Apple Tells FCC: There's more to the iPhone than the Public Knows

 
Apple tells the FCC that there's more to the iPhone than the public knows and wants them to commit to a 45 day short term confidentiality that will freeze internal photos of the iPhone 4. What could Apple be holding back? Apple's FCC letter is enclosed in this report for your review.

Apple to FCC: Formal Short & Long Term Confidentiality Request

Note this specific Apple statement below: "Although Apple has begun to market the device publicly, these documents reveal technical and design information that has not been publically disclosed in such marketing and that is protected by Apple as confidential and proprietary secrets."

 

Also Enclosed in the FCC Document: Regulatory Label for iPhone 4

 

The information noted above was obtained from the FCC document BCG – E 2380A dated June 7, 2010 and just recently revealed. 

Yesterday, MacRumors pointed to a recent WWDC session that revealed that the iPhone 4 would sport 512 MB RAM. If that point pans out, then that would confirm Apple's main point made to the FCC. Yet the question that begs to be asked is: What other technical details could Apple be holding back from the public prior to release? Do you have any ideas? Let us know by making a comment below. 

 

Our Report is also Being Covered By: MacSurfer, Apple Investor News, MacDailyNews, The Register UK, igeneration France, iSpazio Spanish, Fortune CNN Money, MacPlus France, iLounge, TiPb, Techmeme, AppleInsider, MacNN, PhoneDog, iPhoneclub Netherlands, IntoMobile, AllNewsMac, Edible Apple, Phonesreview UK, AppleReport, BENM Austria, iPhoneHellas Greece, MacLife, iPhoner Italy, Softnation Germany, Macerkopf Germany, iPhones-Russia, MacTalk Australia, BlogdoiPhone Brazil, iSzene Germany, Macworld France and more. 

 

Update June 22, 2010: Information that Apple Wanted to Keep Secret

Los Angeles Times Busines: "Apple Inc. is now collecting "precise," "real-time geographic location" of its users' iPhones, iPads and computers. As some readers have noted, Apple has added a "Location Services" page under Settings ... General that allows users to prevent apps from using location information (as we covered here.) However, there's nothing to indicated that these settings prevent Apple itself from gathering and storing location data from Apple devices," states David Sarno of the Los Angeles Times. Also see InformationWeek on this point.

 

Whether this geo-location tracking clause appears in the new iPhone 4 manual that Apple requested to be kept under wraps by the FCC for 45 days is not known at this time. Yet it stands to reason that in order to activate the iPhone 4, you will have to agree to this clause which supports the need for secrecy and the positon that the Los Angeles Times report is taking. Update June 24, 2010: Confirmation: the geo-location tracking clause is in the manual. See the last clause of the iPhone 4 manual (of part one).

 

On one hand it's good. If you were ever stranded on a road and unable to communicate on your iPhone, the geo-location technology could still allow authorities to track your location. On the other hand, it's a privacy issue - and it appears that Apple isn't giving you a choice. We covered "Privacy: A Burning Issue," here.  Update, June 24, 2010: Washington law makers now want answers from Apple about this clause.  

 

Update, June 23, 2010 Re:  The iPhone 4 Teardown by iFixit 

In step 8, iFixit states: "While we're not too busy, let's talk RAM. Unlike the iPhone 3GS and iPad, who are both equiped with 256 MB, the iPhone 4 has a whopping 512 MB!"

So there you have it, iFixit confirms another secret that Apple tried to hold back via their letter of confidentiality to the FCC.

Update, June 23, 5PM Mountain Time: See new information about "Video Calls" in Apple's iPhone 4 Product Guide just released  and a day ahead of the iPhone 4 launch.

 

Comments

[Rob]

2nd Inductive Charging

[JonS]

HD Radio and RFID. Those are technologies the FCC cares about.

[Rock]

@Doug. Good point about the radio being the FCC's concern here, though that doesn't fit with the manual being listed as one of the itemized things that Apple wanted covered. There could have been one or more prototypes and we may indeed find something interesting. If not, oh well, no harm done.

We still have to see the FCC docs in 45 days to determine what is being supressed. Apple wouldn't write a letter to supress if there wasn't something to supress. The logic stands.

[DM]

A working telephone?

[Sammy Crezia]

Brilliant. You're right. The revelation of the 512mb of ram actually confirms what they were conveying in the letter to the FCC. They didn't want this information out. It did and that's now history. But Apple tried to have that supressed until release time. There was a nice surprise planned and I only hope that there's still just one-more-thing :)

With 200 features on the iPhone 4, how can there not be.

[Doug]

What would the FCC be interested in? Radio type communications.

They could care less about ram since it is not in their jurisdiction to govern the amount of ram.

A radio is a possibility, but again if it's cool Jobs would want to show that off onstage, so while possible I think this is not the secret. Plus didn't apple buy either Lala or a clone and the iphone would probably use the data network rather than radio to pull down music.

If it were CDMA it would make the most sense as it could be a contractual thing. AT&T might require them to wait a while so they have exclusive rights to the new iphone for a while, then when the FCC docs are nearly public Verizon could announce the support. I know jobs said there was a 5 year deal, but we don't know the details... maybe it had to have unlimited data plans and AT&T broke it, or there were other clauses. I'm sure neither company painted themselves into a corner.

To me the CDMA seems to make the most sense. It's just another radio on a chip... if Apple doesn't do it someone will eventually, that is the sort of thing that I think they would do.

Also ... look at the comments made about AT&T and the general network, Jobs is no longer content to let AT&T control the iphone. Again I think it's a contractual thing at this point.

my 2 cents