It looks as if there will be an iPhone announcement on September 10th this year. So far it seems all but certain that a fingerprint scanner will be built into the home-button of the next iPhone, at least the premium model. This has fostered a lot of talk about a convex home button, so designed to house a biometrics sensor. However, a convex home button seems wrong. It just doesn't seem to go with the aesthetic of the iPhone. Perhaps if it was flat, or just barely convex to the point where it is not discernible I could understand. Otherwise, I would think Jony Ive would not build in the equivalent of an obvious "outie" belly button into the iPhone for any reason. No offense to all the beautiful people with "outie" belly buttons.
A more interesting question is just when will Apple exploit particular technologies, acquisitions or relationships for the benefit of iPhone. It has been difficult to tell when they will begin to use an acquired resource. Sometimes turn around of a resource looks fast; other times they are slow or a head-scratcher.
For example, Apple recently acquired Authentec, and as mentioned above, the buzz and likelihood is that Apple will include biometrics authentication in the next iPhone. This is fast turnaround. However, no one seems to really know, when will they exploit their relationship with LiquidMetal for iPhone, which has existed for sometime. That is, if the relationship is not solely for possible and probable use with the so-called iWatch. Also, Apple originally filed for an accelerometer gyroscope powered fall damage control mechanism in 2011, the "butter fingers" patent.
FIG. 4A is one embodiment of a flow chart of a method for altering an orientation of a device during freefall.
FIG. 4B is a second embodiment of a flow chart for a method for altering an orientation of a device during freefall.
FIG. 5B is a rear plan view of the mobile electronic device of FIG. 1 illustrating a long axis and a position of the protective mechanism of FIG. 5A relative to the long axis.
FIG. 5C is a side elevation view of the mobile electronic device of FIG. 1 during a freefall prior to impacting a surface.
FIG. 5D is a side elevation view of the mobile electronic device of FIG. 1 after a freefall and at the moment of impacting the surface.
A LiquidMetal encased iPhone coupled with a fall damage control mechanism is a match made in heaven, if a case makers worst nightmare.
As cell phone specs quickly make netbook specs laughable, it becomes reasonable to use hardware other than silicon to differentiate the iPhone from the plethora of Android devices. In other words, cell phones are fast now, and the screens are brilliant. Novel hardware features outside of compute power, plus software is what is now important.
This year, Apple likely sees the iPhone as having enough significant changes to satisfy their customers, if not Wall Street (obviously those things do not go hand-in-hand). After all, iOS 7 is the most significant change to iOS since the AppStore and certainly the most significant interface overhaul since iOS itself. In addition, we will in all likelihood get that fingerprint scanner built into the home-button. Further, the silicon will almost certainly nonetheless get a decent kick, moving up to A7, plus improvements will likely be made to the camera.
Less exciting to the bleeding-edge-tech-consumer, will be the probable cheaper iPhone, which will supposedly be available in a bunch of colors.
For purely selfish reasons, the ridiculous part of me hopes that this is all a part of Tim Cooks 'doubling down on secrecy' decoy plan and only one iPhone will be released. Why? Well if there are two iPhones, the cheaper slower iPhone inevitably cuts into at least the human resources that would have gone to work on the higher end phone. Over time separation occurs between a lesser and a pro model as can be seen with the Mac line. It all ends with less attention being paid to the higher end product resulting in stagnation before updates, or worse, a killing-off of the high end product.
Will this be the first year that Apple announces a new model phone that's slower than their outgoing phone in the form of an “iPhone 5C” or “iPhone Color?” Or will the lesser phone simply be my iPhone 5 with a splash of color? It will likely be the latter and this is simply a modified version of Apple's typical modus operandi of selling their old model phone for less along with a newer model, this time with the old model spruced-up.
Well we won't have to wait long; lets see what shows up on September 10th.
