The iPad 2 has officially landed, thoroughly whetting the UK’s appetite once again for all things Apple. But now the iPad 2 commotion is all over and done with, more and more attention is being turned towards the iPhone 5 and, most importantly, what it will feature.
Current word on the street is that the iPhone 5, like the iPad 2 before it, will raise the bar and apply some serious pressure to the mounting Android-powered competition. What this means, in theory, is more processing power, new innovative technology and potentially a rethink on the design of the device.
So, without further ado, here it is: everything you need to know about the iPhone 5.
NFC
NFC isn’t as new as Google would have you believe. It’s been around for ages. What is new though is the current trend of big players, such as Google and Apple, taking the technology seriously. This isn’t all that surprising though really, after all there’s a lot of potential money tied up in NFC. But will Apple’s iPhone 5 feature NFC?
Recent leaked patent reports certainly allude to the iPhone 5 being NFC-enabled. In the pictures published by Patently Apple, there is an e-wallet icon in the dock, which certainly sounds like NFC to us.
Having said that, Apple is also reported to be working on its own version of NFC. The exact details of Apple’s own brand of NFC are slim on the ground to say the least. But there’s rumours of being able to move your Apple Mac PC desktop and settings around with you on your iPhone and load them up on another Apple Mac PC at work, for example.
Sounds like the future to us.
Bigger Display
One of the most solid rumours surrounding the iPhone 5 is that it’ll feature a larger display. No doubt Apple will keep its Retina Display technology present, securing its display USP, and bring the iPhone more inline with the current crop of large screened smartphones.
At present no one’s sure on just how much bigger the iPhone 5’s display will be. Some reports claim it’ll be a 3.5-inch affair, with others saying 4-inches. Either way, we think it’s pretty safe to say the display will be larger on the iPhone 5 – consumers want it, we want it and increased mobile gaming and media consumption practically demands it.
Better Cloud Integration
According to iFans.com, ‘The new iOS 5 will be heavily built around the cloud, and we could see several new services launch from Apple that take advantage of this.’
Now this is interesting. Apple’s iOS, while being generally very good, desperately needs a good overhaul and a few new additions to keep it fresh and up-to-date. The addition of new services, such as a cloud-oriented music one, would certainly be attractive to many users, especially if it synced up well with iTunes – it presumably will.
Better cloud integration would also take care of storage as well – basically, you wouldn’t need as much SSD in the device. And this would no doubt save Apple a few pennies, which will hopefully be passed onto consumers.
The cloud is going to be big. Google is currently testing its cloud-based music service as you read this, so Apple is going to have to come to the table with something pretty impressive – and a cloud-based iTunes service sounds about as good a place to start as any.
Release Date
Apple likes to keep its releases fairly regular – we’ve seen a new iPhone every year since 2007. Year in year out, it’s always the same: Apple hires out the Yerba Buena Centre in San Francisco – around June or July – and confirms the next iPhone.
Although there's no official release date for the iPhone 5 yet, there is a date for WWDC - the conference where Apple usually launches its iPhones. This time the conference starts on June 6, so keep your eyes peeled around that date.
White Version
There’s a white version of the iPad 2, so whatever problems Apple was encountering with the white paint have clearly been ousted. That said, we’ve still yet to see a white iPhone 4 – and we’ve been waiting for that sucker for a long time.
Will Apple hold off on a white iPhone 4 in favour of a white iPhone 5 device? Not likely, Apple will probably do both – that way it will maximise sales.
Having said that, we’d bet our bottom dollar that a white iPhone 5 will accompany the trademark black one – if it doesn’t, there’s likely to be rioting in the streets.
Aluminium back plate
According to reports, Apple is ditching the iPhone 4 design in favour of something similar to the iPad 2’s design – i.e. an aluminium back plate.
We covered this story quite sometime ago and it seems the logic behind it is as follows: aluminium is lighter, doesn’t scratch as easy and it enables Apple to revert to its old antenna placement, which means no more call dropping.
