Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer

On the eve of the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S4, spare a thought for the Apple fanboys out there, wondering what they have got to look forward to in 2013?

Samsung will reveal it's new smartphone on March 15 in New Zealand, promising to be bigger and better than past models and drive the company's market share in the industry into overdrive.

But while the world eagerly awaits the South Korean company's next move, what has it's long-standing rival Apple got in the pipeline?

With the biggest thing to happen to the iPhone since the iPhone being the iPhone 5, tongue-twister alert, rumours coming out of Cupertino suggest the iPhone 5S/6 will be unveiled within a matter of months.

Allegedly already under production in the secret confines of China, online chatter suggests the Galaxy S4 will meet it's sparring partner as early as June, or as late as August.

Drowning yourself in Apple rumours may be one way to pass the mundane routine of work, but for those wanting concrete answers on the next release, a more selective approach is required.

A new DigiTimes report claims Apple will launch a wireless charging capability to it's new smartphone this year, potentially building an internal built-in feature to the product.

That said, Apple senior vice president Phil Schiller didn't exactly seemed sold on the idea when asked by AllThings D last September.

"Having to create another device you have to plug into the wall is actually, for most situations, more complicated," Schiller said.

Turns out you shouldn't believe everything you read in the press. Well, apart from TechDay.com of course.

Delving deeper into the Apple book of possibilities however, the company's recent acquisition of AuthenTec may impact heavily on the new smartphone design.

The logical explanation for the deal would be for the iPhone 5S/6 to integrate a fingerprint reader beneath the home button, effectively ending the need for usernames and passwords.

Acquiring Swedish software firm Polar Rose could also play a factor in the make-up of the new release, with the company specialising in facial recognition.

Again, Apple clearly bought the company for a reason, so is the reason the introduction of 3D photography? Existing Apple patents suggest the next iPhone will capture a 3D image by using multiple sensors and cameras, therefore fanboys should be expecting such a feature come July/August.

Sifting through the smartphone needles in the technological haystack of crap, other potential features could be a higher-resolution display, increased storage capacity of 128GB, as well as near-field communications (NFC) support.

Rumours and gossip make the world go around, and the ability to do such a thing is a fun concept.

That said, the contents of the article above may be as useful as a chocolate teapot, but by connecting the factual dots and thinking, slightly, outside the box, we hoped to have created an image in your head of the next iPhone 5S/6.

Not that you didn't have one lodged in there already.