Fresh Rumors: iPhone 5 To Have Metal Back, NFC?
(source: Mashable)
More scuttlebutt about the iPhone 5 just surfaced, with rumors of a metal back and near-field communication capabilities heading the list.No more glass back? If rumors are true, the iPhone 5′s dorsal side will evolve into a metal back similar to the very first iPhone (that’s not a picture of the iPhone 5 above — it’s an iPhone 4 with a metal sticker on the back — update: I’m told it’s a metal backing, thanks, commenters!). That’s according to a reliable source at Foxconn, the Chinese manufacturer that builds iPhones and such, who tattled the tantalizing tidbit to 9 to 5 Mac.
Notice we’re not saying what kind of metal it is. It could be aluminum, but there’s also talk of Liquidmetal, that futuristic substance that’s as easy to work with (and as lightweight) as plastic, but strong as aluminum. A few weeks ago we gave Liquidmetal a 10% chance of appearing in the MacBook Pro, and we’re still thinking it’s a little soon for it to appear on the iPhone. We’re betting on aluminum for the iPhone 5, with Liquidmetal making its appearance in a later version.
Incidentally, 9 to 5 Mac is again hearing those rumors about a larger screen on the iPhone 5, but its sources are not as specific about the size of the screen as those who reported to DigiTimes that the iPhone 5 would have a 4-inch screen. Given all the chatter about a larger screen — and the increasing screen size of the iPhone’s competitors — we’re thinking it’s likely that the iPhone 5 will have a significantly larger screen that probably stretches out from one edge of the iPhone 5 to the other.
What about NFC? An on-again/off-again rumor of the iPhone 5 containing near-field communication (otherwise known as “wave and pay” chips) has now returned. Earlier in the week, the scuttlebutt was that Apple decided against including NFC in the iPhone 5 because of worries about the lack of a clear standard for NFC.
Now we’re hearing something different from Elizabeth Woyke of Forbes magazine, who says an Apple employee leaked information about how the iPhone 5 will have NFC. If it does, it will probably link its payments through iTunes, and given Apple’s reluctance to jump into the NFC fold because of a lack of standards, embrace some sort of proprietary technology that the company hopes all others will follow.
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