Everything You Need To Know About The New iPhone 8 Rumors

Update: July 31, 2017: It appears that Apple released some information about its upcoming smart speaker, HomePod, a bit too soon. Included in the firmware for the speaker is information about the new iPhone — information that Apple always keeps tightly under wraps until its big September reveal.

TechCrunch reports that the information reveals the iPhone 8 will have a bezel-less design as well as an infrared face scanner. If true, this means you won't have to worry about messing up your fingerprint scan anymore.

Update: April 18, 2017: Apple may be ringing in the tenth anniversary of the iPhone with not one, not two, but three new iPhones this fall. Bloomberg reported the rumor today, adding that the new phones may have the edge-to-edge curved glass OLED screens that others have speculated about. This would make the iPhone look slightly more similar to Samsung's new Galaxy S8 and S8+, both of which have glass infinity displays.

Bloomberg also reports that Apple is playing with the positioning of the existing rear-facing lenses and is testing dual lenses for the iPhone's front facing camera. The latter could mean a big boost for selfies.

If Apple sticks to its regular release schedule, we won't get an official look at the new iPhones until September. But we should get a clearer picture of what's coming with iOS 11 at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference this June, so stay tuned.

Update: February 13, 2017: iPhones with wireless charging may soon be a reality. While these rumors have been floating around for some time, word that Apple was added to the Wireless Power Consortium's membership list has taken speculation to new heights. According to Macworld, the consortium is responsible for developing Qi, a wireless charging standard. It's the same certification used by Samsung for its wireless charging pad.

But you may not have to worry about charging the next iPhone nearly as often. MacRumors shared insights from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who predicts that the phone will be closer in size to a 4.7-inch iPhone, but will have a battery life comparable to that of the iPhone 7 Plus.

For people who aren't fans of a larger iPhone, this could be a big win.

Update: January 10, 2017: New year, new iPhone rumors. According to Apple Insider, the latest ones support earlier claims that the next iPhone will have an all-glass design. The rumors, first published by DigiTimes, suggest that Apple will return to using a stainless steel frame to enclose the all-glass body, as opposed to the aluminum frames it's used since the iPhone 4.

Also in the rumor mill: The next iPhone may have wireless charging. Samsung already has this option for many of their phones and it would be a very welcome addition for Apple addicts. Anything that gets rid of our tangled cords earns our vote.

Update: December 7, 2016: Rumors about a blue iPhone 7 didn't come true, but now there's word that the next iPhone may get a very bold color option. According to the Japanese Apple blog Macotakara, the next iPhone could come in red. As CNET notes, this would make sense, given Apple's longstanding partnership with Bono's (RED) in the fight against AIDS. Rose gold is so 2015. We're ready for you, red.

Will the next iPhone start going with the curve? According to the latest rumors, yes, it's possible that Apple may finally opt for a curved screen.

Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple suppliers have been working on more than 10(!) prototypes of the next iPhone, including models with curved OLED screens. The most recent iPhones, the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, have LED screens, which require back lights, making the phones slightly larger and heavier. For this reason, an OLED screen seems like a logical switch. Other new smartphones, including the Google Pixel, have already adopted these screens and received positive user reviews.

Additional speculation suggests that the iPhone 8's screen will be completely edge-to-edge, offering more of an immersive full-screen experience when you stream Netflix on your phone. There might also be three size options — 4.7-inch, 5 inch, and 5.5-inch, as opposed to the iPhone 7, which only came in 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch models.

When could you see these curved, ultra-thin, impossibly light iPhones? If Apple sticks with tradition, the next big iPhone release will come in September 2017. However, next year is a major milestone: It's the iPhone's 10-year anniversary. (Can you believe it's only been 10 years?) If Apple wanted to nod to the timing of the first iPhone, it could announce the new model in January and release the phone as early as June. But that does seem ridiculously soon given how recently the iPhone 7 came out.

Of course, all of this is speculation — and Apple does like to throw curveballs. Hopefully, this time around, one of those curveballs is a curved screen.