T3 India

Andrew Williams

iPhone 6S to be thicker, faster, have Force Touch?

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The schematics published by Engadget Japan, citing a ‘reliable’ source in China, suggest the new phone will be 7.1mm thick, a grand 0.2mm thicker than the iPhone 6. These drawings don’t show off an otherwise radically re-designed frame, suggesting Apple just needs the extra space to cram in some new components.

There is, sadly, no word of a gigantic battery, though. The most exciting possibility is that Apple is looking to jam Force Touch feedback into the screen. This is used in Apple’s latest MacBook and MacBook Pro laptop trackpads, getting you clicky pressure-sensitive feedback with no moving parts.

It’s a finger-charmer and could be used to revolutionise gestures in phone OSs.

If that all turns out to be a tech daydream, there are a few other possible excuses for the egregious 0.2mm waist size increase. First, Apple is is expected to increase camera resolution for the first time since 2011’s iPhone 4S, with a 12-megapixel camera. Then again, maybe Apple’s new A9 CPU just needs the extra room, although that seems unlikely.

Should Apple go the whole hog and implement a new camera and Force Touch, we could be in for an interested September, when the iPhone 6S is expected to launch. 

Now why not read the full details on iOS 9?

Unreleased Nintendo PlayStation console uncovered

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It sounds like an unlikely slice of gaming history, but it’s real. A SNES PlayStation has been shown-off in a YouTube video. The console was discovered by a chap called Dan Diebold, whose father recovered the thing in an office clearout several years ago.

There’s no footage of it working yet, and it simply may not do. But there’s a pretty strong argument for this ending up in a museum somewhere.

It’s a prototype of a console project announced at CES 1991, one designed to play both SNES games and those of the SNES-CD format, which never materialised. It was outed almost four years before Sony would go on to officially announce the first Sony PlayStation in December 1994.

So why did Nintendo work with Sony on the project? Along with Philips it developed the CD format, something Nintendo had no experience with at this point. However, the relationship broke down following disputes about rights for SNES-CD games. Clearly Sony realised there was money to be made in games.

Talking to Polygon, the discoverer of the console Dan Diebold says, “I'm sure my dad would think about selling it because he's pretty broke.” This is one knackered old console that would fetch a pretty penny over on eBay. 

Now check out: Xbox One vs PlayStation 4 showdown: battle of the consoles

Sony Xperia Z5 may launch as early as September

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This next Sony phone sounds like it could be the one we’ve been waiting for, with enough major improvements to make up for the fairly minor upgrades made in the Xperia Z3+. It levels-up the hardware across the board.

Snapdragon 810 is to be replaced with Snapdragon 820, RAM pumped up to 4GB, the camera to get the upgrade to the IMX230 sensor from the IMX220. It’ll even get a fingerprint scanner. And the battery? The Xperia Z5 will apparently offer 4500Ah capacity while keeping the same slim Omnibalance design.

Is this too good to be true? It may be. This rumour comes from an unnamed source, published by a site called Technodify, which doesn’t have a long-standing reputation for leaking legit high-profile stories.

You may also be wondering why Sony has skipped the ‘Z4’ altogether, but that’s where we start to find reason to believe this rumour. The phone we know as the the Sony Xperia Z3+ was released in Japan back in April as the Xperia Z4.

Not only does that fill-in the gap, it means is the Xperia Z5 will be announced five months after its predecessor, if it lands in September. That’s an almost-sensible gap, by Sony standards. It tends to release flagship phones much more often than Samsung, HTC and co. We’re still sceptical, but will have an eye out. 

Don't forget to check out our Xperia Z3+ review

Via Technodify