iPhone 5 Predictions: The Last Mile

Tuesday, the secrets will finally be out. But for today, you still get to enjoy iPhone 5 rumor madness.

All that's missing now is a faked photo of the iPhone 6--prototypes left in a bar are becoming very last month. Yes, I said iPhone 6. Wouldn’t it be fun to skip ahead a whole generation on the iPhone rumor watch, now that we're just a day from Apple finally revealing the details on iPhone 5? Well, we think this will be the iPhone 5, but it may actually be called the 4-something. Or, there may be two phones announced tomorrow. As InformationWeek's Eric Zeman reports, iPhone madness has reached new heights.

"A recent poll shows that 41% of current smartphone owners are considering the iPhone 5 for their next device--even though the respondents know nothing about the device yet," Zeman writes.

So, what are you likely to see at Tuesday's announcement? Zeman's betting on a larger display and faster processor, for starters.

As for the design, Zeman expects that this iPhone will be thinner than the iPhone 4, use a tear-drop shape, and skip the glass back that made phone-droppers even more nervous. As the Wall Street Journal wrote on Monday, it's getting harder for Apple to find ways to be truly "out there" with design, as its rivals catch up.

Watch these three other tidbits, generating their fair share of speculation:

-- A cheaper iPhone 4? Gizmodo posted some photos from a Foxconn factory in Brazil over the weekend that supposedly show a less expensive iPhone 4 in the works.

Apple Insider sees evidence in the latest iTunes beta for the existence of a less expensive iPhone 4S model, while Macrumors has a peek at pre-shipped cases.

-- Voice navigation? Macworld is downplaying the notion of multiple phones being announced tomorrow but it is talking about the possibility of real voice commands.

-- R.I.P. iPod? Finally, Ars Technica is not the only outlet speculating that tomorrow may be the end of the line for your old iPod.

And if you're Appled-out, see our expert analysis of what IT pros want from Oracle at its Open World confab in San Francisco this week, where the Exadata analytics appliance debuted Sunday night.

Laurianne McLaughlin is editor-in-chief for InformationWeek.com. Follow her on Twitter at @lmclaughlin.

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