The Next iPhone Is Coming. Here Are The Six Things You Should Know About It
Rumours about the new iPhone 6 are flying fast and furious, but there are some that are both so substantiated and so consistent that they’re harder than ever to discredit. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. Here’s the most likely and interesting of what the rumour mill is telling us about the next iPhone.
By Sadho Ram — 13 May 2014, 06:10 PM — Updated about 10 years ago
1. There’s most probably more than one "next iPhone"
The possible three colors of iPhone 6, in dummy form, first reported by 9to5Mac
Image via vox-cdn.comRumors have it that there will be two new models as Apple responds to the massive demand for bigger phones. The exact size has been heavily debated, but most sources have come to believe that one upcoming iPhone will have a 4.7-inch screen, the other a 5.5.
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The handsets depicted would be thinner than ever (as little as 6 millimeters thick), with a rounded look rather than the squared sides on the 5S. One particularly popular photo shows gold, silver, and space gray models, each with an aluminum back broken up only by two horizontal stripes for the antennas instead of glass on the top and bottom.
9to5mac.com
2. It might be more expensive
At least one analyst says that Apple is currently negotiating to raise the base price of the iPhone to $299 with a two-year contract. Apparently carriers have thus far said no, but in a market where many people feel like innovation has slowed down, Apple could have the hit of the year in store — and that may give it the leverage it needs to charge whatever it wants.
streetinsider.com3. At least one of the iPhone could come early
Apple’s huge developer conference, WWDC, is less than a month away. For years, that was the stage for Apple to announce its latest iPhone, and many are wondering if this year will be a return to form. Here, the rumors and speculation are torn: some analysts and suppliers say WWDC is the reveal date for the new iPhone, others have posited it will be in August instead.
theverge.com
Some say Apple is dealing with production issues on the larger model, which could push its release back as far as early 2015. But either way, it looks likely that we’ll be seeing at least one new iPhone a little bit earlier than we thought.
techradar.com
4. It will come with a new version of iOS
Of dubious Weibo origins, a screenshot of iOS 8 — designed for a larger phone.
Image via vox-cdn.comiOS 8 is almost certain to be announced at WWDC, and appears likely to come with a number of new features along with a continued refinement of the new design introduced with iOS 7. Healthbook is the flagship new feature, using the many sensors purported to be in the new device — which could measure everything from pressure to humidity — to tell you how many steps you took or even (apparently) your blood-oxygen levels.
9to5mac.com
Siri stands to gain some new tricks, including the Shazam-aided ability to tell you what song is playing. And Apple Maps might finally be getting public transport information, as it continues its slow road out of its terrible beginnings. We might see a few new apps in iOS 8, too. A text editor and a Preview app for viewing documents and images have both been leaked in apparently early iterations, and both make sense for the platform. iTunes Radio might be broken out as a separate app, too, to better promote Apple’s streaming music service.
theverge.com
5. It might have an amazing new camera
It’s the feature everyone talks most about, and Apple’s always put huge resources behind improving its cameras. Its latest move was to hire Ari Partinen, the Nokia engineer behind the Lumia cameras — though he’s too new to the company to make huge changes just yet. More pressingly, Apple’s filed a patent for a particular kind of image stabilization in a smartphone; it will reportedly increase the size of the pixels in its 8-megapixel sensor; and apparently there’s a "Super Resolution Mode" in the next version of the camera app.
bit.ly
Of course, cameras are where virtually every manufacturer over-brands and under-delivers, so this could be an aggressive name for a simple new feature, but the prevailing wisdom seems to be that Apple is working on something remarkable for the next iPhone.
theverge.com
6. It might work with a smartwatch
Healthbook is a natural way for iOS to collect data from the ever-rumored iWatch, which many have speculated is going to be a primarily health-focused device anyway. And some leaked screenshots have shown a "Watch Utility" app, though there’s almost no chance that the leaked name or app icon are final.
9to5mac.com
The iWatch has become thought of more and more as a companion to the iPhone, rather than a single standalone device. It seems logical that Apple would announce the two at the same time, though given how long "the Apple smartwatch" has been the unicorn of consumer electronics, it’s still far from a safe bet.
theverge.com