The iPhone 5 News Blog

With rumors heating up of an iPhone 5S release in early to mid 2013, the tech media is beginning to wonder what the iPhone 5S could offer in the way of new features. How about an improvement on that easily-scratched metal back?

While the big story surrounding the iPhone 5S these days is whether or not we could see its release in the first half of 2013, others are prognosticating on what Apple could be looking to improve in the current iPhone 5′s design to substantiate a sooner-rather-than-later release schedule. With so many new hardware features like the elongated screen, in-cell display technology, A6 chip, and lightning connector just a couple of months old, the iPhone 5 clearly remains the most state-of-the-art design in Apple’s lineup.

Other issues, such as the Apple Maps app, battery, and scrolling issues associated with the iPhone 5′s hardware are all little fixes that Apple can make incrementally to the iPhone 5 as production moves along into early 2013. One feature, however, that could be improved upon and make quite a splash on the iPhone 5S is a modification of the iPhone 5′s “scratchy” metal back. Read More

Apple CEO Tim Cook highlighted the beautiful look and feels of the iPhone 5′s sumptuous aluminum back. But with new users reporting that the metal scratches and dings easily, it looks like the metal-backed iPhone 5 is fated to be covered up by plastic iPhone 5 cases.

While some have been frustrated with what the iPhone 5 did and did not deliver, many have taken some solace in the fact that Apple did follow through with the metal-backed rumor that has persisted over the past two years. With the iPhone 4 featuring a glass back with sleek metal trim on its sides, iPhone users have long imagined that the expanded use of metal on the back of the iPhone 5 would only enhance its good looks. And that’s exactly what Apple did: the back of the iPhone 5 is a unique combination of glass and metal and, while the early leaked images of the iPhone 5′s back seemed awkward, users say that in person, it’s a really pretty smartphone.

Apparently it is also really easy to scratch the new metal as well.

There are a wide range of new reports outlining some of the shortcomings of the new iPhone, such as the lackluster launch of Apple maps, issues with wifi, and a few other software bits and bobs, most of which will be addressed in subsequent iOS 6 updates. But the scratchy metal problem — there’s no “fix” for that design flaw. Read More

A new video on YouTube puts the purported metal iPhone 5 back plate into better focus. Does seeing it in motion make it more appealing — and more believable — to you?

Just when the photos published by 9to5Mac last week began to seem less than believable, a new video has emerged from ETrade Supply that purports to show the iPhone 5 back plate. If pictures say a thousand words, then videos show a thousand pictures.

The gentleman on the video gives us a thorough, up-close look at the back plate, and it would appear that the part he is holding is identical to that of the back plate seen in the original 9to5Mac article. It features the same small cut-out for the dock connector, the repositioning of the headphone jack to the bottom, changes to the sides, the long profile, and the slightly mismatched look of the metal piece against glass or plastic framing on the back. Read More

With less than a week to go before the kick-off of the Worldwide Developers Conference, LiquidMetal is injecting themselves back into Apple and iPhone 5 speculation.

Since the advent of iPhone 5 speculation, LiquidMetal has been at the forefront of the form factor rumors, since Apple’s license with the metal alloy company was sealed in the same year that the iPhone 4 was released, thus kicking off the long, meandering wait for the now-mythic iPhone 5. We’ve covered the LiquidMetal angel since its beginnings, if for no other reason than the technology itself would seem to provide Apple with a unique and innovative means of achieving remarkable form factors for its products.

Over the past few months, we’ve seen some wild news swings about LiquidMetal and Apple releases. The first came about on the eve of the New iPad release, when the company itself issued a press release that briefly led some to wonder if the iPad 3 would feature a LiquidMetal chassis. That of course did not come to pass, but it was the start of a crescendoing anticipation for LiquidMetal to be factored into the iPhone 5′s form factor, with rumors out of Asia to boot.

Now, with the WWDC less than a week away, LiquidMetal is once again making news, inciting the speculators to once wonder: is LiquidMetal going to show up at the WWDC? Read More

Take a look at the photo again -- you think that's LiquidMetal?

All that luscious metal on the back of those purported images of the iPhone 5 — my first question was: is that stuff LiquidMetal? It surprised me that, with all the talk of the metal components of the newly leaked part photos if anyone was going to confirm or debunk the LiquidMetal rumors, which have persisted for several months now.

