iPhone 5 myths abound: five concocted reasons to avoid next gen party

The iPhone 5 is no different than the previous four in that detractors will have no difficulty in coming up with reasons not to buy one, ranging from irrelevant to imaginary. "Don't buy the first iPhone," say said, "because it's not 3G." Nevermind that AT&T's 3G network barely existed in 2007. "Don't buy the iPhone," they said in 2007, "because there are no third party apps." Then they turned around in 2008, after third party apps had been launched in a big way, and said "Don't buy the iPhone 3G because third party apps aren't 'open' enough." Nevermind that what they really meant was that the iPhone wasn't enough of a geek-leaning tinker toy. Then came the iPhone 3GS. "Don't buy it either," they warned, "because it's just like the previous one." Nevermind that the hardware specs of the 3GS outshines that of the 3G in every category. So heading into the iPhone5, what will the geeks and other detractors come up with this time by way of trying to talk you out of the iPhone you want and into the Android-based geekphone they're desperate for you to buy instead? A look back at all the reasons they told you not to buy the iPhone 4 is a good start.

First it was the supposed iPhone 4 antenna issue, which turned out to have been completely fabricated on the part of geeks and never existed – but not before a good chunk of the population had been irrevocably convinced otherwise. Apple even had to hand out free iPhone 4 cases just to get the geekholes who created the controversy to shut up, knowing that they'd "won" and gotten a free case as a trophy. Then it was the fact that the iPhone 4 wasn't a 4G phone; nevermind that 4G AT&T's 4G network literally didn't exist back then and still basically doesn't to this day. Then they made up the imaginary "scratching" controversy, which unlike with the imaginary antenna controversy, relatively few fell for. And then later Apple released the Verizon iPhone 4, which the geeks attempted to create another phone antenna controversy around before finally settling on the mantra that it wasn't 4G (still largely irrelevant) and, humorously enough, that it wasn't the iPhone 5 4G. So now that the iPhone 5 is only a season away from arriving, here's what the geeks will point to this time as to why you shouldn't buy one. The validity of their reasoning doesn't matter; keep in mind that geeks get out of bed in the morning in the hopes of being able to convince the non-geek majority to buy geek-leaning products, and Apple's products are the least geeky on the planet. So here's a sampling of the anti-iPhone 5 nonsense they'll come up with, if they haven't already.

1) If the iPhone 5g doesn't have 4G, they'll label it as being outdated. If it does have 4G, they'll say it's the wrong kind; if it's 4G LTE a la Verizon and AT&T, they'll point out that the 4G offerings from Sprint and T-Mobile are more widespread. But if the iPhone 5 instead offers the kind of 4G which Sprint and T-Mobile are using, the geeks will say that it's not "real" 4G because it's slower. And if the iPhone 5 pulls a hat trick and offers every kind of 4G under the sun, the geeks will warn that it might be too much drain on battery life. No matter what Apple does regarding 4G, the anti-Apple geeks will be able to spin it into some kind of negative you should fear. And that's a trend that'll continue down the list.

2) If the iPhone 5 uses the same glass material for its body as the iPhone 4 did, the geeks will say that it's too fragile; nevermind that the iPhone 4 has been the most bulletproof iPhone design yet. And if the iPhone 5 moves to something else, the geeks will say that Apple should have stuck with the bulletproof glass.

3) If the iPhone 5 gets thinner, the geeks will claim that it's too thin and therefore perhaps too fragile.

4) If the iPhone 5 body style remains the same as the iPhone 4, the geeks will claim that it's last year's model, regardless of how improved the specs are (see the iPhone 3G / 3GS era).

5) If the iPhone 5 screen gets bigger, geeks will claim that its edge to edge design will be too difficult to use; if the iPhone 5 screen size remains the same as the iPhone 4, those same geeks will say that it's too small.

If you see a pattern here, you're not the only one. No matter what Apple does with the iPhone 5, those geeks whose entire sense of self worth comes from steering people away from Apple products and toward geekier products will find a way to spin it into a negative. They'll misrepresent the facts, misplace the relevance, and if it comes down to it, flat out make things up; they've done it all before with previous iPhone generations. Your job, then, is to tune these lunatics out and make your own decision. If you want an iPhone, get an iPhone. It's as simple as that, anti-iPhone geek wanking be damned. Here's more on the iPhone 5 news.

iPhone 5 Image

There seems to be some buzz around the iPhone 5 having its camera flash repositioned as we have previously reported, and also reported on a possible reason for the moving of the flash on the next iOS smartphone, and now a new image has hit the next which is purportedly of the rear of an iPhone5 that shows the device with a repositioned flash.

According to the guys over at Phone Dog by way of Macrumors, the new image posted by Apple Pro and apparently originating from Chinese site Weibo, is said to be that of the iPhone 5 pictures back and has the flash over on the right side and the camera on the left.

