty far-flung to me, and if this were some start-up company talking about these 'exciting new plans,' I'd probably take it with a grain of salt." However he then acknowledges, "But in my experience, AT&T plays it pretty close to the vest on its future plans, and usually does what it says it will do, eventually."

De la Vega also revealed that there are plans to begin using a new swath of 850 MHz spectrum to improve its 3G signal quality in densely populated areas like New York City.

Source: AppleInsider | AT&T chief lays out futuristic vision for the iPhone

[Dizz]

AT&T chief executive, Ralph De la Vega, unveiled a long list of intended future capabilities at the Web 2.0 Summit Thursday during his interview with TechCrunch's Michael Arrington (this was the same conversation that told of an application that AT&T is working on that will soon give way to an official iPhone 3G tethering solution.)

De la Vega said, “Before a future version of Apple's iPhone wakes you up in the morning, it will have downloaded the morning's news feeds and sent a message to your coffee maker to begin brewing a fresh pot…If you'd rather read the morning news on your TV while you sip your fresh brewed cup of Joe, you'll be able to simply wave the handset towards the TV to throw the day's feeds up on the big screen.”

But it does not even stop there, de la Vega told Arlington that with future versions of the iPhone you could lock the doors to your house, start your car and not worry about messing with your car radio because your music on your iPhone would automatically sync with your car’s stereo system.

De la Vega also described how the iPhone would function in the work place, listing features such as easily orchestrating conference calls and how the iPhone will handle automatic translations in real time.

If this all sounds a bit far fetched to you, you are not alone. PC World's Mark Sullivan writes, "Some of this sounds pretty far-flung to me, and if this were some start-up company talking about these 'exciting new plans,' I'd probably take it with a grain of salt." However he then acknowledges, "But in my experience, AT&T plays it pretty close to the vest on its future plans, and usually does what it says it will do, eventually."

De la Vega also revealed that there are plans to begin using a new swath of 850 MHz spectrum to improve its 3G signal quality in densely populated areas like New York City.

Source: AppleInsider | AT&T chief lays out futuristic vision for the iPhone

Let's see copy and paste first... Then perhaps MMS without all the headaches, then they can work on having it do all these crazy things like wipe your butt after you take a dump and whatever else ridiculous claims they made.

[tattoojack]

lmao @ above post

[jrtek]

i also agree with dizz... we've been asking for SIMPLE SIMPLE COPY AND PASTE since it came out and still nothing...

[tha5150]

this has become a joke.. i honestly think that they are not releasing copy and paste, flash player, mms, etc ONLY because in a year or so they will be releasing another iPhone with all these items and people will sell their 3G for the new iPhone.

[MetallicaFan1991]

Apple make me laugh sometimes
They miss all the features we need but put in ridiculous features that hardly anyone will use!
Lmao @ 1st post

this has become a joke.. i honestly think that they are not releasing copy and paste, flash player, mms, etc ONLY because in a year or so they will be releasing another iPhone with all these items and people will sell their 3G for the new iPhone.

All these features should be in a major update, maybe 3.0, and a major update occurs at Keynotes or when a new will be released.
They might put them in if the sales of the iPhone drops.

[woowoodengy]

Apple make me laugh sometimes
They miss all the features we need but put in ridiculous features that hardly anyone will use!
Lmao @ 1st post



All these features should be in a major update, maybe 3.0, and a major update occurs at Keynotes or when a new will be released.
They might put them in if the sales of the iPhone drops.

lmao @ this post copy & paste yeah right... mms you said you have an iphone right lol

i just had too

[se23]

I swear on my life I wont buy new iphone, these people r mad! Ive been burnt tooooo many times with apple, I boycott the new mb and same for new iphone!

[mrsidewayzz]

give us the real bluetooth technology, copy & paste, better sorted appstore, louder speaker, mms and maybe make an iphone w more hd space. lol. that last 1 is just being greedy.

[Poseidon79]

I swear on my life I wont buy new iphone, these people r mad! Ive been burnt tooooo many times with apple, I boycott the new mb and same for new iphone!

