Australians now have another reason to lookout for the iPhone when, and if, it touches down here in 2008. Apple adding another string to the iPhone’s bow, with owners now having the ability to GPS-less tracking. The GPS-style feature comes as part of the new free 1.1.3 iPhone software update and was announced today at the US Macworld event by Steve Jobs.
Despite the lack of built-in GPS, the iPhone tracks position by detecting WiFi access points and nearby mobile phone towers for triangulation in Google Maps. Street names are also visible on top of the satellite view. It’s a canny move, considering the rush by other mobile phone makers to integrate actual GPS units into their devices (with varying results).
We’ll be keen to see how the responsiveness compares with GPS, and what the lack of GPS means for battery life (which can be poor on an overworked iPhone). Apple Australia is yet to make any announcements this week regarding local availability of the iPhone, but in the meantime there are other minor upgrades.
Top of the list is enhanced text messaging .We’re already impressed with the way the iPhone associates previous texts with your contacts ‘“ now Apple has added the ability to send the same SMS to a group of people, along with saving a history of texts. The other big news is the prospect of watching rented movie downloads on the iPhone ‘“ rentals were unveiled by Jobs today and are a key component in Apple’s iTunes strategy.
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