A recently discovered patent application from Apple hints that the company may be working on hiding the plastic outlines that serve as wireless antennas present in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
According to Mashable, Apple's patent application aims to make plastic antennas look like metal. If this patent is awarded, Apple can create a visual illusion where the plastic antennas will be camouflaged as part of a continuous piece of aluminum.
Apple is trying to acquire a patent for a "non-capacitive or radio frequency transparent materials with anodized metal appearance". Apple said in its patent application that the new material will not in any way interfere with wireless signals as well as touchscreen motions.
After the release of iPhone 6, many were not happy about the device's design. Some industry experts described iPhone 6's design as "uninspired," pointing that the plastic antenna as the main design blunders to the device's clean surface.
According to Tech Times, iPhone's antennas are located beneath the two plastic strips located at the top and bottom part of the device's back cover. Apple did not cover those two specific locations in order to avoid signal deterioration for both outbound and inbound signal transmission.
The news about Apple's new patent application came almost immediately after rumors about a new iPhone device started to surface. KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo stated that Apple is working on a new iPhone model that will take advantage of the stronger aluminum material used in the Apple Watch.
Apple has yet to announce whether the company is working on a new device or an upgrade iPhone as rumors suggest. On the other hand, several websites devoted to Apple rumors claim that the tech giant is working on the next generation iPhone model which is most likely to be the iPhone 6S to be released in September.