back to article Oooh-la-la! 'iPhone 5' bares all, strokes tiny nano-SIM in pics

Apple's leaky supply chain has doled out pictures of the insides of what's claimed to be an iPhone 5, indicating that the forthcoming mobe will take nano-SIMs. Photos of what appears to be the next-gen handset fresh off a Chinese assembly line appeared on French site Nowhereelse.fe, and revealed the presence of a nano-SIM …

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  1. Darryl

    And it STILL hasn't been left in a Cupertino bar

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Competitors are quaking in their flip flops.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @Competitors are quaking in their flip flops.

        Competitors lawyers are salivating like a teenager at a miss nude world competition.

        What micro feature might look vaguely like one of ours to a half blind person.

        Oh great we can sue them for everything.

        Just a surprise there isn't half a dozen banning orders against it let already.

    2. LarsG
      Meh

      Sneaky leaky and it is all still supposition.

    3. LarsG
      Meh

      Consider

      The next step...

      A built in Sim!

      1. M Gale

        Re: Consider

        Could be a good or a bad thing.

        Good version: Being able to join a different provider at the touch of a button. Being on multiple networks without having to swap SIMs around or go for dodgy hacky dual and quad-sim adapters.

        Bad version: You think you've seen a network-locked phone? You ain't seen nuthin' yet.

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Transferring numbers

            However, happily modern phones offer several preferable alternatives for transferring numbers. The limitations on number of contacts and only having one data item per contact are pretty restrictive. I haven't needed to put data on the SIM for about eight years.

          2. JeffyPooh
            Pint

            Re: Consider

            Popping your SIM into another phone doesn't really work when each new generation of phone has a new "standard" SIM that's different than the last one. Unless of course, you purchase the latest smartphones in bulk.

            Standards that only last two years are daft.

      2. Julian 3

        Re: Consider

        That is Apples the plan to get rid of sims. Seriously!

  2. eSeM

    Looks like they have finally made a device with the screen the right shape.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      What's that? A different screen aspect ratio? Fragmentation when it happens in Android, revolutionary down Cupertino way...

  3. Wisteela
    FAIL

    Oh great...

    Yeah, because we all need even smaller SIMs, and they take up so much space.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Oh great...

      An SIM so small that you have to put it in a drawer bigger than a micro-SIM to be able to use it. Makes perfect sense in an Apple-world I'm sure.

      1. Jedit Silver badge
        Headmaster

        "Makes perfect sense in an Apple-world I'm sure."

        Of course it does. You can make a micro-SIM by cutting down a regular SIM. This allows people to jailbreak iPhones and use them with networks who aren't paying Apple for the privilege of being able to flog their products. If you can't make a nano-SIM in the same way, then suddenly all those networks are cut off from upgrading Apple customers unless they start buying in nano-SIMs that are only used in a phone sold by their rivals but not by them. Exclusivity of iPhones is thus enhanced.

        1. Andy Watt
          Flame

          Re: "Makes perfect sense in an Apple-world I'm sure."

          "You can make a micro-SIM by cutting down a regular SIM. This allows people to jailbreak iPhones and use them with networks who aren't paying Apple for the privilege of being able to flog their products"

          More half-baked idiocy. Can you jailbreak an iphone with a pair of scissors? H8rs gotta h8...

          1. Jedit Silver badge
            FAIL

            "Can you jailbreak an iphone with a pair of scissors?"

            No, but you can jailbreak it with the appropriate tool then put in a cut-down SIM from a network that is not an Apple client. My apologies if this blatantly obvious process was not explained in sufficiently blinding detail.

            1. Andy Watt
              Stop

              Re: "Can you jailbreak an iphone with a pair of scissors?"

              OK, so which networks don't / won't provide micro SIMs?

              As for "blinding detail", which part of

              "Of course it does. You can make a micro-SIM by cutting down a regular SIM. ***This allows people to jailbreak iPhones*** and use them with networks who aren't paying Apple for the privilege of being able to flog their products."

              says you need to jailbreak it with the appropriate tool? And doesn't say you jailbreak it by creating a micro SIM?

