Rumour Mill Keep on Churnin’ ⇥ 9to5mac.com

Mark Gurman, the guy with a red phone direct to Cupertino, has the detail everyone’s been looking for regarding the — spoiler alert — larger iPhone (iPhones?) set to launch later this year: display resolution. Specifically, 960 × 1704 pixels.

Back in October, I guessed that the next iPhone would have a 720p display resolution — that much I got wrong. But what I think I got right, and what doesn’t make sense about Gurman’s article, is this bit:

The sources say that core user interface elements, from iOS functions like the Home screen, Notification Center, and Settings panels, will simply appear like larger versions of those functions on the current iPhone display. However, sources also say it is likely that developers and Apple itself will be able to optimize some applications to better utilize the larger screen area. It is possible Apple could revamp the Home screen and other functions between now and this fall’s launch.

Back in October, I said that regardless of what the new iPhone’s display resolution actually is, I doubted that it would be the same as the iPhone 5S resolution. I also doubted that the UI would simply be a stretched version of the existing UI:

I doubt there’s a point in simply increasing the size of the iPhone’s display without increasing what can be shown in that space.

I still think that’s the case here. I don’t anticipate a radically different UI or anything, but I would expect the additional pixels to allow many UI elements to remain at the same physical size and therefore increase the amount of space available to show content.