iPhone 6

Poll: will you buy iPhone 6 full price or subsidized?

When Apple finally announces the iPhone 6 next month, I myself will be most certainly watching Tim Cook's pricing slide with great intent. There have been plenty of rumors indicating that Apple could actually hike iPhone 6 prices across the board.

Assuming the rumors are true, like most people I won't be happy about this change, though it won't discourage me from buying the handset.

The more suspicious watchers postulated that only higher-end models would command a premium. For instance, The Wall Street Journal just recently said that only the "more-expensive models" would get sapphire displays due to high production costs.

In the United States, T-Mobile is the only major carrier that fully separates device cost (fully paid upfront or via twelve zero-interest monthly installments) from wireless service plans. With other operators such as Verizon, the subsidy cost is not cut out of your wireless bill after your service agreement is over and your device has been fully paid off.

Which brings me to my question of the day: will you be getting your very own iPhone 6 unsubsidized, paying the full price of the handset upfront? Or, perhaps you'd be willing to commit your soul to a carrier for another 12/24 months, all over again, just to be able to pay the lowest possible hardware price at the time of your purchase?...

Rumor: LG Display beats out rivals to become top iPhone 6 display supplier

If there's any substance to a new supply chain report Tuesday, LG Display beat out rivals like Samsung, Sharp, and Japan Display as Apple had reportedly selected the South Korea-based firm as its top display supplier for the upcoming iPhone 6.

Based on a massive amount of orders, analysts are expecting iPhone 6 shipments in the ballpark of 70 million units during a three-month span.

The huge order should be enough to keep suppliers such as LG Display busy in the months ahead. RBC Capital Markets in a note to clients yesterday cited latest supply chain data, upping its forecast of Apple's orders to as many as 80 million units of both 4.7 and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 variants.

This compares to the 60 million iPhones ordered during the same period of last year...

iPhone 6 could feature faster 150Mbps LTE-Advanced support

Apple's upcoming iPhone 6 could feature support for faster LTE-Advanced networking which promises theoretical download speeds of up to 300Mbps. A claimed iPhone 6 logic board photo suggests Apple may have opted for the slower 150Mbps LTE-Advanced by replacing Qualcomm's MDM9615 chip in prior iPhones with a MDM9625 part.

Originally announced back in 2012, the MDM9625 chipset supports upload and download LTE-Advanced data speeds of 150Mbps versus the MDM9615 chip found in the iPhone 5s, iPhone 5 and iPhone 5c which tops out at 100Mbps.

A handful of the world's carriers have only recently begun rolling out LTE-Advanced so Apple may have opted to support only the 150Mbps LTE-Advanced in anticipation of the faster 300Mbps roll-out...

Alleged reversible Lightning to USB iPhone 6 cable caught on video

Along with the many enhancements and improvements expected in the iPhone 6 this fall, the handset is also expected to ship with a new, reversible Lightning to USB cable. We've seen multiple photos of the alleged cable, and Apple even holds a patent for such a design.

Tonight comes more evidence of the theory, with frequent part-leaker Sonny Dickson posting a video showing the new cable in action. It appears to work similar to the Lightning side of the current cable, allowing the user to plug in the USB side, regardless of orientation...

Gazelle offering up to $350 for your old iPhone ahead of iPhone 6 announcement

Boston-based Gazelle, which lets you sell used electronic devices, is ramping up its iPhone trade-in offering ahead of the expected iPhone 6 announcement on September 9.

If you send them your used device, Gazelle may treat you to up to a cool $350 in cold hard cash, dependent on its condition. Under the terms of the program, users have up until September 9 to get a price quote for their device.

Even better, you don't need to send Gazelle your device until October 10...

More evidence that iPhone 6 and new iPads may ship with fully reversible Lightning cable

This past Friday, a pair of images appeared ostensibly showing off an upcoming Lightning cable variant featuring a reversible connector on the USB side.

Now additional and fairly credible-looking shots have surfaced, supporting the thesis that the new Lightning cable will feature a brand new, smaller and fully reversible USB 3.1 Type-C connector.

