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'iPhone 7' Rumored to Be Waterproof, Possibly Adopt Non-Metallic Casing Material

I can't say i've ever dropped my iPhone in liquid during the last 8 years but there are clumsy drunk girls I know that seem to drop their downs the toilet weekly.

Jamo12 said:
With the 3D touch, this may be possible. Capacitive and water don't mix. This might be a good solution.
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3D touch is still capacitive technology.
 
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I have to agree, the amount of flak Apple took for just changing the charger was bad enough. People had to replace $20 charging cables, imagine telling someone who owns a pair of $300 Beats or $400 Master & Dynamic headphones they can't use them with their new iPhone. It wouldn't go over very well. It would be the worst PR move in a long time and kill sales of the 10th iPhone.

Iconoclysm said:
Wireless charging is really niche right now. It's an inevitability but not with the current technology.

Ditching the headphone jack? No way. Requiring powered headphones is one of the worst things they could ever do...
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MrXiro said:
The only problem with going BT only is that if your headphones go dead and you're not going to be around any power for a few hours... what do you do? I think they should always have the option to plug in wired headphones of some sort.

Wireless charging on the other hand is a gimmick and not entirely useful. It doesn't charge your phone faster, you still need to be "tethered" to a wireless portal/dock now, instead of just wired in. And the biggest downfall; you can't use your phone while it's charging on the wireless plate. Don't get me wrong, it's a neat little parlor trick... ooo magical charging! But it doesn't do anything better or faster in terms of charging your phone than just plugging in.

I have imagined a NFC bluetooth speaker with a wireless charging plate so that they connect when you set it down. But Apple doesn't allow NFC BT pairing yet.
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Apple has always shown they're willing to move ahead even when it "doesn't make sense" to most, and before others have the foresight to do so. See: no disk drives, no ethernet plugs, etc.

The wireless charging would allow them to more easily waterproof and dustproof the design, though I agree it falls short of the promises. Same goes for ditching the headphone jack - it removes design constraints. Though I do see the problem with dead headphones, nothing to "fix" that other than either a backup set of headphones or better headphones (Beats innovations could handle this, maybe?).

Just a thought or two, that's all. I'm happy with it as it is, but I could see the utility for others, having a waterproof and dustproof design.
 
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Iconoclysm said:
Right, water only exists around where people are doing recreational activities... There are tons of people who do work such as cleaning buildings that risk dropping their phone into a bucket of water or a toilet on a daily basis. Let alone any other physical labor type of work that involves liquid materials.
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you can drop anything in a bucket or water, toilet, etc... my concern is, does it happen enough to warrant putting time and money into making the entire phone water resistant? if there is a risk of dropping your device in water don't take it with you.
 
Paradoxally said:
It's not plastic. Something better than a metallic casing.
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Absolutely I hear possibly need the manufacturing of liquid alloy to be more plastic, meaning less instantly hardened. Hardly plastic. More than metal. Liquid alloy with an additive that renders the case almost soft to the touch, effective as an antenna and yet without any antenna-gate issues. Just some rumors I gathered over recent few years and most recent couple months.
 
Luis Mazza said:
LCD? Wait... What year is today?
The only piece of hardware that still is old tech on new iPhones is the screen. AMOLED, PLEASE APPLE.
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No, no no no NO. Amoled is flawed technology, there is no way i'm sacrificing white on my phone so I can keep the battery going, white text on black is jarring and i'm not keen on the "off" screen representing black either to my eye it looks odd, like the contrast is too high and unrealistic.

The 6S screen quality is perfect and I want as much white on my screen as possible thanks! No need to be higher res - the only way they could ever possibly improve the screen now would be to somehow create insane extra brightness to use in very bright sunlight, not sure this will be possible though.
 
