The iPhone 7 is probably still more than a year away, assuming Apple goes with the iPhone 6S name later this year. As a result, it’s possible that some of the patents the company has filed recently could be utilized in the phone because there may be enough time to work out the technology for mass production.
Then again, Apple is notorious for patenting technology and not using it, but that hasn’t kept people from speculating about what new patents could mean for the iPhone 7.
iPhone 7 to sport voice unlocking?
One patent supposedly suggests Apple will include a voice unlocking feature in the iPhone 7. The patent covers the use of voice recognition to unlock a mobile device. If the company does find a way to put this technology into next year’s iPhone, then it would be yet another new way to unlock the device.
Apple added the Touch ID fingerprint sensor with the iPhone 5S in 2013 to make it easier to unlock the device with a simple swipe of a finger. Use of the Touch ID was meant to make the device more secure and skip the slide to unlock feature on older iPhones.
iPhone 7 to sport two cameras?
Apple also recently filed a patent to place two cameras on the back of the iPhone. The patent explains that one of the two cameras would have a telephoto lens, while the other would have a more standard camera with a standard lens that could stretch to a wide angle lens.
We have been hearing rumors that Apple is planning a camera with a dual lens for the iPhone 7, if not for the iPhone 6S, so there is a chance that we could see some variation of this patent even if the company doesn’t actually install two separate cameras.
Apple wouldn’t be the first to put two cameras on the back of its smartphone though. HTC included two rear cameras on its One M78 smartphone, and the result was a magnificent camera. However, seeing as how Apple tends to take longer than its competitors to put new features in its smartphones, we may not see this dual rear camera feature in the iPhone 7. It could take longer, and it’s possible we could see Samsung add a second rear camera to its flagship device first, although there has not been a single rumor about this yet.
Other iPhone 7 rumors
So what else might the iPhone 7 bring? Naturally every detail that’s making its way through the tech community is merely a rumor, and there’s no way we can possible know now, more than a year out from the smartphone’s release, what it will bring.
However, there are reports that Apple is working on preventing the Bendgate fiasco that plagued the iPhone 6 Plus as people complained that the device bent while riding around in their pockets. This rumor would make sense because the company certainly wouldn’t want a repeat of that.
Other rumors include a 4-inch version of the iPhone 7, a model with a curved screen, a full HD display and the Force Touch feature that’s currently on the Apple Watch.
