Update: January 10, 2017: New year, new iPhone rumors. According to Apple Insider, the latest ones support earlier claims that the next iPhone will have an all-glass design. The rumors, first published by DigiTimes, suggest that Apple will return to using a stainless steel frame to enclose the all-glass body, as opposed to the aluminum frames it's used since the iPhone 4.
Also in the rumor mill: The next iPhone may have wireless charging. Samsung already has this option for many of their phones and it would be a very welcome addition for Apple addicts. Anything that gets rid of our tangled cords earns our vote.
Update: December 7, 2016: Rumors about a blue iPhone 7 didn't come true, but now there's word that the next iPhone may get a very bold color option. According to the Japanese Apple blog Macotakara, the next iPhone could come in red. As CNET notes, this would make sense, given Apple's longstanding partnership with Bono's (RED) in the fight against AIDS. Rose gold is so 2015. We're ready for you, red.
This article was originally published on November 29, 2016 at 6:30 p.m.
Will the next iPhone start going with the curve? According to the latest rumors, yes, it's possible that Apple may finally opt for a curved screen.
Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple suppliers have been working on more than 10(!) prototypes of the next iPhone, including models with curved OLED screens. The most recent iPhones, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, have LED screens, which require back lights, making the phones slightly larger and heavier. For this reason, an OLED screen seems like a logical switch. Other new smartphones, including the Google Pixel, have already adopted these screens and received positive user reviews.
Additional speculation suggests that the iPhone 8's screen will be completely edge-to-edge, offering more of an immersive full-screen experience when you stream Netflix on your phone. There might also be three size options — 4.7-inch, 5 inch, and 5.5-inch, as opposed to the iPhone 7, which only came in 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch models.
When could you see these curved, ultra-thin, impossibly light iPhones? If Apple sticks with tradition, the next big iPhone release will come in September 2017. However, next year is a major milestone: It's the iPhone's 10-year anniversary. (Can you believe it's only been 10 years?) If Apple wanted to nod to the timing of the first iPhone, it could announce the new model in January and release the phone as early as June. But that does seem ridiculously soon given how recently the iPhone 7 came out.
Of course, all of this is speculation — and Apple does like to throw curveballs. Hopefully, this time around, one of those curveballs is a curved screen.
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