Following last week's leak of home buttons claimed to be for the next-generation iPhone, parts vendor SW-BOX.com has just posted information on a claimed iPhone 5 SIM card tray fresh from one of its parts suppliers.
The tray appears essentially identical to the SIM card tray found in the iPhone 4S and 4, and if the part is indeed legitimate it suggests that Apple may retain a similar flat-edged form factor for the forthcoming device. Such a design would be opposed to a tapered or rounded-edge design that would likely require a somewhat curved exterior surface for the tray or at least a thinner tray profile as was seen in earlier iPhone models such as the 3G and 3GS.
Apple has been pushing for its own "nano-SIM" standard, but has so far been unable to win approval as competitors have objected to the proposal and offered their own designs for a smaller next-generation SIM card. Unsurprisingly, it appears that a smaller nano-SIM design will not be ready in time to be included in the next-generation iPhone.
Apple is expected to introduce its next-generation iPhone later this year, with many observers suggesting that Apple will once again target the September-October timeframe for the launch. Many users have been hoping for a significant redesign following Apple's pattern of maintaining a similar form factor for two generations between major design overhauls, but part leaks that might reveal Apple's plans have yet to begin surfacing.
Update: As several observers have pointed out, the SIM card tray does have some subtle differences compared to the tray used in the iPhone 4S and 4, with a slight tapering of metal frame pieces and an extra metal shelf not seen in current trays. Consequently, the part certainly appears to not simply be an iPhone 4S SIM card tray, and while it could be a knockoff part, SW-BOX.com and its supplier seem to believe that it is genuine.
Apple plans to cut production of the iPhone Air amid underwhelming sales performance, Japan's Mizuho Securities believes (via The Elec).
The Japanese investment banking and securities firm claims that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are seeing higher sales than their predecessors during the same period last year, while the standard iPhone 17 is a major success, performing...
Saturday October 18, 2025 11:00 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
iOS 26 was released last month, but the software train never stops, and iOS 26.1 beta testing is already underway. So far, iOS 26.1 makes both Apple Intelligence and Live Translation on compatible AirPods available in additional languages, and it includes some other minor changes across the Apple Music, Calendar, Photos, Clock, and Safari apps.
More features and changes will follow in future ...
Friday October 17, 2025 7:35 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple's software engineers continue to internally test iOS 26.0.2, according to MacRumors logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions.
iOS 26.0.2 will be a minor update that addresses bugs and/or security vulnerabilities, but we do not know any specific details yet.
The update will likely be released by the end of next week.
Last month, Apple released iOS 26.0.1,...
Thursday October 16, 2025 9:13 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro with its next-generation M5 chip, but previous rumors have indicated that the company still plans to announce at least a few additional products before the end of the year.
The following Apple products have at one point been rumored to be updated in 2025, although it is unclear if the timeframe for any of them has...
Sunday October 19, 2025 7:39 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
iOS 26.4 is expected to introduce a revamped version of Siri powered by Apple Intelligence, but not everyone is satisfied with how well it works.
In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said some of Apple's software engineers have "concerns" about the overhauled Siri's performance. However, he did not provide any specific details about the shortcomings.
iOS 26.4 will...
Saturday October 18, 2025 10:57 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
While the new iPad Pro's headline feature is the M5 chip, the device has some other changes, including N1 and C1X chips, faster storage speeds, and more.
With the M5 chip, the new iPad Pro has up to a 20% faster CPU and up to a 40% faster GPU compared to the previous model with the M4 chip, according to Geekbench 6 results. Keep in mind that 256GB and 512GB configurations have a 9-core CPU,...
Thursday October 16, 2025 8:31 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with an M5 chip, and there are two key storage-related upgrades beyond that chip bump.
First, Apple says the new 14-inch MacBook Pro offers up to 2× faster SSD performance than the equivalent previous-generation model, so read and write speeds should get a significant boost. Apple says it is using "the latest storage technology," ...
Thursday October 16, 2025 3:57 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple plans to launch MacBook Air models equipped with the new M5 chip in spring 2026, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple is also working on M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models that will come early in the year.
Neither the MacBook Pro models nor the MacBook Air models are expected to get design changes, with Apple focusing on simple chip upgrades. In the case of the MacBook Pro, a m...
Friday October 17, 2025 7:10 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
The first alleged benchmark result for the M5 chip in the new 14-inch MacBook Pro has surfaced, allowing for some performance comparisons.
Based on a single unconfirmed result uploaded to the Geekbench 6 database today, the M5 chip has pulled off an impressive feat. Specifically, the chip achieved a score of 4,263 for single-core CPU performance, which is the highest single-core score that...
The tray appears essentially identical to the SIM card tray found in the iPhone 4S and 4, and if the part is indeed legitimate it suggests that Apple may retain a similar flat-edged form factor for the forthcoming device.
Month 1) Release sim tray "leaked design"
Month 2) Show a glimpse of the internal screen/camera/light sensor cable
Month 3) Leak some funky .plist code to reference a new CPU and also a new plastic molded phone case from china
Month 4) Report that some crap site like BGR says liquid metal will be the casing
Month 5) Show off some blurry image resembling the iPhone 4S but thinner design with blacked out screen that doesn't show resolution nor screen size so people can speculate yet again that it's larger than 3.5"...the source comes from a vietnamese forum.
Month 6) Show an empty shell without a circuit board but should drive people mad because it looks like an iPhone 4/4S but thinner and the screen is THE SAME SIZE.
Month 7) Profit (apple that is) because final design is unveiled and sold out hot cakes.
