New leaked photos reportedly showing the battery from the long-awaited 4.7-inch iPhone 6 have emerged online, apparently depicting devices with a capacity of 1,810 mAh. Provided that these turn out to be genuine, this would represent a slight improvement versus the 1,560 mAh battery seen in the current generation iPhone 5s.
While the iPhone 6 has sparked tons of speculation in the tech world, rumors regarding the alleged Apple smartwatch have as well. All the gossip and leaks about the long-rumored device, popularly referred to as the “iWatch,” have created big expectations for the company to meet.
In today’s video we take a look at all the rumors and get a good feeling of what an iWatch might look like when it’s revealed (possibly this October). If the reports are true, you’ll enjoy more than the average smartwatch as you track blood pressure, hold FaceTime calls and more, all on an amazing device that redefines wrist wear.
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Photos have surfaced on French Apple website Nowhereelse.fr that purport to show the Touch ID sensor for Apple’s next-generation iPhone 6.
While at first glance, the images look identical to the sensor embedded within the iPhone 5s — Apple’s first smartphone to feature the Touch ID technology — upon closer inspection some tiny differences in design can be spotted. These predominantly relate to the edges of the sensor where the tiny screws will attach it to the device’s metal housing.
The two sensors can be seen next to one another in the image below:
The iPhone 6 isn’t expected to feature radical improvements in battery life, but that doesn’t mean Apple hasn’t had trouble making new batteries for the device. Since the next iPhone will be thinner than the current design, its battery needs to be thinner as well.
Apple has been having trouble with battery makers overseas meeting its specifications, but now it’s being reported that new suppliers have been brought on to solve the issues. The news highlights how diversifying its partners in the Asian supply chain continues to be Apple’s strategy moving forward.
Besides a 4.7-inch model, Apple has been expected to announce an even larger 5.5-inch iPhone 6 this fall. But now production issues might keep Apple from pulling the trigger on an iPhablet until winter or even 2015.
Ming-Chi Kuo of the Taiwanese firm KGI Securities, who has been a consistently reliable source of information on Apple’s plans, isn’t bullish on seeing a 5.5-inch iPhone by the end of the year. Problems with the phone’s new display and casing could result in it being pushed back until well after the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 comes out.
The Chinese are so good at cloning Apple’s upcoming products that they regularly release fully functional doppelgangers of the next iPhone before Apple has even officially announced it. But these are ‘clones’ in only the vaguest sense, because they always have one major problem: they run Android, not iOS.
But that’s not true with this iPhone 6 clone. Although it looks exactly like an iPhone 6, it appears to be running iOS 7, not Android.
Apple already has a whole lot of component makers on its books, but according to Digitimes it’s just added one more.
Digitimes is claiming that Apple recently inked a deal with flexible copper clad-laminate maker Asia Electronic Materials (AEM) to provide coverlay orders for next-generation iPhones.
This time on The CultCast: thirsty Germans drink the tears of Brazilian children! Ohhh, sorry. Too soon? Also on the docket: the secret Apple eBay store is back at it and selling iPhones at absurdly low prices; we pitch a great new Siri feature we hope Apple bakes in; a Youtuber gets his hands on the iPhone 6’s sapphire screen, and its incredible durability is hard to believe; plus… GEEKN, the new segment where we divulge whatever gadget or activity we’re currently obsessing over. Stay tuned till the end for that.
Have a laugh and catch up on this week’s best Apple stories! Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let the festivities begin.
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With the iPhone 6, the long-rumored iWatch and possibly a revamped Apple TV expected to be released this year, it’s safe to say Apple is hard at work. As the talk heats up regarding these new products, rumors and leaks spill into the mainstream, making it hard to keep up with it all.
Watch today’s Cult of Mac news roundup to hear all the latest news and rumors about Apple’s product pipeline. Catch the rundown for details on endurance-testing a sapphire display that’s supposedly for an iPhone 6, smart sweat sensors that might get added to the iWatch and the rest of this week’s big stories.