Here’s the official line from our Chinese source:
‘Decision to design similar to iPod touch instead of using glass is supposed that Apple seems to stop problems which are told widely damages from scratching, difficulties of painting white and weight of glass.’
More storage – 64GB iPhone 5
As we said earlier, a lot of consumers, thanks in part to the advent of the SD card, are demanding more and more storage capabilities – more music, more video and more space for gaming in short.
Now we can’t see Apple turning on its laurels and including microSD support, although this would be cool, so the only other alternative is more onboard SSD – something that could, however, add to the iPhone 5’s price tag. SSD ain’t cheap.
Adding further weight to this assertion was the appearance of a video online that showcased a 64Gb iPhone device in action. So, the big question is this: will the 64GB iPhone device make it out of the prototype stages and into the shops?
We’re pretty confident it will, Apple will eventually have to start offering larger storage options to consumers, especially since it is so against including microSD support.
Dual Core Processor
This one is simple: the iPhone 5 will no doubt feature Apple’s A5 dual core processor. It’s in the iPad 2 and if Apple neglected to include it in the iPhone 5 it’d look stupid – and this is something Apple never does.
What we’re not sure about is how much RAM will feature in the iPhone 5. As you’re probably all aware, the iPhone 4 had over twice as much RAM as the original iPad. So will the iPhone 5 feature 1GB of RAM? God knows, but if it did it’d probably be the fastest phone this side of the Milky Way.
LTE (4G) Support
4G is a technology to look out for, but the current crop of 4G-enabled devices are nothing more than a marketing ploy by the awful people in marketing departments – we don’t have true 4G yet, neither does the US, it’s HSPA+ or late stage 3G.
True 4G, according to the ITU, must deliver speeds of 100 Mbps for mobile applications and 1 Gigabit per second for fixed networks, which will make current broadband speeds look paltry in comparison – standard Virgin Broadband speed, for instance, is only 8 Mbps.
Having said that, it’s always a good idea to future proof devices with technology that will feature strongly in the coming years. So in this sense, it’s not beyond the realms of belief that Apple could kit the iPhone 5 out with LTE-support.
This would, at least, mean that it could be upgraded to true 4G once it is officially deployed and rolled out by the networks. Nonetheless, this is a timely process and the current time scale before we’re enjoying break-neck mobile data speeds is about three to four years.
Same Price as iPhone 4
Apple is getting aggressive in its old age. Don’t believe us? Just look at the iPad 2 pricing. It’s the same as the original iPad’s despite the iPad 2 featuring better spec, two cameras and being thinner and lighter.
We’d expect Apple to do the same with the iPhone 5. If it does, the queues seen lining the streets for the iPad 2 will look pathetic compared to ones that’ll appear for the iPhone 5.
Additional Multi touch Gestures
iOS 4.3 GM brought new multi touch gestures that included the use of 4 or 5 fingers to do several things. Like a 5 finger pinch on any app would take you to the home screen and a four finger left or right swipe would switch between the running apps. These gestures have not been released to the masses in iOS 4.3′s final release and are being tested extensively so it is very obvious that they will be coming out with iOS 5.0
Lack of Home Button
Don’t get started on me, let me say that iPhone 5 might not have any hardware home button on its front! When you can switch between the apps with four finger gestures instead of double clicking the home button and 5 finger pinch to the home screen, why do you need a hardware button? That’s totally right but I think it is too early for Apple to implement such a drastic hardware change. Apple might rather stick to the current design with the presence of a home button and leave this change for the next iPhone launch iteration.
Slight or No Design Change
Like the iPhone 3GS hardly got a design change, iPhone 5 might also get a slight or no hardware design change. You might be carrying an iPhone 5 with the same design as your iPhone 4 and your friends won’t even notice that you’ve got an iPhone 5.
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