More iPhone 5 Rumors Point Back To NFC, Greater File Systems, USB Music Support

With Apple’s keynote just hours away, there are a few last minute rumors still floating around about the iPhone 5. Reports have recently discredited any previous rumors that the new iPhone would have NFC technology, but now more rumors are appearing that NFC might still have a chance to be included. In addition to this, Apple might also be expanding its file system and USB support, possibly for greater music functionality.

We’ll start with NFC (near field communication). It was recently reported that because of its design, the iPhone 5 would probably not support NFC and the Wall Street Journal supported this, stating Apple had stopped NFC payments, for now at least. But were these reports referring to on-device hardware or current software implementation? Now, Will Strafach is saying that at least one of the iPhone prototypes, N42AP (which he thinks is the CDMA version), had NFC in it and it’s unlikely that Apple would remove it. In a tweet, Strafach wrote:

clarification: N42AP had NFC. I am assuming that if that’s CDMA and N41AP is GSM, they both will have it. no reason for just CDMA to.

In the past, Apple has had things like FM radios in hardware but never made the feature accessible to users, so it is possible that the NFC hardware does exist and Apple is just choosing not to use it at this time or is using it for something other than mobile payments.

As for Apple’s expanding file system and USB support, developer Jack Perry said in a tweet about iOS 6: “Support for ‘nero’ and ‘yamaha’ USB support.” and “MSDOS/Fat filesystems.”

Other rumors pointed towards a panorama feature, which Strafach tweeted about yesterday, though the tweet has since been deleted.

Also, the next iPhone will have a software locked panorama feature. Basically a updated version of the one in iOS 4+

The USB support could help improve compatibility with keyboards and other music peripherals. In the past Apple has had software limited features, like Siri being exclusive to the iPhone 4S in 2011.

Make sure you stay tuned to Macgasm for full coverage of Apple’s keynote so you can see which rumors are real and which one’s aren’t.

Source: iMore
Image Credit: Computerworld Blogs

Kaylie lives in Ottawa and got her first Mac in 2007 and is now a fan for life.