Apple iPhone 5 Event May Introduce AirPlay Direct To iOS Family - International Business Times

A new report on Tuesday said Apple is planning to upgrade its wireless music streaming technology known as AirPlay in the coming month.

"The new version will require just speakers or a hifi and an iDevice; the iPhone, iPod or iPad would form its own network to allow a direct connection and music playback," sources familiar with Apple's plans told the (UK) Telegraph.

Word is the announcement will come when the company debuts the new iPhone. At the moment, most sources believe this large media event will occur on Wednesday, Sept. 12. This date has been confirmed by iMore, the Verge, The Loop, Reuters, Bloomberg, the New York Times and CNN.

It's possible that the AirPlay upgrade, which was given the working title "AirPlay Direct," will be an exclusive to the new iPhone, but it's more likely that the technology will be a software update intended for all iOS devices. (Apple announced the newest version of its mobile platform, iOS 6, back at WWDC in June, but said it would be "coming this fall." We can only assume that Apple will announce the official release date for iOS 6 when it announces the new iPhone.)

The most significant aspect of this new AirPlay is how it eliminates the need for a Wi-Fi network, which means that iOS devices like iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touchs may soon be able to beam music directly to a speaker system over its own connection. Many Apple users have been calling for Bluetooth implementation for some time, but a direct proprietary connection could be the next best thing.

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Currently, AirPlay lets iPhones, iPads and iPods play music to speakers, but the speakers must be built-in with a special chip from Apple in order to be AirPlay-enabled; there's no word if this function will change in the new AirPlay Direct, and if future speakers will still require Apple's chips to be compatible with iOS devices.

This is not the only widespread change rumored to be coming to the iOS family; nearly every major news outlet has reported Apple's plans to slim down its traditional dock connector -- the outlet for connecting the iPhone, iPad and iPod to power sources, devices, utilities and other accessories -- from 30 pins to either 19 pins, or possibly even just eight or nine pins. News outlets like Reuters and The New York Times originally believed the new dock connector would be 19 pins, but in early August, 9 to 5 Mac discovered a reference to a 9-pin dock connector embedded in the code of the iOS 6 Beta 4 build, which Apple had released to developers earlier that week.

By slimming down the dock connector, Apple can make sleeker and skinner iOS devices, but it's possible the dock connector upgrade will come with some added benefits, possibly like a faster connection (Thunderbolt, anyone?) or a more secure connection (Magsafe, anyone?).

These are changes reportedly coming to all iOS devices, but most believe Apple plans to introduce a few new devices to that family on the Sept. 12 event.

The iPhone isn't the only device said to be unveiled next month; reports are saying Apple has plans to introduce a new iPod Nano, a new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro, and a brand-new "mini" iPad, which is expected to be unveiled in September but released in October, quite possibly on Oct. 5 -- the one year anniversary of Steve Jobs' death.

Here's a brief summary of what you can expect to see from each new device:

iPhone 5:  Thanks to batches of images released by insiders within Apple's supply chains and repair shops, we generally know what the iPhone 5 looks like. We expect the iPhone to feature a bigger, thinner front plate that stretches the screen just beyond four inches to achieve a 16:9 resolution ratio to watch 1080p HD videos in a widescreen format.

According to alleged prototypes and images, Apple has also reportedly expanded and redesigned its speaker grills, migrated the FaceTime camera to be directly above the earpiece, moved the earphone jack from the top right corner of the phone to the bottom left corner, and introduced a new camera opening on the backside of the phone between the camera lens and the LED flash, which likely houses a small microphone. Finally, we believe Apple has fixed its iPhone 5 with a unibody metal back instead of an all-glass facade, which could potentially improve call reception, and has also endowed the iPhone with that smaller dock connector.

For more information about the iPhone 5's alleged features, such as NFC, LTE and even 3D, check out this article.