Forbes finally weighed in on what kind of metal we’re seeing on the recent photos, and they appear to believe that it is LiquidMetal:

Apple CEO Cook said, “We’re going to double down on secrecy on products.” Coincidentally at the same time online photos of what appear to be parts of iPhone 5 were published by 9To5Mac. In the picture published 9To5Mac, the back of the phone appears to be Liquidmetal.

Writer Nigam Arora appears to be the first to suggest that the back of the iPhone parts we’ve seen is LiquidMetal — but his article really isn’t about that detail; he spends more time talking about how, as per their agreement with Apple, LiquidMetal doesn’t stand to make major gains, even if their unique metal alloy is used in mass production, and thus, their stock is overhyped. That may or may not be true — even though Apple controls some licensing for LiquidMetal, I cannot imagine that means that Cupertino doesn’t need to remunerate them for materials used beyond their lump-sum licensing payment — it’s interesting that Mr. Arora is so sure that what he is seeing is LiquidMetal.

A recent LiquidMetal-inspired iPhone concept. I kind of like this one better!

My first instinct was that the metal piece was not LiquidMetal, and that perhaps, because the alloy is more expensive than regular aluminum, that the metals seen in the photo might be place-holders. It could also explain the color mismatching as well. Furthermore, it would seem to me that, because LiquidMetal has historically be used on products to give them a unique, premium look, I imagined its use on the iPhone 5 to include the holographic Apple logo, or otherwise some other creative usage.

If the parts are real, and that’s LiquidMetal being used, it doesn’t seem to be delivering a look or purpose that would be worthy of the hype.

By Michael Nace

The Vertu Ascent - a LiquidMetal-based dumbphone

Last month, rumors broke out of Asia that LiquidMetal, the innovative metal alloy licensed exclusive for use in consumer electronics by Apple, would be featured in the iPhone 5′s form factor. That rumor was only the latest in a long-running belief that the iPhone 5 would be the iPhone iteration that finally factored LiquidMetal into its design, but this latest rumor propelled LiquidMetal’s stock price up, as more and more investors seem to be buying it (the rumor and the shares).

But a recent interview with LiquidMetal’s inventor reveals that, while his plastic-like metal alloy may indeed make its way onto the iPhone 5, it might not be used to create a mind-blowingly cool form factor that many are anticipating.

Quoting the interview, Mobile&Apps reports that Dr. Atakan Peker believes that the implementation of LiquidMetal to be used in a large-scale production effort, such as an iPhone’s chassis or form factor, is still a way’s away:

“There is “no suitable manufacturing infrastructure yet to take full advantage of the alloy technology,” Peker said. According to him, the technology “has yet to be matured and perfected both in manufacturing process and application development,” and it would cost Apple quite a fortune. “I estimate that Apple will likely spend on the order of $300 million to $500 million – and three to five years – to mature the technology before it can be used in large scale,” he told Business Insider.”

To be sure, the $300 to $500 million-dollar price tag for ramping up the manufacturing infrastructure to use LiquidMetal would not seem like much of a problem for Apple, which is quite possibly the most solvent supercompany in the world today. But Dr. Peker’s claim that there is ”no suitable manufacturing infrastructure yet to take full advantage of the alloy technology” is somewhat believable, when you consider that LiquidMetal is not currently used to produce any large-scale product, in terms of its manufacturing scope.

But there are plenty of other “complex” products on the market today that feature LiquidMetal. Read More

The answer to the mystery of what Apple was about in paying $20 million for licensing rights to Liquidmetal Technologies’ “amorphous metal alloys” nearly two years ago may soon be revealed.

On Wednesday the Apple blogosphere lit up over a new rumor reported by Korean journal ETNews’s Kim In-soon that the next iPhone will swap the iPhone 4 series’ glass case material for Liquidmetal alloy, the new design to be unveiled at is expected to be unveiled at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in June. The high-tech alloy is said in the report to have an outer surface smooth like liquid, and would reportedly allow a thinner, lighter from factor that would also be more resistant to impact damage.

In-soon also reports that the Samsung Galaxy S3, scheduled to be unveiled in London in May 3, will have a ceramic main body. made by applying heat to a non-metallic inorganic substance, is extremely light and comfortable to grip.

