Punch.Drunk.Internet -

January 27th this year will be a spectacular day as far as I’m concerned. This is the day Apple is set to unveil its new tablet..among other things. Will the iPhone 4 be unveiled, what new features will the iPhone OS 4.0 have? Will there be a Verizon iPhone? Lets try and break all the rumors down here, and feel free to leave your witty banter in the comments section (and your guesses too!).

The Tablet

_{image from Gizmodo..and not real so relax}

Rumored to be called the iPad(really?), is apparently a first-gen iPhone smushed by a rolling pin. The OS is rumored to be that of the iPhone as well, with up-scaling capability to scale the applications to the size they need to be. When I first heard about this, I had heard that developers will need to resize their applications themselves for the tablet, so I am really glad to hear that isn’t true. According to AppleInsider it will have a 10-inch screen, 3.5-mm stereo headphone jack, built-in speaker grills, a microphone, GPS, 3G connectivity and a 30-pin dock connector and is rumored to cost $999. What I am curious about is what provider this will be sold with. I think Apple realized the mistake they made locking themselves in with AT&T only to find the serious network issues that have plagued the phone since launch, so we can only hope they have learned their lesson and have worked deals out with other network providers such as Verizon. Which leads me to my next point.

The iPhone 4

Mark my words, this will NOT be called the iPhone 4G. Not ever…so just don’t. It’s a tough call on whether or not this will be announced next week. If it is, they will seriously downplay it to build the hype up even more for the tablet. This however does not mean the 4th gen device won’t come out this year. As a matter of fact it will most certainly come out this year as FoxConn, Apples main manufacturer, has already received the order for them. Expect to see it late summer, just like the past 3 versions. Some people seem to think that it will run on a 4G LTE network, which is highly unlikely. When the original iPhone was released the 3G network for AT&T was already up and running, but they wanted to make sure it was more robust with more people using it before releasing the iPhone 3G, so even though AT&T is already working on the 4G LTE network, expect the 4th gen iPhone to continue to run on the 7.2Mbps HSDPA network as the 3Gs does for the very same reason. An upgraded camera however is very likely. Reportedly the next gen iPhone will have a 5mp camera built in, possibly with an LED flash as well. Another rumor with the phone will be a front camera for video chat. This was highly speculated with the 3Gs and didnt happen, and for the very same reason I do not believe it will happen this time around. AT&T’s network just can’t handle it. Now if the new version of the iPhone does branch out to other networks it’s a slight possibility, but again I highly doubt this will happen. It will most likely have 64gb of storage, wireless N support, and a A High-Res AMOLED Screen.

iPhone OS 4.0

This is straight from Gizmodo

There will be multi-touch gestures OS-wide. (Would make sense for that as the rumored OS for the iTablet is close if not the same as the iPhone)
• “A few new ways” to run applications in the background – multitasking.
• Many graphical and UI changes to make navigating through the OS easier and more efficient. We haven’t had this broken down, but we can only hope for improved notifications, a refreshed homescreen, etc.
• The update will supposedly be available for only the iPhone 3G and 3GS, but will “put them ahead in the smartphone market because it will make them more like full-fledged computers” more than any other phone to date. Everyone is “really excited.”
• The last piece of information is the most vague, but apparently there will be some brand new syncing ability for the contacts and calendar applications.

We will have to wait until Wednesday to see what is real and what isn’t but either way it will be a fun day for everyone!