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Someone looking for a meme worthy video could do worse than overlaying the soundtrack of a Savannah wildlife documentary with footage of tech companies vying for users to buy their next big smartphone.
Just like a lion feeds first, while the scavengers hang around and wait for scraps of spare meat to show up, so a new report from Digitimes claims non-Apple smartphone vendors looking to release high-end models in the second half of 2014 are getting increasingly worried that there aren’t going to be enough component supplies available. The reason? Component makers are all working on the iPhone 6.
And that’s just the start of it.
The rumormill is reaching a fever pitch when it comes to Apple’s upcoming iPhone 6, and one of the hottest new reports concerns the handset’s alleged A8 chip.
While we’ve been seeing a new A-series processor each year, there’s still been no definite confirmation that Apple plans to include the A8 chip in its next generation devices, especially since developers have yet to push the A7 to its limits.
With that being said, the Chinese media is claiming that the A8 will not only happen, but that it will blow the current A7 out of the water: boasting frequencies of 2.0 GHz or more per core (compared to the 1.3Ghz A7 SoC found in the iPhone 5s and Retina iPad mini, or the 1.4 GHz found in the iPad Air).
We get slammed 24/7 with new Apple rumors. Some are accurate, most are not. To give you a clue about what’s really coming out of Cupertino in the future, we’re busting out our rumor debunker each week to blow up the nonsense.
iPhone 6 rumor season is in full bloom this week with a rash of rumors spilling new details on everything from improved battery life, sapphire displays’ extreme durability, SIM trays, and even the robot army that will help assemble Apple’s newest smartphone.
This week we were also treated to new tidbits on the production schedules of the iWatch and next-gen MacBook Airs, but you’ll have to step right up to our crystal ball to see which of these rumors are the real deal, and which are just a bunch of smoke and mirrors.
Here’s one to file in the “exciting, but most likely not happening” category.
A new Chinese media report suggests that one of the iPhone 6’s “secret weapons” could be the inclusion of advanced haptic feedback technology. Sources claim that the tactile feedback linear motor would be capable of producing different types of subtle vibration depending on the app being used, and could even emit different vibrations depending on the part of the touch screen that is being pressed at the time, or how hard it is being pressed.
The iPhone 6 is one of the most eagerly anticipated iPhone refreshes in years, but just how anticipated it is might surprise you.
Taiwan’s Business Weekly is reporting that Apple has orders at least 68 million units of its new iPhone. To put that in perspective, if true this is twice as large as the order Apple placed for the iPhone 5.
Don’t underestimate the power of having Apple on your side!
Not long after Foxconn announced record earnings thanks to its work on the iPhone, fellow Apple manufacturer Pegatron Corp is predicted to see consolidated revenues of $33.3 billion for 2014, mainly due to shipments of Apple’s next generation iPhone and iPad models.
Yesterday, we reported that Foxconn CEO Terry Gou had promised shareholders that the Chinese iPhone manufacturer was ready to deploy an army of 10,000 robots to help build the iPhone 6.
But while that report seems accurate, don’t expect these so-called Foxbots to completely replace humans on the assembly line. As it turns out, the iPhone 6 is going to require way too much finesse to assemble for a mere robot to do it all.
We got our first taste of the flexibility of the iPhone 6’s new sapphire glass display this morning, but in a new video posted by YouTuber Marques Brownlee, Apple’s super-tough new display is subjected to a brutal scratch test and comes away completely unscathed.
To test Sapphire glass’ durability, Marques stabs an alleged 4.7-inch iPhone 6 sapphire display repeatedly with a knife after a quick key scratch test yields no results. Both tests fail to make a dent on the display panel, but your mouth will drop when you see him forcefully try to bend the display with his foot.
