Quiet all summer about the products on its launchpad, Apple is preparing to draw the eyes of the world to two versions of the iPhone 6 and a flexi-faced smart watch that's built on silicon about the size of a postage stamp -- that's if the latest collection of insider leaks has the story correct.
There's no room for weeks on the teasing timer that Apple has placed on the subdomain where it'll stream its uncoming presentation, but there's still plently of space left for purported leaks. The latest juicy morsels of insider claims were fed to The New York Times, claiming Apple's latest line of iPhones will free up user's hands.
Both the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch version of the iPhone 6 are benefiting from interface adjustments that provide for better navigation of the handsets, which are considerably larger than the 4-inch iPhone 5 line. Similar to the LG 3's one-handed mode, the interface of the iPhone 6s was said by insiders to have been given an alternative mode to allow users to operate the handsets with one hand.
The leakers also claimed the iPhone 6s will have softer edges than previous versions of the smartphone. Earlier reports indicated near-field communications (NFC) and mobile payments will be some of the defining features of the iPhone 6, and now the latest round of rumors claims that the tech is an integral part of the iWatch as well.
While the implementation of NFC chips in the latest Apple products isn't groundbreaking, by any means, financial analysts expect Apple, and its approximately 800 million iTunes accounts, to push the evoslution of mobile payments. Rod Hall, JP Morgan analyst, offers his take on the mostly like route Apple will take with the tech.
"We expect Apple to start small by enabling iOS device users to carry virtual representations of select credit cards on their devices (possibly in Passbook)," said Hall. "In return for this we would expect Apple to take a small transaction fee (we assume 1 cent) every time a virtual credit card is used. Note that we do not expect this to include debit cards initially due to more stringent regulation and the fact that a debit card is directly tied to funds in a bank account."
The iWatch, painted in detail by as many rumors as the iPhone 6, is said to feature a flexible face, composed of a sapphire composite, and a logic board described as measuring about the size of a postage stamp. While similar components of health-tracking tech inside the iWatch already are available in wearables from other manufacturers, the insiders would only say that Apple's wrist-worn computer is better at everything it does.
The 4.7-inch iPhone 6 is expected to launch sometime in late 2014, with the 5.5-inch version following before the close of the year. The insiders cast doubt on a 2014 arrival of the iWatch, though official information on the wearable is expected at Apple press event.
Apple's presentation kicks off at 10 a.m. PDT Sept. 9 at the Flint Center in Cupertino, Calif., the historic location where Steve Jobs revealed the Mac.
