iPhone 5 rumours: NFC, edge screen, A5 chip tipped - Technology - Cell Phones

With the iPad 2 now safely unveiled, its time for the iPhone 5 rumour mill to rumble into production, with gossips tipping wave-for-pay, metal backs and twin SIMs in the new smartphone.

The first leaks are appearing from Apples third-party manufacturers: 9 to 5 Mac is claiming a source at Foxconn, the company responsible for assembling the iPhone and iPad, says the new phone will be similar to the previous model, but will abandon the glass back for a flat aluminium body.

The iPhones screen size is also expected to be altered, with a larger 4in screen tipped to feature an edge-to-edge design.

Another safe bet will be the inclusion of the Apple-designed CPU, RAM and graphics processor, the A5 chip, which recently appeared in the iPad 2.

Along with these reasonably-certain updates, theres a collection of more outlandish suggestions for the iPhone 5.

Near field communication, or NFC, the technology that enables wave-and-pay capabilities, has been a bone of contention over the previous week, with Australian Macworld reporting that plans for its inclusion had been postponed until the iPhone 6.

However, in the last week both Forbes and Cult of Mac claimed the report was bogus, and the iPhone 5 would indeed feature NFC capabilities. The rumours also suggest that users will be able to do more than just pay for goods with their phones, with NFC connections allowing them to run Mac App Store apps and MobileMe documents on guest computers.

While the fancy NFC capabilities are certainly within the realm of possibility, others are more decidedly batty. iDeals China reckons the iPhone 5 will support two SIM cards so users can hook into two phone lines, which would be cool if it werent so unlikely./toshiba/pa3534u-1brs.htm

The frequency of rumours such as these is certain to gain momentum in the coming months, as we approach the likely June release date. Given the fact the majority of tip-offs on the recently released of the iPad 2 turned out to be accurate, its fair to expect that some leaks, particularly those purported to be from Apples manufacturing partners, will be correct.

/toshiba/pa3399u-2brs.htm

0