Smart Bezel Could Be The Big, New "Mystery Feature" For the iPhone 5

As the tech community endlessly prognosticates on the next big features for the iPhone5, there's no doubt that Apple  has kept some of the best bits hidden from the public. But could the recent exposé on Apple's Smart Bezel patent be the mind-blowing feature that makes the iPhone 5 the smartphone of the year?

Bigger screen. 8 megapixel camera. iOS 5. NFC technology, The A5 chip. Most if not all of these predicted new features for the iPhone 5 are improvements rather than innovations — even NFC technology has already been tried on the Droid platform.

Where's the magic? Where's the defining feature for the iPhone 5 that will launch it into greatness? With the iPhone 4, we saw the advent of the front-facing camera, which gave smartphone users a next-generation way of communicating on the go. How will the iPhone 5 deliver a similarly siezmic breakthrough?

Enter Apple's Smart Bezel.

All this week, tech websites have been parsing a curious Apple patent that reveals plans to develop and deploy a dynamic, gesture-controlled bezel around the iPhone 5's screen, giving users a secondary means of navigating games and applications. Fast Company I think has summed up the technological aspect of the Smart Bezel patent the best, explaining that:

"The display relies on printed, segmented electroluminescent units (or similar tech) that would be hidden when not activated. These units would display additional info when needed–we're thinking games controls, an improvement to the awful messaging/alert system iOS uses, and display-wasting info like battery life bars or a clock."

Just as the old Atari joystick gave way to the advanced game controls of today, so too will smartphones like the iPhone 5 feature more gesture control.

To be sure, the Smart Bezel would be a bona fide breakthrough in technology, should it deliver on its promise of significantly expanding the gesture control and display layout of the iPhone 5. It's true that other extended touch surface concepts exist on current smartphones, such as the Palm Pre, but if Apple can push the exvelope with this new innovation, it could revolutionize the way that iPhone users interact with their iPhone; not just an improvement on what already exists, but a true innovation that would send the other smartphone designers into catch-up mode..

And from a more practical standpoint, the Smart Bezel would also give the iPhone 5 an effective alternative to the cumbersome home button, which many believe will be moved or replaced in one way or another.

The idea of the Smart Bezel has been kicking around for some time now. For the most part, the idea of adding more gesture control was initially being ascribed to the iPad 2. Many analysts foresee that tablets and smartphones will continue to feature more and more gesture control features apart from the touch screen itself. Much in the way that the simple Atari joystick of yesteryear has advanced to the complex array of buttons, joysticks, sliders, and gesture control, so too will the chassis of the next generation of smartphones and tablets include bezels, backs, and other interesting nooks and crannies that will give users new vistas of control over their mobile computing experience.

Why Apple Should Put The Brakes on 3D Technology For the iPhone 5

A recent Apple patent for a 3D camera and other rumors suggest that Apple might be toying with 3D technology for the iPhone5. Read why Apple and Steve Jobs should be careful about wading into the 3D waters with their next big iPhone.

You may have heard some faint rumors of 3D camera technology someday coming to the iPhone by way of some mind-blowing Apple patents that have surfaced over the past year or so. It's no wonder that Apple would be exploring 3D technology in its research and development efforts: we continue to see the application of next-generation 3D technology in motion pictures, such as James Cameron's Avatar, as well as the new Nintendo 3DS. In addition, television and computing sectors are beginning to invest vast resources into deploying 3D effects into a wide range of different media outlets.

A schematic in Apple's patent for a 3D camera. Could it end up on the iPhone 5?

 

Apple has two intriguing recent patents that focus on 3D: a 3D screen that would allow users to see the effect without 3D glasses, and a small 3D camera, which, by way of three separate camera sensors (see schematic to the left) would allow users to actually create and render 3D images themselves. Once deployed in a mobile device like an iPhone, this tandem of 3D inventions would most certainly turn mobile computing on its head: combined with gesture control as seen on the iPhone and iPad, it could even allow users to navigate their gadgets in a third dimension. That's some futuristic stuff!

Whether or not 3D technology could show up on the iPhone 5, however, remains to be seen.

