Discuss - iPhone 2 and memory and CPU improvements

[neven]

(I'm adding "Discuss" to the title so people don't think I'm sharing actual news)

Of all the potential new features of iPhone 2 I've seen requested, dreamed about, and complained about around here, two I'd welcome most have gotten no love:

1. More memory
2. A faster CPU

They're not sexy new features, so the typical user really shouldn't care.

But it's pretty simple. iPhone currently comes with 128 MB of memory, and it doesn't use the remaining flash. If an app runs out of memory, given everything that's running at the time, it quits. This is why your Safari sometimes "crashes"; this is why it happens more often when you're playing music.

iPhone's CPU is fast enough for most tasks, but with the advent of third-party apps, a faster one would certainly make things run more smoothly.

This wouldn't necessarily create a "split" wherein some apps would only run on the improved new iPhone. That option would be unfortunate, and hopefully developers would still use the current iPhone as the performance standard they have to work with.

But the end user would definitely see some "magical" improvements. Apps would start and quit faster (meaning, faster app switching). Fewer crashes and freezes. More open pages in Safari (without having to reload a bunch of them upon return).

What's your opinion - how likely and how desirable is this?

 

[DreamPod]

I read that the iPhone's CPU us actually underclocked to improve battery life, so they could theoretically speed it up without putting a new CPU in there, thus free for Apple.

However, it would play havoc with Apps, splitting the Apps for the devices they are programmed for. That or Apps would have to be programmed to be CPU-speed independant, which means most of the Apps already in development would have to be remade (one of the advantages to developing for a single system is you can max out that system without having to worry about compatibility with other systems).

Increasing the flash-memory would be a far better idea - Apps wouldn't be directly affected by that, it'd just keep the system from closing down Apps as much. However, that solution is definitely NOT free for Apple.

 

[surferfromuk]

Surely they's let the CPU clock run at full when on charge or heavily loaded via a game ?