MacRumors posts photos of iPhone 1.1.3 software update from GearLive

Photos recently linked to by MacRumors show what GearLive claim to be the features of a forthcoming iPhone software update. It's possible that these images are just fakes, but there's something about them that seems convincing. Whilst the update is far less substantial than I had predicted, it does include a couple of previously anticipated features:

1. Customise home screen
   
2. Send SMS to multiple recipients

...plus three features that few had anticipated:

1. "Locate Me" feature in maps - presumably using GSM triangulation rather than GPS
   
2. Add Safari Bookmarks to Home Screen
   
3. Multiple Home Screens (similar concept to Spaces in Mac OS 10.5)

It's these last two features which are most surprising. Mixing bookmarks with applications on the home screen feels a little awkward. Plus, bookmarks seems the only reason for introducing multiple Home Screens - otherwise all the icons would fit onto a single screen anyway. This is perhaps Apple's approach to make room for 3rd party applications, but I guess I'd be surprised if Apple allows 3rd party apps to sit along site their own apps with equal priority in the user interface.

So the question is - are these images fakes? In Apple's 2007 Q2 analyst conference call, COO Peter Oppenheimer said: “we plan to build on this incredible foundation by continuing to develop new software features as well as entirely new applications, and incorporate them into the iPhone. And since iPhone customers will likely be our best advocates for the product, we want to get them many of these new additional features and applications at no additional charge as they become available.” Given this stated intent, it would be a little disappointing if this is really all that Apple plans to add, a full six months after the product's US launch, and a third of the way into initial purchasers' 18 month contracts. This leads me to suspect that the images may be fakes. If they are fakes, however, they are very good ones indeed. Time will tell...

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