That is one of the most ridiculous claims i've heard in a long long time!! LMAO! I bet you'll be the one camping out the night before to get your hand on the next gen iphone!!! hahhahaha

[bruinsrme]

I feel if they really want to attract new iphone owners they need to have the same functionality in the ippne apps as the non-iphones have.
My wife son don't want the iphone because of the camera quality and messaging inability.
If they fix wht people here have recommended, they would have 2 new customers. Imagine how many others there are that are not moving tothe ipone for the same reasons.

[bluespot]

As long as the iPhone keeps hitting sales targets we will continue to get nothing but features we didn't ask for...

The really good stuff is kept in reserve to sell new hardware.

[Sproch]

*queue In the Year 2000 theme* Seriously, since when did de la Vega start taking drugs...? Since hovercars hit mainstream apparently

[b3nny]

i already posted this once a long time ago, but now i'm going to do it again because it really amazes me... attached below, apple lisa, aprrox. 1983, check out that amazing edit menu. but then again, wikipedia says these started at $9,999.. so maybe the iphone isn't worthy of copy/paste with its measly couple hundred dollar price tag

[shifter86]

De la Vega said, “Before a future version of Apple's iPhone wakes you up in the morning, it will have downloaded the morning's news feeds and sent a message to your coffee maker to begin brewing a fresh pot…If you'd rather read the morning news on your TV while you sip your fresh brewed cup of Joe, you'll be able to simply wave the handset towards the TV to throw the day's feeds up on the big screen.”

But it does not even stop there, de la Vega told Arlington that with future versions of the iPhone you could lock the doors to your house, start your car and not worry about messing with your car radio because your music on your iPhone would automatically sync with your car’s stereo system.

De la Vega also described how the iPhone would function in the work place, listing features such as easily orchestrating conference calls and how the iPhone will handle automatic translations in real time.

lets see...basically anything he said above would ultimately be limited by the terms of the app store and having full bluetooth....

download news in the morning...wooo push and RSS

throw to TV...woooo...accelerometers and bluetooth/802.11

start the coffee pot...woooo...again bluetooth or 802.11

lock the doors to the house...bluetooth

start the car...bluetooth (i think lexus already uses bluetooth key fobs)

music sync...bluetooth or 802.11

now for workplace

orchestrating conference calls..i can see it being the GUI for a switch...

real time translations...i don't see it having the processing power...possibly just a GUI to some sort of translation server...some sort of modified TTY?

so all of that sounds spectacular...but i am very much not impressed.

i have 500gb of music and internet(capable of streaming music depending on signal) in my car...and keyless entry/start. i really don't need my iphone to do it.

and my coffee timer set at 8am works just fine...

but i still cant COPY/PASTE or send MMS...

AT&T... keep it simple...ill be much happier.

[blueillusion97]

Are these people serious? The 3G Iphone still has bugs, no MMS, no Copy Paste, and ofcourse true push....and they are talking about this crazy cr*p. Better camera with video, louder speaker, beter or removable battery plus whats mentioned above and they have a nearly perfect phone. Once they have that down they they can start bs'ing us again. Non the less my phone pisses me off time to time but i stil like it.

[zoolander369]

Wow. Nothing we want, followed by none of what we do want.

It's just Apple being Apple. Nothing new, unfortunately.

[Happy Noodle Boy]

The amount of rage in this thread is hilarious. Waa waa copy/paste waa waa MMS

That said, what I found curious was the bit about real time transactions because that is available in certain Japanese phones. You can tie your bank account to the phone then use RFID I think to pay fir stuff by just waving your phone in front of the cashier.

[Rosbaughcr]

I agree...

Let's go ahead and fix what we have before we revolutionize it. I'd love MMS, copy and paste, and a non-crippled Bluetooth stack, but I'd settle for a few less crashes and compatability with my Alpine first gen car sereo adapter.

Don't even get me started on the disaster that is MobileMe. If I got a nickel for every email that my iPhone recieved hours after my email account recieved it I could afford Microsoft stock.

[iFokust]

I'm happy with the level of intrusion I put up with already today. no need to get ahead of ourselves De la Vega.