iPhone 8

Although the iPhone 8 is apparently entering production verification testing this month, the rumor mill continues to disagree about several details of Apple’s upcoming radically-redesigned phone.

In this latest alleged schematics photo via Sneakleaks, an iPhone chassis is shown with a Touch ID fingerprint cutout below the Apple logo on the back of the device. This idea was last seen in an April leak. However, the rumors have not come to consensus and there are still many contradictory reports about the fate of the iPhone 8 Touch ID …

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Apple is expected to launch three new iPhone models this year, two iterative updates with similar industrial designs to  iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, and one major radical new phone tentatively dubbed ‘iPhone 8’.

A new set of photos have surfaced on Weibo purporting to show molds for all three of the new phones. They don’t really reveal anything what we haven’t seen rumored before, but it’s interesting to see the new size in context. More photos after the jump …

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In this week’s top stories: iOS 10.3.2 arrives alongside 10.3.3 beta, iPhone 8 renders, Apple Watch news, Apple plans hardware updates for WWDC, and much more.

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Google has been working on augmented and virtual reality for some time, through its Tango and Daydream projects. While there’s a great deal of overlap between the two, I’ve outlined before why it’s clear to me that Apple’s focus is very much on augmented reality: overlaying virtual content on the real world.

Google this week gave us a clearer steer on the type of AR functionality we can expect from its own platform, and it’s likely that we will see some similar features in the iPhone 8 …

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The iPhone 8 is expected to debut later this year touting a 5.8-inch OLED ‘bezel-less’ display incorporated into a new-design glass and stainless chassis. There have been many rumors about Apple increasing the price of the model above the current iPhone range (128 GB iPhone 7 Plus tops out at $969), with some people referring to the device as an ‘iPhone Pro’.

Higher component costs support the idea of a premium price tag, and this is exactly what Economic Daily News is reporting today. It claims that the 3D Touch module in the OLED iPhone will cost Apple 150% more than the equivalent parts in the LCD iPhone 7 …

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Apple has today been granted patents for two headline features expected from the iPhone 8: an edge-to-edge display, and a Touch ID button embedded into the screen.

The edge-to-edge display patent has the rather mundane heading ‘Reducing the border area of a device.’ It describes how a mostly-flat display can have a curved border area allowing it to wrap around the sides of the device …

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New iPhone renders created from a ‘highly detailed CAD file’ show an iPhone 8 design with embedded Home button, glass back and what appears to be an area carved out for a wireless charging coil.

The report itself is rather confused, describing it as the iPhone 8 while suggesting the two sizes expected for the iPhone 7s, and referring to a separate ‘tenth anniversary phone’ – but what is shown matches up with the rumors for the flagship iPhone 8 …

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It’s been said several times that Apple’s latest iPhone 8 flagship will be its most expensive model to date, with reports claiming the device will come in at more than $1,000. Now, in the build up to the device’s announcement later this year, analysts are making predictions as to exactly how much the new flagship will cost…

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A supply-chain report from Korea Economic Daily (via The Investor) supports rumors that the iPhone 8 will include a 3D camera module capable of facial recognition.

The report states that the modules will be made by LG Innotek, which makes the dual-camera module for the iPhone 7 Plus, with initial orders worth around 200B won ($177M) …

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According to a new report from Digitimes, TSMC has officially begun production of the Apple A11 SoC, set to feature in the iPhone  8 later this year. The foundry apparently wanted to begin mass production in April but faced issues with yields. TSMC will be the sole supplier of A11 chips for the upcoming iPhone refresh.

The A11 chip is also expected to be included in the iPhone 7s spec bump phones, which will seemingly use the same chassis design as the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, although this is not universally supported by the rumors.

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Imagination Technologies, the company behind the PowerVR GPU tech seen in Apple’s AX chips, has announced the first chip based off of its new Furian architecture. The PowerVR Series8XT GT8525 introduces significant enhancements in mobile graphic performance. The very type of performance that could find a home in future devices that have a focus on AR/VR requirements…

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[UPDATE: Unsurprisingly, this specific one appears debunked…]

The iPhone 8 has been rumored to have a front and back glass design for a while, and now new images have surfaced the may show the glass used on the rear casing for a ‘2017’ iPhone. If the leak is accurate, the glass material could be the same as some Apple Watch models.

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We’ve seen a variety of iPhone 8 leaks over recent months and now a new set of renders has emerged, this time courtesy of Onleaks. These renders are based on leaked CAD images and may offer the most accurate look yet at what the iPhone 8 could look like…

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Martin Hajek iPhone 8 Concept

Reports of delays and production difficulties have been plentiful for the iPhone 8, and it doesn’t seem like things are going to get much better. KGI’s Ming-Chi Kuo is out with a new report this evening in which he says that there’s a “rising probability” of the “worst scenario” for production and shipments of the device…

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There have been a few reports recently about delays in the production pipeline for Apple’s next-generation iPhones. A new report from Economic Daily News claims that mass production of iPhone 8 and iPhone 7s is on track for the new iPhones to be announced by Apple in September and go on sale in October.

According to EDN, via Digitimes, one of the big issues was manufacturing of the new substrate-like circuit boards set to feature in all three new iPhones. Yields of these components have apparently now been improved.

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In this week’s top stories: AAPL earnings, Siri Speaker, iPhone 8 reports, AirPods & Apple Watch sales, and much more.

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In a lengthy report from JPMorgan, the analyst uildreaks down its latest predictions about the upcoming 2017 iPhone updates.

The ‘modest upgrade’ iPhone 7s models will reportedly use glass backs in addition to the radical OLED iPhone. It says the OLED display will be edge-to-edge horizontally on the iPhone 8, not vertically (pictures after the jump). The analyst also claims that the iPhone 8 may come bundled with a free pair of wireless AirPods and predicts the total added cost to Apple of all the new technology inside the OLED iPhone …

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Warren Buffett isn’t shaken by Apple’s iPhone numbers from last quarter. Despite a slight dip in sales year-over-year, the billionaire investor says he believes $AAPL is priced appropriately to buy now and there are ‘a lot of people waiting’ to buy the next iPhone. Buffett’s company added 40 million AAPL shares recently and has more than a $7 billion stake in the company.

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While we’re still a few months away from the official announcement of the iPhone 8, the reports and renders are already pouring in. Now, iDropNews has shared its latest set of renders (made by Benjamin Geskin), this time focusing on showing the full potential of the rumored function area…

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Apple announced yesterday that it sold 50.7 millions iPhones during the most recent quarter which disappointed Wall Street because it was a slight year-over-year drop instead of growth. China performance and a “pause” on iPhone sales are partly “due to the earlier and much more frequent reports about future iPhones” according to Apple CEO Tim Cook.

Supply chain rumors about the so-called iPhone 8 have been surfacing for over a year now — months before the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus debuted — but have they been a factor for you not buying a new iPhone recently?

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Off the back of Apple’s earnings, JPMorgan has distributed its latest analyst report on the company’s outlook. Amidst the financial predictions, JPMorgan says that there is a ‘high likelihood’ that Apple will announce the iPhone 8 at WWDC in June.

The analyst believes Apple will preview the new iPhone lineup in June, but the device wouldn’t go on sale until the fall. This is a surprising claim to make given how unlikely it seems, flying in the face of everything else we’ve heard about the 2017 iPhone …

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