WSJ: Apple to increase iPhone screen size to 'at least' 4-inches

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I don't get it. What's the point of that sentence then?
He doesn't believe that a merely elongated screen is true to the iPhone. How hard is it to understand?

giga, I can't tell if these guys are serious, please tell me you're in on it.
This is how I feel when people mention they like 16:9.

I don't know either. If it is serious, it's one of the lowest points I've seen of iOS gaf.
Widescreen (16:9) is trash, has nothing to do with iOS.
 
He doesn't believe that a merely elongated screen is true to the iPhone. How hard is it to understand?

Widescreen (16:9) is trash, has nothing to do with iOS.
"True" is some weird preconceived notion that you guys have. Nothing is true. Everything changes for one reason or another. We haven't even seen the thing.
 
"True" is some weird preconceived notion that you guys have. Nothing is true. Everything changes for one reason or another. We haven't even seen the thing.
Obviously I'll reserve final judgments but based on these rumors I am not optimistic.

Even if Apple does end up doing something unique and interesting with the extra screen space it'd still be a bit of a diss appointment because you'd get effectively the same use area as you do with the current iPhone. Blegh.
 
The backlash against the 4" screen is par for the course. The most astonishing statement I've seen in this thread is that iPhone is better than other phones because the apps promote lock-in. Still trying to wrap my mind around that one.
 
The backlash against the 4" screen is par for the course. The most astonishing statement I've seen in this thread is that iPhone is better than other phones because the apps promote lock-in. Still trying to wrap my mind around that one.
I want a larger screen, the backlash isn't against it being larger but rather the *seemingly* half-assed route they took to get their with a shit aspect ratio.
 
No, I'm also quite excited about that as well.

I wonder, if they show off iOS 6 at WWDC next month, and it's super integrated with the taller screen, will they have to reveal the phone as well? Or will they just show off iOS 6 as it would appear running on current/older hardware as to not give anything away?

(Actually now that I've typed that out it seems pretty obvious it'll be the later). So WWDC would show off maps and iWallet I guess.
They won't show off iWallet unless it contains a usable non-NFC component. Bluetooth? A very good financial management system? (And then in October, they show off the NFC stuff. Just like they showed off Reminders before they showed off the Siri integration with Reminders).

Anyway, I don't like the extra long screen unless the bezels are smaller (I'll hold judgment until I see it), but I like that it is making more space that can be used for stuff (instead of making things larger on the same resolution).
 
"True" is some weird preconceived notion that you guys have. Nothing is true. Everything changes for one reason or another. We haven't even seen the thing.

Sure, but at the same time if you heard the iPhone had a bigger screen, I would think most reasonable people would expect a change in width and height not just height. Just like if someone bought a TV and went from 32" to 50", they wouldn't expect it to just be wider. So I can completely understand someone being annoyed with only a height change because it doesn't accomplish the expectations of a bigger screen.
 
macrumors source - part supplier got some new stuff in today.

tall_ipod_touch_frontj7xwh.jpg

tall_ipod_touch_front8iggu.jpg
 
I'm actually pretty surprised at how many people actually want a scaled up 4" screen with the same aspect ratio. In my mind that offers even less of a usability improvement than the extended screen, AND comes with a PPI drop (probably). I think height extension is perfect as extra content room is always a good thing, and it might facilitate more NC widgets due to having more room.

This is what I want:

5.jpg

And this is why:


Laughably small content window.

Also, PLEASE no capacitive home button, I've never had any issues with the current one, and I HATE capacitive buttons.
 
Calling it a faux 4" display is ludicrous. If a display measures 4" diagonally, it's a 4" display. It's not that hard.
Not really, I call it that because 176 more vertical pixels is not the same as a 3:2 4" display, and we all know it. It's a cop-out solution to get to 4", and we ALL know that apple will tout it as an 'amazing 4" display'.

It qualifies, sure, but it would've meant something if we were currently using 3.5" 16:9 iPhones instead. It's not the 4" most people expected or wanted, and that's why I call it faux.

You might be taking that too literally, but you get my point.

Watch out Apple-fanatics! It's TIME COOK! Back from the future to unveil the new larger iPhone 5!
lol.gif
best typo.

Just disgusting.
It's not that bad, just not what I wanted to see from an upgrade after 20 months or however long it's been. Not worth the justification at all imo, but if it's true, people (devs alike) will deal with it and a year from now it'll be history.
 
