64 GB metal iPhone 5 with 4G could shift upgrade balance of power

Here we are talking about the iPhone 5, when the iPhone 4 is still the current model being bought by people as we speak – and today I saw a guy using an original iPhone from circa 2007. Often lost in the ponderance over how the new iPhone will contend with competing phones is the query of whether the iPhone 5 will be able to compete favorably enough with the current and previous iPhones so as to motivate folks to ditch the one they have. Different corners have the iPhone 5 pegged as offering sixty-four gigabytes of storage, or being made of aluminum metal, or offering access to the nascent 4G networks of its two U.S. carriers. Here's a look at how each of these possibilities is likely to impact current iPhone users' willingness to upgrade to the iPhone 5 when the time comes.

Space: The iPhone 4 maxes out at half the storage of either the iPad 2 (understandable) or even the current iPod touch (a bizarre feat, four years running. which Apple still has yet to explain away). Those who were able to fill even a 60 GB classic iPod back in the day are currently stuck not being able to get all of that content onto their iPhone, meaning they either must carry an iPod classic in their other pocket or settle for only having a portion of their content with them on their iPhone, and that's before making room for iPhone-era goodies such as apps. Getting the iPhone 5 would solve one of the more common complaints about the iPhone over the years – it just doesn't hold enough to be the all-in-wonder Apple claims it is – and could trigger significant upgrades.

Metallica: The original iPhone was mostly metal, and yet somehow it was metal which scratched and dented easily. Assuming Apple has now figured out how to make metal in such a way that it's as durable as, well, metal, the change of pace could be an intriguing one. The glass body of the iPhone 4 seemingly never had a chance, as even though it's by far the most durable iPhone to ever come to market, quite a few people haven't been able to get past the "but it's made of glass!" initial reaction. Hey, people get stupid when it comes to consumer technology. And it doesn't help that as long as Apple keeps using the iPhone 4 body styling, the jackasses who started the phone "iPhone 4 antenna has issues" nonsense will keep getting their way. Because, again, people will believe anything when it comes to consumer technology. So a metal iPhone 5 would, if nothing else, convince iPhone 3GS and 3G laggards to go ahead and upgrade if they skipped the iPhone 4 for stupid and/or imaginary reasons.

Fourth gen: The fifth generation iPhone having fourth generation networking would manage to confuse an impressive number of people. But "4G" will be the buzz this year, as Verizon and AT&T join the already current chorus of Sprint and T-Mobile proclaiming that 4G networking is the future and the future is now. Nevermind that 4G still doesn't exist in most places (at least when it comes the two biggest carriers), advertising will convince the public that they must own a phone with 4G built in. And most of them will just assume they are using 4G, even if they live in a place which doesn't even yet have 3G. Don't believe me? Check all the folks who bought an HD TV and never have figured out that they're not watching the HD channels. So a "4G iPhone 5″ would go a long way in the marketing department, and motivate a lot of existing iPhone users to upgrade (with the exception of those current iPhone 4 users who mistakenly believe they're already on 4G because their iPhone has a "4″ in its name – and I encounter those types all the time). Nevermind that most of them wouldn't be able to put the 4G feature to use anyway; they'll want it. Here's more on the iPhone 5.

iPhone 4S Pictured, Possibly iPhone 5

The speculation over the next generation iOS smartphone continues and now we have what is apparently leaked images of what is being called the iPhone 4S hitting the net waves, and apparently said iPhone 4S runs the new iOS seen previously on video.

The pictures of this iPhone 4S come our way courtesy of the iPhone Download Blog and by way of Mic Gadget who don't actually say where or how they came by the pictures, so there is a possibility it could be a mockup.

However info on this iPhone 4S seems to match up with previous info on the iPhone 5, and as we know, Apple tends to put a name to their smartphones that doesn't always match up with the reported name so the iPhone 4S could be Apple's moniker for the iPhone5, although as usual that is of course speculation.

The new images seem to run along similar line as previous images reported by the BGR, and seem to support the info that the iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S whichever you wish to call it will come with a larger display of roughly 3.7-inches.

Having said that, you should for the moment treat all this as rumour as there isn't really any real evidence that these images are of the real deal next generation iPhone.

There have been numerous rumours over the iPhone 5 in the past ranging from being similar to the iPod Touch, to the iPhone 5 having NFC, to an old school design.

But what do our reader's think about the name iPhone 4S? Let's face it Apple went with iPhone 3GS so it could be that iPhone 4S is the next handset. Also notably the images are of a white version so could this mean that Apple will deliver a white iPhone 5/4S when they finally get round to releasing the thing?

What are your thoughts, do you think this Phone 4S is a fake or close to the real design?

iPhone 5 May Release on Verizon and AT&T Simultaneously

It's probably not too surprising but when the iPhone 5 eventually see release at some point later this year, the iPhone 5 may simultaneously launch on both Verizon Wireless and AT&T networks, which would be a bit of a bummer for those Verizon customers who have just picked up the Verizon iPhone. According to an article over on Ubergizmo and by way of Beat Week, apparently Apple has laid "too much groundwork" to no go ahead with a simultaneous launch of the iPhone 5 on both networks.

There's also mention that eventually Apple will deliver the iPhone 5 to both T-Mobile and Sprint as well as the mention of a carrier free iPhone 5 this summer, although personally I can't see Apple delivering an iPhone 5 without carrier intervention somehow.

