GPS coming to 3G iPhone?
Google Maps could give you a much more accurate fix on your location with GPS.
(Credit: Apple)It's pretty much a given that the next-generation iPhone will be faster, but it might be able to find its way home as well.
GigaOm is reporting that Broadcom is Apple's supplier for GPS chips that are inside the next iPhone, expected to arrive with a 3G cellular networking chip within a few weeks. GPS is an increasingly common feature inside smartphones, and is much more accurate than the cell-tower and Wi-Fi positioning system that Apple rolled out in January.
Rumors of GPS capabilities inside the forthcoming iPhone trickled out earlier this month, in the form of possible geotagging code noticed inside the iPhone software development kit. GigaOm notes a report from Popular Mechanics that reveals GPS manufacturers are shaking in their boots over the prospect of a GPS-enabled iPhone.
And if it comes to pass, expect to see a whole bunch of location-based services arrive along with the formal release of the SDK, expected in late June. Om Malik notes that Google Maps is an extremely popular iPhone application already, and the addition of GPS would make that service even more compelling.
Tom Krazit, a staff writer for CNET News, focuses on all things Apple. He has covered traditional PC companies such as Dell and Hewlett-Packard, chip companies such as Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, and mobile computers ranging from Research In Motion's to Palm's. E-mail Tom.
And watch the explosion in sales of iPhones continue.
Just because Apple has added a feature that was previously available doesn't make MS an innovator. Very few people think MS is innovative. They acquire or imitate, rather than develop themselves. Is Vista Innovative??
If Apple had it first, and MS followed it would be called Apple innovation copied and imitated.
Deal with the fact the tables are turned for once.
Is it always as pretty? Hardly. But suck it up, Apple isn't innovating, but following.
While Windows smart phones may have had GPS for a long time, the news-worthiness of this story is a result of the perception that either everyone has an iPhone or secretly desires to own one. In fact, I do have one friend who cited the lack of GPS capability as the only reason why he doesn't have one (whether or not he'll actually get one is another matter).