APPLE'S new iPhone might be proof that five of the gadget's features have been laid to rest.
The surprise iPhone 16e is a cheaper version new model powered by AI – and it's full of clues about what's coming next.
Gadget fans will have noticed that the new £599/$599 iPhone 16e doesn't have a Home button.
Apple scrapped the Home button on its main series with the iPhone X in 2017.
This allowed Apple to serve up a full-screen design by reclaiming the bit of bezel that the button sat on.
But the Home button lived on with the iPhone SE series, including the latest 2022 version.
Now it's gone, meaning that the 2022 iPhone SE is probably the last Apple phone ever to feature a Home button.
That's because the iPhone 16e is sort of a spiritual successor to the iPhone SE.
As a result of not having a Home button, the iPhone 16e also loses another feature: Touch ID.
The fingerprint scanner was built into the Home button in 2013 with the iPhone 5S.
It let you easy unlock the iPhone with the touch of a finger, and was kept on for all future Home-button-toting models.
But in 2017, the iPhone X introduced the mug-scanning Face ID as a new way to unlock your iPhone.
And with the iPhone 16e (which has Face ID) effectively replacing the iPhone SE series, Touch ID is probably done for.
Of course Touch ID still features on other Apple gadgets, including many MacBook models.
So while Touch ID might have vanished from the iPhone, it's not in the Apple graveyard just yet.
The third disappearing act is the Mute Switch.
This dates back all the way to the original iPhone in 2007, letting you toggle between ring and silent.
It's been replaced by the Action Button, which first appeared on 2023's iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
This is a customisable button that can do dozens of jobs – although it is set to switching between Ring and Silent by default.
But you could swap it to opening the camera, turning on the iPhone's torch, or something else entirely.
Given the Action Button now appears on all versions of the iPhone 16, it's hard to imagine the Mute Switch making a comeback any time soon.
Another seemingly doomed feature is the humble Lightning port.
Early iPhone models used Apple's 30-pin connector, but this was killed off in 2012 with the iPhone 5 and its Lightning port.
Then Apple abandoned Lightning on its main iPhone line-up in 2023.
For that year's iPhone 15, Apple switched to the USB-C charging port.
If you're a gadget fan, you'll know that USB-C is the hot new thing, appearing across the tech world – not just on Apple gadgets.
It commonly appears on Android phones, Windows laptops, and increasingly inside cars and hotel rooms too.
And it features on newer Apple iPad and Mac devices, allowing you to use the same cables for just about everything.
Here's how iPhone screen sizes have changed over the years – as measured in inches diagonally from corner to corner...
Picture Credit: Apple / The Sun
Given the tech world has collectively adopted USB-C, it's almost impossible to see Apple returning to Lightning for any future iPhone models. Rest in peace.
The final potential culling is invisible – at least unless you break open your iPhone 16e and peer inside.
Inside the iPhone 16e is Apple's first ever modem, which is being called the C1.
The modem is the part of your iPhone that lets it speak to the internet.
For years, Apple was getting its modems from US chip giant Qualcomm.
Now Apple has designed its own one, which it says is "the most power-efficient modem ever on an iPhone".
The chip supports 5G internet, and Apple says it helps to deliver better battery life.
So we can probably expect to see Apple's C-series modems on future iPhones too.
And it feels unlikely that Apple will switch back any time soon if it's poured a load of money into creating its own modems.
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