Apple Hints of 2 Cool iPhone 6 Features on Release Date: Smart Stylus & PowerVR Wizard GPU

The iPhone 6 on release date, no doubt, is loaded with fresh and powerful features - and likely among them is an intelligent stylus and a GPU that makes for a near realistic graphic rendition.

These possible next iPhone capabilities are strongly implied in a new Apple patent and a fresh graphic engine technology that improves from the one in used on current iPhone and iPad models.

The first feature is somehow Apple re-inventing a tool that Steve Jobs had dismissed as irrelevant and unwanted - the stylus. As this touch navigator was popularised anew in Samsung's Galaxy Note series, the iPhone maker appears to be mulling a smarter take on the stylus - giving it multiple and intelligent functions.

In a new patent made public last week, it can be told that the tech giant is seriously considering the use of stylus on iOS devices - its main difference from Samsung's S-Pen is the introduction of a flexible nib.

This nib, according to Apple Insider, will have adjustable lengths, thus permitting device users to create touchscreen strokes of various textures, colours and formats. In an elongated embodiment, for instance, the stylus nib will allows users to manipulate a device screen as if they are wielding a paintbrush.

Back to its original or shorter from, the Apple stylus nib will behave more like a pencil or that of a regular electronic pointing tool.

In order to modify the nib length, the patent revealed that the whole mechanism will have an actuator or switch that controls the desired adjustments. The nib itself will be made of a conductive material that is glazed on the tip of the tool, Apple Insider said on its report.

It will also boast of fibre optic strands that will facilitate the transmission of instructions through the device.

While the patent is primarily designed for large-screen devices such as tablet or laptops, Apple has included smartphones as part of the actual technology, leading to the likelihood that the upcoming iPhone 6 or perhaps an iPhablet will brandish the screen navigation instrument.

Now the second feature points to the next graphic prowess of Apple's upcoming iOS devices. From the PowerVR G6430 that is found in the iPhone 5S, the next iPhone will enjoy a new GPU architecture called PowerVR Wizard, MacRumors said in a report.

The same graphic engine will be provided by Imagination Technologies, which is responsible for the GPU technology behind the 5S, the iPad Air and the Retina-toting iPad Mini 2.

The PowerVR Wizard GPU, MacRumors said, is "a range of IP processors that offer high-performance ray tracing, graphics and compute in a power envelope suitable for mobile and embedded use cases."

With the technology inside of the iPhone 6 and the 2014 iPads, "this opens up the potential of highly photorealistic, computer generated imagery to a host of new real-time applications and markets not previously possible," MacRumors reported Imagination Technologies as saying.

Though it remains unconfirmed, there is a chance that the mass availability of Wizard GPU will coincide with that of the iPhone 6 release date, which analysts said is likely to happen between July and September 2014.