Michael Nace has already addressed the potential veracity or otherwise of this rumor or otherwise at some length, but what of the material itself? What is Liquidmetal”

Liquidmetal was developed by a California Institute of Technology research team that later organized themselves into the Liquidmetal Technologies firm. Despite the name, Liquidmetal alloys are not liquid, but solid at room temperature, and are claimed to be hard-wearing and able to withstand thermal cycling, along with a constellation of other desirable material features including high tensile strength, excellent corrosion resistance, very high coefficient of restitution and excellent anti-wearing characteristics, while being able to be heat-formed in processes similar to thermoplastics. Liquidmetal, which was introduced for commercial applications in 2003, has reportedly been used to make golf clubs, golf balls, watches, covers of cell phones the cores of skis, baseball and softball bats, and tennis racquets.

According to Wikipedia, Liquidmetal technology has been used for making the SIM ejector tool of some iPhone 3Gs shipped in the US — done by Apple as an exercise to test the viability of usage of the metal. The alloy is claimed to retain a scratch-free surface longer than competing materials, while facilitating the molding of complex shapes — qualities that suit it to being used as protective coating for industrial machinery, petroleum drill pipes and power plant boiler tubes, and allow it to be considered as a replacement for titanium in applications ranging from medical instruments and cars to military and aerospace hardware.

More specifically, the explanation of Liquidmetal alloys’ properties notes that they contain atoms of significantly different sizes that form a dense mix with low free volume, and unlike crystalline metals, there is no obvious melting point at which viscosity drops suddenly. Rather they behave more like glass, in that viscosity drops gradually with increased temperature, and at high temperatures it behaves in a plastic manner, allowing mechanical properties to be controlled relatively easily during casting.

Because these alloys have relatively low softening temperatures (400 °C/752 °F for the earliest formulation), they can be molded, and allow casting of complicated shapes without need of finishing with material properties immediately after casting being much better than when casting with conventional metals, which usually need a lot of post-casting finish work. They also have low shrinkage during cooling. Liquidmetal can be formed into complex shapes using processes similar to ones used with thermoplastics, making Liquidmetal a potential replacement for many applications where plastics might otherwise be used.

Parallels with Apple’s interest in and development of cast aluminum “unibody” technology seem obvious, and if Liquidmetal iPhone enclosures prove successful, it would seem likely that the material and technique would be expanded for use with other Apple products as well, perhaps displacing the expensive and demanding process of machining device housings from a single piece of aluminum altogether. Casting should be significantly cheaper and faster than machining for volume production, and with Liquidmetal’s other desirable qualities, the upside for both Apple and for end-users could be substantial.

As for that June WWDC release date, as of this morning (April 19) a Bing search for “Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2012″ brings up only the WWDC 2011 link, which suggests that the June 11 date for the conference to open is looking a bit overly optimistic. It’s been speculated that WWDC might get pushed back to July or August this year. We’ll see.

By Charles Moore

It has long been speculated that the iPhone 5 might trade in glass for metal, with the LiquidMetal alloy providing the perfect construction material. Now, a new rumor has emerged, thrusting LiquidMetal back into the rumor mill again. Read how this new rumor may connect with what LiquidMetal themselves told us on the day of the iPad 3′s launch, further suggesting a June iPhone 5 launch.

The iPhone 5 News Blog has pursued the LiquidMetal story line in the iPhone 5 rumor mill since last June, when a weak rumor sent the meta alloy’s shares soaring. Since that time, we’ve made it a point to put out all of the LiquidMetal rumors we could get our hands on, since the unique metal could allow Apple to do some wondrous things for the iPhone 5′s form factor.

A new LiquidMetal-related story has popped today in the rumor mill, suggesting that the iPhone 5 could indeed end up replacing much of its glass form factor with metal.

All of the usual suspects have articles about it today, including MacRumors, SlashGear, and 9to5Mac. But all of these sites are quoting ETNews, a Korean-based tech news outlet, who had this to say:

According to industry sources, the next flagship phones of the companies are expected to adopt unprecedented materials for their main bodies, that is, ceramic for the Galaxy S3 and liquid metal for iPhone5, both being thin, light and highly resistant to external impacts. The new phase of the rivalry is because neither one of them can get a decisive edge over the other solely with its OS and AP specifications, features or design. 

Scanning the article, I could never get any kind of explanation as to who these industry sources are, or where they are coming from. And that would be both helpful and more reassuring, since it would add more veracity to the claim. The article also stated that “The new iPhone is expected to make its debut at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco in June,” but again didn’t qualify that statement, so we don’t know if it too comes from the above mentioned “industry sources,” or just a parroting of speculation and opinion found on blogs such as this one.

