iPhone 6 Rumors: Could Next iPhone Have a Curved Screen?

The iPhone 6 rumors continue flying, and the latest one could be the most intriguing: a curved screen.

 A prototype leaked

A mock-up from the blog MyVoucherCodes shows what the curved screen would look like. It would increase screen size, always an important factor since the iPhone is much smaller than some of the smartphones on market now.

The potential curved screen is outlined in a patent awarded to Apple for a “curved touch sensor.

The patent outlines the device covered by several layers, including thin film and cover glass, forming the curved screen.

“A method of forming a curved touch surface is disclosed. The method can include depositing and patterning a conductive thin film on a flexible substrate to form at least one touch sensor pattern, while the flexible substrate is in a flat state,” reads the abstract. “According to certain embodiments, the method can include supporting the flexible substrate in the flat state on at least one curved forming substrate having a predetermined curvature; and performing an anneal process, or an anneal-like high-heat process, on the conductive thin film, wherein the anneal process can cause the flexible substrate to conform to the predetermined curvature of the at least one curved forming substrate. According to an embodiment, the curved forming substrate can include a first forming substrate having a first predetermined curvature and a second forming substrate having a second predetermined curvature complementing the first predetermined curvature.”

The patent was awarded on December 10, after being filed on November 5, 2010.

Other rumors for the iPhone 6 include facial recognition software.

Apple: iOS 7 now on 74 percent of iOS devices

A new report posted by Apple itself on its iOS developer portal says that, less than three months after its debut, iOS 7 is now on 74 percent of all the company's mobile devices -- an astonishing adoption rate unrivalled in the industry. Users still on iOS 6 make up about 22 percent of the base, meaning 96 percent of iOS users are running OS versions no more than a year old. By comparison, only around half of Android users are on a 4.x version (first released in mid-2012), with only 1.1 percent on the latest iteration.

The difference is crucially important to both app developers and customers: for the latter, being able to run the latest operating system version means more features and better security, increasing the value and safety of the device. For developers, not having to maintain multiple versions that run on a wide variety of hardware makes both development and support much easier -- part of the reason why iOS developers make an average of five times the revenue of Android-only app makers.

Apple's iOS 7 runs on hardware that is up to five years old, though some features are not supported on older hardware. For example, voice assistant Siri is not compatible with the only-recently-discontinued iPhone 4, though it does work with 2011's iPhone 4S. Figures from market analyst MixPanel actually report an even higher penetration than Apple itself, with the company saying that nearly 80 percent of its monitored users are on iOS 7, with 17 percent on iOS 6 and just three percent using anything older than that.