              Seriously, get over yourself. Just another hater, spittle-flecked mouth corners and negative bile emanating from every port.

              1. Gio Ciampa

                Re: "Can you jailbreak an iphone with a pair of scissors?"

                Who needs scissors?

                The micro-SIMs GiffGaff sent me the other day are pre-perforated so you just use the bit you need - micro or nano. (I assume other providers do the same, but I don't have anything to test that with)

              2. Andy Watt
                Flame

                Re: "Can you jailbreak an iphone with a pair of scissors?"

                Hehe! I see pointing out the semantics of the original message has caused many downvotes. Trolling for trolls is always fun on el reg. No comebacks? Come on...

    2. Annihilator
      Facepalm

      Re: Oh great...

      Yes. We should have stuck with the 1FF version of the SIM card, the one the size of a credit card.

      Who are you angry with here? Apple? Nokia? Or the ETSI who standardised it?

    3. deains
      Facepalm

      Re: Oh great...

      Care to enlighten us as to how you'd design a state-of-the-art smartphone then, oh master engineer?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Oh great...

        Apple and the ETSI are in it with the scissor manufacturers.

      2. Robert E A Harvey

        how you'd design a state-of-the-art smartphone

        Use the camera.

        Have a massively complex multicoloured QR code on a bit of paper that you take a picture of. The phone then connects to the service and says "let me be that number.

        Point two phones at it, they both become that number like an old-fashioned plan 1A domestic extension. Both ring together - even in separate countries - and the first one that picks up is online.

        Point the same phone at several certificates, and it will accept calls for all those numbers, and ring out on any one.

        Buy a prepay at the garage, get a top-up you point the camera at. Pay for top-up at a cash machine, and photograph the rapiidly changing screen,

        1. Dave 126 Silver badge

          Re: how you'd design a state-of-the-art smartphone

          Not a bad idea. I'm sure there will be some issues with it that I'm too dunk to think of right now, but I like it.

        2. This post has been deleted by its author

          1. Alan_Peery

            Re: how you'd design a state-of-the-art smartphone

            So you don't have to give the cashier your phone number, of course.

            1. micheal
              Paris Hilton

              Re: how you'd design a state-of-the-art smartphone

              Some of the cashiers i've seen in spain could gladly have my number

          2. Andus McCoatover
            Windows

            Buying pre-paid time in Finland

            Goto any ATM, pop your bank card in it. The selection is: Withdraw cash? Debit? Credit? Print recent 20 transactions? Statement? Top-up prepaid? Bank knows your number (you pre-register it previously)

            Simple. Had it for years.

            That's SMART!

        3. Lionel Baden
          Thumb Up

          Re: how you'd design a state-of-the-art smartphone

          you would get my money !

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Oh great...

        Don't you just have a look at the latest ideas from Sony and copy them?

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        How I'd design a smartphone...

        ...I'd make it cool, like, made out of awesomium metal and extra tough mountain gorilla diamond glass. It'd help me score with chicks in reality, not just in my mind, it'd have an x-ray camera, maybe two, and it'd have no edges or corners, the front would be just like the back, except different, like a mobius strip, but a phone.

        And a different docking connector, so my previous set of accessories no longer worked.

        1. colin dente

          Re: How I'd design a smartphone...

          Nice idea, but one fatal flaw: the Chinese control 96% of the world's supply of awesomium.

          What were they thinking of with the new docking connector. The one thing that made me certain to buy another iPhone to replace mine was compatibility with docks. Now it seems I have the whole world of Android to choose from too.

          1. Lionel Baden

            Re: How I'd design a smartphone...

            @colin Dente

            bluetooth docks are really worth considering.

  4. This post has been deleted by its author

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Larger Screen...

    ...is that copying other manufacturers?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Nope

      The iPad was there first.

      1. RICHTO
        Mushroom

        Re: Nope

        And the Windows tablet before that...

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Nope

          Lol how many Windows tablets looked like the iPad/iPhone.

          NONE.

          1. deadbeef
            Mushroom

            Re: Nope

            Apart from the colour and not quite as thin as the iPad, the HP Compaq TC1000 / TC1100 tablet PCs look pretty similar to the iPad to me...

            http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonhiner/4540423971/

            http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TC1100-1.JPG

            1. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Nope

              A pen, keyboard and 2.5" hard drive? Yeah just like an iOS device...