Not really, I call it that because 176 more vertical pixels is not the same as a 3:2 4" display, and we all know it. It's a cop-out solution to get to 4", and we ALL know that apple will tout it as an 'amazing 4" display'.

It qualifies, sure, but it would've meant something if we were currently using 3.5" 16:9 iPhones instead. It's not the 4" most people expected or wanted, and that's why I call it faux

Is that true? And if so, why? 4" 3:2 display just seems like a waste of time to me and would basically offer no advantage over the current screen unless the resolution was changed, which would arguably mess with developers even more than the proposed elongation...

(Also, Henry Ford faster horse yadda yadda yadda)
 
I'm actually pretty surprised at how many people actually want a scaled up 4" screen with the same aspect ratio. In my mind that offers even less of a usability improvement than the extended screen, AND comes with a PPI drop (probably). I think height extension is perfect as extra content room is always a good thing, and it might facilitate more NC widgets due to having more room.

This is what I want:

5.jpg

And this is why:
Laughably small content window.
eh? if they made it 3:2 but kept on screen elements the same size it would result in more content area (the keyboard wouldn't get bigger if they also widened the screen in addition to making it taller). A drop in PPI is purely conjecture since they could just as easily have added 117 horizontal pixels to go with the 176 vertical ones to maintain the same PPI. Apps with non-system UI elements would have slightly over-sized buttons until devs fixed them, but it wouldn't be "2X mode on ipad 1" grotesque. This would happen whether they simply made the screen bigger and lowered the PPI or added pixels and kept PPI the same, the content would still have to scale until updated.

I think 16:9 may make some activities less viable in landscape (web browsing on NEOGAF for instance) because of how it handles content fitting.

Great for twitters, texting etc. in portrait.
 
Can't say I'll be impressed if they go this route with this 'faux' 4" display, I'm certainly considering jumping ship. The only redeeming thing is if they were to announce significantly better battery life. Even then, it's a tough sell for me, I'll certainly wait for the announcement before I decide what to upgrade to next though.
 
I went back to my 4S from a Lumia 900. The Lumia is huge compared to the 4S pocket wise. Then again I noticed the benefit of a larger screen, as long as it has a high DPI, 720p at least.
 
eh? if they made it 3:2 but kept on screen elements the same size it would result in more content area (the keyboard wouldn't get bigger if they also widened the screen in addition to making it taller). A drop in PPI is purely conjecture since they could just as easily have added 117 horizontal pixels to go with the 176 vertical ones to maintain the same PPI. Apps with non-system UI elements would have slightly over-sized buttons until devs fixed them, but it wouldn't be "2X mode on ipad 1" grotesque. This would happen whether they simply made the screen bigger and lowered the PPI or added pixels and kept PPI the same, the content would still have to scale until updated.

I think 16:9 may make some activities less viable in landscape (web browsing on NEOGAF for instance) because of how it handles content fitting.

Great for twitters, texting etc. in portrait.

They've never gone to scaling of things unless it is a straight multiplier. They've pushed design to be oriented towards pixels. It would look WORSE than 2x mode on iPad 1.

accuracyofscales.jpg

scale-result.png
 
eh? if they made it 3:2 but kept on screen elements the same size it would result in more content area (the keyboard wouldn't get bigger if they also widened the screen in addition to making it taller). A drop in PPI is purely conjecture since they could just as easily have added 117 horizontal pixels to go with the 176 vertical ones to maintain the same PPI. Apps with non-system UI elements would have slightly over-sized buttons until devs fixed them, but it wouldn't be "2X mode on ipad 1" grotesque. This would happen whether they simply made the screen bigger and lowered the PPI or added pixels and kept PPI the same, the content would still have to scale until updated.

I think 16:9 may make some activities less viable in landscape (web browsing on NEOGAF for instance) because of how it handles content fitting.

Great for twitters, texting etc. in portrait.

Increasing the size and resolution while maintaining the aspect ratio is a scaling nightmare unless you run old apps in a 3.5" box (semi-viable, actually) and it wouldn't be able to automatically increase the content area for apps that use the built-in navigation style templates.

The landscape issue is sort of the only issue, but I'm not sure if mobile apps (which make up a good portion of my iPhone browsing, especially NeoGaf) are subject to the same content fitting issue. Either way, I have faith in Apple coming up with an elegant solution for that, and the landscape keyboard.
 
