We are all hoping that everyone at Apple headquarters will wake up in an extremely good mood one day and decide that it will be a perfect time to arrange a spur of the moment media event, announcing the immediate release of the new iPhone. However, we all know that the likelihood is we won’t see a hardware release until October of this year, but that doesn’t stop us from speculating and discussing what Apple’s next-generation iPhone will bring.
The internet seems to have settled on an agreement that we will see an iPhone with a larger display come October time, with no confirmation of actual dimensions, but likely to come in at around the 1136×640 mark, meaning an increase in the vertical dimension. A lot of iPhone users have been crying out for Apple to introduce a larger display and although Apple will never go down the route of pushing out an iPhone with a mammoth display like some of their competitors, it looks like they have recognized the need for more screen real estate.
One of the likely features of the new iPhone that hasn’t really been discussed in any great detail is the possible inclusion of Near Field Communications (NFC) technology. Contactless payment seems to be the new buzz topic in the industry and is something that Apple will no doubt get involved with considering what other competitor devices like the Samsung Galaxy S III already offer. Information that has emerged following a software code dump seems to confirm this, and it’s highly likely that Apple’s new hardware will have NFC controllers embedded within.
The timing for an Apple product with NFC technology couldn’t really be any better one, considering the fruit company has recently demonstrated their Passbook application that will ship as a native part of iOS 6, something that will see its public release with the next iPhone. The integration of Near Field Communications with the very slick looking Passbook app would certainly make things easy for the end-user, something that Apple is historically excellent at doing and one of the main reasons why consumers have such a great love affair with the company.
If the NFC conjecture turns out to be a reality then it could be the large scale adoption that is needed to really give this technology the push to retailers and consumers. Having the ability to pay for products and services through the use of an iPhone, and the Passbook app that is linked to a credit card and payment system is certainly something that users will get on-board with and could change everything.
(via 9to5Mac)
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