iPhone 5 News

Back in June of 2010, when all of the tech world was praising and trashing the iPhone 4, the iPhone 5 News Blog was launched in anticipation of the next iPhone (after all, there will always be a new iPhone on the horizon). Since then, the iPhone 5 New Blog has exclusively covered the criticism of the iPhone 4, the Droid, and the rumors and postulations surrounding the iPhone 5.

Part of what I do in covering the iPhone 5 rumors is to keep an eye on what the Apple geeks are mocking up as their "dream iPhone" design. The newest photo I've seen was in a short article in Device Magazine online, which  portrays an ultra-slim iPhone 5 -- as slim as maybe 2 or 3 credit cards stacked on top of each other.

When you think about it, "slimming" down a smartphone really isn't smart at all.

Computer companies put laptops on a diet back in the early '00s because they were too bulky to be convenient. The pinnacle of slim tech is the MacBook air, of course, and the iPad is relatively thin as well.

But do we want a credit card-slim iPhone 5? I don't think so.

Anyone who has had a mobile phone for more than a year knows that they get beat up. No matter how much you care for them, they invariably take a few headers or simply get scuffed up as a result of using them so often. Thus, making the iPhone 5 more slim would really just be a novelty and offers no practical up-side. In fact, the mock up makes the phone so slim that it might actually be a bit awkward to hold!

Really, slimming down electronics is a lazy, facile idea. If you want to revolutionize an already revolutionary gadget, try fundamentally transforming the way you use or control it. 

For tech junkies, there is never enough memory. I guess it's because many of us have lived long enough to remember primordial computers with no hard drive and what it felt like to upgrade to 1 MB of RAM. Ah, those were the days!

It's hard to imagine that we're living in a tech world today where we could imagine a tiny little handheld device like the iPhone 5 having 128GB NAND flash memory.

But that is what is now rumored to be joining the growing list of new features and function for the iPhone 5. The new THGBM2T0DBFBAI, or "THINGAMAJIG" chip as I like to call it, features an industry's-biggest 128GB memory capacity, combined with 16 64Gbit (4GB) NAND chips utilizing 32nm process technology.

As much as this new kernal of rumored iPhone 5 news is exciting, it most definitely is not a brand-new idea for the iPhone line. iPhone devotees have been jonesing for more memory even before the iPhone 4 was released. To wit, one of the (many) criticisms of the iPhone 4 is that, in spite of boasting enhanced video recording and editing capacities, the phone itself simply doesn't offer the "shelf space" needed to use the iPhone as a serious video machine. To be sure, 128 MB of flash memory on the iPhone 5 will certainly do the trick!

As much as we enjoy waxing poetic about trivial matters, such as what name Apple will give the iPhone 5, delving into these "meaty" rumors is really the most exciting sort of conjecture we can offer about the next iPhone. After all, it was lackluster technology that led many to criticize the iPhone -- it will take groundbreaking new technology in the iPhone 5 to overcome its predecessor's shortcomings.

You may have read in the iPhone 5 news about new proximity technology being tested for the next iPhone. Just like Google Maps, analytics, and the tracking of smart phones, the upswing of suveillance by private tech companies has always been marketed to the public as being a boon for better shopping and more targeted information sourcing. While all of that may be true, many people have also seen these surveillance trends as an encroachment into privacy rights.

This issue will get a fresh revisiting with the iPhone 5, should Apple decide to go with new proximity technology, also known as Near Field communication, or NFC, in the iPhone 5. Apple, of course, will promote the convenience benefits of this technology, showing how the iPhone 5 will allow users to pay for items instantly, access information on products in stores, and transfer files, photos, and other information with other iPhone users simply by "bumping" one another. 

It all sounds great, doesn't it?

Of course, the downside (other than having yet a quicker, easier way to spend your money) is that the "tracking" of your iPhone 5 will be done not simply by satellites orbiting the earth, but also by these new pay points in stores as well. In essence, the iPhone 5 will bring surveillance one step closer to the iPhone user.

Will this disturb people to the point where they won't buy the iPhone 5? Of course not. We are a society drunk on new technology. There will be a debate, and people will indeed complain about it. Ironically, however, many of the people who will complain about the iPhone 5's privacy-encroaching proximity technology will most likely be iPhone 5 users who will use the technology with a guilty conscience.

From the leaked photos on Gawker.com to its disappointing antenna snafu, the iPhone 4 has had an ignoble track record. And rumors of an iPhone 5 for early 2011 begs the question: is Apple’s iPhone 4 a complete failure?

Ever since the dawn of the iMac, Apple has made almost flawless use of its marketing machine. Starting with a much-hyped product unveiling by Steve Jobs, the tech world eagerly awaits the arrival of every groundbreaking new Apple toy, buys a few million of them, complains a little, praises a lot, spends billions more on accessories, cases, and apps, and then gets ready for a new model about 12 to 16 months later. You could say that it’s a Willy Wonka-esque cycle of marketing that has resulted in branding Steve Jobs and Apple the closest thing we have to Thomas Edison and the lightbulb; his new inventions generally transform culture.

With the release of the iPhone 4 in June, we could usually expect another iPhone sometime between June and December of 2011. That would be the usual trajectory of Apple production.

But new rumors are suggesting that Apple is preparing to buck their own system. Tech news leaders like iLounge are now reporting that an iPhone 5 is due out sometime in early 2011 — maybe even as early as January!

Tech journalists are suggesting that giving the Apple designers only 6 months to design and finalize a new iPhone design is a recipe for disaster, and could lead to further complications of an already faulty-at-best iPhone 4 design. The advent of an iPhone so soon after the release of the iPhone 4 also means that all of the accessories and case designers are going to re-tool — once again — for a new iPhone model.

A bigger, more philosophical question also comes to mind: is the release of an iPhone 5 just six months after the release of the iPhone 4 basically a capitulation? Does Apple see the iPhone 4 as a failure?

To be sure, we’ll never hear anything like that from Apple: too many people bought the wonder phone (1.5 million the first day, with a projection of 3 million a month) to spin it any other way than a resounding success. And to be fair, the iPhone 4 boasts one of the most exciting and most groundbreaking features yet to grace the mobile phone market: the ability to have video calls.

Add to this the newfangled video recording and editing features, as well as the impressive new display, and the iPhone 4 indeed rises to the usual level of Apple innovation that we are used to.

However, the iPhone 4′s storyline has been anything but storybook.

Apple’s magical marketing model for the iPhone 4 was frazzled from the beginning by the leaking of prototype photos, thanks to a drunken Apple designer and a tech website that will do (and pay) anything to get the inside scoop on Apple’s next move. As a result, the video call feature for the iPhone 4 was semi-spoiled by the leaked photos, and put Apple into damage control mode when normally they would be loading up their hype machine.

Apple could’ve weathered this initial storm if the iPhone 4 had a successful project launch in June. But its faulty antenna issues and free bumpers once again took the focus off of Apple’s homegrown marketing message magic and instead forced them to play catch-up to the initial bad press they received from the pouncing tech media.

The iPad aside, it just hasn’t been Apple’s summer.

So, a hasty release of the iPhone 5 suggests that, at least internally, Apple knows that their new iPhone model isn’t going to have that nice, steady burn in the marketplace that the iPhone 3G and 3Gs enjoyed. And with suggestions that the iPad might also see the introduction of a 7-inch younger brother in early January, we might be in for a bevy of Apple news over the next 6 months.

And we can be sure that Apple will stick to hyping its new gadgets with the same methods that always seem to work.

One question remains: how are the millions of iPhone 4 owners (maybe you’re one of them) going to feel about a new iPhone 5 rolling out after only 6 months?