iPhone 5S gets glitzy? Sapphire home button, gold option

Call it the iPhone 5S rumor roundup, bling edition: The champagne gold option seems a bit farfetched, but a Japanese Apple site reiterates the speculation.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor

Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.

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Brooke Crothers

Aug. 11, 2013 4:55 p.m. PT

iPhone 5S with rumored gold color option, according to Japanese-language site Macotakara. Notice the dual-LED flash, compared to the single flash on the iPhone 5. Macotakara

Gold and sapphire. No, we're not talking about Rolex wristwatches but the iPhone 5S. All rumors of course.

The iPhone 5 already has a sapphire lens cover. But the 5S will get a convex sapphire home button too, according to KGI Securities' Ming-Chi Kuo (via 9to5Mac).

The reason? Sapphire prevents the button from being scratched and a slightly convex shape creates room for the fingerprint sensor, according to the analyst.

Note that there has also been speculation that the 5S' touch display would handle fingerprint sensing chores.

A fingerprint reader could pave the way for more secure mobile payments or be used as a more secure way to access a user's Apple account.

The "champagne gold" colored iPhone 5S rumor was reiterated by the Japanese site Macotakara on Sunday (a rumor it's reported before) here.

The KGI analyst also mentioned the new iPhone 5S will keep the 8-megapixel sensor but make other camera improvements.

Another notable iPhone 5S rumor has it sporting a new Apple A7 processor.

Apple may introduce new iPhones on September 10.

Current iPhone 5 has sapphire lens cover. Apple