As the most highly anticipated iPhone that Apple have released yet, we look at some of the iPhone 6’s most revolutionary (potential) features.
Like a Japanese bullet train or that post-holiday season turkey gut that we all get right around the time Santa has scuttled back off up the chimney and away back to Northern climes, Apple are dependable as ever. Every year, come September, the company releases a swish new iPhone to keep our thumbs a-tapping and a-swiping away on a screen and their profits well and truly through the roof. Not that we complain (often) though, as we still seem to go out of pocket just to pick one up. However, despite posting giant profits once again this year, stiff competition from Android and Windows Phone handsets (yes, even Microsoft’s mobile operating system is finding its own), there’s now a growing sense of consumer fatigue as Apple have failed to be as innovative as their rivals. So as companies like Samsung and LG take a threatening stance that could genuinely do some harm to Apple’s market share, the iPhone 6 could be the most revolutionary iPhone yet.
1. The iPhone 6 Can Help Save Your Life
Well, sort of. With the iPhone 6 Apple will be pushing iOS8, the latest iteration of its handy dandy operating system. Rather than brining cosmetic changes, Apple’s stance with iOS8 is genuinely interesting as it puts a huge focus on fitness and health, reflecting the way that so many of us have used our iPhones in the past whether it be from a helpful food tracking app, to a pedometer to something that provides general tips and tricks to improve our bodies. Also included in iOS8, however, is Healthbook, an app so fancy that one of the features announced to developers earlier this year at Apple’s WWDC 2014 developer event, is that it will be able to collect data from third-party fitness apps (or even the Nike FuelBand wearable if you so prefer) and send the data off to doctors who can then tell you if you need to go in for a check up or do something about your current habits. There’s no word on how effective it will be, but on its own that’s a huge, ground-breaking thing that will become available to us.
2. The iPhone 6 Could Have The Biggest iPhone Screen Yet
One of the most likely pieces of info out of iPhone 6 Rumour Town is that Apple’s new iDevice will launch in two variations – a 4.7 inch version and a 5.5 inch version. Screen size is hardly a revolutionary game and upping the screen size ante just gets you an upgrade to ‘phablet’ status anyway, but for the iPhone 6 this would be pretty huge. For one, it would appeal to the Android crowd who have long enjoyed ranges of screen sizes, especially large ones and it also means that for those who like their mobile gaming with a little more oomph in them than Flappy Bird, they’ll now have an adequate screen to go along with it. The two version option will also give Apple a chance to to test out the duo business model after their ill-fated iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C experiment, so if they pull this one off we could be seeing more iPhone releases in a year than ever before.
3. The iPhone 6 And Its Bigger, Better Battery Life
Ask any iPhone user and they’ll likely tell you that their biggest gripe with Apple’s flagship device is its battery life. If you though that the iPhone’s battery life sucked like a vacuum cleaner stuck on its max setting, then boy must you have been surprised when iOS7 rolled around and made the problem approximately 300 times worse. Unfortunately, battery life is a delicate balance of the size of the battery and its output and traditionally Apple have sacrificed the latter in order to get the battery in the phone at all. However, this year there was a bit of a technology breakthrough meaning that the iPhone 6’s battery could be 15% more powerful than its predecessors and we finally won’t have to roam around looking for random USB sockets when our phone hovers dangerously low on the battery side of things.
4. The iPhone 6 And The Sapphire Screen
Yes, it might sound like the title of a budget Harry Potter movie but hear me out when I say that the iPhone 6’s sapphire screen could be brill. If not as a back of the box feature then for your wallet as a sapphire glass-built display can make it a lot harder for the screen to get scratched, making it far less likely that you’ll crack the thing into a billion tiny, stabby pieces and that you’ll have to fork out to get a new one. This rumour has been hovering around since February and one tech blogger tested out what appear to be the iPhone 6’s sapphire glass display on video by rubbing the thing with sandpaper. A weird experiment? Indeed, it was but it held its own, which is enough proof for me that the iPhone 6 will be perfect for my clumsy tendencies.
5. The iPhone 6 Could Be So Slim That You’ll Forget It’s There
It’s just as well that the glass of the phone could be a lot more hard-wearing as you’ll want at least one other part of the iPhone 6 to be incredibly sturdy if other speculation is to be believed. Some are suggesting that the iPhone 6 will be the thinnest yet (hence the need for those aforementioned tiny batteries to be more powerful than ever), like the tip of your thumb level slimness. I’m not sure if this clarifies as a revolutionary or even ‘necessary’ feature but when the iPhone 6 inevitability does well and people inevitably chalk it down to the slim aesthetics of the device and how they appeal to fashionistas and appearance conscious consumers, we’ll likely see several other phones following suit, which is a bad or good thing depending on how much you care about your phone’s general cosmetics.
6. The iPhone 6 Will Let You Buy Things Without Money
Ok, don’t get carried I way – I meant physical money. Apple reportedly left out NFC (near field communication) from the iPhone 5S as they wanted to continue being considered as a ‘minimalist tech company’, whatever that means, but they’re apparently throwing that mantra out with the iPhone 6 as it’s set to have NFC capability all of its own. What will this let us do? Well most notably it’ll mean you can ditch that paper money at home and no longer will pennies get lost in unfortunate trouser pocket holes as in connecting your relevant money details to your phone (via your PayPal or bank account etc.) shops with the tech will let you pay for things with just a swipe of your smartphone. With passwords and whatnot too, that’ll even make it harder for you to get robbed of your hard-earned earnings, so the benefits are all round on this one.
7. The iPhone 6 And Automatic Unlock
When Google announced Android L at their I/O developer conference earlier this year, everyone went stark, raving mad over the automatic lock feature which could see the device automatically unlock by swiping a connected wearable over it. Sorry to steal your thunder, Goog, but Apple have recently filed an automatic unlock patent all of their own with Apple’s take on it seeing iDevices unlock in designated ‘safe areas’ such as the user’s home or their place of work. Questions have popped up about this one quite a bit – namely, what happens if bad people take advantage of your automatic unlock function – and there aren’t any answers to that just yet because of how little we know about the feature or Apple’s policies surrounding it, but the chances are come September we’ll know everything once Apple release the iPhone 6.
Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories, New Apple Patent Suggests iPhone 6 Could Pack 3D Photography, iPhone 6 Shows Up on Amazon Japan, Specs and Launch Date Are Revealed