              Try again deadbeef, or should I say DEADFA11.

              1. deadbeef

                Re: Nope

                @AC

                I was referring to the form factor and appearance (which is what Apple tries to have an issue with other tablet makers like Samsung), we are not talking about the specifications or external addons like pen, keyboard (Asus Transfomer like) or hidden internal HDD.

                So essentially what you are saying is that if the Samsung Tab had come out with a pen, an internal HDD/SSD and detachable external keyboard that Apple wouldn't have claimed it was an iPad "clone"? The main thing Apple is arguing about is the form factor and rounded corners even to the point of fiddling photos to make it look like the same size aspect ratio.

                The point is there have been loads of previous prior art devices released that had the same or very similar physical form factors as the iPad/iPhone even some with a single central button at the bottom. Apple should just move on an stop nit picking and suing over stupid things like this just because they don't like competition.

              2. Mark Allread
                Happy

                Re: Nope

                I had a TC1100 for years, watched stuff on the train, did a bit of email. People looked at me like I was odd. Then all of a sudden people kept asking me "is that one of those iPads?", to which I usually replied "no, this is a proper computer, with a keyboard and decent storage". Now tablets are everywhere and people don't think I'm odd anymore - not for that reason anyway.

            2. Anonymous Coward
              Anonymous Coward

              Re: Nope

              @deadbeef

              It has rounded corners, I grant you. But otherwise, it is chunky and beige.

            3. This post has been deleted by its author

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Nope

            Hehe, AC was truth speakin', yet gets -5. You pillocks. Says more about you than it does him.

            Yeah but no- I only ever saw one Windows Tablet in the wild, outside the Colston Hall in Bristol- looked might he might have been making a survey or something. Otherwise, the only other tablet I saw was used to communicate with my Peugeot in order to program my key fob; a resistive touch-screen affair mounted in foam rubber.. after an hour of swearing, it worked when it was told it was talking to a Peugeot Partner rather than a 306. Key man mutters about not buying version X.0 of anything again- though to be fair the company that supplied the kit asked if they could examine my car in order to fix their bugs.

  6. MIc
    Meh

    snore

    zzz.....

  7. Furbian
    Flame

    I hate micro SIMS, and now this!

    That's it, I hate them. I bought a stapler like cutter to do the job, but it's still annoying. My Sony Xperia-S has one, for no good reason, there's empty space galore to it's left. Yes I had an Iphone 4, that's what made me having to keep a SIM adaptor and an iPhone ejection pin in my wallet.

    Why do I need to switch SIMs? Because every time I travel abroad, I obtain a local SIM to avoid paying for roaming. So yes call me cheap if you like for saving money being my main reason for hating micro/nano and probably eventually, pico SIMS.

    Irony. The phones become larger, and the SIM size shrinks, fantastic.

  8. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      This isn't true for at least 2 years, try to catch up will you.

      1. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

        Agreed. On our corporate contract Blackberry tariffs are more expensive than iPhone tariffs. Android/Windows tariffs are similar to iPhone tariffs.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Specific device tarrifs?

          What a bloody stupid idea. A tariff provides a connection for a phone number, some minutes and texts and a data connection. What does it matter what device one uses with this service?

          Answer: It does not.

          Anyone paying extra for a specific device tariff is being fleeced. The network doesn't even need to know what device you have.

      2. This post has been deleted by its author

      3. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Andy Watt
      FAIL

      Ummmm... no.

      "Yes, they're special Apple-branded data packets, you see. Would you like me to apply that on your account? Hello? Sir?"

      My iPhone doesn't run an iPhone tarriff and never has. They're not locked to the damn SIMs. Several other manufacturers are using Micro-sims.

      Go and polish your tinfoil hat with your bile-laced spittle.

      Oooo, I swore I wouldn't stoop to standard El Reg commentard standards...

  9. Trevor Marron
    FAIL

    OMG!!!!!!11111

    OMG!!!!!!!!!1!! It has rounded corners, just like a Samsung!

