Downloading Hardware

Yes I know. Hardware is the actual device. Hard to stream it down the phone lines to your device. But what if you didn’t have to? What if the functions you needed were able to be just added on via a download? Well it’s already happening. I currently have an iPhone. It, like many other smart phones, does games (fairly well), makes calls, takes photos and has a map app. I also have a Pocket PC for GPS in the car. But I don’t like having to lug the two around. I’d happily give up one to have only one device. Well, TomTom just announced that they’ll be selling an iPhone adaptation of their software and also a stand to mount the iPhone on your windscreen. Big deal you say? Well actually it is. It’s a very important leap in a lot of ways.

GPS in a Smartphone is not new. But what is different about this is that the iPhone was once a GPS enabled phone unable to do turn by turn. Apple addressed this and corrected it with a patch. Yeah I know they don’t like that term but that’s what this is. So what we have is a piece of hardware being changed by a software download.

You all by now probably have a video camera? Also a dedicated digital camera? Home phone? Laptop or PC? But the way things are going these items won’t be needed. You’ll just have the one device that does the lot… well! If the iPhone had a 12MP camera with 10X zoom and the ability to tag every photo with GPS data, face recognition so you know who’s in each shot plus it could get you home thanks to GPS turn by turn directions… you’d want that right? Not to mention be able to watch TV, record shows, get email… you see where this is going right?.

The next 10 years is gonna get very exciting in this way. We’ll be seeing more advances in gadgets and how multitasking they can be. In the meantime the next update for the iPhone (3.0 OS) is to be released next week on the 17th June 2009. It’s biggest update feature is the ability to gain turn by turn directions with the GPS among other things. TomTom haven’t specified when their app gets launched but it’ll be in the US summer which is another way of saying in the next few weeks. Will be interesting to see how other GPS manufacturers (a term that may in itself become outdated) react to this.