Check out how insanely durable your iPhone 6 will be in the video below:
The iPhone 6 is poised to become the thinnest, lightest iPhone Apple’s ever made, but all that thinning might mean the iPhone still won’t be able to hold a charge for more than 10 hours.
Eight iterations of iPhones have been released and we’d love to see true all-day battery life added to the features list, but according to a report on the the iPhone 6’s battery, the thinification of the iPhone 6 means it will see minimal battery gains when it launches this fall.
The iPhone 6’s sapphire glass display could be the secret weapon that gives your device ultimate durability. Apple’s Sapphire glass factory has been busy spitting out displays for the iPhone and iPad (and maybe even the iWatch), and now thanks to Sonny Dickson, we’ve got a little taste of its flexibility.
In a stress test video of an alleged 4.7-inch iPhone 6 display, the screen is subject to some limited stress tests, coming away unbroken. Along with some bending action, the hands-on video shows the panel’s measurements and compares it to the iPhone 5s screen size.
Check out the full video below:
The iPhone 6 is promising to be thinner, lighter and have a bigger, brighter display than any iPhone before… but no matter how advanced the next iPhone is, rumors still peg it as sucking the juice it needs to run through a Lightning cable.
Meanwhile, there are tons of Android and Windows Phone smartphones that charge using wireless technology. When is Apple going to catch up?
This concept by designer Vishal Bhaunushali for what he calls the iPhone 6 Pro imagines an iPhone that wirelessly charges when placed in close proximity to an aluminum, Apple-branded puck, similarly to most current wireless charging solutions.
And even cooler? He imagines a Smart iView cover that not only protects the screen of your iPhone, but can show you the current date, time and charge level of your iPhone, without ever waking up the device.
Check out the full video below.
As excited as a lot of people are about the forthcoming iPhone 6, one of the big sticking points has been the presence of ugly antenna breaks on the back of most of the models we’ve seen so far.
In mockups and alleged leaked production units, these antenna breaks resemble strips of tape, or grout between the line of tiles, and leave Apple’s next generation iPhone not as attractive as it could otherwise be.
An alleged display panel for the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 has been shown off on video. Not only do you get a good idea of how the device will fit in the hand compared to the 5s, but the display reaffirms previous rumors about the device’s new design.
The Chinese media is affirming that Apple will unveil new iPhone hardware in September, although there’s confusion about exact dates.
Samsung’s newly-launched flagship Galaxy S5 might have hoped to capture some of the iPhone’s market dominance in Britain, but new research figures show that even in its first month it trailed behind sales of the iPhone 5s and even Apple’s so-called “flop” iPhone 5c.
The numbers were crunched by research company Kantar Worldpanel, which looked at smartphone sales in the month of May. The Galaxy S5 did manage to convert a few former iOS users to become Android fans, with 17 percent of new S5 owners being former iPhone users.
Even this news is unlikely to worry Apple (or make Samsung particularly cheerful), however:
The iPhone 6 will be the thinnest phone Apple’s every created, but it may come at big price for suppliers.
In order to save up space on the iPhone 6, supply chain sources at China Times say Apple is only using one brightness enhancement film (BEF) for the backlit LCD display. Apple used two films in previous iPhones. Reducing it to just one will allow Jony Ive to make a super thin iPhone, but getting the supplies will be tough.
Many users were surprised when the expected Surface Mini tablet didn’t arrive alongside the Surface Pro 3 back in May. A new report, however, sheds a bit of light on the issue.
According to upstream supply chain sources who spoke with DigiTimes, Microsoft ditched plans for a small-size tablet due to fierce competition in the marketplace, along with negative responses from brand vendor clients.
With nothing standout about the Surface Mini’s tech spec (it was reportedly set to sport a 7.5- to 8-inch display, ARM processors, and OneNote and Windows RT 8.1 operating system) Microsoft feared the device’s success would be severely hampered by the arrival of the upcoming 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhone 6, which is expected to have a major impact on the demand for 7-inch tablets.
