Not a credible rumor source. It would be more believable it if came from other sources.

From BGR, it is pure conjecture. And because it is from BGR, I am more inclined to believe that it is shameless pageview poppycock.

i could see it on the ipad where the home button is seemingly out of place. it is so small in comparision the the screen and if you have ever played fruit ninja you would know that the home button is accidentaly hit at times. also with such a big screen, a five figer gesture is much more natural than on the iphone. however apple values consistency, so i find it hard to believe that the home button will be scrapped since a finger gesture consisting of more than 2 fingers is awkward on a <4 inch screen.

I think the unit would have to be consuming power if it had to react to a touch of the screen. No idea how much but a unit should need no power consumption to react to the home button.

Bullshit. What happens when an application locks up? Press the power button and lock\\unlock? Reboot? That would be a fantastic UX...

Not to mention what would happen if an application implements the same gestures so that every time I went to reload the manor on my grade 6 elven dragon sword the system jumped back to the home screen.

Gestures for application switching would be great... but they can only work well from the home screen.

I never did like that home button on the iPad. It's a pain in the ass or finger. Okay ass and finger in the same sentence didn't sound right. Anyways either they replace it with a soft button or get rid of it.

Frankly, this sounds like they're pulling a page out of the webOS playbook, except you're using multi-touch gestures to return to the home screen.

Edit: Oh, and you're not exactly quitting apps when doing so. Not sure if you can really say webOS has a home screen. :/ Just a main screen, a dock, and an app launcher, that's about it. Just a thought here from someone using a webOS device (and kinda feeling some iWithdrawals in the process) and hearing about this.

That button has uses other than just going to the home screen. The reboot already mentioned is one. Screen captures is another. Probably at least another that I can't think of.

Now I could see them moving the button from the bezel area, allowing that to be reduced, and putting it on the side.

So if they remove the home button what would they do with the extra space, bigger screen on the iPhone maybe?

NO.

You don't remove it. If sensors fail on the interface, the Power Button will take you to the default set up and could be extended to default into a power down/safe mode if the interface is failing.