The next-gen iPhone will see Apple broaden its product colour palette, it has been reported, but not quite as extensively as earlier leaks suggested.

Until now, every iteration of the iPhone has been available solely in none-more-black and whiter-than-white. However, purported leaks from Apple’s supply chain from earlier this year suggested that was about to change dramatically with the seventh-gen model.

Citing information from unnamed insiders, Brian Topeka of analysts Topeka Capital Markets claimed that the phone would land in eight colour options, including pink, yellow, blue, green, purple, silver and the standard black and white. A red edition that’s tied to a charity was also mooted.

Today, though, the notion that Apple could tear up the formbook so comprehensively seems a bit less likely, after a separate report disclosed that while more options are on the way, the tech giant will limit our choices to three colourways.

The way Japanese blog Mac Otakara tells it, the handset is likely to come in traditional black and white and one other, unspecified colour and will be showcased in July, ahead of an August release date.

The site also posits that the much-rumoured low-cost iPhone – that’s the handset informally dubbed the iPhone 5S in some quarters - will also come in the same trio of colours.

News of Apple’s plans come amid separate rumours that future iPhones could feature fingerprint scanners to add a fresh layer of security and will pack a much improved, more convincingly ‘human’ version of voice commands app Siri.

Via:

Apple Insider

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The majority of smartphone fans don’t feel that iPhone owners are missing out on Facebook’s new Home app-cum-social networking skin, it has emerged, after it was confirmed that it would be exclusive to Android handsets.

Unveiled last week, Facebook Home effectively takes over the look and feel of handsets, putting the social networking service slap bang on its homescreen and at the core of the user interface.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg said he would have liked to bring it to the iPhone, but that Apple’s tight restrictions and insistence on controlling its handsets’ user experience kyboshed any chances of that happening.

However, judging by the reaction from smartphone fans in a uSwitch Tech poll, Facebook Home isn’t exactly top of many people’s iPhone app wishlists.

Asked whether they felt that iPhone users are missing out by not being able to download the app, 79.22 per cent (879 people) answered no. Pretty emphatic we’re sure you’ll agree.

Whether that’s a reflection on the perceived quality of the app or privacy concerns isn’t clear. But we think not.

The result is probably more informed by iPhone owners’ innate tendency to favour simple, clear usability of iOS above the freedom to customise a phone’s layout that Android offers.

Either that, or, after years of doomsaying in the tech press, the Facebook bubble might really have burst.

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The next-gen iPhone will pack a top-end 12-megapixel camera with improved performance in low-light conditions, rumours suggest.

According to an insider cited by Vietnamese blog Tinhte.vn (MacRumors is on translation detail), the handset will be home to lens that offers a f/2.4 aperture alongside a backside illuminated sensor for better results when snapping at night.

The same source, who it seems works at the fantastically named iPhone camera module maker Wonderful Saigon Electrics, claims that the camera could also introduce technology to minimise the purple haze that some iPhone 5 owners have complained of.

Expected to drop around September, the iPhone 6 putative spec sheet takes in a completely revamped version of the handset’s iOS software care of newly incumbent head of UI Jonny Ive, as well as a fingerprint scanner to add an extra layer of security.

Rumours suggest that development of the handset, which we’re told won’t differ too much from the iPhone 5S on the looks-front, was overseen by Steve Jobs, making it among the last products that the totemic one-time Apple figurehead was intimately involved with

Via:

MacRumors

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Facebook has brushed aside rumours that it’s in discussions with Apple to bring Facebook Home to iOS.

Bloomberg reported yesterday that The Social Network is in talks with Apple over the possibility of expanding its freshly launched bespoke Android launcher to the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.

Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s Director of Product, told the biz news outlet: “We’ve shown them what we’ve built and we’re just in an ongoing conversation.”

He added, however, that it would ultimately be Apple’s call as to how Facebook Home is integrated with iOS, meaning it could look distinctly different from its Android counterpart.

“It may or may not be Home,” said Mosseri. “We could also just bring some of the design values to the iOS app. That might be how it ends up. Or we could build just the lock screen. Maybe then it’s not called Home, it’s called something else.”

Today, The Next Web reports that it’s been told by Facebook that although it has “good relationships with both Apple and Microsoft, right now no discussions have taken place to bring Home to those platforms”.

It’s likely that Facebook has only approached Apple and Microsoft to demonstrate Home and what possibilities it offers rather than enter actual negotiations to make it available on iOS and Windows Phone.

That said, the social networking giant doesn’t necessarily rule out eventually moving Facebook Home to newer pastures and making it available to as many of its billion users as possible.

After the unveiling of Facebook Home earlier this month, Mark Zuckerberg told Fortune: “We’d love to offer this on iPhone, and we just can’t today, and we will work with Apple to do the best experience that we can within what they want.”

Unfortunately for The Zuck, iPhone owners don’t quite feel the same the way. In a uSwitch Tech poll, eight out of 10 iFans said they won’t miss Facebook Home on their handsets.

Still, for the remaining two that will miss it, Facebook has just brought one of its main features in Home: ‘Chat Heads’, in a new update to its official iOS app.

Chat Heads, if you’re unaware, lets you have a conversation with a group of friends as pop-up bubbles over the screen while you’re doing other things. Unfortunately, on iOS it only works within the Facebook app and doesn’t come with SMS integration like the Android version does.

Via:

The Next Web, Bloomberg

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Rumours around the next iPhone are gathering pace today, amid claims that the handset could be here as July.

