Holiday Gift Guide »

iPhone firmware reveals possibility of hidden apps – Translator, Business, Converter, Radio

By: , IntoMobile
Monday, July 30th, 2007 at 5:56 PM

iPhone hidden apps

With the iPhone’s file-system cracked open for all to see, everyone and their grandma is free to browse through the iPhone’s guts for kicks and giggles. And, all that snooping around has uncovered a few interesting bits of information within the iPhone’s firmware. It seems that there are 4 hidden references to unused, possibly hidden, applications in the “LocalizedApplicationNames.strings” file:

key: com.apple.widget.translation
string: Translator

key: com.apple.unitconverter
string: Converter

key: com.apple.widget.phonebook
string: Business

key: com.apple.mobile.radio
string: Radio

iPhone hidden apps

This could hint at the future Google-collaborated apps that we speculated previously.

While the Translator, Converter, and Business references could simply be “left-overs” from Mac OS X (these are all widgets within Mac OS X Dashboard), the “mobile.radio’ reference is incredibly interesting. The iPhone’s hardware doesn’t even support radio functions – could we see a mobile, web-based radio app in the future? This is pure speculation, but we’re hoping that a future update will enable these “hidden” apps.

[Via: MacRumors]

SPONSORED MESSAGE
Get free domestic and international calls and texts to anyone with the Vonage Mobile app available as an iPhone calling app or Android calling app.

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...