I'm not quite sure where they got their information so for now at least this should be treated as pure speculation, although personally I see no reason why Apple shouldn't release the next generation iOS smartphone to Verizon and AT&T at the same time.

What are your views on this matter, do you think Apple should push out the iPhone 5 to both AT&T and Verizon simultaneously or do you feel AT&T should get the first bite of the cherry and Verizon gain the iPhone 5 at a later date?

Report Says iPhone 5 Completely Re-Designed; Larger Home Button/Display

In some more interesting news that no one expected to break on a rather quiet Good Friday, This is my next reports that the iPhone5 will be completely redesigned and not as much like the iPhone 4 than analysts originally thought.

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According to the report by This is my next, the much anticipated iPhone 5 will be completely redesigned and will feature a much larger home button where there is already one on the iPhone 4 (we'll discuss this later in the article).

The same report goes on to say that the design will feature a "teardrop" design that can be seen on the Macbook Air's design or the fourth generation iPod Touch, which is simply a thicker to thinner body. This will definitely help with holding the phone as many people have complained about as a minor 'problem' of the iPhone 4.

The biggest news in the report is the site's report that the iPhone 5 will upgrade to a 3.7 inch display and have a significantly larger home button, which slams any rumours that the iPhone 5 will be modest upgrade of the iPhone 4 (assuming their reports are correct, of course).

The larger home button would also make it much easier to use the iPhone 5 with one hand and might even carry multiple functions as shifting the home button left/right might have unique functions.

Many analysts believed that most of the upgrades from the iPhone 4 to the iPhone 5 would be internal , but if these rumours are true, the iPhone 5 will be much, much more than a modest upgrade.

The This is my next report closes by stating that the iPhone 5 might have 'hover gestures' (which we covered in an article a while back and we think is complete speculation on their part to be honest) and also clearly stated the iPhone 5 that they describe might not be the iPhone 5 that the world will known when it's likely to be released in September 2011.

However, they believe that it is a version of the iPhone 5 that Apple is seriously considering as one of their prototypes to follow at this time.

Here's an excerpt from the report that says exactly that:

Now, keep in mind that this info isn't fact — we're getting lots of threads from lots of places and trying to make sense of the noise. The versions of devices our sources are seeing could be design prototypes and not production-ready phones. Still, there are strong indications that Apple will surprise a public that's expecting a bump more along the lines of the 3G to 3GS — and this is some insight into where those designs might be headed. We're working on a couple of other intriguing pieces of information concerning future Apple products… so stay tuned for much, much more.

Thanks to iPhone, Apple now beats Microsoft in most metrics, including profits

When Apple was chasing Microsoft last year in market capitalization, a lot of people were pointing out that the software maker would continue beating the Cupertino company in terms of profitability. Well, Microsoft just posted their quarterly earnings yesterday. Despite record first-quarter numbers, their profits were significantly below the nearly $6 billion in net quarterly profit Apple posted. More precise, Microsoft reported $5.23 billion profit versus $5.99 billion for Apple.

In terms of revenue, Microsoft reported $16.43 billion versus $24.67 billion for Apple. Apple's annualized revenue makes them a $100 billion company while Microsoft is yet to join this club. The only area where Microsoft is ahead of Apple are profit margins. Considering net profit as a percentage of revenue, Microsoft's 32 percent margin beats Apple's 24 percent. Of course, Windows maker makes most of its revenue selling highly profitable software products that yield high margins.

This significant milestone comes as Apple surpassed Microsoft in market valuation nearly a year ago, in May of 2010.

A few months later, in the third quarter of 2010, Apple went on to surpass Microsoft revenue-wise and now it beats them in profits as well. Apple's meteoric rise stems from their highly lucrative iPhone business.

Depending on who you ask, the average selling price of the iPhone is an estimated north of $600 per unit. Apple sold an astounding 18.65 million iPhones in the last quarter and the handset now accounts for half of their revenues.

Don't worry about the white iPhone proximity sensor, it works just fine (reception improved too)

Those ten months of delay might have paid off.  The white iPhone 4, which goes on sale tomorrow, rocks a tweaked proximity sensor and slightly improved reception – if the non-scientific tests conducted by Italian-language site iSpazio are to be believed.

The above video claims that the white iPhone 4 model will automatically turn off its display when it detects an object such as your face or finger from a relatively larger distance compared to the black model which reacts to just nudging the face of the sensor.As for the white iPhone 4 antenna performance, they noticed "a slight improvement" but it's not conclusive. Another video after the break.

GarageBand Running on the iPhone 4

Thanks to a new hack for running iPad apps on the iPhone, someone has been able to successfully run GarageBand on the iPhone 4. GarageBand is a relatively new addition to iOS that was introduced alongside the iPad 2.

Although the App Store's GarageBand is specifically designed for the iPad, it can also be hacked to run on a jailbroken iPhone.

Watch a demo video after the break!

As you can tell, the app seems to function pretty well once ported. The guy says he used OpenSSH to change the app's underlying metadata so that it would run on the iPhone.

There are some obvious scaling and interface issues, but this is still a cool experiment to check out. You can do this yourself through the magic of OpenSSH on a jailbroken iDevice, you just need the right information.

Apple will probably make GarageBand a universal app in the future. It's going to be really interesting to see how the iWork suite (Pages, Numbers, Keynote) work on the iPhone through this method.

What do you think of GarageBand running on the iPhone 4? Pretty cool, huh?