According to iLounge, the next iPhone may feature an 8-pin Dock Connector. Published today, the news comes from two sources suggesting Apple’s new connector features only 8-pins in a single line. The general consensus is that Apple’s 30-pin connector is on the way out, but Apple recently filing patents for a 16-pin/19-pin connector makes this new claim rather contradictory. There are no images or schematics to back up the claims, so take them with a pinch of salt. Apple’s current design has many advantages over USB, and so it seems unlikely that Apple would abandon such a strong setup. The other problem is that in a 30-pin connector, 11 pins are obsolete, but the other 19 are all actively used by various accessories, making an 8-pin dock connector would render all of them completely useless.

One source also suggests that iOS 6 will enable iOS devices to communicate Via Bluetooth 4, for example, you could receive an iMessage Via Bluetooth on your iPod Nano, or make a phone call from your iPod or even a Mac. Now, call me old-fashioned, but if 2 of your iOS devices are within Bluetooth range of each other, it doesn’t take that much effort to sally forth from your chair to simply pick up the device you need. Nonetheless, I imagine that someone, somewhere might find that useful…

Would you be excited if either of these rumors came to fruition? Or are you more concerned that the next iPhone sounds like it will be the iPhone 4.2.1?

@TiP_Stephen