I still don’t think the 2012 iPhone will have a 4 inch screen, maybe 3.85 inches
by Justin Horn on Jan 25th, 2012 @ 6:02 pmSeth Weintraub of 9to5Mac got a tip from a Foxconn employee discussing some new iPhone prototypes:
The source said various sample devices are also floating around (they vary slightly from one another), so it is impossible to tell which one will be the final. Some things in common with all of them, however, are:
- 4+ inch display (made by LG on at least one of them).
- No teardrop-shaped devices, as rumored in the lead up to the iPhone 4S. Samples so far have been symmetrical in thickness (also longer/wider).
- Neither of the sample devices have the iPhone 4/4S form factor.
- Neither of the devices are the final versions.
Also:
If we follow patterns and give a five month-ish lead time, it would appear that Apple is back on its new iPhone launch for summer
Most people I’ve spoken to, mostly on Twitter, seem to think the iPhone will, at least for the 2012 version, be on a fall release like the iPhone 4S. I’ve always thought the iPhone 4S was “delayed” and the 2012 iPhone would come out in the normal summer June / July release schedule, more likely July. So I agree with this part of the rumor.
UPDATE John Gruber chimes in, saying that production hasn’t started. Even though I trust Gruber’s sources, I still don’t think we’ll have to wait till October for the next iPhone.
I also agree that the teardrop shape is not going to happen. It just doesn’t seem to fit with the direction Apple is going. I could be wrong, but I hope not.
Now onto that 4 inch screen. This is not going to happen. The first, although maybe not the most obvious, reason was brought to my attention last year by Dustin Curtis’s 3.5 Inches post:
Touching the upper right corner of the screen on the Galaxy S II using one hand, with its 4.27-inch screen, while you’re walking down the street looking at Google Maps, is extremely difficult and frustrating. I pulled out my iPhone 4 to do a quick test, and it turns out that when you hold the iPhone in your left hand and articulate your thumb, you can reach almost exactly to the other side of the screen. This means it’s easy to touch any area of the screen while holding the phone in one hand, with your thumb. It is almost impossible to do this on the Galaxy S II.
Another great point, brought up by John Gruber in his post regarding the iPhone 4S event:
Apple decided on the optimal size for an iPhone display back in 2006. If they thought 4-inches was better, overall, as the one true size for the iPhone display, then the original iPhone would have had a 4-inch display. It’s not like 4-inch screens are harder to make, or use some sort of new technology. If anything they’re surely easier to make, as the pixels are less dense.
Now onto my more boring technical point that has been brought up before, but really does seem to be a very logical reason for not going to 4 inches, the retina display. The current iPhone screen is 3.5 inches diagonal. Well, it’s actually 9 cm (3.54 inches), which is why I had trouble figuring out how Apple got to a pixel density of 326 ppi. Let’s see what happens when we increase the size to 4 inches using a formula from Wikipedia: Pixel Density.
First we calculate the diagonal resolution in pixels.
Then use that to determine the PPI.
dp = sqrt(960^2 + 640^2) = 1153.776
PPI iPhone 4/4S 3.5″ Screen = 1153.776 / 3.53 = 325.926
PPI 4.0″ Screen = 1153.776 / 4.0 = 288.444
According to Steve Jobs magic number for retina display, 300ppi, the 4 inch screen falls short. Can you imagine the press backlash if they still call this 288ppi screen a retina display? A term coined by Apple? It won’t happen.
So now you’re thinking, they can just squeeze in some more pixels, just like they did when first going to the retina display. Yes, they probably could bump up the pixels to something like 1024 x 682, but do you think they would want to require app developers to make a third set of graphics, for a 5-10% improvement in quality. I also doubt Apple, a details oriented company, would want to stretch all the current graphics even 1% to achieve this mythical 4 inch screen.
UPDATE Also in John Gruber’s “chime in“, he says:
Longer and wider? Sounds like bullshit. I can see Apple putting a bigger display on a device of the same size. I can’t see them making a bigger device.
I agree. I think the next iPhone would be smaller and lighter if anything. Also, I could see Apple increasing the size up to about 3.85 inches which, at the same resolution of 960 x 640, holds to the minimum 300ppi needed for retina display. This also plays into iPhone 5 rumors last year, where the screen went all the way to the edge of the iPhone shell, for a small screen size increase.
