13-inch iPad, bigger iPhone screens sized up by Apple

Apple's testing a wide variety of new screen sizes for its mobile products, including a 13-inch iPad, according to anonymous manufacturing sources speaking to the Wall Street Journal.

No specific sizes were mentioned for the iPhone, but recent leaks have hinted at a 4.3-inch display, which might cause it to be later than planned. A slo-mo video mode has also been rumoured.

The Californian company has never been prolific with its choice of screen sizes -- the iPhone had the same 3.5-inch face for years, until the 4-inch iPhone 5. The multi-coloured iPhone Light (hopefully not 'Lite', ugh) is set for a 4-inch display too.

The respectable Wall Street Journal is widely suspected to be Apple's destination of choice for planned 'leaks', so if this tidbit is direct from the horse's mouth, it could be intended to keep us all writing these blog posts guessing about what it has planned.

Apple boss Tim Cook played down the idea of an even bigger iPhone -- one to match huge 'phablets' such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 -- in an interview back in May.

"A large screen today comes with a lot of tradeoffs," Cook said. "Customers clearly are looking at size, but they're also looking at do the photos show the proper colour, the white balance, reflectivity, battery life, brightness, the longevity of the display -- so there's a whole bunch of things that are very important to the display.

"What our customers want is for us to weigh those and come out with a decision. We haven't so far [made a larger phone, but] that doesn't shut off the future."

If Apple sticks to its yearly release schedule, we should be seeing a new iPhone -- or iPhones -- in mid-September, and an iPad -- or iPads! -- in early November, with announcements shortly beforehand.

Would you like Apple to make a wider range of phones and tablets, or does keeping it simple help developers? Make a sizeable contribution in the comments, or on our gigantic Facebook page.