Apple Loop: Five Steps To Fix iOS 8, Crazy iPhone Designs, Fast iPhone Charging

Taking a look back at another week of news from Cupertino, this week’s Apple Loop covers potential issues in the new MacBook Air, the non-appearance of the iPhone Mini screens, flexible iPhones, some 2015 predictions for Apple, the App Store revenue numbers, five changes iOS 8 needs as soon as possible, the Mophie battery case, a one hour charger, and some SIM-free iPhones.

Apple Loop is here to remind you of a few of the very many discussions that have happened around Apple over the last seven days (and you can read our weekly digest of Android news here on Forbes).

Mark Gurman’s Twelve-Inch MacBook Air
Look back over the historical reporting of Apple during the week of CES and you tend to find a ‘big story’ that feels geared towards drowning out the new products on show at Las Vegas. Maybe Apple had something lined up for the start of the week and delayed it, because it’s highly unlikely that Marc Gurman’s detailed speculation and renders of the new MacBook Air would have been on the marketing grid.
Nevertheless, Gurman and 9to5Mac have gathered together as much information as they can to project the look and specs of the new twelve-inch MacBook Air. I’ve taken a look at the proposed laptop, and it’s a monster of minimalism:

The next MacBook Air will sport a twelve-inch screen, a thinner and smaller physical footprint, a cleaner chassis with one combined power connector and USB port, faster Broadwell chipsets from Intel, and it might even come in Space Grey. That’s the theory from Marc Gurman, and there’s no immediate reason to discount it.

The eyebrow raising moment is over the ports. No USB, no thunderbolt, no SD card, everything stripped out except a microphone, headphones, and a single USB-C port for connectivity and charging.
John Gruber:

 I can definitely see getting rid of classic USB — it’s old and thick. Thunderbolt, sort of. But MagSafe? When Apple announced MagSafe back in 2006, I knew they were solving a real problem, not an imaginary marketing problem. Tripping over power cables and yanking laptops off tables and onto floors was a real issue… Switching to USB Type-C seems like it would take us all the way back to days when tripping over the charging cable would take your laptop along for the ride.

Six Colors also has a good angle on this reduction in form, but not in function:

If Gurman’s reports are accurate, this new model pulls the MacBook Air line away from the MacBook Pro. In fact, it returns the MacBook Air to its roots—as a product full of choices that we consider crazy at first, because they’re out of step with conventional computer design, but that will appeal to a target audience that doesn’t actually care about those de rigueur features.
In other words, would Apple release a laptop with no dedicated power cable, ditch a bunch of traditional ports, and funnel every bit of power and wired connectivity through a connector that it has never before used, all in the name of creating a thinner and lighter laptop? Are you kidding? Of course it would.

Lots to pick over until a presumed launch at WWDC in the summer.
Parts For The iPhone Mini Are Nowhere To Be Seen
Apple’s next iPhone was also under discussion this week, although with less positive news. Any new manufacturing requires the supply chain to be clued in to the model before it is revealed publicly – it’s one reason that so much is known about a new phone as Tim Cook (or JK Shin at Samsung, or any other manufacturer) takes to the stage.
With no sign of orders for four-inch screens or other associated components, the current thinking is that the iPhone Mini (the four-inch variant of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus) is a nice idea, but lacking evidence.

If you think about the rumors, cases, chassis moulds, and other leaks that were with us in the months leading up to the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, there are no such signs for a four-inch model arriving in the next two or three months.
While it is possible that the iPhone 5S circuit board could be getting some circuit board modifications to accommodate the A8 architecture alongside the existing TouchID home button, it is more likely that there is no new budget four-inch model being planned for a spring release.

The iPhone Designed To Bend
One more the USPTO gives us a look inside the minds of Apple’s research and development teams. This week it’s the turn of Forbes’ Gordon Kelly to look through the filings to discover some new potential form factors for the iPhone. Picking up on one trend from CES to bend the display, Apple’s latest patent covers a fully flexible smartphone.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect to the patent, however, is the extent of Apple’s research into a foldable device. Not only does it detail flexible glass and chassis construction, but entirely flexible internals including bendable circuit boards and even batteries.
By contrast existing foldable devices like the LG G Flex, G Flex 2 and Samsung Galaxy Round have a flexible screen and chassis, but their internal components are rigid. As a consequence the Galaxy Round, for example, had to fit a smaller battery than the Galaxy Note 3 upon which it is based.