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Friday, April 29, 2011

Forget iPhone 4 and 5. What about iPhone 6?!

(CNN) -- If you're a mainstream Apple fan, you probably got all hot and bothered on Thursday when an e-mail hit your inbox saying the "amazing iPhone 4" is now available in white. Previously the phone only came in black, and tech blogs have been drooling over the possibility of this white whale of a phone for months.
But the real Apple nerds are so over that now.
Even rumors about the yet-to-be-announced-and-possibly-non-existent iPhone 5 are growing passé.
The new topic du second: the "iPhone 6."
Seriously, people? A new version of the iPhone 4 just came out. People have been talking about the iPhone 5 for -- well, pretty much since right after the iPhone 4 debuted in June 2010. And now, even before the release of the iPhone 5, which is rumored to come out in September, the techies are fixated on the next-next version.
This might seem ludicrous, but maybe it's normal in the hyper-drive world of tech news. So we'll go with it. Here's a look at what the plugged-in bloggers are saying about the iPhone 6 (to repeat: not the iPhone 5, but the one after that).
The name: Everyone seems to be calling Apple's next-next smartphone the iPhone 6, but it's unclear whether that really will be the name. Apple hasn't gone chronologically in the past. The iPhone 4 seemed to be more of a hint that Apple wished the phone worked on a 4G network than the model number. After the original iPhone came the iPhone 3G (which works on AT&T's 3G network) and then the iPhone 3GS (the "S" supposedly stands for "speed," since that phone was faster). The fact that there never was an "iPhone 2" kind of discounts this look-at-the-numberline approach.
The release date: 2012 seems logical. As The Atlantic writes in another rumor round-up post, "that makes sense as it fits with the smartphone's history; since it debuted in 2007, a new model has come out every year."
The screen: The Japanese publication Nikkan started the iPhone 6 rumor mill with a post saying Sharp will produce a new kind of screen for the phone.
Thinner and lighter: Some smartphones -- particularly Android phones -- are getting bigger, since big screens are better for watching video.
Apple's iPhone 6 is rumored to continue to get thinner and lighter.
Here's what Apple Insider has to say on the subject: "The liquid crystal display on the anticipated 'iPhone 6' is said to feature 'low-temperature poly-silicon' technology, a next-generation display format that allows for thinner and lighter screens that consume less power than traditional LCD screens."
The Register says this screen tech could end up in tablets, too.
What do you want to see in the iPhone 5/6? Do you want to start speculating about an iPhone 7? You can tell us in the comments now. Or, if you want to digest this whole situation for a few months and get back to us, that's absolutely OK, too.

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