New homescreens may have five rows of icons

Even in beta form, iOS 6 already appears to be scaling for a rumored taller next-generation iPhone display, testing suggests. 9to5Mac notes that the new iPhone has been rumored as getting a 640x1136 screen, and so the site set about tweaking iOS Simulator to use the resolution. While iOS 5.1 simply inserts more blank space between rows of icons, iOS 6 creates five properly-spaced rows. People must in fact pick 640x1136 specifically as a custom resolution, since iOS Simulator may otherwise jump to an iPad-style layout rather than an iPhone/iPod one.

Reports now generally seem to agree that the next iPhone -- which could be announced as soon as September 12th -- will adopt a 4-inch screen. Apple has been resistant to scaling the size of the iPhone's display, even as many other phones have hit the 4-inch mark or greater. The company may, however, have simply been waiting to figure out how to grow the screen without making the phone itself substantially bigger. The same technology could migrate over to a new iPod touch.

by MacNN Staff