iPhone 5 home button to get gesture controls

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Will the iPhone 5 get a touch-sensitive gesture control button? Our photographic evidence is piling up with support. This snap of a fresh-faced iPhone 5 with a wider home screen button and repositioned flash has got some buddies, in the form of newly leaked case pics and a wave of gesture control rumours. Our first guess was that Apple would do away with the home button entirely and replace it with an iPhone 5 touchpad, which is starting to look realistic.

This snap of an iPhone 5 screen protector, unearthed by Unwire.hk, suggests that the new sized home button could be used as a swipe-sensitive pad to flick through menus or between full-screen apps. As you can see from our Fonegadget pics, the button looks primed to support left and right swiping thumb gestures. Still, only 11 days until we get some answers.

Also: Al Gore lets slip Apple’s iPhone 5 strategy

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Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website. Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.