Clues to what the iOS 6 will look like running on an iPhone 5 have been revealed today, showing that the new operating system automatically scales to fit the larger screen of the rumored device. As a result of some extremely shrewd investigating by 9to5Mac, it has been revealed that iOS 6 will feature an extra row of apps, six instead of the current five (including the dock), on each screen. This is thought to be as a direct result of Apple increasing the vertical screen size to almost four inches.
The new feature was revealed by running the latest beta release of the iOS 6 software on a simulator and then scaling the resolution to 640 x 1136 pixels, the rumored resolution of the new iPhone 5 screen. When this one was done, the new software displayed the six rows of icons perfectly. When a slightly different resolution was used, the six icon rows did not display correctly, neither would they display when the same simulator was used with iOS 5.
The discovery is perhaps the best indication yet of how Apple will be managing the increased screen size, as until now, it had not been established how it work. Many people had postulated that Apple would simply stretch the resolution to fit the screen but this seemed like a daft idea, and this report shows why.
It’s also likely that, following the unveiling of the new iPhone 5, Apple will be encouraging developers to optimize their apps for the new iPhone screen resolution, so you can expect a massive redevelopment of the majority of the iPhone and iPod touch specific apps in the App Store. Those apps will be optimized for the increased screen real estate so you might see some dramatic transformations of your favorite apps.
Real…