“Jonny Evans at Computerworld thinks that ‘Apple’s iPhone 7 rumors really are the best yet,'” John Martellaro writes for The Mac Observer.
Features included in his compilation are:
• Liquidmetal case.
• Stiffer. More resistance to bending.
• Force Touch. Eliminate the Home button?
• DSLR-class camera thanks to acquisition of LinX.
• Even more powerful 64-bit A9 processor combined with 2 GB RAM.
• OLED display.
Martellaro writes, “My own addition to the list is a much richer, more powerful UI that will be born of Apple experimenting with a 12-inch iPad Pro, even if that product never ships.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: IF and when Force Touch begins to migrate across device, the previous generation devices will feel like non-Touch ID ones do now, like something important is missing.
Unless they figure out how to bury the touch ID in the screen, we will always have a home key.
They have patents on how to bury touchId in the screen from 2-3 years ago.
If any of you haven’t yet played with the new MacBook in the stores, the Haptic forceTouch is insane. On a single press you’d swear the whole thing depressed. I’d have been $100 it did. It is perfect. A force touch gives the initial click, then when you keep pushing its as though you press a dent into a thin sheet of metal. It just suddenly gives in this really satisfying feeling somewhat akin to popping bubble wrap (it does t feel like bubble wrap pops, it’s just addictive and satisfying like bubble wrap). The fact that the click pad is stable the whole time and it’s just little motors fooling your fingertips is literally insane.
I still say it seems too early for the crazyCamera invention to be debuted, as that usually takes longer to go from acquisition to incorporation.
I’ve been saying for three years that iPhone 7 would have liquidmetal. Because “7”. It’s like an “L”. Stupid, I know. But still.
Force Touch is very different on the MacBook than it is on the Apple Watch, and Force Touch on an iPhone would be like the Apple Watch, not like the MacBook. The difference being there’s no three-level feedback like the MacBook has.
Touch ID in the screen is pretty straight forward, but we’re a ways away from having it in production, as with other things mentioned in the article.
I would suggest, having received my Watch yesterday, that the Watch has pretty much rendered the iPhone obsolete, at least as an interaction device. iPhone has basically become the hub for my Watch.
Dictating replies or emails, converting to text and sending them is so much quicker via the Watch than having to actually type on an iPhone. The dictation on the Watch is way more accurate than the dictation on iPhone (the joys of a strong Scottish accent). It’s not perfect but other than pairing and browsing the Watch App Store, my iPhone 6 has remained firmly on desk or in my pocket.
it should also be said that the iPhone 7 is one full integer greater than the iPhone 6, and will presumably include various improvements and upgrades over its predecessor.
Not only that, it’s almost 17% more number!
Bending? Not really a problem today, but liquidmetal would fix that anyway.
More RAM? Not if it means reduced battery time, after all this isn’t Android.
OLED? Is the tech really good and/or durable enough for a smartphone display yet?
OLED consumes 1.5 times more energy than LTPS IPS in OS, browsing, reading and most of applications that use light background — and this is 2/3-3/4 of all time people use iPhones. So OLED point is doubtful.
No-home button is also stupid, because we are still years away from technology that would unite display with TouchID to become cheap enough.
LM case would be highly praised, but since it is dramatically more expensive, Apple can only make it as a separate pricier model — and, by the way, that model can also include sapphire as screen cover.
If top usual model costs $749, this much more advanced in materials one can cost like couple of hundred USDs more — $949. For Plus size iPhone, the price will go to $1049.
I’m not sure how any of that makes older iPhones OBSOLETE. I would think Apple would be more interested in improving profit margins than simply loading down products with new features.
Apple could easily afford to add more RAM to its iPhones but chooses not to. I’ve always wondered if they used some special high-speed RAM which is more expensive than what Android smartphones use. Maybe adding more RAM isn’t as beneficial as we think it would be. Apple certainly must have tested hardware with more RAM to see if it was worth the extra cost.
