New iPhone will make you snap happy

APPLE is preparing to unveil successors to the iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus as early as next month with more advanced photography capabilities and upgraded hardware in a design similar to that of last year’s models, according to sources.

The stand-out features will be a dual-camera system on the larger iPhone, a re-engineered home button that responds to pressure with haptic feedback and the removal of the devices’ headphone jack.

While iPhone demand has waned in recent quarters, partly due to the lull between product launches, the device continues to be the major source of the company’s revenue.

The new models will be critical to this quarter, and Apple is counting on the phones to prop up sales ahead of an expected iPhone overhaul next year, the device’s 10th anniversary.

Moving away from the typical two-year iPhone redesign cycle, this year’s models will look similar to the 6 and 6S but there will still be noticeable tweaks.

The new iPhones will retain the same 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screen sizes as their predecessors, the first of which was introduced in September 2014.

Apple will remove the two innermost antenna lines that run across the back of the current iPhones.

The dual cameras on the larger new iPhone are expected to produce brighter photos with more detail. The system sharpens photos taken in low-light environments.

The combination of merged photos from the two camera sensors will also allow users to zoom while retaining more clarity.

Apple is planning an updated home button for the new models. Current home buttons are switches that physically press into the phone, however, the new models will have a pressure-sensitive button that provides feedback to the user via a vibrating haptic sensation rather than a true physical click.

This mechanism is similar to that of the trackpads on the latest MacBook line. The new iPhones will remove the headphone jack in favour of connectivity via Bluetooth and the charging port.

That will make room for a second speaker. Apple started allowing headphone makers to build headphones that can connect via the iPhone’s charger connector in 2014, the same year the company acquired headphone maker Beats Electronics.

The new models will run iOS 10, the new version of Apple’s mobile operating system coming this autumn (overseas).

The updated software offers interactive widgets to quickly glance at calendar appointments and favourite contacts, new messaging features, a new application for controlling smart-home appliances, and a redesigned Apple Music. The new software will also run on current and some past iPhone models.