Smaller iPhone 5 Home Button Appears On Chinese Parts Website
Posted by Michael Nace on Tuesday Apr 24, 2012 Under Apple Rumors, iPhone 5 Rumor
When a new iPhone 5 parts rumor such as this one surfaces, what should a blogger write about — what the rumor implies about the iPhone 5, or whether the rumor is believable? How about both.
OK — here we go again with the iPhone home button and leaked parts rumors. This one, concerning the home button, comes from the Apple Bitch, who apparently went digging around the China-based TVC-Mall.com, which is notorious for posting and selling parts for past, present, and future Apple gadgets. Apple Bitch reports that “TVC Mall has, in the past, appeared to act as a source for leaks of other components for unreleased Apple products. In January, prior to the launch of the new iPad, replacement power cables, microphone flex cables, headphone jack connectors and a Bluetooth antenna for the unreleased device appeared on the site.”
Like every purported sighting of an iPhone part, there is a built-in dubiousness associated with this rumor. I need not remind you of the proliferation of purported “iPhone 5″ cases that were on sale for much of the summer of 2011, which tech analysts dissected in hopes of diving the new size and features of an iPhone 5 that never emerged. Heck — even CaseMate got into the fray with iPhone 5 cases before the official announcement.
And don’t forget — we’ve also seen leaked photos of home buttons before as well.
Remember this leaked photograph of the home button that appeared to explode the hopes of an overhauled iPhone 5 in 2011? We also had this photo to contend with, showing assemblers working on what was purported to be iPhone 5 glass displays with a cut-out for an elongated home button. Many believed that this photo was a sneak peak at the capacitive, multi-touch home button that had been heavily rumored for the iPhone in 2011.
On the subject of the elongated home button, the Apple Bitch appears to trust these new home photo photos, commenting that “The biggest surprise, or perhaps disappointment, for some is that the Home buttons appear to be round in shape. If the parts turn out to be genuine, then this would essentially quash any suggestion that Apple was redesigning the iPhone 5 with an oval touch capacitive Home button.” It is worth noting that if — and if is a big if here — these home buttons are legitimate, they are in fact smaller than the original home buttons used as late as the iPhone 4S. The actual circular button on the right is smaller, even though its base is the same dimensions as the old home button.
This would indicate to me that Apple could in essence reduce the size of the home button itself, while still conforming its connective features so that internal components would not have to change as much. All of this could be leading to a slight increase in screen size while still maintaining the basic dimensions of the iPhone, a notion that has recently picked up steam in the rumor mill. But we’re a long way from believing this rumor. Sure, it is possible that a Foxconn staffer stuck their hand into a vat of these home buttons and somehow (I don’t want to know how) smuggled them past security. But a more likely explanation is that tweaking a few home buttons can throw a lot of traffic to a website like TVC-Mall.com.
By Michael Nace
Michael Nace is the Publisher of the iPhone 5 News Blog and iPhone 6 News Blog. He has published articles about the iPhone since 2010.
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April 24th, 2012 at 3:12 pm
In my opinion, leaked parts this early could point to a June iphone release. For this reason, I hope these parts are real.
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April 25th, 2012 at 12:07 am
Let’s hope the white iPhone is actually released on time this year … if these are real parts then that’s definitely from the white iPhone 5. Interesting button though, probably no special functionality other than being redesigned for an iPhone that has also be redesigned! Only a couple more months and we shall know!
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April 25th, 2012 at 1:32 am
As I’ve been saying all along..I firmly believe the ip5/’new’ iphone will keep the same format and glass detailing. Maybe some components like the home button etc will be reduced in size, but doubt the new device will be a completely new re-design.
I hope I’m wrong, but based on based experience, this is what Apple does…
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April 25th, 2012 at 3:37 am
To me the “new” button looks like something you’ll get if you remove the button cap of the existing home button, hence revealing the microswitch…
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April 25th, 2012 at 5:17 am
Pfft, nothing really new here.
Unfortunately over the past couple of years of reading this site and getting hyped up about the iPhone 5 releases etc. I’ve seen so many of these purported “new” buttons etc. and none of them have turned out to be actual parts that found their way into the released product. I’m now pretty cynical about these types of “leaks”.
I totally agree with Michael’s last sentence that this is just more click-bait for TVC-Mall.com and nothing more.
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April 25th, 2012 at 5:41 am
To me this makes no sense at all. Why reduce the size of the button if the size of the underlying switch gear is not reduced. Surely that would be the limiting factor with regards to space. Having this button would just mean having more black or white space around the button, which is pretty pointless if you ask me.
The only other thing is that the black square on the button looks nowhere near the quality of that on the regular button on the left. Having said that, it also looks metallic, so could this be a touch sensitive button, like the new xbox’s eject button? Either way, I still don’t understand why the functional part of the button would stay so large when the only reason to reduce the size of the home button would be to save space.
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April 25th, 2012 at 10:23 am
just a shot in the dark here.. but it looks as tho the square is thicker.. perhaps an led notification for say missed calls, email, txt, etc.. similar to that of the blinking light on a blackberry.. personally think this is bs and will turn out to be nothing.. but since we’re guessing..
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April 25th, 2012 at 11:19 am
I don’t believe any leaked parts anymore.
Look at all the companies, including the big name ones, that made ‘iPhone 5′ cases in mass production last year.
Still waiting for the revolutionary phone to fit that case.
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April 25th, 2012 at 12:54 pm
I know this is off topic but does anyone have any opinions as to if apple will implement a voice guidance feature to the navigation system that comes on the iPhone from the factory ?
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April 25th, 2012 at 1:06 pm
I personally don’t consider the iPhone to have a navigation system. It shows you directions from point A to Point B, and that’s it.
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April 25th, 2012 at 2:08 pm
I agree core2. That what I wish would be implemented.
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April 25th, 2012 at 2:08 pm
there’s always the app WAZE. free gps with voice
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April 25th, 2012 at 2:21 pm
I use Waze as well. I refuse to spend $40-$50 on a Garmin App that also takes a reported Gig+ of storage.
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April 25th, 2012 at 3:51 pm
Actually, looking at this button more closely, it doesn’t look very clean or Apple like, it looks like a cheap knock off or as someone above said, what you see when you take off the home button and reveal what’s underneath. I doubt this is what we’ll see on the new iPhone.
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April 26th, 2012 at 7:59 am
Looking at it again, it’s the same button. The pic on the left has the bit your press attached, the pic on the right doesn’t, just shows the microswitch. Arild said it earlier too, but I missed his post.
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