iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S: Two Possibilities for Apple Announcement Tomorrow

iPhone 4S or iPhone 5?

There has been no shortage of news, opinions, or rumors circulating about the iPhone 5 (or iPhone 4S, or whatever the next iPhone will be called). Yet despite all the noise about the next iPhone, most people have no idea what Apple will be announcing tomorrow.

Apple has kept the details of tomorrow’s announcement secret, but in a nutshell there are two main possibilities:

  1. iPhone 5: Apple announces a groundbreaking new iPhone with major innovations. The hardware looks much different, and there are many needed improvements, plus impressive new features that no one anticipated.
  2. iPhone 4S: Another possibility is that the next iPhone could be not-so-next-generation, and simply add some improvements such as a better processor, more storage, and only slight hardware modifications. The iPhone 4S would be to the iPhone 4 what the iPhone 3GS was to the iPhone 3G.

I consider the second scenario to be more likely, though I welcome the first.

A Third Possibility

It is also possible that Apple chooses a middle-ground between the above two scenarios and introduces a modestly improved iPhone — one that is faster and more spacious, has a similar hardware design, but has one major, game-changing feature that will set it apart from other smartphones.

It’s possible the next iPhone will be called something other than iPhone 5 or iPhone 4S, but I consider the above situations to be the most likely scenarios for the iPhone announcement tomorrow.

Some possible features to be announced tomorrow:

  • 4G network-compatibility
  • Improved camera, more megapixels
  • Faster processor
  • More storage space
  • 1080P video recording
  • Sprint availability
  • A larger screen
  • Thinner body

What do you think Apple will announce tomorrow? Do you plan to buy the next iPhone?

7 Features iPhone Could Have Had if iOS 5 Got Facebook Integration

iPhone Facebook Integration

Apple recently boasted about Twitter integration on the upcoming iOS 5, but what if we had gotten Facebook integration instead?

iPhone already lets you link your friends’ profile pictures to their contact information in your phone, but Facebook features are otherwise restricted to the Facebook app itself.

Below are 7 Facebook features that we could have had if Apple had gone through with Facebook, instead of Twitter, integration on iOS 5:

  1. Add a friend on Facebook through your Contacts.
  2. Post a photo to your Wall or to a friend’s Wall directly from the Photos app.
  3. Get updates in your status bar about incoming Facebook messages, comments, and other Facebook Notifications.
  4. Post to Facebook systemwide.
  5. Check into Facebook Places in the Maps app.
  6. Facebook Chat integration in Phone or Messages.
  7. Link Facebook Events into your iPhone Calendar.

No one knows for sure why Apple chose to integrate Twitter and not Facebook as a core part of the iOS platform, but one thing is certain: Facebook integration would be a much-valued feature for many users, and potential users, of the iPhone.

I use Twitter and will appreciate Twitter integration on iOS 5, but Facebook integration would have been even better, in my opinion.

What Facebook features would you like to see integrated into the iPhone?

Will the Next iPhone Home Button Have Gesture Recognition?

If you’ve ever used a Macbook Pro, you know that nothing beats the gesture recognition feature on the Macbook Pro trackpad. Swipe three fingers left on the trackpad to go back in the browser, swipe four fingers up to reveal the desktop, and swipe four fingers down to see thumbnails of all your open windows (the Mac OS X Exposé feature).

iPhone Home Button Gestures

Well, rumor has it that the next iPhone home button may feature a gesture area with similar functionality. If the rumors are to be trusted, this home button gesture feature could signal the next revolution in smartphone technology.

With all the competition in the smartphone market, a gesture area on the iPhone home button would help the next iPhone stand apart from Android smartphones and other competitors. The iPhone screen already has decent gesture recognition — pinch to zoom, swipe left and right to move from one home screen to the other, etc. — but expanded gesture recognition would open up a new world of possibilities for the iPhone 5, or whatever the next iPhone is called.

Imagine swiping left on the iPhone home button to go back to the last app you had open, or swiping down on the home button to bring up a list of your recent notifications. The possibilities would be abundant.

What do you think? Would you consider home button gesture recognition a good capability to add to the list of potential iPhone 5 features?

What Will the Next iPhone Be Called?

What Will the Next iPhone Be Called?

With all the talk of “iPhone 5,” you have to wonder what the next iPhone will be called in reality. Keep in mind “iPhone 5” is just a popular nickname for the next iPhone, which could very well be named something else.

Here are some predictions as to what the next iPhone could be called:

  1. iPhone 5. iPhone 5 seems like the natural successor to the iPhone 4, no?
  2. iPhone 4G. Perhaps the next iPhone will be 4G-enabled (as in upgraded from the 3G network), and thus be called iPhone 4G. Afterall, when the second-generation iPhone was upgraded from EDGE to 3G, they named it iPhone 3G.
  3. iPhone 4S. If the next iPhone is simply an iPhone 4 with a faster processor, perhaps it will be called iPhone 4S (S for speed.)
  4. iPhone 4GS. If the next iPhone arrives 4G-enabled and with an increase in speed, perhaps it will be called iPhone 4GS. When the third-generation iPhone arrived, it was called iPhone 3GS — where “S” stood for speed.
  5. iPhone HD. There have been rumors that the next iPhone video camera will record in 1080p HD video, which is an improvement on the current 720p HD video. If Apple wants to highlight this feature on the next iPhone, perhaps they will call it iPhone HD.
  6. iPhone Mini. There have long been rumors that Apple will unveil a mini iPhone. These rumors persist, however I am not sure how likely an iPhone Mini actually is.

What do YOU think the next iPhone will be called?

Five iPhone 5 Features That I’d Like to See

iPhone 5 Features

In my iPhone 4 review, I claimed that the iPhone had finally come of age. While I once touted an expansive list of things wrong with the iPhone, now that Apple’s device has matured, I am satisfied with it overall, despite my decision to jailbreak and add certain features here and there.

Nevertheless, there are still some features left to be desired. So here is a list of the top five features that I would like to see in iPhone 5:

iPhone 5 Features I Want

  1. iTunes Streaming. I would like to be able to listen to music without having to use up many of my precious gigabytes for iPod media storage. That’s why I love my Grooveshark app (which was unfortunately removed from the App Store 5 days after it was approved). There have been rumors that Apple will introduce a cloud-based iTunes music streaming service, but nothing has become of those rumors yet. Hopefully iPhone 5 will bring this much-awaited music streaming feature.
  2. Touch-Sensitive Bezel. About a year ago, it was discovered that Apple filed a patent for a touch-sensitive bezel. Possibilities include a bezel that senses when you remove the iPhone from your pocket and automatically unlocks, or a bezel that lets you increase or decrease the display brightness with a swipe.
  3. FaceTime on 3G. FaceTime is virtually useless to me if I can’t use it on the go. I hope to see Apple enable FaceTime video chatting over 3G, instead of keeping it limited to Wi-Fi.
  4. Thinner Hardware. Who wouldn’t want a thinner iPhone? It would look cool and be easier to handle.
  5. Dual Core Processor. As fast as the iPhone is already, a dual-core processor like the A5 chip in the iPad 2 could make the iPhone twice as fast.

Do you agree with my most-wanted features for iPhone 5? What would you add to the list of desirable iPhone 5 features?