Reflecting on how much of this ETNews report can be believed, MacRumors points out that: “the site did incorrectly claim last year that the iPhone would launch in late June with a special event several weeks after WWDC. The site appears to have been more accurate with its January claim that Sharp had been cut out of the supply chain for the display in the new iPad. Sharp did experience difficulties meeting Apple’s quality control standards for the display production, and is only now ramping up production to help meet demand.” While MacRumors is willing to wholesale-brand the rumor as most likely unreliable, one could split the difference: if ETNews has gotten release date rumors wrong but production rumors right, then the LiquidMetal rumor could be more legitimate than their facile statement that the iPhone 5 will be released in June.

In an effort to match patents with rumor, Patently Apple joined the fray by leafing through its archives of Apple patent filings that relate to their licensing of LiquidMetal’s alloys, pointing their readers to a “report titled ‘Looking into One of Apple’s Special-Purpose Liquidmetal Projects” that was based on several patents related to Apple’s agreement with Liquidmetal Technologies.’” Patently Apple remarks that “While Apple’s iPhone 4′s glass design definitely had its share of critics and PR problems with antennagate, it still remains the number smartphone on the market. Yet without a doubt a fresh new design using liquidmetal will help to reignite the iPhone’s hysteria around the globe.”

All of these reports however, are failing to recall a more recent LiquidMetal-related news piece that could directly relate to what ETNews is telling us. On March 7th — the morning that the iPad 3 was to be announced, LiquidMetal released this statement to the press:

Liquidmetal Technologies today announced that its manufacturing operations are currently in the midst of shipping commercial parts to several of its customers world-wide. Parts delivery began this past December with continuing shipments scheduled for the months ahead.

The lake-breaking assumption that day was that the iPad 3 was going to have a LiquidMetal chassis. We didn’t get around to reporting it that day, since there was so much going on with the iPad 3 announcement, but you can read a report about it from 9to5Mac. What the tech media keyed on was that the “parts delivery began this last December,” which would have been in keeping with iPad production. However, with the possibility of a June iPhone 5 release date looming, what are the chances that these parts were actually for the iPhone 5?

Everything else in this article is total rumor — but the LiquidMetal press release isn’t. We don’t know where or for what those LiquidMetal shipments were/are for, but when you couple that press release with this new rumor, it makes a compelling case for a LiquidMetal iPhone 5, no?

By Michael Nace

Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White’s claims that his trip to Asia recently netted him a few iPhone 5 insights, including a unibody form factor and late summer release date. Read why I think the first rumor sounds plausible, but the second one makes little sense to me.

As a rule, we should take analysts’ prediction with as many grains of salt as we do tech rumor blogs, as many of them use their clout as analysts to gin up the market on speculation of wild, fantastical rumors. Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White, however, offered up a few new rumor tidbits about the iPhone 5 that are worth delving into, whether they turn out to be credible or not.

On his recent visit to Asia, Mr. white claims to have picked up some clues about the iPhone 5′s features and release date. His claim that the iPhone 5 will sport a 4-inch screen and 4G LTE aren’t really eyebrow-raising prognostications, since a 4-inch+ display and 4G seem to be foregone conclusions for the next iPhone. More interesting, however, are his comments about the iPhone 5′s form factor.

According to Business Insider, the iPhone 5 will sport “a new, sleek look that we believe will require a Unibody case. This new, sleek look will be the most important reason that consumers decide to upgrade to the iPhone 5.” This quote is a bit confusing: is BI saying that the iPhone 5′s form factor will be unibody, or that its sleek form factor will require a unibody case? Other tech publications have interpreted this quote differently. For example, ZDNET’s  Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, commenting on the iPhone 5 unibody quote, said, “I’m also not sure what to make of the unibody suggestion. It’s worth remembering that the original iPhone, the iPhone 3G and the iPhone 3GS were unibody construction in a sense (although not machined out of a single aluminum block). Apple can do some amazing things with aluminum but putting the antennas back inside the iPhone would leave less room inside for components (and the battery),” indicating that he thinks we’re talking about a single-piece chassis for the iPhone 5.

It’s worth mentioning that unibody construction is not an alien design element for Cupertino: we’ve seen them deploy it with the MacBooks. There were also faint rumors of a future iPhone being cut from a single piece of metal, though the notion of it being “cut” might be inaccurate, with Apple opting for the use of LiquidMetal to mold a metal unibody iPhone 5 form factor instead. LiquidMetal did make headlines on the day of the iPad 3′s launch by saying it was shipping a large shipment of its alloy for something mysterious, which briefly made investors think that the New iPad would be made of LiquidMetal.

Suffice it to say, a true unibody construction is not out of the question for the iPhone 5.