Can't say I'll be impressed if they go this route with this 'faux' 4" display, I'm certainly considering jumping ship. The only redeeming thing is if they were to announce significantly better battery life. Even then, it's a tough sell for me, I'll certainly wait for the announcement before I decide what to upgrade to next though.


It's official, widescreen 4" are no real 4"
 
Is that true? And if so, why? 4" 3:2 display just seems like a waste of time to me and would basically offer no advantage over the current screen unless the resolution was changed, which would arguably mess with developers even more than the proposed elongation...
A 4"-4.3" screen has been rumored and in the works for a long time, since before the iPhone 4S announcement. We know pretty much definitively that's what they were going with/looking at. Now it seems to have changed.
 
They've never gone to scaling of things unless it is a straight multiplier. They've pushed design to be oriented towards pixels. It would look WORSE than 2x mode on iPad 1.

accuracyofscales.jpg

scale-result.png
I understand, I just think that is a non issue in the grand scheme of things. The design would still be oriented to pixels, and the actual size of UI elements in pixels is unchanged regardless of if the expand in one direction or the both. Also that scale result is for typical dpi screens. Upscaling HiDPI by a non integer is going to look cleaner by default.
Until then they do nothing and their apps look approximately like this.
(using sentry's 1200x800 for 4.3 inch at 3:2 aspect ratio)

http://i.imgur.com/5USY8.png http://i.imgur.com/dFViZ.png
edit click if you want. these are shitty representations.

Increasing the size and resolution while maintaining the aspect ratio is a scaling nightmare unless you run old apps in a 3.5" box (semi-viable, actually) and it wouldn't be able to automatically increase the content area for apps that use the built-in navigation style templates.
I should clarify it would increase content area for updated apps. Obviously a scaled app would have the exact same content area until it was updated. system stuff, keyboard etc would automatically allow additional content area since they would maintain the same relative physical size of each button theoretically.
 
It's official, widescreen 4" are no real 4"

As I see it there are 3 possibilities:
1) Add space vertically
2) Add space both vertically and horizontally
3) Change the pixel density

1 is probably the best option, it will get the most utility, fewer things will need to be changed, easier on the developers, better for video, etc.

2 will be a nightmare, involve a useless border, funky <1.2x scaling, require a redesign of keyboards, icons, etc.

3 will bring nothing but slightly larger widgets, and larger targets to hit, and the ability to hold the device further away.

I don't think they really need to enlarge the screen, but if it will expand their potential customers base, doesn't make the phone larger than it is, and adds more content area while the keyboard is up, then I think it will be a smart move.
 
I understand, I just think that is a non issue in the grand scheme of things. The design would still be oriented to pixels, and the actual size of UI elements in pixels is unchanged regardless of if the expand in one direction or the both. Also that scale result is for typical dpi screens. Upscaling HiDPI by a non integer is going to look cleaner by default.
Until then they do nothing and their apps look approximately like this.
(using sentry's 1200x800 for 4.3 inch at 3:2 aspect ratio)

http://i.imgur.com/5USY8.png[IMG] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/dFViZ.png[IMG]

I should clarify it would increase content area for updated apps. Obviously a scaled app would have the exact same content area until it was updated. system stuff, keyboard etc would automatically allow additional content area since they would maintain the same relative physical size of each button theoretically.[/QUOTE]

The apps won't look like that. There's no use in making a mock-up image comparison and viewing them on low-DPI monitors. We already know from experience that non-Retina apps don't look great even when scaled at a perfect 2x multiple. At 1.X it will be worse.
 
The apps won't look like that. There's no use in making a mock-up image comparison and viewing them on low-DPI monitors. We already know from experience that non-Retina apps don't look great even when scaled at a perfect 2x multiple. At 1.X it will be worse.

I am saying they will just be a little bigger until the devs updated them. How "good" would 1.x scaling look at retina resolutions? Better than 2X non retina resolution apps, worse than 2X retina resolution apps. That is all we could say for sure until we saw it.
 
As I see it there are 3 possibilities:
1) Add space vertically
2) Add space both vertically and horizontally
3) Change the pixel density

1 is probably the best option, it will get the most utility, fewer things will need to be changed, easier on the developers, better for video, etc.