    (For those who don't do the internet, the comment was sarcasm, look up sarcasm if you don't understand it)

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. toadwarrior

      Re: OMG!!!!!!11111

      That sounded more like socially mal-adjusted dork tries to make a funny than sarcasm.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Comes with a free ...

    ... pair of tweezers and a magnifying glass, should you need to change the SIM.

    However, both of these items won't work on any other device and have been patented.

  11. LinkOfHyrule
    Coat

    Slave Identity Module

    You gave us precise measurements for these new-fangled SIMs but no mention of whether they have sharp or rounded corners?!

    Mines the one with a nano-SIM in the pocket...somewhere!

  12. Ilsa Loving
    Facepalm

    Pico-SIMs?

    So how long till we move to pico-SIMs? You know, the ones that are give to you in the form of a needle and you have to inject it into a small hold in your phone?

    1. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

      Re: Pico-SIMs?

      Well Apple were/are trying to push a software SIM. i.e. a SIM that you downloaded via, say, iTunes to your phone.

      1. Charles 9

        Re: Pico-SIMs?

        But I think the cell companies didn't bite, as difficult-to-get-to SIMs are to them the best defense against switching (or defecting in their view). And Apple can't dictate as many terms as they could before (and in this aspect, the phone companies have a common enemy so will unite to shoot soft-SIMs down).

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Femto-SIMs?

          The next one will be a Femto-SIM, so tiny you will need to visit the large hardon collider to have it installed at the cost of CHF23.2bn

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Femto-SIMs?

            After that will be the Atto-SIMs which are so tiny they have a divide-by-zero error and are infinitely large.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The ground-breaking thing about the original iPhone was the software (plus the type of touchscreen). Nothing else is that revolutionary, the retina screen is very nice but colours are a bit flat.

    Nothing seems to be moving on that fast with iOS, if anything many of the changes are more about kicking Google out than moving things forward.

    The UI needs a rethink, the whole icon approach is old and boring now. iOS is little more than a glorified Palm Pilot OS.

    1. Dave 126 Silver badge

      okay...

      OS suggestions please.

      We have tap the icon (location)

      We have directional (swipes, Palm OS Graffiti in a different way)

      We have acceleration (tilts - and often shit when used for things other than screen orientation)

      We have voice (Siri, Android)

      We have had taps (that strange cube MP3 player that either Samsung or iRiver made)

      Just curious as to your alternative to icons. They have been around for a while.

      1. TheOtherHobbes

        Re: okay...

        A UI that lets devs change the fucking wallpaper would be a good start

        Genuine no-bullshit multi-tasking

        A position/distance sensor above the screen

        A pressure sensitive multitouch screen

        Proper network file management, so I can load a file from my Mac/PC/device into an app, change it, and save it back from that app to any Mac/PC/Device on the network

        Failing which, easy data sharing between accounts on iCloud

        Or - ferkrissakes - at least give us file sharing in iTunes that supports folders properly

        In extremis, a 3D(ish) UI with eye position tracking and/or drag-to-spin, pinch-to-zoom

        1. Andy 115

          Re: okay...

          You forgot the sarcasm tags....

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: okay...

          "A UI that lets devs change the fucking wallpaper would be a good start"

          Your not allowed. The Apple overlords command that your phone WILL look like the rest of the sheep followers. NO you AILL NOT be allowed to personalise your device. It WILL LOOK AND FEEL LIKE ALL OF THE OTHER SHEEP.

          NOW SHUSH, or your beloved iPhone will be removed!

          1. ThomH

            Re: okay...

            Is there any point engaging with Obviously!? Let's find out...

            Users are free to change their wallpaper. The poster appears to be suggesting that iOS is outdated because third-party apps can't change it for you. It sounds a bit desperate when put like that, but I think probably he was alluding to the live wallpaper that Android gained in 2.<something> rather than suggesting a huge pent-up need for alternative methods to select wallpaper.

            You therefore are allowed to change wallpaper and your device needn't look like everybody else's in that respect.

        3. PeterM42
          WTF?

          Re: okay...