Having said all that, as you probably know images such as these are easily faked but does tie up with previous rumours that the iPhone 5g camera flash might be repositioned in the upcoming handset, so it could be plausible.

So the usual applies with this, treat firmly as pure speculation until such times as some confirmation comes along one way or another, full image can be seen below.

Here's more on the iPhone 5 news.

September iPhone 5 release date: odds of 4G, redesign, white, colors

Don't expect the iPhone 5 to see a release date prior to September, as the recent arrival of the white iPhone 4 means Apple doesn't expect to have a new iPhone generation ready to go quite as soon as this summer. But the longer the iPhone 5 takes to arrive, the better the odds of certain features coming along for the ride. Here are the odds of various iPhone 5 potential features making the cut if September 2011 indeed ends up being the official release date.

4G: This is tricky because the two current iPhone carriers, Verizon and AT&T, both barely have any 4G rollout to speak of. For Apple to add 4G networking hardware to the iPhone 5, it would have to be confident that one or both carriers will have far more 4G LTE in place by the end of the iPhone 5 era than at the beginning of it. The odds of Apple including it are reasonable, but not great.

Redesign: Here's where the odds get better. Apple has used the current iPhone 4 body styling three times: first with the original iPhone 4, then with the Verizon iPhone 4, and now with the white iPhone 4. Sure, it's all been less than a year in the making. But Apple has used the styling one too many times (arguably two too many times) to be using it yet again, particularly at a time when many or most are expecting a full revamp for the iPhone 5.

iPhone 5 white : The iPhone 4 will stick around as the bargain bin model in the iPhone 5 era. The fact that Apple has released a white iPhone 5 at all means that both the black and white iPhone 4 models are likely to stick around in the iPhone 5 era. And while Apple could blow up the blueprint with an exposed brushed metal iPhone 5 design or some such, it's difficult to picture there being a white iPhone 4 but not a white iPhone 5. So the odds are strong, to say the least, that there will be a white iPhone 5.

Colors: The more colors Apple adds to the iPhone lineup, the more retail SKUs there are to deal with and the more inventory snafus (witness the current eighteen iPad 2 models, and that's for just two colors). But if the iPhone 5g is indeed to be a hybrid device which works on both carriers, that would mean a mere four SKUs total: 16 and 32 GB models in a choice of black or white. That would give Apple room to add colors to the mix, as a way to differentiate the iPhone5 both from the cheaper iPhone 4 and from competitors who have over-fixated on the color white. Here's more on the iPhone 5 news.

iPhone 5 to be Verizon-AT&T hybrid, maybe LTE, data caps, says insider

If those who know don't speak and those who speak don't know, then Verizon's recent mouthing off about the unannounced iPhone 5, which includes the nugget that it'll be a Verizon-AT&T (CDMA-GSM) hybrid device and still yet might or might not sport 4G LTE, must be taken with a grain of salt. On the one hand, if anyone does know iPhone5 details outside of Apple itself, it's one of the phone's primary carrier partners. But on the other hand, the fact that so many companies can't keep their lips shut about Apple's secrets is reason enough to believe that Steve Jobs and company are smart enough not to give partners like Verizon the entire picture up front. Then again, this was Verizon's CEO Fran Shammo himself sharing purported iPhone 5 details to Reuters, and they're the kind of details which he and his company would know about. So here's what Verizon's honcho claims to know about the iPhone 5g.

First he says there will be a single iPhone 5 which works on both Verizon and AT&T. This is no surprise. The existing Verizon iPhone 4 uses a chip which some who've torn it apart believe could have been used as a GSM-CDMA hybrid chip now, if Apple had wanted to go there. So the notion that a single iPhone 5 will talk to both networks sounds plausible enough to be believable.

But whether the iPhone 5′s hybrid antenna system will include 4G LTE is another story. Verizon says that's still up to Apple, which can be interpreted in multiple ways. Either Apple hasn't made up its mind yet and Verizon's comments are merely reflecting that, or Apple is not planning to include 4G LTE but Verizon is still hoping to push Apple into changing its mind before launch. Yes, major companies, even partners, are not above using public comments like this to attempt to subversively push each other into making certain moves; if Verizon can create enough of an expectation that the iPhone 5 4G, then Apple might have to go ahead and make it happen just to avoid public disappointment otherwise.

