IPHONE 5 RUMOURS GET GRAPHIC

with the iPad 2 safely launched, the rumour mill has turned to grinding out the next big Apple release: the iPhone 5.
Right now there are conflicting reports as to when the next generation of the hugely-popular srnartphcne is due to be unveiled.
While traditional wisdom has suggested Apple will stick to its traditional late-June release, other gossips are talking about a delayed bunch in September The story about a later release was given weight by wdespread reports ot holdups from component manufacturers in Japan following the catastrophe earthquake and tsunami Sony head honcho Sir Howard Stringer recently dropped two iFhone 5 spoilers in one sentence, revealing that rt would use a Sony image sensor and that supplies of the component were experencing delays The Sony-manufactured camera component is widely expected to be cn eight-rnegapi>el sensor Stringer jcked about the irony of supplying Technology to its major competitor: "(ft) clways puzzles me/ he tcld the Wah Street Journal "Why would I make Apple the best camera?' Along with the higher-spec camera the iPhone 5 is tipped to include new wa\e-and-pay 'near field communication" technology that would turn the device into a digital wallet.
Greater integration with 'the cloud' is also expected, as Apple is broadly understood to be vastly updating its own data storage capacities for a streaming iTunes service.

 Also rumoured for the new iPhone is an updated graphical interface that relies more heavily on pictures than text.  

A recent patent, uncovered by blog Applelnsider, discusses a new, 'more engaging way of browsing content', where data such as contacts - which are largely displayed as text lists - could use a system of images, using tiled pictures or a dynamically generated mosaic.
Likewise, contacts who worked for the same company could be grouped under a single image in much the same wcy iTunes groups artists.
"Unlike an alphabetically organised address book, this interface may allow (the) electronic device.
.
.
to provide an address book that is intuitive to the user, and may enable a user to quickly coll a number of users from Ihe same contact group in succession.
" reads the patent application.
Associate professor Julie Fisher from the Faculty of IT at Monash University, who specialises in the way humans interact with virtual interfaces, tells touch that a more image-based system could indeed be of benefit Also rumoured for the new iPhone is an updated graphical interface that relies more heavily on pictures than text.
"The research suggests that people respond more quickly toe graphic than to a text.
'says Fisher "It's very likely to improve the speed of retrieval.
However, she is concerned that an intertoce too heavily dependent on images might, in tact, be a hindrance.
"I suspect there's a limitation to how many graphes (can be used).
' she says, "if you had a graphic for every single person in your contacts list, ycu might find the brain takes longer to process it.
' But for her part.
Fisher believes Apple is mere likeV to get the design right.
"You look at the IPhone and there are only a couple of basic functions that people hove to learn," she says.
"I've never been passionate about c phone before I mean.
It's only a bloody phone.
But I love it.