14 DAY TRIAL // There are a lot of rumors about the upcoming iPhone models, but here’s one that has more chances to turn real at some point in the future.
Apple is believed to be working on adding Li-Fi wireless support to a new iPhone version that could be released in the coming years, as references to this new light-based data transfer system have been found in iOS 9.1.
While no other specifics have been provided on Li-Fi support for iPhone, Apple might be trying to test such a feature with early implementations in the current iOS versions, but it would still require additional hardware to work correctly.
As a result, do not expect Li-Fi to land in iPhone 7, but there’s no doubt that sometime in the future such functionality could arrive on Apple devices, especially if work advances at the desired pace.
What’s Li-Fi?
Li-Fi, which stands for Light Fidelity, is a new type of fully networked wireless technology that’s said to be 100 times faster than Wi-Fi and that provides a series of advantages that iPhone users could benefit from too.
Although at this point it’s still in development and several companies have been trying to bank on Li-Fi for their devices, it continues to be an experimental feature that’s yet to arrive on any device on the market.
Li-Fi uses visible light to transfer data between devices, with a light sensor installed on the device responsible for converting the information received into an electronic signal. This method is said to provide transfer speeds of up to 224 gigabits per second.
And yet, Li-Fi creates new opportunities for owners of devices with such capabilities, as light sources such as the regular bulb in your house can also play the role of data transmitter to your phone. The signal is invisible to the human eye, but the transfer speed is clearly higher than the one of standard Wi-Fi.