14 DAY TRIAL // Pictures believed to have been taken at a Wintek plant appear to show the first clear view of the iPhone 5 touch-screen featuring notably different accommodations for an elongated “gesture” Home button, and a larger form factor.
Posted by a Sina Microblog (China’s Twitter-style service) user and picked up by MIC Gadget (a generally accurate source of Apple rumors), the images “probably” show Wintek workers checking and cleaning the touch-screens of Apple’s next-generation iPhone 5.
Although not 100% certain of their findings, the Chinese blog seems confident they’re not dealing with photos taken at Foxconn (the Apple partner tasked with assembling many iPortables), as the company run by magnate Terry Gou would have never leaked such strong evidence pertaining to a next-generation Apple product.
Instead, it is strongly believed these are Wintek workers working with iPhone 5 touch-screens in what appears to be the cleaning process of the glass.
Wintek has made quite a few headlines in the past year with reports of worker poisoning during the cleaning process of touch-screens for Apple’s portables.
The firm has since switched from N-Hexane to an alcohol based substance that is less toxic, according to reports.
Moreover, there’s a talk that Wintek is using video cameras to monitor the workers who are prone to getting poisoned, according to the blog.
All in all, the mere fact that these workers are wearing protective masks that go up to their eyeballs should do well to corroborate the theory that we are looking at Wintek staff, not Foxconn employees.
Now, considering these are indeed the touch-screens for Apple’s new smart-phone, one can’t help but notice a considerably larger, oval hole where the currently round Home button is present on current-generation hardware.
Rumor has it that Apple is planning to introduce a gesture-capable Home button in the iPhone 5, and these images seem to confirm it.
Also quite noticeable is the larger form factor. The next-gen Apple smartphone is, indeed, rumored to boast a slightly larger screen.
