The iPhone 7 Is Coming: Here's
Everything We've Heard So Far
In a few weeks,
Apple will unveil a new iPhone with a better camera, a faster chip, an
additional speaker, and no headphone jack.
It started with the infamous revelation that the
new device would come without a headphone jack. Wait? What? Why? Then came a
lot of wailing and gnashing of
teeth over this great indignity foisted on consumers by Apple.
Apple is essentially forcing new iPhone owners to use a dongle if they want to
keep using their standard analog headphones.
Cascading downhill from the headphone jack bombshell came a series
of smaller reveals about the next iPhone, which will likely, but not certainly,
be called the iPhone 7. All in all, the new phone (based on what we now know)
can't be said to be a massive reinvention of the iconic device. But it may pack
just enough new features and component upgrades to tempt you to upgrade.
The iPhone 7 is likely to look slightly
different from the iPhone 6s—but not much. The phone will almost certainly come
in two sizes, probably the same 4.9-inch and 5.5-inch screen variants as in the
iPhone 6 and 6s. The plastic antenna separation inlays at the top and bottom of
the device are situated differently and are a little less prominent. One rumor
says we may see a new deep-blue color option.
About that headphone jack, as with
most tech advances it comes with the good and the bad. Apple has always been on
the front edge of adopting new tech standards. It led the way in ditching
floppy drives, 30-pin connectors, and embracing the USB-C port. The rest of the
industry usually follows. So it shouldn't be too shocking that it's now moving
to ditch the 3.5mm headphone jack—the same jack used on the Sony Walkman back in the
'80s!
The upside, we're told, is that the audio quality coming out of
the Lightning port to the headphones will be of much higher quality than that
delivered through the old analog jack. It could enable some impressive new
noise cancellation technology, too.
On the other hand, as digital
rights activist Cory Doctorow points out, the new
all-digital audio stack in the iPhone may create an opportunity for the record
labels to impose new DRM controls on some kinds of audio content. The "analog hole"created by the
old 3.5mm jack was the only thing preventing them from doing so, from a
technical point of view. Whether the content owners will actually seize on the
opportunity is another question altogether.
The removal of the 3.5mm headphone jack creates more space both on
the bottom of the phone and inside the shell. It's likely that Apple will use
that space to add a second (presumably stereo) speaker.
The iPhone 7 will have a
pressure-sensitive home button. The button, a new Bloomberg report says, will
give the user a haptic buzz when pressed. It may also perform different tasks
based on the force and duration of the downward press, similar to the "3D
Touch" screen press feature on the iPhone 6.
Apple is facing serious competition
from Samsung when it comes to the camera. For this reason we're likely to see
a dual-lens camera on the back
of the next iPhone. This information first came from in-the-know analyst
Ming-Chi Kuo, and was later revised to say that only the larger 5.5-inch Plus
size of the new iPhone would get the dual lenses.
The two lenses would each take a photograph of the the subject,
then the two images would be reconciled to create one higher-resolution image.
This would reduce the grainy look you see when you zoom in on your photos, and
it might reduce the graininess of images shot in low-light conditions. Overall,
photos shot with a dual-lens camera would be noticeably sharper and more
accurate.
However, the image files created may be larger, so storage on the
phone becomes more of an issue. Also, the phone would need more RAM to handle
the graphics processing of dual-lens images. And finally, the new iPhone is
expected to offer far more onboard shooting and editing controls, which also
require more processing power.
Every new iPhone gets a specs upgrade, so the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus
will have a more powerful processor than their predecessors, and will likely
come with larger storage options. One rumor says that the larger
"Plus" version of the phone will offer 3GB of RAM to handle increased
photo processing chops.
A news report appeared
today saying that Apple had originally planned to release three new phones—the
iPhone 7, 7 Plus, and 7 "Pro," the Pro being basically an iPhone 7
Plus with a Smart Connector on the back and a dual-lens camera. Then, just
months before launch, it decided to 86 the Pro version and give the
"Plus" version the dual-lens camera. The decision was reportedly
based on highly competitive conditions in the smartphone market.
The new iPhones will be waterproof,
possibly to the IP68 rating of the new Samsung Note 7. This means that
the phone will be dust-resistant and able to protect itself when submerged in a
meter of water.
MARK SULLIVAN
https://www.fastcompany.com/3062574/tim-cooks-apple/the-iphone-7-is-coming-heres-everything-weve-heard-so-far
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