On Wednesday, iLounge reported on some of Apple’s upcoming product refreshes, including the next generation iPhone 5 and iPad Mini. The report mentions that the sixth generation iPhone will be sporting a smaller dock connector, as seen in previous reports but also points out that the connector will contain 8 pins as opposed to the current 30 pins. Numerous reports in recent weeks have suggested that the new dock connector will contain 19 pins, however, this report states otherwise.

According to two sources, Apple’s new Dock Connector features only 8 pins, seemingly contradicting claims of “16-pin” and “19-pin” connectors. […]

Both of our sources concur that there are eight pins in a line within the new Dock Connector, which may well receive a different name going forward.

The report also describes some details about the design of the dock connector, noting that the design will have the ability to connect on either side of the charger as opposed to users figuring out which side plugs into the dock connector correctly. This would give the iPhone 5, iPad 4 and fifth gen iPod touch chargers almost Magsafe style connection, allowing the charger to be inserted in any orientation. However, the report does not set forth any claims that the charger or dock connector would use magnets of any sort.

Aside from revealing details about the new dock connector, the report also speculated on the possibility that Apple’s upcoming iOS devices will gain a cross device integration feature in iOS 6 that would operate on low power consuming Bluetooth 4.0 technology. This would allow iOS devices to communicate with each other without being connected to the cloud.

For example, the report gives an example of an iPod nano being able to display a text message that comes through an iPhone. Although the dock connector has been seen in images and videos across the web, the status of any cross device integration features remains unknown and may not be confirmed until the release of iOS 6.

Apple’s next generation iPhone is expected to be announced on September 12th, with a release on Friday, September 21st. The next generation iPhone is expected to be released alongside an iPad Mini and the public version of iOS 6.

{via MacRumors}

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