I laughed at the “obsolete” in the headline too. If one generation of phones makes the previous ones obsolete, then Apple will stop selling the older generation at a discount.
Youre right, nothing on that list makes current phones obsolete. It’s a silly headline. Will the next one be better? Duh. When is it not?
And a Liquid Metal case? Ridiculous notion is ridiculous.
Until now memory capacity was the only differentiator for pricing the phone. (And I think I read somewhere that 95% of sales are for the lowest capacity).
So, bring on fashion – make a gold version and a silver version etc. and let that be the conspicious consumption feature for pricing and then up the RAM on all Phones to 32GB or more for everyone.
The downside of increasing specs is that many developers get lazy and suddenly even more specs are needed to run the software, and on it goes. By keeping a tight ship, Apple ensures that software developers tighten their belts.
Excellent point.
For those of us who have ridden the Mac ship for a couple decades, the RAM hogging of modern applications is AppAlling! When 4 GB feels cramped for running a bunch of apps at once, you know someone’s a frickin’ RAM porker! Now that I have 16 GB of RAM in my MBP I at last feel like I did back in 1998 with my fully loaded ye olde PowerBook G3 Series Wallstreet: RAM to burn.
Java (android) has HUGE garbage leftovers, that require a big garbage collection resource allocation
iOS does not have that anchor around it’s neck, hence, no need for gobs of RAM
Is Liquidmetal used in any of the Apple Watches?
It does not appear to be the case.
If you meant that as pun, good one!
The advantage of a mechanical switch (home button, power button) is that it can interrupt power to a circuit to force a firmware shutdown or restart. Force Touch is still software, which can still lock up/crash.
Until this obvious constraint is worked around, we’ll continue to have mechanical buttons on the iPhone.
Even the Home and Power buttons on current iOS devices are run by software.
I hope to hell they put the power button back on top. I don’t know how many times I’ve hit the darn thing on my 6 Plus when using the volume buttons or using the camera in landscape mode. What a stupid decision.
Bring it on. My 4s is ready for retirement.
Those still work? Do you work at a technology museum? Steve Jobs was around when that was announced. Steve called and wants his phone back.
Actually, Steve died just a couple days after the 4S came out. He wasn’t really around when it was announced.
You just contradicted yourself, and yes he died one day after announcement.
The headline for this article is painfully obvious and fully expected with every new iPhone model.
Liquid metal case is doubtful. It makes the case heavier and more expensive. Stiffness may improve. A9 processor is a given. As was pointed out above, the fancy camera is doubtful for this year. It takes time to develop these things. OLED is also doubtful. The current displays are great. OLED has reliability issues. Colors fade and change over time.
Most worthwhile enhancements:
Battery Life.
Battery Life.
Battery Life.
Battery Life.
Battery Life.
I’m not saying its bad. It’s currently up there with the best.
Just that the User Experience improvement from a 4 day life would outweigh a shiny new UI.
Simple hit whoring. Most of these are obvious.
Liquid metal is unlikely.
Well, if the iPhone 7 makes obsolete all other iPhones. Then all phones are obsolete-noting that phones are following Apple’s original design of the first iPhone.
That is one hell of a design Apple, in theory, is to release. I guest I will take two!
All the companies in the world need to stop producing new and better things because SOME PEOPLE might want them and have to eventually let go of their old technology. Oh yeah, and Apple is also doomed or something.
– Click Baiting Analyst
DSLR class camera.. LOL.. ROFLMAO… They have no clue about how camera lenses are made, which of course can NOT be fit into a phone.
Stiffer…that’s what she said. 😛
Cost of iPhone ownership has gone up. The best feature of the iPhone7 needs to be affordability. Please.
pfffttt… with every release of iOS they are making iPhones itself obsolete, they wont wait till iPhone 7.. 😉
iPhone7 should come with 5.2″ display & dual sim (like HTC where both lines active at the same time).
Dual Sim has become an essential for the TRAVELLERS.
5.2″ display is still good size for pocketing and battery life.