More Claims of Taller, Thinner Next-Generation iPhone with 4-Inch Screen and New Dock Connector

[ixodes]

I don't think you read my blog post. I explain several reasons why 16x9 is not ideal. Severely cropped photos, poor landscape keyboard functionality, and the fact that the text on the websites you view will be no larger than it is on the 4S (at least in portrait mode). Not to mention the fact that it creates hurdles for the devs on top of everything else.

I watch very little widescreen video on my iPhone. So little in fact, that I rarely even take off the portrait lock to rotate the video so it fills the screen. Nothing about a 16x9 screen appeals to me.

Respectfully, I did read your post.

I've not had any of the issues you've had, or are concerned with, we all have different work flows, and ways we use our devices.

If the developers face hurdles... oh well, we all do in the careers we choose.

My personal experience with 16:9 smartphone displays has been stellar. Especially for stills, something as an amateur photographer, that matters to me.

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Actually the GS2 series aren't 16:9. My Epic 4G Touch (I know it's larger than the most of the GS2) is 3.875x2.3 which is closer to a 16:10. I thought it was 16:9 too until I compared it to an HTC or Motorola. At least it's wider than the iPhone though.

I was not speaking of a particular model, but rather the 16:9 aspect ratio.

That said, I do have an unnamed (guarding my NDA) pre-production prototype I'm testing, with a perfect 16:9 format hi-res display.

Soon to be released, this is a model that will garner a lot of attention from those who place a high value on an exemplary display. Not only for movies, and video but for still photos as well, it's hard to beat 16:9.

 

[EeZeEpEe]

I don't think you read my blog post. I explain several reasons why 16x9 is not ideal. Severely cropped photos, poor landscape keyboard functionality, and the fact that the text on the websites you view will be no larger than it is on the 4S (at least in portrait mode). Not to mention the fact that it creates hurdles for the devs on top of everything else.

I watch very little widescreen video on my iPhone. So little in fact, that I rarely even take off the portrait lock to rotate the video so it fills the screen. Nothing about a 16x9 screen appeals to me.

Photos don't get cropped. Pictures fit to screen and black bars keep the aspect ratio. How exactly is landscape functionality poor? Works just fine on the widescreen phones I've had. Keys get wider yet height stays the same. Text may not be larger in portrait but you see more. Plus 16:9 phones are narrower than 3:4 phones of the same size. A narrower taller phone fits better in a pocket than a shorter wide one.

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I was not speaking of a particular model, but rather the 16:9 aspect ratio.

Okay. It's just you did say "Thankfully my Samsung S II is a full 16:9" and from the models I know, they aren't. Enjoy that pre-production model though.

 

[motorazr]

With all the "it's so ugly comments"....

I can't help but to remember the first time we all saw the iPhone 4 design.

Then that became true.

That said, I personally think these mockups won't be reality .. or hope not. It'd really be odd to change the screen ratio like that with so many things dependent on the current canvas ... not to mention all the work to do exactly 2x the pixel count so developers wouldn't have to go through more pain than necessary for the new displays ..

As much as I'd love more real estate on the iPhone, I don't feel it's needed. I can do everything I need to, and my only real complaint is the dead home button I've got .

 

[Giuly]

the people complaining about an aspect ratio change and the poor developers, obviously know nothing about programming & ios development. using the modal-view-controller design pattern, updating a view to support a different size display takes next to no time at all. look how quickly apps were updated to support the new ipad retina display. plus ios apps shouldn't have statically programmed sizes anyways. they reference the views frame.size or view.bounds. so no matter what the screen size is, the code dynamically adjusts to what it should be. this is why apps without retina support don't run at 1/2 or 1/4 quarter of the screen size on retina devices.

Not really.

the UIKit doesn't even have pixels, they have points. 1 Pixel on the iPhone/3G/3GS = 1 Point, 4 Pixel (2x2) on the retina display = 1 Point, and that's why it scales. If you don't have @2x graphics, your app may have the right proportions, but still looks like crap.

There's nothing that states that a Point can't be 3x3 Pixel though, which would be a resolution of 1440x960, Apps using UIKit components would look perfect (as Apple would supply @3x graphics), the aspect ratio is the same, and developers just have to add higher res graphics to support the resolution while their apps get scaled up perfectly if they don't. Plus, it keeps it 'Retina' on a larger screen.

Worked for the iPhone 4, should also work for the iPhone 5 with a bigger screen. The iPhone 4's infamous Retina Display is 330PPI 960x640@3.5". A 1440x960 screen would surpass that at 360PPI at 4.8".

