Apple gets the green light to design the iPhone of its dreams

For years, Apple fans have speculated about Apple's ultimate vision for the iPhone. The black glass slab hasn't changed a whole lot over the years, except for getting bigger and losing a few buttons and ports (who can forget Apple describing its decision to remove the headphone jack as 'courageous'?)

People have long suspected that Apple would love nothing more than to produce a full wireless iPhone, one without a charging port at all. It was always believed that EU regulations, which strong-armed Apple into adopting USB-C in 2023, wouldn't let this happen. But according to new reports, this is no longer the case. Could we be a few short years away from a world in which our best camera phone is entirely portless?

According to 9to5Mac, a European Commission press officer has confirmed that a while if a charging port is present it must be USB-C, that doesn't mean that a device needs a charging port at all to be compliant.

This leaves Apple free to produce a portless iPhone – and the company has apparently been exploring the idea with the much-rumoured iPhone 17 Air. This, allegedly the thinnest iPhone ever, is said to come without a SIM card slot, and at one point in production it was also missing a charging port. But according to Bloomberg, Apple ultimately decided against cutting it just yet. But, the report does suggest the iPhone 17 Air will be the first step towards a "slimmer, port-free era". It seems the iPhone Apple has always wanted to make might finally be a possibility.