iPhone 5 Part Shown and May Come Sporting a Sliding Cover

More speculation on the next generation Apple iPhone has hit the net waves, this time an image of a purported iPhone 5 part along with the speculation that the iPhone 5 may come out to play carrying a sliding cover of some description. According to an article over on Apple Insider, Chinese site Tw.apple.pro have posted what appears to be a picture of the 30-pin dock connector cable for the next generation iOS smartphone, with the item tag of 821-1300-02 HF/c1.

According to the Chinese site via a rough translation by Google, the previous rumours that the iPhone 5 may arrive with a larger edge-to-edge display are fake, and claims that the latest piece of mobile tech from the Apple camp will have a "frame shape" the same as the iPhone 4 but will be "slightly thicker," and have a "sliding cover."

No real word on just what the iPhone 5 "sliding cover" will offer, whether it would deliver a physical keyboard to the iPhone is unsure, but the same site also claimed earlier that there are 3 iPhone 5 prototypes, one of which would have a sliding keyboard.

Obviously this is all firmly in the speculation stages at the moment so should be taken with the usual pinch of salt, but would iPhone users like to see a physical keyboard finally come to the iPhone?

Three reasons Apple might ship the iPhone 5 in the fall

Will Apple hold off on releasing the iPhone5 (or as Richard Gaywood amusingly names it, the "4S") until September or early fall? Your guess is as good as ours. And yet, while brainstorming this morning, TUAW staffers noted arguments that had us going "hmmmm."

We've shared them for your consideration. Here are several points that could support a later release date than usual. Or not. What do you think?

Verizon and the White iPhone

With the Verizon iPhone 4 shipping in February '11 and the white iPhone debuting in April '11, it's natural to allow for a breathing space (especially considering the 2-year contracts these units carry) before the next generation of handsets replaces current models. An October shipping date would give those with white iPhones time to enjoy their purchases without temptation from the Next Great Thing.

iPhone 5 Now Reportedly Hit by Delay As Well

Earlier today I reported that there may be a possible delay to the release of the Apple iPad 2, you can check out that article by hitting up (here), and now apparently there are rumours hitting the net waves that the iPhone 5 may be delayed as well.

According to an article over on iPhonefaq, reports are saying that due to component shortages and a last minute change in design, the next generation iPhone, commonly being referred to as the iPhone 5 have resulted in pushing back the device release until September.

Well I guess that kind of smarts for all you iOS faithful out there that have been banking on picking up the iPhone 5 in June/July.

Not too sure where iPhonefaq got its news from as they don't list a source, however according to an article over on Time, according to Business Insider, FBR Capital Markets analyst Craig Berger said in a note…

"For the iPhone 5, we continue to hear that a July launch is unlikely, with various casing suppliers and touch suppliers still ramping up, with some chip vendors not having yet received firm iPhone 5 orders, and with other sockets like the image sensor (most likely going to Omnivision exclusively, but with some potential for Sony to split that socket) still in flux. Given these factors, we think a September launch is more likely, off from Apple's traditional iPhone launch schedule, but giving the firm more time to enhance its next-generation instant communications on the phone."

So there is, if true the iPhone faithful can expect a long wait for the next generation smartphone to fall into their waiting hands, annoying isn't it?

Metal iPhone 5 not what doctor ordered, unless Apple has trick up sleeve

A spiraling information trail from overseas suggests that the new iPhone 5 will be made of aluminum metal and not the sharkproof glass which the iPhone 4 has employed. This would help explain why Apple appears to be keeping the white iPhone flame alive (hello, arbitrarily white iPad 2), as the move away from the tonally troublesome iPhone glass would help facilitate the possibility of a white iPhone 5. Here's the problem, though: forget about whether a metal iPhone 5 would be white, silver, black, or purple. The trouble with the prospect of a metal iPhone 5 is that the iPhone has been there before – and the results weren't pretty.

If asked to rank metal, acrylic plastic, and glass in order or strongest to least durable, most folks would leave them arranged in exactly that order. But the iPhone's history has shown otherwise. The original iPhone had a mostly metal back, and was easily susceptible to scratching, denting, you name it. The second iPhone body (3G/3GS) moved to acrylic and instantly offered a more durable iPhone experience. Then came the iPhone 4 and its glass body, which despite the connotations (and the "scratching" nonsense concocted by a few geek clowns), has turned out to be the most scratch-proof and durable iPhone material yet. And now Apple wants to move beyond that by taking the iPhone 5 back to the original metal, which was the weakest link in the iPhone's history? That doesn't add up.