In the latest round of speculation, for whom we’ve got iOSDoc to thank, it’s posited that the handset will feature an improved front-facing two-megapixel camera with a view to improving the video calling experience offered by Apple’s FaceTime app.

The site, which claims to have gleaned its information from an unnamed software engineer at Apple, also reveals that, pending a delay, the tech giant is planning to equip the snapper with a built-in dual-shot mode.

Enabling users to take snaps with both cameras simultaneously and blend the results, this feature will be exclusive to the seventh-gen iPhone and will not arrive on earlier models when the new version of Apple’s iOS software is pushed out.

Earlier today, rumours surfaced claiming the iPhone 6 will go on pre-order in mid-June, ahead of an early July release and will pack a 13-megapixel rear-mounted camera and fingerprint-scanning technology.

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Calls for Apple to significantally update the iOS operating system that powers the iPhone will be answered when the next iteration of its smartphone lands later this year, leaks from Infinite Loop suggest.

According to “multiple people who have either seen or have been briefed on the upcoming iOS 7” cited by 9to5Mac, the refreshed platform will sport a rethought user interface that “will be attractive to new iOS users” but won’t frighten off long-time Apple apostles.

Changes we can expect to see in the ‘very, very flat’, pared down UI include less of the cutesy skeumorphism that so riled Ive in the past, but which Scott Forstall insisted on. That means that note-taking apps that take on the look and form of a traditional notebook will be no more.

However, mindful that iOS’s simplicity is what’s made it such a hit with punters, the new software has been conceived so there’s no new learning curve for buyers to embark on. Very much still present and correct, for instance, are the home and lockscreens that have been core to iOS from year dot, but alongside them are rethought icons for native apps and an all-new toolbar.

iOS 7, which is apparently codeamed Innsbruck around Cupertino, is expected to be unveiled to the world at the WWDC gathering of the dev tribes in June.

That month is also rumoured to be marked by the arrival of the iPhone 6, suggesting that Apple could break with recent form and introduce a new handset at the conference.

Source:

9to5Mac

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iOS 7 is not subject to delays and will ship on time. That’s according to a number of inside sources speaking to All Things D and confirmed by renowned Apple watcher Jim Dalrymple in a short post on his personal blog.

While an exact launch date has yet to be confirmed, Apple is widely expected to show off the wholly revamped operating system at next month’s WWDC.

It will then apparently land on users’ handsets from September. It’s also been confirmed that Sir Jony Ive’s iOS team have had to borrow a number of engineers working on OS X 10.9 in order to complete what is clearly going to be a major redesign of Apple’s mobile operating system .

All Things D’s sources said Ive was looking to ‘de-Forstallise’ iOS, a reference to designer Scott Forstall, who left the company last year following the Maps debacle.

Ive is said to be ditching the realistic designs of Game Centre and Notes, instead favouring a so-called ‘flat’ design that could look similar to some elements of Microsoft’s Windows Phone.

Apple pulled a similar trick with its OS X engineers back in 2007, moving them off redeveloping Cupertino’s desktop operating system in order to get the original iPhone out of the door on time.

Source:

All Things D

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The ‘will they, won’t they’ saga of the budget iPhone continues apace. Apple of course, is keeping schtum, but that isn’t stopping supply chain sources from chattering endlessly about the new, cheap Cupertino-crafted handset.

Now, sources speaking with ETrade Supply have claimed that Apple is priming its budget iPhone for release this year.

That goes against plenty of other industry hearsay, which has recently suggested Apple would wait until 2014 to wade into the lower end of the smartphone gene pool.

What makes this gossip all the more credible is that ETrade was the first to snag of the iPhone 5 almost a year ago. It also has pedigree in breaking early leaks of the BlackBerry Z10.

What the budget iPhone will look like remains a mystery. However, there’s been plenty of idle talk about various colour schemes, a la current iPod touch, as well as a capacious 4.3-inch display to take on the growing number of big-screened rivals in the budget space.

This one will run and run. So perhaps Apple could do us all a favour and call time on the whole budget iPhone rumour mill by unveiling the darned thing at WWDC.

Source:

ETrade Supply

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iPhone renders are a dime a dozen, but for once we have been graced with a concept for Apple’s next flagship phone that seems very much a possibility.

Created by Arthur Reis, a budding designer who aspires to join the ranks of Jony Ive and Shin Nishibori someday, 3D renderings of the iPhone 6 imagine a handset that looks largely identical to iPhone 5 (think: anodised aluminium casing with chamfered edges), but an impressive 20 per cent slimmer at just 6.1mm thick.

The handset also features a 12-megapixel camera with an ‘iSight Pro’ sensor boasting an f/1.8 aperture and a ‘Magic TrackPad’ that replaces the physical home button with a touch-sensitive equivalent.

As far as we’re concerned, this is one of the best iPhone concepts we’ve seen, principally because it doesn’t go crazy on novel or unrealistic features as most concepts do.

Apple is always trying to make its handsets slimmer, so a more slender iPhone is within the realms of possibility. And with Samsung upping the ante with a 13-megapixel camera on the freshly launched Galaxy S4, we can certainly expect the iPhone 6 to match its competition in the imaging stakes.

The iPhone 6 is hotly tipped to land this summer, possibly sometime in July. Although there’s still a chance that Apple might stick to an autumn release cycle for new iPhone launches.

What do you think of Reis’s iPhone 6 concept? Let us know in the comments section below.

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