New iPhone to get supermodel look -- no curves -- report says

The fall look for the new iPhone could be supermodel stylish -- tall, skinny and without any voluptuous curves.

A new report from iLounge said that the sixth-generation iPhone will launch this fall with a taller 4-inch screen, metal back, remade dock connector and new aspect ratio, according to a new report.

“Approximate measurements are 125mm by 58.5mm by 7.4mm — a 10mm jump in height, nearly 2mm reduction in thickness, and virtually identical width,” wrote iLounge editor Jeremy Horowitz.

Not quite the “brick house” curves some of us were hoping to have return to the device. (Curves just sit better in the palm.) Instead of the “teardrop” shape that has been written about, this report said that Apple will stick with a glass-bodied design made partially of thinner, stronger Gorilla Glass 2.

Of course, speculation about iPhone is practically sport, and this report seems to fit with a spate of other recent speculative reports that the new device would have a larger screen, comparable to much of the competition on the market today.

The iPhone getting longer with no shift in width would mean a change in aspect ratio. And iLounge reports that this would add pixels to the top and bottom of the screen, which could affect third-party software. So applications would need to be redesigned to work on a new aspect ratio.

“According to our source,” Horowitz wrote, “Apple will make one major change to the rear casing, adding a metal panel to the central back of the new iPhone. This panel will be flat, not curved, and metal, not ceramic,” echoing current iMac design. (There are artist renderings on the iLounge site that approximate what this all could look like.)

Could this “metal panel” be that Liquidmetal that everyone was writing about just a couple of weeks ago? After all, it’s shiny like glass and looks has a steel color. And the iPhone 5 -- or whatever its moniker is to be -- would be able to withstand drops a bit more successfully.

Lastly, the dock connector is said to be getting a makeover as well. The port at the bottom of the device could be pill-shaped and smaller, with fewer pins than the current 30 pins, according to iLounge.

And, the report said, this could become standard among all its handheld devices, including the iPod.

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