iPhone 5 Frenzy Hits Fever Pitch

The iPhone is easily the best selling smartphone ever and possibly the best selling mobile phone period. Like with everything else Apple seems to do, people are desperate for info on the latest device. Rumor has it the iPhone 5 will launch in October and there are a number of indications the release is imminent.

An iPhone 5 was recently lost in a bar. This is a repeat of the 2010 experience when an iPhone 4 was left in a bar. Apple needs a new policy that employees authorized to carry highly sought prototype devices shouldn't be allowed near drinking establishments.

The latest evidence that there are iPhone 5 devices operating comes from a picture that PocketNow has. It is a plate of sushi, but that isn't what's interesting. If you look at the exchangeable image file format (EXIF) data, it's clear this picture was taken with an Apple device.

While the EXIF data says it is an iPhone 4, other tidbits of data indicate that probably isn't so. The original image size is just under 8 megapixels, but the iPhone 4 only has a 5-MP camera. The f-stop is also higher in this image than the iPhone 4 is capable of. The GPS coordinates translate to 37.332166, -122.030333, which is 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, Calif., also known as Apple headquarters.

But wait, that isn't all! This is where it gets crazy. Someone sent TechCrunch the image after it was massaged a bit in Photoshop. Like most pictures that have glass or metal in them, you can often see the reflection of the person taking the image, though often distorted beyond recognition. That is what one reader saw on the edge of the plate. So he took the image and unwrapped it so the curved edge of the plate was flat and the reflection came into focus. You can clearly see a person standing over the plate with his hands together and he is holding a square rectangular device.

Shocking I know--someone used a camera to take this picture and there is no way that black featureless blob could possibly be anything besides an iPhone 5, could it?