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Comment by markmm | Hacker News Reader

Isn't Apple looking to ban the S3 in the US? The new iPhone (based on rumour sites) is looking like just a taller version of the current.

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Apple is looking to ban all Android devices in the US and abroad. From what the iPhone 5 looks like, they've run out of ideas and are now resorting to litigation to keep their profits up.

To be fair, we should probably wait until the product launch to comment on that. Apple are very good at keeping new features secret, so who knows.

I doubt they will change the width, there must be 1000's of apps that will break or look wrong if they change that (without updating).

That's not what I mean. They could release a new integrated service, do something with the sound, make the thing out of some new material.

They almost certainly have something their sleeve to hype that they can claim competitors don't have. If they just make the screen bigger and some minor changes to the case, they will just be seen as playing catch up.

They need to do something unique like a small always on screen on the back to show statuses.

> They could release a new integrated service, do something with the sound, make the thing out of some new material.

Those are all relatively absurd examples. They tried the integrated-service route with Ping, and it was an unmitigated failure. What could they possibly do with the sound or the material?

Something tells me I'm going to be severely underwhelmed in a week or so.

They weren't intended to necessarily be good examples. By an intergated service, I meant something like Siri.

What about squeezing the device as a user input method, squeezing the sides could unlock it.

They can change the physical width of the device while making the change transparent to apps. I wouldn't put much stock into this.

We know what's going to be in iOS 6 now and that doesn't leave a whole lot of room for unexpected hardware features.

That's a good point. They surely must have something hidden up their sleeves other than a bigger screen though.

To be fair, Samsung almost certainly had a hand in banning the original iPhone for two years in South Korea.

Well, if this is true then what are the great advances in Android device hardware that Apple is suing to stop (instead of advancing their own hardware)?

I don't like how the new iPhone looks. It's just slightly taller, which is not really "bigger" as in "I want a large screen iPhone like those Android phones", and it offers no advantage to those who were writing Ph.D thesis after Ph.D thesis on how 3.5" is the "perfect size" for a touchscreen phone, especially if you want to reach it with your thumb.

Of course that's complete nonsense, as even 4" is quite tiny for a touchscreen, but hey that's what they said! And that's what they thought.

> it offers no advantage to those who were writing Ph.D thesis after Ph.D thesis on how 3.5" is the "perfect size" for a touchscreen phone

Those people would've said 2" or 6" was the perfect size, if that was what Apple had decided on. I don't think their opinions are worth that much.

These are the same people that could go on for pages explaining why copy & paste was not needed on the iPhone and then spun on a dime when it finally showed up.

Apple does get a lot of things right but some people mistake that for perfection.

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