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New wish list for iPhone 5 (photos)

The iPhone 4S just hit the market with rave reviews and surging sales, but nothing's perfect.
By CNET Staff, Contributor
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The iPhone 4S was just released but there are still features that we still want to see but Apple left out.

In March, Apple finally announced support for full 720p or 1080i HD video output for the iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4G, and iPad 2. However, you need Apple's $39 Digital AV to send that HD video (audio) to a TV or monitor, whereas many Android-powered smartphones offer a built-in Micro-HDMI port that only requires an inexpensive $5 cable to run video to your TV.

Now that Apple's added AirPlay mirroring as part of iOS 5, if you have an Apple TV, you can stream video wirelessly to your TV via Apple TV (what's on your iPad 2 or iPhone 4S' screen is mirrored on the TV). That's nice, but it's worth mentioning that the Apple TV is a $99 accessory.

Chances of implementation: 0 percent

Photo by: Apple

Caption by: David Carnoy, CNET

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This well-known rendering of a future iPhone dreams of a model with a removable battery. Alas, it appears to run counter to Apple's current design principles.

Chances of implementation: 0 percent

Photo by: Jim Young

Caption by: David Carnoy, CNET

 

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Not happening, but just thought we'd mention it.

Chances of implementation: 0 percent

Photo by: Kingston

Caption by: David Carnoy, CNET

 

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It's hardly a must-have upgrade, but it would be cool to swipe your finger--instead of enter a password--to unlock your phone. It could also be combined with NFC (near field communication technology--see next slide) for making mobile payments.

Image note: Allegedly, Apple has filed some patents related to this feature.

Chances of implementation: 30 percent

Photo by: Apple

Caption by: David Carnoy, CNET

 

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Leading up to the release of what turned out to be the iPhone 4S, rumor had it that Apple may have been working on integrating near field communication technology (NFC) into the next iPhone. This is sort of a bar code replacement technology that would allow your iPhone--among other things--to act as a payment device (e-wallet) or even a car key.

Since the feature isn't in the iPhone 4S, the odds increase that it'll make it into the iPhone 5.

Chances of implementation: 40 percent

Photo by: Visa

Caption by: David Carnoy, CNET

 

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People are happy that the iPhone 4S now comes in a 64GB version. But not everyone is satisfied. Now some folks want a 128GB version.

Chances of implementation: 10 percent

Photo by: iLounge.com

Caption by: David Carnoy, CNET

 

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It'll be a cold day in hell when Apple allows for Flash support on the iPhone. But that doesn't mean we can't continue asking for it.

Caption by: David Carnoy, CNET

 

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8 of 15 CNET Staff/ZDNET

Currently, on the iPhone 4 and 4S, FaceTime only works over Wi-Fi (yes, there are some workarounds to get it to work over 3G, but Apple doesn't officially support it). In iOS 5, doing FaceTime over a cellular data network is now part of the settings menu but it looks like the carriers have control over whether it's enabled.

Chances of implementation: 50 percent

Photo by: Apple

Caption by: David Carnoy, CNET

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Right now, if you want to charge your phone's battery using inductive "wireless" charging, you have to buy a separate charging sleeve (case) and charging mat for your device.

Companies like Powermat and Energizer make inductive charging solutions for a variety of smartphones. However, if you could do away with the sleeve and have the inductive-charging chip built into the phone, you'd only have to buy a mat (and use whatever case you wanted to use).

Qi (pronounced chee), a new standard for inductive charging as established by the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC), is pushing to get manufacturers to integrate Qi chips into their devices, and we should see some Qi-enabled smartphones on the market in 2012. The iPhone 5? We wouldn't bet on it, but at some point in the future we think the iPhone will get some sort of inductive-charging chip integrated into it.

Chances of implementation: 20 percent

Photo by: Energizer

Caption by: David Carnoy, CNET

 

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Apple has consistently improved the graphics capabilities with each new iteration of the iPhone, with the iPhone 4S offering a big jump over the iPhone 4 (Apple says it has a 7x performance boost).

The iPhone 4S has the PowerVR SGX543MP found in the iPad 2 and we expect the iPhone 5 will get the next-generation PowerVR chip (the PowerVR SGX545 was also announced last year).

Chances of implementation: 85 percent

Photo by: Imagination Technologies

Caption by: David Carnoy, CNET

 

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With Apple's acquisition of PA Semiconductor, it's been designing and churning out its own CPUs, including the 1GHz A5 dual-core processors that are in the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S.

Word is a new A6 processor already in early testing in advance of the launch of the iPad 3 in spring 2012. The A6 chip is reportedly a 28nm process (compared with the A5's 45nm), meaning lower energy consumption and higher speeds.

The faster processor would improve the performance of Siri, iOS5's new integrated voice assistant, as well as host of other features, including still and video image capture.

Chances of implementation: 85 percent

Photo by: Apple

Caption by: David Carnoy, CNET

 

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Every time Apple puts out a new iPhone, the battery life gets slightly better, so we expect no less from the sixth-generation iPhone. At least on paper, the iPhone 4S offers very similar battery life to the iPhone 4, so this is one area where there's significant room for improvement.

Chances of implementation: 50 percent

Caption by: David Carnoy, CNET

 

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13 of 15 CNET Staff/ZDNET

One of the big features missing from the iPhone 4S is next-gen 4G data network support, which is why we've got it near the top of our list as the No. 3 most-wanted feature.

Sprint was first out of the gate with its next-gen network. Verizon has also deployed its 4G LTE network, and AT&T is in the process of rolling out its 4G network now.

There are 4G phones out there (HTC ThunderBolt and Evo, as well as the Motorola Atrix, to name a few), but the big problem so far has been that 4G is a total battery hog. That should change when Qualcomm ships its next-generation 4G chips for phones and we expect to see an iPhone 5 with 4G capabilities.

Chances of implementation: 80 percent

Photo by: iphonespies.com

Caption by: David Carnoy, CNET

 

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With the iPhone 4S, we didn't get the redesign that a lot of people were hoping for. Well, it's almost certain we'll get it with the iPhone 5. Will it be thinner, with a teardrop design? Look more like the iPad 2? Bigger screen?

Maybe.

Chances of implementation: 99 percent

Photo by: culttofmac.com

Caption by: David Carnoy, CNET

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15 of 15 CNET Staff/ZDNET

From our polling on CNET, the No. 1 most-wanted feature our readers want is a larger screen.

That said, people don't seem to want the iPhone to get any bigger or lose any battery life. We're hoping Apple can come up with the right balance, but as you can see from this mock-up, going to 4 inches makes a significant difference and is probably the optimal size for a smartphone screen.

Chances of implementation: 50 percent

Photo by: 9to5Mac

Caption by: David Carnoy, CNET

 

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