When Apple showed off the iPhone back in January 2007, they blew people’s minds with the all screen design and the slick user interface. A key element of that UI that often gets overlooked is the home button. It sits all alone, right under the screen, and no matter what a user is doing, all they have to do to get out of the application they’re in is to tap the home button. According to Mac Rumors, who cites Apple Bitch (we’re not making this up), the home button for the sixth generation iPhone is already on sale in both black and white in China. It has the same design as the home button for the iPhone 4/4S, except that the plastic border around the button has more surface area. What can we tell about the design of the new iPhone from this “leak”? Absolutely nothing.
The more important question is why does the next iPhone still have a mechanical home button? You’d think that Apple would want to move away from moving parts, just like Google is doing with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The Galaxy Nexus is, for all intents a purposes, a battery powered screen with an off button. All the interaction on that smartphone is done via buttons that are drawn on the display. Will Apple ever move to that model? Maybe, but they’re definitely not going to do it with the iPhone 5 or whatever they end up calling the next iPhone.
Speaking about the next Jesus Phone, there are a ton of rumors circulating around the internet about what it will and won’t have. Which of those rumors are true and which of them are bullshit? That’s impossible to tell at this point, and we’re likely not going to be able to paint a better picture until the third quarter of this year.