Surprisingly, the most recent big news out of Apple has nothing to do with the size or color of the next iPhone. (Though, if you want to see what the iPhone 8 will probably look like, click here.) Nope, Apple has begun a project that, once completed, would be transformational in the world of cellular technology: They are actively testing "5G" technology to be put to use on their iPhones. Meaning very, very speedy iPhones.
This is big news from the fruit, because if testing is successful, could mean a massive upgrade to your iPhone in the future. (Want to boost your phone right now? Try this cool trick.) Business Insider reported that the technology could "potentially radically increase the speed and bandwidth of an iPhone's cellular connection." I'm sure we all remember the days when we finally got 4G phones and couldn't believe how much faster everything was. Think that, but on a whole other level.
The Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, just made Apple's application to experimentally use the new cellular technology, technically called millimeter wave, public on Tuesday.
Business Insider said that the central promise of 5G technology is that "latency will go down, allowing devices to access more bandwidth more reliably than is currently possible with cellular networks."
This is great for anyone with an iPhone, especially those who get particularly peeved when they have to wait more than four seconds for something to load on their phone. A "radical" increase to what our phones are capable of doing now is actually hard to fathom. But as we eagerly anticipate this faster, bigger, better world, let's reflect on how far we've come. Remember the days of dial-up? When you could count on enough time to walk to the kitchen, make a roast dinner, drive to the gym, work out for an hour, shower, come back to your computer, and your askjeeves.com search would be about two-thirds of the way loaded?
