Comments on: Rumor Has It: LED Flash Destined for Next iPhone

By: DMac

DMac — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:05:21 +0000

Camera on the iPhone? How about Apple catch up and put one on
the iTouch as well … plus an internal microphone for video recording
and voice messages?

Come on Apple even though the iTouch was released as a “new” upgrade in Fall 2009 … we all know the camera was supposed to go in, but there were manufacturing issues that prevented that. So since the iTouch 2G, there really haven’t been any TRUE hardware upgrades to the iTouc for almost two years now!

By: Major

Major — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 01:23:38 +0000

“Proprietary nature”

By: Major

Major — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 01:21:30 +0000

All in all, the iPhone is the breakthrough smartphone of it’s time. Granted the camera app is slower than we’d like, the flash would be great in low light conditions and it would be great to have a 5 MP sensor (or better), but the iPhone is so much more than a phone with a camera. Not enough credit is given to Apple for pushing the envelope, despite their high profit margin and preparatory nature. I’m thankful for the nail apple put in the same old flip-phone and the sorry so-call smart phone that dominated prior to it’s arrival.

Now at least there is some real innovation going on. BTW, CMOS sensors and LED flash is expensive, and Steve’s got a family to feed.

By: HD

HD — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 21:04:08 +0000

I agree 100% with this article. If Apple wants to include a camera in the phone, then make it a decent one. Then again, all the webcams in their products suck big time. I use a logitech one with awesome quality. Not sure what’s up with Apple and cameras, be it the point-and-shoot kind or webcams. Gives us quality!

By: Skeptic

Skeptic — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:11:56 +0000

What a shame that none of the commenters criticizing Liam seem to actually have read the post. I agree completely about the slowness of the camera app. If I wanted to take a picture of something on the phone I had before my iPhone, which was a W810i, I could do it in a second and with a single click, and I got quality which was not markedly different—not to mention that that was four years ago. Granted I still have a 3G and not a 3GS, but Apple does seem to be behind the times with its mobile camera, or at least not “ahead” of the times, which is something we’ve come to expect from it. The current trend does seem to be that when the market is already saturated with X megapixel cameras, and X+ megapixel cameras are starting to appear, Apple’s new iPhone will have an X megapixel, not an X+ megapixel, sensor. By the sounds of it, this will not change with the next iPhone: a 5 mpx camera with an LED flash in the summer of 2010 is hardly thinking differently at all.

By: Frank

Frank — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:19:42 +0000

What would be cool is to make the apple logo on the back as a small screen. Move the camera to the front, the screen becomes the flash (varying the brightness with the ambient light sensor) and the apple logo becomes the viewfinder. Solves all the issues and you can video conference with the same cam if you want.

That would be fun!! I wonder if Apple is hiring?

By: siwi

siwi — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 10:22:13 +0000

pity, you have no clue about what you are talking about. The iPhone camera, as basic and average as it is, is frequently rated the best phone camera by those in the know.

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 03:48:22 +0000

I don’t think any camera on any phone I’ve had let me point-and-shoot like a real camera. It doesn’t help that because taking pics isn’t its primary function, you have to open it up the function first. That’s just the nature of it though. I’m content with it being a phone first and doing everything else second.

The fact that it doesn’t have a flash DEFINITELY bites though. It actually doesn’t make much sense. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I I have an inkling that it was intentionally left off the phone because Apple knew it would sell regardless. This would allow for much more incremental upgrades to their heart’s content. As with any company they are likely working, to some degree, on the 5th, 6th and maybe even 7th editions of the phone along with the impending 4th.

Who knows, maybe #7 will have jet rockets.

By: Lee Bennett

Lee Bennett — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 01:29:29 +0000

Even without illumination, I just wish they’d have the volume buttons remap as shutter buttons when the camera is active.

By: Matt Tillotson

Matt Tillotson — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 01:09:02 +0000

Here I was so glad I captured all those fleeting family moments because I always had a video camera in my pocket, and now I learn it was all a waste of time.