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One thing I do right on this blog, iPhone 4S 1080p video storage predictions [Confirmed]
by Justin Horn on Oct 12th, 2011 @ 3:15 amI recently predicted the iPhone 4S 1080p video storage “requirements”.
Turns out (surprise!!!) I was right.
Jim Dalrymple from The Loop responded to my Tweet asking about real world 4S video size (he’s famous enough to get a review unit…but not too famous to talk to small time bloggers via Twitter):
Me: @jdalrymple how close am I to the 1080p files size for the 4S? [Link to the above link ^]
Jim Dalrymple: @justin_horn 4:33 of video is 814.2MB
Doing some math…give me a minute (or 178.9MB) here… comes out to…
178.95 MB/Min actual vs my estimate of 177.98 MB/Min.
I say…close enough.
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Apple Television Set?
by Justin Horn on Jun 22nd, 2011 @ 12:28 pmAccording to the source Apple plans to “blow Netflix and all those other guys away” by bundling Apple TV + iTunes inside physical television sets. According to the source Apple is teaming up with a major supplier (our guess would be Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.), to provide the physical televisions, which will be rebranded as Apple television sets.
I used to have this in the same rumor bin as the iPhone nano, so a few months ago when a friend told me Apple Television sets were coming out in this year, I just nodded and said, “we’ll see”. I hadn’t read any rumors about an Apple Television set at all and that made it even more far fetched. There were rumors flying around for years about an Apple tablet before the iPad was unveiled.
He said an acquaintance (not sure if it’s a family friend or what, it was a while ago and don’t remember the details) that works for Apple told him about it. I told him the Apple retail employees don’t know anything about unreleased products, but he said it was someone on a higher pay grade. Since then I haven’t really thought about it much.
Now after reading this, I’m starting to come around. Guess I’ll have to see if my friend can get any more info out of this “source”.
(via modmyi)
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Steve Jobs health takes a turn for the worse?
by Justin Horn on Feb 16th, 2011 @ 6:12 pmHas confirmed Jobs, 55, has been attending the Stanford Cancer Center in Palo Alto, California, where Swayze sought radical chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer before his death in September, 2009.
The skeletal-looking Apple boss was photographed outside the clinic in images set to be published in the next edition of The National Enquirer.
NY Magazine adds:
But the National Enquirer, who broke the news, talked to critical-care physician Dr. Samuel Jacobson, who said, “Judging from the photos, he is close to terminal. I would say he has six weeks.” We sincerely hope he’s wrong and wish Jobs all the best.
Steve Jobs did go on medical leave again in January, so that does lend some truth to these reports. If true, hopefully he can pull through this next round and Dr. Samuel Jacobson is incorrect in his assessment.
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Details on the Verizon iPhone antenna death grip fix
by Justin Horn on Jan 13th, 2011 @ 5:16 pmAntennaSys believes the new Verizon iPhone utilizes a new design to avoid the old, “non-existent”, I have no bars when I hold the phone in my left hand issue.
Spencer Webb from AntennaSys:
The SIM slot is gone, since it’s not a GSM phone. That frees up a bunch of real estate on the PC Board. Did Apple move the WiFi antenna (and probably also the GPS antenna) to the PC Board, under the rear glass? I think so.
In their FCC filing, Apple describes the WiFi antenna as a “PIFA”. This stands for Planar Inverted-F Antenna. I would never describe the “frame” antenna using those terms. So, this seems to support the theory.
Spencer also believes that with the extra space on the antenna band, from moving the WiFi and GPS antenna to the board, the band could now support two GSM antennas, to utilize ”antenna diversity”.
From the Wiki on antenna diversity:
Any one of several wireless diversity schemes that use two or more antennas to improve the quality and reliability of a wireless link.
This would allow the phone to switch between the two antennas, depending on which one has a stronger signal…the side that isn’t touching your greasy palms.
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iOS 4.2.1 GM released to developers
by Justin Horn on Nov 18th, 2010 @ 2:59 pmNew iOS 4.2.1 GM release means there definitely was a last min show stopper bug somewhere in the software. It’s logical to assume Apple will not release iOS 4.2 to the public and rather delay the release to iOS 4.2.1 sometime next week. I’ve noticed running the 4.2 GM that my phone seems to slow down significatly at random times. Not as bad a 3G running iOS 4.0, but it has been a bit annoying. Hopefully iOS 4.2.1 fixes that.
We’ll update the blog if anything interesting pops up.
(Thanks to @daveizzle for the tip)
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