What the iOS ‘Beta Mining’ Tells Us
The next iPhone and iPad — both coming soon — will have no Home button on the front. “Multitasking gestures” on the screen will replace the button.
The next iPhone will have a “friend finder” feature or app similar to Google’s Latitude service. It will have built-in support for Wi-Fi hotspots (where the phone is the hotspot that supports up to five other devices). And it will have several other refinements and tweaks.
The next iPad will have a screen that’s the same resolution, but it will gain a camera.
How do I know all this? Well, I don’t. These are educated guesses. That education comes courtesy of a new beta version of the software that powers these devices.
Mike Elgan is a Silicon Valley-based columnist who writes about technology and culture. His work appears in a variety of publications, including Computerworld, Datamation, PC World, InfoWorld, MacWorld, ITWorld, CIO, the San Francisco Chronicle. Subscribe to Mike's e-mail newsletter, 