 

[zweigand]

Photos don't get cropped. Pictures fit to screen and black bars keep the aspect ratio. How exactly is landscape functionality poor? Works just fine on the widescreen phones I've had. Keys get wider yet height stays the same. Text may not be larger in portrait but you see more. Plus 16:9 phones are narrower than 3:4 phones of the same size. A narrower taller phone fits better in a pocket than a shorter wide one.

Photos getting letterboxed is just as bad. I take and look at way more photos on my device than videos.

A wider screen in lanscape mode means you will see less content above the keyboard than you would otherwise. Even if the keyboard remains the same height, the web content, etc. will be scaled up to fit the width of the device ...this means you will see less.

I don't think people have been complaining about the width of the iPhone in relation to pocket size. It's pretty darn small by current smartphone standards.

If you like skinnier phones, that's fine. I'm just explaining why I believe it's a horrible fit for the iPhone.

 

[canman4PM]

Phone Size

I like the size the way it is. I would rather more of everything - battery and internal storage, than smaller. I even wouldn't mind a slightly bigger phoen for both of those things. My wife has some kinda Android (don't know/don't care what kind) with a +4" screen. It's less comfy in the hand and with the lower pixel density, no better to look at. Typing on hers is a little easier.

And the only way they should change that dock connection is to go micro-USB or leave it alone. Between iPhones and iPods, I got half a dozen of them around the house/car/camera bag. I'd still like an SDHC slot...

 

[Spiritgreywolf]

New dock connector is lame.

Keep the same or go microUSB. Seriously... OMG.

Yes indeed. This alone will probably prevent me from ever buying a new one. I do like Apple products and have several, but I really feel the only reason they changed the connector was out of greed - pure and simple.

Whomever chooses to deny it is either deluded, or a rabid fan with little capacity for objectiveness when it comes to Apple.

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To make more room for other stuff. that 30 pin connector takes up a lot of space.

And a micro-USB is both standard and takes up less space. Greedy, greedy Apple. Shame on you.

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They won't be worthless, they can still be used on the current iOS products. Other third party accessories will be designed to match the new USB conector!

Right! And a perfect opportunity to make it a standard Micro-USB! What? No? Apple says it must be yet ANOTHER custom cable?

Even on the Euro side of the fence, they'll get to sell another adapter to the people that wanted to use micro-USB. Brilliant!!

Too bad SJ didn't take the rest of the greedy smackers with him to the grave...

 

[SeaFox]

I'll swallow my iPhone 4 if that happens...

Warning: Do not eat iPhone.

 

[Giuly]

Right! And a perfect opportunity to make it a standard Micro-USB! What? No? Apple says it must be yet ANOTHER custom cable?

That's Number 1. Number 2, again: Nobody needs Micro-USB, or any other connector.
Number 3, the Micro-USB front looks usually like this, which is even bigger than a 30 pin dock connector:

 

[EeZeEpEe]

Photos getting letterboxed is just as bad. I take and look at way more photos on my device than videos.

A wider screen in lanscape mode means you will see less content above the keyboard than you would otherwise. Even if the keyboard remains the same height, the web content, etc. will be scaled up to fit the width of the device ...this means you will see less.

I don't think people have been complaining about the width of the iPhone in relation to pocket size. It's pretty darn small by current smartphone standards.

If you like skinnier phones, that's fine. I'm just explaining why I believe it's a horrible fit for the iPhone.

How is letterboxed just as bad as cropped? You see the whole picture as opposed to crop cutting off the picture. I take a lot more pics that videos too.

When typing you only need to see a couple lines of what your typing while in landscape. Retract the keyboard to review the whole thing. Bring it back to continue typing.

I know the iPhone is small by current smartphone standards. That's why a 4" 16:9 ratio one would probably keep the same width as the current 3.5" 3:2 ratio. Bigger screen with the same width. It's a PRO. That was the real point I was trying to make in my previous post.

 

[CFreymarc]

If they change the connector mechanics, they are shooting themselves in the foot. Palm changed the connector every three years dwindling their third party peripheral market into almost nothing.

Apple has kept the same connector for ten years now with unallocated pins on them to this day. That has kept a very strong third party hardware base going to support the line.

 

[Zudeo]

Definitely not the next iPhone.

Apple likes seemless design, that looks terrible.

They will have the backing one style or the other, but not both and I highly doubt they will change the aspect ratio. If the iphone screen gets bigger, the phone will be wider, that's all there is to it.

Well, take a look at the iPhone 2G and then comment on the 'back' material.

 

[devilstrider]

Funny how all these people say it's ugly but if this dropped week from now you all would be in line for it.

 

[MythicFrost]

I don't think Apple will change the aspect ratio of the new iPhone.

I'm hoping we'll see a 4 to 4.6 inch 1440x960 IPS display with a quad-core Cortex A9 in the A6 with either higher clocked dual-core graphics or lower clocked quad-core graphics which with a die shrink to 32nm and Samsung's High-K & Metal Gate LP process as well as a larger battery and chassis should allow for similar, if not better battery life in general use, and acceptable levels of heat.