I have postulated for the past few months that the iPhone 5 may in fact offer a groundbreaking new feature that few if any of us have even speculated on. Could this pairing of 3D technologies — the 3D screen and 3D rear-facing camera — be the hook that boosts the iPhone 5 into legendary status? After all, given Steve Job's ill health, for all we know, the iPhone 5 could be his swan song. He may be inclined to make the iPhone 5 a total game changer in mobile computing.

However, given the recent intelligence on the increasing possibility of an 8 megapixel camera for the iPhone 5 — served up by the folks at Sony — it would seem unlikely that Apple would be able to keep the lid on the additional components needed to construct a 3D camera. It could be possible that the iPhone 5 could debut its 3D screen without the pairing of a 3D camera — Nintendo 3DS already has a 3D interface, after all — but it should also be noted that, just because Apple has a patent for a 3D screen doesn't mean that the technology itself is imminent: it can take years for new ideas to become reality, as highlighted in this other article about a possible changeable topography touch screen for the iPhone 5.

And then there's also the possible dangers of 3D technology as a whole.

3D Technology Is A Possible Health Hazard

For as much as 3D technology seems like the wave of the future, Apple should be wary of deploying it in the iPhone 5. Ever since the debut of Avatar, 3D has been fraught with averse, well-documented side-effects that call into question whether man was meant for 3D technology. Remember: this isn't the 3D technology of old, complete with the funny-looking 3D glasses. Next-generation 3D technology renders images in holographic fashion by projecting images in staggered frames, so that each eye is processing images at different intervals, thus creating a three-dimensional image in the brain.

When Avatar was released, the use of 3D imagery, together with the larger-than-life, computer-generated landscapes, drove a portion of viewers to experience a broad scope of side-effects, from short-term nausea and dizziness to more serious long-term side-effects like depression and suicidal thoughts. TechRadar has an article that documents the phenomenon, with writer Marc Chacksfield reporting on how the realism of the film, combined with the utopic landscape of Pandora, left many moviegoers feeling empty and depressed. This combination of realism with other-wordliness has been attributed to 3D imagery.

In short, James Cameron opened Pandora's Box.

Cameron and other filmmakers tried to shrug off the early criticism of the dangers of 3D technology, but newer news of the ill effects of 3D in Nintendo's 3DS has corroborated the claims that not enough is understood about the effects of 3D imagery on the brain. A recent article in the Sun reports on how sickening side-effects have plagued Nintendo's wondrous new portable game console, reporting on Nintendo's damage-control disclaimer that "the console is not safe for under-sevens and advised playing in 3D mode for less than 30 minutes."

Considering that the whole point of buying the 3DS is to play games in 3D, this development should give Apple pause if they were thinking of releasing the iPhone 5 with any kind of 3D technology.

The fact of the matter is, the research on the effects of 3D has not yet caught up with the actual technology. It is a temptation to think that as humans, if we can build it, then it must be safe. After all, there are plenty of human developments over the past century that are both groundbreaking and unwieldy (nuclear energy and that scary supercollider in Switzerland immediately come to mind). Apple is most likely looking to hit a home run with the iPhone 5, but they should be careful playing with 3D tech right now — it is an unknown quantity.

And if the iPhone 5 does end with a 3D screen and/or camera, my advice would be to consider waiting to see the effects on users first before buying it.

iPhone 5 Specs: Thinner, Larger 3.7-Inch Screen, Home Button With Gesture Area & More

Joshua Topolsky, former Engadget Editor has just revealed some interesting information about Apple's next generation iPhone – iPhone5, which is rumored to be released in September.

According to Topolsky who writes at This is my next, the 5th generation iPhone will be completely redesigned and it will look like iPod Touch 4G rather than iPhone 4.

Topolopsy reports that according to their sources, iPhone 5 will be thinner than the iPhone 4, and have a "teardrop" shape, which goes from thick to thin like MacBook Air.

He has revealed that the home button will be enlarged and will double up as the home button and also a gesture area:

this falls in line with testing we've seen for gestures on the iPad, and our sources say that gestures are definitely coming in a future version of iOS. The home button will likely be enlarged, but not scrapped altogether.

