Tuesday saw the first official acknowledgement from Apple that the iPhone 5 is on the way. Although we’ve known for about 10 days that October 4, 2011 would be the day for Tim Cook to make his debut as the main announcer at an Apple event, as expected Apple didn’t confirm this until a week in advance.

So what can we expect from the new device? Certainly the A5 SoC (system-on-a-chip) that features in the iPad 2, with its dual core processor, and likely 1GB of RAM (double the iPhone 4’s memory), both of which will make the iPhone 5 an incredibly snappy device. An 8-megapixel camera is also expected with full 1080p video recording (iPhone 4 has a 5-megapixel sensor and is limited to 720p for video capture). It is also possible that NFC (Near-Field Communications) will appear in the iPhone 5, the technology that allows for contactless micro-payments (think of London”s Oyster Card for example), although this is less of a certainty especially given the slow take-up on NFC readers by retailers generally.

As ever with Apple iPhone updates, many of the new features will appear in the new software (iOS 5) and can be accessed by iPhone 4 users by hooking up to iTunes. Some will be limited to iPhone 5 due to hardware resources, such as the rumoured voice-control features, but even on iPhone 4 you will be able to use the new iCloud features, including wireless back-up and OTA (over-the-air) updates, the incredibly promising iMessage service which could reduce your texting bill to zero, and much more besides. I’m sure the iPhone 4 will remain an incredible device with iOS 5, and it’s quite possible that iPhone 5 will have an extremely similar chassis and look.

Apple’s Let’s Talk iPhone event will take place at 10am PST (6pm Irish time) on Tuesday, October 4, 2011 on Apple’s campus in Cupertino, California. Closer to the time I’ll post links to several live blogs with commentary direct and live from the event.


[via Daring Fireball and The Loop]

Tags: apple, iphone