Finally, Verizon's CEO spoke on something which is in fact his decision: the brief days of new Verizon iPhone customers getting unlimited data plans are over. Those iPhone users who haven't yet switched from AT&T to Verizon aren't going to be able to take their unlimited data with them if they're planning to wait until the iPhone 5 arrives before moving. This alone will keep a good chunk of AT&T iPhone users standing pat for the iPhone 5 and generations to come, as heavy mobile data users look to avoid getting caught in the prospect of either hefty overage fees or having to think twice every time they go to check their email on the iPhone. Here's more on the iPhone 5 news.

iPhone 5 myths abound: five concocted reasons to avoid next gen party

The iPhone 5 is no different than the previous four in that detractors will have no difficulty in coming up with reasons not to buy one, ranging from irrelevant to imaginary. "Don't buy the first iPhone," say said, "because it's not 3G." Nevermind that AT&T's 3G network barely existed in 2007. "Don't buy the iPhone," they said in 2007, "because there are no third party apps." Then they turned around in 2008, after third party apps had been launched in a big way, and said "Don't buy the iPhone 3G because third party apps aren't 'open' enough." Nevermind that what they really meant was that the iPhone wasn't enough of a geek-leaning tinker toy. Then came the iPhone 3GS. "Don't buy it either," they warned, "because it's just like the previous one." Nevermind that the hardware specs of the 3GS outshines that of the 3G in every category. So heading into the iPhone5, what will the geeks and other detractors come up with this time by way of trying to talk you out of the iPhone you want and into the Android-based geekphone they're desperate for you to buy instead? A look back at all the reasons they told you not to buy the iPhone 4 is a good start.

First it was the supposed iPhone 4 antenna issue, which turned out to have been completely fabricated on the part of geeks and never existed – but not before a good chunk of the population had been irrevocably convinced otherwise. Apple even had to hand out free iPhone 4 cases just to get the geekholes who created the controversy to shut up, knowing that they'd "won" and gotten a free case as a trophy. Then it was the fact that the iPhone 4 wasn't a 4G phone; nevermind that 4G AT&T's 4G network literally didn't exist back then and still basically doesn't to this day. Then they made up the imaginary "scratching" controversy, which unlike with the imaginary antenna controversy, relatively few fell for. And then later Apple released the Verizon iPhone 4, which the geeks attempted to create another phone antenna controversy around before finally settling on the mantra that it wasn't 4G (still largely irrelevant) and, humorously enough, that it wasn't the iPhone 5 4G. So now that the iPhone 5 is only a season away from arriving, here's what the geeks will point to this time as to why you shouldn't buy one. The validity of their reasoning doesn't matter; keep in mind that geeks get out of bed in the morning in the hopes of being able to convince the non-geek majority to buy geek-leaning products, and Apple's products are the least geeky on the planet. So here's a sampling of the anti-iPhone 5 nonsense they'll come up with, if they haven't already.

1) If the iPhone 5g doesn't have 4G, they'll label it as being outdated. If it does have 4G, they'll say it's the wrong kind; if it's 4G LTE a la Verizon and AT&T, they'll point out that the 4G offerings from Sprint and T-Mobile are more widespread. But if the iPhone 5 instead offers the kind of 4G which Sprint and T-Mobile are using, the geeks will say that it's not "real" 4G because it's slower. And if the iPhone 5 pulls a hat trick and offers every kind of 4G under the sun, the geeks will warn that it might be too much drain on battery life. No matter what Apple does regarding 4G, the anti-Apple geeks will be able to spin it into some kind of negative you should fear. And that's a trend that'll continue down the list.

2) If the iPhone 5 uses the same glass material for its body as the iPhone 4 did, the geeks will say that it's too fragile; nevermind that the iPhone 4 has been the most bulletproof iPhone design yet. And if the iPhone 5 moves to something else, the geeks will say that Apple should have stuck with the bulletproof glass.

3) If the iPhone 5 gets thinner, the geeks will claim that it's too thin and therefore perhaps too fragile.

4) If the iPhone 5 body style remains the same as the iPhone 4, the geeks will claim that it's last year's model, regardless of how improved the specs are (see the iPhone 3G / 3GS era).

5) If the iPhone 5 screen gets bigger, geeks will claim that its edge to edge design will be too difficult to use; if the iPhone 5 screen size remains the same as the iPhone 4, those same geeks will say that it's too small.

If you see a pattern here, you're not the only one. No matter what Apple does with the iPhone 5, those geeks whose entire sense of self worth comes from steering people away from Apple products and toward geekier products will find a way to spin it into a negative. They'll misrepresent the facts, misplace the relevance, and if it comes down to it, flat out make things up; they've done it all before with previous iPhone generations. Your job, then, is to tune these lunatics out and make your own decision. If you want an iPhone, get an iPhone. It's as simple as that, anti-iPhone geek wanking be damned. Here's more on the iPhone 5 news.

iPhone 5 4G to take its place with other pseudo-4G experiences

All the debate over whether the iPhone 5 will or should offer support for 4G networking misses the overriding point: 4G is a fraud. It doesn't exist. Not really. Whether it's Verizon with its barely-there 4G network, or AT&T whose 4G network exists only on paper, or T-Mobile and Sprint pushing pseudo-"4G" networks which are so much slower than what 4G is supposed to be that competing networks have adopted the "4G LTE" moniker as a way of distinguishing themselves from it, there is as of yet no legitimate 4G experience to be had. It's why Apple didn't add 4G to the iPhone 4 last year, and doesn't want to add it to the iPhone 5 4G this year either. Yet the march to 4G is well on its way, at least in the marketing departments of the carriers, which leaves Apple in the awkward position of not wanting to add mostly-useless 4G hardware to the iPhone5 due to the various ways in which it could be a net-negative for the overall experience. But Apple may have to give into 4G hype anyway, effectively offering a worse (for now) product in the name of staying in the game.

