If you have kept your ear to the ground over the last six months, you will know that there is much “buzz” about what will be Apple’s sixth-generation iPhone. For the longest time, the iPhone 5 release date was projected for this summer, perhaps in June. Bloggers deduced June as the release date from former actions of the Apple Company. The iPhone 4S was released in June after the Worldwide Development Conference (WWDC), so why not the iPhone 5? Testimony from a Foxconn employee (who explicitly stated June as the date) had many bloggers going crazy about June as the release date of the iPhone 5.
Even after Foxconn employed 18,000 workers for its iPhone 5 production, logic dictated that the iPhone had to be released a few months later to allow for its assemblage; this meant that the date had to be moved back to later this year. Over the last several weeks, October has been projected as the new release date, since this would be the one-year anniversary of Steve Jobs’ death. iPhone bloggers even projected that the new iPhone would be called “the iPhone S.J.”, named after Apple’s former CEO Steve Jobs. It would not be a bad idea at all to name the new iPhone after him.
Now, many have moved the iPhone 5 release date up to September, though some still hold out for October. The source of the September release date cannot be found, though its source could be the great anticipation of iPhone lovers and technogeeks everywhere.
The release date is only one of numerous Apple iPhone 5 rumors out and about in the blogosphere. iPhone rumors abound about the new device. One such rumor concerns the screen size. The current iPhone 4S screen measures 3.5 inches, which puts it at a disadvantage when compared to other smartphones. Apple competitors have turned the tide in manufacturing screens for their smartphone customers that are 4.0 inches and above. Samsung, for example, produced its Galaxy S II phone with a 4.55-inch screen. The newest Samsung phone, the Aviator, has a 4.32-inch screen, a reduction from the S II display screen to make room for the Aviator’s 4G LTE (long term evolution) wireless capability. There have been rumors that the new iPhone will have a screen size of 4.6 inches, but this cannot be the case if Apple intends to have the device include the new 4G technology (following the example of Samsung).
Another reason why Apple cannot create a 4.6-inch screen pertains to the emergence of the mini iPad this October. Sources say the small iPad will have a screen size of 7 inches, a move to rival the splash hit of Amazon’s Kindle Fire. The need to maintain a market for the small iPad will prevent Apple from growing its iPhone screen size too wide. Though many say the new iPhone will have a 16:9 display ratio (versus the current 3:2 display ratio for the iPhone 4s), the excessively tall 16:9 display ratio would improve high-definition movie viewing but do away with the consumer-friendliness that the 3:2 iPhone 5 ratio (and the current 4:3 display ratio for the new iPad) provide.
Not only does the new iPhone 5 look to have a larger screen size, it will also be the thinnest smartphone on the market. The capacitive touch sensors and the liquid crystal display (or LCD) are two separate components in the current 4s model. The iPhone 5 will mesh both components into one, eliminating an estimated 0.44mm off of the new iPhone size. Other rumored reductions in the iPhone size would speed up production on the new device-which could place the new arrival in a possible September date.
With the screen and display taken care of, tech expert thoughts turned to the back of the iPhone. The current 4s model has a Gorilla Glass backing, and Gorilla Glass is considered to be the strongest glass type in the world. Demonstration tests show that Gorilla Glass (however durable) can still scratch and break; thus, a stronger Gorilla Glass is needed. Several weeks ago, a rumor about a “Gorilla Glass 2” surfaced, stating that the Gorilla Glass backing would need to be more durable and stronger than the current backing. However, Apple surprised everyone when reports surfaced stating that the company had paid LiquidMetal Technologies half of an agreed-upon price for use of its liquid metal production for the iPhone 5. Although some bloggers claim that liquid metal use will take some time to manufacture (and have returned to the Gorilla Glass 2 rumor), Apple’s payout of billions to the Liquid Metal producer eliminates this idea.
There are other rumors about new iPhone features such as the use of 3D eye tracking, a self-destructive Siri (an improvement from the current “Sirius” technology of the iPhone 4S), holographic display for movies and television, an A6 processor chip (which would be an improvement from the current iPhone 4S A5 processor chip), and Liquipel waterproof coating. HZO’s water block technology was rumored earlier this spring (as YouTube videos will show), but the waterproof coating idea has floated into the background within the last month or two.
In the end, all we can know about the iPhone 5 is that it will come in the fall, have a larger screen size and thinner body, will contain “Siri” technology as does the iPhone 4S, and have 4G LTE (an update to the current 4S). As for the rest, time will tell.