Development

Two years before its debut, the iPhone was as large as an iPad Mini.

A 2005 prototype of the iPhone was five inches wide and seven inches tall, according to images leaked to blog site Ars Technica through a former but unnamed Apple employee. The employee apparently worked on several hardware projects for Apple in the early 2000s and was able to check out the early iPhone versions.

Though it matched the size of an iPad Mini, the iPhone prototype wasn't quite as svelte. The prototype was around two inches thick compared with the Mini at just over a … Read more

You may be able to manage your iPhone someday just by giving it a little squeeze.

A patent granted to Apple today by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office details a housing for a mobile device that responds to the pressure of your touch or squeeze. Known as "Sensing capacitance changes of a housing of an electronic device," the patent uses a mobile phone as one example. But could just as easily work with portable music players, laptops, and other electronic devices.

Today's touch-screen devices already react to the tap of a finger. But Apple's … Read more

Alongside myriad new tablets and phones, Mobile World Congress 2013 also gave us our first real look at Mozilla's Firefox OS and the Samsung and Intel collaboration, Tizen OS.

While Android might dominate the smartphone landscape today, it's only five years old. I can recall plenty of headlines in 2007 and 2008 that doubted whether there was room for yet another player in the space. At that time, RIM was a powerhouse, the iPhone was brand-new, Palm's WebOS was in development, and Microsoft's Windows Mobile was slipping into obscurity.

My, how things have changed. Now the … Read more

A cheaper iPhone would give Apple access to a vast new market its current phones don't address -- one currently forecast to reach sales of 580 million units this year, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster.

Rumors have been flying lately that Apple will introduce a low-cost iPhone to reach out to developing markets and offer more competition to Android. Assuming the rumors prove true, Munster -- one of the most bullish of Apple bulls -- believes such a phone would give Apple's market share a huge boost.

"We believe that the high-end smartphone market (above $… Read more

Still waiting for an iPhone 5? Apple's own supplier offers a reason why.

An unnamed official with Hon Hai, aka Foxconn, told the Wall Street Journal that the design process of making the new phone light and thin is "very complicated." Calling the iPhone 5 "the most difficult device that Foxconn has ever assembled," the official said that factory employees are still learning how to build the phone.

But he offered a note of optimism by saying that workers are getting better at assembling the phone. "Practice makes perfect," he told the Journal.… Read more

When I read the news this morning that Motorola had acquired facial and gesture recognition company Viewdle, the first thing that crossed my mind was, "Here comes multi-user profiles for Android."

Why? Because it's the next logical step for the platform, and one that could help differentiate it from Apple. That, and it's something for which I'm really hoping. Assuming I read the tea leaves properly, future versions of Android will introduce the capability to unlock a device with your face that leads to individual profile settings. … Read more

Apple could be shelling out $167.50 to make each 16GB iPhone 5.

At least that's according to an initial estimate calculated by research firm UBM TechInsights. Looking at the entry-level iPhone 5, the firm broke down the potential cost of each of the various components.

The new 4-inch 1136x640 pixel display costs $18 to build, the touch screen $7.50, and the battery $3. The A6 processor goes for $28, while the camera costs $10 and the built-in WiFi/Bluetooth/GPS is only $4. Add in the cost of several other components, and you end up with a … Read more

The iPhone 5 will leave a trail of winners and losers across the mobile technology landscape, says J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskwitz.

Apple is expected to challenge other handset makers with the new phone's battery performance, screen size, and form factor, Moskowitz said in an investors note released today. Whereas larger rival 4G LTE phones have been called "battery hogs" and "pocket hogs," the iPhone 5 is expected to sidestep such labels and tear market share from other phone makers.

An LTE-enabled iPhone will join a host of other 4G phones offering high data … Read more

The iPhone 5's much-rumored new dock connector is as small as a Micro-USB plug, at least according to French tech blog site NowhereElse.fr (English translation).

Photos of a Micro-USB cable and photos of the new dock connector cable supplied by an anonymous source to the French site show the similarities between the two, most notably in size.

Rumors have floated over the past few months that Apple would reduce the size of the current 30-pin connector used on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod. Initial reports said the new size would use 19 pins, but later reports pointed to … Read more