The challenge of delivering a 4G iPhone 5 starts with the issue of which "4G" variant Apple would start with. AT&T and Verizon are both betting on 4G LTE, and it's the best (fastest) flavor to date. But Verizon's 4G LTE network is mostly not yet built, and AT&T's network 4G LTE network doesn't exist. The latter is complicated by the fact that AT&T is in the process of acquiring T-Mobile and its nationwide pseudo-4G network, meaning that Apple could be looking at needing to support multiple kinds of 4G within the iPhone 5g. And that's before Sprint and its brand of pseudo-4G come into the equation, with Sprint being the only carrier Apple doesn't have to worry about. But even in attempting to play along with the Verizon and the AT&T-T-Mobile 4G experiences, Apple could end up with an inferior iPhone 5 product in the process.

Support for multiple types of wireless technology means more drain on battery life. The iPhone 5 is already looking at supporting AT&T's 3G GSM, Verizon's CDMA, and presumably, AT&T's aging EDGE since AT&T never did finish building its 3G network. On top of that, add support for 4G LTE plus maybe T-Mobile's brand of 4G, and along with wifi that's half a dozen different types of potential receivership going on. And unless Apple has figured out how to build a single antenna which can interact with all the various cellular networks, 4G support could mean more networking hardware packed into the iPhone 5. That either means it has to be thicker than Apple wanted, or other features (capacity? battery?) have to be reduced in order to make room. Suddenly, in the worst case scenario, you're looking at an iPhone 5 which, for the sake of supporting 4G for the relative handful who would actually be able to use it, would be a worse-off product for everyone else. But with the entire cellular marketplace from carriers to hardware vendors all pretending that 4G is for real at a time when it's still a little-understood pipedream, Apple will have a hard time remaining the only honest player with regard to 4G amidst an industry-wide fraudulent representation of what 4G is and isn't. In other words, a 4G-enabled iPhone 5 could bring with it more bad news than good, even though it would likely outsell a non-4G iPhone 5 by quite a large margin. Here's more on the iPhone 5 news.

September iPhone 5 release date: odds of 4G, redesign, white, colors

Don't expect the iPhone 5 to see a release date prior to September, as the recent arrival of the white iPhone 4 means Apple doesn't expect to have a new iPhone generation ready to go quite as soon as this summer. But the longer the iPhone 5 takes to arrive, the better the odds of certain features coming along for the ride. Here are the odds of various iPhone 5 potential features making the cut if September 2011 indeed ends up being the official release date.

4G: This is tricky because the two current iPhone carriers, Verizon and AT&T, both barely have any 4G rollout to speak of. For Apple to add 4G networking hardware to the iPhone 5, it would have to be confident that one or both carriers will have far more 4G LTE in place by the end of the iPhone 5 era than at the beginning of it. The odds of Apple including it are reasonable, but not great.

Redesign: Here's where the odds get better. Apple has used the current iPhone 4 body styling three times: first with the original iPhone 4, then with the Verizon iPhone 4, and now with the white iPhone 4. Sure, it's all been less than a year in the making. But Apple has used the styling one too many times (arguably two too many times) to be using it yet again, particularly at a time when many or most are expecting a full revamp for the iPhone 5.

iPhone 5 white : The iPhone 4 will stick around as the bargain bin model in the iPhone 5 era. The fact that Apple has released a white iPhone 5 at all means that both the black and white iPhone 4 models are likely to stick around in the iPhone 5 era. And while Apple could blow up the blueprint with an exposed brushed metal iPhone 5 design or some such, it's difficult to picture there being a white iPhone 4 but not a white iPhone 5. So the odds are strong, to say the least, that there will be a white iPhone 5.

Colors: The more colors Apple adds to the iPhone lineup, the more retail SKUs there are to deal with and the more inventory snafus (witness the current eighteen iPad 2 models, and that's for just two colors). But if the iPhone 5g is indeed to be a hybrid device which works on both carriers, that would mean a mere four SKUs total: 16 and 32 GB models in a choice of black or white. That would give Apple room to add colors to the mix, as a way to differentiate the iPhone5 both from the cheaper iPhone 4 and from competitors who have over-fixated on the color white. Here's more on the iPhone 5 news.