He also confirms that iPhone 5 will come with a larger 3.7 inch screen (compared to the 3.5 inch screen), which will occupy nearly the entire front of the phone while keeping the same resolution.

The sketch supplied to them by a source indicates some form of inductive or touch charging but their sources have not been able to confirm it.

You can also checkout the mockup of what the next generation iPhone will look like based on information they've received.

We really like the idea of the home button doubling up as a gesture area and though we like the design of iPhone 4, will love to see a completely redesigned iPhone, which is thinner and comes with a larger Retina display.

What about you? Please share your views in the comments section below.

iPhone 5 Dual Mode Network: CDMA & GSM

The iPhone 5 speculation rolls on and on, and the latest rumour doing the rounds concerning the fifth generation iOS smartphone is that the iPhone5 will come out to play packing both GSM and CDMA radios, something that has been kind of confirmed by Verizon.

According to an article over on Phbeta, during the Big Red's earning call, Verizon's CFO Fran Shammo stated that the next generation iPhone will support global roaming, which basically means the device should be able to play on CDMA and GSM networks.

Thus it would appear that the iPhone 5 could be a world phone although even though the Verizon CFO says so, nothing about the iPhone 5 is final until such times as Apple confirms, so again this should be taken with a pinch of salt.

Having said that, apparently Shammo did apparently leak info about the Apple iPad 2 on Verizon, so there could be some substance to this rumour. So I guess for now it's once again a matter of waiting to find out for sure.

Having said that, wouldn't it be nice for iPhone 5 users to be able to pick and choose which network they went with.

Did Sony CEO Howard Stringer Spill The Beans About An 8MP iPhone 5 Camera?

We're recently reported that very few new features appear to be solid for the iPhone5. But a recent slip-up by the Sony CEO suggests that an 8-megapixel camera might be a definite upgrade for the next iPhone. read Charles Moore's new article:

MacNN, Appleinsider,, CNET, and several other Apple-watcher sites reported over the weekend that Sony CEO Howard Stringer may have inadvertently revealed that Apple is gearing up to equip the iPhone 5 with an eight-megapixel camera.

9To5Mac's Seth Weintraub, who attended the event, reports that Stringer, in a Talking Tech with Sony event interview with The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall in New York, commented that his company's camera sensor plant at Sendai, Japan, is among 15 of the company's facilities damaged by last month's catastrophic earthquake and tsunami, and that the supply interruption will delay shipments of sensors to Apple. Since Sony sensors are not used in the iPhone versions 4 and 3GS, which employ 5-megapixel and 3.2 megapixel OmniVision camera sensors respectively, it's not a major deductive leap to infer that the higher-resolution CMOS sensors sourced from Sony would most likely be destined for the next revision iPhone 5.

A PhoneArena blog from six weeks ago notes that OmniVision shares nosedived last summer when a rumor spread that due partly to complaints about a yellowish color shift in still photos shot with the OmniVision sensor camera, Apple might be moving to Sony for its next generation iPhone camera sensors — possibly Sony's Exmor R sensor unit that is used in the Sony Ericsson Xperia arc and Xperia neo. That 8MP sensor is backlit to help it finesse low light conditions, similar to the way the iPhone 4′s 5MP OmniVision sensor does. Indeed, rumors of Apple dropping OmniVision in favor of Sony as its iPhone camera supplier are longstanding.

PhoneArena also reports that OmniVision has announced that it has an 8MP camera sensor of its own coming, the OV8820, which incorporates the same low-light performance enhancements, plus HD video at 60fps, and Full HD at 30fps, and which had been projected to begin mass production in March, but that production problems have occurred.

Not everyone agrees that Apple will use Sony CMOC camera sensors in the iPhone 5. Analyst Yair Reiner of Wall Street's Oppenheimer & Co. is quoted by Appleinisider isaying he expects OmniVision to remain Apple's camera supplier for the fifth-generation iPhone, corroborated by checks with contacts in Apple's supply channels, dismissing the notion an Apple-Sony hook-up as "rather silly."

