TECHNOLOGY

For a long time now rumors have swirled about Apple going to a larger display size for the iPhone 6. The original iPhone had a 3.5-inch 480x320 standard density display. The iPhone 4 took things to 960x640 double-density "Retina" and the iPhone 5 to 4-inches and 1136x640 double-density. That's a pattern of steady improvements every two years on the two years, and if Apple sticks to it, we're due another.

So how big is bigger? Competing phones range from around 4.3- to 4.7- to 5-inches, with the latter size increasingly the norm. Also, how would Apple scale their interface? Would they just stretch the 4-inch iPhone up to 5-inches the way they stretched the iPad's down into the iPad mini? Would they add more pixels like they did for the iPhone 5? And could they increase the screen size without increasing the device size, by going edge-to-edge with the display and modifying the chin and the forehead to once again make something big seem small?

If Apple stays conservative they could scale up the interface this year, add more pixels come iPhone 7 in 2016. If they still have their foot down on the gas, however, maybe we'll see something closer to 1080p HD