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Apple Developing Curve Screen iPhones and Improved Sensors

An anonymous reader writes "An Apple insider who asked not to be identified because the information is classified told Bloomberg that Apple's next iPhone models will come with curve displays and enhanced touchscreen sensors that can detect heavy and light touches. The two models -- 4.7-inches and 5.5-inches -- would be Apple's largest iPhones. Apple is still developing the two models and the person disclosed that Apple could launch the devices in the third quarter of next year."

10 of 243 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Curved Display? by Gumpu · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is this for anti glare or something?

    No, I think it is to extract more money from wallets.

  2. Apple is back! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    At last! It's nice to see Apple innovating and taking the lead again.

  3. I believe the article title is incorrect. by RightSaidFred99 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Apple is not developing large screen phones with curved displays, they are inventing large screen phones with curved displays.

  4. Nexus - still on the fence by rsborg · · Score: 5, Informative

    Still with an OS that lacks features that have become standard in other platforms, still with sucky app management, still with a lack of control for a device you won.....all for twice the price of an equivalent Nexus phone.

    No thanks. A phone where I can't install a browser of my choice(not just a reskin), download torrents on, use widgets(yes, they greatly increase productivity) on or not have every damn app as an icon on a home screen isn't much use to me.

    I just bought a Nexus 5, coming from an iPhone5. I still haven't figured out how to get widgets on my lock screen (apparently, it's *not* just a setting in security - all the JB guides refer to things that KitKat doesn't permit). I sure hope that isn't a feature regression, cause I can get weather on my iOS7 lockscreen (with a drop-slider). Furthermore, during setup/install, I had to enter my wifi password twice (once before update, then after update it forgot all my settings), and it blanked out in an enitre screen. Add to that the fact that the built-in PDF renderer failed on 2 documents I tried to download, and that swiftkey is slow to load, the Chrome location bar is poorly spaced (causing me to wipe out several addresses), and the general confusion about how things are done (there's a search app and the browser app - look and behave similarly but aren't the same).

    The bluetooth seems to work better with apps on my Nexus, and the screen real-estate is nice. But ... there are a lot of things that the previous-year iPhone did much better/cleaner than the Nexus does. I'm not going back just yet - but so far it isn't a bed of roses here. Hoping I can sort out some of these expectation misses before I feel forced to send this device back.

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  5. Re:Curved Display? by cHiphead · · Score: 3, Insightful

    They heard everyone else was doing it so they wanted to make sure everyone thought it was their idea. Like all the other stuff they come up with (and patent).

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  6. The cost of consonants by shikari666 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Is the letter "d" particularly expensive these days?

    "...iPhone models will come with curve displays and enhance touchscreen sensors," Why not, "curved displays and enhanced touchscreen sensors"?

    I'm not so much a grammar Nazi as someone who believes that if you're going to write something for a large (or even small) audience you should make an effort to write clearly in respect for that audience. I'll probably get the "You jerk, you know what he meant!" response but I stand by my point.

  7. These would likely win customers back by Camembert · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I currently live in Asia (1.5 years in Singapore and now in Hong Kong) and I've seen Android (mainly Samsung) phones getting more and more popular over that period. This is very obvious when observing people in the metro.

    From discussions, it is mainly the large screen size that draws many people to these Samsung devices. Leaving out the tiring arguments of fanboys of each camp, non-technical people liked the iphones just fine, sometimes preferring the way it works, but mainly they prefer a bigger screen.

    Myself, I prefer a compact phone - I have an iPhone 4S and would love it with 5S guts. But it is obvious that Apple should have been selling bigger phones since a good time already. So, considering that the brand still has goodwill amongst non slashdotty users, I can imagine that they will win back some users with these bigger phones.

    Regarding the technical changes. I like the idea of a pressure-level sensitive sensor. I can imagine that a curved screen will look very posh (nothing wrong with that, in fact since a number of years I like buying things that are nicely designed, even if at a premium), but it's to my mind not really a true value add. I do expect that a curved screen will look much more natural on an eventual iWatch.

  8. Re:Curved Display? by oobayly · · Score: 3, Interesting

    My first thought is that it would be to prevent screen damage - if the display is curved and you place it face down on a flat surface there will be only two points of contact.

  9. Re:Curved Display? by Joce640k · · Score: 4, Funny

    Not if you wear sarcasm pants.

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  10. Re:Curved Display? by Joce640k · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No, I think it is to extract more money from wallets.

    Yep. It's a "novelty" - a conversation point.

    All it has to do is look weird and people will find ways they think it's "better" to justify it to themselves.

    http://www.engadget.com/2013/10/29/samsung-galaxy-round-hands-on/

    The sad thing is: In a few years we'll all have this whether we want it or not, there won't be anything but curved phones in the shops. After that they'll start selling us "classic shape" phones at a premium price. So it goes.

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