'Major iPhone revamp' in 2012, new charging system possible (Digital Trends)

Apple has a “major iPhone revamp” in the works, reports the Wall Street Journal. The redesigned device — let’s call it iPhone 6 — is slated for a 2012 release, according to “people briefed on Apple’s plans.”

The sources say that Apple “has been experimenting with features such as a new way of charging the phone.” This new charging system was first reported by former Engadget editor-in-chief Joshua Topolsky at This Is My Next back in April. According to his information, mock-ups of the rumored device showed “some form of inductive or touch charging.” Topolsky’s sources weren’t able to confirm whether “Apple’s working on its own version of cable-free juicing.” The This Is My Next report indicated that it would be the “iPhone 5? to receive the charging update.

As Mark Gurman at 9to5Mac points out, the “cable-free juicing” could be similar to HP’s Touchstone cable-free charging system for Palm devices

The Wall Street Journal article further confirms rumors that we’ve been hearing for months. Namely, that the next iPhone will launch by the “end of September.” That device is said to have a “similar” design to the iPhone 4, but will be “thinner and lighter” (gasp!), with an 8 megapixel rear-facing camera. Many

In addition, sources tell WSJ reporter Lorraine Luk that “Apple has also been working on a less-expensive phone with new features such as an edge-to-edge screen,” though there is no indication in Luk’s article that this device and the iPhone set for September release are the same handset, as some have speculated.

On top of all this hardware talk, market analyst Shing Yin of Citadel Securities tells Barron’s reporter Tiernan Ray that chances are good that Apple will release an iPhone for the Sprint-Nextel network sometime this year, most likely before Christmas.

Hmmm… September is before Christmas. How about then?

Even more iPhone rumors: Apple to introduce new charging tech in iPhone 6 (Appolicious)

There seems to be no end to fresh rumors about future iPhones flying across the Internet in the last few days. Only yesterday we told you about a Wall Street Journal report that claimed the iPhone 5 would be a thinner and lighter revamp of the device, and now it seems the WSJ has even more new information to report.

Today’s earlier rumors concerned the iPhone 5, but in a report issued later in the day on July 6, the newspaper claims to have found some dirt on the next next version of the iPhone, which we’ll refer to as the iPhone 6. This is the device we’re all presuming from past history that Apple will release in 2012.

Try to bear with this, as the somewhat random and barely-sourced information can get confusing: when it comes to the iPhone 5, the WSJ reports that “sources familiar with Apple’s plans” told it that the company is putting together a thinner and lighter iPhone, but with the fundamental design remaining similar to the iPhone 4, which falls in line with most of the rumors circulating at this point. Apple didn’t announce the phone in June during its Worldwide Developers Conference because the phone isn’t (or wasn’t) finished yet, but it expects it to launch it in September. It appears the iPhone 5 will be a fair step up from the iPhone 4, with the A5 dual-core processor Apple put in the iPad 2 and an 8-megapixel camera among other changes, but while the improvements will be noticeable, they may not yet be game-changing.

Enter the iPhone 6, which the WSJ reports its sources have said may include “a new way of charging the phone.” It’s one of the features Apple is reportedly experimenting with, which suggests that while the iPhone 5 may be less of a drastic revamp, the iPhone 6 will be the kind of device that CEO Steve Jobs will have fun showing off at the inevitable keynote.

The iPhone 5 may still be an incremental update, it appears, even though Apple expects it to sell exceedingly well. Reportedly, the company is expecting 25 million units to be sold in the last three months of 2011 when it’s released. That suggests Apple expects the market to accept the phone more than Wall Street reportedly is, which the WSJ says is keeping cool on the phone, at least for now, because it’s banking on users opting not to upgrade until a better model comes along. So maybe Apple is trying to push in more definable improvements to drive sales, and maybe not.

The WSJ also came close to confirming another somewhat-weird rumor that Apple is working on a second, less-expensive iPhone. We heard this from an analyst last week without any facts to back it up. The WSJ reports that the person who let slip about the charging upgrade also said Apple was working on the cheaper phone that could also include an edge-to-edge screen.

I know, I know – it’s getting ridiculous with all these rumors. Still, at least some are starting to corroborate one another, but it’s getting hard to know what to believe or even to draw some decent conclusions about it all. The real bummer of all this speculation and secret, unsourced information is that while some of it will inevitably end up being true, Apple always finds a way to surprise us just when we think we know what’s going to happen.

Check back here for the next time someone decides to leak some iPhone information; I give it about 20 minutes.