iOS4 Blog: The iPhone 5 News Blog News Feed

Friday, August 26, 2011

The iPhone 5 News Blog News Feed

Late-Entry iPhone 5, iPhone 4S Photo Leaks Take Center Stage

Posted: 26 Aug 2011 11:58 AM PDT

The road to the iPhone 5 has been paved with loads of purported leaked photos. These two new ones — brought forth late into the next iPhone’s rumor cycle — suggest iPhone 4-inspired iPhone designs.

If you are in search of a piece of “smoking gun” evidence about how the next iPhone will look completely different from the iPhone 4, you’ve come to the wrong place. This article, after all, is a round-up of two rapid-fire purported leaked photos of the upcoming iPhone, both of which depict what looks remarkably like the iPhone 4.

The first photo, pictured above, came courtesy of the folks at MacRumors, who point out that what we’re looking at here in essentially the iPhone 4′s chassis, what with a few noticeable differences. If you just trace the contour lines of the chassis, then you can see how this form factor would look remarkably like the iPhone 4 in specs, as “the mute switch and volume switches are on the same side of this casing, just like the iPhone 4.”

But looking at the innards reveals some interesting changes: “The mid-frame images above show that this so-called iPhone 4S will have two antenna breaks at the bottom of the casing . . . The reason for the movement of the antenna breaks is to accommodate different frequencies of the different mobile technologies.”

MacRumors also speculates on the home button in another photo, noting “the lack of any defined ‘Home Button’ area. The corresponding iPhone 4 part shows a cut-out area for the Home Button. It’s hard to draw an conclusions from this, but there has been a lot of speculation that Apple could be changing the Home Button area on the iPhone 5.” This photo and perspective factors in to the recent photos purportedly taken from one of apple’s component suppliers that appears to depict an elongated, multi-touch home button, th0ugh the photos are not copesthetic: the “Foxconn” photos would suggest a new form factor with a larger screen, whereas Macrumors‘ photos do not.

The second photo, offered today by Gadgetsteria, looks to me like a white iPhone 4. The website is couching this photos in the premise that it might be the white version on an iPhone 4S or iPhone 5: “After photos alleging to depict the next-gen iPhone 4S' redesigned antenna leaked late yesterday comes a new leak showing off a prototype iPhone's white back cover. "N94″ is printed on the case — a number which just so happens to have been associated with the next-gen iPhone in past builds of iOS 4.x and 5.x.”

It’s easy to write off the Gadgetsteria photos as adding little to the story, but they conclude their article with an interesting comment: “There could be one device. There could be two. We just don't know. The case above may not even be the final iPhone 4S/5 casing. Apple is likely using iPhone 4 hardware to house next-gen internals to keep prying eyes from leaking their secrets early.” It is quite possible that the reason that the most credible rumors about the next iPhone right now seem to suggest it will be a refreshed iPhone 4 is because Apple is leaking disinformation. However, one thing is clear: more and more sources are leaning towards a refreshed iPhone 4 form factor.