Sure, an aluminum iPhone 5 would bring the iPhone in line stylistically with Apple's Mac computers, most of which sport a brushed metal aluminum body, as well as the iPad 2, which sports a brushed metal rear surface. But the metal bottom of the original iPad offered easy evidence that it's an overly scratchable and dentable design choice – and if Apple has come up with a newer, more durable kind of metal body for the iPhone 5, then suffice it to say that they weren't using it on any of their products as recently as a year ago.

Then again, Apple has made progress in moving toward metal surfaces whose durability is less weak than in previous years. For a long time Apple's "Pro" laptops were made of Titanium, which proved to be a poor choice in the long term for reasons ranging from scratching to surface flaking. And Apple has largely moved beyond the protectively absurd choice of chrome for the rear surface of the earliest iPods. But an aluminum iPhone 5 just doesn't seem like the right answer. Our buddies at The Mac Observer have done a nice job of trying to translate the original foreign language report in order to make heads or tails of it. But our gut says that while Apple clearly has a desire to bring its various major products into stylistic alignment, the idea of a metal iPhone 5 is something that Apple already proved to itself wasn't such a good idea the first time it tried it. Here's more on the iPhone 5.

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iPhone 5 May Sport Logo Antenna and Shiny Aluminium Casing

Okay so virtually everything is now known about Apple latest piece of tech the Apple iPad 2, so the rumours now move back to the main event, the approach of the next generation iOS smartphone, the Apple iPhone 5. Well the latest speculation on the iPhone 5 comes our way courtesy of the Boy Genius Report via Macrumors and Macotakara, which apparently has it that Taiwanese rag the Economic Daily News says that "anonymous sources" claim Apple may be changing the design for the new iPhone 5.

So what is the rumour? Well apparently Apple is considering moving away from the antenna design of the iPhone 4 and replacing with an integrated rear "logo antenna" and also that the iPhone 5 may sport an aluminium backing.

Macotakara has even come up with a mock-up of what the shiny aluminium iPhone 5 could look like which is pictured above.

So take a butcher's at the image and feel free to let us know what you think, would you love to own a shiny silver iPhone 5 or would you still prefer Apple to deliver on an all white iPhone rather than a aluminium model?

White iPhone 4 Now Available

Following yesterday's official announcement from Apple regarding the release of the white iPhone 4 today, Apple is now offering white iPhone 4 in its online store.

You can now order this bad boy through Apple's store in both 16GB and 32GB storage capacities. The current shipping time is 3-5 business days. If you would rather not wait that long, you can always run down to your nearest Apple, AT&T, or Verizon Wireless store to pick one up!

The white iPhone 4 is available in Austria, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Macau, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, U.S.A, and UK.

Let us know in the comments if you've ordered the white iPhone 4 or have already picked it up in-store!

June iPhone 5 release dies at altar of April white iPhone 4

The June iPhone 5 dies at the altar tomorrow as the white iPhone 4 is set to hit retail stores, prolonging the iPhone 4 era indefinitely and bringing an official and to any hope of the iPhone debuting at June's WWDC conference or a separate press event. This will mark the first summer in the iPhone's history in which no new iPhone generation has surfaced in the summer. There's still no clear indication of what has specifically led to Apple's change in behavior, although the first hint of scheduling flux may have been the February release of a Verizon compatible iPhone 4. Many at the time questioned why Apple would launch a Verizon iPhone 4 a mere few months before the arrival of the iPhone 5, and now the answer is more clear: the iPhone 5 was ultimately more than a few months away. Now the white iPhone 4 comes at a time when many thought the iPhone 5 was just around the corner

Signage

But any hope of a nearby iPhone 5 has to go away, for now, with the arrival of the white iPhone 4. Simple business sense dictates that Apple wouldn't be adding an iPhone 4 color now if it were expecting to launch the iPhone 5 in any less than three or four months. That doesn't mean the iPhone 5 has been pushed back to 2012 or even to the edge of the 2011 holiday season; it simply means that early summer is clearly off the table. That begs the question of what, if any, new hardware Apple will launch during its WWDC keynote. The upcoming iOS 5 operating system, which will likely be released alongside the iPhone 5, can be counted on to be previewed at WWDC. But with the iPhone 5 off the table (Apple won't preview new hardware that far in advance), the iPad 2 having been just released, and the iPod lineup not due for revamp until September, Apple may end up using WWDC to launch new Mac hardware – or nothing at all, as the WWDC is the keynote for a developer conference and not a mainstream press event, although it's been used as the latter in the past.

Dive in or wait

The most common question we've received all year has been "When is the iPhone 5 release date?" The answer: we still don't know. But as far as the corollary question, "Should I wait for the iPhone 5 or buy the iPhone 4 now?", the answer is this: the iPhone 5 can't be expected, at this point, any sooner than August or September. How much longer do you really want to wait? Here's more on the iPhone5.