There has been a pretty good amount of speculation around the inclusion of GPS in the 3G iPhone. One of the driving pieces of evidence has been the inclusion of geotagging capabilities in the iPhone Developer Kit [as reported by AppleInsider]. This was a pretty good clue because the pseudo-GPS system employed by the current Google Maps app on the iPhone falls a bit short of true "current location" identification. Since then, there hasn’t been a lot more to go on. Now, GigaOM claims it has determined the supplier of GPS chips to Apple. The alleged supplier is Broadcom, a semi-conductor company. More over, Broadcom acquired a company called Global Locate almost a year ago. It looks like they have both the means and the opportunity to supply Apple’s iPhone needs.
In the past, I have usually reserved judgement on a rumor until that key player leaks it…the manufacturer. I didn’t believe the rumors about the iPhone itself in the winter of last year until FoxConn, the Chinese-based manufacturer of iPod products, leaked the fact that they had hundreds of thousands of them sitting in a warehouse [not THE link I used, but close]. After this, I started saving money for my new iPhone. I think now is the time to start saving money for a GPS-enabled iPhone. This could lead to a huge increase in the number of iPhone applications with GPS integration and I look forward to it.
[GigaOM via AppleInsider]
0 Comments For This Post
3 Trackbacks For This Post
June 5th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
[…] I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The best rumors are developer rumors…they’re almost always true. Host Optical, a Taiwanese electronics company, claims it has developed new “capacitance” touch screens that are more waterproof, less sensitive to humidity, and do not have a significant “aging affect,” which is what makes an iPhone-like touchscreen become less sensitive over time. These screens are unlikely to be in the iPhone being released on Monday at WWDC, but they could definitely make a showing in future generations of iPhones, as well as iPods that inherited their bigger brother’s multi-touch abilities. […]
June 5th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
[…] I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The best rumors are developer rumors…they’re almost always true. Host Optical, a Taiwanese electronics company, claims it has developed new “capacitance” touch screens that are more waterproof, less sensitive to humidity, and do not have a significant “aging affect,” which is what makes an iPhone-like touchscreen become less sensitive over time. These screens are unlikely to be in the iPhone being released on Monday at WWDC, but they could definitely make a showing in future generations of iPhones, as well as iPods that inherited their bigger brother’s multi-touch abilities. […]
June 6th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
[…] GPS All But Confirmed for 3G iPhone [Ok, this one is on the edge] […]
Leave a Reply