Rumor mills continue to churn on Apple iPhone 7. Taiwanese website Digitimes is the latest one to put up information about the forthcoming Apple smartphone.
The first speculation is on its home button, where the website stated that Apple may kill off the home button of iPhone 7. Instead, the new model could use ‘force touch’ screen and built-in fingerprint sensor. The move will make the entire front of the gadget a display. Force Touch is not a new concept for Apple that it is already present on the trackpad of MacBook.
'Apple is internally developing touch and display driver integration (TDDI) single-chip solutions for its iPhones, according to sources in Taiwan’s IC design industry,' stated DigiTimes. 'The integrated design would fit into future iPhone designs – models with ultra-thin and ultra-narrow displays, and with a whole plane design eliminating the Home button,’ the website added.
The second speculation hinted at making the front-facing camera sharper, targeting the selfie trends of the people around. Its iOS 9 may add support for a FaceTime camera with 1080p video capture and support capturing 240fps video at 720p using the front facing FaceTime camera, a developer Hamza Sood added.
The third speculation would calm down the folks who drop phones in water (& dust). Multiple sources have claimed that Apple iPhone 7 will be waterproof and dustproof. There appeared a report in Business Insider that said Apple has filed for a waterproofing-related patent. According to the report on DigiTimes, Apple has already completed the third round of testing on the prototype of the iPhone 7 for water and dust resistance.
An earlier rumor by 9to5Mac.com claimed that Apple is developing a new set of Bluetooth earphones. The company recently acquired Beat Electronics. The headphone is expected to get released along with iPhone 7. Due to the recent friction with US Federal Government on hacking an iPhone (The FBI wanted Apple to build a program to unlock the iPhone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook), security measures of the new iPhone could also be enhanced. The device is expected to unveil in 2017.
Apple's quarterly sales report:
Meanwhile, Apple released its quarterly sales earnings and reported a 13% decline in revenue for the first time since 2003. The total sales for the quarter registered at $50.56bn (£34.39bn) down from $58bn last year. Apple sold 51.2 million iPhones down from 61.2 million in the same quarter of 2015. The sales in China was fell 26%. Apple’s quarterly profit slipped to $10.5bn from $13.5bn. On the other hand, Apple Services division, App Store downloads, Apple Pay and Apple Music reported a 20% growth when compared to the same quarter last year.