(Obviously if you're gaming and have all four CPU and GPU cores pegged at 100% it's going to have less battery life, but it should have more in general use as most of the cores will be idle, and Samsung's process greatly reduces power leakage.)

 

[vvebsta]

If they change the connector mechanics, they are shooting themselves in the foot. Palm changed the connector every three years dwindling their third party peripheral market into almost nothing.

Apple has kept the same connector for ten years now with unallocated pins on them to this day. That has kept a very strong third party hardware base going to support the line.

I disagree... like you said its been 10 years. Tech gets smaller, better, faster, i'm sure third parties will adapt. I'm sure someone will come out with an adapter/converter to work with existing cables, problem solved.

 

[CFreymarc]

I disagree... like you said its been 10 years. Tech gets smaller, better, faster, i'm sure third parties will adapt. I'm sure someone will come out with an adapter/converter to work with existing cables, problem solved.

But to who? IMO, Apple is on the verge of losing their smartphone dominance if they start fragmenting the product line like they did in the Scully years.

Come out with a new connector, third parties may just drop a dime on tooling for a competitor instead of Apple. There is no contractual obligation here.

This was one of the big things that screwed up Palm after their founder, Jeff Hawkins, got out of the product development loop. The Treo 650 was the last Palm product Jeff directly worked on, they outsourced the Treo 700 series and never recovered from there.

 

[gwelmarten]

iWant

 

[xak]

I absolutely love the iPhone 4+ screen. I run 24/7 100% brightness, and, to me, it is all about quality over quantity when it comes to the display.

That being said, I don't care if they increase the screen size, SO LONG AS THEY KEEP THE PIXELS/AREA NEARLY THE SAME (or better). If they sacrifice screen quality for screen quantity, I just don't know how I would reconcile upgrading from my iPhone 4, past the 4S, to the bigger-but-lower-quality screen.

Assuming a size increase, I do hope they keep the aspect ratio, because I don't want any issues in the App Store after upgrade. I just bought (first ever) the new iPad, and it pisses me off how many apps aren't upgraded to the new resolution. Obviously, I am in a bit of a pickle; if they increase the size & keep the aspect ratio, then they have to increase the resolution accordingly (my ideal, to maintain pixels/area and screen quality), and thus there might be this same issue with the next iPhone.

Again, Apple, please don't take a step backward in screen quality in order to increase screen size. The iPhone and iPad are all about aesthetics to me. I buy Apple because I like how it looks honestly.

 

[EeZeEpEe]

I buy Apple because I like how it looks honestly.

Form over function?

 

[Syk]

Not sure I like that back. Looks kind of tacky but do want the larger screen also want an iOS facelift, it's time. Not sure if I want it any thinner than the iP4 I have now.

That connector change is going to suck because I'll need new extra cables but it was bound to happen.

That said I'm pretty sure that some here that are saying they won't buy it with a larger screen will and talking about how great it is. I kinda hope they don't so maybe ordering from apple.com won't be brought to its knees and I won't have to keep trying to put my order

ETA: Apple will have to change sooner or later be it case/size design or UI. If not they'll start to suffer like RIM is. I remember when everyone wanted a BlackBerry now only the loyal few want them.

 

[anti-microsoft]

I've posted some mocukups if anyone is interested: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1367711/

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Number 3, the Micro-USB front looks usually like this, which is even bigger than a 30 pin dock connector:
Image

What the hell are you smoking saying that Micro-USB is bigger than the 30 pin dock connector. In every metric the 30 pin is either the same size or larger.

It is the same thickness, It is multiple times wider and it goes just as deep into the device. On top of that it uses more wires so it is going to take up more room and require more chips it support it.

 

[danahn17]

Image

That's Number 1. Number 2, again: Nobody needs Micro-USB, or any other connector.
Number 3, the Micro-USB front looks usually like this, which is even bigger than a 30 pin dock connector:
Image

Uhhhhh..... my Galaxy SII has a MicroUSB connector and it looks like this:

 

[heeby]

Uhhhhh..... my Galaxy SII has a MicroUSB connector and it looks like this:
Image

Yeah micro usb is the smallest connector I have for anything...hell even mini and standard USB are both smaller than the 30pin. Methinks Giuly is confused.

I have several devices with micro usb...Nokia phone, Kindle, bluetooth headsets...it's great being able to have one charger for most things. I use the Nokia charger exclusively and have had no issues. Wish it would become the standard.

 

[nad8e]

If Apple changes the current connector, it will be to no connector at all.

Charge wirelessly or with a mag connection. All data via blue tooth or wifi.