iPhone 5 Release Date and Features: iOS6 and the 4 Features You Can Expect

Culture
By Courtney Hodrick

If the rumors are true, you could be holding a new iPhone 5 in your hands in a little over a month. That’s right, September 12 is currently the rumored release date for what will probably be the newest, hottest gadget yet. 

Here’s a rundown of all of the features you can expect to find in your new iPhone 5.

1) iOS 6. On Monday, Apple developers will receive the fourth beta of iOS 6, the updated iPhone and iPad operating system that is  now expected will come pre-installed in the iPhone 5. You won’t have to wait to update to an OS with 3D mapping and Siri on iPad, because it’s likely that it will be right there in your new phone.

2) SIM card tray. Photos leaked by a French website show a comparison between the SIM card tray of an iPhone 4 and, presumably, the new iPhone 5, taken in the Chinese factory where the technology is being produced. The new nano-SIM is smaller than in previous iPhones, and the Home button appears to have been redesigned to be slightly less wide.

3) Bigger Screen. Your SIM card might be smaller, but there’s a decent chance that your screen will be bigger (and just when you wanted to switch to an Android phone with a larger screen!). Rumors have been swirling that the iPhone 5 will feature a resolution of 640x1136. 9to5Mac reported that when they simulated iOS 5.1 (the most recent update of iOS 5) and iOS 6 at this resolution, the current OS simply displayed the typical four rows of with more blank space between the icons. iOS 6, though, displayed five rows of icons.

This means that a four-inch display screen, 0.5 up from the current 3.5-inch display, could definitely be in the works.

4) 9-pin dock. Other structural changes could include a 9-pin dock (much smaller than the current 30 pin dock, which has been used since the first generation of iPod). 9to5Mac uncovered reference to the hardware feature “9 pin” in the iOS 6 beta, which also provides further evidence that the new iPhone 5 will have to come pre-loaded with iOS 6 (as does the larger screen with its larger resolutions).

If Apple changes the dock size, the race will be on to change docking accessories to match. Or, they’ll have to issue docking adaptors, so that iPhone users can continue to use the same accessories.