iPhone 6: screen to style to release date, every last detail and rumor

  by Will Stabley

• digg
• 
  
• 4
  S
• 
  

Apple’s flagship iPhone 6 has evoked as many questions as answers, in no small part due to the secrecy Apple has enshrouded the smartphone in and the fact that even Apple does not yet know all the answers surrounding it. There’s debate as to whether the iPhone 6 will see its release date this year or next, what material it will be made of, what specs it’ll offer, which carriers will have it, its size and what it’ll cost, among other hot button topics. Amid a sea of hearsay, some facts regarding the iPhone 6 have emerged and some precedent has been laid. Here’s the definitive guide to all
that’s knowable about the iPhone 6.

Release date

This is the iPhone 6 answer upon which all other iPhone 6 questions depend. Apple will release a new iPhone in the fall of 2013. There’s precedent to expect it to either be an iPhone 5S, which would be a lookalike of the iPhone 5 but with significantly improved specs and features, in which case the iPhone 6 will arrive in the summer of fall of 2014. For the purposes of this article we’ll assume the iPhone 6 is coming this year, both because Apple has shown some leaning in that direction and because an iPhone 6 in 2014 would be too far out to knowledgeably discuss. So positioning the iPhone 6 as a 2013 device, Apple tends to introduce its fall mobile products the second week of September and then put them on sale one to three weeks later. However Apple has shown some precedent for introducing a new iPhone as late as early October and then holding the retail launch in mid October.
Feature set
Widespread rumors have the iPhone 6 including a fingerprint sensor embedded into the Home button which will act as an unlock function and also carry website and app passwords of a user’s choice. Pressing the Home button upon unlock would prove the user’s identity and obviate the need to enter passwords for iTunes, Facebook, bank accounts, or any other account information which the user opts to embed into the fingerprint sensor database.
Housing for the iPhone 6 has been rumored to include various materials. Those include a return to the aluminum of the original iPhone 1; sapphire, which has dropped rapidly in price and would be more sturdy than the current Gorilla Glass 3 Apple uses on current iPhones; or the new Gorilla Glass 4 which is said to be both glare proof and antibacterial in nature. None of these rumors have been strongly substantiated.
Screen size
Various corners place the iPhone 6 coming in as many as three different screen sizes. There’s the small-medium-large scenario of four, four and a half, and five inch screens. There’s also a claim of two models, one at the current four inches and one at four and a third inches. Any new iPhone 6 models will retail the current “tall” screen size ratio of the iPhone 5, and would grow both taller and wider in proportion, the first time an iPhone has done so.
System software
Apple has already demoed large chunks of the iOS 7 system software and on-screen interface which will power the iPhone 6. It includes changes large and small. Fundamental changes include new app management and a new form of multitasking, while superficial changes include fully redesigned app icons and new cleaner fonts. Apple traditionally holds back at least one major software feature of the new iPhone until it’s ready to launch, and has given no firm indication of what that’ll be with the iPhone 6.
Styling
After three iPhone generations in a row which have each used the same styling, Apple is under pressure to deliver a full stylistic redesign for the iPhone 6. During the iOS 7 presentation Apple used the image above to show off new software features, a thin white iPhone-like device with curved sides (see above) which does not resemble any current Apple product. There has been debate as to whether Apple unintentionally outed the styling of the iPhone 6 with this image, or whether it was merely a generic placeholder for presentation purposes.