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acctman said:
you can drop anything in a bucket or water, toilet, etc... my concern is, does it happen enough to warrant putting time and money into making the entire phone water resistant? if there is a risk of dropping your device in water don't take it with you.
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If I'm to use anecdotal evidence...yes, my HVAC friend has done it twice...a carpenter friend once...my father a whopping three times... If you expect people to not take their smartphone with them while they work what is the freaking point? You're just asking another company to take your customers. It's not your time, it's not your money, why do you care so much?
 
acctman said:
are people really dropping there phones in water to the point it needs to be water resistant? you can be without your phone in the pool. seems like a pointless feature to add being that the speakers, mic, charge port, etc would have to be water resistant. doing this would muffle/reduce clarity. why not focus on making the battery last longer or something more important. just my thoughts...
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dannys1 said:
I can't say i've ever dropped my iPhone in liquid during the last 8 years but there are clumsy drunk girls I know that seem to drop their downs the toilet weekly.
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Think outside the box for a minute... how about being able to take photos and video underwater, ala a GoPro but sans the need for an external casing. Stick a wrist strap on the iPhone and you've got yourself an incredible underwater solution which is always in your pocket. GoPro's will be almost dead in the water ;) especially considering how Apple are constantly furthering their camera technology.
 
infiniteentropy said:
Apple has always shown they're willing to move ahead even when it "doesn't make sense" to most, and before others have the foresight to do so. See: no disk drives, no ethernet plugs, etc.

The wireless charging would allow them to more easily waterproof and dustproof the design, though I agree it falls short of the promises. Same goes for ditching the headphone jack - it removes design constraints. Though I do see the problem with dead headphones, nothing to "fix" that other than either a backup set of headphones or better headphones (Beats innovations could handle this, maybe?).

Just a thought or two, that's all. I'm happy with it as it is, but I could see the utility for others, having a waterproof and dustproof design.
Click to expand...

Again, no freaking way would they ever do this. A backup set of headphones? This is a lot different from dropping disk drives and Ethernet...carrying around more chargeable accessories is just a nightmare. It's hard enough to remember to keep my noise cancelling headphones charged, at least they can do audio only when the battery dies.

You can do waterproof with a headphone jack, it does not require an open hole into the body.
 
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Iconoclysm said:
If I'm to use anecdotal evidence...yes, my HVAC friend has done it twice...a carpenter friend once...my father a whopping three times... If you expect people to not take their smartphone with them while they work what is the freaking point? You're just asking another company to take your customers. It's not your time, it's not your money, why do you care so much?
Click to expand...

I see you point... keeping up with other companies waterproof would be the next new feature. personally I would have preferred longer battery life using the battery molding technology they're using in the new MacBooks, and cables charing like on the Apple Watch. The touch screen on the iPhone is worthless when wet, I guess they plan on fixing that. Cause even though the AW is water resistant the touch screen doesn't respond well/at all when wet
 
acctman said:
I see you point... keeping up with other companies waterproof would be the next new feature. personally I would have preferred longer battery life using the battery molding technology they're using in the new MacBooks, and cables charing like on the Apple Watch. The touch screen on the iPhone is worthless when wet, I guess they plan on fixing that. Cause even though the AW is water resistant the touch screen doesn't respond well/at all when wet
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I guarantee you that the same people working on waterproofing know nothing about making a better battery technology. My guess is that waterproofing does not mean "underwater use" so much as "Oh ****, the tide came in and my phone is in my beach bag."
 
They should strengthen the front glass panel as it is the first thing that gets cracked after a drop. Honestly, I think that more people had trouble with cracked glass panels than people who dropped their iPhones in liquids...
 
infiniteentropy said:
It would be nice to see them do wireless charging, and Bluetooth headphones to get rid of the headphone jack, and waterproof the speaker/mic system. Just a thought.
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Wireless charging is too damn slow and its not really wireless as you still need a power cable from the charging base to the wall, plus they are fairly low voltage meaning charging takes a lot longer than an AC adapter which puts out 12 watts.

mayuka said:
They should strengthen the front glass panel as it is the first thing that gets cracked after a drop. Honestly, I think that more people had trouble with cracked glass panels than people who dropped their iPhones in liquids...
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The cracks occur quite easily when the phone is dropped on a corner. This shock disperses the momentum through the glass to the quickest exit. Maybe gorilla glass 4 or sapphire might be used.
 
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I know these are just rumours and will likely turn out to be fake or just experiments at Apple HQ. But it's giving me the energy to put off upgrading my phone for another year :).
Would love it if water resistant tech became the next big thing, or great batteries.
 
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