More importantly, the latest batch of images for the first time depict a bunch of Lightning to USB cables in their retail boxes, serving as the strongest indication yet that the upcoming new iPhones and iPads will most likely ship with the new cable. One publication was even able to verify that iTunes recognized the cable as an officially sanctioned product...

iPhone 6 may have only 1GB of RAM, claimed schematic alleges [updated]

The general consensus among watchers and analysts regarding the engine powering the next iPhone(s) is that Apple will use an in-house designed A8 processor (reportedly clocked at 2Ghz per core). And that's about everything we know thus far about the chip.

We're still left in the dark as to how many processing and graphics cores the A8 might incorporate and we've been certainly wondering a lot about the amount of the chip's RAM. According to a leaked schematic, the iPhone 6 will remain stuck with the same 1GB of RAM as past three models...

New photos claim to show 5.5-inch iPhone 6 display, logic board and battery

Some new photos popped up online this evening, showing what are said to be components for the 5.5-inch version of the iPhone 6. The claim is significant, as unlike the 4.7-inch model, we've seen just a handful of parts belonging to the larger handset.

Among the parts are a display panel, logic board, and perhaps more interesting, a battery. The battery runs at 4.35 volts, and has a capacity of 2,915 mAH. If legit, this would put the 5.5-inch iPhone ahead of the Samsung Galaxy S5 in terms of battery size...

Poll: is ability to use iPhone 6 with one hand a priority to you?

Analysts and bloggers take it for granted that Apple's 4.7-inch iPhone 6 employs smart desing in order to make it perfectly usable with just one hand.

Whether or not the handset adheres to Apple's supposedly “unwavering principle of one hand use,” as one analyst put it, is anyone's guess because no one's seen the phone yet.

Most people would agree that older 3.5-inch iPhones are perfectly suited for one-handed use.

And by making the 4-inch screen taller but not wider, Apple's made recent iPhones efficient enough for the vast majority of users for whom one-handed use is a priority.

But 4.7 inches is on a different level than 4 or 3.5 inches. Unless Apple pulled some dark magic tricks, not everyone may be able to hit the top left corner with their thumb.

In today's poll, we challenge you to focus on the conceivable usability issues with the upcoming iPhones stemming from their much-talked-about bigger screens.

So, is being able to use an iPhone 6 with one hand important to you? Cast your vote below and meet us in comments...

TMZ passes this cheap Android clone off as iPhone 6 — and CNBC fell for it!

As per usual, there's no shortage of iPhone 6 clones. Virtually each and every one of them classes as a plasticky Chinese knock-off — though, quite frankly, some are in fact elaborate. Anyone can order an iPhone 6 clone online, with prices starting as low as $100.

It goes without saying that these laughable devices, based on a truckload of iPhone 6 rumors, typically run Android and sport a user interface skin that does a bad job mimicking iOS 7 aesthetics.

Though not fooling bloggers, the iPhone 6 clones have proved themselves too tempting a target for linkbait outlets such as TMZ. The infamous celebrity news and gossip website is now notoriously jumping on the opportunity to troll the nation by offering an Android-based iPhone 6 lookalike as the real thing.

And guess what? CNBC fell for it!

How iPhone 6 may be suited for one-handed use

Shortly after Apple released the iPhone 5s in September 2013, KGI Securities' Ming Chi-Kuo speculated that a future larger-screened iPhone won't go beyond five inches for Apple, in the analyst's own words, would be foolish to abandon its “unwavering principle of one hand use”.

A year earlier, Apple for the first time publicly articulated its philosophy in an iPhone 5 television commercial dubbed 'Thumb', which pictures a user comfortably operating the four-inch device using only their thumb.

So, what engineering and design feats might the handset employ in order to make it suitable for one-handed use? Read on for the full reveal...

WSJ: higher-end 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 models to get sapphire displays

The Wall Street Journal reports this afternoon that Apple plans to use sapphire crystal displays in higher-end models of both the 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch iPhone 6 models this fall. The news directly contradicts recent reports, which said the company had scrapped such plans due to complexity and cost.

According to today's report, though, the firm is still very much pondering the idea, and plans to move forward with it if it can get enough sapphire produced in time for launch. The outlet says that Apple may charge more for the phones due to the material's higher costs, a long-running theory this year...