Whatever, regardless of whether the iPhone 5's camera supplier is to be OmniVision or Sony, it looks like camera sensor supply problems may be a significant factor in Apple's evidently postponing the iPhone 5 introduction from an anticipated Worldwide Developer's Conference release until some time later in the year. With the iPad 2′s camera performance being that unit's most unanimously panned feature in reviews, Apple will want to get the camera right in the iPhone 5, where it is arguably a much more important feature than it is with the tablet product.

Also, with Sony Ericsson rumored to be getting 12MP+ camera equipped phones ready for summer release, Apple will need at least the 8MP sensors to remain even ballpark competitive in that context.

Internally Leaked AT&T Employee Memo for Tomorrow's White iPhone 4 Launch

The folks at ModMyi have gotten their hands on an internally leaked memo from AT&T that outlines the protocol for tomorrow's white iPhone 4 announcement. Apple confirmed that the white iPhone was finally launching on AT&T and Verizon tomorrow, and demand is expected to be substantial for the device.

AT&T's customer protocol for tomorrow's launch reveals some interesting details about the upgrade policy. If you're planning on waiting in line, this memo also pertains to you…

ModMyi reports,

"The document contains a list of "Critical Must Knows/Dos for Local Dealer Locations." The highlight of all this confidential information is the fact current iPhone 4 users still under the 30 day BRE policy can exchange their current black iPhone 4 for a brand new white one. The exchanged device must be "in like-new condition with no visible damage." Of course any restocking fees apply."

The white iPhone 4′s pricing will remain the same as its black counterpart, including a hefty $449 and $549 early upgrade fee.

Here are some more instructions from AT&T to its employees,

• Customers are not allowed to hold spaces in line for any additional customers
• Newly arriving customer should move to the end of the line (duh?)
• Determine the number of customers in line for white iPhone 4 and coordinate this with the available invetory on hand If there are more people in line than available inventory, infrom customers of the following:

Quote: "Due to the unprecedented demand for White iPhone 4, our inventory is running low. I cannot guarantee there will be product available"

Sounds like a pretty typical launch for an Apple device. If you plan on being one of the first to pick up the white iPhone tomorrow, make sure to get there ahead of time so you don't get stuck in line. There has been no indication of a huge turnout for tomorrow's launch, but stores in large cities may have lines.

Once you do get your white iPhone 4, make sure to take it home and jailbreak it.

Who's getting the white iPhone tomorrow? Do you expect any lines?

Unity: Verizon iPhone 5 faces smaller twindom to iPad 2

As the months evaporate on their way to the iPhone 5, Apple's efforts to bring unity to its products are more clear than ever: nearly every one of its desktop and laptop computers is made of brushed metal. And the iPad 2 has taken a similar tack. While it's clear that the Verizon iPhone 5 and AT&T iPhone 5 will be twins to each other, if not literally the same hybrid model, there's new buzz that the iPhone 5 could also find itself collapsing into the now of Apple's brushed metal ethos. And while that buzz is sketchy for now, there have been previous hints that Apple wants to go there in terms of, one way or another, bringing visual unity to the product line.

Consider the launch of the original iPad and then the iPhone 4, both inching close to having been a year ago. Both devices opted for a brushed metal band running around the entire outside of the device, covering the top, bottom, and sides. While other design elements of the two products remained disparate, most notably their rear surfaces, it was an early sign of where Apple truly wants to go with its product design. And it's nothing new, of course. At the height of the popularity of the classic white iPod era, Apple redesigned the iMac, which had at that time looked more like a lamp, into an all-white flat panel computer with many observing that it resembled a giant iPod. Now Apple sees itself launching its two biggest known products of the year, the iPad 2 and the iPhone 5, and it's merely a question of just how much further Apple is willing to go in its long running quest to visually unite its product line.

Are a three inch product like the iPhone 5 and a ten inch device like the iPad 2 really meant to look and feel exactly like each other, right down to the physical shaping and even the buttons? These are questions Apple has been asking itself for some time. And now that the iPad 2 is a done deal, its design sealed and revealed for all the world to see, Apple must choose just how far down that road is wants to pursue things when it finalizes the external design of the iPhone 5. The AT&T and Verizon iPhone 5 will be one and the same whether they literally are or not. But will they become shrunken head versions of the iPad 2 in the process? Here's more on the iPad 2. Here's more on the iPhone5.