          File management and amendment between phone and PC - I do that on my Android Samsung Galaxy SII

          Who needs an expensive bit of FANBOIS's rubbish?

        4. Andy Watt
          FAIL

          Genuine no-bullshit multi-tasking == crap battery life

          Read it and weep.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Joke

        Re: okay...

        Just curious as to your alternative to icons. They have been around for a while.

        LIVE TILES!!!

  14. Alan Denman

    Nobody quite gives a stuff so leak it!

    The boring stuff is all coming out.

    It helps us to forget the competition.

  15. nick47

    Screen size

    These are all fake. They're not going to change the screen size. Never gonna happen!

    1. Andy 115

      Re: Screen size

      Never? Really?

      Funny that the development software has just sprung a mode that allows 5 rows of icons on the home screen instead of 4 (keeping the same width) could it be, a taller screen, surely not.....

      Open your mind

  16. James O'Brien
    Paris Hilton

    Umm....

    So why if they are switching to a nano-sim does that picture show a caddy/adapter for it? Yes I understand these are "leaked" and probably arnt real but if they are doesnt that defeat the purpose?

  17. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    this is news ?

    i just ask cos we knew this about 4 months ago,another bribery battle won by flapple at etsi.

    another case of do it the flapple way,just dont ask if it realy is actualy better or just different.

    flapple dont innovate,they do something old a bit differently,thats all,i would not mind if the flapple way was better for general public,but mostly it is'nt.

    its one of the reasons flapple will slide as quick as it climbed,the jobs/flapple way of doing business is destructive,not constuctive, its a prime example of whats wrong with america at moment.

  18. Crady

    Apple iPhone 4.5...

    Same old same old....nothing revolutionary

    1. ThomH

      That sums up the entire phone industry.

  19. jockmcthingiemibobb
    Devil

    I care not a jot about these new features. For actual phone calls (remember these?) I prefer ye olde phone with tactile buttons.

    Seriously....I'm sure many current iPhone 4 owners will be more concerned about whether the iPhone 5 can survive a drop from just waist height without the screen smashing? Also curious if their new design requires about 1.5 hours and microsurgery skills just to replace the screen.

    I'm so over Apple. Overpriced badly engineered Cr@p

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Who cares so much about a phone? You gotta be desperate for a lay if you are.

    1. Andus McCoatover
      Windows

      Desperate for a lay?

      Well, after struggling through these comments, I think I might need a little lie down, and a nice cup of tea. Does that count?

  21. Lionel Baden

    well....

    At least their not just glueing them in to prevent user switching (thinking of screens here)

    Oh yes this adhesive strip is so that you nano sim doesnt become dislodged. can imagine then very hard to replace

    1. Andus McCoatover
      Windows

      Re: well....

      Blu-tak's your friend here...

  22. PeterM42
    FAIL

    Apple NON-STANDARD yet again

    So yet another new incompatible SIM card and incompatible USB connector.

    2 EXTREMELY GOOD reasons for NOT getting an iPhone (apart from the expense, non-replaceable batteries and fixed memory sizes). Everyone else can do it, but OH NO - not Apple.

    I will stick with my Samsung Galaxy SII which can probably do MORE (certainly MUCH CHEAPER!) than some useless and expensive bit of FANBOIS' kit.

    Microsoft and many others made their fortunes out of standardisation. Apple will remain niche market (albeit a VERY LARGE niche) until they adopt industry standards.

  23. JeffyPooh
    Pint

    Travelling overseas and SIM cards

    Don't bother. Just purchase a pay-as-you-go Nokia 1100 series for $20. Done.

  24. Paul Hovnanian Silver badge
    Unhappy

    Gesundheit!

    Anyone see where my SIM went?

  25. Garibaldi

    Standard are nice but then again

    Being Apple mean being different from rest of the world, and twice as expensive.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This would have been easier if

    Apple had simply used a microSD-sized SIM and put the phone's data storage on that.

    Means existing sockets could be used which makes things cheaper, maybe even have the phone "pop out" the SIMSD (tm) on command using muscle wire.

    AC/DC

  27. takuhii

    That's not a Nano SIM, it still looks like a Micro SIM drawer :/

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