Has Apple given up on the ‘iPhone 8’ Touch ID?

dubai — So what are weeks leading to the first week of September without raging news about the next iPhone?

We’ve dug a couple of interesting things.

First, a purported ‘dummy’ model of what is said to be the ‘iPhone 7s’ has been circulating. 9to5Mac reports that they received the images from tipster Sonny Dickinson, which show that the device has a glass panel rear compared to the aluminium found on the current iPhone 7. This could mean that these babies might have inductive charging, which is more popularly known as wireless charging.

Aside from that, the refreshed 7 line is expected to have a base storage of 64GB (double the current iteration) plus new A11 processors.

The ‘7s’ line isn’t really a surprise; it’s widely reported that three iPhones will be unveiled next month.

The second news is somewhat a little underwhelming.

Apple has, according to Techradar, reportedly thrown in the towel on embedding the Touch ID sensor beneath the screen of the ‘iPhone 8’, quoting a post from AppleInsider, which in turn cited investor notes.

And this has been corroborated by no other than Apple tip genius Ming Chi-Kuo. He says that Apple has ‘cancelled’ plans for it, even though he listed it as one of the ‘standout features’ in July.

With this option apparently out the window, we’re hearing that Apple may incorporate Touch ID on its (longer, but in the same location) power button, or — gasp — slap it on the rear (unlikely).

One more thing (a reminder of sorts): the ‘iPhone 8’ is also rumoured to not to be available until 2018. We’ll leave it at that for now.

And if you’re wondering why we keep putting those names in quotation marks, it’s because Apple hasn’t officially revealed the devices’ names.

— alvin@khaleejtimes.com