Rumors

You're not experiencing iPhone 5 déjà vu. Last year major iPhone carriers and retailers started blacking out employee vacations for what we all thought would be the iPhone 5 release, and it seems to be happening again. A "trusted Verizon employee" told TechCrunch Verizon has blackout out vactations from September 21 to September 30 in anticipation of a new iPhone.

Verizon's blackout supports an earlier report which claimed Apple will begin selling the next generation handset on September 21. If true, you can expect Apple stores and other iPhone carriers such as AT&T and Sprint, to begin blacking out the same dates for their employees in the near future.

A German wireless carrier also seems to think the iPhone 5 will be available in September. 9to5Mac published an email from Mobilecom Debitel informing their customers about a fall iPhone release. Here's the translation for the picture above:

Even though the next-generation iPhone will be the sixth smartphone released by Apple, it's still being called the "iPhone 5" by most Apple fans. It's almost like Apple users have already forgotten about the disappointing iPhone 4S and its even bigger disappointment Siri. This is probably why the iPhone 5 is expected to enjoy record sales this holiday season. Many longtime Apple users skipped the iPhone 4S in anticipation of a 2012 iPhone 5 release. This means a lot of iPhone owners will be coming off two-year carrier contracts when the iPhone 5 becomes available in the fall. And there are also the iPhone 4S owners who have already dumped their devices for the iPhone 5. That adds up to a lot of people waiting for a new iPhone.

The hoopla surrounding the iPhone 5 is carryover from last year's next generation rumors. Dreams of a tear-dropped shaped iPhone may be gone, but the new iPhone is still expected to receive a complete body makeover. Part leaks have shown that the new iPhone could feature a chrome-plated metal frame and 8-pin dock connector. The iPhone 5 is also rumored to be 2mm thinner than the iPhone 4S, and to feature a 4-inch, 16:9 screen. The current models feature a 3.5-inch display.

Remember those "asymmetric screws" that were going to make iPhone 5 repairs impossible? Turns out they were just an internet hoax. Swedish design company Day4 admitted that they fabricated the report to highlight how desperate the blogosphere is for Apple "news".

Day4 revealed the hoax in a blog titled "How we screwed (almost) the whole Apple community." Lukasz Lindell of Day4 wrote: "Have you heard the phrase 'That's true because I saw it on TV' at some point? It was often the truth in the old days when people only had the TV or newspaper to relate to. What you saw or read was the truth, although it obviously wasn't always so."

The Day4 team claimed Apple was working on a redesigned screw that would leave no possibility for home repairs. They created a rendering of the screw, sent it to themselves in an email, uploaded it to a Reddit forum, and the internet did the rest. The rumor was picked up by well known blogs like BGR, iDownloadblog and Wired. However, most of the blogs questioned the accuracy of the report.

Several reliable sources have "confirmed" that Apple will announce the iPhone 5 in September. iMore claims Apple is "planning to debut the new iPhone at a special event on Wednesday, September 12, 2012, with the release date to follow 9 days later on Friday, September 21." AllThingsD‘s John Paczkowski reaffirmed the date a day later, followed by The Verge and The Loop’s Jim Dalrymple.

iMore noted Apple will also announce a new iPod nano and the long rumored iPad mini at the event. However according to iLounge, the iPad mini will probably receive its own event and be released in November. iLounge's source also revealed some additional details about the fourth generation iPad:

A 19-pin dock connector and 4G LTE may not be the only new features the next generation iPhone will be packing. The new device could be equipped with NFC (Near Field Communications) technology. An NFC chip allows smartphones to interact with other devices in a very close proximity. The addition of NFC capabilities and the recently announced Passbook app will allow Apple to finally compete with Google Wallet.

9to5Mac claims that they discovered clues of Apple's plans to add NFC hidden in a hardware code dump. They also cited Jim Peters, CTO of SITA who said retailers should prepare themselves for Apple to sneak its way into the lucrative world of mobile payments.