Rumor: Kevin Rose claims 3G iPhone to do video chat

   +   = 3G Video chat on iPhone…and maybe in June?     Digg founder Kevin Rose, whose first-generation iPhone rumors fell way short of their mark last Spring (ie. slide out keyboards??), is citing multiple and different sources this year in predicting that the 3G version of the Apple handset will boast video chat capabilities. During a minute of Rose’s “Diggnation” podcast show this past Friday, the Digg founder told listeners that Apple Inc. “may be restricting third parties from authoring applications that run in both the foreground and background partly because it doesn’t want a competitor to its own mobile iChat application that will do just that.”

We saw AIM’s demo at the Software Roadmap, and it seemed promising. But Apple may have something more up its sleeves (read: monopoly of chat software on iPhone through tight new hardware support).I cannot say I am too surprised by this rumor. The inevitable unveiling of a second-generation iPhone with 3G connectivity and non-diminished battery life just screams new hardware innovations. With the ability to toss AT&T EDGE data networks out the window and spice up the shiny iPhone with a 3G chip means not only faster Safari browsing, but overall better communication to the cell towers from within the promising wave of iPhone Software 2.0 apps. 

Yes, June seems to be a promising month for current iPhone owners and I would bet that the delay of the SDK and the release of the 2.0 software points in the direction of a iPhone hardware revision set for simultaneous release in that summer month. So, with high-speed 3G iPhones and native chat clients for the iPhone combined, the desire for Apple to place a camera behind the transparent touchscreen as well as on the front of the device only seems logical.It is just that situation where something as great, elegant, and exceptionally functional and easy to use as the iPhone can be revised by its manufacturer into something even better.

And that once space-age notion of video-chat (much less mobile video-chat) is now showing up in the tech arena as a commercially available and profitable reality

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