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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]

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...