2 will be a nightmare, involve a useless border, funky <1.2x scaling, require a redesign of keyboards, icons, etc.

3 will bring nothing but slightly larger widgets, and larger targets to hit, and the ability to hold the device further away.

I don't think they really need to enlarge the screen, but if it will expand their potential customers base, doesn't make the phone larger than it is, and adds more content area while the keyboard is up, then I think it will be a smart move.
Option 3 is what most people expected and wanted. Same number of pixels, either retina at 3.7" or slightly lower at 4". I don't think anybody in their potential customer user base was thinking of funky extra space for widgets
or iAds

You'll need to properly explain how you drew those conclusions for 1 and 2. The landscape keyboard would definitely need to be changed for option 1 as well. Everyone likes to post mockups of how twitter and Facebook apps would look so nice in portrait 1 with the extra scrolling content but in landscape mode the apps would look messed up. All developers, not just game developers and other developers with custom UI, would need to tweak their designs regardless.

For this rumored 4" screen (option 1), the indications are Apple is just taking the same PPI density sheets used right now in manufacturing and cutting out screens with the same width and different length. What's stopping them from just cutting out a bigger screen in a 3:2 aspect ratio with the same PPI? There wouldn't be any 'useless border'
 
As I see it there are 3 possibilities:
1) Add space vertically
2) Add space both vertically and horizontally
3) Change the pixel density

1 is probably the best option, it will get the most utility, fewer things will need to be changed, easier on the developers, better for video, etc.

2 will be a nightmare, involve a useless border, funky <1.2x scaling, require a redesign of keyboards, icons, etc.

3 will bring nothing but slightly larger widgets, and larger targets to hit, and the ability to hold the device further away.

I don't think they really need to enlarge the screen, but if it will expand their potential customers base, doesn't make the phone larger than it is, and adds more content area while the keyboard is up, then I think it will be a smart move.
i really thought they'd go for #2 and go to 1440 x 960
 
Not sure how I feel about the change from 3:2 to 16:9 but I like the fact that it seems the design isn't changing much.

Now I've said that, they'll reveal a polished, curved back :(
 
Not sure how I feel about the change from 3:2 to 16:9 but I like the fact that it seems the design isn't changing much.

Now I've said that, they'll reveal a polished, curved back :(
At this point I wouldn't be surprised if the backing is the exact same shit. You'll probably win Dave. :(
 
20+ months without a significant design change or improvement is pushing it even on Apple's terms. It'll hurt them eventually, too.

Why do you keep saying 20+ months. Assuming an October release it'll be a 2+ years -or- 28+ months.
 
I'd be really surprised if it looked like the 4/4S still. I'd also be really surprised (maybe disappointed is the better word) if they're just adding vertical pixels to make a 16:9 4" screen.
 
Why do you keep saying 20+ months. Assuming an October release it'll be a 2+ years -or- 28+ months.
Because i've never actually done the math, I don't know the iPhone 4 release date by heart :lol But yeah, that's even worse, so you get my point.

I really doubt that there won't be a back change, the more I think about it, though. We knows Jobs was working on this and heavily involved in its process, I really doubt all that is was the 1136 vertical bump..

Eh, works for Porsche. If it ain't broke 'n' all that.
Maybe that's why you don't see everyone driving them. :p But seriously, people will get bored of it, a lot were already disappointed with 4S and if this is the same + 16:9 4", I reckon there'll be a lot of that again.

But hey, it still sells like crazy, so it won't exactly hurt them anytime soon.
 
I'd be really surprised if it looked like the 4/4S still. I'd also be really surprised (maybe disappointed is the better word) if they're just adding vertical pixels to make a 16:9 4" screen.
Based on leaked casing parts it's the 4s design but taller. Which makes sense. Why change what is already perfect? This isn't android where things radically change for no good reason other than to be different.
 
Those 'photos' of the faceplates look very much like renders.

As much as I love 16:9 on my phone, I can see 16:9 becoming a bit cumbersome when you keep the home button. I almost get cramp in my thumb looking at those 'photos'.
 
That's the iPod touch.

Furthermore, that's just the front plate which would probably be like that irrespective of what the back/side design looks like, no?

Indeed.

I'm curious that they'd already be making a new iPod Touch this far out. iPhone I could probably understand, but does the Touch really push that many units? Or maybe they just want to get the Touch out of the way so later manufacturing can focus on the iPhone?
 
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