4G

Apple has announced it has sold over five million iPhone 5 devices in just three days. The iPhone 5 officially went on sale in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and the UK on September 21. Apple plans to release the new device in 22 more countries on September 28 and in more than 100 countries by the end of the year. Apple also announced more than 100 million iOS devices have been updated with iOS 6 since its launch on September 19.

"Demand for iPhone 5 has been incredible and we are working hard to get an iPhone 5 into the hands of every customer who wants one as quickly as possible," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "While we have sold out of our initial supply, stores continue to receive iPhone 5 shipments regularly and customers can continue to order online and receive an estimated delivery date. We appreciate everyone's patience and are working hard to build enough iPhone 5s for everyone."

The iPhone 5 is 18 percent thinner and 20 percent lighter than the other iPhones, but the price has remained the same. Apple will offer the iPhone 5 for $199 (16GB), $299 (32GB), and $399 (64GB) on September 21. Pre-orders for the next-generation iPhone open on September 14. If you're looking to upgrade from the now discontinued iPhone 3GS, but $200 is out of your price range, you can now nab an iPhone 4S for $99, or receive a free iPhone 4 with a new contract.

Sprint has announced the names of 100 cities that will be receiving 4G LTE in the "coming months". The announcement comes two days before Apple is expected to announce a 4G LTE capable new iPhone on Wednesday, September 12, at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.

The Sprint press release names Boston, Charlotte, N.C., Chicago, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Memphis, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. as some of the "major metropolitan areas" in which Sprint 4G LTE is expected to be available soon. Both Sprint and T-Mobile have been playing catch-up with AT&T and Verizon who upgraded to 4G last summer. Sprint plans to complete its 4G LTE nationwide network by the end of 2013. Read on for a complete list of the cities expected to receive the upgrade in the near future.

It's pretty much a sure bet that the next iPhone will support LTE-based 4G, but what Apple lovers really want to know is if it will support worldwide 4G. According to those always wily "people familiar with the matter" and the Wall Street Journal, the iPhone 5 will be able to reach 4G speeds in parts of Asia and Europe as well. The WSJ's source did not outline any specific countries, but did add that the next generation iPhone "isn't likely to work with all carriers' LTE networks in all countries, though it wasn't clear which would be left out."

Apple's first device to offer 4G LTE was the iPad 3, however, it is only supported by Verizon Wireless and AT&T in the U.S., and Bell Canada, Rogers Communications and Telus Corp. in Canada. Major U.S. carriers such as Sprint and T-Mobile have been pushing hard to extend their 4G LTE networks, and it's estimated that worldwide 4G LTE will reach around 290 million people by 2015.

Do you hate when your iPhone doesn't automatically switch to 3G if your Wi-Fi connection is too slow? A new feature in iOS 6 will solve this problem. The new option called "Wi-Fi Plus Cellular" allows your iPhone to automatically switch to a cellular connection when Wi-Fi isn't doing the job. iPhone owners can also manage their data usage by toggling specific services on and off. As you can see from the picture below, the cellular option allows you to turn off access to iCloud Documents, iTunes, FaceTime, Passbook Updates and Reading List.

The "Wi-Fi Plus Cellular" option was discovered within the Settings menu in the latest iOS 6 beta by AppAdvice. The blog also discovered a toggle for Shared Calendar Alerts within the beta. When enabled, the new feature will notify you whenever the shared calendar is modified.

Sprint is bringing 4G LTE to Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City and San Antonio on July 15. The carrier says it's trying to meet the growing data demands of its wireless customers, but rumors of an LTE-enabled iPhone probably aided their decision to finally launch the network.

Sprint had to cough up a lot of money for the privilege of carrying the iPhone, and they don't want to be left out of another Apple launch like they were when the new iPad was announced. There is also the popular Galaxy S III which was just released by Samsung. Sprint is offering the 4G LTE device with no 4G LTE service available. AT&T and Verizon are also carrying the device and both offer 4G speeds.

The iPhone 5 rumor machine is starting to warm up with obvious reports about 4G LTE and October launches. However, the biggest debate this year will probably be the size of its display. Will the next generation iPhone go big to compete with the current Android models, or will it keep the same 3.5-inch screen?

iMore claims that the iPhone 5's display will be closer to 3.5-inches. Meaning, Apple could decide to go a little bigger, but not Samsung Galaxy S II (4.65-inch) big.

According to investment bank Morgan Stanley the next generation iPhone will be slimmer and feature "a quad-mode chip" from Qualcomm that would give it both 3G and LTE capabilities. Analyst Katy Huberty (via Apple Insider) claims "new touch panel technology" will allow the iPhone to be thinner, and that Apple is considering new casing material. This coincides with a previous report from BGR who said the next iPhone will feature an all-aluminum back.

Huberty says little is known about the iPhone 5, but she believes it will be launched in Q3 of 2012 depending on "manufacturing yields" and "competition." "What is clear about iPhone 5 is that Apple and its supply chain are positively surprised by the demand for iPhone 4S, which increases confidence in strong sales for iPhone 5 later this year," she wrote in a note to investors.

AT&T is expanding its network by purchasing a slice of the 700MHz spectrum from Qualcomm. This is after the company dropped its bid to acquire T-Mobile due to opposition from the FCC and US Justice Department. Instead, AT&T and T-Mobile are entering a roaming agreement that has been billed as helpful to both companies.

The FCC has approved the latest deal, with Qualcomm selling the frequencies it was formerly using for its Flo TV service. The $1.9 billion agreement hands AT&T additional 700MHz spectrum to expand its 4G LTE network. Although the deal was announced last year, the FCC decided to review both the Qualcomm purchase and T-Mobile acquisition together and ruled on the proposal last week.

BGR, the tech blog who announced that the iPhone 5 would be here in a few weeks, dusted off an old iPhone rumor by claiming they got their hands on an internal iOS test build that features property list files for LTE.

BGR says Apple's carrier partners are testing LTE capable iPhone models, much like Sprint employees are testing the iPhone 5. And the LTE rumors didn't stop there. Today, Engadget fueled the fire by publishing an image of 4G LTE equipment inside an Apple store.

The Engadget tipster revealed that AT&T installed a piece of equipment that supports 700MHz and AWS bands in an unnamed Apple store. In March, AT&T revealed its plans to use T-Mobile's 700MHz LTE spectrum if their merger ever went through.