What seems less likely to me personally, however, is White’s belief that the iPhone 5 is slated for an august/September release date. You’ll recall that throughout the 2011 summer, we were told over and over again that the iPhone 5 would be released in august, then September. It never seemed like a reasonable possibility then, and it still doesn’t, since august is a particularly bad month of any product launch, due to the large number of people going on summer vacations in the northern hemisphere. To me, the iPhone 5 will be released either in June or in the fall, like the 4S — a late summer release just doesn’t seem viable.

BI envisions the late-summer iPhone 5 release date this way: “Our sense is that some suppliers will begin production of certain components during the month of June, however, this does not necessarily mean the iPhone 5 will launch in June or even July.” while BI is going on sense, it would appear that components are already in production, notably from Samsung and Texas Instruments. And if the iPhone 5 is to utilize the A5X processor in the New iPad, then those are already into mainstream production. If key components like the display, power management chip, and processor are already in production, it remains to be seen why BI would think that it will not be until June that we see production ramp up for the iPhone 5, as it will not take three months for Apple to amass the raw components they need to begin assembly.

In the end, it appears that what is driving BI and other tech blogs’ belief in a iPhone 5 release that is later rather than sooner is this assumption: “In our view, a August/September launch may make more sense given the iPhone 4S was just launched in October 2011.” There is a tendency to believe that whatever Apple does immediately sets a new pattern. I am still of the belief that 2011 was an irregular year for the iPhone release, and not necessarily a paradigm shift.

Finally, it’s worth noting that the BI article has this to say near the end of the article: “We believe the iPhone 5 ramp for the December quarter could be extraordinary, dwarfing previous launches and driving the stock closer to our $1,001 price target.” This quote shows how tech analyst hype does indeed build into Wall Street, with these new predictions looking to drive up speculation on Apple stock.

By Michael Nace

Justin Quinn's glass-backed iPhone 5 concept photos

Apple’s tacit admission that they utilize Corning Gorilla Glass is fueling rumors that the iPhone 5 will retain the glass-backed design of its predecessors.

After nearly 19 months of steady speculation that Apple would replace the glass back of the iPhone 4 and 4S with a metal-backed iPhone 5, the tacit, news-breaking admission from Apple that they indeed use Corning Gorilla Glass is gaining traction in the iPhone 5 rumor mill, suggesting to tech writers that the iPhone 5 may once again reprise the use of glass on its back. We argued in an article last week — well before the new wave of speculation about a glass-backed iPhone 5 that is breaking today — that Apple would be hard-pressed to substantiate boasting about its relationship with Corning in March, only to turn around and use metal on the back of the iPhone 5, thus massive cutting demand for Corning’s Gorilla Glass in the second half of 2012.

Now, however, speculation is turning into “rumors” that the iPhone 5 will indeed remain glassy.

Jeremy Horwitz over at iLounge plumbed his Apple source and came up with this: “Despite the well-established “aluminum-backed iPhone 5” rumors that have continued to circulate since the iPhone 4 was released, Apple is nonetheless continuing to experiment with glass and ceramic rear shells for a future iPhone model. The upshot is that the new design would be like the iPhone 4, but thinner, thanks to Corning’s stronger Gorilla Glass 2 and the further reduction of internal components.” There is some logic to this rumor, considering all the hoopla last year about Apple investing deeply into glass-cutting machines. Charles Moore reported on this a couple of times last year — once on May 24th, and again on September 27th — both times reporting on rumors of a glassy, curved iPhone 5 release for 2012.

In spite of the logic, as well as iLounge’s respected pedigree for breaking Apple news, this new rumor seems like an easy one to concoct — and pretty safe as well. Again, the Corning story, as well as Apple’s tradition of the glass-backed iPhone, len some syllogistic logic to concluding the iPhone 5 will be glass backed. In many ways, it’s a safer bet than assuming Apple will switch to Aluminum or LiquidMetal for the iPhone 5.

And the use of glass on the back of the iPhone 5 does not preclude its form factor from changing significantly, either. While a metal back would give the iPhone 5 an extremely distinct look, no doubt, we’ve seen plenty of interesting iPhone 5 concepts — including the recent one featured here by Justin Quinn — that utilize a glass back and still achieve designs that constitute a true “overhaul” of the current iPhone’s form factor.

But it’s worth noting that the new rumor of a glass back on the iPhone 5 is no more or less substantiated than the metal-backed rumor. It’s all speculation.

By Michael Nace