Will the iphone get a speed boost?

[psylichon]

Ok I've seen this in several places now:

http://www.macworld.com/article/137139/2008/11/ipod_touch_speed.html?lsrc=rss_main

http://toucharcade.com/2008/11/23/2nd-generation-ipod-touch-faster-than-iphone/

Apparently the 2nd generation iPod Touch runs at 533 MHz with 133 MHz bus as opposed to the iphone's 412 MHz with 100 MHz bus. Both devices share the same ARM processor, which is capable of speeds over 600 MHz.

Does anyone know if the iPod Touch 2G has a bigger battery than the iPhone? I know Apple throttles the processor because of battery usage, but it's interesting to see that they're already opening up the throttle in their own product line.

[gotzaiPhone]

I have no proof and this is just my guess, but with ALL the *****ing about the battery life now, I just can't see Apple upping the speed cap. Personally, I wouldn't mind, thats what chargers are for, but the masses that want their phone to last 2 days with heavy 3G use and app use will raise holy hell if the battery life gets any worse than it already is.

[psylichon]

Yeah and apparently this is old news. Sorry, Indy, I missed your thread! :)

[AIETOO]

I hope they can, they it seems very diffciult..

[TarekElsakka]

My batter doesn't drain as much because I don't use the iPhone at all when I am at home except for SMS or listening to music (instead of the iPod Touch). I also don't like to keep it plugged in USB to charge, because I heard that that messes up the battery and makes its life shorter. I use it to talk and SMS when I am out of the house, I don't play any games, use my network provider's internet, etc. that's why my battery usage is really little. But whenever I use it as an iPod (instead of my iPod Touch) the battery drains quickly. But still, no different than how it was from 2.1.

[TeraNova]

Yes there will be a speed boost. There's far too much press on how the touch has a faster processor for Apple to ignore. A faster processor does not have to translate to shorter battery life if they have a smart power management solution. Apple has been doing this for years on their notebooks, so I'm confident they'll come up with a solution sooner rather than later.

[TarekElsakka]

I hope so, Tera. But you know, Apple thinks that the iPhone is a godly mobile, and that no other phone can even be its competitor. That's why they aren't spending so much time in making it better, listening to their customers; they are even lying in their ads on how fast the 3G is, check the topic about that lol. But for laptops, of course there is competition so they have to work on improving them faster than ever. Alienware, Dell, HP, Asus, Sony, Acer, etc. make a pretty good competition to Apple computers. Even though Apple is the only one that has the Macintosh OSX, its processors are Intel now, and they loaded the Boot Camp application on Leopard OS, which allows people to easily use Windows on their Apple notebooks, desktops just like a normal computer would. So you know, they are putting even more effort, and spending more time in improving their computing production line. I think that's too obvious already. But nothing can beat the iPods. iPod Touch, iPod Nano, iPod Video, etc. are the best devices to hear music and watch movies/videos. There are a lot of companies that produce MP3, MP4, and even MP5 devices for the same purposes, but Apple beats them all.

[oakie]

Yes there will be a speed boost. There's far too much press on how the touch has a faster processor for Apple to ignore. A faster processor does not have to translate to shorter battery life if they have a smart power management solution. Apple has been doing this for years on their notebooks, so I'm confident they'll come up with a solution sooner rather than later.
actually, it's because when they do a processor upgrade, the new processor has more advanced integrated power management features built in combined with the fact that it's usually a physically smaller core that consumes less power simply by its design alone. it's not Apple "overclocking" the previous generation core.

if apple were to raise the clockspeed on current iphones, there will be additional drain on the battery, no exceptions. as to how much, that's hard to say since only the engineers know at what rate the sliding scale of power efficiency moves as clockspeed is increased.

but the CPU in all of the touch and iphone variations is the same exact part: Samsung S5L8900 with a maximum clock speed of 667MHz.

the iphone, as most of u know, was originally clocked at 400MHz, but raised to 412MHz in an update after release. it was underclocked from its maximum capable speed of 667MHz to reach the desired battery run time Apple wanted.

will they push an update to bump it up to 532MHz? i really, really doubt it since it could lose as much as 1/3 of its battery life. but the impact could be much less (but still dramatic) if they were to completely rewrite the OS to step the clockspeed up and down based on application demand like the SpeedStep power technology built into Intel CPU's beginning with the Pentium III.

but it's unknown at this point to anyone except the engineers if the samsung cpu supports this type of active speed stepping.


and there's my really long hypothesis to support why i say current devices will not be updated to match the speed of the current 2nd gen touch. :o

[kdarling]

if apple were to raise the clockspeed on current iphones, there will be additional drain on the battery, no exceptions. as to how much, that's hard to say since only the engineers know at what rate the sliding scale of power efficiency moves as clockspeed is increased.

In general, the ARM cpus use .45mW per Mhz. For the same cpu, an increase speed of 1/3, means you use 1/3 more battery.

[Indy]

Haha! I figured out how to post again from this POS sidekick! I WIN SIDEKICK, SCREW YOU!!! Ok so 1st, that s'ok pyslichon, all I was doing is *****ing anyways. =P Second. I agree with the others about it affecting battery life too much to boost it anymore. I think we will either see a small boost either equal, or possibly by then, greater than the 2nd gen ipod touch in July of '09 announced at WWDC. That's my prediction.