Each week, there are dozens of Apple rumors, reports, and patent filings that hint at what's coming out of Cupertino next. Some are legit, but many are totally bogus. As always, we've parsed the week's rumors, ranking them in order from 'utterly ridiculous' to 'duh, of course.' First up...
DON'T COUNT ON IT: Photos of iPhone 6 Display Emerge Already? Photos of a device purported to be the iPhone 6 are already showing up online. The pictures show a thinner, larger display housing than on the iPhone 5s - that is, a device with a larger display and a slimmer profile than the current iPhone. There was some speculation that these snaps were illicit captures of legit Apple prototype, but reddit put that to rest. They're just the masterful handiwork of a Photoshop genie.
ASK AGAIN LATER: Apple Working on Flexible Display Techniques The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published an Apple patent application covering a new curved flex display technique for mobile devices. The patent describes how Apple could bend the edges of an OLED display to create a completely bezel-free device. It could be applied to an iPhone, iPod, iPad, or even a wearable. The patent gets into all sorts of technical stuff like the positioning and composition of electrodes, the use of conductive films, and substrate materials to make this idea a reality. Apple patents like this offer a glimpse at what's going on in Cupertino, but aren't for sure enough to qualify as a guaranteed product roadmap for the company. Apple has investigated other types of curved display techniques in the past, though.
SIGNS POINT TO YES: New Apple TV to Arrive as Soon as April The next generation Apple TV is on its way, and could land as soon as April,Bloomberg reports. Apple is currently in talks with cable providers like Time Warner in order to get more content on the platform, and the release date is reportedly dependent on how long these deals will take to finalize. But the new Apple TV will be available by the holidays at the latest. As we'd expect, the set-top box would feature a faster processor than previous versions, and it would also sport a redesigned user interface. All this sounds reasonable, and in line with what we've been hearing already. In a related report, the says that Apple wanted to work with cable companies so its set-top box could offer movies and TV shows exclusively over the internet, but the cable folks weren't so keen on that.
SIGNS POINT TO YES: Apple Killing Off the iPad 2 It's been on the market for three years, and the Retina iPad mini is now available at the exact same price point. It seems like it's about time, and AppleInsider reports that Apple is planning on finally putting the $400 legacy tablet to rest. Before the cheaper iPad mini arrived, the iPad 2 made some sense as a more economical option for iOS-craving tablet buyers, but now, not so much. Still, Apple has kept some things hanging around longer than we've expected... like the entire iPod lineup.
SIGNS POINT TO YES: Bigger iPhone 6 Will Also Be Lighter A report out of China suggests that the next iPhone will be lighter, despite a 4.7-inch display. The lightness would come from the use of a redesigned LED array to illuminate the display, as well as a redesigned frame. Apparently, a second report out of Japan also indicates that Apple may be boosting the front-facing camera up to 8 MP (same as the rear), based on the company's camera parts orders from Sony.
SIGNS POINT TO YES: New Apple TV on the Way And more evidence that the new Apple TV set top box is coming: Code buried within iOS 7 points at a possible new hardware version for Apple's set-top box. A fourth hardware version of the box is listed inside an iOS 7 software build relating to its AirPlay functionality. We've been hearing for a while that a new Apple TV is on the way. We're not yet sure if it'll look much different than the current hockey puck-like iteration, but inside, it'll definitely be upgraded.
No comments:
Post a Comment