The iPhone 5 and iOS 6 is still not yet out of nappies having only been released a few months ago, but it seems iOS 7 and the new iPhone 5S are already appearing in Developer Logs suggesting Cupertino are already field testing the units. The handset has been named ‘iPhone6,1? running on iOS 7 and this is the first time a device with that designation has appeared in the wild before.
TheNextWeb has seen some of the developer logs, and reports that app requests therein derive from an IP address situated within Apple’s Cupertino headquarters. Whilst OS and hardware data can easily be manipulated, the IP address suggests this is not the case, but rather an Apple engineer doing a spot of testing.
The iPhone 5S is suspected to be released at some point between the second and third quarter of 2013, which shouldn’t be of a surprise. Of interest, however, is iOS 7; iOS 6 and the whole maps fiasco didn’t go as Apple had expected, so much so that it triggered some shuffling at the top of the board room, seeing Scott Forstall being sacked and Tim Cook issuing a letter of apology for the quality of Maps. This meant Jony Ive was put in charge of iOS design, which sent exciting shivers around the iCommunity. So to hear iOS 7 is already in testing is very exciting, but it is not sure if it will make an appearance before the iPhone 5S, or with it.
iOS 7
Very little is known about iOS 7 at this point; much emphasise and assumptions were placed on the skeuomorphic designs in iOS 6, which Scott Forstall swore by, and Jony Ive reportedly doesn’t like, meant that iOS 7 would see this concept removed. This could see a significant overhaul of the UI of iOS 7, but will Jony Ive just stop there? In the little time it has been since iOS 6 was released, and Scott’s departure, I find it hard to believe Apple have had the time to test a significant overhaul of the whole iOS user interface, and instead are trialling smaller changes. Perhaps further changes will be added from that version a Cupertino engineer was running, but I don’t think we’ll be seeing the overhaul we are all expecting in iOS 7.
iPhone 5S
As far as the next iPhone 5S goes, it is expected to follow the standard Apple upgrade path, hence the ‘S’ naming, together with the processor and graphics bump, and possibly the addition of NFC. The ‘S’ upgrade is usually a speed bump as opposed to a major overhaul in design, so it is almost certain we won’t be seeing anything spectacular hardware wise, redirecting attention once again to iOS 7 and the killer feature to make current iPhone 4S/iPhone 5 users want to upgrade.