The iPhone 5 News Blog

Continued chatter about the iPhone 5S coming in multiple color options makes sense. New rumors of a dual LED flash for the new iPhone, however, are hard to reconcile.

Steady rumors of an iPhone 5S (and even the rumored low-cost iPhone) are as varied and colorful as the color options themselves. A recent report from the Japanese rumor site Macotakara claims that Apple is indeed poised to offer its 2013 iPhone offerings in a wide range of candy-coated colors, such as blue, gold, orange, white, and gray. Apparently, black will be reserved for the real iPhone and not the el cheap-o version, creating a new, pro “coolness” for owning a black iPhone.

Or at least that would appear to be the idea. Read More

Looks like Apple is finally taking both its competitors’ and falling stocks’ cues and currently seems to be cranking up the rumor mill with a lot of word about the iPhone 5S, which is rumored to be released in the fall of 2013.

Sources now report an A7 ARM Cortex processor, 2GB RAM and a marked improvement to the display could be in the works. Few people believe that big hardware improvements will accompany the iPhone 5S, but could we at least expect an updrade in performance hardware, I hope? Read More

Word around here is the iPhone 5′s repair costs have not budged in spite of the 8 months that have passed since its launch in the United States. According to a report published by The Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch, it can cost a customer about $229 to fix a broken screen, more expensive than the going price of a brand new unit under a two-year contract with most carriers.

Cupertino refuses to comment on the bloated repair costs, except that one of the main causes is the company’s tight control over the iPhone 5′s components.

The media has been covering this story at face value — but is there another angle on why iPhone 5 parts are being so tightly controlled by Apple, some 8 months after the iPhone 5′s release? Read More

Security security!!

Not only was that a popular phrase made by Anjelah Johnson (Bon Qui Qui) on Mad tv, Apple also wants to incorporate new security features. Not necessarily Fort Knox on your phone (otherwise known as the oft-rumored fingerprint scanner), but rather when it comes to crash-proof hardware. A new rumor is swirling reporting that the iPhone 5S will have flexible screens made of Corning Gorilla Glass. Read More

Are you happy with your iPhone 5?

In spite of the fact that Apple products generally enjoy a very high customer satisfaction rating (including iPhones, historically) a new scientific poll reveals that the iPhone 5 has not fared nearly as well in customer satisfaction as its predecessors.

Are finding like this just a snapshot of an iPhone 5 that was so over-buzzed that it could never live up to the hype, or is Apple’s flagship product slip-sliding away?

Read More

Chatter about Apple’s rumored iWatch continues to escalate through 2013, with a tech analyst now predicting an iWatch release in 2014 with cool biometric features.

I have still yet to come around to the iWatch, and how a glorified calculator watch is in any way an improvement over what the average consumer has available to them — namely, high-performance laptops, tablets, and smartphones. And yet, it would appear that smartwatches are going to become a reality, with ever-advancing rumors coming out of both the Apple and Android camps.

It would appear, however, that 2013 is probably not going to be the year of the smartwatch — at least for Apple. A financial tech analyst is predicting that 2014 will be the year of the iWatch, and that it will feature heavy-duty biometric features as well as iOS integration. (Duh.) Read More

Seems like everyone’s trying to get on the smart voice command bandwagon. Google recently announced that its come up with its own version of Siri, and said that it would be available on iOS devices “soon”.

Google released an update for their Chrome app Wednesday, which was immediately available for Android users. The update for the iOS however will be delayed for a few days, but will come with Voice Search.

According to a post on Google’s blog, the update now allows users to speak their search queries into the omnibox by simply tapping the microphone. Sometimes, queries and results can be spoken back to the user. One of the main differences Voice Search has with Siri is it can only be accessed via the Chrome app instead of being programmed directly into the handset. Read More

Supply chain sources located in Taiwan are proposing the next-in-line iPhone 5S could have a sapphire crystal capacitative Home touch button, designed to be biometric-capable for a new fingerprint-scanning technology, which seems increasingly likely to become a reality, since word of Apple’s Authentec acquisition last year.

The traditional, physical Home button of past and existing iOS devices has been a frustration of many Apple consumers, being one of the first things to manifest inevitable wear-and-tear. With the availability of sapphire crystal, with known hardness second to diamond, the incorporation of fingerprint-scanning technology wouldn’t be as flimsy an idea as people might think.

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One of the most persistent rumors about the 2013 iPhone 5S has been that it will come in a wide range of colors. Do recently leaked images that purport to be the iPhone 5S’ sim card trays indicate that more color options are indeed on the way for this year’s iPhone?

Could the much-anticipated “iPhone 5S” be the first to break away from the monochromatic iPhone color palette? Leaked high-resolution photos of what sources claim to be the smart phone’s innards hint at the possibility of the iPhone 5S coming in more than just black and white.

Photos released by a “trusted source” to BGR include a loudspeaker bracket, ear speaker bracket, vibrating motor assembly, Wi-Fi flex cable ribbon, and SIM card tray. Even if these images prove to be real, they in no way confirm that they will be used in a supposed “iPhone 5S”. Read More

 

The US Patent and Trademark Office recently published a list of 26 patents it just granted Apple, Inc. 3 out of the 26 patents are particularly notable: a Push-to-Talk iPhone feature, multi-touch refinements and upgrades for the Magic Mouse, and a double-sided touch panel, all of which were parsed out by the ever cool Patently Apple.

Most of the new patents are means to ends, for the most part, but a few of the patents are definitely worth taking a quick look at — especially what looks to be the Apple version of the Push-To-Talk feature for a future iPhone.

Oh, and my other big question — is there any possible way that we could see a Push-to-Talk feature on the 2013 iPhone 5S, vis a vis an iOS 7 feature?

Read More