Stand by your beds! Apple has officially announced the date for what is widely believed to be the unveiling of the new iPhone 5: as rumoured, it’s 12 September — and the invitation does a bit of foreshadowing of the new phone’s name.
As with previous big Apple announcements, the event will take place at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. It kicks off at 10am on the 12th, which works out to 6pm next Wednesday here in good old Blighty.
In one of the most blatant clues ever, the invitation shows the date casting a shadow that forms a 5. Could the new iPhone be called the iPhone 5 after all? It wasn’t last time — Apple plumped for 4S — and some reckoned the new iPhone would be called just that, following the lead of the new iPad.
Whatever it’s called, the new iPhone looks likely to be stretched to a 4-inch screen and 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio for watching films and TV without pesky black bars. That’s if leaked photos of alleged components are to be believed, anyway. Leaked snaps also show a smaller dock connector, the headphone socket moved to the bottom, and possibly new earbuds.
The number 5 appears to rule out the possibility of an appearance from the also rumoured iPad mini, a sawn-off version of the popular tablet expected to hit shops before the end of the year.
Regardless, our US chums from CNET stateside will be there, so we’ll be bringing you all the first news and first impressions of the new iPhone.
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Will Apple surprise us? What would you like to see in the new iPhone 5? Will it be 4G? And will you be glued to the announcement, or is Apple old hat? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page.